LA Times Crossword Answers 9 Feb 16, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Kurt Krauss
THEME: Add Salt … if we take the first word from each of today’s themed answers, we can ADD SALT after that word to give us a type of SALT:

38A. Recipe direction … and a literal hint to what you can do to the starts of the answers to starred clues ADD SALT
17A. *Oft-minced bulb GARLIC CLOVE (giving “garlic salt”)
24A. *Laura Hillenbrand best-seller about a racehorse SEABISCUIT (giving “sea salt”)
50A. *Dry-climate landscape option ROCK GARDEN (giving “rock salt”)
62A. *Olympic sport with a hollow ball TABLE TENNIS (giving “table salt”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 7m 14s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … FAME (name), ALF(Aln!!!)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

7. Tuber made into poi TARO
The corm of some taro plants is used to make poi, the traditional Hawaiian dish (that I think tastes horrible). When a taro plant is grown as an ornamental, it is often called Elephant Ears due to the shape of its large leaves.

11. Actor Beatty NED
Ned Beatty is probably best remembered for the rather disturbing “squeal like a pig” scene in the movie “Deliverance”. Beatty also earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1976 movie “Network”.

16. Australian bird EMU
Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs.

17. *Oft-minced bulb GARLIC CLOVE (giving “garlic salt”)
Our word “garlic” evolved via Old English from “gar” (spear) and “leac” (leek). The use of “spear” is apparently a reference to the shape of a clove.

The main ingredients in garlic salt are dried ground garlic and table salt (plus an anti-caking agent).

20. Woman in a Beethoven piano title ELISE
“Fur Elise” is a beautiful piece of music written by Beethoven, and is also known as “Bagatelle in A Minor”. “Fur Elise” means simply “For Elise”, but sadly no one knows for sure the identity of the mysterious dedicatee.

22. Classic sports cars GTS
GT stands for “Grand Touring” or “Gran Turismo”.

24. *Laura Hillenbrand best-seller about a racehorse SEABISCUIT (giving “sea salt”)
The 2003 hit movie “Seabiscuit” is based on a best-selling book by Laura Hillenbrand called “Seabiscuit: An American Legend”. The horse Seabiscuit was sired by a horse called Hard Tack, and “hard tack” is type of biscuit eaten by sailors at sea in days of yore. “Hard Tack” … “Seabiscuit”, get it …?

26. Honest prez ABE
Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the US. There are several stories told about how he earned the nickname “Honest Abe”. One story dates back to early in his career as a lawyer. Lincoln accidentally overcharged a client and then walked miles in order to right the wrong as soon as possible.

29. Sally Ride, e.g. ASTRONAUT
Sally Ride was a physicist and astronaut, who flew two missions on the space shuttle Challenger. In 1983, she became the first American woman in space, having been preceded by two female cosmonauts (in 1963 and 1982). Ride was 32 years on that first mission, making her the youngest astronaut ever to make it into space. In another first, Ride was the first LGBT astronaut, a fact that was revealed after her death in 2012.

35. Diarist Frank ANNE
Anne Frank has to be one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust. This is largely because the story of this young girl lives on in her widely published diary, and in adaptations of the diary for stage and screen. Anne Frank was a German until she lost her nationality in 1941 when the Nazis came to power. By this time she was living with her family in Amsterdam, as the Franks chose to flee Germany in 1933. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, the family went into hiding in the attic of Otto Frank’s office building (Otto was Anne’s father). There the family hid for two whole years until they were betrayed. The family was split up, and Anne and her sister died from typhus in a concentration camp in 1945.

37. Island wreath LEI
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

49. Fist-up call OUT!
A baseball umpire will often make a thumbs-up sign over his or her soldier to signal an “out”.

50. *Dry-climate landscape option ROCK GARDEN (giving “rock salt”)
Halite is the mineral form of sodium chloride, and is also known as “rock salt”. Halite is used to melt ice, as salt water has a lower freezing point than pure water. Adding salt to icy sidewalks can therefore cause any ice to melt (as long as the ambient temperature isn’t too low). A mixture of halite and ice can also be used to cool things below the freezing point of water, perhaps to make ice cream.

54. Palms-down call SAFE
A baseball umpire can signal that a player is safe on base by extending both arms straight out to the side with palms facing downwards.

58. Photo lab abbr. ENL
Enlargement (enl.)

59. Dubai bigwig EMEER
In English, emir can also be written as emeer, amir and ameer (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

Dubai is one of the seven Emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy.

60. “MASH” setting KOREA
“M*A*S*H” has only three stars (three asterisks, that is!). These asterisks first appeared on the poster for the 1970 movie, but they were omitted in the opening titles. The TV series went on to use the asterisks from the poster.

62. *Olympic sport with a hollow ball TABLE TENNIS (giving “table salt”)
Ping pong is called table tennis in the UK, where the sport originated in the 1880s. Table tennis started as an after-dinner activity among the elite, and was called “wiff-waff”. To play the game, books were stacked in the center of a table as a “net”, two more books served as “”rackets” and the ball used was actually a golf ball. The game evolved over time with the rackets being upgraded to the lids of cigar boxes and the ball becoming a champagne cork (how snooty is that?). Eventually the game was produced commercially, and the sound of the ball hitting the racket was deemed to be a “ping” and a “pong”, giving the sport its alternative name.

64. Company abbr. 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.

65. Sheep’s cry BLAT
“To blat” is a make a raucous sound or to speak in a raucous way. The term can also be an alternative for “to bleat”, to utter the cry of a calf, sheep or goat.

66. Candy heart message BE MINE
The forerunner to Sweethearts candy was introduced in 1866, with the famous sayings written on the candy tailored for use at weddings. One of the original expressions was, “Married in pink, he will take a drink”. The original candy was a lot bigger, to fit all those words! The smaller, heart-shaped candy hit the shelves in 1901. We’ve been able to buy Sweethearts with the words “Text me” since 2010.

67. Shatner’s “__War” TEK
The “Tekwar” series of science-fiction novels was co-authored by Ron Goulart and the actor William Shatner, although it’s only Shatner’s name that appears on the book covers. The stories center around the microchip “drug” called “tek” which dominates the Tekwar universe.

William Shatner is a Canadian actor, famous for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the original “Star Trek” television series. Shatner was trained as a classical Shakespearean actor, and appeared on stage in many of the Bard’s works early in his career. While playing the Kirk character, he developed a reputation for over-acting, really emphasizing some words in a speech and using an excessive number of pauses. He gave his name to a word “shatneresque”, which describes such a style.

68. Backwoods possessive YERS
That’s “yer hoss” over there, it’s “yers”.

69. Rains ice pellets SLEETS
Apparently “sleet” is a term used to describe two weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets, smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls. It’s the second definition that I have always used …

Down
2. Florida horse-breeding city OCALA
The city of Ocala, Florida was founded near a historic village with the same name. In the local Timucua language “Ocala” means “Big Hammock”. Back in the 1890s, Ocala was famous for its oranges, with over one third of that fruit shipped from Florida coming from the city. Also, thoroughbred horse farming in Florida started in Ocala, back in 1943. Some folks today call Ocala the “Horse Capital of the World”, but I bet that’s disputed by others …

3. Doc’s order to a pharmacist SCRIP
“Scrip” is an informal term for a prescription.

4. Early communications satellite TELSTAR
Telstar 1 was a communications satellite launched by AT&T in 1962. Telstar 1 acted as a relay for the first phone calls to be sent through space, as well as the first television pictures. Telstar 1 didn’t stay in service very long though. The transistors on board were fried when the US exploded a high-altitude nuclear bomb in a test later that year.

5. Falco of “The Sopranos” EDIE
The actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”.

“The Sopranos” is an outstanding television drama that was made by HBO and is a story about Italian-American mobsters in New Jersey. “The Sopranos” has made more money than any other television series in the history of cable television. It’s “must see TV” …

6. TiVo button REC
TiVo was introduced in 1999 and was the world’s first commercially successful DVR (Digital Video Recorder).

7. Actress Shire TALIA
The actress Talia Shire is best-known for playing Rocky’s wife Adrian in the “Rocky” series of movies. She also played the daughter of Don Corleone in “The Godfather” films. Shire is the sister of movie director Francis Ford Coppola and the aunt of actor Nicolas Cage. Her son is the actor Jason Schwartzman.

8. Manhattan Project creation A-BOMB
The Manhattan project was the joint US-Canada-UK project to develop an atomic bomb during WWII. Initially, the Army headquarters for the program was located on the 18th floor of a building on Broadway in New York City. Eventually, because of that first location, the project adopted the name “Manhattan”.

9. “Au __”: “Bye, Pierre” REVOIR
“Au revoir” is a French phrase meaning “goodbye”, translating literally as “until seen again”.

10. Texas or Ukraine city ODESSA
The city of Odessa, Texas has as its symbol the jack rabbit. This is because from the thirties through the seventies the city hosted a rodeo for roping rabbits. The Humane Society applied pressure and the city did away with the tradition in 1977.

The city of Odessa (also “Odesa”) in Ukraine was founded relatively recently, in 1794 by Catherine the Great. The city was originally meant to be called Odessos after an ancient Greek city believed to have been located nearby. Catherine liked the way the locals pronounced the name as “Odessa” and so went with the less Greek-sounding name.

11. World’s second largest island NEW GUINEA
New Guinea is an island in the southwest Pacific Ocean. It is the second largest island in the world (after Greenland). The western half of the the island is ruled by Indonesia, and is made up of the provinces of Papua and West Papua. The eastern half of the island forms the mainland of the independent country called Papua New Guinea.

13. Kirsten of “Spider-Man” DUNST
Kirsten Dunst is a Hollywood actress from Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Dunst is perhaps best known for playing the love interest and female lead in the “Spider-Man” series of movies opposite Tobey Maguire. Personally, my favorite Dunst films are “Wimbledon” and “Marie Antoinette”. Dunst is a dual citizen of the US and Germany, as her father is from Hamburg.

18. The Browns, on sports tickers CLE
The Cleveland Browns football team was a charter member of the All-American Football Conference, formed in 1946. Cleveland is the only NFL city that has never hosted nor sent a team to the Super Bowl.

25. Windy City commuter org. CTA
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

It seems that the derivation of Chicago’s nickname as the “Windy City” isn’t as obvious as I would have thought. There are two viable theories. First that the weather can be breezy, with wind blowing in off Lake Michigan. The effect of the wind is exaggerated by the grid-layout adopted by city planners after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The second theory is that “windy” means “being full of bluster”. Sportswriters from the rival city of Cincinnati were fond of calling Chicago supporters “windy” in the 1860s and 1870s, meaning that they were full of hot air in their claims that the Chicago White Stockings were superior to the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

27. __ constrictor BOA
Boa constrictors are members of the Boidae family of snakes, all of which are non-venomous. Interestingly, the female boa is always larger than the male.

29. Landon who ran against FDR ALF
Alf Landon was the Governor of Kansas from 1933-37, and was the Republican Party’s nominee against FDR in the 1936 Presidential election. He is remembered as the candidate who “disappeared” after winning the nomination. He rarely traveled during the campaign, and made no appearances at all in its first two months. FDR famously won by a landslide, with Landon only winning the states of Maine and Vermont. He wasn’t even able to carry his home state of Kansas.

32. Fleet VIP ADM
Admiral (adm.)

34. Scottish cap TAM
A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap traditionally worn by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”), but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of Robert Burns’ poem “Tam O’Shanter”.

36. Sci-fi staples ETS
Extraterrestrial (ET)

39. Diving lake bird LOON
The bird known as a loon here in North America is called a diver in the British Isles. The name “diver” comes from the bird’s habit of swimming calmly and then suddenly diving below the surface to catch a fish. The name “loon” comes from an Old English word meaning “clumsy” and reflects the awkward gait of the bird when walking on land.

40. Capote nickname TRU
The larger-than-life Truman Capote was a celebrated author and comedian. Capote is perhaps most associated with his novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his true crime novel “In Cold Blood”. Truman Capote grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. There he met, and became lifelong friends with, fellow novelist Harper Lee. Capote was the inspiration for the character “Dill” in Lee’s celebrated work “To Kill a Mockingbird”. In turn, Harper Lee was the inspiration for the character “Idabel” in Capote’s “Other Voices, Other Rooms”.

45. Picking-up-the-tab words IT’S ON ME
When we “run a tab” at a bar say, we are “running a tabulation”, a listing of what we owe. Such a use of “tab” is American slang that originated in the 1880s.

47. Song words before “with a little help from my friends” I GET BY …
“With a Little Help From My Friends” is a Lennon/McCartney song from the 1967 “Sgt. Pepper” album. The songwriting duo wrote it specifically for the band’s drummer Ringo Starr, and so it was giving a limited vocal range, except for the last note. The song opens with:

What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?

Starr had those words changed from:

What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you throw ripe tomatoes at me?

Ringo was afraid that fans would do just that, if he should ever perform the song live.

48. Husk-wrapped Mexican food TAMALE
A tamale is a traditional dish from Central America composed of a starchy dough that is steamed or boiled in a wrapper made of leaves. The dough is called masa, and can include many different ingredients including meat, cheese fruit and vegetables.

51. Concrete-reinforcing rod REBAR
A steel bar or mesh that is used to reinforce concrete is called “rebar”, short for “reinforcing bar”.

52. Shoulder muscles, briefly DELTS
The deltoid muscle is actually a group of muscles, the ones that cover the shoulder and create the roundness under the skin. The deltoids are triangular in shape resembling the Greek letter delta, hence the name.

55. Golfer with an “army” ARNIE
Arnold Palmer is one of the greats of the world of golf. Palmer is very popular with many fans of the game, and his followers are usually referred to as “Arnie’s Army”. Off the course, Palmer was an avid pilot, but is now retired from flying. He resides in Latrobe, Pennsylvania for much of the year and the local airport is named in his honor: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

63. Superstation initials TBS
The tbs cable television station started out in 1967 as local broadcast TV station in Atlanta. The station’s first call letters were WJRJ-TV, and this was changed to WTCG in 1970 when it was acquired by Ted Turner (the TCG stood for Turner Communications Group). In 1976, Turner started distributing WTCG via satellite making its programming available in other parts of the country. WTCG was only the second channel to transmit via satellite, following HBO. The difference was that WTCG was broadcast without requiring a premium subscription. The station’s call sign was changed again in 1979, to WTBS, and in 1981 adopted the moniker “Superstation WTBS”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Campaign display POSTER
7. Tuber made into poi TARO
11. Actor Beatty NED
14. Give in ACCEDE
15. Out for the night ABED
16. Australian bird EMU
17. *Oft-minced bulb GARLIC CLOVE (giving “garlic salt”)
19. Came in first WON
20. Woman in a Beethoven piano title ELISE
21. Oscar night rides LIMOS
22. Classic sports cars GTS
23. Absorbed RAPT
24. *Laura Hillenbrand best-seller about a racehorse SEABISCUIT (giving “sea salt”)
26. Honest prez ABE
28. Math comparison RATIO
29. Sally Ride, e.g. ASTRONAUT
35. Diarist Frank ANNE
37. Island wreath LEI
38. Recipe direction … and a literal hint to what you can do to the starts of the answers to starred clues ADD SALT
41. “Dig in!” EAT!
42. Celebrity FAME
44. Statues, often MEMORIALS
46. “Now you __ … ” SEE IT
49. Fist-up call OUT!
50. *Dry-climate landscape option ROCK GARDEN (giving “rock salt”)
54. Palms-down call SAFE
58. Photo lab abbr. ENL
59. Dubai bigwig EMEER
60. “MASH” setting KOREA
61. __ juice: milk MOO
62. *Olympic sport with a hollow ball TABLE TENNIS (giving “table salt”)
64. Company abbr. INC
65. Sheep’s cry BLAT
66. Candy heart message BE MINE
67. Shatner’s “__War” TEK
68. Backwoods possessive YERS
69. Rains ice pellets SLEETS

Down
1. Cell alternative PAGER
2. Florida horse-breeding city OCALA
3. Doc’s order to a pharmacist SCRIP
4. Early communications satellite TELSTAR
5. Falco of “The Sopranos” EDIE
6. TiVo button REC
7. Actress Shire TALIA
8. Manhattan Project creation A-BOMB
9. “Au __”: “Bye, Pierre” REVOIR
10. Texas or Ukraine city ODESSA
11. World’s second largest island NEW GUINEA
12. Showing strong feelings EMOTIONAL
13. Kirsten of “Spider-Man” DUNST
18. The Browns, on sports tickers CLE
24. Pop in the mail SEND
25. Windy City commuter org. CTA
27. __ constrictor BOA
29. Landon who ran against FDR ALF
30. Opening set of TV series episodes SEASON ONE
31. Hourly worker’s device TIME CLOCK
32. Fleet VIP ADM
33. Put into operation USE
34. Scottish cap TAM
36. Sci-fi staples ETS
39. Diving lake bird LOON
40. Capote nickname TRU
43. It’s a scream EEK!
45. Picking-up-the-tab words IT’S ON ME
47. Song words before “with a little help from my friends” I GET BY …
48. Husk-wrapped Mexican food TAMALE
50. Pay REMIT
51. Concrete-reinforcing rod REBAR
52. Shoulder muscles, briefly DELTS
53. Before, before ERE
55. Golfer with an “army” ARNIE
56. Deceptive move FEINT
57. Makes more bearable EASES
60. Capsize, with “over” KEEL
63. Superstation initials TBS

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8 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 9 Feb 16, Tuesday”

  1. I think that I should stay abed all day so that I don't get hit by any sleets. Perhaps I can dream of sheep blating at emeers

  2. Where are the bath SALTs?

    Never heard of BLAT. Bleat, yes.

    Had Kick before KEEL.

    Pretty good puzzle, few sports. SEABISCUIT was a great movie, too.

  3. Easier than yesterday's puzzle but still little tougher than most Tuesdays. I finished a puzzle error free that Bill made an error on?? I'm pretty sure that's a first.

    BLAT is also Russian for..[deleted due to the breakfast rule]. Just know it's not a nice word in Russian. When Russians are angry, you could very well hear them scream this word.

    ABED is the most egregious Carrie violation we've seen in quite a while.

    @Anonymous
    Of all the comments so far, YERS was the funniest – or perhaps TEKnically YERS and Matt's…

    Best-

  4. I looked up the song TELSTAR and forgot how bad it was.

    What's wrong with you guys? Don't you remember singing
    "Old MacDonald had some sheep, EIEIO.
    With a blat blat here and a blat blat there….
    Everywhere a blat blat. ???
    ^0^

  5. I looked up several versions of the old children's rhyme and the closest that one of them came was baa baa for a lamb.

  6. Just lying abed, blatting at the sleets…
    I do like how both OUT! and SAFE! appear together here. I miss baseball!
    Easy week so far, but of course we're in the early days :-
    Be well~~™

Comments are closed.