LA Times Crossword Answers 14 Apr 17, Friday

Constructed by: Mark McClain

Edited by: Rich Norris

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

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Theme: Nope

Each of today’s themed answers is a common phrase with the letters PE removed, with “NO PE”.

• 66A. Casual refusal … and, another way, a hint to this puzzle’s four longest answers : NOPE (or “NO PE”)

• 17A. Insensitive zealot? : CAD CRUSADER (from “Caped Crusader”)
• 56A. Reprobate’s regular expense? : SINNER’S RENT (from “sinners, repent!”)
• 10D. Golf course equipment of the future? : FLYING CARTS (from “flying carpets”)
• 25D. What many golfers regularly engage in? : THE PAR CHASE (from “The Paper Chase”)

Bill’s time: 8m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

10. Groovy : FAB

The term “groovy” meaning “neat, cool” comes from the jazz slang phrase “in the groove”.

13. “The Quiet Man” co-star : O’HARA

The beautiful and talented Maureen O’Hara is an Irish actress, famous for her films made with fellow actor John Wayne and the director John Ford. Soon after color films hit the theaters, O’Hara earned the nickname “Queen of Technicolor”. This was because the combination of her vivid red hair and bright green eyes showed off the new technology to full advantage. O’Hara was born in a suburb of Dublin called Ranelagh, indeed where many of my own ancestors were born …

“The Quiet Man” is a marvelous romantic comedy set in Ireland from 1952 that was directed by John Ford and stars John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara as the romantic leads. There’s a great fight-scene in this movie that is only rivaled, in my mind, by the fight scene in “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. Both go on a while, and both are hilarious …

16. Mauna __ : LOA

Mauna Loa on the “big island” of Hawaii is the largest volcano on the planet (in terms of volume). The name “Mauna Loa” is Hawaiian for “Long Mountain”.

17. Insensitive zealot? : CAD CRUSADER (from “Caped Crusader”)

Batman is sometimes referred to as the Caped Crusader, Robin as the Boy Wonder, and the pair as the Dynamic Duo.

20. Asian capital : HANOI

Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam, and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is located in the delta of the Red River, and is just over 50 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea.

21. Where Gauguin painted “Woman With a Flower” : TAHITI

Paul Gauguin was a French artist in the Post-Impressionist period. Gauguin was a great friend of Vincent van Gogh, and indeed was staying with him in Arles when van Gogh famously cut off his own ear. Equally famously, Gauguin “fled” to Tahiti in 1891 to escape the conventions of European life. He painted some of his most famous works on the island. After ten years living on Tahiti, Gauguin relocated to the Marquesas Islands, where he passed away in 1903.

26. Eye parts : RETINAS

The retina is the tissue that lines the inside of the eye, the tissue that is light-sensitive. There are (mainly) two types of cell in the retina that are sensitive to light, one called rods and the other cones. Rods are cells that best function in very dim light and only provide black-and-white vision. Cones on the other hand function in brighter light and can perceive color.

27. Gung-ho : RAH-RAH

Kung ho is a Chinese expression meaning “work together, cooperate”. The anglicized version “gung ho” was adopted by a Major Evans Carlson as an expression of combined spirit for his 2nd Marine Raider Battalion during WWII. From there the term spread throughout the Marine Corps and back to America where it persists to this day.

30. Like Mandarin Chinese, linguistically : TONAL

Mandarin Chinese is a group of dialects that are spoken across northern and southwestern China. If Mandarin is considered as one language, then it has more native speakers than any other language on the planet.

32. ’80s-’90s slugger Fielder : CECIL

Cecil Fielder is a retired baseball player who played from 1985 to 1998, and who was known as a power hitter. Cecil is the father of first baseman Prince Fielder. Cecil and Prince are the only father-son combination each to have hit 50 home runs in a season of Major League Baseball.

35. Popular wine region : NAPA

The first commercial winery in Napa Valley, California was established way back in 1858. However, premium wine production only dates back to the 1960s, with the region really hitting the big time after its success at the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. The story of that famous blind wine tasting is told in the entertaining 2008 film “Bottle Shock”.

37. Summer Triangle twinkler : DENEB

Deneb is the brightest star in the constellation called Cygnus, the Swan. The name “Deneb” comes from the Arabic word “dhaneb” meaning “tail”, as it lies at the tail of the swan.

The Summer Triangle is the name given to a pattern of stars seen in the northern hemisphere. It is so named as it sits almost directly overhead at midnight in most northern latitudes. The points of the triangle are the bright stars Altair, Deneb and Vega.

44. Rotation meas. : RPM

Revolutions per minute (rpm)

51. Sad, on the Seine : TRISTE

The Seine is the river that flows through Paris. The Seine empties into the English Channel to the north, at the port city of Le Havre.

52. Sweater wool : MOHAIR

The Angora goat produces the wool known as mohair. On the other hand, Angora wool comes from the Angora rabbit. Both rabbit and goat are named for Turkey’s capital Ankara, which was known as “Angora” in many European languages.

53. Rodeo critter : STEER

A steer is a male bovine that was castrated when young and is then raised for beef. The term comes from the Old English “steor” meaning “bullock”.

55. Item under a top : BRA

The word “brassière” is French in origin, but it isn’t the word the French use for a “bra”. In France, what we call a bra is known as a “soutien-gorge”, translating to “held under the neck”. The word “brassière” is indeed used in France but there it describes a baby’s undershirt, a lifebelt or a harness. “Brassière” comes from the Old French word for an “arm protector” in a military uniform (“bras” is the French for “arm”). Later “brassière” came to mean “breastplate” and from there the word was used for a type of woman’s corset. The word jumped into English around 1900.

56. Reprobate’s regular expense? : SINNER’S RENT (from “sinners, repent!”)

A reprobate is a depraved or unprincipled person, and in particular is a lost soul, one rejected by God.

61. Funny pair? : ENS

There’s a pair of letters N (ens) in the word “funny”.

62. Like Mexico’s Pyramid of the Magician : MAYAN

The Maya civilization held sway in Central America and Mexico from about 350 AD, until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s.

The Pyramid of the Magician is a step pyramid that is the central structure in the Maya ruin complex of Uxmal on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

63. Part of UTEP : TEXAS

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was founded in 1914, and was originally named the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. To this day, there is a mine shaft on the campus. The mascot of the school’s sports teams is Paydirt Pete, a prospector from the mining industry. The teams are also known as the UTEP Miners and Lady Miners.

64. Whiskey option : RYE

For whiskey to be labelled as “rye” in the US, it has to be distilled from at least 51% rye grain. In Canada however, a drink called rye whiskey sometimes contains no rye at all.

Down

1. Bashful comrade? : DOC

In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale called “Snow White”, the seven dwarfs were not given any names. The names were added for the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The seven dwarfs are:

• Doc (the leader of the group)
• Grumpy (that would be me, according to my wife …)
• Happy
• Sleepy
• Bashful
• Sneezy
• Dopey

3. 1860s White House boy : TAD

Tad Lincoln was the youngest son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. The child was named Thomas Lincoln III after his paternal grandfather, but was soon christened “Tad” by his father as he “wiggled like a tadpole” when he was very young. Tad was born with a cleft lip and palate, which led to speech problems and difficulties chewing. On the fateful night that his parents went to see “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre, Tad was taken to nearby Grover’s Theatre (now the National Theatre) to see “Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”. Tad heard the news of his father’s assassination from the theatre manager, like all the other patrons. The distraught 12-year-old ran around the theater screaming “They killed Papa! They killed Papa!” Tad himself passed away just six years later due to heart or lung problems.

4. Tell, memorably : ARCHER

Supposedly, William Tell came from Uri, a canton in the German part of Switzerland. Altdorf is the capital of Uri and is the city where William Tell shot the apple off his son’s head, at least according to legend.

5. Part of UTEP : PASO

Although there have been human settlements in the El Paso area for thousands of years, the first European settlement was founded in 1659 by the Spanish. That first community was on the south bank of the Rio Grande, and was called El Paso del Norte (the North Pass). Most of the urban development under Spanish rule took place on the south side of the river, with El Paso del Norte acting as the center of governance for the Spanish for the territory of New Mexico. The Rio Grande was chosen as the border between Mexico and the US in 1848, so most of the city of El Paso del Norte became part of the Mexican state of Chihuahua (and is now called Ciudad Juarez). The area north of the river developed as a US military post, eventually becoming the modern city of El Paso, Texas.

6. Fronton game word : ALAI

A fronton is an open-walled playing area used for the sport of jai alai. Although most frontons in the US can be found in Florida, where the sport is most popular, the first jai alai fronton the country was located in St. Louis. It opened there around the time of 1904 World’s Fair.

7. Kind of deviation: Abbr. : STD

In the world of statistics, the standard deviation (std. dev.) is a measure of how closely data points are clustered around the mean value. A low standard deviation indicates a relatively tight distribution. A standard deviation is usually represented by the Greek letter sigma in lower case.

10. Golf course equipment of the future? : FLYING CARTS (from “flying carpets”)

The magical flying carpet is a mode of transportation in one of the stories in “One Thousand and One Nights”.

11. Big artery : AORTA

The aorta originates in the heart and extends down into the abdomen. It is the largest artery in the body.

14. Genesis mount : ARARAT

Mount Ararat is in Turkey. Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcano with two peaks. The higher of the two, Greater Ararat, is the tallest peak in the country. Ararat takes its name from a legendary Armenian hero called Ara the Beautiful (or Ara the Handsome). According to the Book of Genesis, Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat as the Great Flood subsided.

22. Duncan of baking fame : HINES

Duncan Hines was a restaurant critic from Bowling Green, Kentucky. HInes had been working for many years as a traveling salesman and pulled together a list of ratings for restaurants that he visited all across the country, initially as a resource for friends. He later published the list in book form, thereby finding his true calling. Some years later, Hines sold the rights to use his name on food-related businesses, which is how we ended up with the Duncan Hines brand.

24. Clay-court legend : NADAL

Rafael “Rafa” Nadal is a Spanish tennis player, noted for his expertise on clay courts, earning him the nickname “The King of Clay”.

25. What many golfers regularly engage in? : THE PAR CHASE (from “The Paper Chase”)

“The Paper Chase” is a 1973 film that led to a very enjoyable spinoff TV series of the same name that ran in the seventies and eighties. The film is based on a 1970 novel, also called “The Paper Chase”, by John Jay Osborn, Jr. The actor John Houseman does a marvelous job playing an intimidating professor teaching first-year law students at Harvard, both in the film and in television series.

28. Reel, for one : DANCE

The reel is a Scottish country dance that is also extremely popular in Ireland.

31. Fledgling launching spots : NESTS

A young bird is said to have “fledged” when its wing muscles and feathers have developed enough for it to fly. The term “fledgling” is used for a bird that has fledged, but is still reliant on a parent for food and protection. The verb “to fledge” means “to acquire feathers”.

46. Ham’s accessory : AERIAL

We tend to use the term “aerial” and “antenna” interchangeably. Strictly speaking, the aerial is the top part of an antenna. The lead-in is the lower part of the antenna, the part providing the electrical connection between the aerial and the instrument, radio or TV.

Amateur radio enthusiasts were originally called “ham operators” by professional telegraph operators, and the term was intended to be insulting. It came from the similar term “ham actor”, describing a person who is less than effective on the stage. But amateur operators eventually embraced the moniker, and so it stuck.

48. “The Queen” (2006) star : MIRREN

Helen Mirren, one of my favorite English actresses, has played three different queens on film and television. She played Queen Elizabeth II on the 2006 film “The Queen”, the title role in the TV drama “Elizabeth I”, and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of the title character in the 1994 film “The Madness of King George”. Mirren won the “Triple Crown of Acting” for playing:

• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen” (winning Best Actress Oscar)
• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Audience” (winning Best Actress in a Play Tony)
• Detective Jane Tennison in “Prime Suspect” (winning Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy)

49. Color in “America the Beautiful” : AMBER

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

When she was 33 years old, Katharine Lee Bates took a train ride from Massachusetts to Colorado Springs. She was so inspired by many of the beautiful sights she saw on her journey that she wrote a poem she called “Pikes Peak”. Upon publication the poem became quite a hit, and several musical works were adapted to the words of the poem, the most popular being a hymn tune composed by Samuel Ward. Bates’s poem and Ward’s tune were published together for the first time in 1910, and given the title “America the Beautiful”.

57. Actress Carrie who was married to Dick Cavett : NYE

Carrie Nye was primarily a stage actress. She was married to the TV talk show host Dick Cavett, whom she met at the Yale School of Drama.

Dick Cavett is best known as a talk show host, one with a wonderful sense of humor. He had a long career on TV, appearing regularly from the 1960s through the 2000s. Cavett is also famous for making up anagrams from the celebrity names. Examples are “genuine class” for Alec Guinness and “grow a spine” (that’s the polite version!) for Spiro Agnew.

58. Skeletal opening? : EXO-

An animal with an endoskeleton has a supporting skeleton inside its body. So, we humans have an endoskeleton. A turtle, on the other hand, has both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton, its outer shell.

59. Toddler’s downtime : NAP

And mine, and I’m no toddler …

60. Japanese market letters : TSE

The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) is the third largest stock exchange in the world, after New York and London.

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1. Tablet input : DATA

5. Stick (on) : PASTE

10. Groovy : FAB

13. “The Quiet Man” co-star : O’HARA

15. Take in, maybe : ALTER

16. Mauna __ : LOA

17. Insensitive zealot? : CAD CRUSADER (from “Caped Crusader”)

19. Wine bottle figs. : YRS

20. Asian capital : HANOI

21. Where Gauguin painted “Woman With a Flower” : TAHITI

23. Lays to rest : INTERS

26. Eye parts : RETINAS

27. Gung-ho : RAH-RAH

28. Concurrent with : DURING

29. Poetic praise : ODE

30. Like Mandarin Chinese, linguistically : TONAL

32. ’80s-’90s slugger Fielder : CECIL

35. Popular wine region : NAPA

37. Summer Triangle twinkler : DENEB

39. All there : SANE

40. View : SLANT

42. Get rid of : SCRAP

44. Rotation meas. : RPM

45. Downgrade, maybe : RERATE

47. Tot’s indigestion area : TUM TUM

49. Grows periodically : ACCRUES

51. Sad, on the Seine : TRISTE

52. Sweater wool : MOHAIR

53. Rodeo critter : STEER

55. Item under a top : BRA

56. Reprobate’s regular expense? : SINNER’S RENT (from “sinners, repent!”)

61. Funny pair? : ENS

62. Like Mexico’s Pyramid of the Magician : MAYAN

63. Part of UTEP : TEXAS

64. Whiskey option : RYE

65. Rested : SLEPT

66. Casual refusal … and, another way, a hint to this puzzle’s four longest answers : NOPE (or “NO PE”)

Down

1. Bashful comrade? : DOC

2. “I thought so!” : AHA!

3. 1860s White House boy : TAD

4. Tell, memorably : ARCHER

5. Part of UTEP : PASO

6. Fronton game word : ALAI

7. Kind of deviation: Abbr. : STD

8. Wobble : TEETER

9. Unpredictable : ERRATIC

10. Golf course equipment of the future? : FLYING CARTS (from “flying carpets”)

11. Big artery : AORTA

12. Rationale : BASIS

14. Genesis mount : ARARAT

18. Like wild horses : UNSHOD

22. Duncan of baking fame : HINES

23. Shackles : IRONS

24. Clay-court legend : NADAL

25. What many golfers regularly engage in? : THE PAR CHASE (from “The Paper Chase”)

26. Yardstick : RULER

28. Reel, for one : DANCE

31. Fledgling launching spots : NESTS

33. Feedback : INPUT

34. “I wanna try!” : LEMME!

36. End of __ : AN ERA

38. Frying preparation : BATTER

41. Self-evident actualities : TRUISMS

43. Least spoiled : PUREST

46. Ham’s accessory : AERIAL

48. “The Queen” (2006) star : MIRREN

49. Color in “America the Beautiful” : AMBER

50. Like many bar jokes : CORNY

53. Blow a fuse : SNAP

54. Canvas shelter : TENT

57. Actress Carrie who was married to Dick Cavett : NYE

58. Skeletal opening? : EXO-

59. Toddler’s downtime : NAP

60. Japanese market letters : TSE

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