LA Times Crossword Answers 31 Aug 16, Wednesday




LA Times Crossword Solution 31 Aug 16







Constructed by: Roland Huget

Edited by: Rich Norris

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

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Theme: Intermediate Car

Today’s themed answers each include a hidden word, the type of INTERMEDIATE CAR known as a SEDAN:

  • 55A…Type of auto found in the three other longest puzzle answers..INTERMEDIATE CAR
  • 17A…Buried the hatchet..KISSED AND MADE UP
  • 25A…Got on everyone’s nerves..CAUSED A NUISANCE
  • 42A…Showed disapproval..RAISED AN EYEBROW

Bill’s time: 7m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1…Pervasive clown..BOZO

Bozo the Clown is a character created in 1946 by Alan Livingston. Bozo was introduced in the first ever “record reader”, a children’s illustrated read-along book that came with a vinyl recording of the story. The book/record was so successful that Bozo moved to television, and he has been around ever since.

5…You, in Peru..USTED

Peru’s name comes from the word “Biru”. Back in the early 1500s, Biru was a ruler living near the Bay of San Miguel in Panama. The territory over which Biru ruled was the furthest land south in the Americas known to Europeans at that time. The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro was the first European to move south of Biru’s empire and the land that he found was designated “Peru”, a derivative of “Biru”.

10…ABC drama about plane crash survivors..LOST

In the TV show “Lost”, the plane that crashed was operated by Oceanic Airlines. The fictional airline Oceanic Airlines or Oceanic Airways turns up a lot on the big and small screen. Try and spot Oceanic in the movies “Executive Decision” and “For Love of the Game”, and in episodes of the TV shows “Castle”, “Chuck”, “Flipper”, “The Goldbergs” and “The X-Files”.

14…Footnote notation..IDEM

Idem is usually abbreviated as “id.” and is the Latin word for “the same”. In research papers, idem is used in a list of references, in place of citations “already mentioned above”.

16…Stuff in a dump..AMMO

The word “munitions” describes materials and equipment used in war. The term derives from the Latin “munitionem” meaning “fortification, defensive wall”. Back in the 17th century, French soldiers referred to such materials as “la munition”, a Middle French term. This was misheard as “l’ammunition”, and as a result we ended up importing the word “ammunition” (often shortened to “ammo”), a term that we now use mainly to describe the material fired from a weapon.

20…Leafy Tolkien creature..ENT

“Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

21…Boomers’ kids..XERS

The term Generation X originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By the latest accepted definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

23…Steely Dan album pronounced like a continent..AJA

Steely Dan’s heyday was in the seventies when they toured for a couple of years, although the group mainly focused on studio work. The band was formed in 1972 and broke up in 1981. The core of the band reunited in 1993 and they are still going strong today. Steely Dan’s best-selling album is “Aja” (pronounced “Asia”), which was released in 1977.

34…Man with a code..MORSE

Samuel Morse was a very accomplished and reputable painter (he was engaged to paint a portrait of President John Adams, for example). In 1825 Morse was in Washington working on a commissioned painting when he received a one-line letter by horse messenger telling him that his wife was ill. He left immediately for his home in New Haven, Connecticut but by the time that Morse arrived his wife had already died and had been buried. This single event spurred him to move from painting to the development of a rapid means of long distance communication, leading to the single-wire telegraph and Morse code.

37…__ Waldo Emerson..RALPH

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist and poet who was active in the mid-1800s. Most of the essays that Emerson wrote were composed originally as lectures and then revised for print.

39…Street in “Freddy vs. Jason”..ELM

Freddy Krueger is the creepy serial killer in the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” movies. Krueger has a burned and disfigured face, wears a brown fedora and a leather glove with metal razors that he uses to kill his victims during their nightmares. He is played by the actor Robert Englund in all of the films.

Can you believe that the “Friday the 13th” franchise of horror movies comprises twelve films (so far)? The bad guy in the series is Jason Voorhees, a boy who drowned at summer camp. “Friday the 13th” is an incredibly successful franchise, something that I just do not understand …

“Freddy vs. Jason” is a 2003 slasher film that pits Jason Voorhees from “Friday 13th” and Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street” against each other. Nope, not gonna see it …

41…With “en,” hot, in sports slang..FUEGO

A sports player who is doing really well might be said to be “on fire”. Sometimes “on fire” is translated into Spanish and the person is said to be “en fuego”.

45…Western tribe..UTES

The Ute is a group of Native American tribes that now resides in Utah and Colorado. The Ute were not a unified people as such, but rather a loose association of nomadic groups. The word “Ute” means “Land of the Sun”, and “Ute” also gave us the state name “Utah”.

47…Evening get-together..SOIREE

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a “soirée” is an “evening party”. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

50…Venus de Milo knockoffs?..ARMS

The famous “Venus de Milo” is so named as she was discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Milos, on the Aegean island of the same name. I’ve been lucky enough to see the statue, in the Louvre in Paris, and was surprised at how large it is (6 ft 8 in tall).

52…Stat for Chris Sale..ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

Chris Sale is a pitcher who made his debut in Major League Baseball in 2010, turning out for the Chicago White Sox.

55…Type of auto found in the three other longest puzzle answers..INTERMEDIATE CAR

The American “sedan” car is the equivalent of the British “saloon” car. By definition, a sedan car has two rows of seating and a separate trunk (boot in the UK), although in some models the engine can be at the rear of the car.

59…Meathead’s ’70s TV mother-in-law..EDITH

Archie Bunker’s wife Edith was played by Jean Stapleton on the 1970s sitcom “All in the Family”. By 1980, Stapleton was growing tired of playing the role and appeared in fewer and fewer episodes. When the show’s spin-off series “Archie Bunker’s Place” premiered, the storyline revealed that Archie Bunker had just lost his wife, setting the tone for the new show.

The great director and actor Rob Reiner first came to prominence playing “Meathead”, Archie and Edith Bunker’s son-in-law in “All in the Family”. Since then, Reiner has directed a long string of hit movies including, “The Princess Bride”, “Stand by Me”, “This Is Spinal Tap”, “When Harry Met Sally”, “Misery” and “A Few Good Men”.

60…Scintilla..WHIT

A “scintilla” is a small amount. The term can also be used to describe a spark or a flash (as in “to scintillate”). The term came into English from Latin, in which language it means “spark, particle of fire, atom”.

62…Tony of “Who’s the Boss?”..DANZA

The actor Tony Danza is noted for his roles in the TV shows “Taxi” and “Who’s the Boss?” Danza is from Brooklyn, New York and his real name is Antonio Iadanza. He was a professional boxer before his acting career took off.

“Who’s the Boss?” is a sitcom that ran from 1984 to 1992. The title refers to the fact that the character known as Angela was the boss, and the character called Tony (played by Tony Danza) was the stay at home homemaker. Back in the eighties that arrangement of male and female roles was a big deal (said the stay-at-home crossword blogger …).

Down

2…Ruler of the Valkyries..ODIN

In Norse mythology, the valkyries are beautiful female attendants of Odin who choose those who must die in battle and those who must live. Half of those who die go to Fólkvangr, the “army field” ruled over by the goddess Freyja. The other half of those who perish go to Valhalla, the hall of the slain that is ruled over by the god Odin. The etymology of “valkyrie” is Old Norse for “chooser of the slain”.

4…Mantra sounds..OMS

“Om” is a sacred mystic word from the Hindu tradition. “Om” is sometimes used as a mantra, a focus for the mind in meditation.

5…Like zombies..UNDEAD

A zombie is a corpse that has been brought back to life by some mystical means. Our modern use of the term largely stems from the undead creatures featured in the 1968 horror movie called “Night of the Living Dead”. Now that film I haven’t seen, and probably never will …

13…Bikini parts..TOPS

The origin of the word “bikini”, a type of bathing suit, seems very uncertain. My favorite story is that it is named after the Bikini Atoll, site of American A-bomb tests in the forties and fifties. The name “bikini” was chosen for the swim-wear because of the “explosive” effect it had on men who saw a woman wearing the garment!

18…Joe Namath, notably..EX-JET

The legendary quarterback Joe Namath played most of his professional football games with the New York Jets. He was dubbed “Broadway Joe” in 1965 by offensive tackle Sherman Plunkett, a reference to Namath’s appearance on the cover of “Sports Illustrated”. Namath had played college football with the University of Alabama but left school without finishing his degree, to play professionally. Many years later he enrolled in Alabama’s External Degree program, and graduated with a BA in December 2007, at 64 years of age. Well done, Joe!

24…Flowery, as prose..PURPLE

“Purple prose” is prose that is overly ornate and flowery, so much so that it draws attention to itself, detracting from the narrative.

26…”A Passage to India” heroine..ADELA

“A Passage to India” is a wonderful novel by E. M. Forster set in the days of the British Raj. There are two excellent adaptations for the screen that I would recommend. There’s a BBC television version from 1965 starring a wonderful cast including Virginia McKenna and Cyril Cusack. There is also an Oscar-winning movie version from 1984 with Alec Guinness and Peggy Ashcroft. Forster had first-hand knowledge of life during the Raj, having worked in India during the twenties.

27…Savory taste..UMAMI

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until 1985 that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

28…Some refrigerators..AMANAS

The Amana Corporation takes its name from the location of its original headquarters, in Middle Amana, Iowa.

29…”Interstellar” director Christopher..NOLAN

British director Christopher Nolan is best known for “rescuing” the floundering Batman movie franchise. In that series, Nolan directed “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”. He was also at the helm of a couple of sci-fi movies that I really liked, namely “Inception” (2010) and “Interstellar” (2014).

30…Mav or Cav..NBAER

The Mavericks are the NBA franchise in Dallas, Texas. The team was founded in 1980, and the Mavericks name was chosen by fan votes. The choice of “Mavericks” was prompted by the fact that the actor James Garner was a part-owner of the team, and Garner of course played the title role in the “Maverick” television series.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1970.

31…Things in a hold..CARGO

“Cargo” is freight carried by some vehicle. The term comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

38…Team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908..CUBS

The Chicago Cubs is one of only two charter members of the baseball’s National League who are still playing, the other being the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs last won the World Series in 1908, which is a long time ago. In fact, the Cubs have the longest championship drought of any professional sports team in North America.

40…Fizzle (out)..PETER

The verb phrase “to peter out”, meaning “to fizzle out”, originated in the 1840s in the American mining industry. While the exact etymology isn’t clear, it probably derives from the term “saltpetre”, a constituent of gunpowder.

43…French police force..SURETE

The French National Police Force used to be known as “La Sûreté Nationale”. The National Police force operates in cities and large towns. The military Gendarmerie is the second national organization tasked with law enforcement in France, and it has jurisdiction in smaller towns and rural areas as well as at the country’s borders.

44…Steinway competitor..YAMAHA

The Japanese company Yamaha started out way back in 1888 as a manufacturer of pianos and reed organs. Even though the company has diversified since then, Yamaha’s logo still reflects it musical roots. Even on Yamaha motorcycles you can see a logo made up of three intersecting tuning forks.

Steinway & Sons is supplier of handmade pianos based in New York City and in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in Manhattan in 1853 by German immigrant Henry E. Steinway. One element of Steinway’s business model is to offer a “piano bank” service. Performing artists can “borrow” a particular piano from the bank for a particular concert or tour. About 400 pianos are in the bank, and are located over the world. The value of the bank’s collection of pianos is estimated at over $25 million.

47…Virtual citizens in a video game..SIMS

“SimCity” is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. “SimCity” was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

50…Deuce follower, in tennis..AD IN

In tennis, if the score reaches “deuce” (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the “advantage”. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. If the one of the players is calling out the score then if he/she has the advantage then that player announces “ad in” or more formally “advantage in”. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

51…Cracker brand..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.

54…Part of MFA..ARTS

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

56…Writer LeShan..EDA

Eda LeShan wrote several nonfiction books including “When Your Child Drives You Crazy” and “The Conspiracy Against Childhood”. LeShan was also host of the PBS television show “How Do Your Children Grow?”

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1…Pervasive clown..BOZO

5…You, in Peru..USTED

10…ABC drama about plane crash survivors..LOST

14…Footnote notation..IDEM

15…Nary a soul..NO ONE

16…Stuff in a dump..AMMO

17…Buried the hatchet..KISSED AND MADE UP

20…Leafy Tolkien creature..ENT

21…Boomers’ kids..XERS

22…Round gaskets..O-RINGS

23…Steely Dan album pronounced like a continent..AJA

24…Move with effort..PLOD

25…Got on everyone’s nerves..CAUSED A NUISANCE

33…Let in or let on..ADMIT

34…Man with a code..MORSE

35…Prohibit..BAN

36…They may be black or green..TEAS

37…__ Waldo Emerson..RALPH

38…Ask for proof of age..CARD

39…Street in “Freddy vs. Jason”..ELM

40…__ colony..PENAL

41…With “en,” hot, in sports slang..FUEGO

42…Showed disapproval..RAISED AN EYEBROW

45…Western tribe..UTES

46…Remote cells..AAS

47…Evening get-together..SOIREE

50…Venus de Milo knockoffs?..ARMS

52…Stat for Chris Sale..ERA

55…Type of auto found in the three other longest puzzle answers..INTERMEDIATE CAR

58…Fine spray..MIST

59…Meathead’s ’70s TV mother-in-law..EDITH

60…Scintilla..WHIT

61…Bump on a lid..STYE

62…Tony of “Who’s the Boss?”..DANZA

63…Seemingly forever..EONS

Down

1…Kid’s wheels..BIKE

2…Ruler of the Valkyries..ODIN

3…Get-up-and-go..ZEST

4…Mantra sounds..OMS

5…Like zombies..UNDEAD

6…Rise dramatically..SOAR

7…Oodles..TONS

8…Word with tight or loose..END

9…Reduce to rubble..DEMOLISH

10…Pretentious..LA-DI-DA

11…Writing on the wall, so to speak..OMEN

12…Complacent..SMUG

13…Bikini parts..TOPS

18…Joe Namath, notably..EX-JET

19…Came up..AROSE

23…Without warranty..AS IS

24…Flowery, as prose..PURPLE

25…Provide fare for an affair..CATER

26…”A Passage to India” heroine..ADELA

27…Savory taste..UMAMI

28…Some refrigerators..AMANAS

29…”Interstellar” director Christopher..NOLAN

30…Mav or Cav..NBAER

31…Things in a hold..CARGO

32…Fund, as an academic chair..ENDOW

37…Got money for..REDEEMED

38…Team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908..CUBS

40…Fizzle (out)..PETER

41…Elaborate spread..FEAST

43…French police force..SURETE

44…Steinway competitor..YAMAHA

47…Virtual citizens in a video game..SIMS

48…Doing the job..ON IT

49…Teeny..ITSY

50…Deuce follower, in tennis..AD IN

51…Cracker brand..RITZ

52…Chamber effect..ECHO

53…Drops from above..RAIN

54…Part of MFA..ARTS

56…Writer LeShan..EDA

57…Farm female..EWE




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11 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 31 Aug 16, Wednesday”

  1. Thats funny, Willie. I’ll try to remember thst.

    Nice and challenging puzzle, I had a good time, and lots of dead ends, but I finished – so a sense of achievement. The long answers really helped – as it should be, on a Wednesday.

    I had ibid. before Idem. Should read up on the difference. I also tried etal.
    To save, y’all some tme …

    ibidem, shortened to ibid. (note the period !) – means ‘at the same place’.
    Used to refer to the same author and work and same reference. Reference is exactly the same, as the preceding citation. Like ‘ditto’.

    idem (no period !) page 56, ……. means ‘the same person’.
    Used to refer to the same author and work, but different page.

    Et al. ( note capital E and period – ) means ‘and others’ , people. places and things. Like ‘etc.’

    All from Google. Thanks Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

    Renault had a SEDAN (?) model called Fuego. Ok, ok, maybe it was more of a sports car.

    Carrie, from yesterday – about the 91 yr old woman, who wrote an answer, in ball point pen, on a crossword art exhibhit…. I would think, they should have given her a prize for being 91 yrs old, and still retaining all her faculties, to even try to solve a crossword. I know I will not survive to 91, fer sure, and if so, I will probably be demented.

    have a nice day, all.

  2. Finished but not before getting tripped up in the midwest. I had peas before TEAS (green or black eyed?) which gave me caper for 25D “fare for an affair” which made no sense. I eventually figured it all out.

    Wow a Flipper and a BOZO reference in the same write up. Now whenever I hear Bozo, I think of George Costanza incensed by a clown at a kids party who didn’t know who Bozo was.

    I also like the reference to the Cubs’ 108 years of futility although I fear that might come to an end this year. The late great Jack Brickhouse (Cubs announcer for 35 years) had the best quote of all saying that “any team can have a bad century”. He’s also the one when discussing the Cardinals’ Enos Slaughter said that he proved his courage by getting married 4 times….

    Carrie – NOW is it Friday?

    Best-

  3. 13:15, no errors, iPad. Pretty straightforward, but I was held up for a bit by FUEGO; I was missing the first two letters and had never heard of “en fuego” as a sports term. When I finally thought of the phrase, I realized what it meant in Spanish and decided it fit, so I put it in and then got FEAST (which really should have occurred to me first) and CUBS (another entry that did not come readily to my sports-challenged mind).

    For the second day in a row, the app on the LAT site was no longer skipping filled squares. After finishing today’s puzzle, I re-did Monday’s and used it to figure out how to reset the skip feature in the menu, but I’m now wondering if I’ll have to reset it every day to get the app to work the way it used to work by default. We’ll see. (I sense a marketing ploy aimed at annoying me enough to get me to subscribe to the LA Times … 🙂 )

  4. INTERMEDIATE CAR just does not ring a bell.
    Never heard the phrase.
    Mid-size?
    Dunno. Anyway, finished with no errors.
    @Carrie, I see you are still Carolynhost.
    Any luck changing it?

  5. @David — Me too, on EN FUEGO. Another WOE (What On Earth?) for me was 27D (Savory taste = UMAMI … say whut?). Pretty fair puz for a Wednesday, Mr. Huget.

  6. For a while I was en fuego on this puzzle, but really needed the theme to fill in some difficult blanks. Good puzzle overall.

    When you rent a car at Avis or Hertz they have an intermediate car category. That will usually be a sedan, but not always 🙂

  7. Breezed through this pretty quickly, but UMAMI and SURETE caused some reflection.

    I vaguely recall umami in some sort of context, so hopefully I will remember when it comes up again. Thanks for the interesting explanation Bill. Surete adds to my growing French vocabulary.

  8. Hi folks! Night Watch checking in!
    Good puzzle, tho I also had IBID first — thanks for breaking that down, Vidwan! I went with ODIN because it sounded right. Never knew the legend, but I’ve heard that name.
    This puzzle took me longer than it should have, and not for any good reason: I’m trying to write SMALLER so that I don’t write over the numbers, which I always do, and which leaves me confused. Puzzle is finished but looks like someone else did it.
    Fun times.
    Jeff, no sorry, but take heart: by the time you read this it WILL be Friday in Beijing….?
    And, re: BOZO and George Costanza — so funny that that clown’s name was Eric. Eric the Clown! BTW, Eric was portrayed by Jon Favreau — an early role.
    Hey Pookie! Thanks for asking! Carolynhost is a name I chose on a different site, because I am an Airbnb host. Not sure how it ended up on my gravatar profile tho–the only place I use that is an Airbnb hosting blog I write, so somehow the two sites are connected?! The problem was that, when clicking on my name, I end up somewhere with a photo of a strange woman. I must check to see if she’s still there. It’s all very mysterious…?
    And we’re coming up on the heart of the order!! Heavy hitters, as puzzles go. Hope to bat 1000.
    Sweet dreams~~™?

  9. It helped that I got KISSED AND MADE UP right away, and by the time I got to the reveal, I could already see all the SEDANs in the theme answers.

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