LA Times Crossword Answers 15 Nov 2017, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Jerry Edelstein
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Theme: Shuffles and Cuts the Deck

Each of today’s themed answers includes the letters DECK, but they have been SHUFFLED, moved around. Also, the space in each 2-word answer CUTS the SHUFFLED DECK:

  • 18A. With 57-Across, what a 37-Across does; also, as the circles show, what each answer containing them does : SHUFFLES AND …
  • 57A. See 18-Across : … CUTS THE DECK
  • 24A. Item that isn’t on its regular hook : MISPLACED KEY
  • 37A. Casino employee : BLACKJACK DEALER
  • 48A. Prepared goodies for the fundraiser : BAKED COOKIES

Bill’s time: 5m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. “Rhoda” production co. : MTM

MTM Enterprises was a television production company founded in 1969 by Mary Tyler Moore, originally to produce the “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. The company subsequently produced the likes of “The Bob Newhart Show”, “Rhoda”, “WKRP in Cincinnati”, “Hill Street Blues” and “St. Elsewhere”. That’s a lot of great television …

The seventies sitcom “Rhoda” starring Valerie Harper was a spinoff of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. The eighth episode of the show was an hour-long special in which Rhoda married her fiance Joe (played by David Groh). At the time of airing it was the second-most watched television episode in history, second only to the 1953 birth of Little Ricky on “I Love Lucy”.

4. It may follow cries of “Bravo!” : ENCORE!

“Encore” is French for “again, one more time”, and is a shout that an audience member will make here in North America to request another song, say. But, the term is not used this way in France. Rather, the audience will shout “Bis!”, which is the Italian for “twice!”

To express appreciation for a male performer at an operatic performance, traditionally one calls out “bravo!”. Appreciation for a female performer is shown by using “brava!”, and for more than one performer by using “bravi!”

14. Longtime coach Parseghian of Notre Dame : ARA

Ara Parseghian coached the Notre Dame football team from 1964 to 1974, a period known as “The Era of Ara”.

15. Chestnut horse : SORREL

The sorrel color of horse is a copper-red, although the term is often used these days to describe any horse with chestnut coloring.

20. Alamo competitor : AVIS

Avis has been around since 1946, and is the second largest car rental agency after Hertz. Avis has the distinction of being the first car rental company to locate a branch at an airport.

The third largest car rental company over recent years is Alamo, a relative newcomer that was founded in 1974. Alamo made inroads (pun!) into the market by popularizing the idea of “unlimited mileage”.

22. DDE’s overseas command : ETO

General Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE) was in command of the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during WWII.

23. Racers in some Wii games : KARTS

“Mario Kart” is a go-kart racing video game series from Nintendo.

35. Journalist Curry : ANN

The television journalist Ann Curry is perhaps best known for the time she spent as co-host on NBC’s “Today” show. NBC executives asked Curry to resign from the “Today” show because ratings were low. I just read online that Curry was also pushed out because of the way she insisted on dressing and because she refused to dye her gray hair. I hope that isn’t true …

36. Warsaw native : POLE

Warsaw is the capital of Poland. The city’s name translates into English as “belonging to Warsz”. Legend has it that Warsz was a fisherman who fell in love with a mermaid called Sawa. It’s a nice story, but actually Warsz was a nobleman from the 12th or 13th century who owned a local village.

37. Casino employee : BLACKJACK DEALER

The card game known as “twenty-one” was first referred to in a book by Cervantes, the author famous for writing “Don Quixote”. He called the game “ventiuna” (Spanish for “twenty-one”). Cervantes wrote his story just after the year 1600, so the game has been around at least since then. Twenty-one came to the US but it wasn’t all that popular so bonus payments were introduced to create more interest. One of the more attractive bonuses was a ten-to-one payout to a player who was dealt an ace of spades and a black jack. This bonus led to the game adopting the moniker “Blackjack”.

42. Tolkien forest shepherd : ENT

Ents are those tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

43. In __: unborn : UTERO

“In utero” is a Latin term meaning “in the uterus”. The Latin “uterus” (plural “uteri”) translates as both “womb” and “belly”. The Latin word was derived from the Greek “hystera” also meaning womb, which gives us the words “hysterectomy”, and “hysterical”.

45. “The A-Team” actor : MR T

Mr. T’s real name is Laurence Tero Tureaud. Mr. T is famous for many things, including the wearing of excessive amounts of jewelry. He started this habit when he was working as a bouncer, wearing jewelry items that had been left behind by customers at a nightclub so that the items might be recognized and claimed. It was also as a bouncer that he adopted the name Mr. T. His catch phrase comes from the movie “Rocky III”. In the film, before he goes up against Rocky Balboa, Mr. T says, “No, I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool”. He parlayed that line into quite a bit of success. He had a reality TV show called “I Pity the Fool”, and produced a motivational video called “Be Somebody … or Be Somebody’s Fool!”.

“The A-Team” is an action television series that originally ran in the eighties. The A-Team was a group of ex-US special forces personnel who became mercenaries. Star of the show was Hollywood actor George Peppard (as “Hannibal” Smith), ably assisted by Mr. T (as “B.A.” Baracus) and Robert Vaughn (as Hunt Stockwell).

46. The “A” in James A. Garfield : ABRAM

James Abram Garfield, the 20th President, was assassinated in office. He was shot twice, and one bullet could not be found (it was lodged in his spine). The inventor Alexander Graham Bell developed a metal detector in an attempt to locate the bullet, but apparently he was unsuccessful because of interference from the metal bed frame on which the president lay. Garfield died two months after being shot.

55. Former transp. regulator : ICC

The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was set up in 1887 to regulate the railroads and later the trucking industry. The ICC was abolished in 1995 and its functions were absorbed by the Surface Transportation Board.

61. Keogh plan rel. : IRA

Keogh plans are retirement plans used by self-employed individuals and small businesses. The plans are named for Democratic member of the US House Eugene James Keogh who sponsored the bill that introduced such plans.

63. Paradise : UTOPIA

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More for his book “Utopia” published in 1516 describing an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

64. Third-qtr. ender : SEP

The month of September is the ninth month in our year, although the name “September” comes from the Latin word “septum” meaning “seventh”. September was the seventh month in the Roman calendar until the year 46 BC when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar. The Julian system moved the start of the year from March 1st to January 1st, and shifted September to the ninth month. The Gregorian calendar that we use today was introduced in 1582.

65. Actress Russo : RENE

The very talented actress Rene Russo is a native of Burbank, California. Russo went to high school (with actor/director Ron Howard), but dropped out in tenth grade. At seventeen, she was given the opportunity to train as a model and within a very short time appeared on the cover of “Vogue”. As her modelling jobs slowed down in her early thirties, Russo made a career change and studied theater and acting. I am so glad she did, as Rene Russo is one of my favorite actresses …

67. Goal line crossings: Abbr. : TDS

Touchdown (TD)

Down

1. Start of a famous palindrome : MADAM …

The three most famous palindromes in English have to be:

  • Able was I ere I saw Elba
  • A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
  • Madam, I’m Adam

One of my favorite words is “Aibohphobia”, although it doesn’t appear in the dictionary and is a joke term. “Aibohphobia” is a great way to describe a fear of palindromes, by creating a palindrome out of the suffix “-phobia”.

2. Eternal City fountain : TREVI

The Trevi Fountain (“Fontana di Trevi”) is a huge fountain in Rome, the largest constructed in the Baroque style. The tradition is that if one throws a coin in the fountain then one is guaranteed a return visit to the city. Tourists throw in an amazing 3,000 euros (over $4,000) every day. The money is collected and is used to stock a supermarket for the needy of the city.

The Italian capital of Rome is known as “The Eternal City”, a name given by ancient Roman poets and writers.

12. Bloke : GENT

“Bloke” is British slang for a fellow. The etymology of “bloke” seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

21. The State of the Union, for one : SPEECH

The US President’s State of the Union (SOTU) address is requirement called out in Article II of the Constitution. George Washington gave the first address before a joint session of Congress in 1790. Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of making a personal address by sending Congress a written document that was then read out by a clerk. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson re-established the custom of delivering the message personally, there have been occasions since then when a written address has had to suffice, the last occasion being in 1981 when Jimmy Carter was in office.

25. Onionlike veggie : LEEK

The leek is a vegetable closely related to the onion and the garlic. It is also a national emblem of Wales (along with the daffodil), although I don’t think we know for sure how this came to be. One story is that the Welsh were ordered to wear leeks in their helmets to identify themselves in a battle against the Saxons. Apparently, the battle took place in a field of leeks.

30. One drawn to controversy : POLEMICIST

“Polemic” can also be spelled as “polemical”. Either way, the term describes something controversial. The word came into English from the Greek “polemos” meaning “war”.

31. Oriole or Jay : ALER

American League (AL)

32. MapMyWalk starting point : ZERO

MapMyWalk is smartphone app that does what it says on the box: maps your walk. Hit the start button when you start your walk, and the stop button at the end of the walk. You then have the option of saving a map of your walk, which you can share with others. One of the benefits of MapMyWalk is that if you are in an unfamiliar location, you can check maps showing walks that others have taken and shared, along with notes they might have made about elevation, distance, degree of difficulty, etc.

33. “Waterloo” band : ABBA

“Waterloo” is the song that effectively launched the astounding career of Swedish band ABBA. They performed “Waterloo” in 1974 as the Swedish entry in the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and walked away with the competition (I remember it well!). The contest has been running since 1956, and “Waterloo” was chosen (in 2005) as the best song in the competition’s history.

36. Former New York governor George : PATAKI

George Pataki is a member of the Republican Party who served as Governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. I happen to know that Pataki’s maternal grandmother is from a village close to where I lived in Ireland. When Pataki was first running for Governor, I met someone in Ireland who was researching Pataki’s Irish roots for him. My guess is that the Irish vote is important in New York State …

38. Weightlifting move : JERK

There are two weightlifting events in the Olympics. One is the “snatch” in which the competitor lifts the barbell from the platform over his or head in one continuous movement. The “clean and jerk” is a two-part lift. The “clean” brings the barbell off the platform mainly using the knees. The “jerk” brings the barbell over the head to complete the lift.

40. German capital : EURO

One of the currencies replaced by the euro was Germany’s Deutsche Mark (known as the “deutschmark” in English).

47. Italian lawn bowling : BOCCIE

The Italian bowling game of “bocce” (often anglicized as “bocci” or “boccie”) is based on a game played in Ancient Rome. “Bocce” is the plural of the Italian word “boccia” meaning “bowl”.

50. Like some seals : EARED

There are three families of seals. The first is the walrus family, the second the eared seals (like sea lions), and thirdly the earless seals (like elephant seals).

53. Beast of burden : MULE

A hinny is the offspring of a male horse (the “h-” from h-orse) and a female donkey/ass (the “-nny” from je-nny). A mule is more common, and is the offspring of a female horse and male donkey/ass.

54. Thames academy : ETON

The world-famous Eton College is located just outside London. It lies between the River Thames, and the Jubilee River. The Jubilee is a 7-mile stretch of man-made waterway that was built in the late 1990s to take overflow from the Thames and reduce flooding around the nearby towns.

59. LAX announcement : 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.

60. __ Kan pet food : KAL

Kal Kan is a brand of pet food that has been marketed since 1936, but is now sold exclusively in Walmart stores.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. “Rhoda” production co. : MTM
4. It may follow cries of “Bravo!” : ENCORE!
10. Brink : EDGE
14. Longtime coach Parseghian of Notre Dame : ARA
15. Chestnut horse : SORREL
16. Witnessed : SEEN
17. B.A. or B.S. : DEG
18. With 57-Across, what a 37-Across does; also, as the circles show, what each answer containing them does : SHUFFLES AND …
20. Alamo competitor : AVIS
22. DDE’s overseas command : ETO
23. Racers in some Wii games : KARTS
24. Item that isn’t on its regular hook : MISPLACED KEY
28. Gear components : TEETH
29. Assist : AID
30. Peace, to Pedro : PAZ
33. Say yes : AGREE
35. Journalist Curry : ANN
36. Warsaw native : POLE
37. Casino employee : BLACKJACK DEALER
41. The two : BOTH
42. Tolkien forest shepherd : ENT
43. In __: unborn : UTERO
44. Stun : AWE
45. “The A-Team” actor : MR T
46. The “A” in James A. Garfield : ABRAM
48. Prepared goodies for the fundraiser : BAKED COOKIES
52. Blotch : SMEAR
55. Former transp. regulator : ICC
56. Confident words : I CAN
57. See 18-Across : … CUTS THE DECK
61. Keogh plan rel. : IRA
62. Many : A LOT
63. Paradise : UTOPIA
64. Third-qtr. ender : SEP
65. Actress Russo : RENE
66. Fireplace shelf : MANTEL
67. Goal line crossings: Abbr. : TDS

Down

1. Start of a famous palindrome : MADAM …
2. Eternal City fountain : TREVI
3. Legal administrator : MAGISTRATE
4. Difficult curve : ESS
5. Tenant’s winter complaint : NO HEAT
6. Source of support : CRUTCH
7. “Friend __?”: sentry’s query : OR FOE
8. Slo-mo reviewer : REF
9. Pipe shape : ELL
10. Composed piece : ESSAY
11. Expensive : DEAR
12. Bloke : GENT
13. Fades to black : ENDS
19. __ out a win : EKED
21. The State of the Union, for one : SPEECH
25. Onionlike veggie : LEEK
26. Moist and chilly : DANK
27. Nice : KIND
30. One drawn to controversy : POLEMICIST
31. Oriole or Jay : ALER
32. MapMyWalk starting point : ZERO
33. “Waterloo” band : ABBA
34. Healthy look : GLOW
35. Pretend : ACT
36. Former New York governor George : PATAKI
38. Weightlifting move : JERK
39. Start a pot : ANTE
40. German capital : EURO
45. Retail outlet : MART
46. Say yes : ACCEPT
47. Italian lawn bowling : BOCCIE
48. Keep moist, in a way : BASTE
49. “What I __ My Summer Vacation”: school essay : DID ON
50. Like some seals : EARED
51. Spells, as of cold weather : SNAPS
52. Emotional mark : SCAR
53. Beast of burden : MULE
54. Thames academy : ETON
58. Run smoothly : HUM
59. LAX announcement : ETA
60. __ Kan pet food : KAL

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