LA Times Crossword Answers 29 Jun 17, Thursday










Constructed by: Gerry Wildenberg

Edited by: Rich Norris

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

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Theme: Hard-Edged

Each of today’s themed answers is located around the EDGE of the grid. Also, each needs to follow the word “HARD” for completion:

  • 35A. Gritty … and a description of this puzzle, which is also a hint to completing eight answers : HARD-EDGED
  • 1A. Angry Orchard product : (HARD) CIDER
  • 6A. Bony part of the roof of the mouth : (HARD) PALATE
  • 66A. Contacts option : (HARD) LENSES
  • 67A. Punishing work : (HARD) LABOR
  • 12D. Hockey puck material : (HARD) RUBBER
  • 15D. Stubborn : (HARD-)HEADED
  • 38D. Real estate, gold, silver, etc. : (HARD) ASSETS
  • 45D. Gotten with considerable effort : (HARD-)EARNED

Bill’s time: 7m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Angry Orchard product : (HARD) CIDER

Angry Orchard is a brand of hard cider that’s made in Walden, New York.

6. Bony part of the roof of the mouth : (HARD) PALATE

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.

12. 1988 Schwarzenegger cop film : RED HEAT

“Red Heat” is a 1988 action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi as a law enforcement officers out to nab a Russian druglord operating in Chicago. Arnie plays a narcotics agent from Moscow, and Belushi a Chicago detective.

The body-builder, actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz in Austria, the son of the local police chief. Schwarzenegger’s family name translates into the more prosaic “black plough man”. In his bodybuilding days, he was often referred to as the Austrian Oak. When he was Governor of California he was called “the Governator”, a play on his role in the “The Terminator” series of movies.

17. Entertainer nicknamed “The Schnoz” : DURANTE

Jimmy Durante was a very talented entertainer, with that wonderful, gravelly voice, as well as that large nose that he used in so much of his humor (and earned him the nickname “Schnozzola”). Durante appeared in the Broadway stage musical “Jumbo” in 1935. In one scene, he leads a live elephant across the stage, and gets stopped by a police officer who asks, “What are you doing with that elephant?” Durante replies “What elephant?” and brings the house down every night.

18. “Be Prepared” org. : BSA

As every little boy (of my era) knows, the Scouting movement was founded by Lord Baden Powell, in 1907. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) soon followed, in 1910. And, the Boy Scouts motto is “Be Prepared”.

21. Monterrey Mrs. : SRA

Monterrey is a Mexican city, the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon in the northeast of the country. Monterrey is the second largest city in Mexico in terms of area, but third largest in terms of population (the largest area city in the country is Mexico City, and the most populous are Mexico City and Guadalajara).

22. Outlying area, briefly : BURB

As an extension to the term “suburb”, an “exurb” is an area beyond the suburbs at the very outskirts of a city. Often the term exurb is used to denote an area inhabited by more wealthy people.

24. Whitman of TV’s “Parenthood” : MAE

Actress Mae Whitman played “the daughter” in some successful movies early in her career. She was Meg Ryan’s daughter in “When a Man Loves a Woman”, George Clooney’s daughter in “One Fine Day” and Bill Pullman’s daughter in “Independence Day”. More recently, she played the lead in the 2015 teen comedy film “The Duff”.

26. Earth along the Elbe : ERDE

“Erde” is the German word “earth”.

31. Score silence : REST

That would be a musical score.

38. “… __ lovely as … “: Kilmer : A POEM

The American journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer is primarily known for his 1913 poem titled “Trees”. The original text of the poem is:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Kilmer died a few years after writing “Trees”. He was a casualty of the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

41. European volcano : ETNA

Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-gauge railway, and two ski resorts.

42. Seis doubled : DOCE

In Spanish, “seis” (six) doubled is “doce” (twelve).

49. Exploring Griffith Park, say : IN LA

Griffith Park in Los Angeles is often referred to as the city’s “Central Park”, a reference to magnificent park in New York City. However, Griffith Park covers over 4,300 acres, and Central Park is less than a fifth of that size, at just under 780 acres.

50. Sushi bar drink : SAKE

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

51. __-Locka, Florida : OPA

Opa-Locka is a rather interesting city in Florida. Opa-Locka is located near Miami, and has a themed city plan that is based on “One Thousand and One Nights”. The city hall has a very Arabian look, and some examples of street names are Ali Baba Avenue and Sesame Street.

55. Hammer at an angle : TOENAIL

To toenail is to fasten using toed nails, nails that have been driven in at a slant.

62. Agenda opener : ITEM ONE

“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.

66. Contacts option : (HARD) LENSES

The concepts that underpin the technology of contact lenses date back to Leonardo Da Vinci. Although Da Vinci didn’t propose the development of the contact lens, he did write about correcting vision by submerging the eye in a bowl of water. Over a hundred years later, René Descartes made a somewhat impractical suggestion, but along the right lines, of using a glass tube filled with liquid that could be placed in contact with the eye to correct vision. The first real contact lenses were developed by Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick, a German ophthalmologist, in 1887.

Down

3. FedEx alternative : DHL

Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn).

4. Anti-discrimination org. : EEOC

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.

5. Musical style of Anoushka Shankar’s 2015 album “Home” : RAGA

Anoushka Shankar is a British sitar player, and is the daughter of Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar. Through her father, Anoushka is also the half-sister of American singer Norah Jones.

6. City near Venice : PADUA

The city of Padua is in northern Italy, not far from Venice. Padua has many claims to fame. For example, Galileo was one of the lecturers at the University of Padua, and William Shakespeare chose the city as the setting for his play “The Taming of the Shrew”.

9. Chef’s phrase : A LA

The phrase “in the style of” can be translated in “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

10. Sheriff’s badge : TIN STAR

In the Old West a “tin star” was a sheriff’s badge.

11. “CHiPs” actor : ESTRADA

Actor Erik Estrada’s big break came with the movie “Airport 1975”, in which he played the doomed flight engineer of a Boeing 747. A couple of years later, Estrada began a six-year gig, co-starring on the television show “CHiPs” as motorcycle police officer Poncherello.

The TV cop show “CHiPs” ran from 1977 until 1983. Stars of the show were Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada, who played two California HIghway Patrol (CHP) motorcycle officers. I find it interesting that the storylines never once called for the officers to draw their firearms over the six seasons (how shows have changed!). Erik Estrada had to learn how to ride a motorcycle for the show, but wasn’t licensed to drive one during the whole of production. He eventually qualified, but only after three attempts to pass the test.

13. Original Dungeons & Dragons co. : TSR

Dungeons & Dragons is a complex role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my youngest son …

25. “Arabian Nights” character : ALADDIN

“Aladdin” is a famous tale in “Arabian Nights”, also called “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights”. However, there is no evidence at all that the story was in the original collection. It is generally believed that one Antoine Galland introduced the tale when he translated “Arabian Nights” into French in the early 1700s.

27. Hockey immortal : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking.

28. Guy : DUDE

Our term “dude” arose as slang in New York City in the 1880s, when it was used to describe a fastidious man. In the early 1900s, the term was extended to mean “city slickers”, Easterners who vacationed in the West. The first use of the term “dude ranch” was recorded in 1921.

33. Author Ferber : EDNA

Edna Ferber was a novelist and playwright from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman. Ferber also wrote “Show Boat”, “Cimarron” and “Giant”, which were adapted successful for the stage and/or big screen.

36. “Better Call Saul” network : AMC

“Better Call Saul” is a spinoff drama series from the hit show “Breaking Bad”. The main character is small-time lawyer Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, who featured in the original series. “Better Call Saul” is set six years before Goodman makes an appearance in the “Breaking Bad” storyline. The lawyer’s real name is James Morgan McGill, and his pseudonym is a play on the words “S’all good, man!”

37. Wander : GAD

“To gad about” is to move around with little purpose. The word “gad” comes from the Middle English “gadden” meaning “to hurry”.

39. Pheasant kin : PEAFOWL

The male peafowl is known as a peacock, and the female a peahen. The peafowl’s young are sometimes called peachicks.

40. Yellow ribbon holder of song : OAK TREE

A yellow ribbon is symbolically worn by people awaiting the return of a loved one, usually from military service overseas, but also from a penal institution. The song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” tells the tale of a convict returning home. His loyal loved one is waiting for him and she ties a whole boatload of yellow ribbons around the old oak tree to greet him.

44. Pledge, e.g. : CLEANER

Pledge is a cleaning product that was introduced in 1958. It is primarily marketed as a dust remover.

47. Identity-concealing garb, perhaps : HOODIE

My wife gave me a hoodie for Christmas not so long ago, one with a Grumpy logo. Not sure why she chose that particular logo …

52. Lowly workers : PEONS

A peon is a lowly worker with no real control over his/her working conditions. The word comes into English from Spanish, in which language it has the same meaning.

55. Completes a street : TARS

The terms “Tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

57. Tilted type: Abbr. : ITAL

Italic type leans to the right, and is often used to provide emphasis in text. The style is known as “italic” because the stylized calligraphic form of writing originated in Italy, probably in the Vatican.

58. “Not That Kind of Girl” memoirist Dunham : LENA

Lena Dunham is a co-star in the HBO series “Girls”, and is also the show’s creator. Dunham garnered a lot of attention for herself during the 2012 US Presidential election cycle as she starred in an ad focused on getting out the youth vote. In the spot she compared voting for the first time with having sex for the first time.

63. Shakespeare’s fairy queen : MAB

In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Mercutio refers to the fairy known as Queen Mab. It seems that Queen Mab was Shakespeare’s creation, although she became popular in subsequent works of literature. For example, she is referred to in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, in Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”, and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a large poetic work called “Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem”.

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1. Angry Orchard product : (HARD) CIDER

6. Bony part of the roof of the mouth : (HARD) PALATE

12. 1988 Schwarzenegger cop film : RED HEAT

14. Put an end to : ABOLISH

16. Clears a stoppage from : UNCLOGS

17. Entertainer nicknamed “The Schnoz” : DURANTE

18. “Be Prepared” org. : BSA

19. Party hearty : CAROUSE

21. Monterrey Mrs. : SRA

22. Outlying area, briefly : BURB

24. Whitman of TV’s “Parenthood” : MAE

25. Slightly : A TAD

26. Earth along the Elbe : ERDE

27. Lyric tribute : ODE

29. French course : SALADE

31. Score silence : REST

32. Guideline : RULE

34. Spot for wheels? : CAR AD

35. Gritty … and a description of this puzzle, which is also a hint to completing eight answers : HARD-EDGED

38. “… __ lovely as … “: Kilmer : A POEM

41. European volcano : ETNA

42. Seis doubled : DOCE

46. Beat the bushes : SEARCH

48. Note site : PAD

49. Exploring Griffith Park, say : IN LA

50. Sushi bar drink : SAKE

51. __-Locka, Florida : OPA

53. Not e’en once : NE’ER

54. Terrestrial newt : EFT

55. Hammer at an angle : TOENAIL

59. Sun shade : TAN

60. Destructive storm : TORNADO

62. Agenda opener : ITEM ONE

64. Administer an oath to : SWEAR IN

65. Made do : MANAGED

66. Contacts option : (HARD) LENSES

67. Punishing work : (HARD) LABOR

Down

1. Official rebuke : CENSURE

2. Security issues? : ID CARDS

3. FedEx alternative : DHL

4. Anti-discrimination org. : EEOC

5. Musical style of Anoushka Shankar’s 2015 album “Home” : RAGA

6. City near Venice : PADUA

7. Mistreats : ABUSES

8. Traditional accounts : LORE

9. Chef’s phrase : A LA

10. Sheriff’s badge : TIN STAR

11. “CHiPs” actor : ESTRADA

12. Hockey puck material : (HARD) RUBBER

13. Original Dungeons & Dragons co. : TSR

15. Stubborn : (HARD-)HEADED

20. Breakfast cookware : OMELET PAN

23. “Don’t forget our date” : BE THERE

25. “Arabian Nights” character : ALADDIN

27. Hockey immortal : ORR

28. Guy : DUDE

30. Breeze through : ACE

33. Author Ferber : EDNA

36. “Better Call Saul” network : AMC

37. Wander : GAD

38. Real estate, gold, silver, etc. : (HARD) ASSETS

39. Pheasant kin : PEAFOWL

40. Yellow ribbon holder of song : OAK TREE

43. “Almost finished!” : ONE TO GO!

44. Pledge, e.g. : CLEANER

45. Gotten with considerable effort : (HARD-)EARNED

47. Identity-concealing garb, perhaps : HOODIE

52. Lowly workers : PEONS

55. Completes a street : TARS

56. Purpose : AIM

57. Tilted type: Abbr. : ITAL

58. “Not That Kind of Girl” memoirist Dunham : LENA

61. Indian bread : NAN

63. Shakespeare’s fairy queen : MAB

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