LA Times Crossword 9 Jul 22, Saturday

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Constructed by: Kyle Dolan
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 15m 49s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Stock option in a seafood business? : BISQUE

A traditional bisque is a creamy soup made from crustaceans such as lobster, crab or shrimp. The term “bisque” probably comes from the Bay of “Biscay” off the west coast of France, a nod to the French origin of the soup and its seafood content. So, if you see a vegetable “bisque” in a restaurant, you’ll know that the term is being misused …

7 Works for literati : HIGH ART

Literati are men and women of letters, learned people. The Latin “literatus” means “lettered”.

15 Waterway dividing two sides of a college football rivalry : RED RIVER

The Red River (sometimes “Red River of the South”) runs for almost 1,400 miles, and for much of its length serves as the border between Texas and Oklahoma. It is a saltwater river, with the salt coming from vast deposits buried in the upper reaches of the river and its tributaries. Almost 3,500 tons of salt flows down the Red River every day.

In college football, the rivalry between the Oklahoma Sooners (University of Oklahoma) and the Texas Longhorns (University of Texas) is sometimes referred to as the Red River Shootout. The Red River forms part of the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma, and has been the subject of conflict between the two states in the past. And so, the moniker “Red River Shootout” is used for the rivalry between the two schools.

16 Knesset country : ISRAEL

The Knesset is the legislative branch of the Israeli government, and does its business in the Givat Ram neighborhood of central Jerusalem.

17 Digits in parentheses : AREA CODE

Area codes were introduced in the 1940s. Back then, the “clicks” one heard when dialing a number led to mechanical wear on various pieces of equipment. In order to minimize overall mechanical wear, areas with high call volumes were given the most efficient area codes (lowest number of clicks). That led to New York getting the area code 212, Los Angeles 213 and Chicago 313.

19 Signer of the first of the Oslo Accords : ABBAS

Mahmoud Abbas took over as Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2004 after the death of Yasser Arafat. Abbas is also the President of the Palestinian National Authority, a position equivalent to head of state.

The Oslo Accords grew out of secret negotiations between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in a residence in Oslo in the early nineties. The delegates shared the same house while they conducted 14 meetings. While eating all their meals together at the same table, the negotiators came to respect one another and apparently, friendships developed.

20 Pad kee mao pan : WOK

“Wok” is a Cantonese word, and is the name for the frying pan now used in many Asian cuisines.

Drunken noodles is a Thai dish also known as “phat khi mao”. “Khi mao” translates from Thai as “drinkard”. Paradoxically, there is no alcohol in the list of ingredients for drunken noodles. There are suggestions that the meal’s name arose because rice used to be an ingredient, or because whoever created the dish did so when drunk!

22 One of many on Massachusetts Avenue in D.C. : EMBASSY

Most of the embassies and diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C. are located in a section of Massachusetts Avenue. As a result, that section of the thoroughfare earned the nickname “Embassy Row”. Some embassies and diplomatic buildings occupy buildings in nearby streets, and so the term “Embassy Row” can be extended to include a whole neighborhood.

26 Dappled horses : ROANS

A roan horse has an even mixture of white and colored hairs on the body with the head, lower legs, mane and tail having a more solid color.

30 Chat : SCHMOOZE

To schmooze is to chat intimately. “Schmooze” is a word that comes from the Yiddish “schmusen” meaning “to chat” .

32 Washington’s Grand __ Dam : COULEE

The Grand Coulee Dam sits on the Columbia river in Washington state. It went into operation in 1942, after nine years of construction. The dam creates a reservoir that is called Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake.

33 Webinar’s first slide, often : OUTLINE

“Webinar” is short for “Web-based seminar”, i.e. a presentation, lecture or similar event held online. In a Webinar, there is two-way interaction, with the audience able to ask questions of the presenter.

34 Treat traditionally paired with RC Cola in the South : MOON PIE

Marshmallow cream was developed in 1927. Soon after, workers in the coal mines around Chattanooga, Tennessee started dipping graham crackers in marshmallow cream as a snack. Then a local baker jumped on the idea, and came up with a sandwich made with a marshmallow filling between two round graham crackers. His young grandson remarked that the popped bubbles in the marshmallow (from baking) looked like moon craters, and the Moon Pie was born. I used to love them as a kid, although we called them “Wagon Wheels” in our part of the world.

35 Like Robert Johnson’s music : BLUESY

Robert Johnson was a blues musician who is today associated with the Delta blues genre. The legend of Robert Johnson holds that he met the Devil one night at a crossroads near Dockery, Mississippi. There, the Devil took Johnson’s guitar, tuned it and played a few tunes. Johnson then made a deal with Devil, exchanging his soul in return for mastering the guitar.

36 Styling combs : RATTAILS

A rat’s tail (also “rattail”) is a hairstyle with a tail-like, thin tuft of hair growing down the back of the neck.

37 Fifth-century bishop in Ire. : ST PAT

There is a fair amount known about Saint Patrick, some of which comes from two letters written in his own hand. St. Patrick lived in the fifth century, but was not born in Ireland. He was first brought to Ireland at about 16 years of age from his native Britain, by Irish raiders who made him a slave for six years. Patrick managed to escape and returned to his homeland where he studied and entered the Church. He went back to Ireland as a bishop and a missionary and there lived out the rest of his life. There seems to be good evidence that he died on March 17th (now celebrated annually as Saint Patrick’s Day), although the year is less clear. The stories about shamrock and snakes, I am afraid they are the stuff of legend.

44 Help for a broken-hearted BFF : TLC

Tender loving care (TLC)

Best friend forever (BFF)

47 Some IRAs : ROTHS

Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (Roth IRAs) were introduced in 1997 under a bill sponsored by Senator William Roth of Delaware, hence the name.

48 Bass kin : CELLO

The word “cello” (plural “celli” or “cellos”) is an abbreviation for “violoncello”, an Italian word for “little violone”, referring to a group of stringed instruments that were popular up to the end of the 17th century. The name violoncello persisted for the instrument that we know today, although the abbreviation “‘cello” was often used. Nowadays, we just drop the apostrophe.

52 Diet option in black cans : COKE ZERO

Coca-Cola Zero was launched in 2005, and marketed as a drink that tasted exactly like Coca-Cola even though it contained no sugar. “Coke Zero” was reformulated in 2017 and rebranded as “Coca-Cola Zero Sugar”.

54 Zen harmony : ONENESS

Zen is a Buddhist school that developed its own tradition in China back in the 7th century AD. Zen is a Japanese spelling of the Chinese word “chan”, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit word “dhyana” meaning “meditation”.

Down

2 Playwright called “The Father of Realism” : IBSEN

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen is the second-most frequently performed dramatist in the world, with only the works of William Shakespeare staged more often. As he was a pioneer in the genre, he is often referred to as “the father of realism”.

4 Dramatic advance : QUANTUM LEAP

In the world of quantum theory, a quantum jump is the abrupt transition, of say an atom, from one quantum state to another. The concept was introduced by Niels Bohr, and the term “quantum jump” was coined around 1920. The use of “quantum leap” appears around 1930, in the same context of quantum theory. Today, “quantum jump” is used exclusively in the world of physics, whereas “quantum leap” is used figuratively to describe any abrupt change.

6 London’s __ Pie Island : EEL

Eel Pie Island is in the River Thames, on the western side of Greater London. The island is privately owned, and is home to about 50 houses and a few small businesses. It can only be accessed by footbridge or boat. Peter Townshend of The Who had a recording studio nearby on the mainland, one that he called Eel Pie Studios.

8 Bean sprouts? : IDEAS

Slang terms for “head” are “bean”, “coconut”, “gourd”, “noodle” and “noggin”.

10 “__ sunt dracones”: line on an ancient globe : HIC

Medieval maps frequently included images of monsters, almost invariably sea monsters. Some experts believe that these sea monsters were representations of what the cartographer actually believed was living in the oceans. Maps often featured the Latin phrase “Hic sunt dracones” meaning “Here be dragons”.

15 Raucous crowd : RABBLE

Something described as raucous can be hoarse, as in “raucous voices”. Something raucous can also be disorderly and boisterous, as in “raucous frat house”. The term “raucous” comes from the Latin “raucus” meaning “hoarse”.

22 Magazine whose archive was purchased by a consortium that includes the Smithsonian : EBONY

“Ebony” is a lifestyle magazine founded in 1945 that is marketed towards the African-American community. Way back in 1957/58, “Ebony” was home to a monthly advice column penned by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Titled “Advice for Living”, he used the column to answer many of the letters that the magazine received that were addressed to Dr. King personally. Having read a few of those columns, I must say that they provide some fascinating insight into race relations in the 1950s …

27 Yellowstone, for one : ALPINE LAKE

Yellowstone Lake In Yellowstone National Park sits at an altitude of about 7,800 feet. It is the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 feet in North America.

Lakes found above an elevation of 10,000 feet above sea level are classified as alpine lakes. Because such a lake usually has colder water, they are often clearer than lakes at lower altitudes, having less growth of moss and algae.

28 Good name for a knight? : NEIL

Kneel, and a monarch might “dub thee a knight” if you’re lucky. “Dub” is a specific term derived from Old English that was used to mean “make a knight”. As the knight was also given a knightly name at the same time, “dub” came to mean “give someone a name”.

32 Pigeon holes : COTES

The Old English word “cote” was used for a small house. Our modern word “cottage” comes from “cote”. We now use “cote” to describe a small shelter on a farm for sheep or birds.

38 Shampoo buys : LITERS

Back in the 1760s, the verb “to shampoo” was an Anglo-Indian word meaning “to massage”. A century later we started to shampoo our hair.

44 Onetime producer of Magna Doodle : TYCO

Magna Doodle is a magnetic drawing toy that was invented in 1974. It is similar to the more famous Etch A Sketch, although the two toys operate differently.

45 “Sex on Fire” Grammy winners Kings of __ : LEON

Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band members are all related to each other and chose the group’s name in honor of their common grandfather, whose given name is “Leon”.

48 Pyrite crystal, at times : CUBE

Pyrite is a mineral also known as iron pyrite. Famously, it has an appearance very similar to gold, so has the nickname “fool’s gold”. Pyrite does find its way into some baubles, which go by the name of marcasite jewelry.

50 Female lobster : HEN

A male lobster is called a cock, and a female a hen. A lobster weighing less than a pound is called a chicken.

51 Abbey’s husband on “The West Wing” : JED

In the excellent television show “The West Wing”, President Jed Bartlet is played by Martin Sheen. Sheen also played real-life President John F. Kennedy in the miniseries “Kennedy: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy”.

In the political drama show “The West Wing”, Stockard Channing plays First Lady Abbey Bartlet.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Stock option in a seafood business? : BISQUE
7 Works for literati : HIGH ART
14 Rather dense : OBTUSE
15 Waterway dividing two sides of a college football rivalry : RED RIVER
16 Knesset country : ISRAEL
17 Digits in parentheses : AREA CODE
18 Isn’t quite neutral : LEANS
19 Signer of the first of the Oslo Accords : ABBAS
20 Pad kee mao pan : WOK
21 Huff : SNIT
22 One of many on Massachusetts Avenue in D.C. : EMBASSY
24 __ machine : GUMBALL
26 Dappled horses : ROANS
30 Chat : SCHMOOZE
32 Washington’s Grand __ Dam : COULEE
33 Webinar’s first slide, often : OUTLINE
34 Treat traditionally paired with RC Cola in the South : MOON PIE
35 Like Robert Johnson’s music : BLUESY
36 Styling combs : RATTAILS
37 Fifth-century bishop in Ire. : ST PAT
38 Tempts : LURES IN
39 Grammar police, e.g. : PURISTS
41 Took off : LEFT
44 Help for a broken-hearted BFF : TLC
47 Some IRAs : ROTHS
48 Bass kin : CELLO
49 “OK, sure” : YEAH, I BET
51 Ancient Roman province now part of modern 16-Across : JUDAEA
52 Diet option in black cans : COKE ZERO
53 Motorized rides : E-BIKES
54 Zen harmony : ONENESS
55 Can’t stand : DETEST

Down

1 Sanitizes, perhaps : BOILS
2 Playwright called “The Father of Realism” : IBSEN
3 Truthfully : STRAIGHT UP
4 Dramatic advance : QUANTUM LEAP
5 Exploits : USES
6 London’s __ Pie Island : EEL
7 Ancient physician’s reference book : HERBAL
8 Bean sprouts? : IDEAS
9 Bottom-up, in a way : GRASSROOTS
10 “__ sunt dracones”: line on an ancient globe : HIC
11 Profess : AVOW
12 Take from the top : REDO
13 Long haul : TREK
15 Raucous crowd : RABBLE
19 Floor : AMAZE
22 Magazine whose archive was purchased by a consortium that includes the Smithsonian : EBONY
23 “Bingo” : YOU NAILED IT
25 Keep from cracking, perhaps : MOISTURIZE
27 Yellowstone, for one : ALPINE LAKE
28 Good name for a knight? : NEIL
29 Dates : SEES
30 Breaks down : SOBS
31 Unorthodox sect : CULT
32 Pigeon holes : COTES
34 Trading places : MARTS
36 Try and reach quickly : RUSH TO
38 Shampoo buys : LITERS
40 Spa wear : ROBES
42 Hurries toward safety : FLEES
43 Brown bread : TOAST
44 Onetime producer of Magna Doodle : TYCO
45 “Sex on Fire” Grammy winners Kings of __ : LEON
46 Candle holder : CAKE
48 Pyrite crystal, at times : CUBE
50 Female lobster : HEN
51 Abbey’s husband on “The West Wing” : JED

28 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 9 Jul 22, Saturday”

    1. BTW – on the Arkadium site those with failing eyes use “Ctrl +” to make the screen larger and easier to read “Ctrl – (minus)” to make smaller. “Ctrl 0 (Zero)” to set back to default. I use Firefox and juice it up to 150%. Also hit F11 for full screen, which, again, will make it a bit bigger. F11 again (or Esc) returns to normal screen.

      It also eliminates from view annoying sidebar ads, etc.

      Be Well.

    2. Thanks for the “Arkadium” URL. As is my habit, I downloaded a PDF from another site, only to find that two clues were missing from it; I used your site to get them. I then created a PUZ (with all X’s for the answers) and used that to create an error-free PDF.

      Sadly, this isn’t the first time I’ve had such problems with the Newsday puzzles … 😳. (And, for me, the pay wall has been in place for several months now.)

      Decent puzzle, though (once I got it … 😜).

        1. On both my iPad and my iMac, the site gave me a two-pager with the two extra clues on the second page. Also, on my iPad, having let me see the second page for a few moments, it retracted it and would only print the second page. Annoying … 😳.

  1. Took me twice as long as Bill, but ended with no errors. Lots of
    good guesses, a few Googles, and it wasn’t as difficult as I first
    feared.

  2. The east southeast part of the puzzle gave me fits. Several look-ups, so this was a DNF for me.

  3. DNF officially. 2 lookups. HIGHART and RATTAILS. they got me. Went over an hour for me.

    Come on Sunday!

    1. A rat tail comb has a long thin handle used as a pick to lift teased hairdos from the 60’s.

  4. LAT: Tough puzzle, more than an hour, no errors. I zipped through the top half but struggled mightily with the bottom, especially with the SW corner. My entering “pedants” for grammar police instead of the correct “purists” slowed me way down. A little tricky with the “Judaea” spelling too, I thought.

  5. When I saw that Bill took almost 16 min. I knew I was I trouble…it took me forever never got on the same page as Dolan …if there ever was a page a real grind for me !!!

  6. 7A clue uses an incorrect preposition, imo. I have never purchased one liter of shampoo in my life. A “cote” is not a “hole,” its a home. 7A clue is a long stretch for that answer.
    If Bill took as long as he did to solve this puzzle, I rest my case. This puzzler and the editor need to co-ordinate a more accurate Clue/Answer metric.

    1. FWIW, beauty salons and supply shops have their “higher end” shampoo and conditioner type stuff in liter bottles.

  7. Thanks, Glenn, for the URL. I worked yesterday’s puzzle and found it refreshing. There was not one cutesy clue for ‘oreo’!

  8. Looked at it while waiting for Trader Joe’s to open and didn’t have a clue (ha!). But by the time I got home and my brain had processed what I’d seen I started getting going and finished without final error and much more quickly than I would have guessed. What slowed me down was trying ot come up with some spelling that filled in cauterized for moisturized. D’oh! Finally got that straighted out and the grid was done.

  9. 19:54

    It was fine.

    Thanks to the bees, I have raspberries to pick. Lots and lots of raspberries. Almost 5 kg, so far. I think I’m on pace to beat my 2015 record of 12 kg.

  10. I remember rat tail combs from the 60’s. Those are the ones with the long skinny handles (rat tails) that are useful for making parts in the hair. You know–when your mom drew a line down your head? I still have a couple in a bathroom drawer. Not much parting going on these days, but just in case, I’m ready.

  11. Threw in the towel at about 11 minutes. The clues in this grid were so obtuse, so non-suggestive of anything, I just couldn’t get much of a foothold to even begin to find some crosses. Might as well have provided clues in cyrillic or kanji for all the good they did.

  12. Another Saturday DNF…where are all the unknowns jammed together in this one?…glad you asked…the NE corner👎👎
    Stay safe😀

    1. Oops! Didn’t read carefully enough. Arafat agreed to it, but the actual signing was delegated to Abbas. One does learn things doing the crossword!

    2. According to history.state.gov, Rabin and Abbas signed a “Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, commonly referred to as the “Oslo Accord” on Sep 7, 1993, before the formal signing you refer to.

  13. 22:06 with revisions of: SIC>HIC, DARK>NEIL, ESTERS>LITERS, PARSERS>PURISTS. Just initial guesses on some of those.

    New items/names: “pad kee mao,” JUDAEA spelling, “Father of Realism,” EEL Pie Island, Kings of LEON.

    I agree with @Steve re: liter of shampoo (although a 30 oz bottle is close at .887L) and pigeon cote is more than a “hole.”

    It was a slooow start for me. Not much was fillable as a section right off. The “vague” clues, plus the “?” and “perhaps” clues made it a challenge. But, eventually started putting some pieces together for the finish.

    1. 52A is indeed wrong. But a lot of these kinds of things are (sadly) par for the course.

      1. The clue doesn’t say that “Coke Zero” cans are still black, just as the clue “Resident of Eden” doesn’t imply that Adam is still living there.

  14. Too tough for me; quit at about 40% fill and used my first of, say, 5 “check-grids” to get to the finish. Never heard of JUDAEA, is that like the occupied territories, or COKE ZERO – well maybe vaguely.

    Liked the “Bean sprouts?” clue and got that immediately 🙂

    @Pam – Good for your bees!

  15. About 50% complete when I gave up early and started looking for clues. I had tOwEl for ROBES, which didn’t help with 39 across. I kept wanting to put PUtIn..in there.
    I guess what I expect for a Saturday.

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