LA Times Crossword 28 Jun 21, Monday

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Constructed by: Susan Gelfand
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Hat Tricks

Themed answers each end with an anagram of a type of HAT:

  • 62A Three-goals-in-one-game hockey scoring feats … or what the ends of 17-, 28- and 46-Across are when they’re rearranged? : HAT TRICKS
  • 17A Auto on-off baking gadget : OVEN TIMER (a tricky “MITER”)
  • 28A Artisan who makes delicate items : GLASSBLOWER (a tricky “BOWLER”)
  • 46A Exact repetition of what was said : DIRECT QUOTE (a tricky “TOQUE”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 18s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Skedaddled : FLED

“Skedaddle” is a slang term meaning “run away” that dates back to the Civil War.

9 Leveled, as a building : RAZED

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”.

14 Tahoe or Titicaca : LAKE

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the country, and the largest lake in general, behind the five Great Lakes. It’s also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, and the highest navigable lake in the world (navigable by “large” commercial vessels). Lake Titicaca is located in the Andes, on the border between Peru and Bolivia.

17 Auto on-off baking gadget : OVEN TIMER (a tricky “MITER”)

A miter (also “mitre”) is a traditional headdress worn by bishops in some Christian traditions. The term “miter” comes from a Greek word for “headband, turban”.

20 Volkswagen sedan : PASSAT

“Passat” is one in a series of model names related to winds that has been used by Volkswagen. “Jetta” comes from the German for “jet stream”, and the model name “Passat” comes from the German for “trade wind”.

24 Golfer Aoki : ISAO

Isao Aoki is one of Japan’s greatest golfers. Aoki’s best finish in a major tournament was runner-up to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open.

25 Tongue twister seashell seller : SHE

She sells seashells on the seashore.
The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure.
For if she sells seashells on the seashore
Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells.

28 Artisan who makes delicate items : GLASSBLOWER (a tricky “BOWLER”)

I think that a bowler hat is usually called a derby here in the US. The bowler was first produced in 1849 in London by hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler, hence the name. The alternative name of “derby” comes from the tradition of wearing bowler hats at the Derby horse race (a major race held annually in England).

38 Prefix with centric : ETHNO-

To be ethnocentric is to believe in the superiority of one’s own race, or to have an obsessive concern with race.

41 Deco artist Romain de Tirtoff’s pseudonym : ERTE

“Erté” was the pseudonym of French (Russian-born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. “Erté” is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”, as well as the 1925 epic movie “Ben-Hur”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.

42 Plant swelling : EDEMA

Both animals and plants can suffer from edema, which is a swelling caused by excessive accumulation of fluid.

44 Tutored : MENTORED

A mentor is a trusted teacher or counselor. The term “mentor” comes from Homer’s “Odyssey” in which there is a character named Mentor. He is a friend of Odysseus, although he is a relatively ineffective old man. The goddess Athena takes on Mentor’s appearance in order to guide Odysseus’s young son Telemachus through difficult times.

46 Exact repetition of what was said : DIRECT QUOTE (a tricky “TOQUE”)

A toque was a brimless style of hat that was very fashionable in Europe in the 13th to 16th centuries. Nowadays we associate toques with chefs, as it is the name given to a chef’s hat (called a “toque blanche” in French, a “white hat”). A chef’s toque is quite interesting. Many toques have exactly 100 pleats, often said to signify the number of ways that an egg can be cooked.

50 Sorority T’s : TAUS

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.

51 Shoo-__: easy winners : INS

A shoo-in is a surefire winner, especially in politics. Back in the 1920s, a shoo-in was a horse that was prearranged to win a race, a race that was fixed.

53 Indonesia’s capital : JAKARTA

Jakarta is the capital of Indonesia and is located on the northwest coast of the island of Java. The city’s name comes from “Jayakarta” meaning “complete victory”.

57 Idaho product : POTATO

Potatoes were planted in Idaho as early as 1838. Thank goodness! What would we do without potatoes …?

62 Three-goals-in-one-game hockey scoring feats … or what the ends of 17-, 28- and 46-Across are when they’re rearranged? : HAT TRICKS

A hat trick is the scoring of three goals by the same player in a game of perhaps soccer or hockey.

65 Perry of fashion : ELLIS

Perry Ellis was a fashion designer from Portsmouth, Virginia. Ellis was noted for his sportswear creations.

66 Buckeye State : OHIO

Ohio is sometimes referred to as the Buckeye State, taking the name from the state tree. In turn, the buckeye tree gets its name from the appearance of its fruit, a dark nut with a light patch, thought to resemble a “buck’s eye”.

67 Latticework piece : LATH

The words “lath” and “lattice” have the same root in Old French. Laths are thin strips of wood that are nailed across a frame forming a backing to which plaster can be applied to finish a wall. The term is also used for the main elements in a trellis, or the lengths of wood in a roof to which shingles are nailed.

69 Checkers or chess : GAME

“Checkers” is yet another word that I had to learn moving across the Atlantic. In Ireland, the game is called “draughts”.

It is believed that the game of chess originated in northwest India. It evolved from a 6th-century game called “chaturanga”, a Sanskrit word meaning “four divisions”. These four (military) divisions were represented in the game:

  • Infantry (now “pawns”)
  • Cavalry (now “knights”)
  • Elephants (now “bishops”)
  • Chariots (now “rooks”)

70 Crossword-solving Simpson : LISA

Lisa Simpson is Bart’s brainy younger sister on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Lisa is voiced by actress Yeardley Smith. In a 2008 episode of the show, Lisa enters a crossword tournament. Crossword celebrities Merl Reagle and Will Shortz make appearances in that episode, basically playing cartoon versions of themselves.

Down

5 “Little” fib : WHITE LIE

To fib is to tell a lie. The verb “to fib” likely comes from “fibble-fable” meaning “nonsense”, with “fibble-fable” coming from “fable”.

9 Stuffed pasta pockets : RAVIOLI

Ravioli (singular “raviolo”) are filled dumplings served in Italian cuisine.

10 Composter Khachaturian : ARAM

Aram Khachaturian was a Soviet-Armenian composer who created many works that were influenced by Armenian culture. Khachaturian’s most famous piece of music is the frenetic “Saber Dance” from the ballet “Gayane”. My favorite composition though is the “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia”. It was used as the theme for a BBC drama called “The Onedin Line” and will always evoke for me images of tall ships and vast oceans.

11 “Nana” novelist Émile : ZOLA

“Nana” is a novel by the French author Émile Zola. It is the ninth in a series of twenty books collectively given the title “Les Rougon-Macquart”. The series follows the life of a fictional family during the Second French Empire in the second half of the 19th century.

13 Florida’s Miami-__ County : DADE

The residents of Florida’s Dade County voted to change its name to Miami-Dade County in 1997. The change was made in recognition of its most populous and famous city.

18 Dance that “takes two” : TANGO

It takes two to tango …

The dramatic dance called the tango originated in the late 1800s in the area along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. Dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires in particular traveled to Europe and beyond in the early twentieth century and brought the tango with them. The tango craze first struck Europe in Paris in the 1910s, and from there spread to London and Berlin, crossing the Atlantic to New York in 1913.

24 __ of Panama: narrow landform : ISTHMUS

The nation that we now know as Panama sits on an isthmus that formed about 3 million years ago. The isthmus was the result of a land bridge forming between North and South America as two tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust slowly collided. Man first attempted to create a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama in 1881, but the 48-mile long Panama Canal only opened for business in 1914.

The word “isthmus” (plural “isthmi”) comes from the Greek word for “neck”. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land that usually connects two large land masses. The most notable examples of the formation are the Isthmus of Corinth in the Greek peninsula, and the Isthmus of Panama, connecting North and South America.

26 Language of India : HINDI

Hindi is one of the two official languages of India, along with English. Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world (after Mandarin, Spanish and English).

29 Colony crawler : ANT

“Formicary” is another name for “ant nest”, and comes from the Latin “formica” meaning “ant”. The phrase “ant colony” describes the ants living in an ant nest. A formicarium is similar to an aquarium, and used to house an ant colony perhaps for study. The phrase “ant farm” is usually reserved for ant nests built by an ant colony in a formicarium.

30 Butter substitute : OLEO

Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

32 Makeup mogul Lauder : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a 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 …

A mogul is a person with power. The term comes from the Mughal emperors of India and South Asia.

33 Clarinets and oboes : REEDS

Woodwind instruments are a subcategory of wind instruments that were traditionally made of wood, although some are now made from metal. There are two main classes of woodwind: flutes and reed instruments. Flutes produce sound by blowing air across the edge of a hole in a cylindrical tube. Reed instruments produce sounds by blowing into a mouthpiece, which then directs the air over a reed or reeds, causing them to vibrate.

35 Apple or pear : POME

The Latin word for “fruit” is “pomum”, which gives us the botanical term “pome” that is used for a group of fleshy fruits, including apples and pears.

39 Prefix with natal or -phyte : NEO-

A neophyte is a recent convert to a particular doctrine or practice.

40 How ballerinas often dance : ON TIPTOE

“En pointe” is ballet dancing on the tips of the toes, and is a French term. A ballerina wears pointe shoes (sometimes “toe shoes”) to perform this delightful-looking, albeit unhealthy, feat (pun!).

43 Monroe or Taylor : ACTRESS

Marilyn Monroe was born in 1926 in LA County Hospital, the child of Gladys Pearl Baker. The young girl was given the name of Norma Jeane Mortenson on her birth certificate, but her mother changed this to Norma Jeane Baker almost immediately. She and her estranged husband, Martin Edward Mortensen, had separated before Baker became pregnant so it is suggested that the Mortensen name was used just to give Norma Jeane “legitimacy”. Norma Jeane married Jim Dougherty when she was 16 years old, and took his name to become Norma Jeane Dougherty in 1942. During WWII she was discovered by a photographer and became quite a successful model. The modelling earned her a screen test, at which time it was suggested that Norma Jeane change her name yet again. The first name chosen for her by studio executives was Carole Lind (after Carole Lombard and Jenny Lind), but then Norma Jeane chose “Jeane Monroe” for herself, using her mother’s maiden name. It didn’t take long before the studio intervened again, suggesting that they had too many “Jeans” already. The name Marilyn Monroe was floated as it had a nice ring to it. Along with the new name, Marilyn changed from a brunette to a blonde, and a star was born …

Elizabeth Taylor led what can only be described as a “fabulous” life, especially while married to Richard Burton. Ms. Taylor was very fond of jewelry and she had a few spectacular pieces that were purchased for her by Burton, including the Krupp Diamond, the Taylor-Burton Diamond, and the La Peregrina Pearl. The latter was once owned by Mary I, Queen of England. Burton sought out and found a portrait of the Queen wearing the pearl. He purchased it for his wife, but on discovering that the British National Gallery did not have an original portrait of Queen Mary I, the couple donated the painting. Good for them …

45 Pavarotti, vocally : TENOR

Luciano Pavarotti was one of the most celebrated tenors of all time. He was able to appeal to audiences beyond the traditional fans of opera, helped by his performances with the Three Tenors: Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. Pavarotti made his final performance on stage at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, where he sang his famous rendition of the moving aria “Nessun dorma” and brought the house down. Pavarotti passed away from pancreatic cancer the following year, at the age of 71.

47 Pic on a pec, say : TAT

The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”. Tattoos are sometimes referred to as “ink”.

“Pecs” is the familiar name for the chest muscle, which is more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle. “Pectus” is the Latin word for “breast, chest”.

48 Clam used in chowder : QUAHOG

“Quahog” is another name for “hard clam”, the clam that is commonly harvested on the eastern shores of North America. The quahog may also be called the “chowder clam”. Hard clams are the largest of the clams commonly sold, with the cherrystone clams being a little smaller.

The type of soup known as “chowder” is possibly named for the pot in which it used to be cooked called a “chaudière”, a French term.

52 “In the __ of the Night”: doo-wop classic : STILL

The Five Satins are a doo-wop group that was formed in New Haven, Connecticut back in 1954. The group had only one really big hit, namely “In the Still of the Night”, which was released in 1956.

53 Cherokee automaker : JEEP

The Jeep Cherokee is an SUV with some legs. The original SJ series Jeep Cherokee was produced from 1974 until 1983, and derivative models are very much alive today.

58 Antioxidant-rich 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.

59 Sign on a B’way booth : TKTS

One usually needs a ticket (tkt.) to see a Broadway (B’way) show.

60 Fed. workplace monitor : OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970 during the Nixon administration. OSHA regulates workplaces in the private sector and regulates just one government agency, namely the US Postal Service.

64 Apple CEO Cook : TIM

Tim Cook was appointed as Apple’s CEO in 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. Cook had joined the company back in 1998 as senior vice president in charge of worldwide operations. He came out as gay in October of 2014, making Cook the first openly gay CEO of a company on the Fortune 500 list.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Skedaddled : FLED
5 Spontaneous notion : WHIM
9 Leveled, as a building : RAZED
14 Tahoe or Titicaca : LAKE
15 Role model : HERO
16 Bakery emanation : AROMA
17 Auto on-off baking gadget : OVEN TIMER (a tricky “MITER”)
19 Like a legally binding contract : VALID
20 Volkswagen sedan : PASSAT
21 Bring to life, as cartoons : ANIMATE
23 Opposite of WSW : ENE
24 Golfer Aoki : ISAO
25 Tongue twister seashell seller : SHE
28 Artisan who makes delicate items : GLASSBLOWER (a tricky “BOWLER”)
34 Locate precisely : PINPOINT
36 “You win” : I LOSE
37 Fascinated by : INTO
38 Prefix with centric : ETHNO-
41 Deco artist Romain de Tirtoff’s pseudonym : ERTE
42 Plant swelling : EDEMA
44 Tutored : MENTORED
46 Exact repetition of what was said : DIRECT QUOTE (a tricky “TOQUE”)
49 “You bet!” : YES!
50 Sorority T’s : TAUS
51 Shoo-__: easy winners : INS
53 Indonesia’s capital : JAKARTA
57 Idaho product : POTATO
61 Banish : EXILE
62 Three-goals-in-one-game hockey scoring feats … or what the ends of 17-, 28- and 46-Across are when they’re rearranged? : HAT TRICKS
65 Perry of fashion : ELLIS
66 Buckeye State : OHIO
67 Latticework piece : LATH
68 Hits with snowballs : PELTS
69 Checkers or chess : GAME
70 Crossword-solving Simpson : LISA

Down

1 Broadway bomb : FLOP
2 Volcano flow : LAVA
3 __ out a living: barely manages : EKES
4 Thick, as fog : DENSE
5 “Little” fib : WHITE LIE
6 Skirt’s edge : HEM
7 Wrath : IRE
8 Boggy tract : MORASS
9 Stuffed pasta pockets : RAVIOLI
10 Composter Khachaturian : ARAM
11 “Nana” novelist Émile : ZOLA
12 Give off : EMIT
13 Florida’s Miami-__ County : DADE
18 Dance that “takes two” : TANGO
22 Capture : NAB
24 __ of Panama: narrow landform : ISTHMUS
25 Went undercover : SPIED
26 Language of India : HINDI
27 Key in : ENTER
29 Colony crawler : ANT
30 Butter substitute : OLEO
31 Fret : WORRY
32 Makeup mogul Lauder : ESTEE
33 Clarinets and oboes : REEDS
35 Apple or pear : POME
39 Prefix with natal or -phyte : NEO-
40 How ballerinas often dance : ON TIPTOE
43 Monroe or Taylor : ACTRESS
45 Pavarotti, vocally : TENOR
47 Pic on a pec, say : TAT
48 Clam used in chowder : QUAHOG
52 “In the __ of the Night”: doo-wop classic : STILL
53 Cherokee automaker : JEEP
54 Wheel shaft : AXLE
55 While away, as time : KILL
56 Landed : ALIT
58 Antioxidant-rich berry : ACAI
59 Sign on a B’way booth : TKTS
60 Fed. workplace monitor : OSHA
63 “Bingo!” : AHA!
64 Apple CEO Cook : TIM