LA Times Crossword 5 Jan 21, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Gerry Wildenberg
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Headlight

Themed answers each start with a word that often follows “LIGHT”:

  • 63A Night driving need, and what can go with the starts of the answers to starred clues : HEADLIGHT
  • 17A *Football score : TOUCHDOWN (giving “light touch”)
  • 11D *Musical song generating extended applause : SHOWSTOPPER (giving “light show”)
  • 25D *Confinement that might involve an ankle monitor : HOUSE ARREST (giving “lighthouse”)
  • 26D *Right-angled flying toy : BOX KITE (giving “lightbox”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Eldest Baldwin brother : ALEC

The four acting Baldwin brothers are:

  • Alec Baldwin (b. 1958)
  • Daniel Baldwin (b. 1960)
  • William “Billy” Baldwin (b. 1963)
  • Stephen Baldwin (b. 1966)

9 Fettuccine, e.g. : PASTA

Fettuccine is a popular type of pasta in Italy, particularly in Rome. It is a flat noodle similar to the smaller tagliatelle that is more popular in Bologna. The most common dish made with fettuccine in North America is Fettuccine Alfredo.

14 Capital NW of Napoli : ROMA

Naples (“Napoli” in Italian) is the third largest city in Italy. The name “Napoli” comes from the city’s Ancient Greek name, which translates as “New City”. That’s a bit of a paradox as today Naples is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world.

19 Atlanta campus : EMORY

Emory is a private school in Atlanta, Georgia with a focus on graduate research. The school was named after a Methodist Episcopal bishop called John Emory, who was very popular at the time of the school’s founding in 1836.

23 Island near Bora Bora : TAHITI

Tahiti is the most populous island in French Polynesia, which is located in the central Southern Pacific. Although Captain Cook landed in Tahiti in 1769, he wasn’t the first European to do so. However, Cook’s visit was the most significant in that it heralded a whole spate of European visitors, who brought with them prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol. Included among the subsequent visitors was the famous HMS Bounty under the charge of Captain Bligh.

Bora Bora is one of the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The name “Bora Bora” is imitative of the Tahitian name for the island and should really be pronounced “pora pora”. “Bora bora” translates as “first born”.

26 Soft French cheese : BRIE

Brie is a soft cheese that is named for the French region in which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) Camembert. Brie is often served baked in puff pastry.

27 Chess pieces and board, e.g. : SET

It is believed that the game of chess originated in northwest India. It evolved from a 6th-century game called “chaturanga”, a Sanskrit word meaning “four divisions”. These four (military) divisions were represented in the game:

  • Infantry (now “pawns”)
  • Cavalry (now “knights”)
  • Elephants (now “bishops”)
  • Chariots (now “rooks”)

28 Lennon’s love : ONO

After John Lennon married Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name by deed poll, adding “Ono” as a middle name. His official name became John Winston Ono Lennon, as he wasn’t allowed to drop the name “Winston” that was given to him at birth.

29 Palm starch : SAGO

When I was growing up in Ireland I was very familiar with pearl sago, which is very similar to pearl tapioca. Pearls of sago are simply little balls of sago starch used to make breads, pancakes, biscuits, or steamed puddings that we ate as kids. Sago comes from the pith of the sago palm tree. To get at the starch the tree has to be cut down and the trunk split to reveal the pith. The pith is crushed and manipulated to make the starch available, which is then washed out of a fibrous suspension. One sago palm tree yields about 150-300 kg of starch. Personally I love the stuff, but then, I am a bit weird …

31 Sausage on a grill : BRAT

A bratwurst (sometimes “brat” in the US) is a German sausage. The name comes from “brät-” meaning “finely chopped meat”, and “Wurst” meaning “sausage”.

35 Deli counter cry : NEXT!

The word “delicatessen” (or “deli” for short) came into English from the German “Delikatessen”. The Germans borrowed the word from French, in which language “délicatesse” means “delicious things (to eat)”. The term’s ultimate root is “delicatus”, the Latin for “giving pleasure, delightful”.

43 Nashville venue : OPRY

The Grand Ole Opry started out as a radio show in 1925 originally called the WSM “Barn Dance”. In 1927, the “Barn Dance” radio show was broadcast in a slot after an NBC production called “Musical Appreciation Hour”, a collection of classical works including Grand Opera. In a December show, the host of “Barn Dance” announced, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry'”. That name was used for the radio show from then on.

The Tennessee city of Nashville was founded in 1779 near a stockade in the Cumberland River valley called Fort Nashborough. Both the settlement and the fort were named for General Francis Nash, a war hero who died in combat during the American Revolution.

47 Wall St. events for young companies : IPOS

An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

48 Monterrey years : ANOS

Monterrey is a Mexican city, and the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon in the northeast of the country. Monterrey is the second-largest city in Mexico in terms of area, but third-largest in terms of population (the largest-area city in the country is Mexico City, and the most populous are Mexico City and Guadalajara).

52 Brian of rock : ENO

Brian Eno is a musician, composer and record producer from England who first achieved fame as the synthesizer player with Roxy Music. As a producer, Eno has worked with David Bowie, Devo, Talking Heads and U2.

53 MLB dugout boss : MGR

A dugout is an underground shelter. The term was carried over to baseball because the dugout is slightly depressed below the level of the field. This allows spectators behind the dugout to get a good view of home plate, where a lot of the action takes place.

55 Pouty look : MOUE

The term “moue” comes from French, and means “small grimace, pout”.

57 Screenwriter Nora : EPHRON

Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, which deals in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

59 Smooch that misses everything : AIR KISS

Someone might make the air kiss gesture when leaving, as it tends to be a “goodbye, love you all” kind of move. The person touches the inside of the hand to the mouth, kisses it and “tosses” the kiss to those being from whom he or she is departing. As the hand throws the kiss, the person makes an exaggerated “mwah!” sound. The use of the word “mwah!” has crept into online messaging and texting as a way of bidding farewell.

61 Movie-rating org. : MPAA

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.

63 Night driving need, and what can go with the starts of the answers to starred clues : HEADLIGHT

The high-beam setting on a car’s headlights directs a bright light to the front of the vehicle. The low-beam setting causes the light to “dip” towards the side of the road to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. This causes a few problems for some vacationing drivers in Europe. Many moons ago, I remember taking my car from Ireland (where we drive on the left), over to France (where cars drive on the right) . By law, I had to place adhesive blackout strips over the headlamps so that the lights did not dazzle oncoming traffic.

69 Puzzle guy Rubik : ERNO

What was originally called the “Magic Cube” became better known as “Rubik’s Cube”, and was named for its inventor Ernő Rubik. Rubik’s Cube is the world’s biggest selling puzzle game, with over 350 million sold in just over 30 years.

70 Pâté de __ gras : FOIE

Pâté is a rich spreadable paste made from a mixture of ground meat and fat, to which various vegetables, herbs and spices may be added. The most famous version of the paste is pâté de foie gras, which is made from the fattened livers of geese (“foie gras” means “fat liver” in French).

71 First name in perfumery : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

73 Business envelope abbr. : ATTN

Attention (attn.)

Down

1 The “A” in MoMA : ART

The founding of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City was very much driven by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of John D. Rockefeller. Working with two friends, Abby managed to get the museum opened in 1929, just nine days after the Wall Street Crash. The MoMA’s sculpture garden bears the name of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and has done so since 1949.

2 Place to go in London? : LOO

It has been suggested that the British term “loo”, meaning “toilet”, comes from “Waterloo” (water closet … water-loo), but no one seems to know for sure. Another suggestion is that the term comes from the card game of “lanterloo”, in which the pot was called the loo!

3 Big Aussie bird : EMU

Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs. It is the male emu that incubates the eggs. The incubation period lasts about 8 weeks, during which time the male neither eats nor drinks, just lapping up any morning dew that is nearby. While incubating a clutch of eggs, male emus lose about a third of their weight.

4 Desert landscape features : CACTI

The cactus (plural “cacti”) is a member of a family of plants that are particularly well-adapted to extremely dry environments. Almost all cacti are native to the Americas, although some succulent plants from the old world are similar in appearance and are often mislabeled as “cacti”.

5 Arcturus, for one : RED GIANT

Arcturus is a star in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is the fourth brightest star in the sky, after Sirius, Canopus and Alpha Centauri. The name “Arcturus” comes from the Greek for “Guardian of the Bear”, as it lies in a constellation that is close to the Greater and Lesser Bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor).

6 Greek Cupid : EROS

Cupid was the god of love in Roman mythology. Cupid’s name comes from the Latin verb “cupere” meaning “to desire”. Cupid’s Latin name was Amor, and his Greek counterpart was Eros.

7 “Batman” sound effect : POW!

The television show “Batman” aired from 1966-1968. Burt Ward played Robin opposite Adam West’s Batman. Supposedly, Burt Ward was offered the part taken by Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate”, but Ward couldn’t get out of his contract for the “Batman” television series. Holy xxxx, Batman!

8 Underwater detector : SONAR

The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defence demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the “IC” from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR, playing off the related application, RADAR. And so, the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

12 Velvet-voiced Mel : TORME

Mel Tormé was a jazz singer, with a quality of voice that earned him the nickname “The Velvet Fog”. Tormé also wrote a few books, and did a lot of acting. He was the co-author of the Christmas classic known as “The Christmas Song”, which starts out with the line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …”

23 Barbecue pair : TONGS

A pair of tongs is a tool with a scissor-like hinge used to pick up things, like meat cooking on a barbecue grill or ice from an ice bucket. The verb “to tong” means “to handle with tongs”.

24 Aimée of “8 1/2” : ANOUK

Anouk Aimée is a French film actress. Aimée’s most famous film outside of France is probably the internationally successful 1966 French hit “A Man and a Woman”, in which she played the female lead.

25 *Confinement that might involve an ankle monitor : HOUSE ARREST (giving “lighthouse”)

A person under house arrest often wears an ankle monitor that is used to ensure that he or she does not stray far from home. An alternative system involves random calls to the confined person’s home that have to be answered by the convict. On the face of it, house arrest seems to be a very economic alternative for society instead of the prison system. As part of the sentence, the convict may even be asked to pay for the cost of monitoring his or her house arrest.

38 Maine college town : ORONO

The town of Orono is home to the University of Maine that was founded in 1862. The college is actually located on an island (Marsh island) lying between the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers. The town of Orono is named after Joseph Orono, a chief of the Penobscot Nation. The school’s athletic teams are named the Maine Black Bears.

39 Bagless vacuum pioneer : DYSON

Dyson vacuum cleaners do not use a bag to collect dust. James Dyson invented the first vacuum cleaner to use cyclonic separation in 1979, frustrated at the poor performance of his regular vacuum cleaner. As Dyson cleaners do not use bags, they don’t have to deal with collection bags that are blocked with fine dust particles, even after emptying. Cyclonic separation uses high speed spinning of the dust-containing air so that the dust particles are thrown out of the airflow into a collection bin. We have a Dyson now, and should have bought it years ago …

42 Border collie, say : SHEEPDOG

The collie isn’t actually a breed of dog, but rather the name given to a group of herding dogs that originated in Scotland and Northern England. An obvious (and wonderful) example would be the Border collie. Many dogs classed as collies don’t have the word “collie” in the name of the breed, for example the Old English sheepdog and the Shetland sheepdog.

49 “Help!”-ful soap pad brand : SOS

S.O.S is a brand of scouring pads made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The product was invented as a giveaway by an aluminum pot salesman in San Francisco called Ed Cox. His wife gave it the name “S.O.S” as an initialism standing for “Save Our Saucepans”. Note the punctuation! There is no period after the last S, and that is deliberate. When Cox went to register the trademark, he found that “S.O.S.” could not be a trademark because it was used as an international distress signal. So he dropped the period after the last S, and I hope made a lot of money for himself and his wife.

51 October gem : OPAL

Here is the “official” list of birthstones, by month, that we tend to use today:

  • January: Garnet
  • February: Amethyst
  • March: Bloodstone or Aquamarine
  • April: Diamond
  • May: Emerald
  • June: Pearl or Moonstone
  • July: Ruby
  • August: Sardonyx or Peridot
  • September: Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli
  • October: Opal or Pink Tourmaline
  • November: Topaz or Citrine
  • December: Turquoise or Zircon (also now, Tanzanite)

53 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.

54 Biting desert lizards : GILAS

A Gila monster is a venomous lizard found in the southwestern US and northern Mexico, and is the only venomous lizard native to America. Gila monsters move along at a snail’s pace so aren’t normally a danger to humans. The name “Gila” is a reference to the Gila River Basin in the American Southwest, where the Gila monster was prevalent.

58 Israeli seaport : HAIFA

Haifa is the third-largest city in Israel and the largest city in the north of the country. Haifa is built on the slopes of Mount Carmel, and is a Mediterranean seaport.

60 Evangeline Lilly’s “Lost” role : KATE

Evangeline Lilly is an actress from Canada whose breakthrough role was playing Kate Austen on the TV show “Lost”.

In the TV show “Lost”, the plane that crashed was operated by Oceanic Airlines. The fictional airline Oceanic Airlines or Oceanic Airways turns up a lot on the big and small screen. Try to spot Oceanic in the movies “Executive Decision” and “For Love of the Game”, and in episodes of the TV shows “Castle”, “Chuck”, “Flipper”, “The Goldbergs” and “The X-Files”.

61 Public education advocate Horace : MANN

Horace Mann was Massachusetts politician, and the first Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education. Mann made sweeping educational reforms in the state, with other states around the country adopting many of the policies he developed. Such was his influence that he is known by historians as the “Father of the Common School Movement”. And as an aside, Mann was brother-in-law to author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

66 Two-bagger, for one : HIT

That would be baseball.

67 Half a score … or a perfect score : TEN

Our verb “to score” meaning “to tally”, comes from the Old Norse “skor”, which is a “mark, notch”. It is likely that items such as livestock were counted by placing a notch in a stick for each set of twenty, hence our use of the noun “score” to mean “twenty”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Eldest Baldwin brother : ALEC
5 Sales staffers : REPS
9 Fettuccine, e.g. : PASTA
14 Capital NW of Napoli : ROMA
15 Suffix with stink : -EROO
16 Value system : ETHOS
17 *Football score : TOUCHDOWN (giving “light touch”)
19 Atlanta campus : EMORY
20 Barge movers : TUGS
21 “I’d like to help” : ALLOW ME
23 Island near Bora Bora : TAHITI
26 Soft French cheese : BRIE
27 Chess pieces and board, e.g. : SET
28 Lennon’s love : ONO
29 Palm starch : SAGO
31 Sausage on a grill : BRAT
33 We, to Henri : NOUS
35 Deli counter cry : NEXT!
37 Got to one’s feet : STOOD
40 Spout, as oil : GUSH
41 Starts to fly, with “off” : TAKES …
43 Nashville venue : OPRY
44 Yarn coil : SKEIN
46 Like peanut-butter pie : RICH
47 Wall St. events for young companies : IPOS
48 Monterrey years : ANOS
50 “God” prefix : THEO-
52 Brian of rock : ENO
53 MLB dugout boss : MGR
55 Pouty look : MOUE
57 Screenwriter Nora : EPHRON
59 Smooch that misses everything : AIR KISS
61 Movie-rating org. : MPAA
62 Unarmed, to a cop : CLEAN
63 Night driving need, and what can go with the starts of the answers to starred clues : HEADLIGHT
68 Proverbial waste maker : HASTE
69 Puzzle guy Rubik : ERNO
70 Pâté de __ gras : FOIE
71 First name in perfumery : ESTEE
72 Tolled : RANG
73 Business envelope abbr. : ATTN

Down

1 The “A” in MoMA : ART
2 Place to go in London? : LOO
3 Big Aussie bird : EMU
4 Desert landscape features : CACTI
5 Arcturus, for one : RED GIANT
6 Greek Cupid : EROS
7 “Batman” sound effect : POW!
8 Underwater detector : SONAR
9 Apple pie prep tools : PEELERS
10 Prefix with sphere : ATMO-
11 *Musical song generating extended applause : SHOWSTOPPER (giving “light show”)
12 Velvet-voiced Mel : TORME
13 Until now : AS YET
18 Simple shelters : HUTS
22 Women’s __ : LIB
23 Barbecue pair : TONGS
24 Aimée of “8 1/2” : ANOUK
25 *Confinement that might involve an ankle monitor : HOUSE ARREST (giving “lighthouse”)
26 *Right-angled flying toy : BOX KITE (giving “lightbox”)
30 Mechanical part : GEAR
32 Yours, to Yvonne : A TOI
34 Area below the knee : SHIN
36 Computer repair person : TECH
38 Maine college town : ORONO
39 Bagless vacuum pioneer : DYSON
42 Border collie, say : SHEEPDOG
45 Candidate : NOMINEE
49 “Help!”-ful soap pad brand : SOS
51 October gem : OPAL
53 Papier-__ : MACHE
54 Biting desert lizards : GILAS
56 Aisle escort : USHER
58 Israeli seaport : HAIFA
60 Evangeline Lilly’s “Lost” role : KATE
61 Public education advocate Horace : MANN
64 Period often named for a president : ERA
65 Received : GOT
66 Two-bagger, for one : HIT
67 Half a score … or a perfect score : TEN