LA Times Crossword Answers 24 Dec 13, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Ray Hamel
THEME: Start with an iPod … today’s themed answers each start with an iPod model. Maybe there’s one waiting for you under the Christmas tree:

17A. Score before an extra point TOUCHDOWN (giving “iPod Touch”)
25A. Ship deck game SHUFFLEBOARD (giving “iPod Shuffle”)
41A. Microscopic bit NANOPARTICLE (giving “iPod Nano”)
54A. Part of many a Mod wardrobe MINISKIRT (giving “iPod Mini”)

61A. Popular Apple, versions of which begin 17-, 25-, 41- and 54-Across IPOD

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 48s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Peak ACME
The “acme” is the highest point, coming from the Greek word “akme” which has the same meaning.

5. Morning co-host Kelly RIPA
When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting job.

9. Sub finder SONAR
The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defence demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the IC from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR, playing off the related application, RADAR. And so the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

15. “An apple __ …” A DAY
Apparently the old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” originated in Pembrokeshire in Wales. There was a local proverb in the area quoted in print in the mid-1800s:
Eat an apple on going to bed,
And you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.

16. Japanese cartoon art ANIME
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director and animator who specializes in producing anime feature films. Anime is animation in the style of Japanese manga comic books.

17. Score before an extra point TOUCHDOWN (giving “iPod Touch”)
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant and gaming console with a WiFi capability. Essentially I think it’s a stripped-down version of an iPhone.

19. Annapolis frosh PLEBE
“Plebe” is a slang term for a freshman in the US military and naval academies. Plebe is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in Ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of plebeian, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

“Frosh” is a slang term for a college freshman. We call them “freshers” back in Ireland …

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is located in Annapolis, Maryland. The USNA was founded in 1845 and educates officers for both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. The motto of the USNA is “Ex Scientia Tridens”, which translates as “From Knowledge, Sea Power”.

22. Actress Sissy SPACEK
The actress Sissy Spacek probably got her big break in movies when she played the title role in the 1976 horror movie “Carrie”, which is based on the Stephen King novel. Her most acclaimed role is the lead in the 1980 biopic about Loretta Lynn called “Coal MIner’s Daughter”, for which she won an Oscar. Spacek’s first cousin is the actor Rip Torn.

23. Extinct emu-like bird MOA
Moas were flightless birds native to New Zealand that are now extinct. The fate of the Moa is a great example of the detrimental effect that humans can have on animal populations. The Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1300 AD, upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. The Moa were hunted to extinction within 200 years, which had the knock-on effect of killing off the Haast’s Eagle, the Moa’s only predator prior to the arrival of man.

24. Ones who don’t stay off the grass? STONERS
“Stoner” is a slang term for someone who is habitually intoxicated by alcohol or drugs.

25. Ship deck game SHUFFLEBOARD (giving “iPod Shuffle”)
The game of shuffleboard has been around for a long time. King Henry VIII was fond of playing, and in fact he prohibited commoners from playing the game. Shuffleboard is also known as shovelboard, a reference perhaps to the shovel-like paddles used to propel the pucks.

The iPod Shuffle was introduced in 2005 and is the smallest of Apple’s line of audio players. The Shuffle was the first iPod to use flash memory.

31. Australian canine DINGO
The dingo is a wild dog of Australia. The dingo is thought to have originated from domesticated dogs that were brought to Australia with humans that settled the land centuries ago.

32. Put bucks on the Bucks, say BET
The Bucks are an NBA basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The team was formed in 1968 as an NBA expansion team.

35. Droid downloads APPS
The Droid is a smartphone from Motorola that uses Google’s Android operating system.

36. Fashionable beach resorts LIDOS
The Lido di Venezia is a famous sandbar, about 11 km long, in Venice, Italy. It may be a sandbar, but it is home to about 20,000 residents, as well as the Venice Film Festival that takes place there every September. The Lido is also the setting for Thomas Mann’s famous novel “Death in Venice”. The name “lido” has become a term for any fashionable beach resort.

38. Foot, in anatomy PES
The Latin word for “foot” is “pes”, the genitive singular of which is “pedis”. “Pedis” evolved into the suffix -pede, as in centipede and millipede.

39. Bit of info DATUM
Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

40. Delivery specialist? STORK
In German and Dutch society, storks resting on the roof of a house were considered a sign of good luck. This tradition led to nursery stories that babies were brought to families by storks.

41. Microscopic bit NANOPARTICLE (giving “iPod Nano”)
Nanoparticles are extremely small particles, between 1 and 100 nanometers in size. One reason that nanoparticles are of scientific interest is that they have physical properties that are intermediate between bulk materials and atoms or molecules. Nanoparticles are small enough that the properties of the atoms at the particle’s surface affect its behavior.

The iPod Nano is the successor to the iPod Mini and was introduced to the market at the end of 2005. There have been seven versions of the Nano to date and the current Nano as well as playing tunes is an FM player, records voice memos, has a pedometer and can connect with external devices (like a heart monitor, maybe) using Bluetooth technology.

50. Hawaii’s Mauna __ LOA
Mauna Loa on the “big island” of Hawaii is the largest volcano on the planet (in terms of volume). The name “Mauna Loa” is Hawaiian for “Long Mountain”.

54. Part of many a Mod wardrobe MINISKIRT (giving “iPod Mini”)
The iPod Mini was an extremely popular music player manufactured by Apple from 2004 to 2005. The Mini was replaced by the iPod Nano.

“Mod” is short for “modernist”, and describes a subculture that originated in London in the late fifties. Young men who called themselves mods tended to wear tailored suits, listen to pop music and drive around on Italian motor scooters. Mods came into conflict with another subculture that emerged at the same time in the UK called the rockers. Rockers were into rock and roll music, and drove motorcycles I remember as a young kid in school having to declare myself as either a mod or a rocker. I don’t think our “gangs” back then were quite the same as they are today though …

56. Spring water brand EVIAN
Évian-les-Bains (or simply Évian) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As you might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. I can’t stand the taste of Évian water …

58. On the briny ASEA
The “briny” is the sea, from “brine” meaning “salty water”. The term “briny” was originally used for “tears”.

61. Popular Apple, versions of which begin 17-, 25-, 41- and 54-Across IPOD
The iPod is Apple’s signature line of portable media players. The iPod first hit the market in 2001 with a hard drive-based device, now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all use flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor.

Down
3. Haleakala National Park’s island MAUI
If you visit Maui, a visit to the Haleakala National Park is a must. One section of the park features the spectacular Haleakala Crater, where you would swear you are on the moon. The second part of the park is the Kipahulu section, which features the very picturesque pools accessed along the Road to Hana. When we visited (quite a few years ago), the Road to Hana was a tad undeveloped and rental car companies would not allow you to drive their cars there. Funnily enough, the only cars you’d meet on the Road to Hana were rental cars …

5. Firestone offering RADIAL
Radial tires (actually “radial-ply tires) are so called because the cord plies embedded in the rubber are arranged radially from the centre of the tire. This means that the plies are at right angles to the direction of travel. In older tires the plies were criss-crossed over each other, at angles of 60 and -60 degrees from the direction of travel. Such tires are called “cross-ply” or “bias” tires.

8. “Atlas Shrugged” author Rand AYN
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist born Alisa Rosenbaum. Rand’s two best known works are her novels “The Fountainhead” published in 1943 and “Atlas Shrugged” in 1957. Back in 1951, Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City. Soon after, she gathered a group of admirers around her with whom she discussed philosophy and shared drafts of her magnum opus, “Atlas Shrugged”. This group called itself “The Collective”, and one of the founding members was none other than future Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan.

9. Japanese city that hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics SAPPORO
Sapporo is the fourth largest city in Japan, and lies on the island of Hokkaido. The city and surrounding area was home to the first Olympic Games to be held in Asia, the Winter Games of 1972. For the beer drinkers out there, Sapporo is also home to Sapporo Brewery, with the Sapporo beer being one of the more internationally recognizable brand names.

12. “America the Beautiful” shade AMBER

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

When she was 33 years old, Katharine Lee Bates took a train ride from Massachusetts to Colorado Springs. She was so inspired by many of the beautiful sights she saw on her journey that she wrote a poem she called “Pikes Peak”. Upon publication the poem became quite a hit, and several musical works were adapted to the words of the poem, the most popular being a hymn tune composed by Samuel Ward. Bates’s poem and Ward’s tune were published together for the first time in 1910, and given the title “America the Beautiful”.

23. Museum curators’ degs. MFAS
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

The term “curator” is Latin and applies to a manager, guardian or overseer. In English, the original curators were the guardians and overseers of minors and those with mental disease.

24. California wine valley SONOMA
Did you know that there are far more wine grapes produced in Sonoma than Napa? Within Sonoma County some of the more well-known appellations are Chalk Hill, Anderson Valley and Russian River Valley. Personally, when I want to visit the wine country, I head for the Russian River Valley as it’s far less crowded and much more fun than Napa Valley.

29. Make more expensive, as on eBay BID UP
eBay was founded in 1995 as AuctionWeb as part of a computer programmer’s personal website. One of the first items purchased was a broken laser pointer, for $14.83. The buyer collected broken laser pointers …

32. Political coalition BLOC
“Bloc” is the French word for “block”.

33. Actor James __ Jones EARL
James Earl Jones is noted for some very respected stage and film performances, but also for his wonderful voice. Jones had to overcome a stutter as a child, and decades later provided the voice for Darth Vader. James is the son of actor Robert Earl Jones.

34. Tot TYKE
“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902, but for centuries before that a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

45. Nobelist Curie MARIE
Marie Curie lived a life of firsts. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and indeed was the first person to win two Nobel prizes (in 1903 and 1911). Most of Curie’s work was in the field of radioactivity, and was carried out in the days when the impact of excessive radiation on the human body was not understood. She died from aplastic anemia, caused by high exposure to radiation. To this day, Curie’s personal papers are kept preserved in lead-lined boxes as they are highly radioactive, even her personal cookbook.

48. Loaded, in Lima RICO
“Rico” is Spanish for “rich”.

Lima is the capital city of Peru. Lima was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). Pizarro chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem.

49. In a short time, quaintly ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

54. Russian jet fighter MIG
The Russian fighter jets that we know as “MiGs” are so called because they were designed by the Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau, and MiG is an acronym for “Mikoyan-and-Gurevich” in Russian.

55. Chiang __-shek KAI
Chiang Kai-Shek was the leader of the Nationalist Movement in China right through to the end of WWII. The Nationalists lost out in a Civil War to the Communists backed by the Soviet Union after war, and Chiang Kai-Shek and his government were forced to flee to Taiwan. Chiang Kai-shek claimed rule over China from Taiwan until his death in 1975.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Peak ACME
5. Morning co-host Kelly RIPA
9. Sub finder SONAR
14. Paint layer COAT
15. “An apple __ …” A DAY
16. Japanese cartoon art ANIME
17. Score before an extra point TOUCHDOWN (giving “iPod Touch”)
19. Annapolis frosh PLEBE
20. Slide down a slope SKI
21. Artist’s choice OILS
22. Actress Sissy SPACEK
23. Extinct emu-like bird MOA
24. Ones who don’t stay off the grass? STONERS
25. Ship deck game SHUFFLEBOARD (giving “iPod Shuffle”)
30. Juan’s “Enough!” NO MAS!
31. Australian canine DINGO
32. Put bucks on the Bucks, say BET
35. Droid downloads APPS
36. Fashionable beach resorts LIDOS
37. Do away with, as a vampire SLAY
38. Foot, in anatomy PES
39. Bit of info DATUM
40. Delivery specialist? STORK
41. Microscopic bit NANOPARTICLE (giving “iPod Nano”)
43. Fan mail sender, e.g. ADMIRER
46. Rower’s blade OAR
47. Grouches CRANKS
48. Far from daydreaming RAPT
50. Hawaii’s Mauna __ LOA
53. New staff member HIREE
54. Part of many a Mod wardrobe MINISKIRT (giving “iPod Mini”)
56. Spring water brand EVIAN
57. Screen symbol ICON
58. On the briny ASEA
59. Reckons DEEMS
60. Instrument hit with a mallet GONG
61. Popular Apple, versions of which begin 17-, 25-, 41- and 54-Across IPOD

Down
1. Takes steps ACTS
2. Kitchen worker COOK
3. Haleakala National Park’s island MAUI
4. And so on: Abbr. ETC
5. Firestone offering RADIAL
6. Fan mail recipient IDOL
7. Furry feet PAWS
8. “Atlas Shrugged” author Rand AYN
9. Japanese city that hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics SAPPORO
10. Not 58-Across ON LAND
11. Sister’s daughter NIECE
12. “America the Beautiful” shade AMBER
13. Stinks REEKS
18. __ it: travels on foot HOOFS
22. Antler sporters STAGS
23. Museum curators’ degs. MFAS
24. California wine valley SONOMA
25. Pic SNAP
26. Keep the faith HOPE
27. “Steee-rike!” callers UMPS
28. Manuscript recipient EDITOR
29. Make more expensive, as on eBay BID UP
32. Political coalition BLOC
33. Actor James __ Jones EARL
34. Tot TYKE
36. Pool paths LANES
37. Use a swizzle stick STIR
39. Grows dimmer DARKENS
40. Baseball card figures STATS
41. Common workday starting hr. NINE AM
42. Rodeo skill ROPING
43. Was sore ACHED
44. Motivation DRIVE
45. Nobelist Curie MARIE
48. Loaded, in Lima RICO
49. In a short time, quaintly ANON
50. Speech therapist’s target LISP
51. Sandwich cookie OREO
52. Ever so slightly A TAD
54. Russian jet fighter MIG
55. Chiang __-shek KAI

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