LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Mar 2018, Friday

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Constructed by: David Alfred Bywaters
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Theme: Swiss

Themed answers are common phrases in which a starting “SW” is replaced by “S” (SW IS S):

• 71A. Deli cheese … or, in three parts, a hint to the five longest across puzzle answers : SWISS or SW IS S

• 17A. Ratting to the cops and carrying a tune? : SINGING BOTH WAYS (from “swinging both ways”)
• 24A. Dupe gatherings? : SAP MEETS (from “swap meets”)
• 39A. What rain may do to a bad toupee? : SEEP UNDER THE RUG (from “sweep under the rug”)
• 51A. Place to buy a chair? : SEAT SHOP (from “sweatshop”)
• 62A. Cowboy outfit? : SADDLING CLOTHES (from “swaddling clothes”)

Bill’s time: 10m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6. Taken out by Buffy? : SLAIN

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is a TV series that originally aired from 1997 to 2003. “Buffy …” was incredibly successful, especially given that it wasn’t aired on the one of the big four networks. The show was created by Joss Whedon and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role.

14. Lash LaRue’s “Frontier Revenge,” e.g. : OATER

The term “oater” that is used for a Western movie comes from the number of horses seen, as horses love oats!

Alfred LaRue was an actor who appeared in a series of eleven western movies in the forties and fifties, playing the character Marshal Lash LaRue. He was very adept with the bullwhip, and so earned the nickname “Lash”. Years after his onscreen career ended, LaRue was the guy who trained Harrison Ford how to use a bullwhip for his role in the “Indiana Jones” series of films.

15. Critical circulation aid : AORTA

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

20. Chem. class suffix : -IDE

In chemistry, when a metal combines with a nonmetal, the nonmetal is often given the suffix “-ide”. One example would be iron sulfide, made from iron (a metal) and sulfur (a nonmetal).

21. Buddy type : BOSOM

“Bosm” is an Old English word for “breast” that came into modern English as “bosom” meaning “breast, chest” without any association with either gender. It was only in the late fifties that the meaning narrowed to mean a woman’s breasts”. Terms like “bosom-friend” have been around since the late 16th century, and “bosom buddy” since the 1920s.

22. Scots Gaelic : ERSE

There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).

24. Dupe gatherings? : SAP MEETS (from “swap meets”)

“Sap” is slang for “fool, someone easily scammed”. The term arose in the early 1800s in Britain when it was used in “saphead” and “sapskull”. All these words derive from “sapwood”, which is the softwood found in tree trunks between the bark and the heartwood at the center.

31. National Grandparents’ Day mo. : SEPT

National Grandparents’ Day is celebrated in the US on the first Sunday after Labor Day. The first observance of the holiday took place in 1978.

36. RN workplace : ICU

A registered nurse (RN) might work in an intensive care unit (ICU).

46. Prince in “Frozen” : HANS

“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film is all about the exploits of Princess Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, Snow Queen of Arendelle. Spoiler alert: Prince Hans of the Southern Isles seems to be a good guy for most of the film, but turns out to be a baddie in the end.

56. Forearm part : ULNA

The bones in the forearm are the radius and ulna. “Ulna” is the Latin word for “elbow”, and “radius” is Latin for “ray”.

57. Last European colony in Asia : MACAO

Macau (also “Macao”) is an autonomous territory of China located on the Pearl River estuary about 40 miles west of Hong Kong. Macau was a Portuguese colony from the mid-1500s until 1999. It was in fact the first European colony in China, and the last, having been handed back to the Chinese in 1999, two years after Hong Kong was returned by the British. Macau’s economy is driven by tourism and gambling. The territory’s gaming revenue is the highest for any gambling center in the world.

59. Dallas sch. : SMU

Southern Methodist University (SMU) is located in University Park, Texas (part of Dallas), and was founded in 1911. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Mustangs. Also, SMU is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

67. Like many squawkers : AVIAN

“Avis” is the Latin word for “bird”, giving rise to our adjective “avian” meaning “relating to birds”.

71. Deli cheese … or, in three parts, a hint to the five longest across puzzle answers : SWISS or SW IS S

“Swiss cheese” is a relatively generic term for a type of cheese produced in various countries and not necessarily in Switzerland. What they all have in common though, is a resemblance to the original Swiss Emmental cheese.

Down

1. “__ fan tutte” : COSI

Mozart’s comic opera “Così fan tutte” is also known in English as “The School for Lovers”. The literal translation of the opera’s Italian title is “Thus do all (women)”, or “Women are like that”.

2. Prohibition surprise : RAID

The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was a great victory for the temperance movement (the “dry” movement), and in 1919 ushered in the Prohibition era. Highly unpopular (with the “wet” movement), Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.

3. __ Reader : UTNE

The “Utne Reader” is known for aggregation and republishing of articles on politics, culture and the environment from other sources in the media. The “Utne Reader” was founded in 1984 by Eric Utne, with management taken over by Eric’s wife Nina Rothschild Utne in 1990.

4. Not much memory, these days : MEG

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. And the prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and kilobyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

7. University of New Mexico team : LOBOS

The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a school in Albuquerque, founded in 1889. The sports teams of UNM are called the Lobos, and there are two mascots who work the crowds called Lobo Louie and Lobo Lucy.

9. U.S. manufacturer founded as a communications co. in 1920 : ITT

International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) was formed in 1920 from the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. ITT divested its telecommunications business in 1986, today the company is known for its products in the field of water and fluids management, as well motion and flow control. Many of ITT’s products are sold into the aerospace market.

12. Private meeting : TRYST

In its most general sense, a tryst is a meeting at an agreed time and place. More usually we consider a tryst to be a prearranged meeting between lovers. The term comes from the Old French “triste”, a waiting place designated when hunting. Further, a tryst taking place at lunchtime is sometimes referred to as a nooner.

19. “Willow __ for Me”: jazz standard : WEEP

“Willow Weep for Me” is a popular song dating back to 1932 that is most often performed as a jazz standard. It was composed by Ann Ronell, and dedicated to the great George Gershwin.

25. H.S. junior’s exam : PSAT

Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)

28. Condo selling point : VIEW

The terms “condominium” and “apartment” tend to describe the same type of residential property, namely a private living space with facilities shared with others residing in the same building or complex. The difference is that a condominium is usually owned, and an apartment is rented. At least that’s how it is in the US. The word “condominium” comes from the Latin “com-” (together) and “dominum” (right of ownership).

30. Duchamp genre : DADA

Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose works are associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. One of his most celebrated “works” is simply what he called “readymade” art, a urinal which he titled “Fountain”. Even though this work is considered to be “a major landmark in 20th century art”, the original that was submitted for exhibition was never actually displayed and had been lost forever. Replicas were commissioned by Duchamp, and are on display in many museums around the world. I have no further comment …

34. Legal thing : RES

“Res” is the Latin for “thing”. “Res” is used in a lot of phrases in the law, e.g. “res ipsa loquitur” and “res judicata”.

35. Romain de Tirtoff, famously : ERTE

“Erté” was the pseudonym of French (Russian born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. Erté is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”, as well as the 1925 epic movie “Ben-Hur”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.

41. On-the-run bite : NOSH

Our word “nosh” has been around since the late fifties, when it was imported from the Yiddish word “nashn” meaning “to nibble”. We use “nosh” as a noun that means snack, or as a verb meaning to eat between meals.

47. The teensiest bit : A TAD

Back in the 1800s, “tad” was used to describe a young child, and this extended into our usage of “small amount” in the early 1900s. The original use of “tad” for a child is very likely a shortened version of “tadpole”.

53. __ vincit amor : OMNIA

“Omnia vincit amor” is a line from Eclogue X, one of the major works of the Latin poet Virgil. We know the phrase in English as “love conquers all”.

54. Certain polytheist : PAGAN

A pagan is someone who holds religious beliefs that are different from the main religions of the world, and especially someone who believes in polytheism. In classical Latin, “paganus” means “villager, rustic”.

A polytheist is a person who believes in many deities, with the opposite being a monotheist, someone who believes in one god. The ancient Greeks and Romans were polytheists.

58. Sch. in Harlem : CCNY

The City College of New York (CCNY) is a college of the City University of New York. The City College was founded as the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847, and was the first free public institution of higher education in the whole country.

The Manhattan district of Harlem is sometimes divided into Central Harlem, West Harlem and East Harlem. East Harlem is also known as Spanish Harlem.

59. Feng __ : SHUI

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese tradition of arranging objects, buildings and other structures in a manner that is said to improve the lives of the individuals living in or using the space. “Feng shui” translates as “wind-water”, a reference to the belief that positive and negative life forces ride the wind and scatter, but are retained when they encounter water.

63. On the __: hiding : LAM

To be on the lam is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means to “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, to scram”.