LA Times Crossword 16 Dec 19, Monday

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Constructed by: C.C. Burnikel
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Lines

Themed answers all have LINES:

  • 68A Botox targets … or what 17-, 28-, 45- and 60-Across all have : LINES
  • 17A Screenwriter’s creation : FILM SCRIPT
  • 28A Gucci or Versace, notably : FASHION HOUSE
  • 45A Grand Central, for one : TRAIN STATION
  • 60A Math student’s plotting sheet : GRAPH PAPER

Bill’s time: 5m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 San Antonio landmark : ALAMO

The famous Alamo in San Antonio, Texas was originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero. The mission was founded in 1718 and was the first mission established in the city. The Battle of the Alamo took place in 1836, a thirteen-day siege by the Mexican Army led by President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Only two people defending the Alamo Mission survived the onslaught. One month later, the Texian army got its revenge by attacking and defeating the Mexican Army in the Battle of San Jacinto. During the surprise attack on Santa Anna’s camp, many of the Texian soldiers were heard to cry “Remember the Alamo!”.

The city of San Antonio, Texas was named by Spanish explorers. They came upon a Native American settlement in the area on 13 June 1631, the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua.

15 Almay rival : OLAY

Oil of Olay was developed in South Africa in 1949. When Oil of Olay was introduced internationally, it was given slightly different brand names designed to appeal in the different geographies. In Ireland we know it as Oil of Ulay, for example, and in France it is Oil of Olaz.

The Almay brand of cosmetics was established back in 1931. Almay was founded by Alfred and Fanny May Woititz, who melded their given names to come up with the brand name (Al-may). The couple were driven to invent the products as Fanny May needed cosmetics that did not irritate her skin.

19 Ferris wheel, e.g. : RIDE

The first Ferris Wheel was built for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. That wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. who lent his name to wheels built from then on.

20 Oblong pastry : ECLAIR

The name for the pastry known as an “éclair” is clearly French in origin. The French word for lightning is “éclair”, but no one seems to be too sure how it came to be used for the rather delicious bakery item.

21 Outback and Legacy autos : SUBARUS

Subaru is the automobile division of Fuji Heavy Industries, Japanese conglomerate. “Subaru” is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. As a result, the Subaru logo is also a cluster of stars.

23 Outdoor gear giant : REI

REI is a sporting goods store, with the initialism standing for Recreational Equipment Inc. REI was founded in Seattle by Lloyd and Mary Anderson in 1938 as a cooperative that supplies quality climbing gear to outdoor enthusiasts. The first full-time employee hired by the Andersons was Jim Whittaker, who was the first American to climb Mount Everest.

24 Chickadee kin : TITS

Chickadees are a group of birds in the tit family, with some species within the group called chickadees and some called tits. The name chickadee is imitative of the bird’s alarm call “chick-dee dee dee”.

28 Gucci or Versace, notably : FASHION HOUSE

Gucci was founded in Rome, in 1921, by Guccio Gucci. Guccio’s son Aldo took over the company after his father’s death in 1953. It was Aldo who established the international presence for the brand and opened the company’s first overseas store, in New York City.

Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer. Versace’s death was perhaps as famous as his life. He was murdered in 1997 outside his mansion in Miami Beach by one Andrew Cunanan. It is not certain that Cunanan knew who his victim was, as this was the last in a spree of five murders committed by him over a four month period. A few days after killing Versace, Cunanan used the same gun to commit suicide.

33 Nest egg letters : IRA

Individual retirement account (IRA)

41 Social slip-up : GAFFE

Our word “gaffe”, meaning a social blunder, comes from the French “gaffe” meaning “clumsy remark”, although it originally was the word for a boat hook. The exact connection between a boat hook and a blunder seems to be unclear.

42 Cole Porter’s “Well, Did You __?” : EVAH

“Well, Did You Evah!” is a song from the 1939 Cole Porter musical “DuBarry Was a Lady”. A more famous rendition of the song was by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the 1956 movie “High Society”.

45 Grand Central, for one : TRAIN STATION

Grand Central Terminal in New York City is the largest railroad station in the world in terms of the number of platforms (44). Those platforms are all underground, and on two levels. The official name for the facility is “Grand Central Terminal”. The name “Grand Central Station” is very common, and is actually the name of the facility that the terminal replaced in 1913.

48 Civil War side: Abbr. : CSA

Confederate States of America (CSA)

50 Vanilla extract meas. : TSP

Teaspoon (tsp.)

The flavor extract that we call “vanilla” comes from the pod-like fruit of climbing orchids belonging to the genus Vanilla. Genuine vanilla is a relatively expensive spice, second only to saffron, due to the amount of work required to grow and harvest the fruit (also called “beans” and “pods”). Spanish and Portuguese explorers came across the Vanilla orchid while exploring the Gulf Coast of Mexico. They gave it the name “vainilla” meaning “little pod”.

63 Sailors’ patron saint : ELMO

Saint Elmo is the patron saint of sailors. More formally referred to as Erasmus of Formia, St. Elmo is perhaps venerated by sailors as tradition tells us that he continued preaching despite the ground beside him being struck by a thunderbolt. Sailors started to pray to him when in danger of storms and lightning. He lends his name to the electrostatic weather phenomenon (often seen at sea) known as St. Elmo’s fire. The “fire” is actually a plasma discharge caused by air ionizing at the end of a pointed object (like the mast of a ship), something often observed during electrical storms.

65 Partner of well : ALIVE

Crossword construction is alive and well, thank goodness …

66 Mathematician Turing : ALAN

Alan Turing was an English mathematician. He was well-respected for his code-breaking work during WWII at Bletchley Park in England. However, despite his contributions to cracking the German Enigma code and other crucial work, Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952. He agreed to chemical castration, treatment with female hormones, and then two years later he committed suicide by taking cyanide. Turing’s life story is told in the 2014 film “The Imitation Game” with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the lead. I thoroughly enjoyed that film …

68 Botox targets … or what 17-, 28-, 45- and 60-Across all have : LINES
Botulinum toxin is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The toxin is a protein that can cause botulism, an extremely dangerous illness in humans and animals. Botulinum toxin is sold under the trade name “Botox”. Botox is used therapeutically and in cosmetic applications to weaken muscles, perhaps muscles that are in an uncontrollable spasm. The cosmetic application involves the paralyzing of facial muscles in order to eliminate or reduce wrinkles, at least for a few months.

Down

1 Communion bread : WAFER

The Communion rite is the part of the Mass in the Roman Catholic tradition. The rite involves distribution of the Communion bread (the host, a wafer) to the faithful.

2 Wonderland visitor : ALICE

The title character in Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is based on a child named Alice Liddell. Lewis Carroll (real name “Charles Lutwidge Dodgson”) met the Liddell family while he was photographing Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, after which he befriended the Liddells. Carroll told the three Liddell sisters (including Alice) a story about a little girl named Alice and her adventures, in order to entertain the children while on a boating trip on the River Isis in Oxford. He elaborated on the story for the girls on a subsequent boat trip, and agreed to write down the tale as the children loved it so much. Carroll’s writings became a full-fledged manuscript, including the author’s own illustrations. It was first published in 1865, three years after that boat trip.

3 The 4 Seasons frontman Frankie : VALLI

Frankie Valli is a great singer who is best known for fronting the Four Seasons in the sixties. Valli had an incredible number of hits, with and without the Four Seasons. The extensive list includes, “Sherry”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Rag Doll”, “My Eyes Adored You” and “Grease”.

4 Jane Austen classic : EMMA

Here is the opening paragraph of the novel “Emma”, by Jane Austen:

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

5 Spanish-speaking Muppet : ROSITA

On the children’s television show Sesame Street, Rosita is a character who is fluent in both English and Spanish. Rosita is operated by Puppeteer Carmen Osbahr. Osbahr originally worked on “Plaza Sésamo”, which is the version of Sesame Street that is broadcast in Mexico.

7 “Thrilla in Manila” victor : ALI

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had three memorable fights. The first was billed as the “Fight of the Century” and took place in 1971 in Madison Square Garden. It was a fight between two great boxers, both of whom were undefeated up till that point. Frazier won in a unanimous decision after fifteen rounds. A couple of years later, in 1973, Frazier lost his title to George Foreman. Ali and Frazier had a non-title rematch in 1974, with Ali coming out ahead this time, also in a unanimous decision. Later that year, Ali grabbed back the World Heavyweight Title in “The Rumble in the Jungle”, the famous “rope-a-dope” fight against George Foreman. That set the stage for the third and final fight between Ali and Frazier, “The Thrilla in Manila”. Ali won the early rounds, but Frazier made a comeback in the middle of the fight. Ali took control at the end of the bout, so much so that Frazier wasn’t able to come out of his corner for the 15th and final round. He couldn’t come out of his corner because both of his eyes were swollen shut, giving Ali a victory due to a technical knockout (TKO).

12 Pakistani tongue : URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

18 “The Count of Monte __” : CRISTO

“The Count of Monte Cristo” is an 1844 novel by the French author Alexandre Dumas. Dumas’ other famous title is “The Three Musketeers”.

22 Iranian faith featuring a 19-day feast : BAHA’I

The Baha’i Faith is relatively new in the scheme of things, and was founded in Persia in the 1800s. One of the tenets of the religion is that messengers have come from God over time, including Abraham, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and most recently Bahá’u’lláh who founded the Baha’i Faith. Baha’i scripture specifies some particular architectural requirements for houses of worship, including that the building have nine-sided, circular shape. It is also specified that there be no pictures, statues or images displayed within a temple.

26 __ card: smartphone component : SIM

Most cell phones have SIM cards these days. SIM cards hold the personal information of the subscriber, with the acronym being short for “Subscriber Identity Module”.

28 Stories by devoted readers : FAN FICTION

Fan fiction (also “fanfic”) is fiction created by fans of an original work that uses characters from that original work.

29 Percocet, e.g. : OPIATE

Opiates are the narcotic alkaloids found in the opium poppy plant, although some synthetic versions and derivatives of the same alkaloids are also called opiates. To produce opiates, the latex sap of the opium poppy is collected and processed. The naturally-occurring drugs morphine and codeine can both be extracted from the sap. Some synthesis is required to make derivative drugs like heroin and oxycodone.

Percocet is a trade name for the drug combination of oxycodone and paracetamol.

30 Great Salt Lake state : UTAH

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is extremely shallow, and so the area of the lake fluctuates greatly with the changing volume of water. Back in 1963 the lake shrunk to 950 square miles, whereas in 1988 the area was measured at a whopping 3,300 square miles.

31 Genesis creator : SEGA

Genesis is a video game console sold in the US by the Japanese company Sega. Genesis is sold as Mega Drive in the rest of the world, as Sega couldn’t get the rights to the Mega Drive name in the US.

32 That, in Toledo : ESO

Toledo is a city in central Spain that is located just over 40 miles south of the capital Madrid. Toledo is sometimes called the “City of Three Cultures”, due to the historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions.

34 Tennis rival of Roger, familiarly : RAFA

Rafael “Rafa” Nadal is a Spanish tennis player. He is noted for his expertise on clay courts, which expertise earned him the nickname “The King of Clay”.

37 Actor’s rep. : AGT

Agent (agt.)

40 1862 Tennessee battle site : SHILOH

The Battle of Shiloh was a major engagement in the Civil War, and was fought in 1862 at Pittsburg Landing in southwestern Tennessee. The battle started with a surprise attack by Confederate forces led by Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard. The attackers gained the upper hand on the first day over the Union forces led by Major General Ulysses S. Grant. Union reinforcements arrived during the night and the tide of the battle turned the next day and the Confederates were forced to withdraw. Almost 3,000 men died in the course of the Battle of Shiloh, thus making it the bloodiest battle in US history up to that point in time.

46 Former name of Vietnam’s most populous city : SAIGON

Hanoi (“Hà Nội” in Vietnamese) was the capital of North Vietnam, and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is located in the delta of the Red River, and is just over 50 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea.

47 Longtime chum : OLD PAL

A chum is a friend. The term “chum” originated in the late 1600s as an alternative spelling for “cham”. In turn, “cham” was a shortened form of “chambermate”, a roommate at university.

50 Easy hoops shot : TIP-IN

That would be basketball.

51 Tech mogul Jobs : STEVE

Steve Jobs certainly was a business icon in Silicon Valley. I don’t think it is too surprising to learn that the brilliant Jobs didn’t even finish his college education, dropping out of Reed College in Oregon after only one semester. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, but in 1985 he was basically fired from his own company during the computer sales slump of the mid-eighties. Jobs then founded NeXT Computer, a company focused on supplying workstations to the higher education and business markets. Apple purchased NeXT in 1996, and that’s how Jobs found himself back with his original company.

55 __ mater : ALMA

The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. The phrase was used in ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

58 Surrealist Salvador : DALI

The famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, Spain. I had the privilege of visiting the Dalí Museum in Figueres some years ago, just north of Barcelona. If you ever get the chance, it’s a “must see” as it really is a quite magnificent building with a fascinating collection.

61 Top pitcher : ACE

That would be baseball.

62 Scholar’s deg. : PHD

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Be indecisive : WAVER
6 Crop-raising business : FARM
10 Tightly closed : SHUT
14 San Antonio landmark : ALAMO
15 Almay rival : OLAY
16 Whittle (down) : PARE
17 Screenwriter’s creation : FILM SCRIPT
19 Ferris wheel, e.g. : RIDE
20 Oblong pastry : ECLAIR
21 Outback and Legacy autos : SUBARUS
23 Outdoor gear giant : REI
24 Chickadee kin : TITS
27 Beam of light : RAY
28 Gucci or Versace, notably : FASHION HOUSE
33 Nest egg letters : IRA
35 Office sub : TEMP
36 Poker pot pay-ins : ANTES
37 Leave high and dry : ABANDON
39 “Are we on for the project?” : IS IT A GO?
41 Social slip-up : GAFFE
42 Cole Porter’s “Well, Did You __?” : EVAH
44 “Of course!” : AHA!
45 Grand Central, for one : TRAIN STATION
48 Civil War side: Abbr. : CSA
49 Poker table giveaway : TELL
50 Vanilla extract meas. : TSP
53 “That’s deplorable!” : I HATE IT!
57 Strange thing : ODDITY
59 Supermarket section with a scale : DELI
60 Math student’s plotting sheet : GRAPH PAPER
63 Sailors’ patron saint : ELMO
64 “That stings!” : OUCH!
65 Partner of well : ALIVE
66 Mathematician Turing : ALAN
67 Have to have : NEED
68 Botox targets … or what 17-, 28-, 45- and 60-Across all have : LINES

Down

1 Communion bread : WAFER
2 Wonderland visitor : ALICE
3 The 4 Seasons frontman Frankie : VALLI
4 Jane Austen classic : EMMA
5 Spanish-speaking Muppet : ROSITA
6 Tit-tat link : FOR
7 “Thrilla in Manila” victor : ALI
8 Knocks hard : RAPS
9 “I’m up!” : MY TURN!
10 Artificial bronzing product : SPRAY-ON TAN
11 Beauty salon focus : HAIR
12 Pakistani tongue : URDU
13 Many short-sleeved shirts : TEES
18 “The Count of Monte __” : CRISTO
22 Iranian faith featuring a 19-day feast : BAHA’I
25 Big place to surf : THE NET
26 __ card: smartphone component : SIM
28 Stories by devoted readers : FAN FICTION
29 Percocet, e.g. : OPIATE
30 Great Salt Lake state : UTAH
31 Genesis creator : SEGA
32 That, in Toledo : ESO
33 Letter-shaped beam : I-BAR
34 Tennis rival of Roger, familiarly : RAFA
37 Actor’s rep. : AGT
38 Like thick fog : DENSE
40 1862 Tennessee battle site : SHILOH
43 Brewery vessel : VAT
46 Former name of Vietnam’s most populous city : SAIGON
47 Longtime chum : OLD PAL
50 Easy hoops shot : TIP-IN
51 Tech mogul Jobs : STEVE
52 Combustible heaps : PYRES
53 Thought : IDEA
54 Land down under? : HELL
55 __ mater : ALMA
56 “T” on a test : TRUE
58 Surrealist Salvador : DALI
61 Top pitcher : ACE
62 Scholar’s deg. : PHD