LA Times Crossword 15 Nov 21, Monday

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Constructed by: Catherine Cetta
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Split Wood

Themed answers include types of WOOD as hidden words, words SPLIT by a black square:

  • 63A With 65-Across, chore on a winter to-do list … and what appears in each set of circles : SPLIT …
  • 65A See 63-Across : … WOOD
  • 17A “Sorry to say … ” : ALAS
  • 18A Tubelike pasta : PENNE (hiding “AS-PEN”)
  • 28A Maternal “Holy moly!” : OH, MAMA!
  • 30A “By all means!” : PLEASE DO! (hiding “MA-PLE”)
  • 47A Duplicitous : TWO-FACED
  • 51A Response to “Am not!” : ARE TOO! (hiding “CED-AR”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 00s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Places to relax : SPAS

The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as “Spa” is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

14 Prefix for an eight-armed creature : OCTO-

The name “octopus” comes from the Greek for “eight-footed”. The most common plural used is “octopuses”, although the Greek plural form “octopodes” is also quite correct. The plural “octopi” isn’t really correct as the inference is that “octopus” is like a second-declension Latin noun, which it isn’t. That said, dictionaries are now citing “octopi” as an acceptable plural. Language does evolve, even though it drives me crazy …

16 Causes of some head scratching : LICE

Lice (singular “louse”) are small wingless insects, of which there are thousands of species. There are three species of lice affecting humans, i.e. head lice, body lice and pubic lice. Most lice feed on dead skin found on the body of the host animal, although some feed on blood. Ick …

18 Tubelike pasta : PENNE

The pasta known as penne comes in two main types, i.e. penne lisce (which is smooth) and penne rigate (which is furrowed).

19 Fairy tale beginning : ONCE …

The stock phrase “Once upon a time …” has been used in various forms as the start of a narrative at least since 1380. The stock phrase at the end of stories such as folktales is often “and they all lived happily ever after”. The earlier version of this ending was “happily until their deaths”.

23 Ring ref’s decisions : TKOS

In boxing, a knockout (KO) is when one of the fighters can’t get up from the canvas within a specified time, usually 10 seconds. This can be due to fatigue, injury, or the participant may be truly “knocked out”. A referee, fighter or doctor may also decide to stop a fight without a physical knockout, especially if there is concern about a fighter’s safety. In this case the bout is said to end with a technical knockout (TKO).

28 Maternal “Holy moly!” : OH, MAMA!

The mild expletive “Holy moly!” is a euphemism for “Holy Moses!”

32 Cappuccino feature : FOAM

The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an order of Roman Catholic friars, an offshoot of the Franciscans. The order split from the Franciscans back in 1520, and were forced to go into hiding from church authorities. The new order was helped by the Camaldolese monks, and in recognition of their assistance, the breakaway monks adopted the Camaldolese hood, known as a capuccio. It is this “capuccio” that gave the order its name, and indeed ultimately gave the name to the Capuchin monkey. The cappuccino coffee is named for the coffee-and-white colored habits worn by Capuchin friars.

35 Conical abode : TEPEE

A tepee (also written as “tipi” and “teepee”) is a cone-shaped tent traditionally made from animal hides that is used by the Great Plains Native Americans. A wigwam is a completely different structure and is often a misnomer for a tepee. A wigwam is a domed structure built by Native Americans in the West and Southwest, intended to be a more permanent dwelling. The wigwam can also be covered with hides but more often was covered with grass, reeds, brush or cloth.

46 Clapton who sang “Layla” : ERIC

“Layla” is one of the great rock anthems of the seventies, released by Derek and the Dominos as a single in 1971. It is a masterpiece of composition, with the first half of the song a great vehicle for the guitar-playing talents of Eric Clapton. The second half is a beautifully melodic piano coda (a coda … taking up half the length of the track!). To top things off we have the “unplugged” version recorded by Clapton in 1992, a fabulous and inventive variation on the original.

Layla, you’ve got me on my knees.
Layla, I’m begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won’t you ease my worried mind.

47 Duplicitous : TWO-FACED

To be duplicitous is to be deceitful. “Duplicitous” comes from the Greek “duplex” meaning “twofold”. The idea is that someone who is deceitful is twofold in his or her conduct.

53 Intrepid : HEROIC

The adjective “intrepid” describes someone who is fearless, with resolute fortitude. The term comes from the Latin “in-” meaning “not” and “trepidus” meaning “alarmed”.

54 Leaky faucet sounds : DRIPS

The common “faucet” in an American house is almost always referred to as a “tap” on the other side of the pond.

55 GPS suggestions : RTES

A global positioning system (GPS) might point out a route (rte.).

62 Sacred bird of ancient Egypt : IBIS

The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

68 Pisa’s river : ARNO

The city of Pisa sits right on the Italian coast, at the mouth of the River Arno. The city is perhaps most famous for its Leaning Tower. The tower is actually the campanile (bell tower) of the city’s cathedral, and it has been leaning since it was completed in 1173. Just shows you how important good foundations are …

69 Cafeteria carrier : TRAY

“Cafeteria” is a Mexican-Spanish word meaning “coffee store” that we imported into American English around 1840. Somehow, that coffee store became a self-service dining establishment in the 1890s.

71 Wine bottle number : YEAR

Back in the early 1600s, the term “vintage” was first used in English to describe a harvest of grapes or the yield of wine from a vineyard (“vinum” is Latin for “wine”). By the mid-1700s, the vintage of a wine was its age or year. In the late 1800s, the term “vintage” was used more generally as an adjective meaning “of an earlier time”.

Down

1 Horse coat color : ROAN

A roan horse has an even mixture of white and colored hairs on the body with the head, lower legs, mane and tail having a more solid color.

2 Rights org. since 1920 : ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has its roots in the First World War. It grew out of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (CLB) that was founded to provide legal advice and support to conscientious objectors. The ACLU’s motto is “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself”. The ACLU also hosts a blog on the ACLU.org website called “Speak Freely”.

3 Many a U.S. atlas page : STATE MAP

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas” that is used for a book of maps.

5 Swiss peak : ALP

There are eight Alpine countries:

  • Austria
  • Slovenia
  • France
  • Switzerland
  • Liechtenstein
  • Germany
  • Monaco
  • Italy

6 Dickinson and Keats : POETS

On a road trip around the country a few years ago, my wife and I had a very disappointing stop in Amherst, Massachusetts intending to visit the old home of Emily Dickinson. We hadn’t done our homework and failed to note that the home was only open for tours on certain days of the week, and not the day we were there (so be warned!). Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 1800 poems in her lifetime, with less than a dozen published before she died in 1886. Emily’s younger sister discovered the enormous collection, and it was published in batches over the coming decades.

English poet John Keats died in Rome in 1821, and is buried there in the Protestant Cemetery. His last wish was that his grave be marked with a tombstone bearing just the words “”Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water”, and no name nor a date. Keats’ friends honored his request to some extent, as the words were included on the stone and no name is given. The full epitaph reads:

This Grave
contains all that was Mortal
of a
Young English Poet
Who
on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart
at the Malicious Power of his Enemies
Desired
these Words to be
engraven on his Tomb Stone:
Here lies One
Whose Name was writ in Water.
24 February 1821

7 Tolstoy’s Karenina : ANNA

I have to admit to not having read Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”, but I did see the excellent 1977 British television adaptation starring Nicola Pagett. I also saw the 2012 film adaptation with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard and found that to be far from excellent, awful in fact. I am no Stoppard fan …

8 Monopoly payment : RENT

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.

10 “Three-toed” critters : SLOTHS

All four of the extant species of three-toed sloths are native to South and Central America. Cousins of the three-toed sloths are the two-toed sloths, of which there are two species still living.

11 Little finger : PINKIE

The use of “pinkie” or “pinky” for the little finger or toe comes into English from “pinkje”, the Dutch word for the same digit. Who knew …?

12 Honda sedan : ACCORD

Honda started manufacturing its Accord model in Marysville, Ohio in 1982, making the Accord the first Japanese car to be produced in the US. The Accord was the best-selling Japanese car in America from 1982 to 1997, and 1989 was the first import to become the best-selling car in the US.

21 Thanksgiving tuber : YAM

Although in the US we sometimes refer to sweet potatoes as “yams”, the yam is actually a completely different family of plants. True yams are more common in other parts of the world than they are in this country, and are especially common in Africa.

31 In __ of: replacing : LIEU

As one might imagine perhaps, “in lieu” came into English from the Old French word “lieu” meaning “place”, which in turn is derived from the Latin “locum” that also means “place”. So, “in lieu” translates as “in place of”.

36 Actor Morales : ESAI

Actor Esai Morales is best known in the world of film for the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai). On the small screen, Morales plays Lt. Tony Rodriguez on “NYPD Blue” and Joseph Adama on “Caprica”.

39 Another name for Monkey in the Middle : KEEP AWAY

Monkey in the Middle (also “Keep Away”) is a kid’s game in which several players pass a ball to each other while one player tries to intercept it. Back in Ireland, we used to call the game “Piggy in the Middle”.

45 Birdie plus one : PAR

The following terms are routinely used in golf for scores relative to par:

  • Bogey: one over par
  • Par
  • Birdie: one under par
  • Eagle: two under par
  • Albatross (also “double eagle”): three under par
  • Condor: four under par

No one has ever recorded a condor during a professional tournament.

48 Home mixologist’s dream : WET BAR

A mixologist is someone who is well versed in the mixing of cocktails, said he, reaching for the shaker …

49 Tater Tots maker : ORE-IDA

Ore-Ida’s founders came up with the idea for Tater Tots when they were deciding what to do with residual cuts of potato. They chopped up the leftovers, added flour and seasoning, and extruded the mix through a large hole making a sausage that they cut into small cylinders. We eat 70 million pounds of this extruded potato every year!

50 Primate studier Dian : FOSSEY

Dian Fossey carried out her famous study of gorilla populations in the mountain forests of Rwanda. She wrote a 1983 autobiographical account of her work titled “Gorillas in the Mist”, which served as a basis for a 1988 film of the same name starring Sigourney Weaver as Fossey. Sadly, Fossey was found dead in her cabin in Rwanda in 1986, murdered in her bedroom, her skull split open by a machete. The crime was never solved.

58 “Frozen” queen : ELSA

“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film is all about the exploits of Princess Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, Snow Queen of Arendelle. Spoiler alert: Prince Hans of the Southern Isles seems to be a good guy for most of the film, but turns out to be a baddie in the end. And, a snowman named Olaf provides some comic relief.

60 College named for a Scottish island : IONA

Iona College is a Roman Catholic school run by Christian Brothers in New Rochelle, New York. The Brothers named the college for the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland on which is located Iona Abbey, which was founded by St. Columba. The school’s sports teams are called the Iona Gaels, and the team mascot goes by the name “Killian”.

Although the small island of Iona lies just off the west coast of Scotland, it was the site of a monastery built in the Middle Ages by a monk from Ireland named Colm Cille (also known as Columba). Colm Cille and his followers were sent into exile from the Irish mainland and settled in Iona, as at that time the island was part of an Irish kingdom. This monastery in Iona expanded its influence over the decades and founded other institutions all over Ireland and Great Britain. It is believed that the famous Book of Kells may have been written, or at least started, at the monastery on Iona. Iona is also the burial site for Macbeth, King of Scotland who was immortalized in Shakespeare’s fictional account of the king’s life.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Coarse file : RASP
5 Separated : APART
10 Places to relax : SPAS
14 Prefix for an eight-armed creature : OCTO-
15 One who prefers their own company : LONER
16 Causes of some head scratching : LICE
17 “Sorry to say … ” : ALAS …
18 Tubelike pasta : PENNE
19 Fairy tale beginning : ONCE …
20 Wacky : NUTTY
22 “Ciao” cousin : TA-TA
23 Ring ref’s decisions : TKOS
24 “Good grief!” : EGADS!
26 Top often with a slogan : T-SHIRT
28 Maternal “Holy moly!” : OH, MAMA!
30 “By all means!” : PLEASE DO!
32 Cappuccino feature : FOAM
33 Interwoven strands of hair : BRAIDS
35 Conical abode : TEPEE
37 Unreturnable serve : ACE
38 Enjoy the rink : SKATE
43 Put away money for the future : SAVE UP
46 Clapton who sang “Layla” : ERIC
47 Duplicitous : TWO-FACED
51 Response to “Am not!” : ARE TOO!
53 Intrepid : HEROIC
54 Leaky faucet sounds : DRIPS
55 GPS suggestions : RTES
56 One with a password : USER
59 Gas grill place : PATIO
62 Sacred bird of ancient Egypt : IBIS
63 With 65-Across, chore on a winter to-do list … and what appears in each set of circles : SPLIT …
65 See 63-Across : … WOOD
66 Run out of steam : FADE
67 Lets up : EASES
68 Pisa’s river : ARNO
69 Cafeteria carrier : TRAY
70 __ naked : STARK
71 Wine bottle number : YEAR

Down

1 Horse coat color : ROAN
2 Rights org. since 1920 : ACLU
3 Many a U.S. atlas page : STATE MAP
4 Like much sports analysis : POSTGAME
5 Swiss peak : ALP
6 Dickinson and Keats : POETS
7 Tolstoy’s Karenina : ANNA
8 Monopoly payment : RENT
9 Took to dinner, say : TREATED
10 “Three-toed” critters : SLOTHS
11 Little finger : PINKIE
12 Honda sedan : ACCORD
13 Takes care of : SEES TO
21 Thanksgiving tuber : YAM
25 Tiny bit, as of cream : DAB
27 Impudence : SASS
28 Bard’s “frequently” : OFT
29 Garden tool : HOE
30 Walked back and forth : PACED
31 In __ of: replacing : LIEU
34 Enthusiastic review : RAVE
36 Actor Morales : ESAI
39 Another name for Monkey in the Middle : KEEP AWAY
40 Paint seller : ART STORE
41 Spanish uncle : TIO
42 Green prefix : ECO-
44 Points a finger at : ACCUSES
45 Birdie plus one : PAR
47 Careful cash management : THRIFT
48 Home mixologist’s dream : WET BAR
49 Tater Tots maker : ORE-IDA
50 Primate studier Dian : FOSSEY
52 Fabric fault : RIP
54 More arid : DRIER
57 Tiff : SPAT
58 “Frozen” queen : ELSA
60 College named for a Scottish island : IONA
61 Scent : ODOR
64 “You shouldn’t do that” : TSK