LA Times Crossword 17 Mar 22, Thursday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Julie Bérubé
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Beginning on End

Happy Saint Paddy’s Day, everyone! Themed answers each comprise two parts, with one sitting ON the other in the grid. The placing of the parts “completes” the full answer:

  • 14A Act cautiously (beginning) : WALK (ON) …
  • 17A (End) : … EGGSHELLS
  • 25A Require formality (beginning) : STAND (ON) …
  • 27A (End) : … CEREMONY
  • 43A Vacillate (beginning) : SIT (ON) …
  • 46A (End) : … THE FENCE
  • 55A Have financial difficulties (beginning) : FALL (ON) …
  • 58A (End) : … HARD TIMES

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

Bill’s time: 7m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Kind of palm : SAGO

When I was growing up in Ireland I was very familiar with pearl sago, which is very similar to pearl tapioca. Pearls of sago are simply little balls of sago starch used to make breads, pancakes, biscuits, or steamed puddings that we ate as kids. Sago comes from the pith of the sago palm tree. To get at the starch the tree has to be cut down and the trunk split to reveal the pith. The pith is crushed and manipulated to make the starch available, which is then washed out of a fibrous suspension. One sago palm tree yields about 150-300 kg of starch. Personally I love the stuff, but then, I am a bit weird …

9 Like some fall days : NIPPY

Something cold might be described as “nippy”, having a “biting” chill.

14 Act cautiously (beginning) : WALK (ON) …
17 (End) : … EGGSHELLS

We’ve been walking on eggshells, behaving cautiously to avoid upsetting someone, since the 1800s. In the 1700s, we were walking on “eggs” to achieve the same result.

16 Asteroids producer : ATARI

I remember being quite addicted to the Atari video arcade game called Asteroids back in the early eighties. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as Asteroids was Atari’s best selling game of all time.

19 Ruhr Valley city : ESSEN

Essen is a large industrial city located on the River Ruhr in western Germany. The city experienced major population growth in the mid-1800s that was driven by the iron works established by the Krupp family.

20 Kia model : RIO

South Korean automaker Kia has been making the subcompact model called the Rio since 2000.

23 Fine restaurants cater to them : PALATES

The roof of the mouth is known as the palate. The anterior part of the palate is very bony, and is called the hard palate. The posterior part is very fleshy and is called the soft palate. The soft palate is muscular and moves to close off the nasal passages while swallowing. We often use the term “palate” figuratively, to describe the sense of taste.

26 Live mixers : DJS

The world’s first radio disc jockey (DJ) was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

30 Web company with a bang : YAHOO!

Jerry Yang and David Filo called their company “Yahoo!” for two reasons. Firstly, a Yahoo is a rude unsophisticated brute from Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”. Secondly, Yahoo stands for “Yet another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”.

An exclamation mark is sometimes referred to as a bang. The term “bang”, in this context, comes from printers’ jargon.

33 Lisbon greeting : OLA

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. It is the westernmost capital city in Europe, and indeed is the westernmost large city on the continent. Lisbon is also the oldest city in Western Europe, and was founded hundreds of years before London, Paris and Rome.

34 Color of Death’s dart, in “Venus and Adonis” : EBON

The reference is to lines in William Shakespeare’s poem “Venus and Adonis”.

Love’s golden arrow at him should have fled,
And not death’s ebon dart to strike him dead.

35 Thurman on screen : UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

36 Fragrant Asian rice : BASMATI

Basmati is a long grain rice that is commonly used in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. The name “basmati” comes from the Sanskrit word “vasmati” meaning “fragrant”. I am a big fan …

40 Name of 13 popes : LEO

The first Pope Leo led the church from 440-461 AD and is now known as Pope Saint Leo the Great. Leo I is famous for having met with the feared Attila the Hun, and persuading him to turn back his invading force that was threatening to overrun Western Europe. The last Pope Leo reigned from 1878-1903. Leo XIII died at the age of 93, making him the oldest of all popes.

41 First name in raga : RAVI

Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the pop singer Norah Jones.

43 Vacillate (beginning) : SIT (ON) …
46 (End) : … THE FENCE

To vacillate is to be indecisive, to waver. The verb “to vacillate” comes from the Latin “vacillare” meaning “to sway to and fro”.

44 Explosive trial : N-TEST

Nuclear test (N-test)

48 Jenny’s offspring : ASS

A female donkey/ass is known as a jenny, and a male is known as a jack, or sometimes “jackass”. We started using the term “jackass” to mean “fool” in the 1820s.

56 Zoo draw : APE

The tailless primates known as apes (also “hominoids”) are divided into two main branches: gibbons (lesser apes) and hominids (great apes). The hominids are the great apes, and belong to the family of primates called Hominidae. Extant genera that make up the family Hominidae are:

  • chimpanzees
  • gorillas
  • humans
  • orangutans

57 The John B, e.g. : SLOOP

Sloops and cutters are sailboats, and each has just one mast. One major difference between the two types of vessel is that the mast on a cutter is set much further aft than the mast on a sloop.

The Beach Boys hit “Sloop John B” is a traditional folk song from the West Indies that was originally titled “The John B. Sails”. The John B. was a real boat, one used for collecting sponges. The John B. foundered and sank in Governor’s Harbor on the Bahamas in or about 1900. The folk song was around as far back as 1927, with recordings being made as early as 1935. The Kingston Trio recorded a version in 1958, as did Johnny Cash in 1959. The Beach Boys version of the song made it to #3 in the US charts in 1966. We liked it even more in Ireland and sent it to the top of the Irish charts.

60 “Day after day, __ on a hill … “: Beatles : ALONE

“The Fool on the Hill” is a 1967 Beatles song that was written and sung by Paul McCartney. According to McCartney, the “fool” in the song is someone perceived and ridiculed, but who is actually quite wise. One of the people who fit that description was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru to the Beatles and other celebrities.

61 Classic Callas role : AIDA

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radames is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

Although Maria Callas was born in New York City, she was educated in music in Greece and launched her career in Italy. Her marvelous performances earned her the nickname “La Davina”, and she was described by Leonard Bernstein as “the Bible of opera …”

62 One left in a cashier’s dish : CENT

The official name of our smallest denomination coin is “cent”, and our use of the word “penny” is just a colloquialism derived from the British coin of the same name. In the UK, the plural of penny is “pence”, whereas we have “pennies” in our pockets.

64 Meredith in a longtime medical drama : GREY

Actress Ellen Pompeo is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”. That gig has paid well. Pompeo was ranked third in the “Forbes” list of highest-paid TV actresses in 2017, with Sofia Vergara (from “Modern Family”) and Kaley Cuoco (from “The Big Bang Theory”) holding the first and second spots respectively.

65 Archaeological finds : URNS

“Archaeology” is a word that looks like it’s British English, and one might be forgiven for using the spelling “archeology” in American English. Even though the latter spelling has been around for a couple of hundred years, the former is the standard spelling on both sides of the Atlantic.

Down

1 Pipsqueak : TWERP

“Twerp” and “pipsqueak” are both terms used for someone who is insignificant and contemptible.

2 __ Sophia: Turkish mosque : HAGIA

Hagia Sophia is an incredibly beautiful church that was built as a Christian basilica, was converted to an imperial mosque, and then converted to a museum in Istanbul. It has a massive dome and was the largest cathedral in the world for almost a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520.

3 Computer language family : ALGOL

ALGOL is a family of computer programming languages that was developed in 1958 by a committee of European and American computer scientists. ALGOL proved to be very influential in the evolution of computer languages, and is considered a forerunner to many languages used today, including Pascal, C and PL/I. Innovations introduced in ALGOL included code blocks and nested functions. The name “ALGOL” is short for “Algorithmic Language”

4 Cal. units : WKS

We have seven days in a week because there are seven classical planets in the Solar System. The days were named for these “planets” during the Roman era:

  • Sun (Sunday)
  • Moon (Monday)
  • Mars (Tuesday)
  • Mercury (Wednesday)
  • Jupiter (Thursday)
  • Venus (Friday)
  • Saturn (Saturday)

5 Uppsala natives : SWEDES

Uppsala is the fourth largest city in Sweden and is home to Uppsala University founded in 1477, the oldest university in the whole of Scandinavia. I very nearly went to study at Uppsala University, but in 1979 and not in 1477 …

6 Van Gogh setting : ARLES

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of living just a short car-ride from the beautiful city of Arles in the South of France. Although Arles has a long and colorful history, the Romans had a prevailing influence over the city’s design. Arles has a spectacular Roman amphitheater, arch, circus as well as old walls that surround the center of the city. In more modern times, it was a place Vincent van Gogh often visited, and was where he painted many of his most famous works, including “Cafe Terrace at Night” and “Bedroom in Arles”.

9 Dance done to the 2015 hit “Watch Me” : NAE NAE

The Nae Nae is a hip hop dance that is named for the 2013 song “Drop that NaeNae” recorded by We Are Toon. The main move in the dance involves swaying with one hand in the air and one hand down, with both feet firmly planted on the dancefloor. Go on, do it. You know you want to …

Rap artist Silentó (born “Richard Hawk”) is perhaps best known for his 2015 hit, and debut single, “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)”. The song’s music video became an Internet sensation, and featured a melding of the two dance moves “Whip” and “Nae Nae”.

11 Traditional Spanish dance derived from a military march : PASO DOBLE

The lively and dramatic dance called the paso doble (Spanish for “double-step”) is very much associated with the Spanish bullfight, but in fact it originated in southern France, where bullfighting is also legal. The dance is based on music that is played at bullfights when the bullfighters enter the arena, and when they close in for the kill. Not a big fan of bullfighting …

13 Feminine side : YIN

The yin and yang can be illustrated using many different metaphors. In one, as the sun shines on a mountain, the side in the shade is the yin and the side in the light is the yang. The yin is also regarded as the feminine side, and the yang the masculine. The yin can also be associated with the moon, while the yang is associated with the sun.

22 Fender guitar model, familiarly : STRAT

The Stratocaster (often “Strat”) is an electric guitar that has been made by Fender since 1954. The company that made Fender electric guitars was founded in Fullerton, California in 1946 by Leo Fender.

25 Ward of “The Fugitive” : SELA

Actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently, Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast. And, Ward played Dr. Richard Kimble’s murdered wife in the 1993 film version of “The Fugitive”.

“The Fugitive”is a 1993 film based on the incredibly successful TV series from the sixties. Harrison Ford plays the title character, with Tommy Lee Jones playing the colorful US Marshal in pursuit. Jones won a Best Supporting Oscar for his performance.

27 Title in a Dumas title : COMTE

“Comte” is the French word for “count”, as in “Le Comte de Monte-Cristo” (The Count of Monte Cristo) by Alexandre Dumas.

Alexandre Dumas, pere (father) was the famed author of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo”. Alexandre Dumas, fils (son) was also a noted writer.

29 2010 Ringo Starr album : Y NOT

Ringo Starr’s 2010 album “Y Not” has overt indications that he has not forgotten his roots in Liverpool with the Beatles. The track “Peace Dream” makes reference to John Lennon, and Paul McCartney plays bass. The lyrics of the track “The Other Side of Liverpool” refer to Starr’s upbringing in Liverpool before he joined the Beatles. Ringo shares the vocals on the track “Walk with You” with Paul McCartney.

30 Home on the Asian steppes : YURT

A yurt is a wood-framed dwelling that is used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. Although a yurt is a substantial structure, it is also extremely portable.

A steppe is a grassland that is devoid of trees, apart from those growing near rivers and lakes. The term “steppe” is Russian in origin, and is used to describe the geographical feature that extends across Eurasia. In South Africa, the same feature is called a “veld”, and in North America it is called a “prairie”.

31 Eastern nanny : AMAH

“Amah” is an interesting word in that we associate it so much with Asian culture and yet the term actually comes from the Portuguese “ama” meaning “nurse”. Ama was imported into English in the days of the British Raj in India when a wet-nurse became known as an amah.

37 Moore co-star : ASNER

Ed Asner was most famous for playing the irascible but lovable Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and on the spin-off drama “Lou Grant”. Off-screen Asner was noted for his political activism. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and was very involved in the 1980 SAG strike. When “Lou Grant” was canceled in 1982, despite decent ratings, there was a lot of talk that the cancellation was a move by the network against Asner personally. In fact, one of Asner’s activist colleagues, Howard Hesseman (who played Johnny Fever) found that his show “WKRP in Cincinnati” was also canceled … on the very same day.

38 Incites to attack : SICS

“Sic ’em” is an attack order given to a dog, one instructing the animal to growl, bark or even bite. The term dates back to the 1830s, with “sic” being a variation of “seek”.

45 “Cats” poet’s monogram : TSE

“Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” is a 1939 collection of poems by T. S. Eliot (TSE). The collection of whimsical poetry was a favorite of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber when he was a child. Webber used Eliot’s poems as inspiration for his megahit musical “Cats”.

50 Musketeer’s word : GARDE

“En garde” is a French term that has been absorbed into the sport of fencing. Originally a warning (“on guard!”), the phrase is used at the start of an encounter to warn the fencers to take a defensive position.

Alexandre Dumas’ “Three Musketeers” are Athos, Porthos and Aramis, although the hero of the novel is the trio’s young protégé D’Artagnan. A musketeer was an infantry soldier who was equipped with a musket. Funnily enough, the three “musketeers” really don’t use their muskets, and are better known for prowess with their swords.

51 League of Legends fanatic, e.g. : GAMER

Apparently, League of Legends (LoL) is a very popular multiplayer online video game. It is often referred to as the world’s largest “e-sport”, with players competing in several organized leagues. League leaders compete in the annual League of Legends World Championship. At one point during the 2019 LoL World Championship, there were 44 million people all viewing the competition’s livestream at the same time.

52 Sch. founded by Franklin : UPENN

The University of Pennsylvania (also “Penn” and “UPenn”) was founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. Penn was the first school in the country to offer both graduate and undergraduate courses. Penn’s sports teams are known as the Quakers, and sometimes the Red & Blue.

53 Loons’ lodgings : NESTS

The bird known as a loon here in North America is called a diver in Britain and Ireland. The name “diver” comes from the bird’s habit of swimming calmly and then suddenly diving below the surface to catch a fish. The name “loon” comes from an Old English word meaning “clumsy” and reflects the awkward gait of the bird when walking on land.

54 Purnell of “Churchill” : ELLA

Ella Purnell is an actress from London, now living in the US, whom I perhaps know best for playing Winston Churchill’s secretary in the 2017 film “Churchill”.

The 2017 war-drama film “Churchill” stars Scottish actor Brian Cox as the title character Winston Churchill. The movie’s storyline focuses on the hours leading up to the Normandy landings on D-Day, 6 June 1944.

59 Post-op stop : ICU

Intensive care unit (ICU)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Reduction in hostility : THAW
5 Kind of palm : SAGO
9 Like some fall days : NIPPY
14 Act cautiously (beginning) : WALK (ON) …
15 Sandwich order : WRAP
16 Asteroids producer : ATARI
17 (End) : … EGGSHELLS
19 Ruhr Valley city : ESSEN
20 Kia model : RIO
21 “Good __!” : IDEA
22 Pry : SNOOP
23 Fine restaurants cater to them : PALATES
25 Require formality (beginning) : STAND (ON) …
26 Live mixers : DJS
27 (End) : … CEREMONY
30 Web company with a bang : YAHOO!
33 Lisbon greeting : OLA
34 Color of Death’s dart, in “Venus and Adonis” : EBON
35 Thurman on screen : UMA
36 Fragrant Asian rice : BASMATI
40 Name of 13 popes : LEO
41 First name in raga : RAVI
43 Vacillate (beginning) : SIT (ON) …
44 Explosive trial : N-TEST
46 (End) : … THE FENCE
48 Jenny’s offspring : ASS
49 Ski equipment : POLES
50 Hot-melt adhesive applier : GLUE GUN
54 Result of rounding, perhaps : ERROR
55 Have financial difficulties (beginning) : FALL (ON) …
56 Zoo draw : APE
57 The John B, e.g. : SLOOP
58 (End) : … HARD TIMES
60 “Day after day, __ on a hill … “: Beatles : ALONE
61 Classic Callas role : AIDA
62 One left in a cashier’s dish : CENT
63 Sidewalk lunch spots : CAFES
64 Meredith in a longtime medical drama : GREY
65 Archaeological finds : URNS

Down

1 Pipsqueak : TWERP
2 __ Sophia: Turkish mosque : HAGIA
3 Computer language family : ALGOL
4 Cal. units : WKS
5 Uppsala natives : SWEDES
6 Van Gogh setting : ARLES
7 Charity event : GALA
8 Photo __ : OPS
9 Dance done to the 2015 hit “Watch Me” : NAE NAE
10 “I’ll get this” : IT’S ON ME
11 Traditional Spanish dance derived from a military march : PASO DOBLE
12 __ school : PREP
13 Feminine side : YIN
18 Mob assignment : HIT JOB
22 Fender guitar model, familiarly : STRAT
24 Big fuss : ADO
25 Ward of “The Fugitive” : SELA
27 Title in a Dumas title : COMTE
28 Rejections : NOES
29 2010 Ringo Starr album : Y NOT
30 Home on the Asian steppes : YURT
31 Eastern nanny : AMAH
32 Stand ready to accuse : HAVE PROOF
37 Moore co-star : ASNER
38 Incites to attack : SICS
39 Put down : INSULT
42 “If you ask me … ” : I, FOR ONE …
45 “Cats” poet’s monogram : TSE
47 Skips the ceremony : ELOPES
48 When some diners serve breakfast : ALL DAY
50 Musketeer’s word : GARDE
51 League of Legends fanatic, e.g. : GAMER
52 Sch. founded by Franklin : UPENN
53 Loons’ lodgings : NESTS
54 Purnell of “Churchill” : ELLA
55 __ trade : FAIR
57 Pouch : SAC
58 Witch : HAG
59 Post-op stop : ICU