LA Times Crossword 22 Mar 22, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Alan DerKazarian
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Block Parties

Today’s grid includes four BLOCKS of four letters each that spell out PARTIES:

  • 32A Neighborhood social events … and what the four sets of circles are? : BLOCK PARTIES

Those PARTIES are:

  • FETE
  • BASH
  • GALA
  • BALL

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

Bill’s time: 5m 43s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 __ Mae: student loan group : SALLIE

“Sallie Mae” is a nickname for SLM Corporation that was created in 1972 by the US government as the Student Loan Marketing Association. By 2004, the government had severed all its ties with Sallie Mae. Today, SLM is basically a profit-focused lender.

15 Mother-of-pearl source : ABALONE

The large edible sea snails that we call abalone are called ormer in Britain and Ireland, and are served as “awabi” at a sushi bar. The abalone shell resembles a human ear, giving rise to the alternative names “ear shell” and “sea ear”.

16 “__ I Would Leave You”: “Camelot” song : IF EVER

“If Ever I Would Leave You” is a romantic ballad from the Lerner and Loewe musical “Camelot”. It is sung by Lancelot to Guenevere. In the original Broadway production, Robert Goulet played Lancelot, and regularly brought the house down with “If Ever I Would Leave You”. As a result, it became Goulet’s signature song.

“Camelot” is a Lerner and Loewe musical based on the legend of King Arthur. The show was first shown on Broadway in 1960 and ran for 873 performances, with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton starring. “Camelot” was made into a very successful film version that was released in 1967 starring Richard Harris as King Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere.

17 One-named singer with the 2002 #1 hit “Foolish” : ASHANTI

Ashanti Douglas is an American R&B singer who uses just “Ashanti” as her stage name.

19 Movie critic Roger : EBERT

Roger Ebert was a film critic for “The Chicago Sun-Times” for 50 years. He also co-hosted a succession of film review television programs for over 23 years, most famously with Gene Siskel until Siskel passed away in 1999. Siskel and Ebert famously gave their thumbs up or thumbs down to the movies they reviewed. Ebert was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, which he did in 1975. He was diagnosed and treated for thyroid cancer in 2002, and finally succumbed to a recurrence of the disease in April 2013.

22 Liam who played Schindler : NEESON

Irish actor Liam Neeson got his big break when he played Oskar Schindler in the Spielberg epic, “Schindler’s List”. Neeson was in the news some years later when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a tragic skiing accident in 2009. Earlier in his life, in the 1980s, Neeson lived for several years with Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren.

Oskar Schindler is the protagonist in the Steven Spielberg movie “Schindler’s List”. Schindler was a real person who survived WWII. During the Holocaust, Schindler managed to save almost 1,200 Jews from perishing by employing them in his factories. After the war, Schindler and his wife were left penniless having used his assets to protect and feed his workers. For years the couple survived on the charity of Jewish groups. Schindler tried to make a go of it in business again but never had any real success. He died a pauper in 1974 in Hildesheim, not far from Hanover. His last wish was to be buried in Jerusalem. Schindler was the only former member of the Nazi Party to be buried on Mount Zion.

26 Runs scored on a solo homer : ONE

That would be baseball.

30 Singer Shore whose name is associated with a major LPGA golf tournament : DINAH

Dinah Shore had a lot of success as a singer in the forties and fifties in the Big Band Era, and then in the sixties as a hostess of variety programs on television. Shore was also a big fan of golf, both as a player and a spectator. She founded the Colgate Dinah Shore golf tournament which is now the Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the four majors on the LPGA Tour.

31 Miso soup cube : TOFU

“Tofu” is a name for bean curd, and is a Japanese word meaning just that … bean that has curdled. Tofu is produced by coagulating soy milk, using either salt or something acidic. Once the protein has coagulated, the curds are pressed into the familiar blocks. Personally I love tofu, but my wife absolutely hates it …

36 Putin’s refusal : NYET

“Nyet” is Russian for “no”, and “da” is Russian for “yes”.

Vladimir Putin became acting President of Russia at the very end of 1999 when Boris Yeltsin resigned. Putin was elected in his own right in 2000, re-elected in 2004, and then ran up against a term limit in 2008. In 2008 Putin was appointed by his successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, to the position of Prime Minister. Putin is a controversial figure, inside and outside Russia. On the one hand he led the country out of an economic crisis into a period of stability and relative prosperity. On the other hand he has been associated with government corruption and accused of allowing private concerns to have undue influence on government actions. And then, along came the 2016 US presidential election, and beyond …

37 S.Pellegrino rival : EVIAN

Évian-les-Bains (or simply “Évian”) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As one might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. Personally, I can’t stand the distinctive taste of Évian water …

S.Pellegrino (usually just “Pellegrino”) is a brand of mineral water from Italy. It is produced in the comune of San Pellegrino Terme (hence the name) in Lombardy in the north of the country. The water industry in San Pellegrino has been around a long time, with commercial production starting in the 14th century.

38 Class-conscious gp.? : PTA

Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

39 Quarterback Favre : BRETT

Brett Favre is best known as a former quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. Favre retired in 2010 after playing with the Minnesota Vikings for a short time. Among the many NFL records held by Favre, he made the most consecutive starts.

43 Impediment for Moses : RED SEA

The Red Sea (sometimes “Arabian Gulf”) is a stretch of water lying between Africa and Asia. The Gulf of Suez (and the Suez Canal) lies to the north, and the Gulf of Aden to the south. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, God parted the Red Sea to allow Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt.

48 San __: San Francisco Bay city : MATEO

San Mateo is a city located south of San Francisco, just across the other side of the Bay from where I live. San Mateo is Spanish for Saint Matthew.

50 Steel support for concrete : REBAR

A steel bar or mesh used to reinforce concrete is called “rebar”, which is short for “reinforcing bar”.

54 Opera with Desdemona : OTELLO

Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Otello” was first performed in 1887 at La Scala Theater in Milan. The opera is based on Shakespeare’s play “Othello” and is considered by many to be Verdi’s greatest work.

Desdemona is one of the main characters in William Shakespeare’s play “Othello”. She is the daughter of a Venetian senator called Brabantio whom she vexes by eloping with Othello, a man not of her race and several years older.

55 Spanish rice dishes : PAELLAS

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia. The name “paella” means “frying pan” in Valencian, and is a reference to the shallow vessel traditionally used to cook the dish over an open fire.

57 City west of Dallas : ABILENE

Abilene is a city in Texas located about 150 miles west of Fort Worth. The city originated at stop on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, a place where cattlemen could load up stock for transportation. It was named for Abilene, Kansas, which was the endpoint for the Chisholm Trail at that time.

58 Names of four of them begin with “New” : STATES

The four US states beginning with the word “New” are:

  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York

Down

1 Italian cheese : ASIAGO

Asiago is a cheese that is named for the region in northeastern Italy from where it originates. It comes in varying textures depending on its age. Fresh Asiago is very smooth, while aged Asiago can be very crumbly.

2 Beach robe : CAFTAN

A kaftan (also “caftan”) is a long robe that has been associated for centuries with Islamic cultures.

3 John of Monty Python : CLEESE

The magnificent actor and comedian John Cleese came to the public’s attention as a cast member in the BBC’s comedy sketch show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. Cleese then co-wrote and starred in the outstanding comedy “Fawlty Towers”. He even had a role in two “James Bond” films.

4 Rock ‘n’ roller dubbed “The King” : ELVIS

Elvis Presley is often referred to as “the King of Rock and Roll”, or simply “the King”. However, Presley is quoted as saying that Fats Domino was “the real king of rock and roll”.

5 Like lo-cal regimens, e.g. : DIETETIC

Something “dietetic” is “diet” related.

Quite often, the terms “regime” and “regimen” seem to be used interchangeably. In contemporary usage, “regime” is applied more generally, and “regimen” more specifically. A “regimen” is a systematic approach that one might apply to something, to exercise or diet for example. The term “regime” can also be used in such contexts, but can have additional definitions, such as “government in power”. A form of government cannot be described as a “regimen”.

7 Swedish auto : SAAB

“SAAB” stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB, which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Limited. Although we usually think of SAAB as an auto manufacturer, it is mainly an aircraft manufacturer. If you take small hops in Europe you might find yourself on a SAAB passenger plane. The SAAB automotive division was acquired by General Motors in the year 2000, who then sold it to a Dutch concern in 2010. However, SAAB (automotive) finally went bankrupt in 2011. The assets were acquired in 2012 by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), a new company that used the SAAB name on its vehicles for several years.

9 Skiing champ Phil or Steve : MAHRE

Phil Mahre is one of the great alpine ski racers, and is a native of Yakima, Washington. Phil’s twin brother Steve was also a skier on the World Cup circuit.

11 Chaney of horror : LON

Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

12 Tolkien talking tree : ENT

Ents are tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

13 Opus __: “The Da Vinci Code” sect : DEI

Opus Dei is a Roman Catholic institution that was founded in Spain in 1928, and officially approved by the church in 1950. In 2010, Opus Dei had over 90,000 members, mostly lay people. The institution’s mission is to promote certain aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine. Opus Dei was portrayed as a sinister organization by Dan Brown in his novel “The Da Vinci Code”.

“The Da Vinci Code” is an excellent yarn (although much panned), written by Dan Brown. Brown’s first book to feature the character Robert Langdon was even better in my opinion, namely “Angels & Demons”.

23 Pump or boot : SHOE

A pump is a woman’s shoe that doesn’t have a strap. Such shoes are probably called “pumps” because of the sound they make while walking in them.

24 Klutzes : OAFS

A klutz is an awkward individual, with the term “klutz” coming from Yiddish. The Yiddish word for a clumsy person is “klots”.

25 Manhattan sch. : NYU

The main campus of the private New York University (NYU) is located right in Manhattan, in Washington Square in the heart of Greenwich Village. NYU has over 12,000 resident students, the largest number of residents in a private school in the whole country. NYU’s sports teams are known as the Violets, a reference to the violet and white colors that are worn in competition. Since the 1980s, the school’s mascot has been a bobcat. “Bobcat” had been the familiar name given to NYU’s Bobst Library computerized catalog.

30 URL speck : DOT

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a uniform resource locator (URL).

31 __ Woodman: Oz traveler : TIN

In the Land of Oz, created by author L. Frank Baum, the character we know as the Tin Man from the movies is named Nick Chopper or the Tin Woodman.

32 Memory unit : BYTE

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

34 Baptism or bris : RITE

Baptism is a rite in many Christian traditions, one in which a candidate is admitted to the Church. The ceremony usually uses water as a sign of purification. Water may be poured on the head, or the candidate may be totally immersed.

A mohel is a man who has been trained in the practice of brit milah (circumcision). Brit milah is known as “bris” in Yiddish. The brit milah ceremony is performed on male infants when they are 8 days old.

35 Ore-Ida morsel : TATER TOT

Ore-Ida’s founders came up with the idea for Tater Tots when they were deciding what to do with residual cuts of potato. They chopped up the leftovers, added flour and seasoning, and extruded the mix through a large hole making a sausage that they cut into small cylinders. We eat 70 million pounds of this extruded potato every year!

36 “All Things Considered” airer : NPR

“All Things Considered” is the flagship news broadcast by NPR that airs for two hours every evening.

39 1942 Philippine battle site : BATAAN

Bataan is a peninsula in the Philippines that is located on the side of Manila Bay opposite to the capital city. In WWII, Bataan was where American and Filipino forces made their last stand before the Japanese took control of the country. The Battle of Bataan lasted three months, at the end of which 75,000 captured prisoners were forced to march from Bataan to various prison camps. It is thought that between 6,000 and 11,000 men died on the march, many from the physical abuse above and beyond the rigors of the 5-6 day march without food or water. For obvious reasons, the 5-6 day trek is referred to as the Bataan Death March.

41 Charlotte __: U.S. Virgin Islands capital : AMALIE

Charlotte Amalie is the capital and largest city in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The city was named after the queen consort of King Christian V of Denmark, Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel.

42 Cousins of storks : HERONS

Herons are birds with long legs that inhabit freshwater and coastal locales. Some herons are routinely referred to as egrets, and others as bitterns. Herons look a lot like storks and cranes, but differ in their appearance in flight. Herons fly with their necks retracted in an S-shape, whereas storks and cranes have their necks extended.

Storks are large wading birds with long legs, long necks and long bills. Storks use those long bills to search for frogs, fish and other small animals under the water. When the stork finds its prey, the bill snaps shut in about 25 millisecs, which is one of the fastest known reaction times of any vertebrate.

44 Bloodhounds follow it : SMELL

Bloodhounds have an amazing sense of smell, and have been bred to track humans in particular. Bloodhounds have been used to follow humans since the Middle Ages.

45 Two under par : EAGLE

The following terms are routinely used in golf for scores relative to par:

  • Bogey: one over par
  • Par
  • Birdie: one under par
  • Eagle: two under par
  • Albatross (also “double eagle”): three under par
  • Condor: four under par

No one has ever recorded a condor during a professional tournament.

47 “Lovergirl” singer __ Marie : TEENA

Teena Marie was a very successful R&B singer who was born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, California. She had several good celebrity friends, and so was godmother to Maya Rudolph (daughter of Minnie Ripperton) and Nona Gaye (daughter of Marvin Gaye).

51 Hoppy brew letters : IPA

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

52 Research site : LAB

Our term “laboratory”, often shortened to “lab”, comes from the Medieval Latin word “laboratorium” meaning “place for labor, work”. This in turn comes from the Latin verb “laborare” meaning “to work”.

53 Floral ring : LEI

“Lei” is a Hawaiian word meaning “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a lei is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

54 Some ER cases : ODS

Someone taking an overdose (OD) often ends up in an emergency room (ER).

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Give in (to) : ACCEDE
7 Tasted or tested : SAMPLED
14 __ Mae: student loan group : SALLIE
15 Mother-of-pearl source : ABALONE
16 “__ I Would Leave You”: “Camelot” song : IF EVER
17 One-named singer with the 2002 #1 hit “Foolish” : ASHANTI
18 Took the loss : ATE IT
19 Movie critic Roger : EBERT
20 Remarkable things, in old slang : GASSERS
22 Liam who played Schindler : NEESON
26 Runs scored on a solo homer : ONE
27 Implied : TACIT
29 Barn bale : HAY
30 Singer Shore whose name is associated with a major LPGA golf tournament : DINAH
31 Miso soup cube : TOFU
32 Neighborhood social events … and what the four sets of circles are? : BLOCK PARTIES
36 Putin’s refusal : NYET
37 S.Pellegrino rival : EVIAN
38 Class-conscious gp.? : PTA
39 Quarterback Favre : BRETT
40 “Doubt it” : NAH
43 Impediment for Moses : RED SEA
46 Golfer’s appointment : TEE TIME
48 San __: San Francisco Bay city : MATEO
50 Steel support for concrete : REBAR
51 Against the law : ILLEGAL
54 Opera with Desdemona : OTELLO
55 Spanish rice dishes : PAELLAS
56 Very tired : DONE IN
57 City west of Dallas : ABILENE
58 Names of four of them begin with “New” : STATES

Down

1 Italian cheese : ASIAGO
2 Beach robe : CAFTAN
3 John of Monty Python : CLEESE
4 Rock ‘n’ roller dubbed “The King” : ELVIS
5 Like lo-cal regimens, e.g. : DIETETIC
6 Shakespeare’s “always” : E’ER
7 Swedish auto : SAAB
8 Not in class today : ABSENT
9 Skiing champ Phil or Steve : MAHRE
10 Baseball’s home __ : PLATE
11 Chaney of horror : LON
12 Tolkien talking tree : ENT
13 Opus __: “The Da Vinci Code” sect : DEI
19 Prison break fugitive, e.g. : ESCAPER
21 Corporal or private : RANK
23 Pump or boot : SHOE
24 Klutzes : OAFS
25 Manhattan sch. : NYU
28 “No choice for me” : I HAVE TO
30 URL speck : DOT
31 __ Woodman: Oz traveler : TIN
32 Memory unit : BYTE
33 Show the way : LEAD
34 Baptism or bris : RITE
35 Ore-Ida morsel : TATER TOT
36 “All Things Considered” airer : NPR
39 1942 Philippine battle site : BATAAN
40 Corn kernel : NIBLET
41 Charlotte __: U.S. Virgin Islands capital : AMALIE
42 Cousins of storks : HERONS
44 Bloodhounds follow it : SMELL
45 Two under par : EAGLE
47 “Lovergirl” singer __ Marie : TEENA
49 “Who __ is coming?” : ELSE
51 Hoppy brew letters : IPA
52 Research site : LAB
53 Floral ring : LEI
54 Some ER cases : ODS