LA Times Crossword Answers 11 Apr 16, Monday

Quicklink
Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

CROSSWORD SETTER: Nancy Salomon
THEME: Can I Get a Witness? … someone bearing witness might set his or her eyes on something. Each of today’s themed answers starts with a word meaning “set one’s eyes on”.

38A. Revival leader’s query … and hint to the starts of 17-, 23-, 49- and 60-Across CAN I GET A WITNESS?

17A. Understand, finally SEE THE LIGHT
23A. Zone out STARE INTO SPACE
49A. Photographer’s instruction WATCH THE BIRDIE
60A. “Didn’t think I could do it, did ya?!” LOOK AT ME NOW!

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 08s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Spaghetti or ziti PASTA
The term “spaghetti” is a plural diminutive form of the Italian word “spago”, which means “thin string, twine”.

Cylindrical pasta is known in general as “penne”, and there are many variants. For example, ziti is a particularly large and long tube with square-cut ends. “Penne” is the plural of “penna”, the Italian for “feather, quill”.

11. What a steamroller steamrolls TAR
The terms “Tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

15. Capital of Yemen SANAA
Sana (also Sanaa) is the capital city of Yemen. Within the bounds of today’s metropolis is the old fortified city of Sana, where people have lived for over 2,500 years. The Old City is now a World Heritage Site.

16. Thrilla in Manila winner ALI
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had three memorable fights. The first was billed as the “Fight of the Century” and took place in 1971 in Madison Square Garden. It was a fight between two great boxers, both of whom were undefeated up till that point. Frazier won in a unanimous decision after fifteen rounds. A couple of years later, in 1973, Frazier lost his title to George Foreman. Ali and Frazier had a non-title rematch in 1974, with Ali coming out ahead this time, also in a unanimous decision. Later that year, Ali grabbed back the World Heavyweight Title in “The Rumble in the Jungle”, the famous “rope-a-dope” fight against George Foreman. That set the stage for the third and final fight between Ali and Frazier, “The Thrilla in Manila”. Ali won the early rounds, but Frazier made a comeback in the middle of the fight. Ali took control at the end of the bout, so much so that Frazier wasn’t able to come out of his corner for the 15th and final round. He couldn’t come out of his corner because both of his eyes were swollen shut, giving Ali a victory due to a technical knockout (TKO).

19. Caboodle go-with KIT
In the idiomatic expression “the whole kit and caboodle”, caboodle (sometimes spelled “kaboodle”) is an informal term for a bunch of people, or sometimes the “the whole lot”.

20. Bill at the bar TAB
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.

21. Tehran native IRANI
Tehran is the capital of Iran and is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around a really long time and Tehran is actually the country’s 31st national capital.

22. German auto engineer Karl BENZ
It is generally accepted that Karl Benz invented the internal combustion engine, although others were doing similar work around the same time. He certainly was awarded the first patent for an automobile, in 1886. His first automobile, the Patent-Motorwagen, couldn’t get up hills unaided so his wife Bertha Benz suggested the introduction of gears. Sure enough, the next model had two gears. Behind every successful man …

28. Ticklish Muppet ELMO
The “Sesame Street” character has a birthday every February 3rd, and on that birthday he always turns 3½ years old. The man behind/under Elmo on “Sesame Street” is Kevin Clash. If you want to learn more about Elmo and Clash, you can watch the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”.

32. ID card feature PHOTO
Identity document (ID)

35. Point de __: opinion, in Paris VUE
“Point de vue” is French for “point of view, opinion”.

42. Corp. ladder leader CEO
Chief executive officer (CEO)

43. En __: as a group MASSE
“En masse” is a French term, one that is best translated as “as a group”.

45. WWII female enlistee WAAC
The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed in 1942, and the unit was converted to full status the following year to become the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Famously, General Douglas MacArthur referred to the WACs as his “best soldiers”, saying they worked harder, complained less and were better disciplined than men. The WACs were disbanded in 1978 and the serving members were integrated into the rest of the army.

47. Org. with a “100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time” list AFI
The American Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1967 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). One of the AFI’s more visible programs is the “100 Year Series”, including lists of Best Movies in several categories and a list of the Best Movie Quotes in 100 years of movie-making.

The top 5 in the American Film Institute’s list “100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time” are:

1. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” from “Gone with the Wind”
2. “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” from “The Godfather”
3. “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” from “On the Waterfront”
4. “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” from “The Wizard of Oz”
5. “Here’s looking at you, kid.” from “Casablanca”

That’s a pretty good list …

49. Photographer’s instruction WATCH THE BIRDIE
The somewhat outdated instruction “watch the birdie” is sometimes still used by photographers to get their subjects to look at the camera as the picture is taken. Back in the early days of portrait photography, when exposure times were quite long, photographers actually used a mechanical birdie that warbled away, mainly to attract and hold the attention of children who were posing.

59. Swiss peak ALP
There are eight Alpine countries:

– Austria
– Slovenia
– France
– Switzerland
– Liechtenstein
– Germany
– Monaco
– Italy

65. Beethoven’s “Für __” 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.

66. Lao-__: Taoism founder TSE
Lao Tse (also Lao-Tzu) was a central figure in the development of the religion/philosophy of Taoism.

67. Heart rate PULSE
One’s “pulse” is the rhythmic throbbing of arteries that is usually detected at the wrist or the neck. The contraction of the heart creates a pressure wave in the blood that moves the arterial walls, which is detected as the pulse.

68. Thin coins DIMES
The term “dime”, used for a 10-cent coin, comes from the Old French word “disme” meaning “tenth part”.

Down
3. Biblical queen’s land SHEBA
Sheba is referenced in the Bible several times. The “Queen of Sheba” is mentioned as someone who traveled to Jerusalem to behold the fame of King Solomon. No one knows for sure where the kingdom of Sheba was located, although there is evidence that it was actually the ancient Semitic civilization of Saba. The Sabeans lived in what today is Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula.

6. Lion of Narnia ASLAN
In the C. S. Lewis series of books “The Chronicles of Narnia”, Aslan is the name of the lion character (as in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). “Aslan” is actually the Turkish word for lion. Anyone who has read the books will recognize the the remarkable similarity between the story of Aslan and the story of Christ, including a sacrifice and resurrection.

7. Sherwin-Williams product PAINT
The Sherwin-Williams Company is a big producer of paints, as well as related products for the construction industry. The company was founded by Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams in Cleveland, Ohio in 1866.

8. Cardio procedure ANGIO
Angioplasty is a mechanical widening of a narrowed artery. In the surgical procedure, a balloon catheter is inflated at the point of the obstruction to open up the artery. A stent may then be inserted to make sure the vessel remains open.

10. Skin art, briefly TAT
Tattoo (tat)

13. Big name in hotels and crackers RITZ
César Ritz was a Swiss hotelier, who had a reputation for developing the most luxurious of accommodations and attracting the wealthiest clientèle. He opened the Hotel Ritz in Paris in 1898 and the second of his most famous hotels, the Ritz Hotel in London, in 1906. Ritz was lucky in his career, as before starting his own hotel chain he had been dismissed from the Savoy Hotel in London, implicated in the disappearance of a substantial amount of wine and spirits. Today’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company was founded in 1983, although the chain has its roots in the properties developed by César Ritz.

I’ve always liked Ritz crackers. They’ve been around since 1934 when they were introduced by Nabisco. The name Ritz was chosen because the marketing folks felt that the association with Ritz-Carlton would evoke images of wealth and the highlife.

18. Buffalo’s lake ERIE
Buffalo is the second most-populous city in the state of New York. The city takes its name from Buffalo Creek that runs through the metropolis (although the waterway is called Buffalo River within the city). The source of the name Buffalo Creek is the subject of much speculation, but one thing is clear, there were never any bison in the area.

22. Emeril catchword BAM!
Emeril Lagasse is an American chef, born in Massachusetts. Lagasse first achieved notoriety as executive chef in Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. Now famous for his television shows, his cuisine still showcases New Orleans ingredients and influences. Lagasse started using his famous “Bam!” catchphrase in order to keep his crew awake during repeated tapings of his show.

24. __ de boeuf: French roast ROTI
“Rôti” is the French for “roasted”, so “rôti de boeuf” is “roast beef”.

25. Alien-seeking org. SETI
SETI is the name given to a number of projects that are searching for extraterrestrial life. The acronym stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence”. One of the main SETI activities is the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves) reaching the Earth in the hope of finding a transmission from a civilization in another world.

29. Secretly keep in the email loop, briefly BCC
A blind carbon copy (bcc) is a copy of a document or message that is sent to someone without other recipients of the message knowing about that extra copy.

30. Abu Dhabi’s fed. UAE
Abu Dhabi 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. Before 1971, the UAE was a British Protectorate, a collection of sheikdoms. The sheikdoms entered into a maritime truce with Britain in 1835, after which they became known as the Trucial States, derived from the word “truce”.

31. Suspected McIntosh relative with pure white flesh SNOW APPLE
The snow apple is an heirloom variety of apple with very white flesh. It is a variety that originated in Canada.

32. TD’s six PTS
In football, a touchdown (TD) scores six points (pts.).

36. __ Today USA
The title of widest circulation of any American newspaper is an honor competed for by “The Wall Street Journal”, “The New York Times” and “USA Today”, with each paper selling about 2 million copies each day (including online subscribers). “USA Today” was launched in 1982.

37. Subj. for some green-card holders ESL
English as a Second Language (ESL) is sometimes referred to as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

A “green card” is more correctly called a US Permanent Resident Card. The informal term harks back to the period between 1946 and 1964 when the document was in fact green in color. In fact, the Permanent Resident Card was changed back to a green color in 2010.

39. Former auto financing co. GMAC
GMAC is short for General Motors Acceptance Corporation. General Motors has only a small stake in GMAC now, and indeed the name has been officially changed to Ally Bank. You and me, we are the biggest shareholders in GMAC/Ally today, since the US government gave the bank $12.5 billion to bail it out in 2008-2009.

41. Roulette color NOIR
In the game of roulette, players can bet on red (rouge) and black (noir).

46. Verizon rival ATT
The original AT&T Corporation was first known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

The telecommunications company that we know today as Verizon was founded in 1983 as Bell Atlantic, and was one of the “Baby Bells” that were formed after the breakup of AT&T. Bell Atlantic merged with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX in 1997, and then merged with GTE in 2000 to form Verizon. The new company name is a portmanteau of “veritas” (“truth” in Latin) and “horizon”.

49. H.G. who wrote “The War of the Worlds” WELLS
The full name of the English author known as H. G. Wells was Herbert George Wells. Wells is particularly well known for his works of science fiction, including “The War of the Worlds”, “The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man” and “The Island of Doctor Moreau”. He was a prolific author, and a prolific lover as well. While married to one of his former students with whom he had two sons, he also had a child with writer Amber Reeves, and another child with author Rebecca West.

“The War of the Worlds” is a science fiction classic penned by H. G. Wells in 1895-97. This compelling story of Martians invading Earth has been adapted many times into radio dramas, a television series and several movies.

50. Internet forum troublemaker TROLL
In Internet terms, a “troll” is someone who attempts to disrupt online group activities. The fishing term “troll” is used to describe such a person, as he or she throws out off-topic remarks in an attempt to “lure” others into some emotional response.

53. Jeans material DENIM
Denim fabric originated in Nimes in France. The French phrase “de Nimes” (from Nimes) gives us the word “denim”. Also, the French phrase “bleu de Genes” (blue of Genoa) gives us our word “jeans”.

55. Cary of “Glory” ELWES
Cary Elwes is an English actor, most noted for appearing in the 1987 film “The Princess Bride”. Cary is the son of a celebrated English portrait painter, Dominick Elwes.

“Glory” is a 1989 movie about the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first African-American units formed during the Civil War.

61. Buckeyes’ sch. OSU
Ohio State University (OSU) was founded back in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The athletic teams of OSU are called the Buckeyes, named after the state tree of Ohio. In turn the buckeye tree gets its name from the appearance of its fruit, a dark nut with a light patch thought to resemble a “buck’s eye”.

62. Yale Blue wearer ELI
Eli is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.

The dark azure color known as “Yale Blue” was adopted by the university in 1894. Prior to that year, Yale had been associated with a green color.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Spaghetti or ziti PASTA
6. In different places APART
11. What a steamroller steamrolls TAR
14. Moral standard ETHIC
15. Capital of Yemen SANAA
16. Thrilla in Manila winner ALI
17. Understand, finally SEE THE LIGHT
19. Caboodle go-with KIT
20. Bill at the bar TAB
21. Tehran native IRANI
22. German auto engineer Karl BENZ
23. Zone out STARE INTO SPACE
27. Mined rock ORE
28. Ticklish Muppet ELMO
29. Boom’s opposite BUST
32. ID card feature PHOTO
35. Point de __: opinion, in Paris VUE
38. Revival leader’s query … and hint to the starts of 17-, 23-, 49- and 60-Across CAN I GET A WITNESS?
42. Corp. ladder leader CEO
43. En __: as a group MASSE
44. Spoken ORAL
45. WWII female enlistee WAAC
47. Org. with a “100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time” list AFI
49. Photographer’s instruction WATCH THE BIRDIE
56. Had a bawl WEPT
57. Track jockey, e.g. RIDER
58. Building wing ELL
59. Swiss peak ALP
60. “Didn’t think I could do it, did ya?!” LOOK AT ME NOW!
63. Under the weather ILL
64. Speck in the ocean ISLET
65. Beethoven’s “Für __” ELISE
66. Lao-__: Taoism founder TSE
67. Heart rate PULSE
68. Thin coins DIMES

Down
1. Ones who won’t leave you alone PESTS
2. Really bugged ATE AT
3. Biblical queen’s land SHEBA
4. Little songbird TIT
5. More sore ACHIER
6. Lion of Narnia ASLAN
7. Sherwin-Williams product PAINT
8. Cardio procedure ANGIO
9. Word of support RAH!
10. Skin art, briefly TAT
11. Seek shelter TAKE COVER
12. Flared skirt A-LINE
13. Big name in hotels and crackers RITZ
18. Buffalo’s lake ERIE
22. Emeril catchword BAM!
24. __ de boeuf: French roast ROTI
25. Alien-seeking org. SETI
26. Underhanded plan PLOT
29. Secretly keep in the email loop, briefly BCC
30. Abu Dhabi’s fed. UAE
31. Suspected McIntosh relative with pure white flesh SNOW APPLE
32. TD’s six PTS
33. Gives birth to HAS
34. What borrowers do OWE
36. __ Today USA
37. Subj. for some green-card holders ESL
39. Former auto financing co. GMAC
40. A pop EACH
41. Roulette color NOIR
46. Verizon rival ATT
47. Aid in a felony ABET
48. Solidified, as plans, with “up” FIRMED
49. H.G. who wrote “The War of the Worlds” WELLS
50. Internet forum troublemaker TROLL
51. Backpacking outings HIKES
52. Online social appointment E-DATE
53. Jeans material DENIM
54. Admission of defeat I LOSE
55. Cary of “Glory” ELWES
56. Cool one’s heels WAIT
60. One of a kissing pair LIP
61. Buckeyes’ sch. OSU
62. Yale Blue wearer ELI

Return to top of page

7 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 11 Apr 16, Monday”

  1. The puzzle was quite easy – and I forgot to post.

    Hi Pookie.

    I thought 'snow apple' was an apple computer product that I just missed to hear about. It would have been related to the Macintosh, as in IMac. I got the correct answer for the wrong reason. I viewed snow apples …. they don't look all that different. More like a Mac.

    Bill, are you going to ever write about your experiences at the ACPT ?? We are waiting, with bated breath.

    Have a nice evening, all.

  2. @Vidwan

    I notice videos of most of the major public events of the ACPT have been put on Youtube, including the Merl Reagle tribute video, talent show, and all the marker board rounds. If you need help beyond that link, it's all posted under the Youtube user geeewhiz.

  3. One question answered of last week: Dr. Fill is a crossword puzzle solving bot a guy came up with that gets entered in the tournament. Think WATSON with Jeopardy and you basically get the idea. Though he doesn't quite have it playing quite as well, as the video illustrates.

  4. Very easy Monday, altho I didn't know ASLAN and I blanked for awhile on SANAA. Of course, all talk of the grid pales next to that ACPT TALENT SHOW!!! Wha-a-at??!! I skipped thru most of it, but I give them credit for participating. It's always interesting to see geeks like me in action…:-D
    And Bill– I SECOND Vidwan's second request! I'd love it if you wrote up your experiences at the ACPT!
    Be well~~™

Comments are closed.