LA Times Crossword 25 Nov 19, Monday

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Constructed by: Ed Sessa
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Behind Time

Themed answers finish with a word that often follows TIME:

  • 59A Later than expected … and where the ends of the answers to starred clues may be found : BEHIND TIME
  • 17A *Soccer ref’s formal warning : YELLOW CARD (giving “time card”)
  • 27A *Letter box access : MAIL SLOT (giving “time slot”)
  • 45A *Area where cellphones don’t work : DEAD ZONE (giving “time zone”)
  • 11D *Sneak into the shot : PHOTOBOMB (giving “time bomb”)
  • 35D *iPad’s giant ancestor : MAINFRAME (giving “time frame”)

Bill’s time: 4m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Pole on the Pequod : MAST

The Pequod is the whaling ship that figures in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick”. The ship is owned by a consortium of the citizens of Nantucket Island, including Captains Ahab, Bildad and Peleg.

10 Auto loan figs. : APRS

Annual percentage rate (APR)

14 Smoothie berry : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) 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.

17 *Soccer ref’s formal warning : YELLOW CARD (giving “time card”)

A series of colored penalty cards is used by referees and umpires in several sports, most notably in soccer. The cards were first used in the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, after language difficulties created confusion during the prior competition in 1966. The main cards used are a yellow card indicating a caution, and a red card indicating expulsion from the game.

22 Cerebral __: brain layer : CORTEX

The outermost layer of an organ is known as the cortex. The cortical layer that is most familiar to the man on the street (like me!) is that of the brain, the cerebral cortex.

24 Name of many pharaohs : RAMSES

Ramesses (also “Ramses”) was the name taken by eleven of the Egyptian pharaohs. “Ramesses” translates as “Born of the sun-god Ra”.

26 Singer Mars : BRUNO

Bruno Mars is a singer-songwriter from Honolulu who has been active in the music business since 2006. “Bruno Mars” is a stage name, as Mars was born Peter Hernandez.

30 Emeril catchword : BAM!

Emeril Lagasse is an American chef who was born in Massachusetts. Lagasse first achieved celebrity as executive chef in Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. Now famous for his television shows, his cuisine still showcases New Orleans ingredients and influences. Lagasse started using his famous “Bam!” catchphrase in order to keep his crew awake during repeated tapings of his show.

33 Like XLII, numeral-wise : ROMAN

In Roman numerals, “42” is written as “XLII”.

36 Elevator innovator : OTIS

Elevators (simple hoists) have been around for a long time. What Elisha Otis did was come up with the “safety elevator”, a design that he showcased at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York. At the Fair, Otis would stand on an elevated platform in front of onlookers and order his assistant to cut the single rope holding up the platform. His safety system kicked in when the platform had only fallen a few inches, amazing the crowd. After this demonstration, the orders came rolling in.

37 Classic theater name : ROXY

The original Roxy Theater opened in 1927 in New York City, and was designed to be the biggest and best “motion picture palace” of the day. The first theater operator was Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel, someone who had a lot of experience in the industry. As part of the deal to entice Rothafel to take the job, the owners offered to name the theater after him.

38 Eurasian border range : URAL

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

40 Four-leaf clover, to some : OMEN

Clovers are species of flowering plants in the pea family. Famously, clover leaves are trifoliate, have three leaflets. There are about 5,000 three-leaf clovers for every 1 four-leaf clover, leading to the association of a four-leaf clover with good luck.

41 Astronaut Armstrong : NEIL

Neil Armstrong was the most private of individuals. You didn’t often see him giving interviews, unlike so many of the more approachable astronauts of the Apollo space program. His famous, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind” statement; that was something that he came up with himself, while Apollo 11 was making its way to the moon.

43 “In Xanadu did __ Khan … “: Coleridge : KUBLA

“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is my wife’s favorite poem. Coleridge wrote his masterpiece one night in 1797 after a vivid dream heavily influenced by opium.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

45 *Area where cellphones don’t work : DEAD ZONE (giving “time zone”)

Local solar time was replaced with standard time zones due to the increasing use of rail travel and telecommunications as the variations in local solar times became somewhat inconvenient. Time zones in the US vary in hourly increments, but in some parts of the world a 30-minute or even 15-minute difference can apply.

49 Montblanc topper : PEN CAP

Montblanc is a manufacturer of luxury goods, notably high-end pens, that is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.

57 Rose of rock music : AXL

Axl Rose is the lead vocalist of the American rock band Guns N’ Roses.

63 Bay window : ORIEL

An oriel window is a bay window that projects from a wall, but does not reach all the way to the ground.

64 Many an Omani : ARAB

Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Oman is a monarchy, and the official name of the state is the Sultanate of Oman. All of the country’s legislative, executive and judiciary power resides with the hereditary sultan.

66 Simultaneous equation variables : X AND Y

A simultaneous equation is one of a set of algebraic equations with the same unknowns that are solved together, simultaneously. A simple example is a pair of straight lines. Each line is defined by an equation containing the variables x and y. The solution to the pair of simultaneous equations representing those lines is the point at which they cross, the intersecting values for x and y.

Down

2 Amtrak express train : ACELA

The Acela Express is the fastest train routinely running in the US, as it gets up to 150 mph at times. The service runs between Boston and Washington D.C. via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Introduced in 2000, the brand name “Acela” was created to evoke “acceleration” and “excellence”.

3 Witch trial town : SALEM

The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings held in 1692 and 1693 in colonial Massachusetts, most famously in Salem. As a result of mass hysteria, twenty people were convicted of practicing witchcraft and were executed. The events were deemed to be a terrible injustice almost immediately. As early as 1696, there was a legal ruling by the Massachusetts General Court that referred to the outcome of the trials as a tragedy. In 2001, the Massachusetts legislature officially exonerated all of those convicted.

5 Formal words of confession : IT WAS I

The much debated statement “it is I” is grammatically correct, and should not be “corrected” to “it is me”. Traditionally, pronouns following linking verbs, such as “is”, “appear” and “seem”, are written in the nominative case. Examples are:

  • It is I (who called)
  • It was he (who did it)
  • It is we (who care)

6 Hickey spot : NECK

The slang term “hickey” (also “hickie”) is used for a red mark left on the skin after a passionate kiss.

9 Disaster relief organization : RED CROSS

Back in 1859, a Swiss businessman called Henri Dunant went to meet French emperor Napoleon III, to discuss making it easier to conduct commerce in French-occupied Algeria. The Emperor was billeted at Solferino, where France and Austria were engaged in a major battle. In one day, Dunant witnessed 40,000 soldiers die in battle and countless wounded suffering on the battlefield without any organized medical care. Dunant abandoned his business agenda and instead spent a week caring for the sick and wounded. Within a few years he had founded the precursor to the Red Cross, and in 1901 he was awarded the first ever Nobel Peace Prize.

11 *Sneak into the shot : PHOTOBOMB (giving “time bomb”)

Photobombing is the act of intruding during the taking of a photograph as a practical joke. The term has gotten a lot of usage in recent years due to the proliferation of smartphone cameras. Collins English Dictionary named “photobomb” as Word of the Year for 2014.

12 Level with a wrecking ball : RAZE

To raze (“rase”, in UK English) is to level to the ground. I’ve always thought it a little quirky that “raise”, a homophone of “raze”, means “build up”.

13 River of Hades : STYX

The River Styx of Greek mythology was the river that formed the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld (or “Hades”). The souls of the newly dead had to cross the River Styx in a ferry boat piloted by Charon. Traditionally, a coin would be placed in the mouths of the dead “to pay the ferryman”.

18 Neptune’s realm : OCEAN

Neptune was a Roman god, of both the sea and of freshwater. He was sometimes known as “Neptunus Equester” as he was also the god of horses and patron of horse-racing.

23 Part of KO : OUT

Knockout (KO)

26 Cheesy pancake, perhaps : BLINTZ

A blintz (also “blintze”, and “blin”, plural “blini”) is a thin pancake similar to a crêpe although unlike a crêpe, a blintz may contain yeast.

28 Cosmetics giant : L’OREAL

L’Oréal is a French cosmetics company, and indeed the largest cosmetics and beauty company in the world. Here in the US, L’Oréal runs a “Women of Worth” program that honors women who volunteer in their communities.

31 Ice skating feat : AXEL

An axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. The maneuver was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.

32 Mimicking bird : MYNA

Some species of myna (also “mynah”) birds are known for their ability to imitate sounds.

33 Littlest of the litter : RUNT

Back around 1500, a runt was an old or decayed tree stump, and by the early 1600s “runt” was being used to describe animals that were similarly old and decayed. Ultimately “runt” came to mean the smallest and often sickest in a litter.

34 Snack sometimes eaten from the inside out : OREO

There’s a smartphone app featuring the Oreo cookie. It’s a game in which one twists Oreo cookies apart, “licks” the cream from the center and then dunks the remainder of the cookie in a glass of milk.

35 *iPad’s giant ancestor : MAINFRAME (giving “time frame”)

In contemporary usage, a “mainframe” is a large and powerful computer tasked with high-volume and processor-intensive tasks. Mainframes are typically used by large businesses and scientific institutes. In the ranking of computers, mainframes would sit below supercomputers, and above the personal computers with which we are all so familiar.

37 City where Joan of Arc died : ROUEN

Rouen is the major city in Normandy in northern France. During the days of Norman Britain, Rouen was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties. Rouen was also where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431.

Joan of Arc (also “Jeanne d’Arc”, her birth name) led the French Army successfully into battle a number of times during the Hundred Years War with England. When she was eventually captured, Joan was tried in Rouen, the seat of the occupying English government in France at that time. There she was burned at the stake having been found guilty of heresy. In fact, after the fire died down, the executioner raked the coals to display the charred body, proving Joan had died, and then burned the corpse again, twice, so that relics could not be collected. The remaining ashes were then cast into the Seine River. Joan of Arc was canonized some 600 years later, in 1920, and is now one of the patron saints of France.

43 Weak- or knock- follower : KNEED

The condition known as “knock-knee” is more correctly referred to as “genu valgum”, which translates from Latin as “knee bent out”. That Latin name is a little confusing, as a “knock-knee” usually bends inwards.

45 Crime scene sample : DNA

DNA was first isolated in 1869 by Swiss physician and biologist Friedrich Miescher. The molecular structure of DNA was identified in 1953, by the American and British team of James Watson and Francis Crick.

48 “Peer Gynt” dramatist : IBSEN

Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright who is considered by many to be the greatest playwright since William Shakespeare. Ibsen was famous for shocking his audiences by exploring subjects that offended the sensibilities of the day (the late 1800s).

Henrik Ibsen’s play “Peer Gynt” is based on a Scandinavian fairy tale “Per Gynt”. The incidental music to the play, written by Edvard Grieg, is some of the most approachable classical music ever written, at least in my humble opinion …

50 Egypt’s capital : CAIRO

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It is nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” because of its impressive skyline replete with Islamic architecture. The name “Cairo” is a European corruption of the city’s original name in Arabic, “Al-Qahira”.

52 Annapolis frosh : PLEBE

A “plebe” is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is located in Annapolis, Maryland. The USNA was founded in 1845 and educates officers for both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. The motto of the USNA is “Ex Scientia Tridens”, which translates as “From Knowledge, Sea Power”.

54 Norse king : OLAV

Of the many kings of Norway named Olaf/Olav (and there have been five), Olaf II is perhaps the most celebrated, as he was canonized and made the patron saint of the country. Olaf II was king from 1015 to 1028 and was known as “Olaf the Big” (or “Olaf the Fat”) during his reign. Today he is more commonly referred to as “Olaf the Holy”. After Olaf died he was given the title of “Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae”, which is Latin for “Norway’s Eternal King”.

55 Girl Scouts’ __ Mints : THIN

Depending on which bakery makes the particular variety of Girl Scout cookies, the name can vary. For example, Little Brownie Bakers makes the Samoa cookies, while ABC Bakers uses the same recipe and calls the cookies Caramel deLites. The assumption is that these cookies have the exotic name of “Samoa” because they contain the tropical ingredients of coconut and cocoa. The most popular variety of Girl Scout cookies sold are Thin Mints.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Pole on the Pequod : MAST
5 Conclude from evidence : INFER
10 Auto loan figs. : APRS
14 Smoothie berry : ACAI
15 Land, in France : TERRE
16 Talk over tea : CHAT
17 *Soccer ref’s formal warning : YELLOW CARD (giving “time card”)
19 Like wet mud pies : OOZY
20 Bullring bravo : OLE!
21 Like dried-out mud pies : CAKY
22 Cerebral __: brain layer : CORTEX
24 Name of many pharaohs : RAMSES
26 Singer Mars : BRUNO
27 *Letter box access : MAIL SLOT (giving “time slot”)
30 Emeril catchword : BAM!
33 Like XLII, numeral-wise : ROMAN
36 Elevator innovator : OTIS
37 Classic theater name : ROXY
38 Eurasian border range : URAL
39 Fiber sources : BRANS
40 Four-leaf clover, to some : OMEN
41 Astronaut Armstrong : NEIL
42 Apartment payment : RENT
43 “In Xanadu did __ Khan … “: Coleridge : KUBLA
44 Weigh station unit : TON
45 *Area where cellphones don’t work : DEAD ZONE (giving “time zone”)
47 Weighty exam : FINAL
49 Montblanc topper : PEN CAP
53 Prohibited : FORBAD
55 Biblical “you” : THEE
57 Rose of rock music : AXL
58 “Sorry to say … ” : ALAS …
59 Later than expected … and where the ends of the answers to starred clues may be found : BEHIND TIME
62 Opposite of went : CAME
63 Bay window : ORIEL
64 Many an Omani : ARAB
65 Like two, not one : EVEN
66 Simultaneous equation variables : X AND Y
67 No longer here : GONE

Down

1 Big city big shot : MAYOR
2 Amtrak express train : ACELA
3 Witch trial town : SALEM
4 Shop __ you drop : ‘TIL
5 Formal words of confession : IT WAS I
6 Hickey spot : NECK
7 Start to unravel : FRAY
8 Slip up : ERR
9 Disaster relief organization : RED CROSS
10 Seed that grows squirrels? : ACORN
11 *Sneak into the shot : PHOTOBOMB (giving “time bomb”)
12 Level with a wrecking ball : RAZE
13 River of Hades : STYX
18 Neptune’s realm : OCEAN
23 Part of KO : OUT
25 Petite : SMALL
26 Cheesy pancake, perhaps : BLINTZ
28 Cosmetics giant : L’OREAL
29 Lamp support : STAND
31 Ice skating feat : AXEL
32 Mimicking bird : MYNA
33 Littlest of the litter : RUNT
34 Snack sometimes eaten from the inside out : OREO
35 *iPad’s giant ancestor : MAINFRAME (giving “time frame”)
37 City where Joan of Arc died : ROUEN
39 Loaf holder : BREADBOX
43 Weak- or knock- follower : KNEED
45 Crime scene sample : DNA
46 In full view : OPENLY
48 “Peer Gynt” dramatist : IBSEN
50 Egypt’s capital : CAIRO
51 Guy felling trees : AXMAN
52 Annapolis frosh : PLEBE
53 Clock front : FACE
54 Norse king : OLAV
55 Girl Scouts’ __ Mints : THIN
56 Hurried, old-style : HIED
60 Historical period : ERA
61 Kids’ game with a safe area : TAG

15 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 25 Nov 19, Monday”

  1. No errors, but I thought some of the answers were “iffy”….like forbad…
    and pen cap I didn’t understand at all because I thought Montblanc
    referred to the mountain. However I went with pencap as the cross
    letters worked.
    fairly easy, but not satisfying.

  2. 19:24 no errors….I got 49,53&66A and11D via crosses….that’s a lot of “never heard ofs” for a Monday ….GO RAVENS

  3. No errors, no Googles for me. Only one (easy) sports clue. Clues that I liked: AXEL/AXL, 2 mudpies, 2 cookies.

    MAINFRAME reminded me of my legacy programming days, 1960s-70s. I worked for a contractor at Griffiss AFB. The mainframes were the GE635 and GE645 which took up whole buildings. We presented our programs on punch cards and waited. Federal workers had first crack, wo we often came in at night. So much work! Our subject was cartography in Vietnam (also, Cambodia, but that was a secret).

    1. I think that between mainframes and personal computers, there were minicomputers, and microcomputers. But back in the day, microcomputers and personal computers might have been the same thing.

  4. 7:01. I had to go to Webster’s dictionary to find FORBAD as an alternate spelling of “forbade”. Never seen it used before. So I guess it’s part of our language – for good or FOR BAD……

    Best –

  5. I don’t know why, but I got FORBAD. Made 1 posting error, PHOTO BOMB (BOOK)
    and could not come up with ROUEN. Part of that was involved with PENCAP. Still,
    a pretty good 98%, OK for any day of the week.

  6. I also went to the dictionary and was more than a little surprised to find FORBAD.

    I had a weird experience this morning: Because I felt out of sorts last night and went to bed early, I also woke up early and, as is my wont, I stepped out onto my patio to enjoy the cold and to stare up at the stars. A minute or two later, I realized that one of the stars appeared to be moving. Now, I’ve spent enough time using the “Sky Guide” app on my iPad to quickly realize that I was looking at an artificial satellite. Then, I realized that another “star”, slightly behind the first, was following it. And then I saw another and another and another. In all, between 5:20:xx and 5:22:xx, I saw approximately one or two dozen “stars”, lined up in an arc between the Pole Star and the Big Dipper and all moving in the same direction, toward a point on the NE horizon.

    And … I think I have an explanation: “Sky Guide” reveals that an object called ”Kosmos 1818” was following the observed path this morning. Wikipedia tells me that it was placed in orbit by the Soviet Union on February 1, 1987, and suffered some kind of collision or explosion on July 4, 2008, that broke it up into approximately 30 pieces. The only minor mystery remaining is that the average visual magnitude of the pieces is said to be 3.3; I would have said that the things I saw were a bit brighter than that.

    There’s an amazing amount of junk up there. I often see satellites under similar circumstances. (Walk outside. Look up. See satellite.)

    And, speaking of that iPad: Apple recently “upgraded” the operating system on it to something called “iPadOS”, about which I have nothing good to say (let alone anything stellar) …

  7. 6:23, no errors. Even on a easyMonday, when things go relatively smoothly and fast, I get one area where I have to think just a few seconds, and that’s why I can’t get sub-five-minute times. *sigh*

  8. Hi folks!!🦆

    Good Monday puzzle. No errors, tho I also had problems with PEN CAP and thought sure it would be ICE CAP. Didn’t think to look for the theme. 🤔

    I’ve heard FORBAD, but I’m not sure where….In a book like “Jane Eyre” or some such.

    Sfingi re: the subject of your work — interesting!!

    Be well ~~🍹🍸🍷

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