LA Times Crossword Answers 13 Jun 2018, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Robert E. Lee Morris
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Reveal Answer: Photo Finish

Themed answers FINISH with a word that often follows PHOTO:

  • 56A. End of a close race … and what the last part of the answers to starred clues can literally be : PHOTO FINISH
  • 17A. *Sports bookie’s figure : POINT SPREAD (giving “photo spread”)
  • 37A. *R&D setting : TEST LAB (giving “photo lab”)
  • 11A. *Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde,” e.g. : DOUBLE ALBUM (giving “photo album”)
  • 25A. *Marksmanship match : TURKEY SHOOT (giving “photo shoot”)

Bill’s time: 6m 57s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Keebler cracker : ZESTA

Zesta is a line of saltine crackers made by Keebler.

11. E, in Morse code : DOT

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

15. Kama __ : SUTRA

The “Kama Sutra” is renowned for its descriptions of positions that can be used for sexual intercourse, but the sutra includes many other texts that deal with various matters of a sexual nature, including how to woo a woman, the conduct of a “chief wife”, the conduct of “other wives”, how to make money as a courtesan, and much more.

16. Bruin great Bobby : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking.

The Boston Bruins professional ice hockey team goes way back, and has been in existence since 1924. The National Hockey League back then was a Canadian-only league, but was expanded to include the US in 1923. The Bruins were the first US-team in the expanded league.

17. *Sports bookie’s figure : POINT SPREAD (giving “photo spread”)

The point spread is the number of points offered to equalize the chances in a wager on a sports event. The team that is perceived as more likely to lose is given “free” points before the game starts, and the person backing the winning team wins only when the his/her team scores more than the losing team, including the point spread.

19. Action film gun : UZI

The first Uzi submachine gun was designed in the late 1940s by Major Uziel “Uzi” Gal of the Israel Defense Forces, who gave his name to the gun.

20. Caspian Sea feeder : URAL

The Ural River rises in the Ural Mountains in Russia and flows for half its length through Russian territory until it crosses the border into Kazakhstan, finally emptying into the Caspian Sea. It is the third-longest river in Europe, after the Volga and Danube.

The Caspian Sea is a landlocked body of water lying between Asia and Europe. By some definitions, the Caspian is the largest lake on the planet. The name “Caspian” comes from the Caspi people who lived to the southwest of the sea in South Caucasus.

27. Stand in a studio : EASEL

The word “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey” would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would be made to carry a load.

33. “Tell It Like It Is” crooner __ Neville : AARON

Aaron Neville is an R&B singer from New Orleans. As well as having a solo career, Aaron has recorded with three of his siblings as the Neville Brothers.

37. *R&D setting : TEST LAB (giving “photo lab”)

Research and development (R&D)

41. Four-stringed instruments, typically : UKES

The ukulele (“uke”) originated in the 1800s and mimicked a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

43. Weighty volume : TOME

“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century, “tome” had come to mean “large book”.

46. Passé street corner convenience : PAY PHONE

“Passé” is a French word, meaning “past, faded”. We’ve imported the term into English, and use it in the same sense.

52. Taj __ : MAHAL

The most famous mausoleum in the world has to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal was built after the death of the fourth wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal (hence the name of the mausoleum). The poor woman died in childbirth delivering the couple’s 14th child. When Shah Jahan himself passed away 35 years later, he was buried beside his wife Mumtaz, in the Taj Mahal.

54. Foundry waste : SLAG

The better lead ores are processed in a blast furnace, to extract the metal. The waste from this process is called “slag”. Slag does contain some lead and it can be processed further in a slag furnace to extract the residual metal. Slag furnaces also accept poorer lead ores as a raw material.

55. Good Grips gadget brand : OXO

The OXO line of kitchen utensils and housewares is designed to be ergonomically superior to the average household tools. The intended user of OXO products is someone who doesn’t have the normal range of motion or strength in the hands e.g. someone suffering from arthritis.

63. “Don’t Bring Me Down” rock gp. : ELO

“Don’t Bring Me Down” was the biggest hit that the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) had in the US. The song was dedicated to NASA’s Skylab, which reentered the earth’s orbit in 1979, the same year the song was released.

64. Singer Cyrus : MILEY

Miley Cyrus became famous playing the Disney Channel character “Hannah Montana”. Miley is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. When she was born, Billy Ray and his wife named their daughter “Destiny Hope”, but soon they themselves calling her “Smiley” as she was always smiling as a baby, and this got shortened to Miley over time. Cute …

65. Finnish tech giant : NOKIA

I do enjoy classical guitar music, but there isn’t a huge choice on CD. There is one very special piece called “Gran Vals” by Francisco Tárrega, written in 1902. This piece has a unique reputation as it contains a phrase that was once the most listened-to piece of music in the whole world. Just a few bars into the work one can hear the celebrated Nokia ringtone!

66. Hanoi holiday : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

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.

68. Belgian treaty city : GHENT

Ghent is a city in the Flemish region of Belgium. The War of 1812 (between Britain and the US) was formally concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent In 1814. The American negotiating team in Ghent included Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams.

Down

3. __ Lanka : SRI

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

6. D.C. network : C-SPAN

C-SPAN is a privately-funded, nonprofit cable channel that broadcasts continuous coverage of government proceedings. C-SPAN Video Library is an amazing online archive provided by C-SPAN that offers a complete audio and video archive of Congressional proceedings going back to 1987. Users can search the archive for free, by topic, speaker date and more. When the site was launched in 2010, the archive already contained 160,000 hours of programming. There is a is a section of the archive called “Congressional Chronicle” that is particularly easy to navigate.

9. Carol syllable : TRA

The word “carol” came into English via the Old French word “carole”, which was a “dance in a ring”. When “carol” made it into English, about 1300 AD, the term was used to describe a dance as well as a joyful song. Around 1500 AD, carols that were sung came to be associated with Christmas.

10. Extreme cruelty : SADISM

A sadist is someone who derives pleasure from inflicting pain, with that pleasure often being sexual in nature. The term “sadist” comes from the Marquis de Sade, who was known to exhibit such tendencies.

11. *Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde,” e.g. : DOUBLE ALBUM (giving “photo album”)

“Blonde on Blonde” is a 1966 album by Bob Dylan. One interesting fact about the release is that “Blonde on Blonde” was the first double album in the history of rock music.

12. Rice-shaped pasta : ORZO

Orzo is pasta that has been formed into granular shapes, much like barley. And indeed, “orzo” is the Italian word for “barley”.

13. Froot Loops shelfmate : TRIX

Trix is a corn-based breakfast cereal that has been around since 1954, produced by General Mills. Ads for the cereal featured Trix Rabbit, who would try hard to get hold of bowls of the cereal. He would always get caught though, and be admonished with, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!” With 46% sugar content, the rabbit probably wouldn’t have liked it anyway …

Froot Loops (ugh!) is a breakfast cereal from Kellogg’s that has been around since 1963. The little loops come in different colors, originally red, orange and yellow, but now there are green, purple and blue loops as well. Notice I said “different colors” not “different flavors”. Each loop tastes the same, so I wonder where the color comes from …?

18. B’way sellout sign : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

22. Jodie Foster title role : NELL

“Nell” is a thoughtful drama film from 1994 starring Jodie Foster in the title role. Nell is a young woman who had been raised by her mother in isolation, away from all human contact. She is discovered as an untamed child and gradually introduced into society. The movie is a screen adaptation of a play by Mark Handley called “Idioglossia”.

The wonderful actress and director Jodie Foster got her big break in movies early in her life, playing a very young prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film “Taxi Driver”. Sadly, her appearance in “Taxi Driver” led to her being stalked by an obsessed John Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley called Foster on the phone, sent her love letters, and followed her on campus while she was attending Yale. In 1981, Hinckley famously shot and wounded President Reagan, claiming that he believed an assassination of the President would impress Foster.

24. “Seward’s Folly” purchase : ALASKA

Alaska was never a profitable colony for Russia, so the empire was probably glad to receive the $7.2 million forked out by the US in 1867. The Alaska Purchase took place during the administration of President Andrew Johnson, while William H. Seward served as Secretary of State. Famously, opponents of the administration labeled the purchase “Seward’s Folly”. The US military ran Alaska for a while, until it was made into a territory in 1884. Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state in 1959.

25. *Marksmanship match : TURKEY SHOOT (giving “photo shoot”)

A turkey shoot is a shooting contest in which marksmen with shotguns can win frozen turkeys as prizes. Although paper targets are routinely used today, the original turkey shoots used live turkeys tied down in a pen as targets. The shooters were given the dead birds as prizes. Not nice …

26. Tokyo, long ago : EDO

“Edo” is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo Castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

27. “Copperhead Road” singer Steve : EARLE

Steve Earle is an American songwriter and performer, and someone with a reputation of having lived a hard life. Earle’s brushes with the law and drug addiction problems have earned him the nickname “the hardcore troubadour”.

28. Nevada’s __ 51 : AREA

The famed Area 51 is a remote base in the USAF Nevada Test and Training Range. There’s no question that Area 51 is an unusual base in that frontline operational units are not deployed there. It seems that it is used for developing and testing new and classified weapons facilities for the US Military and other US agencies like the CIA. The government did not even acknowledge that Area 51 existed until 1995, and this official position fueled a theory that the base is home to UFOs that landed on Earth.

30. Blackjack request : HIT ME

The card game known as “twenty-one” was first referred to in a book by Cervantes, the author famous for writing “Don Quixote”. He called the game “ventiuna” (Spanish for “twenty-one”). Cervantes wrote his story just after the year 1600, so the game has been around at least since then. Twenty-one came to the US but it wasn’t all that popular so bonus payments were introduced to create more interest. One of the more attractive bonuses was a ten-to-one payout to a player who was dealt an ace of spades and a black jack. This bonus led to the game adopting the moniker “Blackjack”.

31. Remington played by Brosnan : STEELE

The eighties detective show “Remington Steele” stars Stephanie Zimbalist as a private detective Laura Holt, and Pierce Brosnan as the handsome bad boy Remington Steele, who’s really a good boy. The show successfully melds the detective genre with elements of romantic comedy.

Pierce Brosnan is an Irish actor, from Drogheda, a town north of Dublin. Brosnan’s big break in the US came when he was given the title role in the eighties television show “Remington Steele”. Famously, he also played James Bond on the big screen. Brosnan’s first appearance as Bond was in 1995’s “Golden Eye”. He was asked to take the role much earlier, in 1987, but Brosnan couldn’t get out of his contract for “Remington Steele”. Brosnan was the fifth actor to play Bond, after Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton.

38. English school since 1440 : ETON

The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself as described in the Fleming novels).

42. Animal welfare gp. : SPCA

Unlike most developed countries, the US has no umbrella organization with the goal of preventing cruelty to animals. Instead there are independent organizations set up all over the nation using the name SPCA. Having said that, there is an organization called the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) that was originally intended to operate across the country, but really it now focuses its efforts in New York City.

45. Pitching stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

52. Bubbly brand : MOET

Moët & Chandon is a French winery, and 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.

54. Ending for young and old alike? : -STER

They would be youngsters and oldsters.

57. Hyphenated Minute Maid brand : HI-C

Hi-C orange drink was created in 1946, and introduced to the market in 1948, initially in the south of the country. The name “Hi-C” was chosen to emphasize the high vitamin C content in the drink, as it contained added ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

In the mid-forties a process was developed to concentrate orange juice into a powder, the intent being to make it available to the armed forces. When WWII came to an end, the government’s need for the product went away, so Florida Foods Corporation was set up to market orange juice concentrate (rather than powder) to the public. This new concentrate was given the name “Minute Maid” implying that juice could be prepared quickly by simple dilution.

58. Schnozz extension? : -OLA

Jimmy Durante was a very talented entertainer, with that wonderful, gravelly voice, as well as that large nose that he used in so much of his humor (and earned him the nickname “Schnozzola”). Durante appeared in the Broadway stage musical “Jumbo” in 1935. In one scene, he leads a live elephant across the stage, and gets stopped by a police officer who asks, “What are you doing with that elephant?” Durante replies “What elephant?” and brings the house down every night.

59. Japanese drama : NOH

Noh is a form of musical drama in Japan that has been around since the 14th century. Many of the Noh performers are masked, allowing all the roles to be played by men, including the female parts.

60. ’50s prez : IKE

“I Like Ike” was a political slogan that originated with the grassroots movement to get Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) to run for president in the 1952 presidential election.

61. Sermon subject : SIN

Our word “sermon” comes from the Latin “sermonem” meaning “discourse, talk”. The literal translation of “sermonem” is “a stringing together of words”, from the Latin “serere” meaning “to join”, as in the related word “series”.

62. Boater or bowler : HAT

A boater is a straw hat often associated with boating, hence the name.

I think a bowler hat is usually called a derby here in the US. The bowler was first produced in 1849 in London by hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler, hence the name. The alternative name of “derby” comes from the tradition of wearing bowler hats at the Derby horse race (a major race held annually in England).

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Keebler cracker : ZESTA
6. Shoots the breeze : CHATS
11. E, in Morse code : DOT
14. Parts of plots : ACRES
15. Kama __ : SUTRA
16. Bruin great Bobby : ORR
17. *Sports bookie’s figure : POINT SPREAD (giving “photo spread”)
19. Action film gun : UZI
20. Caspian Sea feeder : URAL
21. Where work may pile up : INBOX
23. Criticized unfairly, in slang : HATED ON
27. Stand in a studio : EASEL
29. Get away from : ELUDE
30. Inoffensive : HARMLESS
33. “Tell It Like It Is” crooner __ Neville : AARON
34. Suffix with billion : -AIRE
35. Fashionable way to arrive? : LATE
36. “What a pity” : TSK
37. *R&D setting : TEST LAB (giving “photo lab”)
40. Meadow : LEA
41. Four-stringed instruments, typically : UKES
43. Weighty volume : TOME
44. Buck the system : REBEL
46. Passé street corner convenience : PAY PHONE
48. As __: generally : A RULE
49. Location : SCENE
50. Online player, briefly : PC GAMER
52. Taj __ : MAHAL
54. Foundry waste : SLAG
55. Good Grips gadget brand : OXO
56. End of a close race … and what the last part of the answers to starred clues can literally be : PHOTO FINISH
63. “Don’t Bring Me Down” rock gp. : ELO
64. Singer Cyrus : MILEY
65. Finnish tech giant : NOKIA
66. Hanoi holiday : TET
67. Green vehicles, for short : E-CARS
68. Belgian treaty city : GHENT

Down

1. Cook quickly : ZAP
2. Prefix with logical : ECO-
3. __ Lanka : SRI
4. Top songs set : TEN
5. Stellar scholar : A-STUDENT
6. D.C. network : C-SPAN
7. Sling : HURL
8. Gobbled up : ATE
9. Carol syllable : TRA
10. Extreme cruelty : SADISM
11. *Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde,” e.g. : DOUBLE ALBUM (giving “photo album”)
12. Rice-shaped pasta : ORZO
13. Froot Loops shelfmate : TRIX
18. B’way sellout sign : SRO
22. Jodie Foster title role : NELL
23. Intensify : HEAT UP
24. “Seward’s Folly” purchase : ALASKA
25. *Marksmanship match : TURKEY SHOOT (giving “photo shoot”)
26. Tokyo, long ago : EDO
27. “Copperhead Road” singer Steve : EARLE
28. Nevada’s __ 51 : AREA
30. Blackjack request : HIT ME
31. Remington played by Brosnan : STEELE
32. Driveway coating : SEALER
34. In unison : AS ONE
38. English school since 1440 : ETON
39. Big talk : BRAGGING
42. Animal welfare gp. : SPCA
45. Pitching stat : ERA
47. “I need a hand” : HELP ME
50. Tricks : PLOYS
51. Half-__: coffee compromise : CAF
52. Bubbly brand : MOET
53. Wheel connector : AXLE
54. Ending for young and old alike? : -STER
57. Hyphenated Minute Maid brand : HI-C
58. Schnozz extension? : -OLA
59. Japanese drama : NOH
60. ’50s prez : IKE
61. Sermon subject : SIN
62. Boater or bowler : HAT

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