LA Times Crossword Answers 29 Jun 2018, Friday

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Constructed by: Morton J. Mendelson
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Under, Literally

Themed answers are all in the down-direction, and each includes the word UNDER. However, the word “UNDER” is implied, as the first word is placed UNDER the end of each phrase:

  • 4D. Carefully consider, literally : ADVISEMENT TAKE (TAKE under ADVISEMENT)
  • 8D. Add to the list of possible perps, literally : SUSPICION PUT (PUT under SUSPICION)
  • 16D. Ail, literally : THE WEATHER FEEL (FEEL under THE WEATHER)
  • 20D. Rein in, literally : CONTROL BRING (BRING under CONTROL)

Bill’s time: 8m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7. Egyptian symbols of royalty : ASPS

The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in Ancient Egypt.

11. Fitness stat. : BMI

The body mass index (BMI) is the ratio of a person’s height to his or her mass.

17. Classic London theatre : OLD VIC

The Old Vic is a very famous theater (or I should I say “theatre”?) in London, previously known as the Royal Coburg Theatre and then the Royal Victorian Theatre (giving it the current name “The Old Vic”). The theater owes a lot of its fame and standing to the fact that it housed the National Theater of Great Britain after it was founded in 1963 by Sir Laurence Olivier. Today the National Theater has new, modern premises, but the Old Vic Theatre Company stills garners a lot of attention.

18. They raise camp spirit : USO SHOWS

The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

20. Cereal box rank : CAP’N

The first Cap’n Crunch commercials aired in 1963, at the time the product line was launched. The Cap’n’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch, would you believe? Crunch’s voice was provided for many years by Daws Butler, the same voice actor who gave us Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Cap’n Crunch is commander of the S.S. Guppy.

21. North-of-the-border gas : ESSO

The brand name Esso has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

24. Second of a Caesarean three : I SAW

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

29. “Squawk Box” channel : CNBC

“Squawk Box” is a business news show that airs on CNBC on weekday mornings. The name comes from a device used in brokerage houses, a permanently open intercom that is used to communicate stock transactions.

31. Feinted : DEKED

A deke, also known as a dangle, is a technique used to get past an opponent in ice hockey. “Deke” is a colloquial shortening of the word “decoy”.

35. Cheese town : EDAM

Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

36. Abruzzi bell town : ATRI

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “The Sicilian’s Tale; The Bell of Atri”, a narrative poem set in the small town of Atri in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

37. The Congo, formerly : ZAIRE

The African nation once called Zaire is a neighbor of Rwanda. The genocide and war in Rwanda spilled over into Zaire in 1996, with the conflict escalating into what is now called the First Congo War. As part of the war’s fallout there was a regime change, and in 1997 Zaire became the Democratic Republic of Congo.

42. Key wood : EBONY

The traditional materials used for the manufacture of piano keys were ebony (black) and ivory (white). Ebony is still used, but now for both white and black keys. The white keys are made by covering ebony with white plastic.

44. Hyatt competitor : OMNI

Omni Hotels & Resorts is headquartered in Irvine, California and has properties in the US, Canada and Mexico.

45. Horde : HOST

A horde is a large crowd. “Horde” ultimately derives from the Turkish “ordu” that means “camp, army”.

46. Slow movement : LENTO

A “lento” passage is a piece of music that has a slow tempo. “Lento” is Italian for “slow”.

49. Pyramid, to Tut : TOMB

“King Tut” is a name commonly used for the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun may not have been the most significant of the pharaohs historically, but he is the most famous today largely because of the discovery of his nearly intact tomb in 1922 by Howard Carter. Prior to this find, any Egyptian tombs uncovered by archaeologists had been ravaged by grave robbers. Tutankhamun’s magnificent burial mask is one of the most recognizable of all Egyptian artifacts.

51. Kindle reader, say : USER

Amazon’s Kindle line of e-book readers was introduced in 2007. The name “kindle” was chosen to evoke images of “lighting a fire” through reading and intellectual stimulation. I bought myself a Kindle Fire HD a few years ago. I’ve started reading e-books for the first time in my life, as well as enjoying other computing options available with the tablet device …

53. Quartet named for its members : ABBA

I am an unapologetic fan of ABBA’s music. ABBA was the Swedish group who topped the charts in the seventies and eighties. The name ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters of the given names of each of the band members: Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid. Early in their careers, the four fell in love and formed two married couples: Agnetha and Bjorn, and Benny and Anni-Frid. However, at the height of their success, the relationships became strained and both couples divorced.

56. Q.E.D. word : ERAT

The initialism “QED” is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. QED stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

Down

5. Slacks material : CHINO

Chino is a twill cloth most often used to make hard-wearing pants. The pants have come to be referred to as chinos. Chino cloth was originally developed for use by the military, but quickly became popular with civilians.

The term “slacks” was introduced in the early 1800s with the the meaning “loose trousers”. Those early slacks were part of a military uniform.

6. Kool-Aid alternative : 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).

The drink we know today as Kool-Aid was invented by Edward Perkins and his wife in Perkins’ mother’s kitchen in southwest Nebraska. Kool-Aid is now the Official Soft Drink of the state.

9. Lowly laborers : PEONS

A peon is a lowly worker with no real control over his/her working conditions. The word comes into English from Spanish, in which language it has the same meaning.

23. One who crosses the line : SCAB

We first started calling strikebreakers “scabs” in the early 1800s, and before that a scab was a person who refused to join a trade union (back as early 1777). The word probably comes from the use of “scab” as a symptom of a skin disease, and so is a term that is meant to insult.

25. Wood dresser : ADZ

An adze (also “adz”) is similar to an axe, but is different in that the blade of an adze is set at right angles to the tool’s shaft. An axe blade is set in line with the shaft.

26. Gem mounting : BEZEL

A bezel is a groove that is designed to hold a beveled edge. An example would be the groove around the face of a watch, which accepts the beveled edge of a watch crystal.

27. Pueblo building material : ADOBE

The Pueblo peoples are Native Americans from the American Southwest who are known for their construction of towns and villages comprising buildings made from adobe and stone. The Pueblo inhabited pit houses dug into cliffs prior to c. 1050 CE. After this date, they started to develop planned village that included apartment-like structure often located on ledges of rock that were easy to defend. The largest of these villages extant today is the magnificent Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. It is a “must see” when visiting the area …

30. Stomach relief, briefly : BROMO

Bromo-Seltzer is an antacid that was first produced back in 1888, and is still available today, although it’s hard to find. The Bromo-Seltzer headquarters were in downtown Baltimore in a building that features a magnificent clock tower that was patterned on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The tower is a famous landmark in the city. The four clock faces display the letters B-R-O-M-O S-E-L-T-Z-E-R beside the much smaller Roman numerals that tell the time.

32. Bolshoi rival : KIROV

The Mariinsky Ballet is a company based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was founded in the mid-1700s as the Imperial Russian Ballet, but was renamed to the Kirov Ballet during the Soviet era, in honor of the Bolshevik revolutionary Sergey Kirov. The Kirov was renamed again at the end of communist rule, taking the name of the Mariinsky Theatre where the company was headquartered. The theatre was named for Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who was the wife of Tsar Alexander II.

The Bolshoi Ballet company is based in Moscow, Russia. The Bolshoi company has over 200 dancers, making it by far the biggest ballet company in the world. I have very fond memories of attending a performance in the beautiful Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia in the late nineties …

52. Brainstorming staple : 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.

53. Operatic Gluck : ALMA

“Alma Gluck” was the stage name of Romanian-born American soprano Reba Feinsohn. Gluck’s second marriage was to violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Gluck and Zimbalist’s son was Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. The younger Efrem was a noted actor and star of television’s “77 Sunset Strip”.

54. Dutch colonist : BOER

“Boer” is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for “farmer”, a word that was used to describe the Dutch-speaking people who settled parts of South Africa during the 1700s.

59. Uncle to Ben Solo : LUKE

When the character Luke Skywalker was created for “Star Wars”, he was named “Annikin Starkiller”. Conceptually, he was a 60-year-old war veteran for a while, and also a female at one point. Luke is played by actor Mark Hamill in the “Star Wars” films.

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

60. Vitamin C sources : ADES

The essential nutrient referred to as vitamin C is also known as L-ascorbic acid or ascorbate. A lack of vitamin C causes the disease scurvy.

61. Libel or slander : TORT

The word “tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

The word “libel”, meaning a published or written statement likely to harm a person’s reputation, comes into English from the Latin “libellus”, the word for a small book. Back in the 1500s, libel was just a formal written statement, with the more damaging association arising in the 1600s. The related concept of slander is defamation in a transient form, such as speech, sign language or gestures.

64. Tire shop meas. : PSI

Pounds per square inch (PSI) is a measure of pressure.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Fix : ATTACH
7. Egyptian symbols of royalty : ASPS
11. Fitness stat. : BMI
14. Greeted casually, with “to” : SAID HI
15. Grill : QUESTION
17. Classic London theatre : OLD VIC
18. They raise camp spirit : USO SHOWS
19. Arrive on an air taxi : FLY IN
20. Cereal box rank : CAP’N
21. North-of-the-border gas : ESSO
22. “Could be better” : SO-SO
24. Second of a Caesarean three : I SAW
26. Undressed : BARE
29. “Squawk Box” channel : CNBC
31. Feinted : DEKED
35. Cheese town : EDAM
36. Abruzzi bell town : ATRI
37. The Congo, formerly : ZAIRE
38. Tune (out) : ZONE
39. Agonize (over) : BROOD
41. Catching strategy : TRAP
42. Key wood : EBONY
44. Hyatt competitor : OMNI
45. Horde : HOST
46. Slow movement : LENTO
47. Canter : LOPE
48. Pre-event periods : EVES
49. Pyramid, to Tut : TOMB
51. Kindle reader, say : USER
53. Quartet named for its members : ABBA
56. Q.E.D. word : ERAT
58. Major relative to F minor : A-FLAT
62. Checked (on) : LOOKED IN
64. Mock : PSEUDO
65. Barely a trace : MERE HINT
66. Party to a search : SEEKER
67. Is for some : ARE
68. Declines : SAGS
69. Least well : ILLEST

Down

1. Dating from : AS OF
2. Hard to believe : TALL
3. Not like a sty : TIDY
4. Carefully consider, literally : ADVISEMENT TAKE (TAKE under ADVISEMENT)
5. Slacks material : CHINO
6. Kool-Aid alternative : HI-C
7. Marine opening? : AQUA-
8. Add to the list of possible perps, literally : SUSPICION PUT (PUT under SUSPICION)
9. Lowly laborers : PEONS
10. Cooking-burger sound : SSS!
11. Dust jacket blurbs : BIOS
12. Manicures, in a way : MOWS
13. __ many words : IN SO
16. Ail, literally : THE WEATHER FEEL (FEEL under THE WEATHER)
20. Rein in, literally : CONTROL BRING (BRING under CONTROL)
23. One who crosses the line : SCAB
25. Wood dresser : ADZ
26. Gem mounting : BEZEL
27. Pueblo building material : ADOBE
28. Talked nonstop : RAN ON
30. Stomach relief, briefly : BROMO
32. Bolshoi rival : KIROV
33. White out : ERASE
34. Firm parts: Abbr. : DEPTS
40. Runs out of juice : DIES
43. Hoo’s first? : YOO-
50. Social __ : MEDIA
52. Brainstorming staple : EASEL
53. Operatic Gluck : ALMA
54. Dutch colonist : BOER
55. Put to sleep : BORE
57. Unwanted workers : ANTS
59. Uncle to Ben Solo : LUKE
60. Vitamin C sources : ADES
61. Libel or slander : TORT
63. Doubtful interjections : EHS
64. Tire shop meas. : PSI

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