LA Times Crossword 10 Nov 20, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Jerry Edelstein
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): There, Are Six Ways

The end of each themed answer includes the letter string A-R-E arranged in six different ways:

  • 16A Carrier to Cork and Shannon : AER LINGUS
  • 22A She played Ika in “Quest for Fire” : RAE DAWN CHONG
  • 29A “Really?” : ARE YOU SURE?
  • 41A Best Actor nominee for “The Crying Game” : STEPHEN REA
  • 46A Ignore, with “to” : TURN A DEAF EAR
  • 59A Period preceding Reagan’s presidency : CARTER ERA

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 4m 45s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Church seating : PEW

A pew is a bench in a church, one usually with a high back. The original pews were raised and sometimes enclosed seats in the church used by women and important men or families. “Pew” comes from the Old French “puie” meaning “balcony, elevation”.

4 The boy who cried wolf, e.g. : LIAR

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is one of Aesop’s fables, and the tale that gives rise to our phrase “to cry wolf” meaning “to give a false alarm”. In the fable, a shepherd boy is in the habit of tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock by crying “Wolf!”. When an actual attack is made, the villages assume it’s another false alarm and the sheep are eaten by the wolf.

12 Señora Perón : EVA

Eva Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón who was in office from 1946 to 1955. The Argentine First Lady was known affectionately by the people as “Evita”, the Spanish language diminutive of “Eva”. “Evita” is also the title of a tremendously successful musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that is based on the life of Eva Perón.

16 Carrier to Cork and Shannon : AER LINGUS

Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! Well, the service isn’t that great, but when I get on board an Aer Lingus plane I feel like I am back in Ireland. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, with “Aer Lingus” being a phonetic spelling of the Irish “aer-loingeas” meaning “air fleet”. These days Aer Lingus can only lay claim to the title of Ireland’s oldest airline as it is no longer the biggest. That honor goes to the controversial budget airline Ryanair.

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland. Cork has been a major port for many years, and was the last port of call for many, many Irish emigrants to America. When these Irish people reached the US it was common for them to give their point of origin as “Cork”, whereas they may have come from almost anywhere in Ireland. It’s because of this that many descendants of Irish immigrants who had been told they were from a Cork family often find out they were under a misapprehension as their ancestors just sailed from Cork.

The town of Shannon in the west of Ireland is named for the nearby River Shannon. The town is home to Shannon Airport, which used to be the most convenient stopping point for flights between North America and Europe. Shannon Airport is home to the longest runway in Ireland, and was designated by NASA as an authorized emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle.

21 Kitchen protector with strings : APRON

In Old French, a “naperon” was “small table-cloth”. The term was absorbed into English as “napron”, describing a cloth used to cover the front of a person at work. Over time, “a napron” was heard as “an apron”, giving us our contemporary noun “apron”.

22 She played Ika in “Quest for Fire” : RAE DAWN CHONG

Rae Dawn Chong is the daughter of Tommy Chong, of “Cheech and Chong” fame. Rae Dawn acted in quite a few films in the eighties and nineties, including “The Color Purple” and “Commando”.

“Quest for Fire” is a 1981 film that is an adaptation of a 1911 novel “The Quest for Fire” by J.-H. Rosny. The story is set in Paleolithic Europe and centers on a tribe of cavemen struggling to control fire. I haven’t seen this one, but it does sound interesting …

25 Tiered Eastern temple : PAGODA

Pagodas are tiered (“storied”) towers found in various parts of Asia that are usually built for religious purposes.

37 Letters before a pen name : AKA

Also known as (aka)

38 Back of a hit 45 record : B-SIDE

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.

40 Rocky crest : TOR

A tor is a high, rocky hill. “Tor” comes from the Old English “torr”, the word for a tower or rock, which in turn comes from the Old Welsh “twrr” meaning a heap or a pile.

41 Best Actor nominee for “The Crying Game” : STEPHEN REA

Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

“The Crying Game” is a fascinating film that made quite a splash when it was released in 1992. Although it was set in Ireland and the UK, it didn’t do well in cinemas in either country yet made a lot of money over here in the US. I think the politics of the movie were a bit raw for Irish and UK audiences back then. It’s an unusual plot, blending Irish political issues with some raw sexuality questions. I won’t tell you about the “surprise scene”, just in case you haven’t seen it and want to do so.

45 Colossus island : RHODES

A colossus (plural “colossi”) is an exceptionally large statue, the most famous of which was the Colossus of Rhodes. This was a statue of the god Helios that stood over 100 feet tall, on the Greek island of Rhodes. New York’s Statue of Liberty was designed to have similar dimensions. The Emma Lazarus poem that is inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty is in fact titled “The New Colossus”.

Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese, a group of Greek islands straddling the boundary shared by the Aegean and the Mediterranean Seas. Famously, it was once home to the giant statue known as the Colossus of Rhodes, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Some people hold that the US state of Rhode Island is named for the Greek island of Rhodes.

52 Chinese, for example : ASIAN

The world’s most populous country is the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Republic of China (ROC) is the official name of the sovereign state that we usually call Taiwan.

53 Baton Rouge sch. : LSU

LSU’s full name is Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, and is located in Baton Rouge. LSU was founded in 1860 as a military academy, with then-Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent.

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the state of Louisiana. The name “Baton Rouge” is French for “red stick” or “red staff”. The exact reason why such a name was given to the city isn’t really clear.

58 Italian sauce with pine nuts : PESTO

The Italian term “pesto” applies to anything made by pounding. What we tend to know as pesto sauce is more properly called “pesto alla genovese”, i.e. pesto from Genoa in northern Italy. I love, love pesto sauce …

59 Period preceding Reagan’s presidency : CARTER ERA

President Jimmy Carter was the 39th President, and the only US president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after leaving office (Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama have also been so honored, but while in office).

Like all presidents, President Ronald Reagan had his supporters and his detractors. On the one hand, he was known as “the Great Communicator” because of his ability to connect with Americans. On the other hand, President Reagan earned the nickname “the Teflon President” in some quarters because of a perception that he would not get blamed for anything he did wrong.

61 Tavern mug : STEIN

A stein is a type of beer glass. The term is German in origin, and is short for “Steinkrug” meaning “stone jug”. “Stein” is German for “stone”.

63 Boomer’s kid : X-ER

The term “Generation X” originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By one definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

A baby boomer is someone who was born in the post-WWII baby boom. The rate of births had been falling fairly steadily in the US at least since 1900, but this trend was sharply reversed in 1946 after WWII. The higher birth rate continued until 1964, when it returned to pre-war levels. Since then the birth rate has continued to decline, although at a slower pace. The period between 1946 and 1964 is often defined as the “baby boom”.

66 Mattel product : TOY

Mattel is the world’s largest toy manufacturer. Mattel was founded by Harold “Matt” Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945, and they chose the company name by combining “Matt” with “El-liot” giving “Matt-el”.

Down

2 Daredevil Robbie’s dad : EVEL

Daredevil Evel Knievel contracted hepatitis C from the many blood transfusions that he needed after injuries incurred during stunts. He had to have a liver transplant as a result, but his health declined after that. Knievel eventually passed away in 2007.

4 “Hamilton” creator __-Manuel Miranda : LIN

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a composer and playwright from New York City, and the creator and star of the hit Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights”. Miranda also co-wrote the songs for the 2016 Disney animated feature “Moana”. He started composing early, and wrote jingles as a child. One of those jingles was later used by Eliot Spitzer in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

5 “__ We Trust”: U.S. motto : IN GOD

“In God we trust” was adopted as the official motto of the US in 1956. The phrase apparently originated in the national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the words of which were written during the War of 1812. The actual wording in the anthem is “And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust’”. Over time, this lyric evolved to “In God we trust”.

6 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.

8 Regal abode : PALACE

Our word “palace” ultimately comes from the name of Rome’s Palatine Hill, “Mons Palatinus” in Latin. The original “palace” was the house of Augustus Caesar, which stood on the Palatine Hill.

9 Hebrew A’s : ALEPHS

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and beth is the second.

10 Part of TNT : NITRO

“TNT” is an abbreviation for “trinitrotoluene”. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

13 Onetime Japanese emperors : MIKADOS

“Mikado” is an obsolete term used in English to refer to the Emperor of Japan. “Mikado” translates literally as “the honorable gate”, a reference to the gate of the imperial palace.

15 Neil Diamond work : SONG

I saw Neil Diamond in concert back in the mid-nineties, and I must say he put on a great show. His voice is cracking a bit, but that didn’t seem to spoil anyone’s enjoyment. I’ve also seen Diamond interviewed a few times on television, and I wouldn’t say he has the most scintillating of personalities.

17 Composer Anderson and Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad” Brown : LEROYS

Leroy Anderson was a composer of light orchestral music, a lot of which was first recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra. His “Blue Tango” topped the charts in 1951, and became the first instrumental ever to sell over a million copies. Anderson also wrote “Sleigh Ride”, which is a signature piece for the Boston Pops.

“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” is a song written and first performed by Jim Croce. It was a number-one hit for him in 1973. The song was inspired by a real-life Leroy Brown, who was someone that Croce met while serving in the US Army.

23 Nice water? : EAU

The French city of Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in the southeast of the country. Although Nice is only the fifth most populous city in France, it is home to the busiest airport outside of Paris. That’s because of all the tourists flocking to the French Riviera.

24 “Science Guy” Bill : NYE

That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. Bill’s show ran on PBS for four years, from 1993-97.

26 Woody’s son : ARLO

Singer Arlo Guthrie is known for his protest songs, just like his father Woody Guthrie. The younger Guthrie only ever had one song in the top 40: a cover version of “City of New Orleans”. He has lived for years in the town of Washington, just outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His 1976 song “Massachusetts” has been the official folk song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1981.

31 Luau strings : UKE

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

32 Eminem genre : RAP

Rap star Eminem’s real name is Marshall Mathers. Mathers grew up poor in Saint Joseph, Missouri. He was raised by a single-mom as the family was abandoned by his father when he was 18 months old. Marshall and his mother moved around the country before settling in a suburb of Detroit. He didn’t do well at school, and dropped out at the age of 17. But in the end he made it pretty big …

33 Cardinal or oriole : BIRD

Cardinals are a family of birds that inhabit the Americas. The northern cardinal is the species from which the family gets the cardinal name. It was named by early settlers from Europe for the red crest on the male, the color of which resembled the color of a Roman Catholic cardinal’s biretta (a square cap).

The Baltimore oriole is a small bird with a largely yellow body. The male’s coloring of black and yellow resembles the colors of the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore, the first Governor of the Province of Maryland, and so the bird was given the name “Baltimore” oriole. It is the state bird of Maryland, and lends its name to the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.

34 Cannes concept : IDEE

In French, a “penseur” (thinker) might use his or her “tête” (head) to produce an “idée” (idea).

Cannes is a city on the French Riviera that is noted as host of the Cannes Film Festival. The decision to host an annual film festival was adopted by the city just before WWII. However, the festival had to wait for the end of the war for its launch in 1946.

41 Australian airport code : SYD

Australia’s Sydney Airport (SYD) is located just five miles south of the city center, and next to Botany Bay. There have been plans dating back to the 1940s to build a second airport on the outskirts of the city.

42 Charlemagne’s realm: Abbr. : HRE

The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) existed from 962 to 1806 AD and was a territory of varying size over the centuries that centered on the Kingdom of Germany. The HRE was a successor to the western half of the Ancient Roman Empire.

Charlemagne was the first king to use the title “Holy Roman Emperor”, even though the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was not actually founded until over a century later when Otto I was crowned Emperor. Otto was the first of an unbroken line of Holy Roman Emperors who ruled Central Europe from 962 until 1806.

43 How football games rarely end : IN A TIE

Those would be American football games, and certainly not association football (soccer) games.

44 EOS cameras, e.g. : CANONS

I’ve been using Canon EOS cameras for decades now, and have nothing but good things to say about both the cameras and the lenses. The EOS name stands for Electro-Optical System, and was chosen because it evokes the name of Eos, the Titan goddess of dawn from Greek mythology.

49 Legendary Spanish hero : EL CID

“El Cid” is an epic film released in 1961 that tells the story of the Castilian knight who was known as El Cid. The two big names at the top of the cast were Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, but just who was the biggest star? When Loren discovered that a huge billboard promoting the movie in Times Square showed that her name was below Heston’s, she sued the movie’s producers.

50 South American grilled meat dish : ASADO

In much of South America, the event we know as a barbecue is referred to as an “asado”, with “asado” translating from Spanish as “roast”. The “asador” is the “roaster”, the person roasting the meat.

55 Deli counter call : NEXT!

The word “delicatessen” (or “deli” for short) came into English from the German “Delikatessen”. The Germans borrowed the word from French, in which language “délicatesse” means “delicious things (to eat)”. The term’s ultimate root is “delicatus”, the Latin for “giving pleasure, delightful”.

56 Early Hydrox rival : OREO

The Oreo cookie was introduced in 1912. The Oreo was intended to be a competitor to the very similar Hydrox cookie which had debuted four years earlier. The Oreo won the resulting battle on the grocery store shelves …

57 Contrary girl of rhyme : MARY

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Church seating : PEW
4 The boy who cried wolf, e.g. : LIAR
8 Hint of hunger : PANG
12 Señora Perón : EVA
13 Soften the effect of, as words : MINCE
14 Pen name : ALIAS
16 Carrier to Cork and Shannon : AER LINGUS
18 Release : LET GO
19 Streamlined, as a sports car : SLEEK
20 Miner’s find : ORE
21 Kitchen protector with strings : APRON
22 She played Ika in “Quest for Fire” : RAE DAWN CHONG
25 Tiered Eastern temple : PAGODA
28 “Definitely” : YES
29 “Really?” : ARE YOU SURE?
33 Chomped : BIT
36 Graduating group : CLASS
37 Letters before a pen name : AKA
38 Back of a hit 45 record : B-SIDE
40 Rocky crest : TOR
41 Best Actor nominee for “The Crying Game” : STEPHEN REA
43 Slippery, as a winter road : ICY
45 Colossus island : RHODES
46 Ignore, with “to” : TURN A DEAF EAR
52 Chinese, for example : ASIAN
53 Baton Rouge sch. : LSU
54 Snake secretion : VENOM
58 Italian sauce with pine nuts : PESTO
59 Period preceding Reagan’s presidency : CARTER ERA
61 Tavern mug : STEIN
62 Killed time : IDLED
63 Boomer’s kid : X-ER
64 Change for a ten : ONES
65 Prescribed medication amount : DOSE
66 Mattel product : TOY

Down

1 “Split” veggies : PEAS
2 Daredevil Robbie’s dad : EVEL
3 Suffix with hard or soft : -WARE
4 “Hamilton” creator __-Manuel Miranda : LIN
5 “__ We Trust”: U.S. motto : IN GOD
6 Luxury Honda : ACURA
7 Fix with thread : RESEW
8 Regal abode : PALACE
9 Hebrew A’s : ALEPHS
10 Part of TNT : NITRO
11 Be unable to swallow : GAG ON
13 Onetime Japanese emperors : MIKADOS
15 Neil Diamond work : SONG
17 Composer Anderson and Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad” Brown : LEROYS
23 Nice water? : EAU
24 “Science Guy” Bill : NYE
25 Agreement : PACT
26 Woody’s son : ARLO
27 Camping equipment : GEAR
30 Grabbed a chair : SAT
31 Luau strings : UKE
32 Eminem genre : RAP
33 Cardinal or oriole : BIRD
34 Cannes concept : IDEE
35 Black or green beverages : TEAS
38 Acted properly : BEHAVED
39 Noisy napper : SNORER
41 Australian airport code : SYD
42 Charlemagne’s realm: Abbr. : HRE
43 How football games rarely end : IN A TIE
44 EOS cameras, e.g. : CANONS
46 Brewpub lineup : TAPS
47 Was of __: helped : USE TO
48 Up : RISEN
49 Legendary Spanish hero : EL CID
50 South American grilled meat dish : ASADO
51 Rolls up, as a flag : FURLS
55 Deli counter call : NEXT!
56 Early Hydrox rival : OREO
57 Contrary girl of rhyme : MARY
60 Golf ball holder : TEE