LA Times Crossword Answers 17 Apr 2018, Tuesday

Advertisement

[ad_above_grid]

Constructed by: Roland Huget
Edited by: Rich Norris

Advertisement

Advertisement

Today’s Reveal Answer: Mixed Breed

Themed answers each include a string of letters circled in the grid. Those strings are the letters in the word “BREED”, but with their order MIXED:

  • 62A. Pet without papers … or what is literally found in the circled letters : MIXED BREED
  • 17A. Welcome wind on a hot day : MILD BREEZE
  • 36A. Successful cryptographer : CODEBREAKER
  • 42A. “Best thing since” invention metaphor : SLICED BREAD

Bill’s time: 5m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Advertisement

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14. Use a surgical beam : LASE

The term “laser” is an acronym standing for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” (LASER). It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “Light Oscillation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn’t quite so appealing, namely LOSER.

16. “What I Am” singer Brickell : EDIE

Edie Brickell is a singer-songwriter from Dallas, Texas. Brickell has been married to fellow singer Paul Simon since 1991.

23. Migratory flying formations : VEES

Apparently, geese fly in a V-formation for a couple of reasons. One is that it makes for efficient flight and conserves energy. The leading bird gets no advantage, but every following bird gets to “slipstream” a little. It has been noted that the lead bird drops to the back of the formation when he/she gets fatigued. It’s also thought that the flock can stick together more easily when in formation, so it is more difficult to lose someone along the way.

29. Dangerous tide : RIP

Riptides are stretches of turbulent water caused by the meeting of different currents in the ocean.

35. Dr.’s orders : RXS

There seems to some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

41. Not reactive, as gases : INERT

An inert gas can be different from a noble gas. Both are relatively non-reactive, but a noble gas is an element. An inert gas might be a compound, i.e. made up of more than one element.

47. Typical John Grisham subject : LAW

John Grisham is a lawyer and an incredibly successful author best known for his legal thrillers. After graduating from law school, Grisham practiced law for about ten years and then went into politics. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives for six years, during which time he wrote his first novel, “A Time to Kill”.

53. Cigarette stimulant : NICOTINE

Nicotine is an alkaloid stimulant found in the nightshade family of plants, most notably in the tobacco plant. The alkaloid takes its name from the tobacco plant (Nicotiana tabacum). In turn, the plant takes its name from French diplomat Jean Nicot. Nicot was the ambassador to Portugal from 1559 to 1561. When Nicot returned to Paris from his assignment in Lisbon, he brought with him tobacco plants, and introduced the French court to snuff.

61. Neutral shade : ECRU

The shade called ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

65. Oscar-winning “Skyfall” singer : ADELE

I have not been a fan of Daniel Craig as James Bond (preferring Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan in the role). However, I saw “Skyfall” when it first came out and have been won over. “Skyfall” is one of the best Bond films so far, in my humble opinion. And, Adele’s rendition of the title song is an added plus …

68. Massenet opera about a Spanish legend : LE CID

“Le Cid” is an opera by Jules Massenet that premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1885. The opera is adapted from a play of the same name by Pierre Corneille. Both works are based on the legends surrounding Spanish military leader El Cid.

69. Absolut rival : SKYY

Skyy Vodka is produced in the US, although the operation is owned by the Campari Group headquartered in Italy. Skyy first hit the shelves in 1992 when it was created by an entrepreneur from San Francisco, California.

Down

1. O’Neill’s “Desire Under the __” : ELMS

“Desire Under the Elms” is a classic American play written by Eugene O’Neill and published in 1924. It is basically a retelling of a Greek tragedy, but set in contemporary New England. Sophia Loren stars in a movie version released in 1958.

3. Cuba, por ejemplo : ISLA

In Spanish, Cuba “por ejemplo” (for example), is an “isla” (island).

9. __ set: building toy : ERECTOR

Oh how I loved my Erector Set as a kid. The version we used growing up was referred to as a Meccano set, as “Meccano” was the brand name used for for the toy sold as “Mechanics Made Easy”. The original Erector Set was developed by inventor Alfred Carlton Gilbert, and first produced in 1913. Back then it was sold as “The Erector/Structural Steel and Electro-Mechanical Builder”.

11. Singing competition that returned in 2018, familiarly : IDOL

Fox’s “American Idol” is a spin-off show that was created after the amazing success of the British television show “Pop Idol”. Neither program(me) would be my cup of tea …

18. Letters in old dates : BCE

The designations Anno Domini (AD, “year of Our Lord”) and Before Christ (BC) are found in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The dividing point between AD and BC is the year of the conception of Jesus, with AD 1 following 1 BC without a year “0” in between. The AD/BC scheme dates back to AD 525, and gained wide acceptance soon after AD 800. Nowadays a modified version has become popular, with CE (Common/Christian Era) used to replace AD, and BCE (Before the Common/Christian Era) used to replace BC.

22. Virgil epic : AENEID

Aeneas was a Trojan hero of myth who traveled to Italy and became the ancestor of all Romans. Aeneas’s story is told in Virgil’s epic poem “The Aeneid”.

Publius Vergilius Maro (better known as “Virgil”) was a poet from Ancient Rome. His best known works are:

  • The “Eclogues” (or Bucolics)
  • The “Georgics”
  • The “Aeneid”

24. Flip of a 45 record : SIDE-B

The first vinyl records designed to play at 33⅓ rpm were introduced by RCA Victor in 1931, but were discontinued due to quality problems. The first long play (LP) 33⅓ rpm disc was introduced by Columbia Records many years later in 1948, with RCA Victor following up with a 45 rpm “single” the following year, in 1949.

30. Oyster jewel : PEARL

Pearls form in oysters because of a reaction that is similar to an immune system response in higher animals. The pearl is formed as the oysters lays down successive layers of calcium carbonate around some microscopic foreign body that has penetrated the shell.

32. Cub Scout leader : AKELA

Akela is the wolf in the “Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. He gave his name to a cubmaster in the scouting movement, now known as “Akela”.

33. Hatcher and Garr : TERIS

Teri Hatcher’s most famous role is the Susan Mayer character on the TV comedy-drama “Desperate Housewives”. I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of “Housewives” but I do know Teri Hatcher as a Bond girl, as she appeared in “Tomorrow Never Dies”. More recently, she portrayed Lois Lane on the show “Lois & Clark”.

The lovely Teri Garr had a whole host of minor roles in her youth, including appearances in nine Elvis movies. Garr’s big break came with the role of Inga in “Young Frankenstein”, and her supporting role in “Tootsie” earned Garr an Academy Award nomination. Sadly, Teri Garr suffers from multiple sclerosis. She is a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

34. Some Deco prints : ERTES

“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.

48. Rudder locales : STERNS

A rudder is usually a flat sheet of wood or metal located at the stern of a boat, under the waterline. The rudder is attached to a rudder post, which rotates to change the orientation of the rudder hence steering the boat. That rotation of the rudder post can be achieved by pulling or pushing a lever at the top of the post called a tiller.

50. Snarky : SNIDE

“Snark” is a term that was coined by Lewis Carroll in his fabulous 1876 nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. Somehow, the term “snarky” came to mean “irritable, short-tempered” in the early 1900s, and from there “snark” became “sarcastic rhetoric” at the beginning of the 21st century.

54. Slushy drink brand : ICEE

Slush Puppie and ICEE are brands of frozen, slushy drinks. Ostensibly competing brands, ICEE company now owns the Slush Puppie brand.

55. Avian crop : CRAW

“Craw” is another name for the “crop”, a portion of the alimentary tract of some animals, including birds. The crop is used for the storage of food prior to digestion. It allows the animal to eat large amounts and then digest that food with efficiency over an extended period. The expression “to stick in one’s craw” is used one when one cannot accept something, cannot “swallow” it.

59. Counting rhyme word : EENY

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch the tiger/monkey/baby by the toe.
If it hollers/screams let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, you are it!

60. June 6, 1944 : D-DAY

The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operations are to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

63. Collegian who roots for the Bulldogs : ELI

The Yale Bulldogs are the athletic teams of Yale University. The Yale school mascot is “Handsome Dan”, the Yale bulldog. The Bulldogs’ logo features a bulldog in front of a letter Y.

Advertisement

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Not at all good : EVIL
5. Piece-of-cake shape : WEDGE
10. Tick off : MIFF
14. Use a surgical beam : LASE
15. Toward the back : AREAR
16. “What I Am” singer Brickell : EDIE
17. Welcome wind on a hot day : MILD BREEZE
19. First-rate : A-ONE
20. Grab greedily : SNATCH
21. Brought back to mind : RECALLED
23. Migratory flying formations : VEES
25. Dance move : STEP
26. Carrots’ partners : PEAS
29. Dangerous tide : RIP
31. Airing in the wee hours : ON LATE
35. Dr.’s orders : RXS
36. Successful cryptographer : CODEBREAKER
38. Diner : EATER
40. Cup handle : EAR
41. Not reactive, as gases : INERT
42. “Best thing since” invention metaphor : SLICED BREAD
45. Untruth : LIE
46. Walked with purpose : STRODE
47. Typical John Grisham subject : LAW
48. Back talk : SASS
49. Nervous twitches : TICS
51. Retail center : MART
53. Cigarette stimulant : NICOTINE
57. Staggered : REELED
61. Neutral shade : ECRU
62. Pet without papers … or what is literally found in the circled letters : MIXED BREED
64. Drop of sorrow : TEAR
65. Oscar-winning “Skyfall” singer : ADELE
66. Family babysitter : NANA
67. Attaches a patch, say : SEWS
68. Massenet opera about a Spanish legend : LE CID
69. Absolut rival : SKYY

Down

1. O’Neill’s “Desire Under the __” : ELMS
2. Fruitless : VAIN
3. Cuba, por ejemplo : ISLA
4. Some HD sets : LED TVS
5. Medal recipient : WAR HERO
6. Poetic preposition before “now” or “long” : ERE …
7. Animal on XING signs : DEER
8. Long looks : GAZES
9. __ set: building toy : ERECTOR
10. College student’s dining choice : MEAL PLAN
11. Singing competition that returned in 2018, familiarly : IDOL
12. “Okay by me” : FINE
13. Nourish : FEED
18. Letters in old dates : BCE
22. Virgil epic : AENEID
24. Flip of a 45 record : SIDE-B
26. Defensive basketball tactic : PRESS
27. Praise highly : EXALT
28. Up and about : ASTIR
30. Oyster jewel : PEARL
32. Cub Scout leader : AKELA
33. Hatcher and Garr : TERIS
34. Some Deco prints : ERTES
36. College transcript unit : CREDIT
37. Silvery freshwater fish : BREAM
39. Nature excursions : ECO-TOURS
43. Dot between dollars and cents : DECIMAL
44. Given, as a medal : AWARDED
48. Rudder locales : STERNS
50. Snarky : SNIDE
52. Yank’s war foe : REB
53. Earns after taxes : NETS
54. Slushy drink brand : ICEE
55. Avian crop : CRAW
56. Boardroom VIP : EXEC
58. Security breach : LEAK
59. Counting rhyme word : EENY
60. June 6, 1944 : D-DAY
63. Collegian who roots for the Bulldogs : ELI

Advertisement

15 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 17 Apr 2018, Tuesday”

  1. (All written) LAT: 12 minutes, 1 dumb error. WSJ: 14 minutes, no errors. Newsday: 8 minutes, no errors. Jones: 40 minutes, no errors. Themeless grid this week. Good clean challenge.

  2. LAT: 8:39: no errors. Had ABAFT before AREAR, GRADES before CREDIT, and EL CID before LE CID. All easily fixed, but, over all, I thought this one was a little harder than the usual Tuesday romp.

    Newsday: 6:09, no errors. WSJ: 8:32, no errors, but it took me two or three more minutes to grok the theme.

    Jones: 14:15, no errors. An interrupted solve: At 11:17, I had everything filled in but two squares in the upper left (for me, a double Natick) and got interrupted to deal with a minor emergency in the house. When I got back, it took me another 2:58 to come up with and fill in plausible guesses (which turned out to be correct).

    Croce to come …

  4. No Googles, but didn’t know BREAM, AKELA, SKYY, this EDIE. Was ASTIR and AREAR a mini theme?

  5. Had a good time with todays puzzle – enjoyed it very much. Discovered the theme after the final answer. ( first I thought, it was mixed BREAD, my eyesight is problematic … )

    I may have mentioned this before, but AKELA for a cubmaster seems strangely contradictory …. Akela, in hindi, means ‘alone’ or ‘by himself/herself’ …. as lone wolves often are – by themselves … etc.
    The last thing you would expect a cubmaster to be.

    I was wondering what is an example of an inert gas …
    ( – but not a single element NOBLE gas ….. )

    The Noble gases are Argon, Neon. Krypton, Radon and the highest manufactured element Oganesson ( At.No. 118) ….. and Helium. All the first ones are from the periodic table VIIIa. Helium, maybe, an exception, in some variations of the periodic table ….

    The inert gases. not elements, are …. the common ones …
    possibly carbon dioxide CO2,
    Sulfur Hexafluoride SF6 ( used for my detached retina surgery …. ) , sometimes Nitric Oxide NO, ( sometimes not – )
    and R-12 – Freon 12, also CFC . di fluoro di chloro methane CCl2F2 … Freon 12 is banned, for most uses, because of ozone layer problems.

    Also possibly … CCl3F, CClF3 and CF4
    and even CCl4 carbon tetra-chloride – used as a fire retardant.

    Enough chemistry
    .Have a nice day all.

  7. I don’t think 22D – aeneid, 32D – akela, and 37D – bream are Tuesday puzzle words. More like Fri./Sat. Other than that it’s wasn’t hard, but have never heard the above words used, ever.

  8. 12:26. I kept wanting to put coLDBREEZE for 17A. After finishing the rest of the puzzle, I reluctantly deleted the “co” and eventually got the corner corrected.

    Looks like Oganesson’s most stable isotope, Ununoctium, has a half-life of 0.89 milliseconds. Best I can tell they’ve created 5 atoms of it. They don’t last long so you better look fast….Fun stuff to read about anyway….

    Best –

  9. @Dave
    I ended up trying BEQ’s puzzle, and it turned out to be not too bad compared to most of the odd variety puzzles I run into at the WSJ and other places (just a crossword with different set rules). Around an hour’s time with 6 or 7 times I looked up stuff.

    Of course, I had to look up a lot to figure out if I was doing it right, coupled with the hard Sat NYT level clues. The problem with these things is if you’re new to them, you usually run into trying to figure out how the puzzle format works, coupled with the intended hard difficulty. At least with this puzzle there were some real answers so I could make sure I understood the puzzle correctly. Compare that with Croce’s recent puzzle – I stared at that and couldn’t figure out exactly what I was supposed to do for about 10 minutes and just quit.

    For the variety puzzles I have done (diagramless, vowelless, a couple of others), they are a bit refreshing at times to do in terms of having the general rules of the construction twisted a bit. But it’d be nice if there were some easy primers that they would point to for those of us who have never done the puzzles before.

    @on the chemistry thing.
    The fascinating thing when I studied chemistry was noting all the little consistencies as you go down each column of the periodic table. Reactivity comes from the ionic tendency of each molecule/atom to repel or attract other ions, which isn’t necessarily a function of their physical state, but of their electron shells. The noble gases are known as inert because of their complete outer electron shell, which makes them neutral. Their atomic ability to not react coupled with their weight tends to dictate physical state (gas, liquid, solid).

    Now, if you look at other columns of The Periodic Table, the matter of weight becomes more interesting. Period 2 are solids until you get to nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine, which are quite reactive, but are light and almost never found atomically in nature (they multiply bond, oxygen by itself is really O2 or O3). Period 3 only features chlorine as a gas and then Row 4 onward only the noble gases are gases.

    The more fascinating part to me is what atoms exist as a liquid. The range for energy to repel bonding seems to be pretty small given the large number of solids, few gases and even rarer number of liquids: Bromine and Mercury. Mercury being a liquid is a fun one to ponder, as lighter elements above it in Group 14 are solids (the lightest being Zinc, most notably found in our coins). Of course, the temperature dictates state as well with the amount of heat involved increasing the energy the atoms/molecules have. To go beyond that, Caesium, Rubidium, Francium and Gallium will become liquid with not too much beyond room temperature (I recall Gallium will melt in your hand if you hold it). Anyway, the range at which things are liquids are even smaller.

    Of course, it’s been a while since I devoted a lot of time thinking on these kinds of things, and I don’t know if any of that turned out to make any sense. But I find it fascinating – and I’m not sure scientists have it exactly figured out why some things are what they are. This article trys to explain why mercury is a liquid and reiterates some of the things I tried to explain, but doesn’t really offer a satisfying answer to me.

    The way this world works is so interesting on a number of levels.

      1. @Glenn …

        Thanks for the link. In spite of what I wrote about Monday’s BEQ, I may well try this one. At least now I know how a “Marching Band” puzzle works; the instructions for the first one somehow led me to believe that I had to black out one square on each horizontal line and it took me a while to get past that. (Mind you, that’s not what the instructions actually say; the misunderstanding was all my fault.) No Googling this time … ?

        Much to my surprise, I just found in my files a WSJ puzzle from 2017/03/04; it is characterized as a “Spell Weaving” puzzle and I did finish it, though I remember nothing about it. From time to time, I do get the urge to branch out into other kinds of puzzles (like kenkens, a serious obsession that lasted four and a half years), but I would have said that, for the most part, I have the good sense to avoid it.

        Thanks also for your post above. I remember being absolutely astonished by the detailed model of the atom that scientists had been able to construct by 1960 (and, of course, the model has only gotten better with time). I have trouble enough explaining things my own size … ?.

        As a math student (mostly), I was, at one point, fascinated by X-ray crystallography and, again, part of the fascination was that scientists were able to infer the detailed three-dimensional structure of an atomic lattice from a series of fuzzy two-dimensional images.

      2. Okay, so … the WSJ “Marching Bands” puzzle took me 57:40, with no errors and no cheating of any kind. Better than I did on BEQ’s Monday puzzle, and a good mental exercise, I’m sure, but I could easily wait for quite a while before doing another one … 🙂 .

        I commented here about that “Spell Weaving” puzzle a year ago. Odd (and a little scary) that I remember essentially nothing about it.

        I have a case of what appears to be sciatica (something I’ve never had before), and there’s a nasty wind storm going on outside, so I can’t go out for a walk (my cure for everything), so … here I sit … 🙁 .

        1. … and, while sitting, I did today’s Tim Croce puzzle: 35:28, no errors; a bit easier than usual.

  10. Madame Kay Kramer …. if you still read this …. I have heard of Aeneid as a very famous classic of pre-history, ( though I wouldn’t dare read it, in my lifetime – )
    I have heard of Akela in the LAT Crossword before, …. even before I read as to why the Boy Scouts through Baden-Powell, the founder … who was an admirer of Rudyard Kipling – who used those indian names for his animals in the Jungle Book. Mr. BadenPowell made a deal with Kipling to use those names in the Cub scouts, to give it some elan and pizzazz….

    Thank you Dave K for that link – my knowledge of chemistry is limited, though I was a chemical engineer, ~ 50 years ago. I’m glad you gave me the link, so I could know how far we have reached on the element numbers. we are upto 118, when I was a student we did not know past Seaborgium named after Glenn. T Seaborg, who headed the Livermore Labs.

    Here is the Wiki article on the latest trans uranic elements. in full.

    I guess Oganesson is the second element named after a ( current) living scientist. The first probably was Seaborg…

    Glenn, thank you for your delightful treatise !!! It is surprising how many of our small jolly bunch are interested in higher chemistry and physics. !@#!

    Hi Jeff ! you may already know that Astatine is so unstable that there are only 30 grams on the entire earth. With a half life of 8.1 hours, its a miracle that anybody has actually seen it at all. Ofcourse, a milli-second is infinitessimally smaller. I read thru your linked article and found out another ten articles of interest.!!!! And, its a magazine right out of MIT !

    My tax work is complete for this week …. and I now have plenty of time to relax.

Comments are closed.