LA Times Crossword 7 Oct 21, Thursday

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Constructed by: Michael Paleos
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Silent Treatment

Themed answers each include a SILENT letter that’s circled in the grid. Those SILENT letters spell the word “MUTE”:

  • 54A Cold shoulder … and a hint to four circled letters, individually and as a unit : SILENT TREATMENT
  • 17A Aids for retrieving things : MNEMONIC DEVICES
  • 28A Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, for one : GUITAR SOLO
  • 33A Made bad news easier to take : SOFTENED THE BLOW
  • 41A Bond of the ’70s and ’80s : ROGER MOORE

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

Bill’s time: 7m 33s

Bill’s errors: 2

  • POKEMON (Pokamon)
  • OSMENT (Osmant)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Something going to the dogs : ALPO

Alpo is a brand of dog food introduced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

5 Chirpy sci-fi critter : ARTOO

Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2 (also “Artoo-Detoo”). R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stood just 3 feet 8 inches tall, was the man inside the R2-D2 droid for the first six of the “Star Wars” movies.

10 Joe by another name : JAVA

Back in 1850, the name “java” was given to a type of coffee grown on the island of Java, and the more general usage of the term spread from then.

It seems that no one really knows why we refer to coffee as “joe”, but we’ve been doing so since early in WWII.

14 Welsh actor Roger : REES

Roger Rees was a Welsh actor. Rees played the character Robin Colcord on “Cheers”, the posh love interest for Rebecca Howe played by Kirstie Alley. Rees also appeared periodically on “The West Wing” as the marvelously flamboyant and eccentric Lord John Marbury, the British Ambassador.

16 Kalahari-like : ARID

The Kalahari is a vast desert region in southern Africa that covers much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. The desert is located within a larger lowland known as the Kalahari Basin, which covers almost a million square miles. The name “Kalahari” comes from one of two Tswana words, meaning either “the great thirst” or “a waterless place”.

20 Hunted ones in a 2016 craze : POKEMON

“Pokémon GO” is a reality-based video game in which players must locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures known as Pokémon. The Pokémon are hidden in the real world, in the sense that they have to be located on an electronic device (like a smartphone) in “the real world”, for which a GPS location is needed. Players see the Pokémon overlaid on a view of the real world on their smart device.

23 Provider of colt comfort : MARE

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

  • Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
  • Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
  • Filly: female horse under the age of four
  • Colt: male horse under the age of four
  • Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
  • Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
  • Mare: female horse four years or older

24 “On the Road” narrator __ Paradise : SAL

Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel “On the Road” is largely autobiographical, telling the story of Sal Paradise (Jack K.) and the road trips that he and his friends took across the country in the fifties.

28 Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, for one : GUITAR SOLO

Many of his contemporaries regarded Jimi Hendrix as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix was from Seattle and didn’t really have a really stellar start to his working life. He failed to finish high school and fell foul of the law by getting caught in stolen cars, twice. The courts gave him the option of the army or two years in prison. Hendrix chose the former and soon found himself in the famous 101st Airborne. In the army, his less-than-disciplined ways helped him (as he would have seen it) because his superiors successfully petitioned to get him discharged after serving only one year of his two-year requirement, just to get him out of their hair.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key was adopted as the US national anthem in 1931. The song had been used officially by the US Navy since 1889, and was played when raising the flag.

1969’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair was held on a dairy farm located 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York. 400,000 young people attended, and saw 32 bands and singers perform over three days.

31 One might be slipped : DISC

Our intervertebral discs are composed mainly of cartilage. They perform the crucial functions of separating the vertebrae while allowing slight movement, and also absorbing shock. A “slipped disc” isn’t really a disc that has “slipped”, but rather a disc that “bulges”. If that bulge causes pressure on the sciatic nerve then the painful condition known as sciatica can result.

39 Word with box or light : IDIOT …

“Idiot box” and “boob tube” are nicknames for television.

The warning and status lights that we see on the dashboard of a car are commonly referred to as “idiot lights”. In general, these lights have replaced gauges that measured things like engine temperature and oil pressure. The first idiot lights were introduced in the 1930s by the Hudson automobile company.

The unsavory term “idiot” was formerly used by the medical community to describe someone with moderate to severe mental retardation. The term comes from the Greek “idiotes” meaning “person lacking professional skill, layman”. Back in the early 1900s, IQ tests were used to classify those suffering from mental retardation into categories:

  • “idiot” … IQ of 0-20
  • “imbecile” … IQ of 21-50
  • “moron” …IQ of 51-70

40 Bush hoppers : ROOS

The word “kangaroo” comes from the Australian Aborigine term for the animal. There’s an oft-quoted story that the explorer James Cook (later Captain Cook) asked a local native what was the name of this remarkable-looking animal, and the native responded with “Kangaroo”. The story is that the native was actually saying “I don’t understand you”, but as cute as that tale is, it’s just an urban myth.

41 Bond of the ’70s and ’80s : ROGER MOORE

Roger Moore is best known in the US for taking on the role of 007 in seven James Bond movies from 1973 to 1985. In my part of the world we remember him playing a very debonair hero called Simon Templar in a TV series called “The Saint” from 1962 to 1969. Moore’s Templar character could very easily have morphed into a great James Bond, but by the time he was offered the part I personally think that he was just a tad too long in the tooth to pull off a credible 007.

44 Part of CSNY : NASH

The supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) is made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. The band can grow to “CSNY” when the trio is joined by Neil Young. Fans have been known to call the act “C, S, N and sometimes Y”, a play on the expression that names all the vowels, “A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y”.

48 Its returns were never sales: Abbr. : IRS

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

49 Strong 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.

50 Game with scratching : LOTTO

Originally, lotto was a type of card game, with “lotto” being the Italian for “a lot”. We’ve used “lotto” to mean a gambling game since the late 1700s.

51 2019 Broadway biomusical : TINA

“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” is described as a jukebox musical that premiered in London in 2018. It tells the life story of rock ‘n roll legend Tina Turner. I haven’t seen this one, and would love to do so …

58 Rapper-turned-actor : ICE-T

Rapper Ice-T must be tired of having his name come up as an answer in crossword puzzles (I know I am!). Born Tracy Marrow, Ice-T has been interested in acting for decades and made his film debut in the 1984 movie about breakdancing called “Breakin’”. He has also played Detective Fin Tutuola in the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” since the year 2000.

61 Smart-alecky : CUTE

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

63 Zap : LASE

The term “laser” is an acronym standing for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “light oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn’t quite so appealing, namely “loser”.

Down

1 Axilla, commonly : ARMPIT

“Axilla” is the anatomical name for armpit; not to be confused with “maxilla”, the upper jawbone.

2 Lost love in “The Raven” : LENORE

“The Raven” is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe that tells of a student who has lost the love of his life, Lenore. A raven enters the student’s bedchamber and perches on a bust of Pallas. The raven can talk, to the student’s surprise, but says nothing but the word “nevermore” (“quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore’”). As the student questions all aspects of his life, the raven taunts him with the same comment, “nevermore”. Finally, the student decides that his soul is trapped beneath the raven’s shadow and shall be lifted “nevermore”.

4 “Pay It Forward” actor Haley Joel __ : OSMENT

Haley Joel Osment was excellent in “The Sixth Sense”, playing the young boy who saw “dead people”. Before Osment got that role, he had played Forrest Gump’s young son on screen (bet you didn’t know that!). Since then, he starred in “Pay It Forward” and “A.I”, both very entertaining films.

“Pay It Forward” is a 2000 film that is based on a 1999 novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The movie tells the story of an 11-year-old boy who starts a “pay it forward” movement in which the beneficiary of a good deed repays that kindness to someone other than the benefactor. Haley Joel Osment plays the boy, and Helen Hunt his alcoholic mother. Kevin Spacey portrays the boy’s teacher.

5 River in Tuscany : ARNO

The Arno is the principal river in the Tuscany region of Italy, and passes through the cities of Florence and Pisa. Famously the Arno flooded in 1966, the worst flood in the region for centuries. There were numerous deaths and extensive destruction of priceless art treasures, particularly in Florence.

Tuscany is a beautiful region in central Italy, the capital of which is the city of Florence. Tuscany is considered to be the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, which was centered around Florence. It was home to great artistic icons such as Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Galileo and Puccini.

6 Bit of equestrian gear : REIN

Something described as equestrian is related to horses or horsemanship. The term “equestrian” comes from the Latin “equus” meaning “horse”.

7 Tic __ : TAC

Tic Tacs aren’t American candies (as I always mistakenly believed). Tic Tacs are made by the Italian company Ferrero, and were introduced in 1969.

8 So last year : OLD HAT

The use of “old hat” to mean something “out of date, stale” started about 1911. Before that, the term “old hat” meant something very different, and very vulgar. “Old hat” was the name given to a very private part of the female anatomy, the idea being that it was “often felt” (as in a “felt hat”). I just don’t know what to say …

9 1998 Masters winner Mark : O’MEARA

Mark O’Meara is a golfer from Goldsboro, North Carolina. He is known as one of the American players who competes in international tournaments more than most, and has a reputation as a real gentleman all around the world.

Golf’s Masters Tournament is the first of the four major championships in the annual calendar, taking place in the first week of April each year. It is played at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, and has a number of traditions. One is that the winner is awarded the famous “green jacket”, but he only gets to keep it for a year and must return it to the club after twelve months.

10 Monopoly corner : JAIL

The commercial game of Monopoly is supposedly a remake of “The Landlord’s Game” created in 1903 by a Quaker woman named Lizzie Phillips. Phillips used her game as a tool to explain the single tax theory of American economist Henry George. The Landlord’s Game was first produced commercially in 1924. The incredibly successful derivative game called Monopoly was introduced in 1933 by Charles Darrow, who became a very rich man when Parker Brothers bought the rights to the game just two years later in 1935.

11 Parabolic path : ARC

A parabola is roughly a u-shape curve. Parabolic mirrors have cross-sections that are parabolic curves. Such mirrors have the characteristic that light emanating from the parabola’s focal point leaves the mirror as a parallel beam, a collimated beam.

18 IM gasp : OMG

“OMG” is text-speak for “Oh My Gosh!” “Oh My Goodness!” or any other G-words you might care to use …

Instant message (IM)

19 Sábado preceder : VIERNES

In Spanish (Span.), the days of the week are masculine (masc.) nouns. Unlike in English, the days of the week in Spanish are not capitalized when used in the middle of a sentence:

  • lunes – Monday
  • martes – Tuesday
  • miércoles – Wednesday
  • jueves – Thursday
  • viernes – Friday
  • sábado – Saturday
  • domingo – Sunday

23 Emphatic end to a killer performance : MIC DROP

A mic drop takes place when a performer has done particularly well and decides to celebrate by throwing or dropping the microphone to the floor. That doesn’t seem to happen at the performances I tend to frequent …

24 Lowe’s bagful : SOIL

Lucius S. Lowe opened the first Lowe’s hardware store in 1921, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Lucius only knew the one store, as it was his family who expanded the company after he passed away in 1940.

26 MGM co-founder : LOEW

Marcus Loew was a New Yorker born into a poor Jewish family. He started out in a penny arcade business and used its profits to buy into a nickelodeon. He built a whole chain of movie theaters, and then moved into the production of films so that he could guarantee supply of features that he could show in his theaters. Eventually he pulled together the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film production company, and sadly passed away just three years after he inked the deal.

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio was founded in 1924 by Marcus Loew. Loew was already a successful movie theater owner when he purchased Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919, and then Goldwyn Pictures in 1924. Later in 1924, Loew also purchased Louis B. Mayer Pictures, mainly so that Louis B. Mayer could merge all three studios and run them himself as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

28 Gimlet option : GIN

A gimlet is a relatively simple cocktail that is traditionally made using just gin and lime juice. The trend in more recent times is to replace the gin with vodka.

29 One of a Swiss Army knife’s many : USE

Swiss Army knives are multi-tools made by the Swiss company Victorinox. The device was first produced in 1891 when Victorinox’s predecessor company was awarded the contract to supply the knife to the Swiss Army. The name “Swiss Army knife” was actually an American invention as it was the term used by American GIs during and after WWII as an alternative to pronouncing the more difficult German “Schweizer Offiziersmesser” (Swiss Officer Knife).

31 Disembark, maybe : DETRAIN

In getting on and off a seagoing vessel, one embarks and debarks (also “disembarks”). The terms “embark” and “debark” come from the name of the small ship known as a barque.

33 Aide to millions : SIRI

Siri is a software application that works with Apple’s iOS operating system. “Siri” is an acronym standing for Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. Voice-over artist Susan Bennett revealed herself as the female American voice of Siri a few years ago. The British version of Siri is called Daniel, and the Australian version is called Karen. Also, “Siri” is a Norwegian name meaning “beautiful woman who leads you to victory”, and was the name the developer had chosen for his first child.

35 Cookie fruit : FIGS

The fig is the fruit of a small tree in the mulberry family. Once picked, figs don’t travel very well, so the bulk of figs consumed have been preserved by drying.

36 __ the mark : TOE

The idiomatic expression “to toe the line” means “to obey”. The etymology of the phrase is disputed, although it is likely to come from the Royal Navy. Barefooted sailors were required to stand to attention for inspection lined up along the seams for the wooden deck, hence “toeing the line”.

37 NBA’s Raptors : TOR

The Raptors are an NBA basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The franchise was founded, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, when the NBA expanded into Canada in 1995. However, the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, leaving the Raptors as the only Canadian member of the league. The selection of the name “Raptors” in 1995 was strongly influenced by the popularity of the movie “Jurassic Park in the mid-nineties.

42 Watchword : MANTRA

A mantra is a word that is used as a focus for the mind while meditating. The term is Sanskrit in origin, and is now used figuratively in English to describe any oft-repeated word or phrase.

The Hare Krishna mantra dates back to the 15th century. It is a 16-word mantra that can be written as:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare

45 She turned Arachne into a spider : ATHENA

In Greek and Roman mythology, Arachne was a mortal woman who was a great weaver. Arachne boasted that her weaving was greater than that of the goddess Athena (or Minerva in Roman myth), and this was proven true in a contest. As a result, Arachne was turned into a spider by Athena. “Arachne” is the Greek word for spider.

47 Stymie : HOG-TIE

The hog-tie was first used on pigs (hence the name), and involves the tying together of all four limbs in order to render the animal immobile. On a pig, or any other four legged animal, the limbs are obviously tied in front. To hogtie a human, the hands are usually tied behind the back and joined to a rope binding the ankles.

The word “stymie” comes from golf, and is a situation in which one’s approach to the hole is blocked by an opponent’s ball. We use the term more broadly as a verb to describe standing in the way of something.

50 GPS finding : LAT

Lines of latitude are imaginary horizontal lines surrounding the planet. The most “important” lines of latitude are, from north to south:

  • Arctic Circle
  • Tropic of Cancer
  • Equator
  • Tropic of Capricorn
  • Antarctic Circle

51 It’s under un beret : TETE

In French, one wears a “chapeau” (hat), a “béret” (beret) perhaps, on one’s “tête” (head).

54 Attack, to Rover : SIC

“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”.

55 RN workplace : ICU

A registered nurse (RN) might work in an intensive care unit (ICU).

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Something going to the dogs : ALPO
5 Chirpy sci-fi critter : ARTOO
10 Joe by another name : JAVA
14 Welsh actor Roger : REES
15 Domain : REALM
16 Kalahari-like : ARID
17 Aids for retrieving things : MNEMONIC DEVICES
20 Hunted ones in a 2016 craze : POKEMON
21 Rare forecast : HAIL
22 Teeing off : IRING
23 Provider of colt comfort : MARE
24 “On the Road” narrator __ Paradise : SAL
27 Zippered shelter : TENT
28 Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, for one : GUITAR SOLO
31 One might be slipped : DISC
32 Some urban pollution : NOISE
33 Made bad news easier to take : SOFTENED THE BLOW
39 Word with box or light : IDIOT …
40 Bush hoppers : ROOS
41 Bond of the ’70s and ’80s : ROGER MOORE
44 Part of CSNY : NASH
48 Its returns were never sales: Abbr. : IRS
49 Strong lobby for seniors : AARP
50 Game with scratching : LOTTO
51 2019 Broadway biomusical : TINA
52 Big squeeze : BEAR HUG
54 Cold shoulder … and a hint to four circled letters, individually and as a unit : SILENT TREATMENT
58 Rapper-turned-actor : ICE-T
59 Something one may be dying to hide? : ROOTS
60 Pro foe : ANTI
61 Smart-alecky : CUTE
62 Affected : ARTSY
63 Zap : LASE

Down

1 Axilla, commonly : ARMPIT
2 Lost love in “The Raven” : LENORE
3 Spy, in a way : PEEK IN
4 “Pay It Forward” actor Haley Joel __ : OSMENT
5 River in Tuscany : ARNO
6 Bit of equestrian gear : REIN
7 Tic __ : TAC
8 So last year : OLD HAT
9 1998 Masters winner Mark : O’MEARA
10 Monopoly corner : JAIL
11 Parabolic path : ARC
12 Contend : VIE
13 They pop up too often : ADS
18 IM gasp : OMG
19 Sábado preceder : VIERNES
23 Emphatic end to a killer performance : MIC DROP
24 Lowe’s bagful : SOIL
25 “And another thing … ” : ALSO …
26 MGM co-founder : LOEW
28 Gimlet option : GIN
29 One of a Swiss Army knife’s many : USE
30 Blubber : SOB
31 Disembark, maybe : DETRAIN
33 Aide to millions : SIRI
34 It could be fishy : ODOR
35 Cookie fruit : FIGS
36 __ the mark : TOE
37 NBA’s Raptors : TOR
38 Groundbreaking invention : HOE
42 Watchword : MANTRA
43 Address provider : ORATOR
44 Not odd : NORMAL
45 She turned Arachne into a spider : ATHENA
46 Action film fodder : STUNTS
47 Stymie : HOG-TIE
50 GPS finding : LAT
51 It’s under un beret : TETE
52 Risks : BETS
53 “Nothing to it!” : EASY!
54 Attack, to Rover : SIC
55 RN workplace : ICU
56 Tennis call : LET!
57 Rubbish : ROT