LA Times Crossword Answers 9 Dec 14, Tuesday

LA Times Crossword Answers 9 Dec 14, Tuesday
Across
10. Music-playing Apple IPOD
The iPod is Apple's signature line of portable media players. It first hit the market in 2001, with a hard drive-based device that is now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all use flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor.

14. Berry rich in antioxidants ACAI
Açaí is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

16. Taboo NO-NO
The word "taboo" was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean". Cook described "tabu" (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

17. Six-time French Open champ Bjorn BORG
Björn Borg is a retired tennis player from Sweden, and a former World No. 1. Borg won 41% of the 27 Grand Slam singles tournaments that he entered, which is a record that stands to the day. He was known for reacting very calmly under pressure on the tennis court and hence earned the nicknames "Ice Man" and "Ice Borg", which is my personal favorite.

18. "I speak for the trees" Seuss character LORAX
"The Lorax" is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss. It is an allegorical work questioning the problems created by industrialization, and in particular its impact on the environment. “The Lorax” was adapted into an animated film that was released in 2012, with Danny DeVito voicing the title character.

19. TV series with many choreographed numbers GLEE
The TV show called "Glee" has proven to be very popular. The storyline focuses on a high school glee club in Lima, Ohio called New Directions.

A glee club is a choir group, usually of males, that sings short songs known as “glees”. A glee is a song scored for three or more voices that is performed unaccompanied.

20. Star system closest to the solar system ALPHA CENTAURI
The Alpha Centauri star system is a mere 4.37 light-years from the Sun, making it the closest star system to our solar system. Sometimes referred to as the closest “star”, Alpha Centauri is actually a binary star system, with two stars orbiting a common center. It is likely that Alpha Centauri is in fact a triple star system, as a third star called Proxima Centauri was discovered in 1915 that is probably linked gravitationally. It is Proxima Centauri that is actually the closest star to our own solar system, being just 4.24 light-years from the Sun.

28. Software development phase BETA TEST
In the world of software development, the first tested issue of a new program is usually called the "alpha" version. Expected to have a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, the alpha release is usually distributed to a small number of testers. After reported bugs have been eliminated, the refined version is called a "beta" and is released to a wider audience, but with the program clearly labeled as "beta". The users generally check functionality and report further bugs that are encountered. The beta version feeds into a release candidate, the version that is tested just prior to the software being sold into the market, bug-free. Yeah, right ...

30. Good, in the Galápagos BUENO
The Galápagos Islands lie over 500 miles west of Ecuador. The Galápagos owe their celebrity to the voyage of HMS Beagle which landed there in 1835, with Charles Darwin on board. It was Darwin’s study of various species on the islands that inspired him to postulate his Theory of Evolution.

34. Prefix with morph ECTO-
The prefix “ecto-” is used to mean “outside”, and the opposite “ento-” is used to mean “within”.

The psychologist William Herbert Sheldon proposed a now-discredited theory that a person’s intelligence, future achievement and temperament could be associated with particular body types. Sheldon proposed three “somatotypes”, a classification that is still used today:
Ectomorphic: thin body build
Mesomorphic: muscular and sturdy body build
Endomorphic: heavy body build

35. Attorneys' org. ABA
American Bar Association(ABA)

36. Week-long year-end celebration KWANZAA
Kwanzaa is a celebration of African heritage that lasts from December 26 to January 1 annually. The holiday was introduced in 1966 as an alternative to the existing holidays at the end of the year. The name comes from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza", meaning "first fruits of the harvest".

39. River to the Rhine AAR
The Aar (also called the "Aare" in German) is the longest river entirely in Switzerland. A famous spot along the Aar is the Reichenbach Falls in the center of the country, actually a series of waterfalls near the city of Meiringen. These falls are renowned in the world of literature as it was here that Sherlock Holmes fell to his supposed doom with his nemesis Professor Moriarty (in "The Adventure of the Final Problem").

42. "Deal __ Deal" OR NO
The TV game show that is called “Deal or No Deal” in the US is shown all around the world in local versions. The original version of the show was developed in the Netherlands as “Miljoenenjacht” (Hunt for Millions).

45. Bit of electromagnetic radiation GAMMA RAY
Gamma radiation was first discovered by the French chemist Paul Villard, as he studied radiation coming from the chemical element radium. This radiation was called “gamma”, the third letter in the Greek alphabet, as alpha and beta particles had already been identified.

47. __ au vin COQ
The French word "coq" actually means rooster, but a more tender bird is usually chosen for the classic French dish "coq au vin". The most common wine used for the "vin" is burgundy, but sometimes another red wine is chosen, and you can also find on a menu "coq au Champagne" and "coq au Riesling".

48. Stonewall STYMIE
The word “stymie” comes from golf, and is a situation in which one’s approach to the hole is blocked by an opponent’s ball. The term is used figuratively as a verb, meaning to hinder or thwart.

53. Atlanta-based carrier DELTA AIRLINES
Today, Delta is the world's largest airline (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is also the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta's roots go back to 1924. That was before the company's planes started carrying passengers and when it was called Huff Daland Dusters, a crop dusting enterprise based in Macon, Georgia. The name Delta Air Service was introduced in 1928.

58. "Steppenwolf" author HESSE
Hermann Hesse was not only a novelist, but also a poet and a painter. Hesse’s best known work is probably his 1927 novel "Steppenwolf".

59. Official proclamation FIAT
A "fiat" is an arbitrary rule that is imposed, and is the Latin for "let it be done".

62. Raison d'__ ETRE
"Raison d'être" is a French phrase meaning "reason for existence".

64. Lacking face value, as stock NO-PAR
In days gone by, when companies first issued a stock, each share would be given a face value (called "par value"). In effect, the company was making a commitment not to issue any more stock under that par value, giving investors confidence that there was no better deal to be had. Nowadays, most stock is issued without such a "guarantee" and is called "no-par stock".

65. Comical Martha RAYE
Martha Raye was a comic actress as well as a singer. Strangely enough, Raye was famous for the size of her mouth, something that she used to her own advantage. As her nickname was "The Big Mouth", she made a little money appearing in commercials for the Polident denture cleaner in the eighties. Her line was, "So take it from the Big Mouth: new Polident Green gets tough stains clean!"

Down
1. Crimson Tide coach Nick SABAN
Nick Saban is a former NFL coach, with the Miami Dolphins, and is now head football coach at the University of Alabama.

2. School, to Yvette ECOLE
French for school is “école”, and French for pupil is “élève”.

3. Old West brothers EARPS
The famous Earp brothers of the Wild West were Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan. All three brothers participated in what has to be the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Strangely enough, the fight didn't happen at the O.K. Corral, but took place six doors down the street in a vacant lot next to a photography studio.

5. Sprinkled with baby powder TALCED
Talc is a mineral, actually hydrated magnesium silicate. Talcum powder is composed of loose talc, although these days "baby powder" is also made from cornstarch.

6. Medicinal plants ALOES
Aloe vera has a number of alternate names that are descriptive of its efficacy as a medicine. These include the First Aid plant, Wand of Heaven, Silent Healer and Miracle Plant.

7. Iowa crop CORN
The state of Iowa was part of the French colony known as New France until it was acquired by the US in the Louisiana Purchase. The state’s name comes from the Ioway Native American people who lived there at the time European’s started exploring the area.

22. Actress Thurman UMA
Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter "Uma" as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name "Dbuma". Uma’s big break in movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

25. Relatively cool heavenly body K STAR
Stars are usually classified based on the color of the light that they emit. These classifications are, from hottest to coolest, O, B, A, F, G, K and M. One way to remember the order of these letters is to use the mnemonic “Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me”. The colors of these stars range from blue (class O) to red (class M). Our sun is class G, a yellow star, but I think we all know that …

26. Building level STORY
Here’s another spelling that I had to learn when I moved to the US. A “story” is a level in a building, a term that we also use on the other side of the Atlantic, albeit with the spelling “storey”. To further complicate matters, the “first floor” in the US is the ground floor. The “first floor” in Ireland and Britain is the “storey” above the ground floor. Aaagh!

29. Automaker Ferrari ENZO
Enzo Ferrari was an Italian race car driver, and founder of the Ferrari car manufacturing company. Ferrari died in 1988, and in 2003 the company named the Enzo model after its founder.

30. Forehead-covering hair BANGS
“Bangs” is another word that caught me out when I arrived in the US. “Bangs” back in Ireland are called “a fringe”. Apparently the US term is derived from the hair on horses somehow.

31. WWII sea threat U-BOAT
U-boat stands for the German "Unterseeboot" (undersea boat). Notably, a U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania in 1915, an event that helped propel the US into WWI.

33. "Gone With the Wind" estate TARA
Rhett Butler hung out with Scarlett O'Hara at the Tara plantation in Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind". Tara was founded not far from the Georgia city of Jonesboro by Scarlett's father, Irish immigrant Gerald O'Hara. Gerald named his new abode after the Hill of Tara back in his home country, the ancient seat of the High King of Ireland.

38. Coral ring 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.

50. Santa __ racetrack ANITA
Santa Anita Park is a racetrack for horses located in Arcadia, California.

52. Perfumer Lauder ESTEE
Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, with a reputation as a great 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 ...

55. PDQ kin ASAP
As soon as possible (ASAP)

Pretty darn quick (PDQ)

56. Reggae cousin SKA
Ska originated in Jamaica in the late fifties and was the precursor to reggae music. No one has a really definitive etymology of the term "ska", but it is likely to be imitative of some sound.

Reggae is a genre of music that developed in the late sixties, evolving out of the genres of ska and rocksteady.

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