L.A. Times Crossword Wednesday December 16, 2020 Brock Wilson

Theme: Happy Birthday! [Maybe?] Today might or might not be the birthday of the below identified composer.  Nobody really knows. In the theme, his name and some of his works or identified by either name or number.

17A. With 63-Across, musician born 12/16/1770: LUDWIG VAN.

63A . See 17-Across: BEETHOVEN.

Wikipedia

He was baptized on the 17th, so his birthday is assumed to be the 16th, but that is just a guess.  He could have been a week or a month earlier.  Anyway, later in life, he wrote some music. You can read more about him here.

39 D. 63-Across work: SYMPHONY. An elaborate musical composition for full orchestra, typically in four movements, at least one of which is traditionally in sonata form.

26 A. Nickname for a 63-Across 39-Down: CHORAL. Numerically, the 9th, and last.

 

Well, this set my write up back by 23 minutes, but it was time well spent.  Give it a listen if you have the time.  Schiller's poem is a hot, sappy mess, but I guess it works in the original German. And Beethoven's setting makes it truly heavenly.

40 A. Numerically, 63-Across' C-minor 39-Down: FIFTH.  Which gives us what is probably the most recognizable 4 note sequence in all of music.

50 A. Nickname for a 63-Across 39-Down: EROICA.  Numerically, the 3rd.

 

10 D. Nickname for a 63-Across 39-Down: PASTORAL.  Here is a Disneyfied excerpt.

 

Hi, gang.  Jazzbumpa here to conduct today's musical adventure.  Once upon a time, there was trombone themed puzzle, and by chance in landed on my blogging day.  This one is just about as fitting.  Beethoven was my introduction to what we call classical music, though he stood on the bridge between the classical and romantic periods.  Having him as my intro made it hard for me to appreciate the much simpler - and genuinely classical - music of his teacher Haydn.  But everything builds over time, and without Haydn and Mozart, there could have been no Beethoven.  Let's move on through this score, and hope there are no sour notes.

Across:

1. Quotable Yankee, familiarly: YOGI.  Berra [1925-1915] "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

5. "Yikes!": JEEZ.  Oh, my!

9. Fencing blades: EPEES.  A narrow-bladed sword with a blunted tip.

14. Tarzan raisers: APES.  I guess Jane was the gorilla his dreams.

15. Cher and Sade, vocally: ALTI.  Voices with  range above tenor and below soprano.

16. 16th-century English queen: MARY I.  "Bloody Mary" Tudor [1516 -1558]  in her 5 year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake. 

19. North Sea county: ESSEX.  Located north-east of London.

20. German steel city: ESSEN. Eight of the 100 largest publicly held German corporations are head-quartered there.

21. Offered an arm to: ESCORTED.  As into a formal event.

23. Basics: ABCS.  

25. Ming most look up to: YAO.  Because he is 7'6" tall.  He started his basketball career in Shanghai, China, then played for the Houston Rockets from 2002-2011. He was an 8-time all star.

29. Literate: WELL READ.  

34. __ Vegas: LAS.  Sin City, it's been called.

35. Marks for removal: DELES.  To be deleted.

37. "Inferno" poet: DANTE. From whom we get out modern, and at best only marginally Biblical concepts of hell and the devil.

38. Story lines: ARCS.  

42. Tolkien trilogy, to fans: LOTR.  Lord Of The Rings.

43. Remains: STAYS.

45. It's usually not a hit: SIDE-B.  Now here is some nostalgia - referring to the presumably less popular song on one side of a 45 RPM phonograph record.
 
47. Toon crime fighter __ Possible: KIM.  An American animated action comedy-adventure television series created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle for Disney Channel. The title character is a teenage girl tasked with fighting crime on a regular basis while coping with everyday issues commonly associated with adolescence.  It ran from 2002 to 2007, and was a favorite of our oldest granddaughter.

48. Spread throughout: PERMEATE.

52. Pipe plastic: PVC. PolyVinyl Chloride is the third most widely produced thermoplastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene.

53. Like cotton candy: SPUN.

54. Sticky stuff: ADHESIVE.  Glue

58. Facebook action: SHARE.

62. Unverified word: RUMOR.  A circulating story of uncertain or doubtful truth.

65. Tony winner Menzel: IDINA.  She originated the role of Elphaba Thropp in the Broadway musical Wicked in 2003.  Later she sang some songs in animated Disney movies.

 

 66. The M in BLT?: MAYO.   As an option.

67. Artist's quarters: LOFT.   An upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof, presumably with north light..

 
68. Record material: VINYL.  Here, phonograph records and PVC make another appearance - together.

69. Chopped side dish: SLAW.  Cabbage fragments, typically with a 66 A- based dressing.

70. Some traffic court cases: Abbr.: DWIS.  Driving While Intoxicated.

Down:

1. New Haven school: YALE. Where the Elis roam.

2. Musical work: OPUS.  These are given numbers, approximately in the order of publication date. 40 A is Beethoven's OPUS 67.

3. H.S. proficiency tests: GEDS.  General Educational Development, indicating an approximate equivalence to a high school diploma.

4. Oath beginning: I SWEAR.  And you'd better tell the truth.

5. XK-E, for short: JAG.  The Jaguar E Class, Marketed in the U.S. as the XK-E, was manufactured from 1961 to 1975.

6. Seasonal aides: ELVES.  Santa's helpers, also known as subordinate clauses.

7. Greek vowels: ETAS.  Notable, because they look like h's.

8. It makes cents: ZINC.  Usually when mixed with copper.

9. Important gem in Oz: EMERALD.  I was thinking in Australia, which would be the OPEL.  But it doesn't have enough letters.  In the wonderful land of OZ, there is the EMERALD city.

11. Gaelic language: ERSE. A Scottish or Irish language.

12. Watched closely: EYED.  Peered at.

13. Touchdown points: SIX.  The kicked extra point used to be automatic, but many have been missed this season.

18. __ humor: grumpy: IN BAD.  Irascible.

22. Bony Olive: OYL.  Popeye's often disloyal girlfriend.

Wikipedia

24. Musical symbol: CLEF.

26. Bracelet fastener: CLASP.  Hook and lock mechanism.

27. Gold rush storyteller: HARTE.  Francis Brett HARTE [1836-1902]  was an American short story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. 

28. "The Odd Couple" roommate: OSCAR. Madison and Felix Unger from the Neil Simon play and the resulting movie and TV series.

29. Group self-pic, in slang: WEFIE.  Everybody crowd in tight.

30. Started, as a co.: ESTD.  Established

31. Japanese mushroom: ENOKI.  Sounds like a minor Star Wars character.  But it is a  mushroom that naturally grows on the stumps of the Chinese hackberry tree (Celtis sinensis, "enoki" in Japanese) and on other trees, such as ash, mulberry and persimmon trees.

32. Web site: ATTIC.  Not the world wide web - the top floor of a house that seldom gets entered by a human.

33. Stuffed Jewish dish also called kishke: DERMA.  Make it here.

36. Itemize: LIST.   

41. Dickens sycophant: HEEP.   Uriah, a fictional character created by Charles Dickens in his 1850 novel David Copperfield. Heep is one of the main antagonists of the novel. His character is notable for his cloying humility, unctuousness, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own "'umbleness". 

44. A few: SEVERAL.  Less than many.

46. Salon item: BRUSH.  

49. Summer coolers, briefly: ACS.  Air Conditioners, not cooling drinks.

51. Indefinitely suspended: ON HOLD.  In limbo.

53. "Later!": SEE YA.  TTYL.

54. Autobahn auto: AUDI.  Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer that designs, engineers, produces, markets and distributes luxury vehicles.  It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.

55. Key of the 26-Across 39-Down: Abbr.: D-MINor.  Has one flat.  And should probably have been included with the theme entries.

56. System/360s, e.g.: IBMS.  Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems?  Nope. Just a family of mainframe computer systems from IBM that were delivered between 1965 and 1978.

57. Piccata meat: VEAL.  It is sliced, dredged in flour, browned, then served in a sauce containing lemon juice, butter, and capers.  Yum!

59. Openly declare: AVOW.  Or Aver.  Always needs perps.

60. Mortgagee's option, for short: REFInance.  Looking for a lower interest rate and/or monthly payments.

61. Laryngitis docs: ENTS.  Ear, Nose and Throat specialists.

62. Ohio or Mississippi: Abbr.: RIV.  River

64. Auto club service: TOW.  As, frx, when my transmission decided to stop transmitting 20 miles north of Muskegon, and 200 miles from home.  That was fun.

So we reach the coda of another Wednesday, melody complete and chords resolved.  And every day is somebody's birthday.  HBD, if it's yours.

Cool regards!

JzB