LA Times Crossword Answers 4 Mar 15, Wednesday

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

Quicklink
Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

CROSSWORD SETTER: Don Gagliardo
THEME: Cheering Section … a SECTION of each themed answer today is the letter sequence RAH, so we have RAH! as a hidden word:

60A. Stadium supporters, and a hint to their cry hidden in 17-, 27- and 45-Across CHEERING SECTION

17A. Seeking lodging LOOKING FOR A HOME
27A. Pulling away FURTHER AHEAD
45A. More at dinner EXTRA HELPING

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 8m 03s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

6. Influenced by, recipe-wise A LA
The phrase “in the style of” can be translated in “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

14. First name in furniture ETHAN
Ethan Allen was one of the founders of the state of Vermont. Allen was also a hero in the American Revolutionary War, famous for leading (along with Benedict Arnold) the small band of men that captured Fort Ticonderoga. And yes, the Ethan Allen store and furniture line is named for Ethan Allen the patriot, even though he had nothing to do with the furniture business.

15. Editor’s job REDACTION
Our word “redact”, meaning to revise or edit, comes from the past participle of the Latin “redigere” meaning “to reduce”.

19. Unidentified Jane DOE
Although the English court system does not use the term today, John Doe first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with another unknown, Richard Roe. The female equivalent of John Doe is Jane Doe, with the equivalent to Richard Roe being Jane Roe (as in Roe v. Wade, for example).

31. This and that OLIO
“Olio” is a term meaning a hodgepodge or a mixture, coming from the mixed stew of the same name. The stew in turn takes its name from the Spanish “olla”, the clay pot used for cooking.

32. Deep gulf ABYSS
“Abyss”, meaning “deep chasm”, ultimately derives from the Greek “a-” (without) “byssos” (bottom).

33. Global financial org. IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established at the end of 1945 with 29 major economies supporting and funding an effort to stabilize economies across the globe after WWII. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., today the IMF has 187 member countries.

36. Mexican supermodel Elsa BENITEZ
Elsa Benítez is a Mexican model, known for her appearances in the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue”. For a few years she was married to NBA player Rony Seikaly, someone I remember watching play for Syracuse when I lived there.

42. Venetian island ISOLA
In Italian, Capri, for example (par esempio), is an island (isola).

The city of Venice in northeast Italy is built in a saltwater lagoon on the Adriatic Coast, on 117 small islands. The classic transportation along the waterways is the gondola, but this is really only used for tourists these days, as well as on ceremonial occasions. The locals rely on the motorized water-buses.

44. 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit ADIA
Sarah McLachlan is singer/songwriter from Halifax, Nova Scotia who lives in Vancouver. In 1997, McLachlan married Ashwin Sood, the drummer in her band. Apparently the 1998 hit song “Adia”, that she co-wrote and recorded, was intended as an apology to her best friend … for stealing her ex-boyfriend and then marrying him!

48. Suffix with school -MARM
“Marm” is short for “schoolmarm”, a quaint term for a female teacher.

51. CIA predecessor OSS
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was formed during WWII in order to carry out espionage behind enemy lines. A few years after the end of the war the OSS functions were taken up by a new group, the Central Intelligence Agency that was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.

52. London home of Constables and Sargents TATE
The museum known as “the Tate” is actually made up of four separate galleries in England. The original Tate gallery was founded by Sir Henry Tate as the National Gallery of British Art. It is located on Millbank in London, on the site of the old Millbank Prison, and is now called Tate Britain. There is also the Tate Liverpool in the north of England located in an old warehouse, and the Tate St. Ives in the west country located in an old gas works. My favorite of the Tate galleries is the Tate Modern which lies on the banks of the Thames in London. It’s a beautiful building, a converted power station that you have to see to believe.

John Constable is the most English of painters, although during his lifetime his work was more popular in France than it was in his native country. His most famous painting is “The Hay Wain” from 1821, which you can see in the National Gallery in London.

John Singer Sargent was an American artist, best known for his portrait painting. Sargent trained as an artist mainly in Paris, although he found that he had to leave the city after one of his paintings was deemed “scandalous” by French society. The work was “Portrait of Madame X” (1884), a painting of a noted lady in society that was considered too risque and sensual. After the painting was exhibited, his commissions dried up and Sargent moved to London in order to continue his career. Today the “Portrait of Madame X” is considered by many to be Sargent’s best work.

53. Block deliverers of yesteryear ICEMEN
Nowadays we tend to associate the term “iceman” with the Eugene O’Neill play “The Iceman Cometh”.

“The Iceman Cometh” is a play written by American playwright Eugene O’Neill and first performed in 1946 on Broadway. The play centers on some down-and-out men in a shabby saloon in Manhattan. The title is a reference to the “ice man”, the man who would have delivered ice to homes back in the time of the play. The reference is to a bawdy joke in which the “ice man” was having an affair with someone’s wife.

55. Powerful lobby for seniors AARP
AARP is now the official name for the interest group that used to be called the American Association of Retired Persons. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired.

57. Cape Canaveral’s st. FLA
The famous headland in Florida called Cape Canaveral was named by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century. As the Cape acts as a launching station for many of NASA’s rockets, when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 the NASA facility on nearby Merritt Island was renamed the Kennedy Space Center, and President Johnson went as far as renaming the whole of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy. The name change for the cape didn’t go down well in Florida though, as the headland had been called Cape Canaveral for over 400 years. So, the name was restored in 1973, and Cape Kennedy is no more.

65. “Golden Boy” playwright ODETS
Clifford Odets was a playwright, screenwriter and director from Philadelphia. “Golden Boy” was a play written by Odets that was first performed in 1937 on Broadway. There was a film adaptation released in 1939 that starred a young William Holden. “Golden Boy” was the film that launched Holden’s career.

67. Mausoleums TOMBS
One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was the grave of King Mausolus of Persia, known as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. This gave us our modern word “mausoleum”: a building containing a burial chamber. The most famous mausoleum in the world has to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.

Down
4. K2 is on its border: Abbr. PAK
The suffix “-stan” in many place names is Persian for “place of”. One example is “Pakistan”, the Place of the Pure. “Pakistan” is a relatively recent name, first coined in 1933. It comes from the abbreviation PAKSTAN, standing for Punjab – Afghan Province – Kashmir – Sind – BaluchisTAN, all regions in the north of India. The “I” was added to Pakistan to make it easier to pronounce, and to fit the translation “Land of the Pure”.

K2 is the second highest mountain on the planet (at 28, 251 ft), with Mount Everest being higher by over 700 feet. K2 is known the “Savage Mountain” as it is relatively difficult to climb, having claimed 1 in 4 mountaineers who have attempted to reach the summit. It has never been climbed in winter. The name K2 dates back to what was called the Great Trigonometric Survey, a British survey of the geography of India carried out during the 19th century. Included in this survey were the heights of many of the Himalayan peaks, including Everest. The original surveyor, a Thomas Montgomerie, included two peaks he first called K1 and K2. He discovered later that the locals called K1 Masherbrum (the 22nd highest mountain in the world), but the remote K2 had no local name that he could find, so it was christened Mount Godwin-Austen. This name was rejected by the Royal Geographic Society although it does still appear on some maps. So, the most common name used is K2, that original notation in a surveyor’s notebook.

6. Cornstarch brand ARGO
Argo brand cornstarch first hit the store shelves in 1892.

9. “Mayberry R.F.D.” setting N CAR
“Mayberry R.F.D.” is a spin-off of “The Andy Griffith Show”, and is in effect a continuation of the original story. “RFD” stands for “Rural Free Delivery”, a reference to the postal route around Mayberry.

11. __ la Plata RIO DE
When the Uruguay River and the Paraná River come together on the border between Argentina and Uruguay, they form the Rio de la Plata. “Rio de la Plata” translates as “River of Silver” from Spanish, but in English we sometimes call the waterway the River Plate. The famous WWII action known as the Battle of the River Plate took place out to sea a few miles from the River Plate estuary. The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee took refuge in the River Plate in the neutral port of Montevideo. Forced to return to sea, and to the Royal Naval vessels waiting for her, Berlin gave orders for the Graf Spee to be scuttled in the estuary.

13. Dik Browne pooch SNERT
Snert is the clever dog that belongs to Hägar the Horrible in the classic comic strip.

“Hagar the Horrible” is a comic strip that was created by the late Dik Browne and is now drawn by his son, Chris Browne. “Hagar the Terrible” (not “Horrible”) was the nickname given to Dik by his sons.

23. Yours, to Yvette A TOI
“À toi” is the French term for “yours”, when talking to someone with whom one is familiar. “À toi” literally means “to you”.

27. Watch chains FOBS
A fob is attached to another object to make access to it easier. And so a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, and the pocket in a vest in which a watch can be placed is called a fob. In fact, the original use of the term “fob” was for a small pocket in which one could carry valuables.

28. Peter Fonda’s beekeeper ULEE
“Ulee’s Gold” is a highly respected film from 1997 in which Peter Fonda plays the title role of Ulee. Ulee’s “gold” is the honey that Ulee produces. It is a favorite role for Peter Fonda and he has shared that playing Ulee brought to mind his father Henry Fonda, who himself kept a couple of hives. So if you see Peter Fonda in “Ulee’s Gold” you’re witnessing some characteristics that Peter saw in his father.

30. Suffix with malt -ASE
As one might guess from the name, maltase is an enzyme that acts on the sugar maltose. Maltase breaks the disaccharide into its two constituent glucose molecules.

35. Coach’s challenge indicator FLAG
In football, each head coach is allowed to make two challenges per game, or three if both of challenges are successful. A coach signals the challenge by throwing a red flag onto the field.

37. StubHub offerings, briefly TIX
StubHub! is an online ticket exchange business that is owned by eBay. StubHub! acts as the middleman between buyers and seller of event tickets, whether those buyers and sellers are individuals or large organizations.

38. Latvia neighbor ESTONIA
Estonia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics and is located in Northern Europe on the Baltic Sea, due south of Finland. Estonia has been overrun and ruled by various empires over the centuries. The country did enjoy a few years of freedom at the beginning of the 20th century after a war of independence against the Russian Empire. However, Estonia was occupied again during WWII, first by the Russians and then by the Germans, and then reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Estonia has flourished as an independent country again since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

Latvia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics. People from Latvia are called Letts.

43. Baked, layered entrée LASAGNA
Lasagna was originally the name of a cooking pot, but it came to mean a dish that was cooked in it. Lasagna also became the name of the flat noodle used in the dish. If you order lasagna on the other side of the Atlantic, you’ll notice the “lasagne” spelling, the plural of “lasagna”. The plural is used as there is more than one layer of pasta in the dish.

45. Clown Kelly EMMETT
Emmett Kelly was a famous circus performer who was most noted for his clown persona known as “Weary Willie”.

46. French I infinitive ETRE
The French for “to be” is “être”, and for “you are” is “vous êtes”.

50. Creator of many pieces? REESE
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were invented by Harry Burnett “H.B.” Reese. Peanut Butter Cups were originally called penny cups, reflecting the price at which they were sold. Then inflation took over, and maybe that’s why they were broken into smaller “pieces” …

54. Writes the wrong zip code, say ERRS
ZIP codes were introduced in 1963. The acronym ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan, a name indicating that mail travels more efficiently when the codes are included in the postal address.

56. Pooch in whodunits ASTA
Asta is the wonderful little dog in the superb “The Thin Man” series of films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy (as Nick and Nora Charles). In the original story by Dashiell Hammett, Asta was a female Schnauzer, but on screen Asta was played by a wire-haired fox terrier called “Skippy”. Skippy was also the dog in “Bringing up Baby” with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, the one who kept stealing the dinosaur bone. Skippy retired in 1939, so Asta was played by other dogs in the remainder of “The Thin Man” films.

58. Award-winning comic book writer Jeph LOEB
Jeph Loeb writes for film and television, and is also a successful comic book writer. His writing credits in the world of TV include “Smallville” and “Lost”, and in film include “Commando” and “Teen Wolf”. Loeb’s comic books have featured characters such as Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

61. Pointed end NIB
“Nib” is a Scottish variant of the Old English word “neb”, with both meaning the beak of a bird. This usage of “nib” as a beak dates back to the 14th century, with “nib” meaning the tip of a pen or quill coming a little later, in the early 1600s.

62. South-of-the-border uncle TIO
In Spanish, one’s mother’s brother (madre’s hermano) is an uncle (tio).

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Thin streaks WISPS
6. Influenced by, recipe-wise A LA
9. Ones who deal with dealers NARCS
14. First name in furniture ETHAN
15. Editor’s job REDACTION
17. Seeking lodging LOOKING FOR A HOME
19. Unidentified Jane DOE
20. Tugboat sound TOOT!
21. Commodities dealer TRADER
22. Summit meeting goal PACT
24. 18-Down, with “down” JOT
26. Rearing place NEST
27. Pulling away FURTHER AHEAD
31. This and that OLIO
32. Deep gulf ABYSS
33. Global financial org. IMF
36. Mexican supermodel Elsa BENITEZ
39. Hardly transitory ETERNAL
41. Gig session SET
42. Venetian island ISOLA
44. 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit ADIA
45. More at dinner EXTRA HELPING
48. Suffix with school -MARM
51. CIA predecessor OSS
52. London home of Constables and Sargents TATE
53. Block deliverers of yesteryear ICEMEN
55. Powerful lobby for seniors AARP
57. Cape Canaveral’s st. FLA
60. Stadium supporters, and a hint to their cry hidden in 17-, 27- and 45-Across CHEERING SECTION
63. Self-control RESTRAINT
64. Felt poorly AILED
65. “Golden Boy” playwright ODETS
66. “Hello, ewe!” BAA!
67. Mausoleums TOMBS

Down
1. Metalworking union WELD
2. “Was __ hard on her?” I TOO
3. Crime scene clue SHOEPRINT
4. K2 is on its border: Abbr. PAK
5. State secrets? SNITCH
6. Cornstarch brand ARGO
7. Right hook setup LEFT JAB
8. Noisy scene ADO
9. “Mayberry R.F.D.” setting N CAR
10. Nearby AT HAND
11. __ la Plata RIO DE
12. Attends COMES
13. Dik Browne pooch SNERT
16. Evaluation for creative types ART TEST
18. Make a memo of NOTE
23. Yours, to Yvette A TOI
25. “Now I remember!” OH YEAH!
27. Watch chains FOBS
28. Peter Fonda’s beekeeper ULEE
29. Medicine cabinet items RAZORS
30. Suffix with malt -ASE
33. Low-budget pic, usually INDIE FILM
34. Chief MAIN
35. Coach’s challenge indicator FLAG
37. StubHub offerings, briefly TIX
38. Latvia neighbor ESTONIA
40. Spellbound RAPT
43. Baked, layered entrée LASAGNA
45. Clown Kelly EMMETT
46. French I infinitive ETRE
47. Purring snuggler LAPCAT
48. Extremely tiny MICRO
49. Needed liniment ACHED
50. Creator of many pieces? REESE
54. Writes the wrong zip code, say ERRS
56. Pooch in whodunits ASTA
58. Award-winning comic book writer Jeph LOEB
59. Additions ANDS
61. Pointed end NIB
62. South-of-the-border uncle TIO

Return to top of page