LA Times Crossword 29 Dec 18, Saturday

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Constructed by: Ed Sessa
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Lines

We perhaps have a mini-theme today. Several of the clues refer to kinds of LINE:

  • 17A. Line erasers? : PLASTIC SURGEONS
  • 28A. NYC subway line : IRT
  • 32A. Necklines? : CAROTID ARTERIES
  • 36A. Title line after “Gray skies are gonna clear up” : PUT ON A HAPPY FACE
  • 51A. Butler’s classic line : YOU RANG?
  • 41D. End of a line in the sand, maybe : ANTHILL

Bill’s time: 11m 16s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Actor Omar with three NAACP Image Awards : EPPS

Omar Epps is the actor who played Eric Foreman on the excellent television series “House”. Prior to playing Dr. Foreman, Epps had a recurring role playing Dr. Dennis Gant on “ER”. And, in another link to the world of medicine, Epps was born in Savannah, Georgia to single mom, Dr. Bonnie Epps.

The NAACP Image Awards are presented annually to recognise people of color in the worlds of film, television, music and literature. The first awards were presented in 1967, and the ceremony usually takes place in Los Angeles.

5. 007’s watch, in the later films : OMEGA

Omega is a manufacturer of high-end watches based in Switzerland. An Omega watch was the first portable timepiece to make it to the moon, Perhaps even more impressive is the fact James Bond has been wearing an Omega watch in the movies since 1995.

10. Sent to, too : CC’ED

I wonder do the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle? A kind blog reader pointed out to me recently that the abbreviation has evolved and taken on the meaning “courtesy copy” in our modern world.

14. Independent African country since 1960 : MALI

The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa located south of Algeria. Formerly known as French Sudan, the nation’s most famous city is Timbuktu. Mali is the third-largest producer of gold on the continent, after South Africa and Ghana.

15. Santa-tracking acronym : NORAD

The North American Defense Command (NORAD) isn’t just a US operation but is a cooperative arrangement between Canada and the United States. The two countries entered into an agreement to establish NORAD in 1958, mainly due to the concern that there would be little or no warning of a missile attack from the Soviet Union that came over the North Pole. NORAD also tracks Santa Claus coming from the North Pole every Christmas, and these days publishes Santa’s location on Christmas Eve on its website. The tracking of Santa started into 1955 when a local Sears store placed an advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper with a phone number that could be used to call Santa Claus. The newspaper accidentally printed the number for the Continental Air Defense Command (a precursor to NORAD). The officer on duty instructed his staff to give all children who called a “current location” for Santa. Today, NORAD gets about 120,000 phone queries about Santa’s location every year, and website gets about 20 million visitors.

16. Jennifer of “Pride and Prejudice” (1995) : EHLE

Jennifer Ehle is a favorite actress of mine, and is an American actress who is noted for playing English characters. Most famously, Ehle played Elizabeth Bennett opposite Colin Firth’s D’Arcy in the fabulous 1995 BBC production of “Pride and Prejudice”. Ehle and Firth began a romantic relationship during the filming of the Jane Austen novel. Years later, the couple worked together again, for the film “The King’s Speech”.

17. Line erasers? : PLASTIC SURGEONS

The medical specialty of plastic surgery is divided into two disciplines. Reconstructive surgery aims to reconstruct or improve the functioning of part of the body. Cosmetic surgery aims at improving the appearance of a body part.

21. Stable attendant : HOSTLER

A hostler (also “ostler”) is a groom usually employed at an inn to tend to horses. The spelling “Hostler” is used in American English, while “ostler” is used in British English. The term derives from the Latin “hostilarius”, the word for a monk who entertains guests at a monastery.

22. Half an ouchie? : BOO

A small child might refer to an injury as an “ouchie” or a “booboo”.

25. Genre with ad images : POP ART

An artistic work in the pop art style includes images taken from popular culture, perhaps from the news or an advertisement. The pop art movement started in the mid-fifties in Britain and emerged in the late-fifties in the US. One of the more famous pop artists was American Andy Warhol.

27. Stores with a blue-and-yellow logo : IKEAS

The IKEA furniture stores use the colors blue and yellow for brand recognition. Blue and yellow are the national colors of Sweden, where IKEA was founded and is headquartered.

28. NYC subway line : IRT

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the original private operator of the New York Subway when it opened in 1904. The city took over ownership of the system in 1940, but the lines originally operated by the IRT are still known by the IRT moniker.

31. “The Divine Comedy” division : CANTO

A canto is a section of a long poem, and is a term first used by the Italian poet Dante. “Canto” is the Italian for “song”.

Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” is an epic poem dating back to the 14th century. The first part of that epic is “Inferno”, which is the Italian word for “Hell”. In the poem, Dante is led on a journey by the poet Virgil, starting at the gates of Hell on which are written the famous words “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”.

32. Necklines? : CAROTID ARTERIES

The common carotid artery is in effect two arteries that run up either side of the body. By the time the carotids reach the neck they are virtually identical, with one on either side.

35. Tablet since 2013 : IPAD AIR

The iPad Air is Apple’s 5th-generation table computer. The Air is just 7.5 mm thick, and is 22% lighter than the iPad 2.

36. Title line after “Gray skies are gonna clear up” : PUT ON A HAPPY FACE

“Bye Bye Birdie” is a stage musical set in 1958, and first performed in 1960 on Broadway. It was inspired by the real-life events surrounding Elvis Presley getting drafted into the Army in 1957. The “Elvis” character in the musical is called Conrad Birdie, a play on the name of the singer Conway Twitty. One of the songs from the show is “Put on a Happy Face”.

44. Actress Aimée : 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.

45. Sites with masked workers, briefly : ORS

Surgery (surg.) is usually performed in an operating room (OR).

47. Delivered a screed : RANTED

A screed is a long speech or piece of writing, one that is often full of anger and emotion.

49. “Man is condemned to be free” philosopher : SARTRE

In a 1946 lecture titled “Existentialism Is a Humanism”, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said:

We are left alone, without excuse. That is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything he does.

51. Butler’s classic line : YOU RANG?

A butler might enter a room saying, “You rang, my lord?”

A butler is the head servant in a household. The butler is often in charge of the wine stores in the house. The term “butler” comes from the Old French “boteillier” meaning “officer in charge of wine”, which in terms comes from the Old French “boteille”, the word for a “bottle”.

55. Its first letter often means “more than one” : HOV

In some parts of the country, one sees high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Out here in California we refer to them as carpool lanes.

56. Echoic phrase from a WWI marching song : SMILE, SMILE, SMILE

“Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag” is a WWI marching song that was published in London in 1915. The chorus goes like this:

Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile,smile,smile
Don’t let your laughter hit the snag,
Smile boys, that’s the style.
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worth while, so
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.

59. Smallville name : KENT

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.

Smallville, Kansas is the town on Earth in which Superman grew up (as Clark Kent). One of Clark’s best friends in Smallville, and the romantic interest of his youth, was Lana Lang.

60. Gay opening? : ENOLA …

The Enola Gay was the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in August 1945. Enola Gay was the name of the mother of pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr.

61. Chrysler Building architect William Van __ : ALEN

William Van Alen was an architect who was most famous for leading the design of the Chrysler Building in New York City. When the building was complete, Van Alen sent his bill to Walter Chrysler, a standard fee of 6% of the construction cost. Van Alan hadn’t pre-negotiated his fee for the job, so payment was refused. Van Alen sued and won the case, but his reputation was ruined by the litigation and he never designed another building.

64. Ford contemporary : OLDS

Ransom Eli Olds was a pioneer in the automotive industry, and the founder of the Oldsmobile and REO brands. Olds introduced the first modern “stationary” assembly line (Henry Ford’s famous innovation was the “moving” assembly line). As a result, it can be argued that the Oldsmobile Curved Dash was the first mass-produced, low-priced automobile, rather than the Ford’s Model T.

Down

1. Based on observation : EMPIRIC

Back in the 1500s, an empiric was a surgeon or physician who was guided by experience rather than training. In the mid-1500s, we started to use the adjective “empirical” to describe anything that was guided by mere experience.

2. Two-bit boxer : PALOOKA

The word “palooka” was originally used to describe a mediocre prizefighter and dates back to the 1920s. Then there was a comic strip called “Joe Palooka”, and I guess the meanings got melded somehow. Today we use “palooka” as a slang term for an oaf or a clumsy person.

6. Soft shoes : MOCS

“Moc” is short for “moccasin”, a type of shoe. The moccasin is a traditional form of footwear worn by members of many Native American tribes.

7. “… which __ was irksome to me”: Shakespeare : ERST

In William Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It”, the shepherdess Phoebe says to her admirer Silvius:

Silvius, the time was that I hated thee,
And yet it is not that I bear thee love,
But since that thou canst talk of love so well,
Thy company, which erst was irksome to me,
I will endure, and I’ll employ thee too.

8. Three-part region, per Caesar : GAUL

The Gauls were a Celtic race, with Gaul covering what is now known as France and Belgium. According to Julius Caesar, who conquered the territory for Rome, Gaul was inhabited by three ethnic groups:

  • Belgae in the north
  • Celtae in center
  • Aquitani in the southeast (the southwest was already occupied by the Romans)

We use the term “Gallic” today, when we refer to something pertaining to France or the French.

10. Left of center? : CEE

The letter C (cee) lies at the left, at the head, of the word “center”.

11. Greek-style yogurt brand : CHOBANI

Chobani is a manufacturer of Greek-style yogurt that is based in South Edmeston, New York. The business was started by Turkish-Kurdish businessman Hamdi Ulukaya when he bought a defunct yogurt factory that had been launched the Chobani brand in 2007. By all accounts, Chobani is a great place to work. The company opened a second plant in 2012 in Twin Falls, Idaho, which is now the largest yogurt-producing facility in the world.

12. America, in Acapulco : EL NORTE

“El Norte” is the term many people in Central America use for the United States and Canada. It translates as “the North” from Spanish.

The Mexican city of Acapulco is on the southwest coast of the country, in the state of Guerrero. The name “Acapulco” translates from the local language into “at the big reeds”.

13. Autos advertised on “You Bet Your Life” : DESOTOS

The DeSoto brand of car was built by Chrysler from 1928 to 1961. The line was named after the Spanish explorer and conquistador, Hernando de Soto, widely reported as the first European to have crossed the Mississippi River (although Cabeza de Vaca had at least discovered one of the mouths of the Mississippi twenty years earlier).

18. It’s a dirty look : THE STINK EYE

The phrase “stink eye”, meaning “dirty look”, dates back to the early 1970s. A suggestion is that the term comes from Hawaiian slang.

24. Confucian path : TAO

The name of the Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Taoism signifies the true nature of the world.

The sayings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (anglicized from “K’ung Fu-Tse”) are collected in a work called “The Analects” or “Linyu”. It wasn’t Confucius who wrote down his thoughts though, but rather his pupils, some 40 or so years after his death in 479 BC.

29. “M*A*S*H” role : RADAR

Corporal Radar O’Reilly is a character in the “M*A*S*H” television series and film. The role was played by Gary Burghoff in both the film and on television.

33. Draft choice : IPA

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

36. Hybrid jumping sport with a landing target : PARASKI

Paraskiing is skiing across snowy terrain while being pulled along by a parachute.

37. Lacking heat? : UNARMED

“Packing” and “packing heat” are underworld slang for “carrying a gun”.

38. Survivor-take-all investment scheme : TONTINE

A tontine is an investment plan with a significant element of luck. Each investor pays in an agreed sum, for which he or she receives an annuity. The value of that annuity increases as a participant in the plan passes away, because the deceased member’s shares devolve to the other participants. The first tontine was established in 1653 in France by Lorenzo de Tonti, after whom the scheme is named.

41. End of a line in the sand, maybe : ANTHILL

Anthills are actually underground nests. The ants in the colony excavate below ground, resulting in a pile of sand or soil above ground.

42. Sang for an audience of one, sometimes : CAROLED

The word “carol” came into English via the Old French word “carole”, which was a “dance in a ring”. When “carol” made it into English, about 1300 AD, the term was used to describe a dance as well as a joyful song. Around 1500 AD, carols that were sung came to be associated with Christmas.

43. Gridiron numbers : ELEVENS

Those would be the eleven players on each team in a game of American football.

49. Winner of 82 PGA Tour tournaments : SNEAD

Sam Snead was probably the most successful golfer never to win a US Open title, as he won a record 82 PGA Tour events. Snead did win seven majors, but never the US Open. He was also quite the showman. He once hit the scoreboard at Wrigley Field stadium with a golf ball, by teeing off from home plate. Snead’s best-remembered nickname is “Slammin’ Sammy”.

53. Spanish waterways : RIOS

In Spanish, a “lago” (lake) is usually fed by a “rio” (river).

54. Italian recipe word : ALLA

The phrase “in the style of” can be translated in “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

57. Ford’s Crown Vic, originally : LTD

There has been a lot of speculation about what the abbreviation LTD stands for in the car model known as “Ford LTD”. Many say it is an initialism standing for Luxury Trim Decor, and others say that it is short for “limited”. Although the car was produced in Australia with the initialism meaning Lincoln Type Design, it seems LTD was originally chosen as just three meaningless letters that sound well together.

The Crown Victoria is full-sized sedan car that was manufactured by Ford from 1991 to 2011. One of the most famous versions of the Crown Vic is the Police Interceptor that Ford introduced in 1998.

58. Foe of Chiang : MAO

In the 1930s, the rebel People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China was locked in battle with the army of the Chinese Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai-shek. In the jaws of defeat, the PLA (or “Red Army”, as it was known) managed to make a series of withdrawals from the southern part of the country, evading capture by retreating to the north. This campaign of retreat involved the Red Army traversing about 8,000 miles of difficult terrain in a move that took over a year. The Communist troops of the Red Army were led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. The retreat came to be termed “the Long March”, and its relative success established the reputations of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai within the Communist Party, and ultimately led to their takeover of power after the subsequent Chinese Civil War.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Actor Omar with three NAACP Image Awards : EPPS
5. 007’s watch, in the later films : OMEGA
10. Sent to, too : CC’ED
14. Independent African country since 1960 : MALI
15. Santa-tracking acronym : NORAD
16. Jennifer of “Pride and Prejudice” (1995) : EHLE
17. Line erasers? : PLASTIC SURGEONS
20. It carries a charge : ION
21. Stable attendant : HOSTLER
22. Half an ouchie? : BOO
23. Despicable : ROTTEN
25. Genre with ad images : POP ART
27. Stores with a blue-and-yellow logo : IKEAS
28. NYC subway line : IRT
31. “The Divine Comedy” division : CANTO
32. Necklines? : CAROTID ARTERIES
35. Tablet since 2013 : IPAD AIR
36. Title line after “Gray skies are gonna clear up” : PUT ON A HAPPY FACE
44. Actress Aimée : ANOUK
45. Sites with masked workers, briefly : ORS
46. Timeworn : BANAL
47. Delivered a screed : RANTED
49. “Man is condemned to be free” philosopher : SARTRE
50. Thou follower, often : … ART
51. Butler’s classic line : YOU RANG?
55. Its first letter often means “more than one” : HOV
56. Echoic phrase from a WWI marching song : SMILE, SMILE, SMILE
59. Smallville name : KENT
60. Gay opening? : ENOLA …
61. Chrysler Building architect William Van __ : ALEN
62. Pointed at, perhaps : ID’ED
63. “That’s unfortunate” : SO SAD
64. Ford contemporary : OLDS

Down

1. Based on observation : EMPIRIC
2. Two-bit boxer : PALOOKA
3. One with a rooting interest : PLANTER
4. Short sibling? : SIS
5. Kitchen bulb : ONION
6. Soft shoes : MOCS
7. “… which __ was irksome to me”: Shakespeare : ERST
8. Three-part region, per Caesar : GAUL
9. Media industry worker : AD REP
10. Left of center? : CEE
11. Greek-style yogurt brand : CHOBANI
12. America, in Acapulco : EL NORTE
13. Autos advertised on “You Bet Your Life” : DESOTOS
18. It’s a dirty look : THE STINK EYE
19. Holders of staples : GROCERY BAGS
24. Confucian path : TAO
26. Expected : PAR
28. Site of an 11-Down yogurt plant, the world’s largest : IDAHO
29. “M*A*S*H” role : RADAR
30. Doesn’t allow out : TRAPS
33. Draft choice : IPA
34. Pointer or point : TIP
36. Hybrid jumping sport with a landing target : PARASKI
37. Lacking heat? : UNARMED
38. Survivor-take-all investment scheme : TONTINE
39. See 40-Down : … OUT
40. With 39-Down, unconventional : FAR …
41. End of a line in the sand, maybe : ANTHILL
42. Sang for an audience of one, sometimes : CAROLED
43. Gridiron numbers : ELEVENS
48. Dispensed amounts : DOSES
49. Winner of 82 PGA Tour tournaments : SNEAD
52. “Don’t think so” : UM, NO
53. Spanish waterways : RIOS
54. Italian recipe word : ALLA
57. Ford’s Crown Vic, originally : LTD
58. Foe of Chiang : MAO

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