LA Times Crossword Answers 18 Feb 16, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Bruce Haight
THEME: T-Bone Collisions … we have eight models of car in today’s grid, with pairs of them COLLIDING in T-BONE fashion at the circled squares:

38A. Car mishaps that occur at this puzzle’s four circles T-BONE COLLISIONS

1A. “Pay attention!” (Ford) FOCUS!
3D. Type of pride (Honda) CIVIC

9A. Minute Maid Park player (Chevy) ASTRO
11D. Beat (Ford) TEMPO

46A. Venomous snake (Dodge) VIPER
48D. Space explorer (Ford) PROBE

51A. Atlas, for one (Nissan) TITAN
53D. Western skiing mecca (Chevy) TAHOE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 9m 07s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. “Pay attention!” (Ford) FOCUS!
The Ford Focus compact automobile was introduced in 1998, a replacement for the very successful Ford Escort.

6. Time for new growth: Abbr. SPR
Spring (spr.)

9. Minute Maid Park player (Chevy) ASTRO
Enron Field, as it was known, is a retractable-roof ballpark that was built next to Houston’s old Union Station. Enron paid $100 million to get its name on the field, and then when the world found out what a scam Enron actually was, the Astros bought back the contract for the name, for a mere $2.1 million. The stadium became Astros Field for a few months, until the Coke people paid $170 million for a 28-year contract to christen the stadium Minute Maid Park. A good deal for the Astros, I’d say.

The Chevrolet Astro is a minivan that GM made from 1985 to 2005. The same vehicle was also sold as the GMC Safari.

15. Eastern ideal TAO
The Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.

17. Summer Olympics competitor DIVER
The sport of diving was introduced into the Olympics in 1904, at the summer event held in St. Louis. Female diving was introduced as an Olympic sport in the 1912 games held in Stockholm. The Olympic diving event was first held indoors for the 1948 games in London. The organizers were probably worried about rain …

18. Symmetrically placed Monopoly sqs. RRS
The four railroad properties in the Monopoly board game are:

– Reading Railroad
– Pennsylvania Railroad
– B&O Railroad
– Short Line

19. Bambino’s parent MAMMA
In Italian, a “bambino” (male child) might call his mother “Mamma”.

20. Musical narrated by Che EVITA
“Evita” was the followup musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Weber and Time Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). For the original album’s cast they chose Irish singer Colm Wilkinson (or C. T. Wilkinson, as we know him back in Ireland) to play “Che”, the narrator of the piece.

21. Squeeze (out) EKE
To “eke out” means to “make something go further or last longer”. For example, you could eke out your income by cutting back on expenses.

22. Cosmetician Adrien ARPEL
The Adrien Arpel cosmetic company was founded in 1962 and sold its products across Europe. The company started selling in the US in 1968.

26. Way up the mountain GONDOLA
The word “gondola” was originally limited to the famous boats that travel along the canals of Venice. When man started to fly through the air in hot air balloons, “gondola” was used for the basket in which the passenger(s) traveled. By extension, the structure carrying passengers and crew under an airship is also called a gondola, as are the cars suspended from a cable at a ski resort.

29. Slowpokes SNAILS
Back in the early 1800s, a “poke” was a device attached to domestic animals such as pigs or sheep to keep them from escaping their enclosures. The poke was like a yoke with a pole, and slowed the animal down, hence the term “slowpoke”.

33. 1945 battle setting, familiarly IWO
Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. The name is Japanese for “Sulfur Island”, referring to the sulfur mining on which Iwo Jima’s economy once depended. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since.

34. “Macbeth” witches, e.g. TRIO
As the three witches in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” are boiling up their evil brew, they call out all the exotic ingredients. Stirring away they also repeat several times the famous lines:

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

38. Car mishaps that occur at this puzzle’s four circles T-BONE COLLISIONS
A broadside collision between two cars is also known as a right-angle or t-bone collision. The side of one vehicle is impacted by the front of another, often leaving the vehicles locked in a T-formation.

42. Lip-reading alternative: Abbr. ASL
It’s really quite unfortunate that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are very different, and someone who has learned to sign in one cannot understand someone signing in the other.

44. Writer who used his actual middle name as a pen name DR SEUSS
Dr. Seuss was the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel. He first used the pen name while studying at Dartmouth College and at the University of Oxford. Back then, Geisel pronounced “Seuss” as it would be in German, i.e. rhyming with “voice”. After his books found success in the US, he went with the pronunciation being used widely by the public, quite happy to have a name that rhymed with “Mother Goose”.

46. Venomous snake (Dodge) VIPER
The Dodge Viper is an American sports car with a V-10 engine. The Viper was introduced in 1991, and is still in production today.

50. Place for a key: Abbr. IGN
The first ignition key was introduced by Chrysler back in 1949. Prior to the use of ignition keys, vehicles had both an ignition on/off switch and a starter button.

51. Atlas, for one (Nissan) TITAN
In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan who was tasked with holding up the celestial sphere on his shoulders. The Greeks observed the planets moving and the stars in fixed positions. They believed that the stars were on the surface of a single starry sphere, the celestial sphere that was supported by Atlas.

The Titan is a pickup truck manufactured in the US by Nissan for the North American market. The first Nissan Titans rolled off the production line in 2003.

56. Pianist known for his Beethoven interpretations ARRAU
Claudio Arrau was a greatly respected Chilean pianist who performed for much of the twentieth century until his death in 1991. Arrau left Chile to study in Germany where he lived for many years, having married a German opera singer. During WWII, Arrau and his family left Germany and settled in New York City.

58. RollerCoaster Tycoon World publisher ATARI
“RollerCoaster Tycoon” is a series of video games published by Atari. Players develop and manage virtual amusement parks, constructing and customizing their own roller coasters.

59. Pope after John X LEO VI
Pope Leo VI was in office for just 9 months, spanning the years 928 and 929. Leo VI apparently wasn’t his own man, and fell under the control of a wealthy Roman noblewoman called Marozia. Marozia had allegedly been the mistress of Pope Sergius III, had ordered the imprisonment and death of Pope John X, then making Leo VI head of the Roman Catholic church.

60. Seine sight ILE
There are two famous “îles” (islands) in the middle of the River Seine in Paris, one being the Île de la Cité, and the other Île Saint-Louis. Île de la Cité is the most renowned of the two, as it is home to the cathedral of Notre Dame.

63. Yalie ELI
Eli is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.

65. Monopoly stack DEEDS
The commercial game of Monopoly is supposedly a remake of “The Landlord’s Game” created in 1903 by a Quaker woman called Lizzie Phillips. Phillips used her game as a tool to explain the single tax theory of American economist Henry George. The Landlord’s Game was first produced commercially in 1924. The incredibly successful derivative game called Monopoly was introduced in 1933 by Charles Darrow, who became a very rich man when Parker Brothers bought the rights to the game just two years later in 1935.

66. 67-Acr. has one SYL
(67A. Show contempt SNEER)
Syllable (syl.)

Down
1. Sound mixing control FADER
A fader is a knob (more usually a slider) that gradually increases or decreases the level of an audio signal. You’ll often see audio engineers at a performance or in a recording studio sliding buttons up and down. Those are faders.

3. Type of pride (Honda) CIVIC
Introduced in 1972, the Honda Civic is the second-oldest brand of Japanese car made for the US today (only the Toyota Corolla has been around longer). Today’s Civic is a compact car, but the original was smaller, and classed as a sub-compact. The first design had a transverse-mounted engine and front-wheel drive to save on space, copying the configuration introduced with the British Mini.

8. NCAA’s “Granddaddy of them all” ROSE BOWL
The oldest of all the bowl games is the Rose Bowl and so has the nickname “The Granddaddy of Them All”. The first Rose Bowl game was played in 1902.

9. Capital of Eritrea ASMARA
Eritrea is a country located in the Horn of Africa, surrounded by Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Red Sea. Some scientists believe that the area now known as Eritrea was the departure point for the anatomically modern humans who first left Africa to populate the rest of the world.

10. Lewis with Lamb Chop SHARI
Shari Lewis was the original puppeteer behind the PBS children’s show “Lamb Chop”. After Shari Lewis died in 1998, her daughter Mallory took over the role of puppeteer on the show.

11. Beat (Ford) TEMPO
Ford produced the Tempo from 1984 until 1994, and also sold it as the Mercury Topaz. We knew it as the Ford Ghia over in Europe.

27. Prize for a picture OSCAR
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is the organization that gives the annual Academy Awards also known as the “Oscars”. The root of the name “Oscar” is hotly debated, but what is agreed is that the award was officially named “Oscar” in 1939. The first Academy Awards were presented at a brunch in 1929 with an audience of just 29 people. The Awards ceremony is a slightly bigger event these days …

29. Rooting place STY
The verb “to root” can be used for a pig’s action with the snout, turning objects over.

30. Larry O’Brien Trophy org. NBA
The NBA’s Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy is named for a former commissioner of the NBA. Prior to working with the NBA, O’Brien had been Postmaster General in President Lyndon Johnson’s cabinet.

31. “Fine with me!” A-OK!
Our term “A-OK” is supposedly an abbreviation for “A(ll systems are) OK”, and arose in the sixties during the Space Program.

34. Familia member TIA
In Spanish, a “tia” (aunt) is a member of “la familia” (the family).

35. Harry’s Hogwarts cohort RON
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are the principal characters in the “Harry Potter” series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling.

In J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” universe, The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded by the four most brilliant witches and wizards of their time: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Each of the founders lent their name to a House in the school, i.e. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

A “cohort” can be used as a collective noun, meaning a group or company. The term can also apply to a company or associate. The term comes from the Latin “cohors”, which was an infantry company in the Roman army, one tenth of a legion.

36. Firm ending? INC
A company that has incorporated uses the abbreviation “Inc.” after its name. By incorporating, a company forms a corporation, which is a legal entity that has legal rights similar to those of an individual. For example, a corporation can sue another corporation or individual. However, a corporation does not have all the rights of citizens. A corporation does not have the Fifth Amendment right of protections against self-incrimination, for example. It is perhaps understandable that the concept of “corporations as persons” is a frequent subject for debate.

44. Ancient Celtic priests DRUIDS
Druids were priests of Celtic Europe during the Iron Age.

47. Adler of Sherlock Holmes lore IRENE
The character Irene Adler only appeared in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In that story, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, Holmes expresses remarkable admiration for Adler as a woman and as a foe. As a result, derivative works in the Holmes genre often feature Adler as something of a romantic interest for Sherlock.

48. Space explorer (Ford) PROBE
The Probe is a sports compact made by Ford from 1989 until 1997. The Probe was actually based on a Japanese design, the Mazda G-platform.

53. Western skiing mecca (Chevy) TAHOE
Lake Tahoe is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, right on the border between California and Nevada. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the country, and the largest lake in general, behind the five Great Lakes. It’s also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal. Tahoe is home to several downhill skiing resorts, including Heavenly Mountain (the largest ski area in California and Nevada) and Squaw Valley (host of the 1960 Winter Olympics).

55. Gunpowder ingredient NITER
The chemical name for saltpeter (also called “niter”) is potassium nitrate. The exact origin of the name “saltpeter” isn’t clear, but it may have come from the Latin “sal petrae” meaning “stone salt”. The main use for potassium nitrate is as a fertilizer, as a source of potassium and nitrogen. As it is a powerful oxidizing agent, it is also used in amateur rocket propellants. Anyone who has ignited one of those “engines” would have noticed the lilac-colored flame, indicating the presence of potassium.

Gunpowder is the earliest known explosive chemical. Also called “black powder”, it is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter (i.e. potassium nitrate). The saltpeter is a powerful oxidizing agent, providing the oxygen to burn the sulfur and charcoal, which acts as the fuel in the mixture. Gunpowder was invented by the chinese in 8th century.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “Pay attention!” (Ford) FOCUS!
6. Time for new growth: Abbr. SPR
9. Minute Maid Park player (Chevy) ASTRO
14. Select group A-LIST
15. Eastern ideal TAO
16. Absolute SHEER
17. Summer Olympics competitor DIVER
18. Symmetrically placed Monopoly sqs. RRS
19. Bambino’s parent MAMMA
20. Musical narrated by Che EVITA
21. Squeeze (out) EKE
22. Cosmetician Adrien ARPEL
23. Info-gathering mission RECON
24. Entanglement WEB
25. Guffaw evokers RIOTS
26. Way up the mountain GONDOLA
29. Slowpokes SNAILS
33. 1945 battle setting, familiarly IWO
34. “Macbeth” witches, e.g. TRIO
38. Car mishaps that occur at this puzzle’s four circles T-BONE COLLISIONS
41. Jabbers YAKS
42. Lip-reading alternative: Abbr. ASL
43. Subtlety NUANCE
44. Writer who used his actual middle name as a pen name DR SEUSS
46. Venomous snake (Dodge) VIPER
50. Place for a key: Abbr. IGN
51. Atlas, for one (Nissan) TITAN
56. Pianist known for his Beethoven interpretations ARRAU
57. Most preferred, in texts FAV
58. RollerCoaster Tycoon World publisher ATARI
59. Pope after John X LEO VI
60. Seine sight ILE
61. Can’t be beaten IS HOT
62. Not yet up IN BED
63. Yalie ELI
64. Calf-roping loop NOOSE
65. Monopoly stack DEEDS
66. 67-Acr. has one SYL
67. Show contempt SNEER

Down
1. Sound mixing control FADER
2. Bar staple OLIVE
3. Type of pride (Honda) CIVIC
4. Be of __: help USE TO
5. Suppress STRANGLE
6. Scattered STREWN
7. Subject to ticketing PARKED ILLEGALLY
8. NCAA’s “Granddaddy of them all” ROSE BOWL
9. Capital of Eritrea ASMARA
10. Lewis with Lamb Chop SHARI
11. Beat (Ford) TEMPO
12. Convened again REMET
13. Educational hurdles ORALS
27. Prize for a picture OSCAR
28. Beef cuts LOINS
29. Rooting place STY
30. Larry O’Brien Trophy org. NBA
31. “Fine with me!” A-OK!
32. Connections INS
34. Familia member TIA
35. Harry’s Hogwarts cohort RON
36. Firm ending? INC
37. Verb ending -OSE
39. Hardens into bone OSSIFIES
40. Keeps up SUSTAINS
44. Ancient Celtic priests DRUIDS
45. Present to the public UNVEIL
46. Well-founded VALID
47. Adler of Sherlock Holmes lore IRENE
48. Space explorer (Ford) PROBE
49. Like many roofs EAVED
52. “Challenge accepted!” IT’S ON!
53. Western skiing mecca (Chevy) TAHOE
54. Got up AROSE
55. Gunpowder ingredient NITER

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6 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 18 Feb 16, Thursday”

  1. 6 errors, 4 lookups of stuff I didn't know and couldn't figure out (1 I should have known), and 2 plain errors. Weird grid, which made for some tough sledding. I'm surprised really I got as far as I did on this one and didn't DNF it. Haven't heard of a TEMPO in a very long time, to be sure (that was an error/lookup).

  2. Clever puzzle and theme. Might even call it a little ambitious. You can see that the setter really struggled to make it work – e.g. IGN, SPR, OSE, ILE, SYL, RRS, AOK…and on. But I'll still give and A (O?) for originality.

    I'd add to the theme that in addition to the different car styles t-boning each other, the theme itself, T BONE COLLISIONS, t-bones a car PARKED ILLEGALLY. I rather liked that part. Like I said – ambitious theme.

    @Glenn
    Nice catch yesterday on the 2 sequels so the files were THREED. Maybe the setter will let us know what he really meant.

    Best –

  3. I found this very challenging, the apex of my knowledge. But doable, hence I enjoyed it very much. I didn't have much time, or enthusiasm, to notice the theme and the fine points so cleverly elucidated by others, as above. I am familiar with the cars, tho I never owned any of them. BTW, the most popular Ford auto in Dubai is the Mustang. The Rolls Corniche is also a popular sight.

    My tax lawyers tell me that 'Inc.' is helpful but not necessary, for american corporations. The name should be in the incorporation papers ( which by the way, are affairs of the individual states – ) but it is not imperative that the word, Inc. show on their letterheads or in common advertising. Then there is LLC, which could be an Inc. or just a partnership, with limited liability.

    Have a nice day, all.

  4. Nice challenge for a Thursday grid. I inevitably trip myself up by guessing wrong right of the bat for a few answers, but then I get the "pleasure" of straightening out my precipitous guesses…ha!

    See you all tomorrow for more fun and games.

  5. Hi guys!
    Kind of a tough puzzle, and didn't get thru without cheating. Very clever, I think, in that the theme includes both the words and the actual layout of the grid. Nice effort on the part of the solver.
    @Jeff, don't those two phrases seem more like one plowing thru the other, rather than T-boning?!
    BTW, little known factoid, brought to mind by the info on Dr. Suess: President Garfield's doctor's actual first name was Doctor. Doctor Doctor Bliss. True story! I believe Garfield was shot by an assassin, didn't die, lingered for a month. They brought in the first ever American air conditioner to keep him comfortable. Maybe it was invented specifically for this instance. Anyway, Doctor Doctor Bliss couldn't save the President's life, and neither could the AC.
    Note! This is JUST the kind of story to make you popular at cocktail parties!!
    Okay then!
    Sweet dreams~~™

  6. As another aspect of the theme, which I think Carrie noticed, the grid itself looks like the intersection of two streets.

    -Mike

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