LA Times Crossword Answers 17 Oct 2017, Tuesday

Constructed by: Agnes Davidson & C.C. Burnikel

Edited by: Rich Norris

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Theme: Fair Shake

Today’s themed answers each contained a string of circled letters. Those letters are FAIR, but they’ve been mixed up, SHAKEN:

• 63A. Equitable treatment … and what’s literally found in each set of circles : FAIR SHAKE

• 17A. Leg-strengthening exercise : CALF RAISE
• 35A. Aviator’s military branch : AIR FORCE
• 42A. Altercation broken up by bouncers : BAR FIGHT
• 11D. Big eater’s fast-food request, maybe : EXTRA FRIES
• 27D. Get the wood-burning stove going : START A FIRE

Bill’s time: 4m 51s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Theater accessory : PROP

We use the term “props” for objects that are used by actors on stage during a play. The term is a shortening of the older term “properties”, which was used with the same meaning up through the 19th century.

5. Home of the Pac-12’s Bruins : UCLA

The UCLA Bruins’ mascots are Joe and Josephine Bruin, characters that have evolved over the years. There used to be “mean” Bruin mascots but they weren’t very popular with the fans, so now there are only “happy” Bruin mascots at the games.

15. Chunk of bacon : SLAB

“Bacon” is an Old French word that we imported into English. The term ultimately comes from the Proto-Germanic “bakkon” meaning “back meat”.

20. “Austin Powers” genre : SPY-FI

The character Austin Powers was created by the actor who plays him, namely Mike Myers. Apparently Myers came up with the idea for Powers while listening to the Burt Bacharach song “The Look of Love”.

22. Retired Yankee Jeter : DEREK

Derek Jeter played his entire professional baseball career with the New York Yankees, and was the team’s captain. Jeter is the all-time career leader for the Yankees in hits, games played, stolen bases and at bats. He is also the all-time leader in hits by a shortstop in the whole of professional baseball. Jeter’s performances in the postseason earned him the nicknames “Captain Clutch” and “Mr. November”. Jeter retired from the game in 2014.

25. Supermodel Banks : TYRA

Tyra Banks is a tremendously successful model and businesswoman. Banks created and hosted the hit show “America’s Next Top Model “, and also had her own talk show. She was also the first African American woman to make the cover of the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue. Banks took over as host of “America’s Got Talent” in 2017.

26. Silent speech syst. : ASL

It’s really quite unfortunate that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are very different, and someone who has learned to sign in one cannot understand someone signing in the other.

28. Pig Latin rejection : IXNAY

Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So, the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ixnay” (ix-n-ay), and for “scram” is “amscray” (am-scr-ay).

30. Advanced lit. degrees : MFAS

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

37. Actress Peeples : NIA

Actress Nia Peeples played the character Nicole Chapman in the TV series “Fame”. Peeples is also a successful singer, having released the 1988 song “Trouble” that made it to #35 in the Billboard charts.

47. Penny-__: trivial : ANTE

Penny Ante poker is a game in which bets are limited to a penny, or some other small, friendly sum. The expression “penny-ante” has come to describe any business transaction that is on a small scale.

50. Madrid mama bear : OSA

Madrid is the largest city in Spain and the capital. Madrid is located very close to the geographical center of the country. It is the third-largest city in the European Union (after London and Paris). People from Madrid called themselves Madrileños.

53. Penne or ziti : PASTA

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”.

58. Golden Arches pork sandwich : MCRIB

The McDonald’s McRib sandwich is based on a pork patty. There isn’t any pork rib in the patty though. It is primarily made up of pork shoulder meat reconstituted with tripe, heart and stomach tissue. Enjoy …

69. Country’s Lovett : LYLE

As well as being famous in his own right as a successful country singer, Lyle Lovett is known for his marriage to the actress Julia Roberts in 1993. The pair had a whirlwind romance lasting just three weeks before they eloped and were wed. The marriage was also relatively whirlwind, lasting less than two years.

Down

1. USMC one-stripers : PFCS

Private First Class (PFC)

2. “As ye sow, so shall ye __” : REAP

The commonly quoted line “As ye sow, so shall ye reap” is not actually a direct quote from the Bible, although the sentiment is expressed there at least twice. In the Book of Job is the line “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same”. In the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians is the line “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.

4. Email attachment format : PDF FILE

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993. PDF documents can be shared between users and read using many different applications, making them more universally accessible than documents saved by one particular program.

5. Country with an eagle on its Great Seal: Abbr. : USA

The Great Seal of the United States is a device used to authenticate some US federal documents. The obverse (front) of the Great Seal is used as the coat of arms of the US, a design that can seen on all American passports.

7. Layered noodle dish : LASAGNA

Lasagna was originally the name of a cooking pot, but it came to mean a dish that was cooked in it. Lasagna also became the name of the flat noodle used in the dish. If you order lasagna on the other side of the Atlantic, you’ll notice the “lasagne” spelling, the plural of “lasagna”. The plural is used as there is more than one layer of pasta in the dish.

10. Sicily’s capital : PALERMO

Palermo is the capital of the Italian autonomous region of Sicily. Palermo was founded by the Phoenicians over 2700 years ago.

13. Mt. Rushmore’s state : SDAK

The four presidents whose faces are carved in the granite face of Mount Rushmore are (from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Each of the presidents is about 60 feet in height, although they might have been larger. The original intent was for the presidents to be depicted from head to waist, but the project lost funding.

26. From Laos, e.g. : ASIAN

The official name for the country of Laos is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao”. The French ruled Laos as part of French Indochina, having united three separate Lao kingdoms. As there was a plural of “Lao” entities united into one, the French added the “S” and so today we tend to use “Laos” instead of “Lao”.

31. Capital of Ghana : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

34. Woodcutter Baba : ALI

There is some controversy about the story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” in that it has been suggested it was not part of the original collection of Arabic tales called “One Thousand and One Nights”. The suggestion is that the Ali Baba tale was added by one of the European translators of the collection.

36. J. Edgar Hoover Building org. : FBI

The J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. is the headquarters of the FBI. FBI Director Hoover passed away May 2nd, 1972. The very next day, the US Senate passed a resolution requesting that the building, which was still under construction, be named for Hoover. The J. Edgar Hoover Building was inaugurated in 1975.

37. Pro hoops gp. : NBA

National Basketball Association (NBA)

39. Global shipping company : DHL

Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn).

43. Sharpie feature : FELT TIP

Sharpie is a brand of marker pen that has been on sale since 1964.

44. Horticultural art : TOPIARY

Topiary is the practice of training and clipping perennial plants into clearly defined shapes.

49. Spa beauty treatment : FACIAL

The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

54. Many corp. logos : TMS

Trademark (TM)

57. Giant in nonstick pans : T-FAL

Tefal (also “T-Fal”) is a French manufacturer of cookware, famous for its nonstick line. The name “Tefal” is a portmanteau, of TEFlon and ALuminum, the key materials used in producing their pots and pans.

60. Swedish furniture maker : IKEA

The IKEA furniture stores use the colors blue and yellow for brand recognition. Blue and yellow are the national colors of Sweden, where IKEA was founded and is headquartered.

64. Manhattan whiskey : RYE

The cocktail called a Manhattan is made from whiskey, sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters. I make my own version of a Brandy Manhattan, using brandy, sweet vermouth and orange bitters.

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1. Theater accessory : PROP

5. Home of the Pac-12’s Bruins : UCLA

9. Ejects, as lava : SPEWS

14. Deflect, with “off” : FEND

15. Chunk of bacon : SLAB

16. Like most income : TAXED

17. Leg-strengthening exercise : CALF RAISE

19. Prefix with violet : ULTRA-

20. “Austin Powers” genre : SPY-FI

21. Bath rug : MAT

22. Retired Yankee Jeter : DEREK

23. Suitcase tie-on : ID TAG

25. Supermodel Banks : TYRA

26. Silent speech syst. : ASL

28. Pig Latin rejection : IXNAY

30. Advanced lit. degrees : MFAS

33. Something to blow off or let off : STEAM

35. Aviator’s military branch : AIR FORCE

37. Actress Peeples : NIA

38. Spearheaded : LED

40. Pat softly : DAB

41. Party host’s bucketful : ICE

42. Altercation broken up by bouncers : BAR FIGHT

45. More likely to be on Santa’s good list : NICER

47. Penny-__: trivial : ANTE

48. In flight : ALOFT

50. Madrid mama bear : OSA

51. Swim __: do one full pool circuit : A LAP

53. Penne or ziti : PASTA

55. Rapids runners : RAFTS

57. Nervous mannerism : TIC

58. Golden Arches pork sandwich : MCRIB

62. Self-storage rentals : UNITS

63. Equitable treatment … and what’s literally found in each set of circles : FAIR SHAKE

65. Creepy : EERIE

66. Like __ of sunshine : A RAY

67. All square : EVEN

68. Cleaned with a broom : SWEPT

69. Country’s Lovett : LYLE

70. Pants rear : SEAT

Down

1. USMC one-stripers : PFCS

2. “As ye sow, so shall ye __” : REAP

3. Sole : ONLY

4. Email attachment format : PDF FILE

5. Country with an eagle on its Great Seal: Abbr. : USA

6. Story’s high point : CLIMAX

7. Layered noodle dish : LASAGNA

8. Distract the security guards for, say : ABET

9. Book-lined room : STUDY

10. Sicily’s capital : PALERMO

11. Big eater’s fast-food request, maybe : EXTRA FRIES

12. Used to be : WERE

13. Mt. Rushmore’s state : SDAK

18. Free (of) : RID

24. Interval : TIME GAP

25. Ruthless rulers : TYRANTS

26. From Laos, e.g. : ASIAN

27. Get the wood-burning stove going : START A FIRE

29. Help out : AID

31. Capital of Ghana : ACCRA

32. Observe : SEE

34. Woodcutter Baba : ALI

36. J. Edgar Hoover Building org. : FBI

37. Pro hoops gp. : NBA

39. Global shipping company : DHL

43. Sharpie feature : FELT TIP

44. Horticultural art : TOPIARY

46. Athletic instructors : COACHES

49. Spa beauty treatment : FACIAL

52. Valuable holding : ASSET

54. Many corp. logos : TMS

55. Regrets : RUES

56. Once again : ANEW

57. Giant in nonstick pans : T-FAL

59. “Don’t miss it” review : RAVE

60. Swedish furniture maker : IKEA

61. Like knees when squatting : BENT

64. Manhattan whiskey : RYE

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