LA Times Crossword Answers 21 Jul 2018, Saturday

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Constructed by: Ed Sessa
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 7m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5. Like pie? : AS EASY

The evidence seems to suggest that the phrase “as easy as pie” is a reference to the ease of eating a pie, rather than baking a pie.

14. Name on the 1949 “Death of a Salesman” playbill : ELIA

Elia Kazan won Oscars for best director in 1948 for “Gentleman’s Agreement” and in 1955 for “On The Waterfront”. In 1999 Kazan was given an Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also directed “East of Eden”, which introduced James Dean to movie audiences, and “Splendor in the Grass” that included Warren Beatty in his debut role.

“Death of a Salesman” is a famous play by Arthur Miller, first produced in 1949. “Death of a Salesman” won a Pulitzer and several Tony Awards over the years. The “salesman” in the play is the famous character Willy Loman. The play originally opened up on Broadway and ran for 724 performances. The lead role was played by the veteran actor Lee J. Cobb.

15. Bug on the road? : BEETLE

VW stands for Volkswagen, which translates from German into “people’s car”. The original Volkswagen design was the Beetle and was built under a directive from Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap car built that ordinary people could afford to purchase. He awarded the contract to engineer Ferdinand Porsche, whose name (paradoxically) would forever be associated with high performance, expensive cars. The Beetle was the official name of the VW model released in North America, but it was usually referred to as a “Bug” here in the US, and a “Beetle” elsewhere in the world.

17. “The Karate Kid,” e.g. : CINDERELLA STORY

The folk tale about “Cinderella” was first published by French author Charles Perrault in 1697, although it was later included by the Brothers Grimm in their famous 1812 collection. The storyline of the tale may date back as far as the days of Ancient Greece. A common alternative title to the story is “The Little Glass Slipper”.

The 1984 film “The Karate Kid” starred Ralph Macchio in the title role, with Pat Morita playing the enigmatic karate teacher Mr. Miyagi. There is an excellent 2010 remake, starring Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son) as the Karate Kid himself, with Jackie Chan playing the teacher. In the original 1984 movie, the Karate Kid was named Daniel LaRusso, and in the 2010 remake was named Dre Parker.

20. Guide for surfers : SITE MAP

A site map is a hierarchical list of pages on a web site. A well-designed site map can be useful to site visitors, but is more commonly used by search engines to get a complete and accurate picture of a site so that it is correctly represented in search results.

21. Gray shades : TAUPES

Taupe is a dark, gray-brown color. The word “taupe” comes from the Latin name of the European Mole, which has skin with the same color.

29. Studio once run by Howard Hughes : RKO

The RKO Pictures studio was formed when RCA (RADIO Corporation of America) bought the KEITH-Albee-ORPHEUM theaters (and Joe Kennedy’s Film Booking Offices of America). The RKO initialism then comes from the words “Radio”, “Keith” and “Orpheum”.

Businessman Howard Hughes made a name for himself first as a film producer, and then in the aviation industry. Nowadays, Hughes is perhaps best known for the eccentric behavior that he exhibited late in his life. He was very much an eccentric, and suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and became a germaphobe. Perhaps the most approachable way of gaining insight into the life of Hughes is a viewing of the Martin Scorsese film “The Aviator”, in which Hughes is played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

32. 1958 Pulitzer author James : AGEE

James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

36. 16th-century council site : TRENT

Trento is a city in northern Italy that is famous as the host of the 16th-century Council of Trent held by the Roman Catholic Church. This Ecumenical Council meeting was held largely in response to the growing Protestant Reformation. The decisions made at the Council of Trent led to the Counter-Reformation, the revival of the Catholic church over the following 100 years.

39. Footnote abbr. : OP CIT

“Op. cit.” is short for “opus citatum”, Latin for “the work cited”. Op. cit. is used in footnotes to refer the reader to an earlier citation. It is similar to ibid, except that ibid refers the reader to the last citation, the one immediately above.

40. Nasal partitions : SEPTA

In the world of anatomy, a septum (plural “septa”) is a dividing wall within a chamber or other structure. For example, the interatrial septum separates the left and right atria of the heart, and the nasal septum separates the nostrils of the nose.

45. Ice cream named after a Canadian river : KLONDIKE BAR

The delicious treat made from an ice cream square covered with chocolate is actually called a “Klondike”, and not the oft-cited “Klondike Bar”. The Klondike “bar” was introduced in the early 1920s and takes its name from the Klondike River of Yukon, Canada.

57. 2013 Hudson’s Bay Company acquisition : SAKS FIFTH AVENUE

Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end specialty store that competes with the likes of Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. The original Saks & Company business was founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. The first Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1924. There are now Saks Fifth Avenue stores in many major cities in the US, as well in several locations worldwide.

Today’s Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was founded in London, way back in 1670, and was for many years primarily a fur-trading business. In those early days, the company was the de facto government in the area surrounding Hudson Bay, which was then known as Rupert’s Land.

60. “… exclaim, __ he drove out of sight”: Moore : ERE

Here are the closing lines to the Christmas poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published anonymously in 1823, and is better known today by its first line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”. Most scholars believe that the poem was written by Clement Clarke Moore, a theologian from New York City. Others say that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr., a poet from Upstate New York.

64. Hazmat team members, often : ROBOTS

Dangerous goods are commonly referred to as hazardous materials, or Hazmat. People working with dangerous goods might wear a Hazmat suit.

65. Tae __ do : KWON

Tae kwon do is the national sport of Korea. “Tae” means “to strike or break with foot”; “kwon” means “to strike or break with fist”; “do” means “way” or “art”. Along with judo, tae kwon do is one of only two martial arts included in the Olympic Games.

Down

1. Atlas display : PECS

Charles Atlas’s real name was Angelo Siciliano, an Italian who moved to America in his teens. The story he told, and turned into a great advertising campaign, was that as a 97-pound weakling he once had sand kicked into his face by a bully. He went on a bodybuilding regime, developed his muscles, and then marketed the concept across America. He took the name “Charles Atlas” after he was told that his new-found body looked like that of a statue of the Greek god Atlas sitting on top of a hotel in Coney Island.

2. Et __ : ALII

Et alii (et al.) is the equivalent of et cetera (etc.), with et cetera being used in place of a list of objects, and et alii used for a list of names. In fact “et al.” can stand for et alii (for a group of males, or males and females), aliae (for a group of women) and et alia (for a group of neuter nouns, or for a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

3. Dust bunny component : LINT

What we call “dust bunnies” in American English, have similar inventive names in other languages. The Finns know them as sheep, the Germans wool mice, the Hungarians dust kittens, the Italians dust cats, and the Swedish dust rats.

7. Sargasso Sea spawner : EEL

The Sargasso Sea is an area within the Atlantic Ocean that is famous as the home to many species of Sargassum, the algae floating on the surface that gives the area its name. The Sargasso Sea is also where both European and American species of eel lay their eggs and hatch their young. The young eels (or “elvers”) then head east or west, depending on the species.

8. Pac. cousin : ATL

The Pacific Ocean was given its name by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. When Magellan sailed into the ocean on his 1521 circumnavigation of the globe, he encountered favorable winds and so called it “Mar Pacifico” meaning “peaceful sea”.

The earliest known mention of the name “Atlantic” for the world’s second-largest ocean was in Ancient Greece. The Greeks called the ocean “the Sea of Atlas” or “Atlantis thalassa”.

9. Christian in cinema : SLATER

Christian Slater is an actor from New York City. My favorite roles that he has played are in “Broken Arrow” with John Travolta, and on the TV series “The West Wing”.

11. Little big cat : LEOPARD CUB

The four “big cats” are the tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard. The largest of the big cats is the tiger, and the smallest is the leopard.

13. First and last word of a common four-word saw : BOYS

Boys will be boys …

18. Dr. Skoda on “Law & Order” : EMIL

Emil Skoda, M.D. is a character who has turned up on several crime shows on television: “Law & Order”, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “New York Undercover”. Skoda is a psychiatrist who works with NYPD, and is portrayed by actor J. K. Simmons (the guy in the Farmers Insurance TV ads).

25. Mark : PATSY

The etymology of the word “patsy” meaning “fall guy” isn’t really understood. One colorful theory suggests that the term comes from an 1890s vaudeville character named Patsy Bolivar, who always got the blame when something went wrong.

27. Daddy Warbucks, e.g. : DEEP POCKET

Sir Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks is a principal character in the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” that was created by Harold Gray. Warbucks made “ten zillion dollars” as an industrialist after WWII, and became a father figure for Annie after she was taken in by his wife. IN the 1982 musical film “Annie”, Warbucks was portrayed by Albert Finney.

28. Former Mormon leader Ezra Taft __ : BENSON

Ezra Taft Benson was the thirteenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, serving from 1985 until 1994. Benson was also the US Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration.

30. Actress Knightley : KEIRA

The English actress Keira Knightley had her big break in movies when she co-starred in 2002’s “Bend It Like Beckham”. Knightley played one of my favorite movie roles, Elizabeth Bennett in 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Knightley won a Golden Globe for that performance, although that 2005 film isn’t the best adaptation of Austen’s novel in my humble opinion …

31. Blender brand : OSTER

The Oster brand of small appliances was introduced in 1924 by John Oster. He started out by making manually-powered hair clippers designed for cutting women’s hair, and followed up with a motorized version in 1928. The clippers kept the company in business until 1946 when Oster diversified, buying a manufacturer of liquefying blenders in 1946. The blender was renamed to “Osterizer” and was a big hit. Oster was bought up by Sunbeam, which has owned the brand since 1960.

46. Bodega patron : LATINO

“Bodega” is the Spanish term describing a winery, or these days a grocery store.

47. European capital : KIEV

Kiev is located on the Dnieper River, and is the capital of Ukraine. We tend to use the spelling “Kiev”, but the Ukrainian government decided in 1995 to refer to the city as “Kyiv” when using Roman/Latin script.

49. Fortune 500 listings: Abbr. : COS

“Fortune” is a tri-weekly business magazine that was founded by Henry Luce in 1930, just four months after the 1929 Wall Street Crash. “Fortune” is noted for its annual ranking of companies by revenue, especially the Fortune 500.

52. Complain : CARP

The word “carp” used to mean simply “talk” back in the 13th century, with its roots in the Old Norwegian “karpa” meaning “to brag”. A century later, the Latin word “carpere” meaning “to slander” influenced the use of “to carp” so that it came to mean “to find fault with”.

53. Really good, in ’90s slang : PHAT

In hip-hop circles, the term “phat” means “excellent, first-rate”.

55. Money in la banque : EURO

In French, one might deposit one’s euros in “la banque” (the bank).

58. Four-wk. period, usually : FEB

Our contemporary calendar has its roots in the old Roman calendar, which originally had ten months and was attributed to Romulus:

  1. March (Month of Mars)
  2. April (Month of Apru/Aphrodite)
  3. May (Month of Maia)
  4. June (Month of Juno)
  5. Quintilis (Fifth Month)
  6. Sextilis (Sixth Month)
  7. September (Seventh Month)
  8. October (Eighth Month)
  9. November (Ninth Month)
  10. December (Tenth Month)

Julius Caesar order the calendar realigned, adding two months at the beginning of the year (our “January” and “February”). Subsequently, the former “fifth” month of Quintilis was renamed in honor of Julius Caesar giving our “July”, and then the former “sixth” Month of Sextilis was renamed in honor of Augustus Caesar giving our “August”.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Sleight of hand? : PALM
5. Like pie? : AS EASY
11. Tennis stroke : LOB
14. Name on the 1949 “Death of a Salesman” playbill : ELIA
15. Bug on the road? : BEETLE
16. Common cause of conflict : EGO
17. “The Karate Kid,” e.g. : CINDERELLA STORY
20. Guide for surfers : SITE MAP
21. Gray shades : TAUPES
22. Be of service to : AID
23. Org. with traveling bans? : THE NBA
25. One hanging around a lifeguard tower : PADDLE BOARD
29. Studio once run by Howard Hughes : RKO
32. 1958 Pulitzer author James : AGEE
33. D.C. figures : REPS
34. Some museum art : NUDES
36. 16th-century council site : TRENT
38. Unspecified degree : NTH
39. Footnote abbr. : OP CIT
40. Nasal partitions : SEPTA
41. “… or so it may __” : SEEM
43. Unadulterated : PURE
44. Slangy okay : YEP
45. Ice cream named after a Canadian river : KLONDIKE BAR
48. Quite a lot : OCEANS
50. Address in a mess : SIR
51. Confront aggressively : ACCOST
53. Swears : PLEDGES
57. 2013 Hudson’s Bay Company acquisition : SAKS FIFTH AVENUE
60. “… exclaim, __ he drove out of sight”: Moore : ERE
61. Sign with an arrow : ONE WAY
62. Start to giver or taker : CARE-
63. Befitting : APT
64. Hazmat team members, often : ROBOTS
65. Tae __ do : KWON

Down

1. Atlas display : PECS
2. Et __ : ALII
3. Dust bunny component : LINT
4. Achieved some progress : MADE A DENT
5. Rubber eraser, for one : ABRADER
6. Go slowly : SEEP
7. Sargasso Sea spawner : EEL
8. Pac. cousin : ATL
9. Christian in cinema : SLATER
10. Ambiguous answer : YES, AND NO
11. Little big cat : LEOPARD CUB
12. Mythical monster : OGRE
13. First and last word of a common four-word saw : BOYS
18. Dr. Skoda on “Law & Order” : EMIL
19. Bathing spot : TUB
23. Popular online lists : TOP-TENS
24. Discussed, with “over” : HASHED
25. Mark : PATSY
26. Come to terms : AGREE
27. Daddy Warbucks, e.g. : DEEP POCKET
28. Former Mormon leader Ezra Taft __ : BENSON
30. Actress Knightley : KEIRA
31. Blender brand : OSTER
35. “Nosebleed seats” section : UPPER DECK
37. Supposes to be : TAKES FOR
42. Loses temporarily : MISLAYS
46. Bodega patron : LATINO
47. European capital : KIEV
49. Fortune 500 listings: Abbr. : COS
51. Sailing : ASEA
52. Complain : CARP
53. Really good, in ’90s slang : PHAT
54. Rodents do it : GNAW
55. Money in la banque : EURO
56. Treated by the doctor : SEEN
58. Four-wk. period, usually : FEB
59. Minimum for many games : TWO

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