LA Times Crossword 20 Aug 19, Tuesday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Kevin Christian & Kristian House
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Afterlife

Themed answers each comprise two words, and both are often seen AFTER the word “LIFE”:

  • 58A “Field of Dreams” subject, and where both parts of the answers to starred clues can go : AFTERLIFE and AFTER LIFE
  • 17A*Pedigree ancestry : BLOODLINE (lifeblood & lifeline)
  • 25A *Suit tailor’s concern : JACKET SIZE (life jacket & life-size)
  • 35A *Nightly ritual for young children : STORY TIME (life story & lifetime)
  • 49A *Teacher’s outline : LESSON PLAN (life lesson & life plan)

Bill’s time: 5m 52s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 New England fish : COD

In Britain and Ireland, the most common fish that is used in traditional “fish and chips” is Atlantic cod. Cod has been overfished all over the world, and is now considered to be an endangered species by many international bodies. Confrontations over fishing rights in the North Atlantic led to conflicts called “the Cod Wars” between Iceland and the UK in the 1950s and the 1970s, with fishing fleets being protected by naval vessels and even shots being fired.

9 Frosh, next year : SOPH

The term “sophomore” has been used for a student in the second year of university since the 1680’s. The original meaning of the word was “arguer”. The term has Greek roots, from two Greek words that have been artificially combined in English. The Greek “sophos” means “wise”, and “moros” means “foolish”.

15 Boy Scout unit : TROOP

As every little boy (of my era) knows, the Scouting movement was founded by Lord Baden Powell, in 1907. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) soon followed, in 1910. And, the Boy Scouts motto is “Be Prepared”.

17 *Pedigree ancestry : BLOODLINE (lifeblood & lifeline)

A genealogical chart showing the descent from an ancestor is branched and was once said to look like the footprint of a bird, a crane in fact. The Old French for “foot of a crane” is “pied de gru”, from which we get our word “pedigree”. Interesting …

19 Luxury Honda : ACURA

Acura is the luxury brand of the Honda Motor Company. As an aside, Infiniti is the equivalent luxury brand for the Nissan Motor Company, and Lexus is the more luxurious version of Toyota’s models.

20 “Eight Miles High” band, with “The” : BYRDS

The Byrds were a rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1964. The band’s most successful songs were cover versions of earlier hits i.e. “Mr. Tambourine Man” (Bob Dylan) and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” (Pete Seeger).

“Eight Miles High” is a 1966 song by the Byrds. It was banned on American radio for drug references.

24 The Beatles’ “__ Love Her” : AND I

“And I Love Her” is a lovely ballad recorded by the Beatles in 1964. It is one of my favorite Lennon/McCartney compositions. There’s a lovely rendition of the song in the Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night”.

30 Villain played by Josh Brolin in most “Avengers” films : THANOS

Thanos is a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. Thanos was portrayed by Damion Poitier in the 2012 movie “The Avengers”, and by Josh Brolin in several subsequent movies including 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”.

32 Biblical paradise : EDEN

According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers, including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

41 Red Sox manager Alex : CORA

Alex Cora is a retired baseball player who turned to broadcasting with ESPN after he quit playing. He was named manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2017. Cora was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, where he lives during baseball’s off-season.

42 Topeka’s st. : KAN

Topeka is the capital of Kansas, and is located on the Kansas River in the northeast of the state. The name “Topeka” was chosen in 1855 and translates from the Kansa and the Ioway languages as “to dig good potatoes”. The reference isn’t to the common potato but rather to the herb known as the prairie potato (also “prairie turnip”), which was an important food for many Native Americans.

47 “The Lord of the Rings” wizard : GANDALF

Gandalf is an important character in the J. R. R. Tolkien novels “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He is a wizard known as Gandalf the Grey during his life, and as Gandalf the White after he returns from the dead.

53 Barcelona gold : ORO

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, after the capital Madrid. Barcelona is the largest European city that sits on the Mediterranean coast. It is also the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia.

54 Field mouse : VOLE

Vole populations can increase very rapidly. Mama vole is pregnant for just three weeks before giving birth to litters of 5-10 baby voles. Then, the young voles become sexually mature in just one month! If you have one pregnant vole in your yard, within a year you could have over a hundred of the little critters.

55 Diviner’s deck : TAROT

Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

56 Opposite of sur : NORTE

The cardinal directions in Spanish are “norte” (north), “este” (east), “sur” (south) and “oeste” (west).

58 “Field of Dreams” subject, and where both parts of the answers to starred clues can go : AFTERLIFE and AFTER LIFE

“Field of Dreams” is a fantasy drama about baseball, released in 1989 and starring Kevin Costner. The movie is an adaptation of a 1982 novel titled “Shoeless Joe” by Canadian author W. P. Kinsella. Shoeless Joe Jackson was a real baseball player, and someone associated with the Black Sox Scandal that allegedly affected the outcome of the 1919 World Series. Jackson was portrayed by Ray Liotta in the movie. “Field of Dreams” was also the last film in which Burt Lancaster made an appearance. The baseball stadium that was built for the movie can be visited in Dubuque County, Iowa.

61 Movie legend Greta : GARBO

Famously, Greta Garbo lived a life of seclusion in New York City after she retired from the entertainment business. Commentators often associated her need for privacy with a line she uttered in the great 1932 movie “Grand Hotel”. Her character Grusinskaya the Russian ballerina said, “I want to be alone (…) I just want to be alone”.

63 Actress Vardalos : NIA

Not only is the delightful Nia Vardalos the star of the 2002 hit movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, she also wrote the screenplay. The film never made it to number one at the box office, but it still pulled in more money than any other movie in history that didn’t make it to number one. That record I think reflects the fact that the film wasn’t a blockbuster but rather a so-called “sleeper hit”, a movie that people went to see based on referrals from friends. The big fat mistake came when a spin-off TV show was launched, “My Big Fat Greek Life”. It ran for only 7 episodes. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” hit movie theaters in 2016.

64 Cannon of “Heaven Can Wait” (1978) : DYAN

Actress Dyan Cannon is perhaps best known for playing Alice in the 1969 film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Cannon is also famous for having been on Cary Grant’s long list of wives, from 1965 to 1968 (and he was 33 years her senior).

65 Sinatra classic with Anka lyrics : MY WAY

The song “My Way” has lyrics that were written by Paul Anka in 1969, but the tune itself was composed two years earlier by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. The song had been released with completely different lyrics in France as “Comme d’habitude” (“As Usual”). When Anka heard the song on television in Paris he sought out and obtained the rights to use it himself, for free. Supposedly, “Comme d’habitude” has been recorded in more languages, by more artists than any other song in the contemporary repertoire.

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Frank Sinatra was married four times in all. His first wife, and mother of his three children, was Nancy Barbato. Barbato and Sinatra met in Jersey City while in their teens, and married in their early twenties in 1939. They divorced in 1951 following a string of affairs that Sinatra had after he moved his family to Hollywood. One of those very public affairs was with actress Ava Gardner, who became Sinatra’s second wife a few months after divorcing Barbato. That marriage lasted until 1957. Sinatra then married actress Mia Farrow, when she was 21 years old and he was 29 years her senior. That marriage only lasted a couple of years. Sinatra’s last marriage took place in 1976, and was Barbara Blakely Marx, the ex-wife of Zeppo Marx of the Marx Brothers.

66 PIN requester : ATM

One enters a Personal Identification Number (PIN) when using an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Given that the N in PIN stands for “number”, then “PIN number” is a redundant phrase. And, given that the M in ATM stands for “machine”, then “ATM machine” is a redundant phrase as well. Grr …!

Down

1 Sauerkraut, mainly : CABBAGE

“Sauerkraut” translates from German as “sour herb” or “sour cabbage”. During WWI, sauerkraut producers changes its name in order to distance their product from the “enemy”. They called it “Liberty cabbage”.

5 Rose of Guns N’ Roses : AXL

Guns N’ Roses is a hard rock band founded in 1985 that is still going strong. The group was pulled together by Axl Rose, the lead vocalist. The lead-guitar player back then was Tracii Guns, and it was the combination of Axl and Tracii’s “family” names that led to the band being called Guns N’ Roses.

7 “Hardball” cable channel : MSNBC

“Hardball with Chris Matthews” is a nightly talk-show about politics, airing on MSNBC. The show’s host, Chris Matthews, is a colorful character. Matthews served with the Peace Corps from 1968 to 1970, in Swaziland in Africa. He has been back to Africa since and found himself hospitalized in 2002, suffering from malaria that he picked up on one of his trips.

8 Rib eye, for one : STEAK

If you’re in Australia or New Zealand and looking for a rib eye steak, you need to order a “Scotch fillet”.

9 Baseball great Musial’s nickname : STAN THE MAN

Stan Musial was a retired baseball player who went by the nickname “Stan the Man”, a moniker he was awarded by the Brooklyn Dodgers fans in 1946. Apparently, off the field Stan was quite the harmonica player.

10 Beast fought by 47-Across : ORC
(47A “The Lord of the Rings” wizard : GANDALF)

According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth (also called “Mordor”). They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

11 Canadian french fries dish : POUTINE

“Poutine” is a dish that originated in rural Quebec in the late fifties. It is made with french fries covered in a brown gravy sauce, all topped with cheese curds.

18 Chief Norse god : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. He is usually depicted as having one eye, reflecting the story of how he gave one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

22 Like some mil. officers : RET

Retired (“ret.” or “retd.”)

25 Weaponless self-defense : JUDO

Judo is a martial art from Japan that was developed relatively recently, in 1882. The name “judo” translates as “gentle way”. Practitioners of judo proceed through a series of proficiency grades known as the kyu-dan system. At each progression, a different colored belt is awarded.

33 It has both Kings and Queens counties, briefly : NYC

The New York City borough of Brooklyn has the same boundaries as Kings County, which is the most populous county in the state of New York.

Queens is the largest borough in New York City, and is today coterminous with Queens County. Queens is an amazingly diverse location in terms of ethnicity. There is a population of over 2 million people, with almost 50% of that population being foreign-born. Apparently there are over 130 native languages spoken in the area. Queens was named for Catherine of Braganza (from Portugal), Queen consort of King Charles II of England.

36 Roman robe : TOGA

In ancient Rome, the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae” or “togas”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

37 Persian Gulf republic : IRAN

Before 1935, the country we know today as Iran was referred to as Persia by the Western world. The official name of the country since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.

39 “Not Taken” place in a Frost poem title : THE ROAD

Robert Frost had a poem published in 1916 in which he describes the road he took in the last lines:

I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Because of these last lines, the poem is often assumed to be titled “The Road Less Traveled”. In fact, the poem’s correct name is “The Road not Taken”. Quite interesting …

42 Catastrophic New Orleans hurricane : KATRINA

2005’s Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest hurricane in US history since 1928, with over 1200 people perishing in the event itself and in the subsequent flooding.

43 The whole shebang : ALL OF IT

The word “shebang” is probably a derivative of “shebeen”, which is an Irish term describing a “speakeasy”, an establishment where liquor was drunk and sold illegally. In English, a “shebang” was originally a “hut” or a “shed”. Just how this evolved into the expression “the whole shebang”, meaning “everything”, is unclear.

44 Cardinals or Falcons : NFL TEAM

The Arizona Cardinals were founded in 1898 as the Chicago Cardinals. That makes the Cardinals the oldest, continuously-run professional football team in the whole country.

The Atlanta Falcons joined the NFL in 1965. The team name was suggested by a schoolteacher called Miss Julia Elliott. Elliot suggested that “the Falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.”

46 Frequent co-producer of U2 albums : ENO

Brian Eno is a musician, composer and record producer from England who first achieved fame as the synthesizer player with Roxy Music. As a producer, Eno has worked with David Bowie, Devo, Talking Heads and U2.

48 Dashboard feature : DIAL

Back in the 1800s, “dashboard” was the name given to a board placed at the front of a carriage to stop mud from “dashing” against the passengers in the carriage, mud that was kicked up by the hoofs of the horses. Quite interesting …

50 Suffix with proto- or cyto- : -PLASM

The word “protoplasm” comes from the Greek, meaning first (protos) thing formed (plasma). It is the name given to the cell contents, everything that is surrounded by the plasma membrane. The protoplasm in most cells is divided into two parts, the cytoplasm which surrounds the nucleus, and the nucleoplasm found within the nucleus.

All of the material within a cell membrane, excluding the cell nucleus, is referred to as the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm comprises 80% water.

51 Southpaw : LEFTY

A southpaw is left-handed. The term “southpaw” arose as baseball slang in the mid-1880s to describe a left-handed pitcher. Back then, baseball diamonds were often laid out with home plate to the west. So, a pitcher’s left hand would be on his “south” side as he faced the batter.

55 Low card : TREY

A trey is a three in a deck of cards. The term “trey” can also be used for a domino with three pips, and even a three-point play in basketball.

57 Sched. question mark : TBA

Something not yet on the schedule (“sked” or “sched.”) is to be advised/announced (TBA).

60 “2 Fast 2 Furious” actress Mendes : EVA

I best know the actress Eva Mendes as the female lead in the movie “Hitch”, in which she played opposite Will Smith. Mendes was known off the screen for dating actor Ryan Gosling from 2011 to 2013.

“2 Fast 2 Furious” … and perhaps 2 many “Fast and Furious” movies 2 bother watching …?

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 New England fish : COD
4 Seriously injures : MAIMS
9 Frosh, next year : SOPH
13 “Should I take that as __?” : A NO
14 Are : EXIST
15 Boy Scout unit : TROOP
17 *Pedigree ancestry : BLOODLINE (lifeblood & lifeline)
19 Luxury Honda : ACURA
20 “Eight Miles High” band, with “The” : BYRDS
21 Farm building : BARN
23 Up to, in ads : ‘TIL
24 The Beatles’ “__ Love Her” : AND I
25 *Suit tailor’s concern : JACKET SIZE (life jacket & life-size)
28 Prospective elevator passenger’s query : GOING UP?
30 Villain played by Josh Brolin in most “Avengers” films : THANOS
31 Flock female : EWE
32 Biblical paradise : EDEN
34 Olympics segment : EVENT
35 *Nightly ritual for young children : STORY TIME (life story & lifetime)
38 On the ocean : AT SEA
41 Red Sox manager Alex : CORA
42 Topeka’s st. : KAN
45 “I want to see” : SHOW ME
47 “The Lord of the Rings” wizard : GANDALF
49 *Teacher’s outline : LESSON PLAN (life lesson & life plan)
52 “__ all work out” : IT’LL
53 Barcelona gold : ORO
54 Field mouse : VOLE
55 Diviner’s deck : TAROT
56 Opposite of sur : NORTE
58 “Field of Dreams” subject, and where both parts of the answers to starred clues can go : AFTERLIFE and AFTER LIFE
61 Movie legend Greta : GARBO
62 Appliance with burners : STOVE
63 Actress Vardalos : NIA
64 Cannon of “Heaven Can Wait” (1978) : DYAN
65 Sinatra classic with Anka lyrics : MY WAY
66 PIN requester : ATM

Down

1 Sauerkraut, mainly : CABBAGE
2 “Just this second” : ONLY NOW
3 Desperate : DO-OR-DIE
4 Drugs from docs : MEDS
5 Rose of Guns N’ Roses : AXL
6 Three on a sundial : III
7 “Hardball” cable channel : MSNBC
8 Rib eye, for one : STEAK
9 Baseball great Musial’s nickname : STAN THE MAN
10 Beast fought by 47-Across : ORC
11 Canadian french fries dish : POUTINE
12 Where land and sky seem to meet : HORIZON
16 Most colorless : PALEST
18 Chief Norse god : ODIN
22 Like some mil. officers : RET
25 Weaponless self-defense : JUDO
26 Mimic : APER
27 Goalie’s goal : SAVE
29 “Hurry!” : GET A MOVE ON!
33 It has both Kings and Queens counties, briefly : NYC
35 Uses needle and thread : SEWS
36 Roman robe : TOGA
37 Persian Gulf republic : IRAN
38 Comparable in duration : AS LONG
39 “Not Taken” place in a Frost poem title : THE ROAD
40 “My apologies” : SO SORRY
42 Catastrophic New Orleans hurricane : KATRINA
43 The whole shebang : ALL OF IT
44 Cardinals or Falcons : NFL TEAM
46 Frequent co-producer of U2 albums : ENO
48 Dashboard feature : DIAL
50 Suffix with proto- or cyto- : -PLASM
51 Southpaw : LEFTY
55 Low card : TREY
57 Sched. question mark : TBA
59 Disabled car need : TOW
60 “2 Fast 2 Furious” actress Mendes : EVA