LA Times Crossword 26 Nov 18, Monday

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Constructed by: Pam Amick Klawitter
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Fortissimo

Themed answers each comprise two words starting with the letter F. “FF” is short for “FORTISSIMO” in musical notation:

  • 63A. Very loud, musically … its symbol hints at four puzzle answers : FORTISSIMO
  • 17A. Concern after heavy rain : FLASH FLOOD
  • 23A. Like G-rated movies : FAMILY FRIENDLY
  • 39A. Shore dinner : FISH FRY
  • 52A. American Revolution leader : FOUNDING FATHER

Bill’s time: 6m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5. “Mountain” soft drinks : DEWS

If you check the can, you’ll see that “Mountain Dew” is now marketed as “Mtn Dew”.

21. Airport near Tel Aviv : LOD

Ben Gurion International (TLV) is Israel’s main airport, and is located in the city of Lod just a few miles southeast of Tel Aviv. The airport is named for David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister.

23. Like G-rated movies : FAMILY FRIENDLY

The Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) film-rating system (PG-13, R, etc.) is purely voluntary and is not backed by any law. Movie theaters agree to abide by the rules that come with the MPAA ratings in exchange for access to new movies.

27. Natural soother : ALOE

Aloe vera is a succulent plant that grows in relatively dry climates. The plants leaves are full of biologically-active compounds that have been studied extensively. Aloe vera has been used for centuries in herbal medicine, mainly for topical treatment of wounds.

29. Singer Jimmy or actor James : DEAN

The Jimmy Dean brand of sausage was introduced in 1969 by singer and actor Jimmy Dean. Although he was at the height of his singing and acting career in 1950s and 1960s, I best remember Dean for playing reclusive billionaire Willard Whyte in the 1971 James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever”.

In his short life, James Dean starred in three great movies: “East of Eden”, “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant”, for which he received two posthumous Best Actor Oscar nominations (the only person to do so). On a fateful day in September 1955, Dean set off in Porsche for a race in Salinas, California. While driving to the race he was given a speeding ticket. Two hours later Dean was involved in a near head-on collision and was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in Paso Robles, California.

38. Bruins legend : 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. While still 31 years old, in 1979, Orr became the youngest person inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Boston Bruins professional ice hockey team goes way back, and has been in existence since 1924. The National Hockey League back then was a Canadian-only league, but was expanded to include the US in 1923. The Bruins were the first US-team in the expanded league.

43. Pace for Paganini : TEMPO

The tempo (plural “tempi”) of a piece of music is usually designated with an Italian word on the score. For example, “grave” is slow and solemn, “andante” is at a walking pace, “scherzo” is fast and light-hearted, and “allegro” is fast, quickly and bright.

Niccolò Paganini was a famed Italian violinist and composer. Paganini was perhaps the most celebrated violinist of the 19th century. His most famous composition has to be his Caprice No. 24 in A minor, Op. 1. This work is the basis for many derivative masterpieces by other composers, including the wonderful “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” by Rachmaninoff. And the “Variations on a __ of Paganini” by Brahms.

45. Noon on a garden dial : XII

There is often a Roman numeral 12 (XII) at the top of a clock face.

46. Like Godiva : BARE

In the legend of Lady Godiva, the noblewoman rode naked through the streets of Coventry in England, basically as a dare from her husband in return for relieving the taxes of his tenants. Lady Godiva issued instructions that all the town’s inhabitants should stay indoors while she made her journey. However, a tailor in the town named Tom disobeyed the instructions by boring holes in the shutters on his windows, and “peeped”. As a result, Peeping Tom was struck blind, and the term “peeping Tom” has been in our language ever since.

50. Tool for a duel : EPEE

The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. The épée is similar to a foil and sabre, although the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.

52. American Revolution leader : FOUNDING FATHER

By one definition, the Founding Fathers were the leaders of the American Revolution against the British Crown. By another, they were the individuals who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The term “Framers” is sometimes confused with “Founding Fathers”. According to the National Archives, the Framers were the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, those who played a key role in drafting the Constitution of the United States. The phrase “Founding Fathers” is a relatively recent term, and one coined by future US president Warren D. Harding in 1916.

59. Progressive spokeswoman : FLO

Progressive is a popular auto insurance company, the one that uses the perky character named “Flo” as a spokeswoman. Flo is played by comedian and actress Stephanie Courtney.

62. Multi-platinum Diamond : NEIL

I saw Neil Diamond in concert back in the mid-nineties, and I must say he does put on a great show. His voice is cracking a bit, but that didn’t seem to spoil anyone’s enjoyment. I’ve also seen Diamond interviewed a few times on television, and I wouldn’t say he has the most scintillating of personalities.

63. Very loud, musically … its symbol hints at four puzzle answers : FORTISSIMO

The musical term “pianissimo” is abbreviated to “pp”, and is an instruction to the performer to sing or play very softly. The concept can be extended to “ppp”, short for “pianississimo”, an instruction of play even more softly. The opposite instructions are fortissimo (ff) and fortississimo (fff), instructions to perform very loudly, and even more loudly.

67. Cosmologist Carl : SAGAN

Carl Sagan was a brilliant astrophysicist, and a great communicator. Sagan was famous for presenting obscure concepts about the cosmos in such a way that we mere mortals could appreciate. He also wrote the novel “Contact” that was adapted into a fascinating 1997 film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

68. Chicago commuter system, familiarly : THE L

The Chicago “L” is the second largest rapid transit system in the US, with the New York City Subway being the largest. The “L” is also the second oldest, again with the New York City Subway system having the honor of being around the longest. Note that the official nickname for the system is the “L” (originally short for “elevated railroad”), although the term “El” is also in common use (especially in crosswords as “ELS”). The L is managed by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

Down

1. Sun protection nos. : SPFS

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

3. Stiller’s partner : MEARA

Anne Meara married fellow comedic actor Jerry Stiller in 1954. The couple’s children are actors Ben and Amy Stiller. Meara co-starred with Carroll O’Connor and Martin Balsam in the eighties sitcom “Archie Bunker’s Place”, a spin-off from “All in the Family”.

4. __ Kodak : EASTMAN

George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company, which he named after the Kodak camera that he had invented four years earlier. He came up with the name of Kodak after careful consideration. Firstly he was a big fan of the letter “K”, calling it “strong, incisive”. He also wanted a word that was short, easy to pronounce and difficult to mispronounce, and a word that was clearly unique with no prior associations. “Kodak” fit the bill.

5. Bit of OED info : DEF

The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 300,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

7. Literary Virginia : WOOLF

Virginia Woolf was an English author who was active in the period between the two World Wars. Woolf’s most famous novels were “Mrs. Dalloway”, “To the Lighthouse” and “Orlando”. She also wrote a long essay entitled “A Room of One’s Own” in which she states “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

8. Clues for a bloodhound : SPOORS

“Spoor” is both a verb and a noun. The word describes the track left by an animal, or the act of following said track. We’ve been using it in English since the early 1800s, having imported it from the Afrikaans language.

Bloodhounds have an amazing sense of smell, and have been bred to track humans in particular. Bloodhounds have been used to follow humans since the Middle Ages.

11. Coral island : 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.

15. Vedder of Pearl Jam : EDDIE

Eddie Vedder is the lead singer of the alternative rock band named Pearl Jam. As a songwriter, Vedder released a solo album in 2007, which is also used as the soundtrack of the interesting film “Into the Wild”.

18. Flag down, as a cab : HAIL

A hansom cab is a very specific design of horse and buggy that was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834 in England. The “cab” in the name is short for “cabriolet”, an earlier design of carriage on which the hansom was based. It’s from “hansom cab” that we get our modern term “cab”.

24. Focuses of activity : LOCI

“Locus” (plural “loci”) is Latin for “place”, and is used in English with the same meaning. The term can also be used to describe a center of power or activity.

26. Website for handmade art : ETSY

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

29. Morse code unit : DOT

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

30. Palindromic “before” : ERE

The three most famous palindromes in English have to be:

  • Able was I ere I saw Elba
  • A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
  • Madam, I’m Adam

One of my favorite words is “Aibohphobia”, although it doesn’t appear in the dictionary and is a joke term. “Aibohphobia” is a great way to describe a fear of palindromes, by creating a palindrome out of the suffix “-phobia”.

31. Drew Brees’ asset : ARM

Drew Brees is a quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. On top of his success in the NFL, when he was a youth Brees was an excellent tennis player. In one competition he actually beat a young Andy Roddick who later became the world’s number one.

35. Gasteyer of “SNL” : ANA

Ana Gasteyer is an actress best known for being a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) from 1996 to 2002. Gasteyer was famous on SNL for playing Martha Stewart … topless!

36. Draw graffiti on, say : MAR

“Graffiti” is the plural of “graffito”, and is the Italian for “scribbling”. The word was first used to describe ancient inscriptions on the walls in the ruins of Pompeii.

37. Noted seashell seller : SHE

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I’m sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore shells.

40. Feudal holding : FIEF

Feudalism was a legal and military system that flourished in medieval Europe. Central to the system were the concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs. Lords would grant fiefs (land or rights) to vassals in exchange for allegiance and service.

41. Seacrest morning co-host : RIPA

When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting gig. Ripa has acted as spokeswoman for several brands over the years, most recently for Electrolux and Rykä.

Radio and television personality Ryan Seacrest is best known as the host of the talent show “American Idol”. Seacrest has also been hosting “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC since 2005, and co-hosting “Live with Kelly and Ryan” since 2017. He is also a producer, and is the man behind the show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”. Ryan has a lot to answer for …

51. Predicted takeoff hrs. : ETDS

Estimated time of departure (ETD)

52. Dracula’s canines : FANGS

The canine teeth of a mammal are also called the eyeteeth or cuspids. The name “canine” is used because these particular teeth are very prominent in dogs. The prefix “eye-” is used because in humans the eyeteeth are located in the upper jaw, directly below the eyes.

“Dracula” is a novel written by the Irish author Bram Stoker and first published in 1897. Dracula wasn’t the first vampire of literature, but he certainly was the one who spawned the popularity of vampires in theater, film and television, and indeed more novels. Personally, I can’t stand vampire fiction …

53. Tatum or Ryan : O’NEAL

Tatum O’Neal is the youngest actress to win a competitive Oscar. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award in 1974 when she was just 10 years old, for her role as Addie in “Paper Moon”. The youngest person to win an honorary Academy Award was Shirley Temple, who was only 5 years old when she was presented with an Oscar in 1934.

Actor Ryan O’Neal got his big break in the sixties on television. He appeared in the prime-time soap opera “Peyton Place”, opposite fellow newcomer Mia Farrow. Then in 1970 he landed a starring role in the hit movie “Love Story”, which established him in Hollywood. O’Neal was an amateur boxer before he turned to acting, and established a respectable record Golden Gloves competitions. These days, O’Neal has a recurring role on the TV show “Bones”, playing the title character’s father.

55. New York’s Ausable Chasm, e.g. : GORGE

Ausable Chasm is a sandstone gorge in Upstate New York that is named for the Ausable River that runs through it. The chasm sometimes goes by the moniker “Little Grand Canyon of the East”.

56. Yale founder Yale : ELIHU

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded in 1701, making it the third-oldest university in the US. Originally called the Collegiate School, it was renamed to Yale University in honor of retired merchant Elihu Yale, who made generous contributions to the institution. Yale University’s nickname is “Old Eli”, in a nod to the benefactor.

57. Budget noodle dish : RAMEN

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is a also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

64. Bit of body ink : TAT

The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”. Tattoos are also sometimes referred to as “ink”.

65. Shoo-__: easy winners : INS

A shoo-in is a surefire winner, especially in politics. Back in the 1920s, a shoo-in was a horse that was prearranged to win a race, a race that was fixed.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Identical : SAME
5. “Mountain” soft drinks : DEWS
9. Burn the midnight oil at college : CRAM
13. Urgent request : PLEA
14. Forgo the church ceremony : ELOPE
16. Lo-cal : LITE
17. Concern after heavy rain : FLASH FLOOD
19. Inflated ones often clash : EGOS
20. Kinda : SORTA
21. Airport near Tel Aviv : LOD
22. Isn’t feeling up to par : AILS
23. Like G-rated movies : FAMILY FRIENDLY
27. Natural soother : ALOE
28. Salon jobs : SETS
29. Singer Jimmy or actor James : DEAN
32. Litter member or user : CAT
34. Sewn connections : SEAMS
38. Bruins legend : ORR
39. Shore dinner : FISH FRY
42. “Not happenin'” : NAH
43. Pace for Paganini : TEMPO
45. Noon on a garden dial : XII
46. Like Godiva : BARE
47. Choir voice : ALTO
50. Tool for a duel : EPEE
52. American Revolution leader : FOUNDING FATHER
58. Woman’s name often spelled without its “e” : ANNE
59. Progressive spokeswoman : FLO
60. Airport concern : DELAY
62. Multi-platinum Diamond : NEIL
63. Very loud, musically … its symbol hints at four puzzle answers : FORTISSIMO
66. Boarding site : GATE
67. Cosmologist Carl : SAGAN
68. Chicago commuter system, familiarly : THE L
69. Snow conveyance : SLED
70. Earns after taxes : NETS
71. Doomed : SUNK

Down

1. Sun protection nos. : SPFS
2. __ a sudden : ALL OF
3. Stiller’s partner : MEARA
4. __ Kodak : EASTMAN
5. Bit of OED info : DEF
6. Building add-on : ELL
7. Literary Virginia : WOOLF
8. Clues for a bloodhound : SPOORS
9. Detox diet : CLEANSE
10. Unbending : RIGID
11. Coral island : ATOLL
12. Having lots of loose ends : MESSY
15. Vedder of Pearl Jam : EDDIE
18. Flag down, as a cab : HAIL
24. Focuses of activity : LOCI
25. Passing words? : YEAS
26. Website for handmade art : ETSY
29. Morse code unit : DOT
30. Palindromic “before” : ERE
31. Drew Brees’ asset : ARM
33. Texter’s gratitude : THX
35. Gasteyer of “SNL” : ANA
36. Draw graffiti on, say : MAR
37. Noted seashell seller : SHE
39. Decide not to call, in poker : FOLD
40. Feudal holding : FIEF
41. Seacrest morning co-host : RIPA
44. Like some den walls : PANELED
46. Directives : BEHESTS
48. Spats : TIFFS
49. Borrowed, as a library book : ON LOAN
51. Predicted takeoff hrs. : ETDS
52. Dracula’s canines : FANGS
53. Tatum or Ryan : O’NEAL
54. Bring together : UNITE
55. New York’s Ausable Chasm, e.g. : GORGE
56. Yale founder Yale : ELIHU
57. Budget noodle dish : RAMEN
61. Egg-white omelet’s lack : YOLK
64. Bit of body ink : TAT
65. Shoo-__: easy winners : INS

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