LA Times Crossword Answers 20 Apr 16, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Jellied garnish ASPIC
Aspic is a dish in which the main ingredients are served in a gelatin made from meat stock. “Aspic” is a French word for “jelly”.

6. Northwestern pear BOSC
Bosc is a cultivar of the European Pear grown in the northwest of the United States. The Bosc is that pear with a skin the color of a potato, with a long neck. I always seem to use the potato as my point of reference. How Irish am I …?

14. Good, in Granada BUENO
Granada is a city and province in Andalusia in the south of Spain. Granada should not to be confused with Grenada (note the different spelling), the island nation in the Caribbean that was invaded by the US in 1983.

17. Trader for whom a northwest Oregon city was named ASTOR
John Jacob Astor was the father of the famous American Astor dynasty. He was the country’s first multi-millionaire, making his fortune in the trade of fur, real estate and opium. In today’s terms, it has been calculated that by the time of his death he has accumulated a fortune big enough to make him the fourth wealthiest man in American history (in the company of the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Bill Gates, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller).

The city of Astoria, Oregon started out as Fort Astoria in 1810. Fort Astoria was a fur-trading post built by John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company, hence the “Astoria” name.

18. __ impasse AT AN
“Impasse” is a French word for a blind alley or an impassable road, and we use the term to mean “stalemate”.

19. Texas flag symbol STAR
The single star on the state flag of Texas is a reminder of the “lone star” on the 1836 National Standard of Texas. The single gold star on a blue background symbolized Texas as an independent republic and its struggle for independence from Mexico.

20. Part of the Three Little Pigs’ chant … CHINNY CHIN CHIN

“Little pig, little Pig, let me come in.”
“No, no, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin.”
“Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in.

The fairy tale of “The Three Little Pigs” has been around for centuries, although it first appeared in print in the 1840s. One little pig built a house using straw and another built one using wood. The cleverest little pig built its house using bricks.

23. Baby beaver KIT
Beavers are monogamous and mate for life. The offspring of a beaver couple are called kits.

30. Clean Air Act administrative gp. EPA
The Clean Air Act of 1963 is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

33. Heads, in slang NOBS
The slang term “nob” has been used for “head” for over 300 years, and is a variant of “knob”.

36. Persian Gulf cargo CRUDE
The Persian Gulf is in effect an inland sea although it technically is an offshoot of the Indian Ocean. The outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean is one of the most famous maritime “choke points” in the world, known as the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s supply of petroleum passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

37. The “Original Formula,” soda-wise COCA-COLA CLASSIC
When “new Coke” was introduced in 1985, the market reacted very, very badly. The public reaction was so negative that the Coca-Cola company quickly reintroduced its “Coca Cola Classic” line. Ironically, the whole debacle resulted in Coke actually gaining market share when the “old coke” returned to supermarket shelves.

42. French 101 verb ETRE
The French for “to be” is “être”.

44. Bakes, as 50-Acrosses SHIRRS
Shirred eggs are eggs that have been baked without their shells in a flat-bottomed dish. The term “shirred” comes from the name of the dish that was traditionally used for the baking.

46. “Star Wars” staples ETS
Extraterrestrial (ET)

54. Provincetown rental CAPE COD COTTAGE
Provincetown is located at the very tip of Cape Cod. As a major vacation destination, Provincetown has a summer population of up to 60,000 people, dropping to under 3,000 off season. The land now called Provincetown was the original “Cape Cod” back in the early 1600s. It wasn’t until much later that the Cape Cod name was applied to the entire region.

57. Roast, in Rouen ROTI
In French, a “rôti” (roast) is a joint of meat.

Rouen is the major city in Normandy in northern France. During the days of Norman Britain, Rouen was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties. Rouen was also where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431.

58. Antelope Island state UTAH
Antelope Island is the largest of ten islands located in the Great Salt Lake. However, the island regularly becomes a peninsula when the lake is at low water levels.

60. Arabian Peninsula port ADEN
Aden is a seaport in Yemen, located on the Gulf of Aden by the eastern approach to the Red Sea. Aden has a long history of British rule, from 1838 until a very messy withdrawal in 1967. A native of Aden is known as an Adeni. Some believe that Cain and Abel are buried in the city.

64. Mesozoic and Paleozoic ERAS
The Mesozoic Era is also known as the Age of the Dinosaurs, as most dinosaurs developed during that time and the era ended with the extinction of all dinosaurs (except the avian species, which developed into our modern birds). The Mesozoic Era started with another cataclysmic event, the so called “Great Dying”, the largest mass extinction in the history of our planet. During the “Great Dying” over 90% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrate species died off.

The Paleozoic Era (with “Paleozoic” meaning “ancient life”) was a geologic era from roughly 542 to 251 million years ago. Notably in the Paleozoic Era, fish populations thrived and vast forests of primitive plants covered the land. Those forests were the source material for the coal which we dig out of the ground now in Europe and the eastern parts of North America. At end of the Paleozoic Era was the largest mass extinction in the history of the Earth, killing off 96% of all marine species, and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrates. Causes of the extinction have been suggested, with one hypothesis being gradually accelerating climate change (scary!).

65. Slangy craving JONES
The slang term “Jones” is used to mean an intense addiction, a yen, and probably arose in the late sixties out of the prior use of “Jones” for the drug heroin.

Down
2. Japanese finger food SUSHI
Traditionally, sushi has been consumed as a finger food. However, chopsticks are commonly used these days in Japan, and almost always Japanese restaurants in the West.

3. __ four: teacake PETIT
A “petit four” is a small confection served at the end of a meal, either as a dessert or with coffee. The name “petit four” is French for “small oven”.

5. Eye part CORNEA
The cornea is the transparent part of the eye in the front, covering the iris and the pupil. Even though the cornea is not part of the lens it acts as a lens, and in fact does most of the work focusing light coming in through the eye. The cornea is in effect a fixed-focus lens passing on light to the variable-focus lens that is inside the eye.

6. Subject for Stephen Hawking BLACK HOLE
A black hole in space is a region that is extremely dense and one that has an enormous gravitational field. The force of gravity is so great that not even light can escape, so all that can be observed is “blackness”, which gives the phenomenon the name of “black hole”. It is believed that black holes form when large stars reach the end of their lives and collapse in upon themselves.

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist from Oxford, England. Hawking owes much of his fame in the world of popular science to his incredibly successful book called “A Brief History of Time”. “A Brief History of Time” has sold over 10 million copies and was on London’s “Sunday Times” bestseller list for over four years. Hawking does a wonderful job of explaining many aspects of cosmology without losing the average reader. There is only one equation in the whole book, and that equation is “E = mc2”. Hawking’s life story is recounted in the excellent 2014 film “The Theory of Everything”.

10. Supermarket employees CASHIERS
The verb “to cashier” and the noun “cashier” have two different roots. “To cashier” is to dismiss someone from the military in disgrace, coming from the French “casser” meaning “to discharge”. A “cashier” is someone who is in charge of money or cash. This term derives from the French “caisse” meaning “money box”.

11. Like the Sherman Act ANTITRUST
The Sherman Antitrust Act dates back to 1890. The act makes it illegal for companies to seek a monopoly or to form cartels. It is named for US Senator John Sherman , the principal author of the act.

13. New Deal pres. FDR
The New Deal was the series of economic programs championed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal was focused on three objectives, the “3 Rs”:

– Relief for the unemployed and poor
– Recovery of the economy to normal levels
– Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression

22. Spanish girl CHICA
In Spanish, a “niña” is a young girl, a child. The term “chica” applies to an older girl or perhaps a young woman.. The term “muchacha” applies to girls in general, I think …

28. Falco of “Oz” 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 another excellent TV series, “Nurse Jackie”.

29. Prefix with pod DECA-
Decapods are crustaceans, including crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimp. The name of the order Decapoda implies that the creatures have ten legs. The three front pairs of legs function as mouthparts, and often, one pair of legs include enlarged pincers.

30. They record beats per min. ECGS
An EKG measures electrical activity in the heart. Back in my homeland of Ireland, an EKG is known as an ECG (for electrocardiogram). We use the German name in the US, Elektrokardiogramm, giving us EKG. Apparently the abbreviation EKG is preferred as ECG might be confused (if poorly handwritten, I guess) with EEG, the abbreviation for an electroencephalogram.

31. Friend of Tigger POOH
Tigger is a character in the “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories by A. A. Milne. He is a tiger with a springy tail and just loves to bounce around. Tigger will tell you himself that “bouncing is what tiggers do best.”

34. Compete in a box BAT
That would be in baseball …

38. Medication used for dilating pupils ATROPINE
The medication atropine is usually synthesised although it is also found naturally in a number of plants in the nightshade family. One topical use of atropine is to dilate the pupils of the eye, as it temporarily paralyzes the ciliary muscles that control the size of the opening in the iris.

39. Bistro offering CARTE
“Carte” is a word sometimes used in French for a menu. Menu items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately, as opposed to “table d’hôte” which is a fixed price menu with limited choice.

“Bistro” was originally a Parisian slang term for a “little wine shop or restaurant”.

47. High-ranking NCO SGT MAJ
An NCO is a non-commissioned officer in the armed forces. Usually such an officer is one who has earned his or her rank by promotion through the enlisted ranks. A good example would be a sergeant major (sgt. maj.).

49. Turbine blade ROTOR
A turbine is a machine uses the flow of a fluid (sometimes air) to create rotational work. Simple examples of turbines are windmills and waterwheels.

51. Industry honcho BARON
“Honcho” is a slang term for a leader or manager. The term comes to us from Japanese, in which language a “hancho” is a squad (han) leader (cho).

53. Runs down the mountain, maybe MELTS
Snowmelt runs down a mountain as the weather warms.

54. Musical finale CODA
In music, a coda is primarily a passage that brings a movement to a conclusion. “Coda” is Italian for “tail”.

55. Man Ray genre DADA
Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement began in Zurich, Switzerland started by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire, frequently expressing disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

Man Ray was an American modernist artist who spent most of his working life in Paris. Man Ray was born in South Philadelphia in 1890, and his real name was Emmanuel Radnitzky. His family shortened “Radnitzky” to “Ray” in response to the anti-Semitic feeling that was prevalent at the time. Emmanuel was known as “Manny”, and he decided to assume the name Man Ray and use it for his work.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Jellied garnish ASPIC
6. Northwestern pear BOSC
10. Farm youngster CALF
14. Good, in Granada BUENO
15. Chorus syllables LA LA
16. Give __ to: approve A NOD
17. Trader for whom a northwest Oregon city was named ASTOR
18. __ impasse AT AN
19. Texas flag symbol STAR
20. Part of the Three Little Pigs’ chant … CHINNY CHIN CHIN
23. Baby beaver KIT
24. Mouse-spotter’s shriek EEK!
25. Extremely well-pitched NO-HIT
26. Gray shade ASH
27. Multilayered, as cakes TIERED
30. Clean Air Act administrative gp. EPA
33. Heads, in slang NOBS
36. Persian Gulf cargo CRUDE
37. The “Original Formula,” soda-wise COCA-COLA CLASSIC
41. “__ go!” GOTTA
42. French 101 verb ETRE
43. Pot contents TEA
44. Bakes, as 50-Acrosses SHIRRS
46. “Star Wars” staples ETS
48. Exit poll target VOTER
50. Breakfast food EGG
51. “Pow!” BAM!
54. Provincetown rental CAPE COD COTTAGE
57. Roast, in Rouen ROTI
58. Antelope Island state UTAH
59. Lesson at the end MORAL
60. Arabian Peninsula port ADEN
61. Went by skateboard RODE
62. Take in ADOPT
63. Get one’s feet wet WADE
64. Mesozoic and Paleozoic ERAS
65. Slangy craving JONES

Down
1. One way to be taken ABACK
2. Japanese finger food SUSHI
3. __ four: teacake PETIT
4. Privy to IN ON
5. Eye part CORNEA
6. Subject for Stephen Hawking BLACK HOLE
7. Promise OATH
8. Killed, as a dragon SLAIN
9. Is unable to CANNOT
10. Supermarket employees CASHIERS
11. Like the Sherman Act ANTITRUST
12. Deal with interest LOAN
13. New Deal pres. FDR
21. Basic question type YES/NO
22. Spanish girl CHICA
28. Falco of “Oz” EDIE
29. Prefix with pod DECA-
30. They record beats per min. ECGS
31. Friend of Tigger POOH
32. Switched on ACTIVATED
34. Compete in a box BAT
35. Braking sounds SCREECHES
38. Medication used for dilating pupils ATROPINE
39. Bistro offering CARTE
40. “Unhand me!” LET GO!
45. Tie tightly SECURE
47. High-ranking NCO SGT MAJ
49. Turbine blade ROTOR
51. Industry honcho BARON
52. Wide open AGAPE
53. Runs down the mountain, maybe MELTS
54. Musical finale CODA
55. Man Ray genre DADA
56. Commotion TO-DO
57. Wet behind the ears RAW

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