LA Times Crossword 22 Jun 21, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Mary Lou Guizzo & Jeff Chen
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: AEIOUY

Themed answers each feature all of the vowels in alphabetical order:

  • 45D Sextet featured in order in this puzzle’s theme answers : AEIOUY
  • 17A Arrest : TAKE INTO CUSTODY
  • 33A Kind of in jest, kind of not : HALF-SERIOUSLY
  • 39A Vintage Burger King slogan : HAVE IT YOUR WAY
  • 60A Mixed drink recipe directive : SHAKE VIGOROUSLY

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

Bill’s time: 5m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13 Somber notice : OBIT

Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

15 “War and Peace” and “Gone with the Wind” : SAGAS

I have to confess that I have tried to read Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” twice in my life, and failed both times (it is l-o-n-g; 1,225 pages in the first published edition). Even though the 1956 movie adaptation runs for 3 1/2 hours, it’s still the easy way out! The film version stars Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova and Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezukhov.

Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel “Gone with the Wind” earned the author a Pulitzer in 1937. Mitchell started writing the book in 1926 as a way to pass the time while she was recuperating from injuries sustained in a car crash. The title comes from a poem by English writer Ernest Dowson:

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind…

16 It has a same-named river on its southern border : OHIO

The Ohio River forms in Pittsburgh where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet. It empties into the Mississippi near the city of Cairo, Illinois.

20 Squirrel morsel : ACORN

These days, we don’t usually consider acorns as a foodstuff. But in days past, many cultures around the world have used acorns as food. Usually, bitter tannins that occur in acorns need to be leached out in water. Acorn meal can be a substitute for grain flour, which can then be used to make bread. Acorns have also been used as a substitute for coffee, especially when coffee was rationed. Notably, acorn coffee was brewed up by Confederates during the American Civil War, and by Germans during World War II.

There are several species of gray squirrel that are native to North America. Even though I live here in the west of the continent, I am most familiar with the eastern gray squirrel. That’s because that particular species was introduced into Italy in 1948, and now the whole continent is overrun with the animal. The result in Britain and Ireland is that the native red squirrel population is now endangered and there are active programs to eradicate the invading species. There was even a plan to have celebrity chefs promote gray squirrel recipes in an effort to cull the population!

A morsel is a small bite, a mouthful of food. The term “morsel” comes from the Latin “morsus” meaning “bite”.

22 GM’s Mary Barra, e.g. : CEO

Mary Barra started working at General Motors as a co-op student, back in 1980. In 2014, she took over as GM’s chief executive officer, making her the first female head of a global automotive manufacturing company.

25 WWII conference site : YALTA

The Yalta Conference was a wartime meeting between WWII leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Held in February of 1945, the conference is most remembered for decisions made on the post-war organization of Europe. To a large extent, the three leaders made decisions carving up political influence around the world, decisions that have profound implications to this day.

27 “Soft embalmer of the still midnight”: Keats : SLEEP

Here’s a lovely sonnet penned by John Keats titled “To Sleep”:

O soft embalmer of the still midnight,
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleas’d eyes, embower’d from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
Or wait the ‘Amen,’ ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities.
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,—
Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.

35 Comic Margaret : CHO

Margaret Cho is a very successful stand-up comedian, and also a fashion designer with her own line of clothing. Cho acts as well, and you might have seen her in the John Travolta/Nicolas Cage movie “Face/Off” in which she played John Travolta’s FBI colleague.

38 Brown bar order : ALE

The many, many different styles of beer can generally be sorted into two groups: ales and lagers. Ales are fermented at relatively warm temperatures for relatively short periods of time, and use top-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that float on top of the beer as it ferments. Lagers ferment at relatively low temperatures and for relatively long periods of time. Lagers use bottom-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that fall to the bottom of the beer as it ferments.

39 Vintage Burger King slogan : HAVE IT YOUR WAY

The Burger King chain of fast food restaurants was established as Insta-Burger King in Jacksonville, Florida in 1953. The chain operates all around the world under the Burger King name except in Australia, where you have to visit Hungry Jack’s.

47 Dwelling that sounds like two letters : TEPEE

A tepee (also written as “tipi” and “teepee”) is a cone-shaped tent traditionally made from animal hides that is used by the Great Plains Native Americans. A wigwam is a completely different structure and is often a misnomer for a tepee. A wigwam is a domed structure built by Native Americans in the West and Southwest, intended to be a more permanent dwelling. The wigwam can also be covered with hides but more often was covered with grass, reeds, brush or cloth.

54 “The __ of the moral universe … bends toward justice”: MLK Jr. : ARC

Martin Luther King, Jr’s father was born Michael King. On a trip to Germany in 1934, Michael came to admire Protestant leader Martin Luther and changed his name to Martin Luther King on his return to the United States. Famously, he passed on his new name to his son, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr (MLK).

59 Temple text : TORAH

The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, are traditionally believed to have been written by Moses. As such, they are sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses, or Mosaic Law. Those five books are:

  • Bereshit/Genesis
  • Shemot/Exodus
  • Vayikra/Leviticus
  • Bamidbar/Numbers
  • Devarim/Deuteronomy

60 Mixed drink recipe directive : SHAKE VIGOROUSLY

None of that stirring …

64 PR pro’s concern : IMAGE

Public relations (PR)

65 “Carpe diem” acronym : YOLO

You only live once (YOLO)

“Carpe diem” is a quotation from Horace, one of ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets. “Carpe diem” translates from Latin as “seize the day” or “enjoy the day”. The satirical motto of a procrastinator is “carpe mañana”, “translating” as “seize tomorrow”.

66 Like a one-star sudoku : EASY

Number puzzles similar to our modern-day Sudoku first appeared in French newspapers in the late 1800s. The format that we use today was created by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old freelance puzzle constructor from Connersville, Indiana and first published in 1979. The format was introduced in Japan in 1984 and given the title of “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru”, which translates to “the digits are limited to one occurrence”. The rather elaborate Japanese title was eventually shortened to Sudoku. No doubt many of you are fans of Sudoku puzzles. I know I am …

67 May 8, 1945, briefly : V-E DAY

World War II started in 1 September 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) was celebrated on 8 May 1945, when the German military surrendered in Berlin. V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day) was celebrated on 2 September 1945 when the Japanese signed the surrender document aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

68 Fed. research org. : NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports research and education in all scientific fields outside of medicine. The NSF was founded in 1950 during the Truman administration. Today it has a budget of almost 7 billion dollars.

Down

2 Beaded calculators : ABACI

The abacus (plural “abaci”) was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

3 Coolpix digital camera maker : NIKON

Coolpix is a line of point-and-shoot cameras produced by Nikon.

4 Fig. whose last four digits are often requested : SSN

A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts i.e AAA-GG-SSSS, Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Since 1973, the Area Number reflects the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN is the Group Number, and the SSSS in the number is the Serial Number. However, this is all moot. Since 2011, SSNs have been assigned randomly. However, some random numbers have been excluded from use, i.e. Area Numbers 000, 666 (!) and 900-999.

6 Horror film aide : IGOR

In the world of movies, Igor has been the assistant to Dracula, Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein among others. Igor is almost invariably portrayed as a hunchback.

7 Cagney’s TV partner : LACEY

“Cagney & Lacey” is a police drama that originally aired in the 1980s. The title characters are two NYPD detectives with very different lives off the force. Christine Cagney, portrayed for six seasons by Sharon Gless, is a career-focused single woman. Mary Beth Lacy, portrayed by Tyne Daly, is a working mother. As an aside, Sharon Gless ended up marrying one of the show’s producers in 1991.

8 Word from the Japanese for “harbor wave” : TSUNAMI

Even though the terms “tidal wave” and “tsunami” are often used interchangeably by the lay person, scientists use the terms to describe two related but different phenomena. A tsunami is an ocean wave triggered by the large displacement of water caused by a large earthquake (usually). A tidal wave is a wave triggered by the displacement of water under the gravitational influence of the Sun, Moon and Earth.

11 West Wing worker : AIDE

The West Wing of the White House Complex is also known as the Executive Office Building, and houses the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and the Situation Room. The West Wing was constructed at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt to house his staff, leaving the residence to his family alone. President William Howard Taft had the West Wing expanded, and it was he who created the first Oval Office built. President Herbert Hoover had the West Wing rebuilt after it was significantly damaged in a fire. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the West Wing redesigned to its current layout, including the Oval Office that is used today.

12 Toy similar to a spool : YO-YO

Would you believe that the first yo-yos date back to 500 BC? There is even an ancient Greek vase painting that shows a young man playing with a yo-yo. Centuries later Filipinos were using yo-yos as hunting tools in the 1500s. “Yo-yo” is a Tagalog (Filipino) word meaning “come-come” or simply “return”.

14 Mother with a Nobel Prize : TERESA

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in the city that is now called Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. At birth she was given the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (“Gonxha” means “little flower” in Albanian). She left home at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto, and headed to Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham in Dublin, Ireland in order to learn English. Her goal was to teach in India, and English was the language used there for instruction by the nuns. After Mother Teresa passed away in 1997 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II. She was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016, and is now known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

19 Canonized fifth-cen. pope : ST LEO

The first pope named Leo is now known as Pope Saint Leo the Great. Leo I is famous for meeting with the feared Attila the Hun and persuading him to turn back his invading force that was threatening to overrun Western Europe.

The act of creating a saint is known as “canonization”. The term derives from the process of placing someone in the canon (or “calendar”) of saints.

24 Game official : REF

Back in the early 17th century, a referee was someone who examined patent applications. We started using the same term for a person presiding over a sporting event in the 1820s. “Referee” is a derivative of the verb “to refer”, and literally describes someone who has the authority to make a decision by “referring to” a book, archive etc.

26 Upsilon preceder : TAU

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter that gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

29 1995 Reform Party founder : PEROT

The Reform Party of the USA was founded in 1995 by Ross Perot with the intent of creating an alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties. The Reform Party’s biggest success was the election of Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota.

32 Pupil’s place : EYE

The pupil of the eye is the hole located in the center of the iris through which light enters the retina. The term “pupil” came into English via French from the latin “pupilla”, which is the diminutive form of “pupa” meaning “girl, doll”. The term came about due to the tiny doll-like image that one can see of oneself when looking into the center of another’s eyes.

34 Bounder : ROUE

“Roue” is a lovely word, but one used to describe a less than lovely man, someone of loose morals. “Roue” comes from the French word “rouer” meaning “to break on a wheel”. This describes the ancient form of capital punishment where a poor soul was lashed to a wheel and then beaten to death with cudgels and bars. I guess the suggestion is that a roue, with his loose morals, deserves such a punishment.

A bounder is a man deemed to be ill-bred and obtrusive. The term “bounder” was originally slang in England, and probably came from the sense of someone acting outside the bounds of acceptable behavior.

35 “Evita” narrator : CHE

“Evita” was the followup musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). For the original album’s cast of “Evita” they chose Irish singer Colm Wilkinson (or C. T. Wilkinson, as we know him back in Ireland) to play “Che”, the narrator of the piece. In the movie adaptation, Che was portrayed by Antonio Banderas.

42 City that merged with Jaffa in 1950 : TEL AVIV

The full name of Israel’s second largest city is Tel Aviv-Yafo. “Tel Aviv” translates into “Spring Mound”, and is a name that was chosen in 1910. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a housing development outside the port city of Jaffa. Tel Aviv and Jaffa merged in 1950.

43 Troy, N.Y., campus : RPI

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a private school in Troy, New York. The university is named after its founder Stephen Van Rensselaer who set up the school in 1824. The goal of RPI has always been the “application of science to the common purposes of life”, an objective set by the founder. Given that, the name for the school’s sports teams is quite apt: the Engineers.

45 Sextet featured in order in this puzzle’s theme answers : AEIOUY

The vowels are A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y.

51 Welles of “War of the Worlds” : ORSON

Orson Welles is perhaps best-remembered in the world of film for his role in 1941’s “Citizen Kane”. In the world of radio, Welles is known for directing and narrating 1938’s famous broadcast of “The War of the Worlds”, a broadcast that convinced many listeners that the Earth was indeed being invaded by aliens.

52 Shopping meccas : MALLS

Surprisingly (to me!), our word “mall”, meaning “shady walk” or “enclosed shopping space”, comes from the Italian for “mallet”. All of our shopping-style malls are named for “The Mall” in St. James’s Park in London. This tree-lined promenade was so called as it used to be a famous spot to play the croquet-like game called “pall-mall”. The game derived its name from the Italian for ball (palla) and mallet “maglio”. The London thoroughfare called the Mall still exists, at one end of which is Buckingham Palace. Indeed, parallel to the Mall is a street called Pall Mall.

53 Just __: almost : SHY OF

To be shy is to be short, lacking. This use of “shy” originated as gambling slang meaning “owe money to the pot”.

54 Tennis legend Arthur : ASHE

Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia. In his youth, Ashe found himself having to travel great distances to play against Caucasian opponents due to the segregation that still existed in his home state. He was rewarded for his dedication by being selected for the 1963 US Davis Cup team, the first African-American player to be so honored. Ashe continued to run into trouble because of his ethnicity though, and in 1968 was denied entry into South Africa to play in the South African Open. In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery, with follow-up surgery four years later during which he contracted HIV from blood transfusions. Ashe passed away in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

55 Ostrich kin : RHEA

The rhea is a flightless bird that is native to South America. The rhea takes its name from the Greek Titan Rhea. It’s an apt name for a flightless bird as “rhea” comes from the Greek word meaning “ground”.

58 Roman garb : TOGA

In ancient Rome, the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae” or “togas”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

62 “Star Wars” heroine : REY

Rey is a central character in the “Star Wars” universe who first appeared in 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. Rey is played by British actress Daisy Ridley.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Sunbather’s goal : TAN
4 Beach dwelling support : STILT
9 Move in the breeze : SWAY
13 Somber notice : OBIT
15 “War and Peace” and “Gone with the Wind” : SAGAS
16 It has a same-named river on its southern border : OHIO
17 Arrest : TAKE INTO CUSTODY
20 Squirrel morsel : ACORN
21 “__ you special!” : AREN’T
22 GM’s Mary Barra, e.g. : CEO
23 Type of equation : LINEAR
25 WWII conference site : YALTA
27 “Soft embalmer of the still midnight”: Keats : SLEEP
30 Bully : MEANIE
33 Kind of in jest, kind of not : HALF-SERIOUSLY
35 Comic Margaret : CHO
37 __ shop: golf course store : PRO
38 Brown bar order : ALE
39 Vintage Burger King slogan : HAVE IT YOUR WAY
46 Show one’s face : EMERGE
47 Dwelling that sounds like two letters : TEPEE
48 Ship deck guards : RAILS
50 Nonliteral language features : IDIOMS
54 “The __ of the moral universe … bends toward justice”: MLK Jr. : ARC
56 Parking employee : VALET
59 Temple text : TORAH
60 Mixed drink recipe directive : SHAKE VIGOROUSLY
63 “This is for you” : HERE
64 PR pro’s concern : IMAGE
65 “Carpe diem” acronym : YOLO
66 Like a one-star sudoku : EASY
67 May 8, 1945, briefly : V-E DAY
68 Fed. research org. : NSF

Down

1 Utter : TOTAL
2 Beaded calculators : ABACI
3 Coolpix digital camera maker : NIKON
4 Fig. whose last four digits are often requested : SSN
5 “See ya!” : TA-TA!
6 Horror film aide : IGOR
7 Cagney’s TV partner : LACEY
8 Word from the Japanese for “harbor wave” : TSUNAMI
9 Inebriate : SOT
10 “Your guess is as good as mine” : WHO CAN SAY?
11 West Wing worker : AIDE
12 Toy similar to a spool : YO-YO
14 Mother with a Nobel Prize : TERESA
18 Collectively : IN ALL
19 Canonized fifth-cen. pope : ST LEO
24 Game official : REF
26 Upsilon preceder : TAU
28 Notice : ESPY
29 1995 Reform Party founder : PEROT
31 Unwell : ILL
32 Pupil’s place : EYE
33 Futuristic sci-fi vehicles : HOVER-CARS
34 Bounder : ROUE
35 “Evita” narrator : CHE
36 Easter entrée : HAM
40 Memorable period : ERA
41 “Enough already!” : I GIVE!
42 City that merged with Jaffa in 1950 : TEL AVIV
43 Troy, N.Y., campus : RPI
44 Joined with : WED TO
45 Sextet featured in order in this puzzle’s theme answers : AEIOUY
49 Gooey gunk : SLIME
51 Welles of “War of the Worlds” : ORSON
52 Shopping meccas : MALLS
53 Just __: almost : SHY OF
54 Tennis legend Arthur : ASHE
55 Ostrich kin : RHEA
57 “Zounds!” : EGAD!
58 Roman garb : TOGA
61 Critical : KEY
62 “Star Wars” heroine : REY