LA Times Crossword 6 Apr 20, Monday

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Constructed by: Norfleet Pruden
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Broadway

Themed answers are the names of locales used as titles for BROADWAY musicals:

  • 52A Where the answers to 20-, 24-, 36- and 46-Across have appeared in lights : BROADWAY
  • 20A Where Will Rogers was born : OKLAHOMA
  • 24A Where Bulls and Bears are cheered : CHICAGO
  • 36A Where the Beverly Hills Hotel is located : SUNSET BOULEVARD
  • 46A Where Arthur ruled the court : CAMELOT

Bill’s time: 5m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Outer garments for Batman and Superman : CAPES

Originally referred to as “Bat-Man” when introduced in comics in 1939, Batman is also referred to as the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, the World’s Greatest Detective and, along with sidekick Robin, the Dynamic Duo.

Superman’s comic book creators gave their title character’s alter-ego the name “Clark Kent” by melding the names of Clark Gable and Kent Taylor, two leading men of the cinema at the time Superman was created. However, they modeled Clark’s character more on the silent film actor Harold Lloyd.

14 Congregation area : NAVE

In large Christian churches, the nave is the main approach to the altar, and is where most of the congregation are seated.

15 Popeye’s main squeeze __ Oyl : OLIVE

E. C. Segar’s cartoon character Olive Oyl had quite a large family. Her mother is Nana Oyl, and her father Cole Oyl. Olive’s brother is Castor Oyl, and she has uncles named Otto Oyl and Lubry Kent Oyl (my favorite!).

16 Meat safety agcy. : USDA

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) dates back to 1862, when it was established by then-president Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln referred to the USDA as the “people’s department” as our economy had such a vast agrarian base back then.

18 Light measure : LUMEN

The lumen is a measure of the amount of visible light emitted by a source.

19 D.C. MLB team : NATS

The Washington Nationals (“Nats”) started out life as the Montreal Expos in 1969, and were the first Major League Baseball team in Canada. The Expos moved to Washington in 2005 becoming the Nats.

20 Where Will Rogers was born : OKLAHOMA

Will Rogers was such a successful actor that he was the highest paid Hollywood star in the 1930s. His career was cut short sadly, when he died in a plane crash in 1935. Piloting the doomed aircraft was famed aviator Wily Post, the first person to fly solo around the world.

“Oklahoma!” was the first musical written by the great duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The storyline comes from a 1931 stage play called “Green Grow the Lilacs”.

22 King with a golden touch : MIDAS

King Midas of Greek mythology might be termed an alchemist as he had the power to turn everything he touched into gold i.e. the Midas touch. That power became a curse, as everything he touched turned to gold, including his food and drink, and even his children.

24 Where Bulls and Bears are cheered : CHICAGO

The Chicago Bulls have won six NBA championships in the life of the franchise, all of them in the nineties. They won in the 1991, 1992 and 1993 seasons (a so-called “three-peat”), and then again in 1996, 1997 and 1998 (a second “three-peat”).

The Chicago Bears were founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1919 and moved to Chicago in 1921. The Bears are one of only two franchises in the NFL that were around at the time of the NFL’s founding (the other being the Arizona Cardinals, also based in Chicago in 1921).

The wonderful 1975 musical “Chicago” is based on a 1926 play of the same name written by a news reporter called Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins had been assigned to cover the murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the “Chicago Tribune”, and used the story that unfolded as the basis for her play. Annan became the character Roxie Hart, and Gaertner became Velma Kelly. I’ve only ever seen the movie version of “Chicago” and never a live performance …

26 Parisian parting : ADIEU

“Adieu” is the French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

29 Capital of Greece : ATHENS

Athens is the capital city of Greece and is one of the world’s oldest cities, with a history that goes back around 3,400 years. In its heyday, Classical Athens was a remarkable center for the arts and philosophical debate, and was home to Plato and Aristotle. Athens is often called “the cradle of Western civilization” and “the birthplace of democracy”. The city was named for the Greek goddess Athena.

32 Reddish-brown horse : 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.

36 Where the Beverly Hills Hotel is located : SUNSET BOULEVARD

The Los Angeles thoroughfare Sunset Boulevard is 22 miles long, stretching from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. The most famous part of Sunset Boulevard is the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, a 1½-mile stretch that is home to high-end boutiques, restaurants and nightclubs.

“Sunset Boulevard” is a classic film noir co-written and directed by the great Billy Wilder, and released in 1950. It’s a story about a faded film star (played by Gloria Swanson) who dreams about making a return to the screen. Andrew Lloyd Webber made a reasonably successful musical adaptation of the film using the same title, which opened in London in 1993.

The celebrated Beverly Hills Hotel is located on Sunset Boulevard. The hotel was opened in 1912 by oil tycoon Burton E. Green under the name “Beverly Farms”. The city of Beverly wasn’t incorporated until two years later, and took its name from the hotel. The hotel had been named for Beverly Farms, a neighborhood in the city of Beverly, Massachusetts of which Green had happy memories.

41 Sabrina portrayer Melissa Joan __ : HART

The hit TV show “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” is based on a comic book series of the same name. The title character is played by actress Melissa Joan Hart. Sabrina lives with her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, who are both 600 years of age. There’s also a cat called Salem, who has magical powers.

42 Noncom nickname : SARGE

A “looie” (lieutenant) has a higher rank than a “noncom” (noncommissioned officer) such as a “sarge” (sergeant).

46 Where Arthur ruled the court : CAMELOT

Camelot is featured in Arthurian legend. “Camelot” is the name of King Arthur’s castle and his court.

King Arthur (and his Round Table) probably never really existed, but his legend is very persistent. Arthur was supposedly a leader of the Romano-British as they tried to resist the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.

“Camelot” is a Lerner and Loewe musical based on the legend of King Arthur. The show was first shown on Broadway in 1960 and ran for 873 performances, with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton starring. “Camelot” was made into a very successful film version that was released in 1967 starring Richard Harris as King Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere.

52 Where the answers to 20-, 24-, 36- and 46-Across have appeared in lights : BROADWAY

Broadway really is, and always has been, the Main Street of New York City. It started out as the Wickquasgeck Trail that was trampled into the Manhattan brush land by the Native Americans of the area. In the days of the Dutch, the trail became the main road though the island of Manhattan, down to the New Amsterdam settlement in the south. The Dutch described it as a “Breede weg”, a broad street or broad way. The name Broadway was adopted as the official name for the whole thoroughfare in 1899 … on Valentine’s Day.

56 What no centipede has exactly 100 of, oddly : LEGS

Centipedes and millipedes are multi-legged arthropods. Centipedes can have varying numbers of legs, from about 30 to about 350 depending on species. Millipedes have segmented bodies with two pairs of legs in each segment. Millipedes have about 80 to 750 legs, again depending on species.

60 Eurasian border river : URAL

The Ural River rises in the Ural Mountains in Russia and flows for half its length through Russian territory until it crosses the border into Kazakhstan, finally emptying into the Caspian Sea. It is the third-longest river in Europe, after the Volga and Danube. The Ural is often cited as defining a long stretch of the border between Europe and Asia, although the exact position of that border is open to debate.

62 Skipjack or yellowfin : TUNA

Skipjack tuna would be called medium-sized, growing to about three feet long. Albacore tuna is a little larger.

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are usually marketed as “ahi”, the Hawaiian name. They are both big fish, with yellowfish tuna often weighing over 300 pounds, and bigeye tuna getting up to 400 pounds.

63 PlayStation maker : SONY

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

Down

1 Prefix with Chinese : INDO-

In the strict sense of the term, “Indochina” is a region in Southeast Asia that corresponds to the former French territory known as French Indochina. Today this region is made up of the countries of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. However, the term “Indochina” is more generally used to describe Mainland Southeast Asia, and in this usage it also encompasses Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand.

2 __ horse: long shot : DARK

A dark horse is a person or thing that emerges unexpectedly to predominate a situation. As perhaps expected, the term “dark horse” comes from horse racing. The phrase appears to have originated in a novel penned by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. In “The Young Duke”, published in 1831, Disraeli’s “Duke of St. James” is watching a horse race:

A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph.

3 Shaped like the president’s office : OVAL

Although there have been several “oval” offices used by US presidents in the White House, the current Oval Office was designed and constructed at the bequest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The room has four doors. One door opens onto the Rose Garden; a second door leads to a small study and dining room; a third opens onto the main corridor running through the West Wing; the fourth door opens to the office of the president’s secretary.

4 Inheritors : LEGATEES

A “legatee” is someone who inherits a “legacy”.

6 Wellesley grad : ALUMNA

Wellesley is a private women’s school located in the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Wellesley was founded in 1870 and is one of the original Seven Sisters Colleges.

7 Fine cotton : PIMA

Pima is a soft cotton that is very durable and absorbent. Pima cotton is named after the Pima Native Americans who first cultivated it in this part of the world.

8 Mother of Cain and Abel : EVE

In the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis, Cain murders his brother Abel. Subsequently, God asks Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain replies, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

9 Capitol Hill VIP : SEN

The designer of Washington D.C., Pierre L’Enfant, chose the crest of a hill as the site for the future Congress House. He called the location “Jenkins Hill” and “Jenkins Heights”. Earlier records show the name as “New Troy”. Today we call it “Capitol Hill”.

10 Forum garments : TUNICS

The Latin “forum” (plural “fora”) translates as “marketplace, town square”. “The Roman Forum” is the most famous example of such a space. The Forum is at the heart of the city of Rome is surrounded by the ruins of several ancient government buildings, and has been referred to as the most celebrated meeting place in the world.

11 Carne __: taco filling : ASADA

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

12 Luggage label : ID TAG

The word “luggage” arose in the late 16th century, when it described something that was “lugged” about. More recently, the term is used mainly by English speakers on the other side of the Atlantic instead of “baggage”.

22 State nicknamed the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” : MINNESOTA

An unofficial nickname for the state of Minnesota is “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. That nickname is quite apt, as the state is home to almost twelve thousand lakes that are at least ten acres in size.

24 __ En-lai : CHOU

Zhou Enlai (also “Chou En-lai”) was the first government leader of the People’s Republic of China and held the office of Premier from 1949 until he died in 1976. Zhou Enlai ran the government for Communist Party Leader Mao Zedong, often striking a more conciliatory tone with the West than that of his boss. He was instrumental, for example, in setting up President Nixon’s famous visit to China in 1972. Zhou Enlai died just a few months before Mao Zedong, with both deaths leading to unrest and a dramatic change in political direction for the country.

27 Make spiffy : DO UP

A spiff is a well-dressed man.

28 Stevie Wonder’s “__ She Lovely” : ISN’T

“Isn’t She Lovely” is a Stevie Wonder song that he released in 1976. The song refers to Wonder’s daughter Aisha Morris, who was born in the prior year.

The great musician Stevie Wonder signed up with Motown Records when he was just 11-years-old. He has been remarkably loyal to the label and is still recording with Motown some 50 years later. The level of Stevie Wonder’s success is illustrated by his 22 Grammy Awards, the most Grammys awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder was born 6 weeks prematurely, and incomplete development of blood vessels in his eyes caused the retinas to detach leaving him blind soon after birth. His mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, co-wrote many of Stevie’s songs when he was a teenager, including “I Was Made to Love Her”, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and “I Don’t Know Why I Love You”.

30 Harness race paces : TROTS

In harness racing, the horses race using one of two specific gaits, i.e. trotting or pacing.

37 Tropical root vegetable : TARO

The corm of some taro plants is used to make poi, a traditional Hawaiian dish (that I think tastes horrible). When a taro plant is grown as an ornamental, it is often called Elephant Ears due to the shape of its large leaves.

38 Babysitter’s bane : BRAT

Today, we tend to use the word “bane” to mean anathema, a source of persistent annoyance. A few centuries ago, a bane was a cause of harm or death, perhaps a deadly poison.

43 Pitifully small : MEASLY

Back in the 17th century, someone measly was affected with measles. The use of “measly” to describe something insultingly small was initially recorded as slang in the mid-1800s.

44 Existentialist Jean-Paul : SARTRE

Jean-Paul Sartre was a leading French philosopher, as well as a writer and political activist. Sartre also served with the French army during WWII and spent nine months as a prisoner of war having been captured by German troops. He was one of the few people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize and to have then refused to accept it. Sartre was named winner of the prize for Literature in 1964, for his first novel “Nausea”. Before his win, Sartre knew that his name was on the list of nominees so he wrote to the Nobel Institute and asked to be withdrawn from consideration. The letter somehow went unread, so he found himself having to refuse the award after he had been selected.

47 Last Olds model : ALERO

The Oldsmobile Alero was the last car made by General Motors under the Oldsmobile brand. It was produced from 1999 to 2004.

48 Mullally of “Will & Grace” : MEGAN

Megan Mullally is an actress probably best known for playing Karen Walker on the TV sitcom “Will & Grace”. Mullally also has a recurring role on the sitcom “Parks and Recreation”, playing Tammy Swanson, the ex-wife of Ron Swanson. In real life Tammy and Ron aren’t exes, as Megan Mullally is married to actor Nick Offerman who plays Ron Swanson.

52 Slim nail : BRAD

A brad is a slender wire nail with a relatively small head that is typically used to tack pieces of wood together, i.e. to fasten either temporarily or with minimal damage to the wood. Nowadays, brads are commonly applied using a nail gun.

53 “The Caine Mutiny” author Herman : WOUK

Herman Wouk won a Pulitzer in 1951 for his novel “The Caine Mutiny”. The story involves mutiny and court-martial aboard a US Navy vessel and reflected, at least partly, the personal experiences of Wouk as he served in the Pacific in WWII aboard a destroyer-minesweeper. The novel was adapted into a marvelous film released in 1954 starring Humphrey Bogart as Philip Queeg, the harsh captain of the USS Caine.

54 Diarist Frank : ANNE

Anne Frank has to be one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust. This is largely because the story of this young girl lives on in her widely published diary, and in adaptations of the diary for stage and screen. Anne Frank was a German until she lost her nationality in 1941 when the Nazis came to power. By this time she was living with her family in Amsterdam, as the Franks chose to flee Germany in 1933. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, the family went into hiding in the attic of Otto Frank’s office building (Otto was Anne’s father). There the family hid for two whole years until they were betrayed. The family was split up, and Anne and her sister died from typhus in a concentration camp in 1945.

57 Rank below cpl. : PFC

Private First Class (PFC)

58 Lager alternative : ALE

The many, many different styles of beer can generally be sorted into two groups: ales and lagers. Ales are fermented at relatively warm temperatures for relatively short periods of time, and use top-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that float on top of the beer as it ferments. Lagers ferment at relatively low temperatures and for relatively long periods of time. Lagers use bottom-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that fall to the bottom of the beer as it ferments.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Worshipped one : IDOL
5 Outer garments for Batman and Superman : CAPES
10 Kite stabilizer : TAIL
14 Congregation area : NAVE
15 Popeye’s main squeeze __ Oyl : OLIVE
16 Meat safety agcy. : USDA
17 Boring party, say : DRAG
18 Light measure : LUMEN
19 D.C. MLB team : NATS
20 Where Will Rogers was born : OKLAHOMA
22 King with a golden touch : MIDAS
23 Ripped : TORN
24 Where Bulls and Bears are cheered : CHICAGO
26 Parisian parting : ADIEU
29 Capital of Greece : ATHENS
31 Goes down to defeat : LOSES
32 Reddish-brown horse : ROAN
33 Color variant : HUE
36 Where the Beverly Hills Hotel is located : SUNSET BOULEVARD
40 Decide (to) : OPT
41 Sabrina portrayer Melissa Joan __ : HART
42 Noncom nickname : SARGE
43 Quagmire : MORASS
45 Bygone : OLDEN
46 Where Arthur ruled the court : CAMELOT
49 Against : ANTI
51 Make one’s case : PLEAD
52 Where the answers to 20-, 24-, 36- and 46-Across have appeared in lights : BROADWAY
56 What no centipede has exactly 100 of, oddly : LEGS
57 Roles on 52-Across : PARTS
59 First-rate : A-ONE
60 Eurasian border river : URAL
61 Erupt, as tempers : FLARE
62 Skipjack or yellowfin : TUNA
63 PlayStation maker : SONY
64 Formally gave up : CEDED
65 __ out a living: barely manages : EKES

Down

1 Prefix with Chinese : INDO-
2 __ horse: long shot : DARK
3 Shaped like the president’s office : OVAL
4 Inheritors : LEGATEES
5 Red, white or blue : COLOR
6 Wellesley grad : ALUMNA
7 Fine cotton : PIMA
8 Mother of Cain and Abel : EVE
9 Capitol Hill VIP : SEN
10 Forum garments : TUNICS
11 Carne __: taco filling : ASADA
12 Luggage label : ID TAG
13 Rodeo rope : LASSO
21 Social unit sharing the same dwelling : HOUSEHOLD
22 State nicknamed the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” : MINNESOTA
24 __ En-lai : CHOU
25 Recover from injury : HEAL
26 In addition : ALSO
27 Make spiffy : DO UP
28 Stevie Wonder’s “__ She Lovely” : ISN’T
30 Harness race paces : TROTS
33 Difficult : HARD
34 Strong desire : URGE
35 8-Down’s first home : EDEN
37 Tropical root vegetable : TARO
38 Babysitter’s bane : BRAT
39 Bear out, as feelings : VALIDATE
43 Pitifully small : MEASLY
44 Existentialist Jean-Paul : SARTRE
46 Not quite a B : C-PLUS
47 Last Olds model : ALERO
48 Mullally of “Will & Grace” : MEGAN
50 Snooped (around) : NOSED
52 Slim nail : BRAD
53 “The Caine Mutiny” author Herman : WOUK
54 Diarist Frank : ANNE
55 Affirmative votes : YEAS
57 Rank below cpl. : PFC
58 Lager alternative : ALE