LA Times Crossword 12 Mar 19, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Gary Larson
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Side by Side

Themed answers comprise two words, each of which can follow the word “SIDE”:

  • 60A. Together, and a hint to both parts of the answers to starred clues : SIDE BY SIDE
  • 17A. *Wall-hidden sliding portal : POCKET DOOR (from “side pocket” & “side door”)
  • 39A. *Serve, as stew : DISH OUT (from “side dish” & “side out”)
  • 11D. *Fixture on a ceiling rail : TRACK LIGHT (from “sidetrack” & “sidelight”)
  • 28D. *Google Maps option : STREET VIEW (from “side street” & “side view”)

Bill’s time: 5m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. “We burger as good as we pancake” chain : IHOP

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was founded back in 1958. IHOP was originally intended to be called IHOE, the International House of Eggs, but that name didn’t do too well in marketing tests!

5. Ring-shaped reef : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring and enclosing a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside internal to the circling coral reef.

10. www code : HTML

The initialism “HTML” stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the language used to write most Internet web pages (including this one).

14. The “M” of MSG : MONO-

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of a naturally-occurring,non-essential amino acid called glutamic acid. It is used widely as a flavor enhancer, particularly in many Asian cuisines. Whether or not it is harmful seems to be still under debate. I say that something produced in a test tube shouldn’t be in our food …

15. Greek played by Anthony Quinn : ZORBA

“Zorba the Greek” the film, and “Zorba” the musical, are adaptations of the 1952 novel “Zorba the Greek” by Nikos Kazantzakis. The 1964 film version stars Anthony Quinn in the title role, and Alan Bates. The movie is set and was filmed on location on the island of Crete, the home of author Kazantzakis.

Anthony Quinn was a Mexican-born American actor who is perhaps best known for playing the title role in the 1964 film “Zorba the Greek”. Off the screen, Quinn was an accomplished artist, with his works being exhibited both domestically and internationally.

16. Badly damaged Asian sea : ARAL

The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

17. *Wall-hidden sliding portal : POCKET DOOR (from “side pocket” & “side door”)

A pocket door is a sliding door that disappears into a pocket in an adjacent wall.

23. Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsor : MACY’S

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City has been held every year since 1924, with a brief suspension from 1942-1944. The parade was halted during WWII as there was a need for rubber and helium to support the war effort.

25. Pedaled in a triathlon : BIKED

An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked to come up with the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finished first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

33. “The Bathers” painter : RENOIR

“The Bathers” is a 1918/1919 oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir that is housed in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. One of the models Renoir used for the work was actress Catherine Hessling. A few years after posing, Hessling married Pierre-Auguste’s son Jean Renoir, who was to become one of France’s most famous film directors.

38. Feb. follower : MAR

March is the third month in our Gregorian calendar. It takes its name from the Latin “Martius”, which was the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. In turn, Martius was named for Mars, the Roman god of war.

40. Old Prizm maker : GEO

Geos were small vehicles manufactured by General Motors mainly in the nineties. Geos were designed to compete head-to-head with the small imports that were gaining market share at the time in the US. Some Geo models that you might remember are the Metro, the Prizm and the Storm. The cars were actually built as joint-ventures with Japanese manufacturers. The Prizm was a GM/Toyota project, the Metro was GM/Suzuki, and the Storm was GM/Isuzu.

44. Writer Hemingway : ERNEST

Ernest Hemingway moved around a lot. He was born in Illinois, and after leaving school headed to the Italian front during WWI. There he served as an ambulance driver, an experience he used as inspiration for “A Farewell to Arms”. He returned to the US after being seriously wounded, but a few years later moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent. He covered the Spanish War as a journalist, from Spain, using this experience for “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. During the thirties and forties he had two permanent residences, one in Key West, Florida and one in Cuba. In the late fifties he moved to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in 1961.

47. Sean who played a hobbit : ASTIN

Sean Astin is best known for playing the title role in the 1993 film “Rudy” and the character Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” movies. You might also have seen him playing Lynn McGill in the 5th season of “24”. Astin is the son of actress Patty Duke, and the adopted son of actor John Astin (of “The Addams Family” fame).

49. Reef explorer’s gear : SCUBA

The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) was co-invented by celebrated French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

52. Split, as the loot : DIVVY UP

“Loot” is the name given to anything taken by dishonesty or force, particularly during war. The term came into English from the Hindi “lut” meaning “goods taken from an enemy”.

55. Oyster season, so they say : “R” MONTHS

There is a traditional warning that one shouldn’t eat shellfish in a month without an R i.e. May through August. That’s because these are the warmer months here in the northern hemisphere when algae blooms can spread toxins that are soaked up by clams, mussels and oysters. Personally, I only eat shellfish in months containing a Q … that would be never …

66. Meal with matzo : SEDER

The Passover Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday, celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. One of the traditions at the meal is that the youngest child at the table asks “The Four Questions”, all relating to why this night is different from all other nights in the year:

  • Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matzoh, but on this night we eat only matzoh?
  • Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but on this night we eat only bitter herbs?
  • Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip our herbs even once, but on this night we dip them twice?
  • Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position?

Matzo is an unleavened bread that is very brittle. The bread is crushed, creating Matzo meal that is then formed into balls using eggs and oil as a binder. The balls are usually served in a chicken stock.

67. “Downton Abbey” employee : MAID

In the incredibly successful period drama “Downton Abbey”, the patriarch of the family living at Downton is Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham or Lord Grantham. The character is played by Hugh Bonneville. Lord Grantham married American Cora Levinson (played by Elizabeth McGovern). Lord and Lady Grantham had three daughters, and no son. The lack of a male heir implied that the Grantham estate would pass to a male cousin, and out of the immediate family. The Grantham daughters are Lady Mary (played by Michelle Dockery), Lady Edith (played by Laura Carmichael) and Lady Sybil (played by Jessica Brown Findlay). Lady Sybil had the audacity to marry the family chauffeur, who was an Irish nationalist. The shame of it all …

Down

4. Critters hunted in a 2016 mobile app : 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.

5. Ancient Mexican : AZTEC

The Aztec people of Central America dominated the region in the 14th – 16th centuries. Two traits of the Aztec people are oft cited today. They built some magnificent pyramids, and they also engaged in human sacrifice. The two traits were linked in a way … for the consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, 84,400 prisoners were sacrificed over a period of four days.

6. Hot spiced drink : TODDY

The word “toddy” has come a long way. Its origins lie in the Hindi word for a palm tree, which is “tar”. The derivative word “tari” was used for palm sap, which came into English as “tarrie”, then “taddy” and “toddy”, all of which described an alcoholic drink made from fermented palm sap. That was back around 1600. Late in the 18th century, the palm sap drink called “toddy” had morphed into meaning any alcoholic drink made with liquor, hot water, sugar and spices.

7. “__ y Plata”: Montana motto : ORO

“Oro y Plata” means “gold and silver”, and is the state motto of Montana. The motto was written in Spanish, solely because “it had a nice ring to it”.

8. Wall St. deals : LBOS

A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a transaction in which an investor acquires a controlling volume of stock in a company, but buys that stock with borrowed funds (hence “leveraged”). Often the assets of the acquired company are used as collateral for the borrowed money. There is a special form of LBO known as a management buyout (MBO) in which the company’s own management team purchase the controlling interest.

9. Small songbird : LARK

Larks are small songbirds that are found all over the world, although only the horned lark species is found here in North America. Despite their size, larks are sometimes considered game birds, and can be served up as food. It’s not uncommon to find a dish containing lark meat in southern Europe.

10. McDaniel of “Gone With the Wind” : HATTIE

Hattie McDaniel was an actress best known for her Oscar-winning performance playing “Mammy” in the 1939 movie “Gone with the Wind”. That marked the first time that any African-American entertainer won an Academy Award. McDaniel was also a singer, and indeed was the first African-American woman to sing on American radio. She actually has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for her contributions to motion pictures, and one for her contribution to radio.

12. Papier-__ : MACHE

Papier-mâché is an artistic medium made from strips of paper, or pulped paper, that is bound with an adhesive. “Papier-mâché” translates from French as mashed or chewed paper.

13. Frank __ Wright : LLOYD

The architect Frank Lloyd Wright embraced the philosophy of designing structures that were in harmony with the environment. One of his most famous works is an elaborate home in rural Pennsylvania known as Fallingwater, which is partially built over a waterfall.

18. Panache : ELAN

Our word “élan” was imported from French, in which language the word has a similar meaning to ours, i.e “style, flair”.

Someone exhibiting panache is showing dash and verve, and perhaps has a swagger. “Panache” is a French word used for a plume of feathers, especially in a hat.

22. Movie critic Roger : EBERT

Roger Ebert was a film critic for “The Chicago Sun-Times” for 50 years. He also co-hosted a succession of film review television programs for over 23 years, most famously with Gene Siskel until Siskel passed away in 1999. Siskel and Ebert famously gave their thumbs up or thumbs down to the movies they reviewed. Ebert was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, which he did in 1975. He was diagnosed and treated for thyroid cancer in 2002, and finally succumbed to a recurrence of the disease in April 2013.

28. *Google Maps option : STREET VIEW (from “side street” & “side view”)

Google Maps was developed as a web mapping service for desktops. The (wonderful!) Google Maps mobile app was released in 2008, and is now the most popular smartphone app in the world.

30. American-born Jordanian queen : NOOR

Queen Noor is the widow of King Hussein of Jordan. Queen Noor was born Lisa Halaby in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Najeeb Halaby. Her father was appointed by President Kennedy as the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, and later became the CEO of Pan Am. Lisa Halaby met King Hussein in 1977, while working on the design of Jordan’s Queen Alia Airport. The airport was named after King Hussein’s third wife who had been killed that year in a helicopter crash. Halaby and the King were married the next year, in 1978.

31. Name of 12 popes : PIUS

There have been twelve popes named Pius, the latest being Pope Pius XII. He led the Roman Catholic Church until his death in 1958.

34. Appraisal amts. : ESTS

Estimate (est.)

37. PlayStation maker : SONY

Sony introduced the PlayStation line of video game consoles in 1994.

39. “__ Boy”: Irish song : DANNY

“Danny Boy” is a famous ballad associated with Ireland. The song’s lyrics were written by Englishman Frederick Weatherly and put to an existing tune called “Londonderry Air” (also “Derry Air”). “Danny Boy” has been adopted as an unofficial anthem by people in North America with Irish roots.

43. Narrow window : TRANSOM

When a window is placed above a door, the horizontal beam separating the two is called a transom. The window above such a beam is known as a transom light, although it might also be called a “transom” or “transom window” here in the US.

45. Mississippi and Missouri : RIVERS

The vast Mississippi drainage basin covers much of the US, and even extends into Canada. As such, the river’s watershed at least part of 31 US states and two Canadian provinces. The Ojibwe name for the river is “Misi-ziibi”, meaning “Great River”, which French settlers rendered as “Messipi”, and which eventually evolved into our “Mississippi”.

At 2,341 miles, the Missouri is the longest river in North America. Rising in Montana in the Rocky Mountains, it flows into the Mississippi at St. Louis. The Mississippi-Missouri river system is the fourth largest on the planet.

47. Pablo’s parting : ADIOS

The term “adiós” is Spanish for “goodbye”. “Adiós” comes from the phrase “a Dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

48. Thriller writer Daniel : SILVA

Daniel Silva is a bestselling thriller author from Michigan. Silva’s first novel was a “New York Times” bestseller called “The Unlikely Spy”. Silva followed up with a string of hit novels featuring his hero, an art restorer named Gabriel Allon.

50. Minos’ kingdom : CRETE

Minos was the King of Crete in Greek mythology, and the son of Zeus and Europa. Minos had an elaborate labyrinth built under the island that was designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus (who famously died trying to escape from the island by “flying” away). In the labyrinth, King Minos kept the Minotaur, a dreadful creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man.

51. “Raw” pigment : UMBER

Umber is an earthy, brown shade. The word “umber” originally described a pigment made from earth found in Umbria, the region in central Italy. In its natural form, the pigment is referred to as “raw umber”. The heated form of the pigment has a more intense color and is known as “burnt umber”.

56. Singer Turner : TINA

“Tina Turner” is the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner has always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties. She now splits her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

57. Port on many TVs : HDMI

High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. “We burger as good as we pancake” chain : IHOP
5. Ring-shaped reef : ATOLL
10. www code : HTML
14. The “M” of MSG : MONO-
15. Greek played by Anthony Quinn : ZORBA
16. Badly damaged Asian sea : ARAL
17. *Wall-hidden sliding portal : POCKET DOOR (from “side pocket” & “side door”)
19. Food truck snack : TACO
20. Prepared (oneself), as for a difficult task : STEELED
21. Planned with little detail : SKETCHY
23. Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsor : MACY’S
25. Pedaled in a triathlon : BIKED
26. Trowel wielder : MASON
29. Remove the rind from : UNPEEL
32. Letter-routing abbr. : ATTN
33. “The Bathers” painter : RENOIR
35. Suppositions : IFS
38. Feb. follower : MAR
39. *Serve, as stew : DISH OUT (from “side dish” & “side out”)
40. Old Prizm maker : GEO
41. Sports drink suffix : -ADE
42. Wedding venues : ALTARS
43. Back in the day : THEN
44. Writer Hemingway : ERNEST
46. Like craft shows : ARTSY
47. Sean who played a hobbit : ASTIN
49. Reef explorer’s gear : SCUBA
52. Split, as the loot : DIVVY UP
55. Oyster season, so they say : “R” MONTHS
59. “Would __ to you?” : I LIE
60. Together, and a hint to both parts of the answers to starred clues : SIDE BY SIDE
62. Above : OVER
63. Gladden : ELATE
64. “My treat” : ON ME
65. Wood cutters : SAWS
66. Meal with matzo : SEDER
67. “Downton Abbey” employee : MAID

Down

1. Rascals : IMPS
2. Laugh-a-minute : HOOT
3. __ and for all : ONCE
4. Critters hunted in a 2016 mobile app : POKEMON
5. Ancient Mexican : AZTEC
6. Hot spiced drink : TODDY
7. “__ y Plata”: Montana motto : ORO
8. Wall St. deals : LBOS
9. Small songbird : LARK
10. McDaniel of “Gone With the Wind” : HATTIE
11. *Fixture on a ceiling rail : TRACK LIGHT (from “sidetrack” & “sidelight”)
12. Papier-__ : MACHE
13. Frank __ Wright : LLOYD
18. Panache : ELAN
22. Movie critic Roger : EBERT
24. Broad-brimmed beach bonnets : SUN HATS
26. Cry from a crib : MAMA!
27. Just barely : A TAD
28. *Google Maps option : STREET VIEW (from “side street” & “side view”)
30. American-born Jordanian queen : NOOR
31. Name of 12 popes : PIUS
33. Really anger : RILE
34. Appraisal amts. : ESTS
36. Professional charges : FEES
37. PlayStation maker : SONY
39. “__ Boy”: Irish song : DANNY
43. Narrow window : TRANSOM
45. Mississippi and Missouri : RIVERS
46. “It’s __!”: nursery cry : A BOY
47. Pablo’s parting : ADIOS
48. Thriller writer Daniel : SILVA
50. Minos’ kingdom : CRETE
51. “Raw” pigment : UMBER
53. Applications : USES
54. Heap : PILE
56. Singer Turner : TINA
57. Port on many TVs : HDMI
58. Start of a flower : SEED
61. Family man : DAD