LA Times Crossword 5 Jan 23, Thursday

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Constructed by: Chandi Deitmer & Darby Ratliff
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Echolocation

Themed answers each include the hidden word “ECHO” LOCATED within:

  • 64A Nature’s sonar, and what varies in the answers to the starred clues? : ECHOLOCATION
  • 18A *Person destined for greatness : THE CHOSEN ONE
  • 27A *Nocturnal bird known for its cry : SCREECH OWL
  • 39A *Cocoa butter confection : WHITE CHOCOLATE
  • 54A *Board-breaking move : KARATE CHOP

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

Bill’s time: 8m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11 23andMe stuff : DNA

23andMe was the first company to offer direct-to-consumer genetic testing, doing so in 2007. Initially, 23andMe offered a test that determined a subject’s predisposition to a list of specific genetic traits, including baldness and blindness. The company now offers a cost-effective ancestry DNA test as well. The name “23andMe” is a reference to the 23 pairs of chromosomes in the cells of a human.

14 Santorini’s sea : AEGEAN

The Aegean Sea is that part of the Mediterranean that lies between Greece and Turkey. Within the Aegean Sea are found the Aegean Islands, a group that includes Crete and Rhodes.

The Greek island of Santorini is the most southerly in the Cyclades group of islands in the Aegean Sea.

16 Holy scroll : TORAH

A Torah scroll (also “Sefer Torah”) is a handwritten copy of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

17 Ref. work that added “influencer” in 2022 : OED

The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 600,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

21 Fizz liquor : GIN

By definition, a cocktail known as a “fizz” includes lemon or lime juice and carbonated water. The most popular of the genre is the gin fizz, made from 3 parts gin, 2 parts lemon juice, 1 part sugar syrup and 5 parts soda water. There is also a variant known as a sloe gin fizz.

27 *Nocturnal bird known for its cry : SCREECH OWL

There are over twenty species of screech owls, all of which are native to the Americas. Named for their eerie trill heard mainly during the night, screech owls are about the size of a pint glass.

31 Tea variety : PEKOE

A pekoe (or more commonly “orange pekoe”) is a medium-grade black tea. There is no orange flavor in an orange pekoe tea. The “orange” name most likely derived from the name of the trading company that brought the tea to Europe from Asia.

34 Arizona Wildcats coach Barnes : ADIA

Adia Barnes is a former WNBA player who was appointed head coach of the University of Arizona Wildcats women’s basketball team in 2016. Earlier in her career, Barnes played internationally for Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine, and also turned out for several Euroleague teams. She is married to a basketball coach she met in Italy.

38 Irish golfer McIlroy : RORY

Rory McIlroy is a very successful golfer from Northern Ireland. McIlroy is a relatively young man and a former world number one on the circuit, so folks can’t help but compare him to Tiger Woods. He was the first European to win three different majors. Along with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, McIlroy is one of only three people to win three majors before the age of 25.

39 *Cocoa butter confection : WHITE CHOCOLATE

Ground cocoa beans are melted to form chocolate liquor. Chocolate liquor comprises roughly 50% cocoa butter, and 50% cocoa solids. It is the cocoa solids that give chocolate its dark color. White chocolate is white because it contains no cocoa solids.

44 Melville captain : AHAB

Captain Ahab is the obsessed and far from friendly captain of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick”. The role of Captain Ahab was played by Gregory Peck in the 1956 John Huston film adaptation. Patrick Stewart played Ahab in a 1998 miniseries in which Peck made another appearance, as Father Mapple.

45 Melber of MSNBC : ARI

Ari Melber is a television journalist and the chief legal correspondent for MSNBC. He started hosting his own daily show called “The Beat with Ari Melber” in 2017.

50 He-Man’s twin : SHE-RA

“She-Ra: Princess of Power” is an animated television show, and a spinoff of the very successful “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”. Both shows are aimed at young people, with “He-Man” targeted at boys and “She-Ra” at girls.

54 *Board-breaking move : KARATE CHOP

Karate is a martial art that originated in the Ryukyu Kingdom, which is now part of Japan. A practitioner of karate is known as a karateka. The sport of karate was included as an Olympic sport starting with the 2020 Games.

57 Mario Paint console, initially : SNES

The name “Super NES” (or “SNES”) stands for “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”.

58 Black Power leader Kwame __ : TURE

Stokely Carmichael was a civil rights leader who was prominent in the Black Power movement, the Black Panther Party and All-African People’s Revolutionary Party. He became a target of the FBI under the leadership of J.Edgar Hoover, which resulted in Carmichael leaving the US and settling in Africa, first in Ghana and then in Guinea. There he became an influential figure in the Pan-African movement, and adopted the name “Kwame Ture”.

59 Chinese greeting : NI HAO

One might say “ni hao” in Chinese to mean “hello”, although a more literal translation is “you good”.

62 Chemical in some plastics, briefly : BPA

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an organic chemical that is used extensively in the manufacture of plastics. The main source of the controversy surrounding the use of the chemical is that BPA has hormone-like properties and has been classified as an endocrine disruptor, meaning that it can interfere with human hormone systems. BPA is “everywhere”, given the amount of plastic that we use in society. The debate seems to be whether or not the levels that we are exposed to are sufficient to create a health risk.

64 Nature’s sonar, and what varies in the answers to the starred clues? : ECHOLOCATION

Echolocation, when used by animals, is known as biosonar. The best-known example of an animal using biosonar is probably the bat, although not all species of bat use sounds to locate objects.

70 Least extroverted : SHIEST

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung popularized the terms “Introvert” and “extrovert”, although he believed that we all have introverted and extroverted sides to us. Nowadays we tend to think of extroversion and introversion as extremes on a continuum. We bloggers, sitting at home glued to our laptops, tend to the introverted end of the scale …

73 “Ugh, I’ll never be able to __ that!” : UNSEE

Me neither …

Down

1 Period with a noticeable lack of feline fossils : CAT GAP

Based on fossil records, there was a period in North America from about 25 to 18.5 million years ago when very, very few cat species existed. The cause of this “cat gap” in the fossil record is a subject of debate.

3 “Men in Black” role : AGENT K

“Men in black” (MIB) are said to have appeared in the past whenever there have been reports of UFO sightings. Supposedly, these men are government agents whose job it is to suppress reports of alien landings. The conspiracy theorists got their day in the movies with the release of a pretty good sci-fi comedy in 1997 called “Men in Black”, starring Will Smith (as Agent J) and Tommy Lee Jones (as Agent K).

4 Wall Street regulatory org. : SEC

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was established by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and has primary responsibility for enforcing federal securities law. The first chairman of the SEC was Joe Kennedy, father of future president John F. Kennedy.

6 Skunk aftermath : STENCH

Skunks have anal scent glands that can be used as defensive weapons. The glands produce sulfur-containing chemicals that have a really awful smell and that can irritate the eyes and skin.

7 Four-time Pro Bowl quarterback who never made it to the Super Bowl : TONY ROMO

Tony Romo is a former quarterback who spent his entire NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys. Romo is also an avid amateur golfer and has even tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to qualify for the US Open golf championship.

8 Affectional orientation abbr. : ARO

Someone described as aromantic (“aro”, for short) experiences little or no romantic attraction. The opposite of aromanticism is a alloromanticism.

10 2000s teen drama that introduced “Chrismukkah” : THE OC

“The O.C.” is a teen drama that aired for four seasons on Fox finishing up in 2007. I never watched it, but I understand that it is set in Newport Beach in Southern California. And, “O.C.” stands for “Orange County”.

11 Pencil puzzle : DOT TO DOT

Connect the dots (also “dot to dot”) puzzles involve drawing a line from numbered dot to numbered dot, hence revealing an image.

12 Story line? : NEWSWIRE

A news agency (also “newswire, wire service”) is an agency that collects news reports and sells them on to other news organizations. The big three news agencies are Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press (AP), and Reuters.

15 Japanese drama : NOH

Noh is a form of musical drama in Japan that has been around since the 14th century. Many of the Noh performers are masked, allowing all the roles to be played by men, including the female parts.

24 Ancient kings who wore nemes headdresses : PHARAOHS

Nemes were headdresses worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. They consisted of a striped cloth that covered the crown of the head and the nape of the neck, with two large flaps that hung down behind the ears.

26 Jellystone resident : YOGI BEAR

Yogi Bear made his debut for Hanna-Barbera in 1958, on “The Huckleberry Hound Show” before he was given his own series. Do you remember that collar that Yogi wore around his neck? That was a little trick from the animators. By using the collar, for many frames all they had to do was redraw everything from the collar up, saving them lots and lots of time. Yogi and Boo-Boo lived in Jellystone Park, and made Ranger Smith’s life a misery.

28 Actor Bana : ERIC

Eric Bana is an Australian actor who enjoyed a successful career in his home country before breaking into Hollywood playing an American Delta Force sergeant in “Black Hawk Down”. A couple of years later he played the lead in Ang Lee’s 2003 movie “Hulk”, the role of Dr Bruce Banner. More recently he played the Romulan villain Nero, in the 2009 “Star Trek” movie.

36 “If __ Street Could Talk” : BEALE

“If Beale Street Could Talk” is a 2018 film based on a 1974 novel of the same name by Barry Jenkins. Both novel and movie tell the story of a young woman working to clear the name of her lover, who was wrongfully charged with rape.

39 Cereal with collectible boxes : WHEATIES

Wheaties were introduced to the world in 1924, making it the oldest cereal produced by General Mills. The idea of mixing wheat and bran together into a cereal was the result of an accidental spill of wheat bran into a stove. The product was first called Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes, and this was changed to Wheaties after an employee contest to find a better name.

41 Lightweight clog : CROC

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as shoes to be worn at health spas. I recently bought my first pair of crocs, and now my kids won’t talk to me …

49 Besmirched : SOILED

“Besmirch” is a derivative of “smirch”, with both words meaning to “make dirty”. In particular, to besmirch is to sully someone’s reputation.

51 Some gender-fluid people : ENBIES

The non-binary (NB, enbie, enby) spectrum of gender identities covers those that do not qualify as exclusively masculine or feminine.

53 Swahili for “thank you” : ASANTE

Swahili is one of the many Bantu languages spoken in Africa. There are hundreds of Bantu languages, with most being spoken in central, east and southern Africa. The most commonly spoken Bantu language is Swahili, with Zulu coming in second.

56 Soup sometimes served with banh mi : PHO

The French introduced the baguette into Vietnam in the days the country was a French colony. Today, a single-serving baguette is known in Vietnam as “bánh mì” (meaning “wheat bread”). The term has been extended, particularly here in the US, to describe a Vietnamese sandwich.

60 Cooling systs. : ACS

Air conditioner (AC)

61 Island near Kauai : OAHU

Oahu has been called “The Gathering Place”, although the word “O’ahu” has no translation in Hawaiian. It seems that “O’ahu” is simply the name of the island. One story is that it is named after the son of the Polynesian navigator who first found the islands. The island is made up of two volcanoes, Wai’anae and Ko’olau, joined together by a broad valley, the O’ahu Plain.

Because the Hawaiian island of Kauai is one of the wettest places on earth, all the rainfall has helped to carve out magnificent canyons and left superb waterfalls. The island is often used as a backdrop for movies. The facilities at the island’s Lihue Airport reflect the pleasant climate enjoyed by the Hawaiian Islands. Check-in takes place completely outdoors!

63 Ghanaian writer __ Kwei Armah : AYI

Ayi Kwei Armah is an author from Ghana who is perhaps most famous as a novelist. His debut novel is “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” (1968), which centers on the exploits of a man living in post-independence Ghana in the mid-1960s.

67 Sardine can : TIN

Sardines are oily fish related to herrings. They are also known as pilchards, although in the UK “sardine” is a noun reserved for a young pilchard. Very confusing …

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Fall into bed : CRASH
6 Turn on : START
11 23andMe stuff : DNA
14 Santorini’s sea : AEGEAN
16 Holy scroll : TORAH
17 Ref. work that added “influencer” in 2022 : OED
18 *Person destined for greatness : THE CHOSEN ONE
20 Early afternoon : TWO
21 Fizz liquor : GIN
22 Polished : SHINY
23 Goes (for) : OPTS
25 Pseudocultural : ARTY
27 *Nocturnal bird known for its cry : SCREECH OWL
31 Tea variety : PEKOE
33 Brass instrument : HORN
34 Arizona Wildcats coach Barnes : ADIA
35 Chew the fat : GAB
37 Prefix with day or night : MID-
38 Irish golfer McIlroy : RORY
39 *Cocoa butter confection : WHITE CHOCOLATE
44 Melville captain : AHAB
45 Melber of MSNBC : ARI
46 Court : WOO
47 Drought-damaged : SERE
48 Fireplace stack : LOGS
50 He-Man’s twin : SHE-RA
54 *Board-breaking move : KARATE CHOP
57 Mario Paint console, initially : SNES
58 Black Power leader Kwame __ : TURE
59 Chinese greeting : NI HAO
62 Chemical in some plastics, briefly : BPA
63 Goal : AIM
64 Nature’s sonar, and what varies in the answers to the starred clues? : ECHOLOCATION
68 Slangy assent : YEP
69 Unoriginal : TRITE
70 Least extroverted : SHIEST
71 “Give or take” ending : -ISH
72 Talked up : HYPED
73 “Ugh, I’ll never be able to __ that!” : UNSEE

Down

1 Period with a noticeable lack of feline fossils : CAT GAP
2 Employ again : REHIRE
3 “Men in Black” role : AGENT K
4 Wall Street regulatory org. : SEC
5 Chortles : HAHS
6 Skunk aftermath : STENCH
7 Four-time Pro Bowl quarterback who never made it to the Super Bowl : TONY ROMO
8 Affectional orientation abbr. : ARO
9 Bolted : RAN
10 2000s teen drama that introduced “Chrismukkah” : THE OC
11 Pencil puzzle : DOT TO DOT
12 Story line? : NEWSWIRE
13 Big fuss : ADO
15 Japanese drama : NOH
19 Certain sib : SIS
24 Ancient kings who wore nemes headdresses : PHARAOHS
26 Jellystone resident : YOGI BEAR
28 Actor Bana : ERIC
29 Fund : ENDOW
30 Set down : LAY
32 End a fast : EAT
36 “If __ Street Could Talk” : BEALE
39 Cereal with collectible boxes : WHEATIES
40 Gruff protest : HARRUMPH!
41 Lightweight clog : CROC
42 Singer’s challenge : HIGH NOTE
43 Spanish article : LOS
44 Request : ASK
49 Besmirched : SOILED
51 Some gender-fluid people : ENBIES
52 Tranquility : REPOSE
53 Swahili for “thank you” : ASANTE
55 Pearly whites : TEETH
56 Soup sometimes served with banh mi : PHO
60 Cooling systs. : ACS
61 Island near Kauai : OAHU
63 Ghanaian writer __ Kwei Armah : AYI
65 Get weepy : CRY
66 With it : HIP
67 Sardine can : TIN