LA Times Crossword 2 Aug 19, Friday

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Constructed by: Jeffrey Wechsler
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Cricket

Themed clues are (almost) all the same, simply the word “Cricket(s)”:

  • 17A Cricket : GAME WITH WICKETS
  • 25A Cricket : WIRELESS SERVICE
  • 45A Cricket : DISNEY BUG JIMINY
  • 59A [Crickets] : [AUDIENCE SILENCE]

Bill’s time: 8m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Center of the Milky Way? : CARAMEL

The confectionery product known as caramel is made by heating sugar. The process of caramelization requires slow heating of the sugar to about 170 °C. The heating causes the sugar molecules to break down and convert into the compounds that provide the characteristic color and flavor of caramel.

Having lived on both sides of the Atlantic, I find the Mars Bar to be the most perplexing of candies! The original Mars Bar is a British confection (and delicious) first manufactured in 1932. The US version of the original Mars Bar is called a Milky Way. But there is a candy bar called a Milky Way that is also produced in the UK, and it is completely different to its US cousin, being more like an American “3 Musketeers”. And then there is an American confection called a Mars Bar, something different again. No wonder I try not to eat candy bars …

8 Calder creation : STABILE

Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist. Calder is famous for having invented the mobile sculpture, a work made up of several pieces hanging on a string in equilibrium. In effect they are what we might known as “mobiles”, operating on the same principle as mobiles that sit over cribs in a nursery. Calder refers to his large, stationary sculptures as “stabiles”.

15 First state, in a way : ALABAMA

The first four US states in an alphabetical list all start with the letter A:

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas

The last four states in an alphabetical list all start with the letter W:

  • Washington
  • West Virginia
  • Wisconsin
  • Wyoming

17 Cricket : GAME WITH WICKETS

In the sport of cricket, the two sets of stumps at either end of the pitch are known as wickets. Bowlers try to bowl the ball into the wicket, which a batsman defends.

20 2000 Bell Atlantic acquisition : GTE

GTE was a rival to AT&T, the largest of the independent competitors to the Bell System. GTE merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000 to form the company that we know today as Verizon. Verizon made some high-profile acquisitions over the years, including MCI in 2005 and AOL in 2015.

25 Cricket : WIRELESS SERVICE

Cricket is a wireless service that started out in 1999 providing coverage in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Cricket became a subsidiary of AT&T in 2014.

33 Seed-to-be : OVULE

As we all remember from botany class (don’t we?), an ovule is a small structure in many plants that develops into the seed after fertilization.

34 LAX calculation : ETA

Estimated time of arrival (ETA)

Los Angeles International Airport is the sixth busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and the busiest here on the West Coast of the US. The airport was opened in 1930 as Mines Field and was renamed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941. On the airport property is the iconic white structure that resembles a flying saucer. This is called the Theme Building and I believe it is mainly used as a restaurant and observation deck for the public. The airport used to be identified by the letters “LA”, but when the aviation industry went to a three-letter standard for airport identification, this was changed to “LAX”. Apparently, the “X” has no significant meaning.

35 Energy source : ATOM

President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his “Atoms for Peace” speech in December, 1953 to the UN General Assembly. Ostensibly, the speech announced a new US policy, the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes around the world.

To the making of these fateful decisions, the United States pledges before you–and therefore before the world–its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma–to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.

39 Prepare for coating, as aluminum : ANODIZE

Anodizing is an electrolytic technique used to thicken the naturally existing oxide layer on a piece of metal. The oxide layer is grown by passing a current through the metal in an electrolytic solution. The metal acts as an anode in the circuit, hence the term “anodizing”.

42 Land of Freud: Abbr. : AUS

The name “Austria” is a Latin variant of the German name for the country, “Österreich”. “Österreich” itself means “Eastern borderlands”, a reference to the country’s history as a prefecture of neighboring Bavaria to the west.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, and founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. One of Freud’s tenets was that our dreams are a necessary part of sleep as they prevent the dreamer from awakening due to desire for unfulfilled wishes. The dream’s content represents those unfulfilled wishes and satisfies the desire.

44 Scrooge : MISER

The classic 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens has left us with a few famous phrases and words. Firstly, it led to popular use of the phrase “Merry Christmas”, and secondly it gave us the word “scrooge” to describe a miserly person. And thirdly, everyone knows that Ebenezer Scrooge uttered the words “Bah! Humbug!”.

45 Cricket : DISNEY BUG JIMINY

In the original novel “Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi, there is a talking cricket, a relatively minor character. Walt Disney gave his cricket a much larger role, and the name “Jiminy”, in his big screen adaptation of the story released in 1940.

50 Wheat species that’s also a British past tense : SPELT

Spelt is a wheat species has been around for thousands of years. Once a staple in the human diet, it was largely replaced by bread wheat. Spelt is seeing a revival in recent years, as its growth is less dependent on artificial fertilizers.

Both “spelled” and “spelt” are valid past tenses for the verb “to spell”, although the former is way more common on this side of the Atlantic. I grew up with “spelt” on the other side of the pond, but its usage is rapidly being replaced by “spelled” in the UK and Ireland.

54 Article in Bonn : DER

After WWII, Bonn was chosen as the capital of West Germany. That choice was promoted by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer who was from the area. After German reunification, the nation’s capital was moved to Berlin.

65 Top-rated TV show of 1984-’85 : DYNASTY

“Dynasty” was ABC’s shot at CBS’s incredibly successful soap opera “Dallas”. Both shows were centered on wealthy oil families, with “Dynasty” starring John Forsythe and Linda Evans in the lead roles. The show didn’t really make much impact on the viewing figures for “Dallas” until season two, when Joan Collins joined the cast as the scheming ex-wife Alexis. “Dynasty” had a very successful run then, from 1981 to 1989.

66 WWII vessels : PT BOATS

PT boats were motor torpedo boats, small speedy vessels that used torpedoes as their primary weapon against large surface ships. The “PT” stands for “Patrol Torpedo”. The most famous PT boats that served during WWII were probably PT-41 that carried General Douglas MacArthur and his family from Corregidor to Mindanao in his escape from the Philippines, and PT-109 commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, future President of the United States.

Down

2 Defunct fruit coating : ALAR

The chemical name for Alar, a plant growth regulator and color enhancer, is “daminozide”. Alar was primarily used on apples but was withdrawn from the market when it was linked to cancer.

6 Political refugee : EMIGRE

An “émigré” is an emigrant. The term is French in origin, and particularly applies to someone who is a political refugee from his or her native land.

7 Barista’s output : LATTES

A barista is a person who serves coffee in a coffee shop. “Barista” is Italian for “bartender”.

10 Many a Middle-earth combatant : ARCHER

Middle-earth is the setting for J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” series.

12 Composer Charles : IVES

Charles Ives was one of the great classical composers, and probably the first American to be so recognized. Sadly, his work largely went unsung (pun intended!) during his lifetime, and was really only accepted into the performed repertoire after his death in 1954.

13 Plastering strip : LATH

The words “lath” and “lattice” have the same root in Old French. Laths are thin strips of wood that are nailed across a frame forming a backing to which plaster can be applied to finish a wall. The term is also used for the main elements in a trellis, or the lengths of wood in a roof to which shingles are nailed.

18 1946 Literature Nobelist : HESSE

Hermann Hesse was not only a novelist, but also a poet and a painter. His best known work is probably his 1927 novel “Steppenwolf”. Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

23 Sports gp. that originally had “Lawn” in its name : USTA

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national organization governing the sport of tennis in the US. The USTA was founded way back in 1881 as the United States National Lawn Tennis Association.

26 Grand Prince of Moscow, 1328-’40 : IVAN I

Ivan I was the Prince of Moscow, and was nicknamed “Kalita” (“Moneybag”). He used his wealth well, giving loans to neighboring principalities. These cities got into so much debt that Ivan’s successors were eventually able to annex them.

27 Litters’ littlest : RUNTS

Back around 1500, a runt was an old or decayed tree stump, and by the early 1600s “runt” was being used to describe animals that were similarly old and decayed. Ultimately “runt” came to mean the smallest and often sickest in a litter.

28 John of music : ELTON

“Elton John” is the stage name of English singer and pianist Reginald Dwight. John is an avid football (soccer) supporter, and is especially enthusiastic about Watford Football Club, which was his local team growing up. After he achieved financial success, John was able to purchase Watford FC, and owned the club from 1976 to 1987, and again from 1997 until 2002.

29 “Barbarella” director Roger : VADIM

Roger Vadim was a French film director who was known for making mainstream films with an erotic quality. Example would be 1956’s “And God Created Woman” and 1968’s “Barbarella”. The former starred Bridgitte Bardot, his wife at that time. The latter starred Jane Fonda, who was his wife when the film was made.

30 Formal identification : IT IS I

The much debated statement “it is I” is grammatically correct, and should not be “corrected” to “it is me”. Traditionally, pronouns following linking verbs, such as “is”, “appear” and “seem”, are written in the nominative case. Examples are:

  • It is I (who called)
  • It was he (who did it)
  • It is we (who care)

31 Deceive : COZEN

“To cozen” is such a lovely verb! Meaning to cheat or hoodwink, it comes from the Middle English word “cosin” meaning fraud or trickery.

32 Board at one’s fingertips : EMERY

Emery is a very hard type of rock that is crushed for use as an abrasive. Emery paper is made by gluing small particles of emery to paper. Emery boards are just emery paper with a cardboard backing. And emery boards are primarily used for filing nails.

37 How “The Banana Boat Song” begins : DAY-O

“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” is a traditional folk song from Jamaica. It is sung from the standpoint of dock workers unloading boats on the night shift, so daylight has come, and they want to go home. The most famous version of “Day-O” was recorded by Harry Belafonte, in 1956.

43 Soft leather : SUEDE

Suede is leather made from the underside of an animal’s skin, usually the skin from a lamb. As such it is very soft, although not as durable as leather made from the exterior skin. The soft leather was, and is still used for making gloves. Back in 1859 these gloves were called “gants de Suede” in France, or “gloves of Sweden”. So, the name “suede” comes from the French word for Sweden.

52 Early banishment site : EDEN

In the Christian tradition, the “fall of man” took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This went against the bidding of God, and was at the urging of the serpent. As a result, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden to prevent them becoming immortal by eating from the tree of life. The first humans had transitioned from a state of innocent obedience to a state of guilty disobedience.

53 Pre-Euro currency : LIRA

The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from a British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro in 2002.

55 Start from scratch : REDO

Apparently the phrase “start from scratch” arose in the world of sports, probably in cricket or boxing. A line would be scratched into the ground to indicate a starting point.

56 Donald, to Huey, Dewey and Louie : UNCA

Donald Duck’s nephews are identical triplets called Huey, Dewey and Louie, and they first appeared on the screen in 1938. Once in awhile due to errors in production, a fourth duck can be seen in the background. This little “mistake” is affectionately called “Phooey Duck” by folks in the industry.

57 “Get lost!” : SCAT!

Our word “scat!” means “get lost!” It comes from a 19th-century expression “quicker than s’cat”, which meant “in a great hurry”. The original phrase probably came from the words “hiss” and “cat”.

58 “… nor shall ever see that face of __ again”: Lear : HERS

In William Shakesepeare’s play “King Lear”, the title character disowns Cordelia, his youngest and most faithful daughter, using the words:

… for we
Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see
That face of hers again.

62 Syr. neighbor : LEB

Lebanon lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. The nation has a rich cultural history, and was home to the ancient civilization of Phoenicia. The name “Lebanon” derives from the Semitic word “lbn” meaning “white”, and is probably a reference to the snow that caps the mountain range known as Mount Lebanon, which parallels the Mediterranean coast.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Center of the Milky Way? : CARAMEL
8 Calder creation : STABILE
15 First state, in a way : ALABAMA
16 Journey’s end : ARRIVAL
17 Cricket : GAME WITH WICKETS
19 Once, in olden days : ERST
20 2000 Bell Atlantic acquisition : GTE
21 Slashed pronoun : HE/SHE
22 Suspect : PRESUME
25 Cricket : WIRELESS SERVICE
33 Seed-to-be : OVULE
34 LAX calculation : ETA
35 Energy source : ATOM
36 They might help you change your position : WANT ADS
39 Prepare for coating, as aluminum : ANODIZE
41 Within: Pref. : ENTO-
42 Land of Freud: Abbr. : AUS
44 Scrooge : MISER
45 Cricket : DISNEY BUG JIMINY
49 Beat by a hair : NOSE OUT
50 Wheat species that’s also a British past tense : SPELT
54 Article in Bonn : DER
55 Fraternity activity : RUSH
59 [Crickets] : [AUDIENCE SILENCE]
63 Like answers that lower test scores : IN ERROR
64 Pre-owned item : USED CAR
65 Top-rated TV show of 1984-’85 : DYNASTY
66 WWII vessels : PT BOATS

Down

1 Source of tweets … or growls : CAGE
2 Defunct fruit coating : ALAR
3 Barrels into : RAMS
4 Help the bad guys : ABET
5 Big mouth : MAW
6 Political refugee : EMIGRE
7 Barista’s output : LATTES
8 Understood : SAW
9 Start to cycle? : TRI-
10 Many a Middle-earth combatant : ARCHER
11 Eco-friendly carrier : BIKE
12 Composer Charles : IVES
13 Plastering strip : LATH
14 Other than this : ELSE
18 1946 Literature Nobelist : HESSE
22 __ bargain : PLEA
23 Sports gp. that originally had “Lawn” in its name : USTA
24 Nasty : MEAN
25 Knocked the socks off : WOWED
26Grand Prince of Moscow, 1328-’40 : IVAN I
27 Litters’ littlest : RUNTS
28 John of music : ELTON
29 “Barbarella” director Roger : VADIM
30 Formal identification : IT IS I
31 Deceive : COZEN
32 Board at one’s fingertips : EMERY
37 How “The Banana Boat Song” begins : DAY-O
38 Fills in : SUBS
40 Drop : OMIT
43 Soft leather : SUEDE
46 Takes the stage : ENTERS
47 Becomes harder to afford : GOES UP
48 Legal scholar : JURIST
50 Came out with : SAID
51 Inconsequential : PUNY
52 Early banishment site : EDEN
53 Pre-Euro currency : LIRA
55 Start from scratch : REDO
56 Donald, to Huey, Dewey and Louie : UNCA
57 “Get lost!” : SCAT!
58 “… nor shall ever see that face of __ again”: Lear : HERS
60 Excluding : NOT
61 Shout : CRY
62 Syr. neighbor : LEB