LA Times Crossword 18 Aug 22, Thursday

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Constructed by: Chase Dittrich
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: School Crossings

The grid includes 6 letters that are CROSSING points for pairs pairs of SCHOOL names:

  • 37A Places with guards, and what can be found six times in this puzzle : SCHOOL CROSSINGS
  • 18A Uncomplicated : ELEMENTARY
  • 7D Sous-chef’s work : PREP
  • 10D Not permanent : ACTING
  • 23A T-shirt size: Abbr. : MED
  • 1D Captivate : CHARM
  • 53A “How Great Thou __” : ART
  • 55D Swap : TRADE
  • 60A “Literature in a hurry,” per Matthew Arnold : JOURNALISM
  • 46D Dead Sea Scrolls language : HEBREW
  • 58D Air conditioner setting : HIGH

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

Bill’s time: 7m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Stylish eatery word : CHEZ

“Chez” is a French term meaning “at the house of”, which comes from the Latin word “casa” meaning “cottage” or “hut”.

5 Irish icon, informally : 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.

14 “Buenos días” : HOLA

“Hola” is Spanish for the greeting “hi”.

“Buenos dias” translates from Spanish as “good day”, but can also be used to say “good morning”.

15 Google __ : EARTH

Google Earth is a program that maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images and aerial photographs. Google acquired the technology when it purchased Keyhole, Inc in 2004. Keyhole had been partially funded by the CIA.

16 Bit of thunder : CLAP

The word “thunder” precedes the word “lightning” in the phrase “thunder and lightning”. However, thunder comes after lighting in reality, at least to the observer. The observer sees the flash of lightning and then seconds later hears the crash of thunder. That’s because light travels faster than sound.

22 Litmus reddeners : ACIDS

Litmus is a mixture of naturally-occurring dyes that responds to acidity by changing color. Litmus was probably first used around 1300 by the Spanish alchemist Arnaldus de Villa Nova, who extracted the blue dye from lichens. One suggestion is that the term “litmus” comes from the Old Norse “litmose” meaning “lichen for dyeing”. Litmus is often absorbed onto filter paper, creating “litmus paper” or “pH paper”. We also use the phrase “litmus test” figuratively to describe any test in which a single factor decides the outcome.

24 Kylo __: Ben Solo’s chosen name : REN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

25 Before thou know’st : ANON

“Anon” originally meant “at once”, but the term’s meaning evolved into “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

28 Places to get in shape : GYMS

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

35 Half of deux : UNE

In French, half of “deux” (two) is “un, une” (one).

42 Old tape type : VHS

The VHS video standard is more fully referred to as the Video Home System. VHS was one of many standards touted by various manufacturers in the seventies. The biggest rival to VHS was Betamax, but we all knew which of the two standards won the final round in that fight.

43 “Shine a Little Love” band, familiarly : ELO

The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) is a symphonic rock group from the north of England.

44 Joplin’s “Me and Bobby __” : MCGEE

Janis Joplin recorded the song “Me and Bobby McGee” just a few days before she died in 1970. The song was released anyway, and it became Joplin’s only number-one single, topping the charts the following year. There have been just two posthumous number-one singles: Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee”, and Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay”.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
And nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’ but it’s free
Feelin’ good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues
And buddy, that was good enough for me
Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee.

Famously, the singer Janis Joplin died from an overdose of heroin when she was just 27 years old. That puts her in the “27 Club”, a group of famous rock and blues musicians who died at the same age. In the club along with Joplin, are Brian Jones (of the Rolling Stones), Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and a few others.

45 “Hunny” bear : POOH

Winnie-the-Pooh’s favorite food is “hunny”, i.e. “honey”.

50 Kitchen initialism popularized by Rachael Ray : EVOO

Virgin olive oil is oil produced from olives with no chemical treatment involved in the production process at all. To be labeled “virgin”, the oil must have an acidity level of less than 2% and must be judged to have “a good taste”. Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) comes from virgin oil production, and is the portion with acidity levels of less than 0.8% acidity that is judged to have “superior taste”.

Rachael Ray is a celebrity chef and host of several shows on the Food Network television channel. Ray comes from a family that owned and managed a number of restaurants in the northeast of the country. One of Ray’s TV shows is “$40 a Day”, in which she demonstrates how to visit various cities in North America and Europe and eat three meals and a snack on a daily budget of just $40.

52 West Coast NFL team, on scoreboards : LAR

The Los Angeles Rams are the only franchise to have won NFL championships in three different cities, i.e. Cleveland (1945), Los Angeles (1951 & 2021) and St. Louis (1999). The Rams were based in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945, in Los Angeles from 1946 to 1994, in St. Louis from 1995 to 2015, and returned to Los Angeles in 2016.

53 “How Great Thou __” : ART

“How Great Thou Art” is a hymn in the Christian tradition. The English words are a loose translation of an 1855 hymn “O Store Gud” from Sweden.

58 Big blow : HAYMAKER

A haymaker is a wide, swinging punch. It is so called because the action involves using one’s weight and shoulder power to deliver the blow, with a motion much like using a scythe to cut hay.

60 “Literature in a hurry,” per Matthew Arnold : JOURNALISM

I am guessing that the most famous poet with “Arnold” as a family name was Englishman Matthew Arnold. Alfred was active during the reign of Queen Victoria and is sometimes called the third great Victorian poet, after Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning.

62 Layered mineral : MICA

Mica is a silicate mineral. Thin sheets of mica are transparent and are used in place of glass in certain applications. This form of mica is called isinglass, and as it has a better thermal performance than glass it is a great choice for “peepholes” in boilers and lanterns. Mica is also used in the electronics industry, making use of its unique electrical and thermal insulating properties.

64 Doctrine : DOGMA

A dogma is a set of beliefs. The plural of “dogma” is “dogmata” (or “dogmas”, if you’re not a pedant like me!)

65 Egg on : PROD

The verb “to edge” has been used to mean to incite, to urge on, from the 16th century. Somewhere along the way “edge” was mistakenly replaced with “egg”, giving us our term “to egg on” meaning “to goad”.

67 __ Allen furniture : ETHAN

Ethan Allen was one of the founders of the state of Vermont. Allen was also a hero in the American Revolutionary War, famous for leading (along with Benedict Arnold) the small band of men known as the Green Mountain Boys that captured Fort Ticonderoga. And yes, the Ethan Allen store and furniture line is named for Ethan Allen the patriot, even though he had nothing to do with the furniture business.

Down

2 Goddesses of the seasons : HORAE

The Horae of Greek mythology were the goddesses of the seasons. There were several Horae, many of them associated with natural portions of time. Most commonly there were three, and sometimes ten (later twelve) Horae, or “Hours”, associated with the times of the day. For example, Auge was the goddess of first light, Gymnastika was the goddess of the morning hour for exercise, and Dysis was the goddess of sunset.

3 Iberian folk hero : EL CID

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar was known as El Cid Campeador, which translates as “The Champion” or perhaps “The Lord, Master of Military Arts”. El Cid was a soldier who fought under the rule of King Alfonso VI of Spain (among others). However, he was sent into exile by the King in 1080, after acting beyond his authorization in battle. El Cid then offered his services to his former foes, the Moorish kings, After a number of years building a reputation with the Moors, he was recalled from exile by Alfonso. By this time El Cid was very much his own man. Nominally under the orders of Alfonso, he led a combined army of Spanish and Moorish troops and took the city of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast in 1094, making it his headquarters and home. He died in Valencia, quite peacefully, in 1099.

The Iberian Peninsula in Europe is largely made up of Spain and Portugal. However, also included is the Principality of Andorra in the Pyrénées, a small part of the south of France, and the British Territory of Gibraltar. Iberia takes its name from the Ebro, the longest river in Spain, which the Romans named the “Iber”.

4 Journalist Paula : ZAHN

Paula Zahn has worked as a journalist and news anchor with ABC, NBC, Fox News and CNN. In 2009, she first appeared as the host of the long-running true crime show on the Discovery Channel called “On the Case with Paula Zahn”. Outside of her work on television, Zahn is an accomplished cellist and has even played at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra.

6 Claws : TALONS

A talon is a claw of a bird of prey. The term “talon” ultimately derives from “talus”, the Latin word for “ankle”.

7 Sous-chef’s work : PREP

The “sous-chef de cuisine” (a French term) is the “under-chef of the kitchen”, the second-in-command.

8 NCR device : ATM

NCR is an American company that has been in business since 1884 and was originally called the National Cash Register Company. The company has done well in a market where new technologies seem to be constantly disrupting the status quo. NCR is a leading supplier of automated teller machines (ATMs) and barcode scanners.

9 Highest mountain range outside of Asia : THE ANDES

The Andes range is the longest continuous chain of mountains in the world. It runs down the length of the west coast of South America for about 4,300 miles, from Venezuela in the north to Chile in the south. The highest peak in the Andes is Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, at an elevation of 22,841 feet. Interestingly, the peak of Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador is the furthest point on the Earth’s surface from the center of the planet. That’s because of the equatorial “bulge” around the Earth’s “waist”.

19 Sgt. or cpl. : NCO

A non-commissioned officer (NCO) might be a sergeant (sgt.) or a corporal (cpl.).

21 Khal __ of “Game of Thrones” : DROGO

Jason Momoa is a model and actor who is perhaps best known for playing superhero Aquaman in several DC Comics films. He also played warrior leader Khal Drogo in the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones”. In 2017, Momoa married actress Lisa Bonet, who played Denise Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”.

25 Dating profile word? : ANNO

The Latin word for year is “annus”. We often see it used in Latin phrases, but usually with a different spelling. In “anno Domini”, the “anno” is the ablative case of “annus” as the phrase means “in the year of the Lord”. Another example is “per annum”, in which “annum” is the accusative case as the literal translation of the phrase is “during the year”.

26 Miracle-__ : GRO

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 by one Orlando Scott, and initially sold seed to the agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, Scotts started to sell to homeowners, and mainly supplied lawn seed. The company merged with the gardening company Miracle-Gro in 1955, and then with TruGreen in 2016.

27 Continental capital : EUROS

The euro sign (€) looks like a letter C, but with two horizontal lines drawn across the middle. Inspiration for the design comes from the Greek letter epsilon.

29 “Fire Island” actor Bowen : YANG

Bowen Yang is an actor and comedian who joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 2019, after working for a year with the show’s writing staff. When Yank became a cast member, he was the first Chinese-American to appear regularly on SNL.

“Fire Island” is a 2022 romantic comedy about a group of gay friends taking a vacation on Fire Island on the South Shore of Long Island. The film’s storyline was inspired by Jane Austen’s classic novel “Pride and Prejudice”. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hear good things …

30 World of Warcraft class : MAGE

World of Warcraft is an online role-playing game (RPG). My son informs me that the game is not that great. Like I would know …

31 Enc. for a 32-Down : SASE

An SAE is a “stamped, addressed envelope”. An SASE is a “self-addressed, stamped envelope”.

32 Invitation letters : RSVP

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

33 Zoom meeting annoyance : ECHO

Zoom is a videoconferencing app that became remarkably popular in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The market deemed Zoom to be the easiest to use of the free videoconferencing apps. I’ve been using it, but really prefer Google’s Meet offering …

38 Beyoncé album and film of 2016 : LEMONADE

“Lemonade” is a 2016 studio album released by Beyoncé. The album goes hand-in-hand with a 65-minute film “Beyoncé: Lemonade”, which I suppose might be considered an extended music video …

39 Award named for a Muse : CLIO

The Clio Awards are the Oscars of the advertising world and are named after Clio, the Greek Muse of History. Clio was also the recorder of great deeds, the proclaimer and celebrator of great accomplishments and a source of inspiration and genius. The Clio Awards were first presented in 1959.

40 Insincere flattery : SMARM

The word “smarm” describes insincere flattery. The term comes from a colloquial word “smalm” that was used in the mid-19th century to mean “smear the hair with some sort of styling product”.

46 Dead Sea Scrolls language : HEBREW

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered over a period of years, between 1947 and 1956, in eleven caves (the Qumran Caves) on the shores of the Dead Sea. The scrolls are believed to have been written by an ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although this has been called into question recently. Many of the texts are copies of writings from the Hebrew Bible.

48 Red Cross supply : PLASMA

Plasma (sometimes “plasm”) is the clear, yellow-colored liquid component of blood and lymph in which cells are suspended.

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 or get wounded 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.

49 Nonprofessional : LAYMAN

Anything described as laic (or “laical, lay”) is related to the laity, those members of the church who are not clergy. The term “laic” ultimately comes from the Greek “laikos” meaning “of the people”.

51 “The Voice of the Dodgers” Scully : VIN

Vin Scully was a sportscaster known for calling Dodgers games since 1950, when the team was still located in Brooklyn. When Scully broadcast the 1953 World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, he became the youngest person ever to call a World Series game, at only 25 years of age. When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, Scully went with them.

53 Director Kurosawa : AKIRA

Akira Kurosawa was an Oscar-winning Japanese film director. His most famous movie to us in the West has to be “The Seven Samurai”, the inspiration for “The Magnificent Seven” starring Yul Brynner, and indeed a basis for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.

54 Intel mission : RECON

A “recon” (reconnaissance) might provide “intel” (intelligence).

56 Last name of both “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” filmmakers : COEN

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” is a 2018 movie written, produced and directed by the Coen brothers. It is an anthology film featuring six vignettes that are set on the American frontier. The first of those vignettes is the titular “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”.

59 Concert gear : AMPS

An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

60 NYC hub : JFK

The three big airports serving New York City (NYC) are John F. Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark (EWR).

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Stylish eatery word : CHEZ
5 Irish icon, informally : ST PAT
10 Many moons : AGES
14 “Buenos días” : HOLA
15 Google __ : EARTH
16 Bit of thunder : CLAP
17 Roguish : ARCH
18 Uncomplicated : ELEMENTARY
20 Shower unit? : RAINDROP
22 Litmus reddeners : ACIDS
23 T-shirt size: Abbr. : MED
24 Kylo __: Ben Solo’s chosen name : REN
25 Before thou know’st : ANON
26 Unexpected blessing : GODSEND
28 Places to get in shape : GYMS
32 Corp. shuffle : REORG
35 Half of deux : UNE
36 Small battery : AAA
37 Places with guards, and what can be found six times in this puzzle : SCHOOL CROSSINGS
42 Old tape type : VHS
43 “Shine a Little Love” band, familiarly : ELO
44 Joplin’s “Me and Bobby __” : MCGEE
45 “Hunny” bear : POOH
47 Flub, as an easy grounder : MISPLAY
50 Kitchen initialism popularized by Rachael Ray : EVOO
52 West Coast NFL team, on scoreboards : LAR
53 “How Great Thou __” : ART
56 Plane area : CABIN
58 Big blow : HAYMAKER
60 “Literature in a hurry,” per Matthew Arnold : JOURNALISM
62 Layered mineral : MICA
63 Gala : FETE
64 Doctrine : DOGMA
65 Egg on : PROD
66 Don’t have to assume : KNOW
67 __ Allen furniture : ETHAN
68 Levelheaded : SANE

Down

1 Captivate : CHARM
2 Goddesses of the seasons : HORAE
3 Iberian folk hero : EL CID
4 Journalist Paula : ZAHN
5 Get sore : SEE RED
6 Claws : TALONS
7 Sous-chef’s work : PREP
8 NCR device : ATM
9 Highest mountain range outside of Asia : THE ANDES
10 Not permanent : ACTING
11 Pleased : GLAD
12 Hearing things : EARS
13 View : SPY
19 Sgt. or cpl. : NCO
21 Khal __ of “Game of Thrones” : DROGO
25 Dating profile word? : ANNO
26 Miracle-__ : GRO
27 Continental capital : EUROS
29 “Fire Island” actor Bowen : YANG
30 World of Warcraft class : MAGE
31 Enc. for a 32-Down : SASE
32 Invitation letters : RSVP
33 Zoom meeting annoyance : ECHO
34 Extremely : OH SO
38 Beyoncé album and film of 2016 : LEMONADE
39 Award named for a Muse : CLIO
40 Insincere flattery : SMARM
41 Less than friendly : ICY
46 Dead Sea Scrolls language : HEBREW
48 Red Cross supply : PLASMA
49 Nonprofessional : LAYMAN
51 “The Voice of the Dodgers” Scully : VIN
53 Director Kurosawa : AKIRA
54 Intel mission : RECON
55 Swap : TRADE
56 Last name of both “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” filmmakers : COEN
57 Wheels : AUTO
58 Air conditioner setting : HIGH
59 Concert gear : AMPS
60 NYC hub : JFK
61 Auction unit : LOT