LA Times Crossword Answers 10 Nov 2017, Friday

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Constructed by: Jeffrey Wechsler
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Theme: Cosmetologist’s …

Each of today’s themed answers includes an item used by a cosmetologist:

• 17A. Cosmetologist’s choices at happy hour? : BLUSH WINES
• 29A. Cosmetologist’s preferred vacation venue? : OCEAN LINER
• 34A. Cosmetologist’s expression for hastily exiting? : TAKE A POWDER
• 41A. Cosmetologist’s favorite capital? : BATON ROUGE
• 57A. Cosmetologist’s wall covering? : GLOSS PAINT

Bill’s time: 7m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Bills, say : CASH

Our word “cash” comes from the Middle French “caisse” meaning “money box”.

5. Alfredo may be associated with it : PASTA

Alfredo sauce is usually associated with the Italian dish called fettuccine Alfredo. The sauce is made from Parmesan cheese and butter, and is named for the Italian restaurant owner Alfredo Di Lelio. Di Lelio’s nephews still own and run a restaurant in Rome called “Il Vero Alfredo”. Here in the US, we often add other ingredients to the basic cheese and butter recipe. The name “fettuccine Alfredo” won’t be found on a menu in Italy today, and instead one can order “fettuccine al burro”.

14. First name in folk : 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.

15. Yale of Yale fame : ELIHU

Elihu Yale was a wealthy merchant born in Boston in 1649. Yale worked for the British East India Company, and for many years served as governor of a settlement at Madras (now Chennai) in India. After India, Yale took over his father’s estate near Wrexham in Wales. It was while resident in Wrexham that Yale responded to a request for financial support for the Collegiate School of Connecticut in 1701. He sent the school a donation, which was used to erect a new building in New Haven that was named “Yale” in his honor. In 1718, the whole school was renamed to “Yale College”. To this day, students of Yale are nicknamed “Elis”, again honoring Elihu.

16. “Fillet of a fenny snake / In the cauldron __ and bake”: “Macbeth” : BOIL

The witches in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” have some lovely lines as they boil up and evil brew and cast a spell:

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,–
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

17. Cosmetologist’s choices at happy hour? : BLUSH WINES

The term “blush” in the world of wine has only been around since the late seventies, and is really only used here in the US. Today we think of a blush as a relatively sweet pink wine, and a rosé as something more dry.

19. Local govt. bond : MUNI

A municipal bond (A “muni”) is one that is issued by a city or local government, or some similar agency. Munis have an advantage over other investments in that any interest earned on the bond is usually exempt from state and federal income taxes.

23. Janitor’s tool, briefly : VAC

A janitor is someone who takes care of the maintenance or cleaning of a building. An older definition of the term is “doorman”. Our word comes from the Latin “ianitor” meaning “doorkeeper”.

24. Marx collaborator : ENGELS

Friedrich Engels was a German political theorist who worked closely with Karl Marx to develop what became known as Marxist Theory. Along with Marx, he also co-authored “The Communist Manifesto” in 1848, and later he supported Marx as he worked to publish “Das Kapital”.

26. Collapse, with “over” : KEEL

The literal meaning of “keel over” is to capsize, turn a boat over so that her keel lies up from the surface. We use the term figuratively to mean “collapse, faint”.

32. “Art is __ that makes us realize truth”: Picasso : A LIE

Artist and writer Marius de Zayas interviewed Pablo Picasso in 1910, and published the interview in an article titled “Picasso Speaks”. One of Picasso’s most famous quotes (“Art is a lie …”) is found this article:

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.

34. Cosmetologist’s expression for hastily exiting? : TAKE A POWDER

The phrase “to take a powder” means “to scram, vanish”. This meaning was first recorded in the 1920s, and may derive from the medical instruction “take a powder”, which may imply having to make a quick exit!

40. Shrek, e.g. : OGRE

Before “Shrek” was a successful movie franchise and Broadway musical, it was a children’s picture book called “Shrek!” authored and illustrated by William Steig. The title “Shrek!” came from the German/Yiddish word Schreck, meaning “fear” or “terror”.

41. Cosmetologist’s favorite capital? : BATON ROUGE

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.

48. Mark on the Oregon Trail : RUT

The Oregon Trail was established by fur trappers and traders as early as 1811. The first migrant wagon train traveled the route in 1836, starting off in Independence, Missouri and going as far as Fort Hall, Idaho. In the coming years, the trail was extended for wagons as far as the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

49. Like crab apples : TART

The fruit of the crabapple tree is very sour and tart. It is from this acidic quality that we get the term “crab”, describing a person who is grouchy and irritable.

50. Leonine savior’s domain : NARNIA

In the C. S. Lewis series of books known as “The Chronicles of Narnia”, Aslan is the name of the lion character (as in the title “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). “Aslan” is actually the Turkish word for lion. Anyone who has read the books will recognize the the remarkable similarity between the story of Aslan and the story of Christ, including a sacrifice and resurrection.

52. Enzyme suffix : -ASE

Enzymes are basically catalysts, chemicals that act to increase the rate of a particular chemical reaction. For example, starches will break down into sugars over time, especially under the right conditions. However, in the presence of the enzyme amylase (found in saliva) this production of sugar happens very, very quickly.

55. “__ Trigger”: Bugs Bunny cartoon : HARE

Yosemite Sam is a cartoon character who frequently goes up against Bugs Bunny. As Sam himself would say, “I’m the fastest gun north, south, east, aaaaaaand west of the Pecos.” Yosemite Sam made his debut appearance in a 1945 cartoon short titled “Hare Trigger”.

62. Final ordeal, perhaps : ESSAY

An essay might be part of a final examination.

64. Rx contents : MEDS

There seems to some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

Down

1. Brooklyn Bridge array : CABLES

The famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City spans the East River and connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The structures current name was not its first. It was originally known as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge when it was completed in 1883. The name was later changed to the East River Bridge, before being officially dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in 1915.

2. Garfield’s girlfriend : ARLENE

Arlene is a pink stray cat who is fond of the title character in the “Garfield” comic strip by Jim Davis. Garfield is pretty rude to Arlene though, and often makes fun of the gap in her teeth.

5. Place to pray : 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”.

6. Memorable fighter : ALI

After Muhammad Ali passed away in June 2016, there was a large prayer service and funeral procession in his hometown of Louisville. The pallbearers included actor Will Smith and boxer Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Eulogies were delivered by Ali’s wife Lonnie, Billy Crystal, Bryant Gumbel and former President Bill Clinton.

7. Pride, for example : SIN

The cardinal sins of Christian ethics are also known as the seven deadly sins. The seven deadly sins are:

• Wrath
• Greed
• Sloth
• Pride
• Lust
• Envy
• Gluttony

8. Annabel Lee’s kingdom was by it : THE SEA

“Annabel Lee” was the last complete poem written by Edgar Allan Poe. The opening lines are:

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;

The closing lines are:

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

9. Writer who created the Dashwood sisters : AUSTEN

Elinor Dashwood is the delightful main character in Jane Austen’s novel “Sense and Sensibility”. Dashwood is played by Emma Thompson in my favorite adaptation of the story, the 1995 movie of the same name directed by Ang Lee. Actress Thompson wrote the film’s screenplay.

10. Watson’s home : IBM

Watson is a computer system developed by IBM. Watson is designed to answer questions that are posed in natural language, so that it should be able to interpret questions just as you and I would, no matter how the question is phrased. The program is named after the founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. Today’s Watson competed in a few memorable episodes of “Jeopardy!” in 2011 taking out two of the best players of the quiz show. That made for fun television …

11. Snow globe, perhaps : SOUVENIR

A souvenir is a memento, a token of remembrance. We imported the word from French, in which language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin “subvenire” meaning “to come to mind”, or literally “to come up”.

It is believed that the first snow globes were introduced in France in the early 1800s. They were a development of glass paperweights that were already common, and were initially used to do the same job. Do you know who owns the biggest collection of snow globes in the world, over 8,000 of them? That would be the actor Corbin Bernsen of “LA Law” and “Psych” fame.

12. Muezzin’s tower : MINARET

A minaret is an architectural feature of Islamic mosques, a tall tower with an onion-shaped crown that is used for the call to prayer. The world’s oldest minaret is part of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, having been completed in 836 CE. The term “minaret” comes from the Arabic for “lighthouse”.

A muezzin is someone responsible for leading prayer in a mosque. The muezzin is also the man who recites the Adhan, the call to prayer, at five designated times each day.

25. Food fish : SOLE

The group of flatfish known as soles take their name from “solea”, the Latin word for “sandal”. And, they kind of have that shape.

30. Mike Pompeo’s org. : CIA

After six years in the US House of Representatives, Mike Pompeo was named CIA Director by President Trump. Before going into politics, Pompeo served in the US Army for five years, and worked in industry for nine years.

35. Latin lover’s word : AMO

Amo, amas, amat … I love, you love, he/she/it loves, in Latin.

36. Steven of “The Walking Dead” : OGG

Canadian actor Steven Ogg is perhaps best known for playing a character named Simon on the TV horror drama “The Walking Dead”. Ogg also plays Rebus in the HBO sci-fi show “Westworld”.

“The Walking Dead” is a horror television show that is made by AMC that is based on a comic book series of the same name. There are lots of flesh-eating zombies featured, so I won’t be caught “dead” watching it …

37. Small songbird : WREN

A wren is a small songbird belonging to the family troglodytidae and the genus troglodytes. Wrens are known for making dome-shaped nests.

38. Biblical patriarch : ABRAHAM

Abraham is a prominent figure in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions. Abraham was descended from Noah and was the “father” of many tribes including the Israelites and Ishmaelites. In the Christian tradition Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through the Israelite tribe, and in the Muslim tradition Muhammad was a descendant of Abraham through the Ishmaelite tribe.

46. Longtime maker of O gauge track : LIONEL

Lionel is the name most associated with toy trains in the US. The first Lionel trains rolled off the production line in 1901 and they are still produced today, although the original Lionel Corporation is long gone. In 1995, the brand was bought by an investment company that included train enthusiast Neil Young (the singer), and operated as Lionel, LLC. Neil Young’s financial involvement ended after a 2008 reorganization of the company following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, but the company is still producing and selling.

58. Buckeyes’ sch. : OSU

Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus was founded back in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The athletic teams of OSU are called the Buckeyes, named after the state tree of Ohio. In turn the buckeye tree gets its name from the appearance of its fruit, a dark nut with a light patch thought to resemble a “buck’s eye”.

59. Sucker : SAP

“Sap” is slang for a fool, someone easily scammed. The term arose in the early 1800s in Britain when it was used in “saphead” and “sapskull”.

60. Part of CBS: Abbr. : SYS

CBS used to be known as the Columbia Broadcasting System. It is the second-largest broadcaster in the world, second only to the BBC in the UK. CBS introduced its “eye” logo in 1951. That logo is based on a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign.