LA Times Crossword Answers 7 Jan 17, Saturday




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Constructed by: David Steinberg

Edited by: Rich Norris

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

Quicklink to comments

Theme: None

Bill’s time: 18m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

8. Scary high : BAD TRIP

That would be a bad trip resulting from taking drugs.

15. Facebook co-founder Saverin : EDUARDO

Eduardo Saverin was one of the founders of Facebook, and someone who worked alongside Mark Zuckerberg while the pair were studying at Harvard. As was emphasized in the 2010 film “The Social Network”, Zuckerberg treated Saverin pretty badly, diluting his partner’s holding in the company. Facebook settled a resulting lawsuit with Saverin, so he still did okay financially, but lost out on the really big bucks. Savarin is from São Paulo, Brazil and became a US citizen in 1998. After his controversial exit from Facebook, Savarin moved to Singapore. He renounced his US citizenship in 2011, in a move viewed by many as a tactic designed to avoid payment of an estimated $700 million in capital gains taxes.

17. Soccer blunder : OWN GOAL

Soccer (also known as “association football”) is the most popular sport in the world. The term “association football” was introduced in 1863 in England, with the name chosen to distinguish the sport from rugby football. The term “soccer” started to appear about 20 years later in Oxford, as an abbreviation for “association”.

18. Arabian matchmaker : BREEDER

The Arab (also “Arabian”) breed of horse takes its name from its original home, the Arabian Peninsula. Like any animal that humans have over-bred, the horse falls prey to genetic diseases, some of which are fatal and some of which require the horse to be euthanized.

19. Site of many ’60s tours : NAM

By some definitions, the official involvement of Americans in the Vietnam War started in 1955. At that time, President Eisenhower deployed a Military Assistance Advisory Group to assist in the training of the South Vietnamese Army. American involvement in the conflict officially ended in 1973 with the signing of an agreement that came out of the Paris Peace Accords.

22. MPG-estimating org. : EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) routinely estimates the expected miles per gallon (mpg) for vehicles.

23. Kiddie lit count : OLAF

Count Olaf is the main antagonist in “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, the collection of children’s novels penned by Lemony Snicket (the pen name of Diane Handler).

26. Eponymous 18th-century wine trader Claude : MOET

Moët & Chandon is a French winery, one of the world’s largest producers of champagne. The company was founded by wine trader Claude Moët in 1743. The name was changed to Moët & Chandon in the 1830s when Pierre-Gabriel Chandon, an in-law to the Moët family, was given co-ownership. Moët & Chandon owns the famous Dom Pérignon brand name, honoring the Benedictine monk who did so much to improve the quality of champagne.

27. Story featuring Paris : ILIAD

“The Iliad” is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, which tells the story of the ten-year siege of Ilium (also known as Troy) during the Trojan war. “The Odyssey”, also attributed to Homer, is sometimes described as a sequel to “The Iliad”.

In Greek mythology, Paris was a son of Priam and Hecuba, the king and queen of Troy. Paris is famous for eloping with Helen, Queen of Sparta, and hence precipitating the Trojan War. Paris also killed the Greek hero Achilles by shooting him in the heel with an arrow.

29. Govt. agency with domestic field divisions in 15 states : DEA

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

30. Pacific island overrun by wild chickens : KAUAI

Because the Hawaiian island of Kauai is one of the wettest places on earth, all the rainfall has helped to carve out magnificent canyons and left superb waterfalls. The island is often used as a backdrop for movies. The facilities at the island’s Lihue Airport reflect the pleasant climate enjoyed by the Hawaiian Islands. Check-in takes place completely outdoors!

31. Original “SNL” cast member : RADNER

Gilda Radner was a comedian and actress, and one of the original cast members of the hit television show “Saturday Night Live”. Radner left her first husband to marry comedic actor Gene Wilder, whom she met while they were both filming the Sidney Poitier movie “Hanky Panky”.

33. Godfather cocktail ingredient : AMARETTO

The cocktail known as the Godfather is mixture of equal parts Scotch whiskey and amaretto, usually served over ice. Variants of the Godfather are the Godmother (using vodka instead of whiskey) and the French Connection (using cognac instead of whiskey).

37. Wally who played himself in the “Taxi” episode “Latka’s Cookies” : AMOS

Wally Amos was a talent agent, one who was in the habit of taking home-baked cookies with him as an enticement to get celebrities to see him. He was urged by friends to open a cookie store (the cookies were that delicious, I guess) and this he did in Los Angeles in 1975 using the name “Famous Amos”. The store was a smash hit and he was able build on the success by introducing his cookies into supermarkets. The brand was eventually bought up making Wally a rich man, and Famous Amos cookies are still flying off the shelf. Wally Amos also became an energetic literacy advocate. He hosted 30 TV programs in 1987 entitled “Learn to Read” that provided reading instruction targeted at adults.

Latka Gravas is one of the most popular characters in the TV sitcom “Taxi” that aired in the late seventies and early eighties. Latka was played by the controversial comic actor Andy Kaufman. The producers of “Taxi” had the character written around a persona that Kaufman was using in his stand-up routines called “Foreign Man”.

38. Wine drink : SPRITZER

A “spritz” is a squirt, a brief spray of liquid. The term ultimately comes from German, possibly via Yiddish, in which language “spritzen” means “to squirt, spout”. A “spritzer” is a glass of wine with a “spritz” of carbonated water, and is a drink we’ve been enjoying since the early sixties.

47. Wite-Out maker : BIC

Wite-Out is a brand of correction fluid made by BIC.

Société Bic is a French company, based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.

51. Inexpensive vodka : POPOV

Popov vodka is is produced in America by the British company Diageo. Popov fills a niche in the low end of the vodka market. This American alcoholic drink is sometimes given the tongue-in-cheek nickname “Russia’s Finest”.

54. Draft letters : NFL

The National Football League (NFL) was founded in 1920 as the American Professional Association, with the current name being adopted into 1923. The NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970.

55. Acid test supply : PH PAPER

Litmus is a mixture of naturally-occurring dyes that responds to acidity by changing color. Litmus was probably first used around 1300 by the Spanish alchemist Arnaldus de Villa Nova, who extracted the blue dye from lichens. One suggestion is that the term “litmus” comes from the Old Norse “litmose” meaning “lichen for dyeing”. Litmus is often absorbed onto filter paper, creating “litmus paper” or “pH paper”.

60. First name in dognapping : CRUELLA

Cruella de Vil is the villain in the 1956 novel “The Hundred and One Dalmatians” written by Dodie Smith. Most famously perhaps, Cruella was played so ably by Glenn Close in the Disney movie adaption “101 Dalmatians”, released in 1996.

64. Old Roman adviser : SENATOR

Our word “senate” comes from the Latin for such a body: “senatus”. In turn, “senatus” is derived from “senex” meaning “old man”, reflecting the original Roman Senate’s makeup as a “council of elders”.

65. Early arrivals : RED-EYES

A red-eye flight is one departing late at night and arriving early the next morning. The term is a reference to tired passengers disembarking with red eyes.

Down

1. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” genre : NEO-NOIR

A neo-noir film is a contemporary film that incorporates elements of the film noir style of the forties and fifties.

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is a 2011 film based on the hit novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. Rooney Mara plays the title character, a computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander. Daniel Craig also stars, playing journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The 2011 movie wasn’t the first big screen adaptation of the novel. A Swedish film with the same name was released in 2009.

2. “100% juice smoothie” brand : ODWALLA

Odwalla is a company in Half Moon Bay (just south of San Francisco) that sells fruit juices, smoothies and energy bars.

3. Raisin brand : SUN-MAID

The Sun-Maid brand of raisins belongs to a cooperative of raisin growers in California. The cooperative was founded in 1912, and the famous Sun-Maid girl shown on each container of raisins was actually a seeder and packer called Lorraine Collett who worked for one of the members of the cooperative.

5. Lover of Psyche : EROS

In the myth of Cupid (aka Eros) and Psyche, the two title characters must overcome many obstacles to fulfill their love for each other. Overcome them they do, and the pair marry and enjoy immortal love.

8. 2008 Poehler/Fey comedy : BABY MAMA

“Baby Mama” is a 2008 film starring Tina Fey as successful single businesswoman who hires a surrogate mother (played by Amy Poehler). “Baby mama” is a term used these days as an alternative to “single mother”.

10. Removed for a rules violation, briefly : DQED

Disqualified (DQed)

11. Day of the wk. : TUE

The name “Tuesday” comes from an Old English word that translates as “Tiw’s Day”. In turn, “Tiw” was the Old English name for the Norse god “Týr”. Týr was the Norse god of single combat, victory and heroic glory.

14. Investor’s concern, familiarly : P/E RATIO

The P/E (price-to-earnings) ratio of a stock is the stock’s price compared to the earnings of the company per share (EPS). The idea behind the P/E ratio is that a stock with a relatively low P/E is usually a good buy, an indicator that the stock price should rise on the strength of solid earnings.

24. Obsessive young devotee : FANGIRL

Fanboys (and fangirls) are fans, but fans of a very specific subject in a particular field. So, someone might be a fan of home computing, but an Intel fanboy would have an enthusiasm for CPUs made by Intel. A fanzine (also “zine”) is a fan publication with a very limited circulation, dealing with a very specific subject matter. Fanzines are usually desktop published and distributed electronically or as photocopies.

26. Baton holder : MAESTRO

“Maestro” is often used to address a musical conductor. “Maestro” (plural “maestri”) is the Italian word for “master, teacher”. The plural in English is usually “maestros”.

28. Benching targets, 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.

30. Greenland currency : KRONE

“Krone” translates into English as “crown”, and was the name given to coins that bore the image of the monarch in several countries. Today, the krone is the name given to the currency of Norway and of Denmark. Some of the Norwegian and Danish kroner have holes in the middle, giving them a “doughnut” or “torus” shape.

Greenland is the largest island on the planet. Geographically, Greenland is part of the continent of North America, but culturally and politically is considered part of Europe. The island became a Danish colony in 1815, and joined the European Economic Community (EEC) with Denmark. Greenland withdrew from the EEC after a referendum in 1983. Since 2009, Greenland has been relatively autonomous, with the Danish government retaining control of foreign affairs, defence and the judicial system.

32. Waitress in the comic strip “Shoe” : ROZ

“Shoe” is a comic strip drawn by Jeff MacNelly from 1977 until he passed away in 2000. The strip features a group of birds, all of whom work as newspapermen.

34. Doctors’ org. : AMA

American Medical Association (AMA)

36. Certain jazzman : BEBOPPER

The jazz term “bebop” probably came from “Arriba! Arriba!”, words of encouragement from Latin American bandleaders to their musicians.

40. Quiche shunner, in an ’80s best-seller : REAL MAN

Bruce Feirstein wrote the bestseller “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche”, published in 1982. The book’s main theme is the situation in which middle-class men found themselves in the eighties, after feminist attacks on traditional male roles in the seventies.

41. Longtime morning host : RIPA

When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting gig. Ripa has acted as spokeswoman for several brands over the years, most recently for Electrolux and Rykä.

43. CIA nickname : LANGLEY

The CIA headquarters is located in Langley, Virginia in a complex called the George Bush Center for Intelligence, named for former Director of the CIA and US President George H. W. Bush.

44. One-named “American Boy” singer : ESTELLE

Estelle is a singer-songwriter from London who hit the top of the charts with her song “American Boy” that featured Kanye West.

55. Start to fall? : PRAT-

“Prat” is a relatively new word for me, a slang term for the buttocks apparently. A “prat-fall” is when someone falls and lands on the buttocks.

61. Rebus animal : EWE

A rebus is a puzzle that uses pictures to represent letters and groups of letters. For example, a picture of a “ewe” might represent the letter “U” or the pronoun “you”.

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1. “Easy!” : NO SWEAT!

8. Scary high : BAD TRIP

15. Facebook co-founder Saverin : EDUARDO

16. Come by : ACQUIRE

17. Soccer blunder : OWN GOAL

18. Arabian matchmaker : BREEDER

19. Site of many ’60s tours : NAM

20. Spread out : SPLAYED

22. MPG-estimating org. : EPA

23. Kiddie lit count : OLAF

25. Provisions : TERMS

26. Eponymous 18th-century wine trader Claude : MOET

27. Story featuring Paris : ILIAD

29. Govt. agency with domestic field divisions in 15 states : DEA

30. Pacific island overrun by wild chickens : KAUAI

31. Original “SNL” cast member : RADNER

33. Godfather cocktail ingredient : AMARETTO

35. Lump : GLOB

37. Wally who played himself in the “Taxi” episode “Latka’s Cookies” : AMOS

38. Wine drink : SPRITZER

42. Forest weapon : ANTLER

46. Social group : PEERS

47. Wite-Out maker : BIC

49. Do away with : ERASE

50. __ health : ORAL

51. Inexpensive vodka : POPOV

53. Currently playing : ON TV

54. Draft letters : NFL

55. Acid test supply : PH PAPER

57. “Wow!” : GEE!

58. Colorful holiday candy : GUMDROP

60. First name in dognapping : CRUELLA

62. Stem (from) : EMANATE

63. Get gray gracefully : AGE WELL

64. Old Roman adviser : SENATOR

65. Early arrivals : RED-EYES

Down

1. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” genre : NEO-NOIR

2. “100% juice smoothie” brand : ODWALLA

3. Raisin brand : SUN-MAID

4. Reaction to a treat, maybe : WAG

5. Lover of Psyche : EROS

6. One way to cope : ADAPT

7. Sounded : TOLLED

8. 2008 Poehler/Fey comedy : BABY MAMA

9. Real estate measures : ACRES

10. Removed for a rules violation, briefly : DQED

11. Day of the wk. : TUE

12. Weather : RIDE OUT

13. Emphatic words : I REPEAT …

14. Investor’s concern, familiarly : P/E RATIO

21. Real estate measure : AREA

24. Obsessive young devotee : FANGIRL

26. Baton holder : MAESTRO

28. Benching targets, briefly : DELTS

30. Greenland currency : KRONE

32. Waitress in the comic strip “Shoe” : ROZ

34. Doctors’ org. : AMA

36. Certain jazzman : BEBOPPER

38. They hold water : SPONGES

39. Club attention-getter : PERFUME

40. Quiche shunner, in an ’80s best-seller : REAL MAN

41. Longtime morning host : RIPA

43. CIA nickname : LANGLEY

44. One-named “American Boy” singer : ESTELLE

45. Lets out : REVEALS

48. Wheels of justice? : COP CAR

51. A filter may be used to produce it : PHOTO

52. Edge : VERGE

55. Start to fall? : PRAT-

56. Regretted : RUED

59. Some trial evidence : DNA

61. Rebus animal : EWE

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9 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 7 Jan 17, Saturday”

  1. Hi all! As for puzzles (1/2-1/6), I ended up with a couple of errors on both Monday and Tuesday. Can’t say that was good. Times: 9, 16, 15, 21, and 21 minutes. I can’t say necessarily Friday was any easier than Thursday, but it felt easier, I suppose.

    Now if you go into NYT land, the Sat grid felt like it fell incredibly quickly, and felt to me like Tue or Wed level. Didn’t time it to know for certain (good excuse to start on new ones, period, I guess), but I may have to find another empty grid of that and actually time it later when I’ve had a chance to forget what some of the answers are.

    @Jeff
    Old NYT puzzles definitely feel like a stiffer challenge, every time I’ve done them. I guess for the pop culture getting old, but maybe they were harder. I’m not the one to make that assessment. Probably the only one that will be a certain regret is the one with 19 (!) black squares – haven’t done that one yet to be sure. The tri-puzzle one (crossword/word search/maze) was definitely “different”. As for the others, I really can’t say too much without spoiling answers.

  2. 27:22, no errors. I pretty much sailed through this one until I got to the lower left and then stalled out with several bad missteps that took a while to undo.

    @Glenn … Last night, I did three of the puzzles on the list you posted from Will Shortz. The Thursday puzzle took 14:59 and had a cute theme, but didn’t seem too difficult. The Friday puzzle, with only 19 black squares, took 22:53; it was intimidating, but not as difficult as I was afraid it might be. The oldest Sunday puzzle took 43:48 and was really not too bad, but it involved a 23×23 grid, which was difficult to deal with on my iPad Mini: the tip of my index finger was just too big relative to the squares of the grid. I’ll try the remaining Sunday puzzles as I get time. Thanks again for posting the list …

    BTW, today’s (Saturday’s) WSJ puzzle is worth looking at. It took me 39:40 (longer than usual), but it’s notable chiefly for its collection of deviously punny clues. There’s an anonymous poster on the NYT blog who would become apoplectic if he tried it, I think. (In fact, now that I think about it, I may suggest it to him/her 🙂 .) Go to

    http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/

    and look for the puzzle titled “Silent Treatment”. (You’ll probably get a pop-up wanting you to sign up for the WSJ, but it’s easy to bypass.)

    1. @Glenn … So Plan A was to go out for a long walk … but it’s still very cold out and my usual route is still covered with snow and I still have a bruised tendon on my left leg from earlier in the week, so I stayed inside and did the two remaining Sunday puzzles from Will’s list. The first, from 2003/02/09, was very pleasant, and I happened to remember the story of the artist whose work is commemorated by the puzzle, so it was pretty easy; I finished in 30:33, with no errors. The second, from 2005/03/13 (the tri-puzzle), took me longer (36:14), including the time required to find and fix one of those annoying typos that cause me to get the “Almost There” message. I then printed out a copy of it, did the required word search, tried to solve the maze … and decided that the rules for the maze are simply not precise enough: in order to come up with a satisfactory solution, I would have to simultaneously create an augmented set of rules to making the solution unique. So I got disgusted and quit. Maybe I’ll go back to it later … or maybe I’ll check out the “Wordplay” blog and see what others have had to say about it. BTW, the earliest puzzle available from the archive of the NYT app is from Sunday, 1993/11/21 (the first one Will edited, I think); I’ve done it and found it quite rewarding.

  3. Lots of stuff I didn’t know so had to give up: “own goal” “Amos” “popov” never heard of “Odwalla” and “Estelle”. Like sports clues, I never know the answers to current music clues because I tend to ignore both the music and the people producing the music.
    I didn’t know about Kauai. The roosters are beautiful.

  4. One error (which is really two mistakes since the word going down was wrong and the word going across was wrong) on 40 Down and 62 Across. I guessed “real men” and it was “real man” and “emanate” not, as I had it, with “e” in the middle of the “man” part of the word. D’oh! That’s what I get for complaining about Friday being too easy and basically telling the LA Times puzzle constructors to “Man Up!” Hey, don’t listen to me. What do I know? (grin)

  5. They seem to be back on track cause that was definitely harder than yesterday and Thursday. There were a some new things for me. I had to get help with neo-noir, even tho I read those books I didn’t know that term. Also, Odwalla was completely unknown to me.

    Thanks for the welcome back Jeff. 🙂

  6. Almost got this one, but ended up with problems in the NE. 11 errors after about 2hrs and I just had to get to other things. Very tough for me, but since almost nothing was filled in after the first pass, I ended up fairly respectably.

    Oh well…

  7. Hi folks!
    YAY! DONE AND DONE! I’m always so happy to complete a Saturday. This one surely didn’t come easily, and I had a lot of erasures before inking it all in.
    I am proud to say that I knew ODWALLA and EMBARRASSED to say that I knew POPOV. Healthful beverage and cheap vodka — hey! I’ve invented a cocktail! I’ll call it SMASH.
    Lots here that I didn’t know, tho — and there’s a cocktail for that too…?
    Hey folks, random question: do you know your typing speed? I sorta assumed mine was around 65 WPM….No such luck! Tested at 45 WPM!! Got a new keyboard with better action, and I improved to 50. Need practice!!
    Be well~~™??

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