LA Times Crossword 13 May 23, Saturday

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Constructed by: Rich Norris
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 14m 00s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Erosion control supply : STRAW MATS

Straw mats are a type of erosion control blanket made from straw and a mesh fabric. They are used to prevent soil from being washed away by rain or wind. They work by trapping soil and sediment, and providing a protective layer for vegetation so that it can establish itself and grow. And, straw mats are biodegradable.

10 Composer Bruckner : ANTON

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer. He’s no favorite of mine as he embraces the use of dissonances (I’m a sober traditionalist!). Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 7” is perhaps his most popular work. He created a slow and mournful movement for the work in recognition of the impending death of Richard Wagner, whom he greatly admired.

19 “__, Chef”: Marcus Samuelsson memoir : YES

Marcus Samuelsson is a chef who was born in Ethiopia, and raised in Sweden where he trained at a culinary institute. He moved to the US in 1994, and made a name for himself as an executive chef in New York City. In 2018, Samuelsson launched a TV show about immigrant cultures and food called “No Passport Required”.

20 Nabokov novel : LOLITA

Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita” has a famously controversial storyline, dealing with a middle-aged man’s obsession and sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl named Dolores Haze. 38-year-old professor Humbert Humbert privately refers to Dolores as “Lolita”. Although “Lolita” is considered a classic today, after Nabokov finished it in 1953 the edgy subject matter made it impossible for him to find a publisher in the US (where Nabokov lived). In 1955, he resorted to publishing it in English at a printing house in Paris. Publication was followed by bans and seizures all over Europe. A US printing house finally took on the project in 1958, by which time the title had such a reputation that it sold exceptionally quickly. “Lolita” became the first book since “Gone with the Wind” to sell over 100,000 copies in its first three weeks in stores.

22 Condition that can interfere with focusing, briefly : ADHD

The “official” name for the condition we sometimes still refer to as “attention deficit disorder” (ADD) is “attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD).

23 Reagle of “Wordplay” : MERL

Merl Reagle was a renowned constructor of puzzles in crossword circles. Despite the availability of computer tools Reagle was known for constructing puzzles using pencil and paper. There is an interesting segment in the 2006 movie “ Wordplay” in which we see Reagle in action creating a puzzle for the New York Times. Reagle even made an appearance in a 2008 episode of “The Simpsons”.

“Wordplay” is a 2006 documentary film that is a must-see for crossword fans. Star of the film is New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz, with appearances by celebrities such as Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Jon Stewart and Ken Burns. Much of the movie is set at the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT).

26 Pupil of Beethoven : CZERNY

Carl Czerny was a composer and pianist from Austria. although his parents were Czech, a heritage that influenced his music. Czerny began playing the piano at three years of age, and composing at the age of seven. He was a student of Ludwig van Beethoven from the age of ten to thirteen. In fact, Czerny is reputed to be the first person to report Beethoven’s deafness, many years before the affliction became common knowledge.

31 Trope intro : HELIO-

Heliotropism is a phenomenon in which a plant’s growth or movement is influenced by the sun’s direction. Sunflowers are perhaps the most well-known example of a heliotropic plant. As the sun moves across the sky, sunflowers turn their heads to follow it. This maximizes the plant’s exposure to sunlight, which is essential for photosynthesis.

32 Summer Olympics racer since 1936 : CANOE

Canoe racing has been featured as a competition sport in the Summer Olympic Games since the 1936 Games in Berlin There are two disciplines of canoeing in competition: slalom and sprint. Slalom is an event in which competitors navigate a course of gates that are placed in a river. Sprint is an event in which competitors race over a fixed distance on a calm body of water.

33 Pac-12 athlete : UTE

The Runnin’ Utes are the basketball team of the University of Utah. The team was given the nickname the Runnin’ Redskins back when Jack Gardner was the head coach from 1953 to 1971. The “Runnin’” part of the name was chosen because Gardner was famous for playing quick offenses. The “Redskins” name was later dropped in favor of the less controversial “Utes”.

38 HBO __ : MAX

The HBO Go offering was a “TV Everywhere” service, meaning that paid subscribers could stream content on a choice of platforms just by entering a username and password. HBO Go was superseded by the HBO Max service.

40 Romance novelist Brenda : HIATT

Brenda Hiatt is a bestselling author of romantic adventure novels. She also served as the president of Novelists, Inc, an international organization of multi-published novelists.

43 Chirp : TWEEDLE

“To tweedle” is to coax, allure. Originally “to tweedle” meant “to sing, whistle”, so today the term can often mean “to coax with music”.

45 Coastal features of Washington and Alaska : FJORDS

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, and both are formed as sea levels rise. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

46 Bridget Riley genre : OP ART

Bridget Riley is a painter from England who expresses herself in the genre of op art. One of Riley’s most famous works is 1961’s “Movement in Squares”.

48 Fluffy rug : SHAG

Shag carpet is one with a deep pile, one with a “shaggy” appearance.

52 “Death in Paradise” airer : PBS

“Death in Paradise” is a British-French crime comedy-drama TV series that has been a ratings success, both in the UK and internationally. The lead character is a detective from the UK stationed on a fictional Caribbean island. That detective has changed over the show’s many seasons, and has been played by actors Ben Miller, Kris Marshall, Ardal O’Hanlon and Ralf Little. While the show is extremely formulaic, I really enjoy it …

55 Model 3 maker : TESLA

Tesla’s Model 3 was introduced in 2017. Within three years, Tesla sold more than half a million Model 3 units, making it the best-selling electric car of all time.

59 Some deco works : ERTES

“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.

61 Circular defense mechanisms : MOATS

A moat is a protective trench that surrounds a castle, say, or an exhibit in a zoo. A moat may or may not be filled with water.

Down

6 Broadway classic with the lyrics “I can smile at the old days / I was beautiful then” : MEMORY

“Memory” is a show-stopping song from the stage musical “Cats” by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn, with lyrics based on poems by T.S. Eliot. It is a powerful ballad about loss and longing that tells the story of Grizabella, a once-glamorous cat who has fallen on hard times. She sings of her memories of the past and her hopes for a better future.

8 South American monkey : TITI

Titis are monkeys found in much of South America. Titis have tails that are a little bit longer than the length of their heads and bodies.

9 Shetland native : SCOT

The Shetland Islands in Scotland have given their name to a few breeds of animals, including Shetland cattle, Shetland ponies, Shetland sheep, Shetland sheepdogs and Shetland geese. The Shetlands lie about 110 miles northeast of the Scottish mainland.

11 Tig with a recurring role on “Star Trek: Discovery” : NOTARO

Tig Notaro is a stand-up comedian known for her deadpan delivery. More recently, she has turned to acting and has a recurring role as Chief Engineer Jett Reno on “Star Trek: Discovery”.

14 Sine qua non : NEED

“Sine qua non” is a Latin phrase that we use to mean “the essential element or condition”. The literal translation is “without which not”. One might say, for example, “a challenging crossword is the sine qua non of a good newspaper”. Well, crossword fans might say that …

21 Vice president after Thomas : AARON

Aaron Burr was the third vice-president of the US, and served under Thomas Jefferson from 1801 to 1805. In the final year of his term in office, Burr fought an illegal duel and killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton. Burr was charged with several crimes as a result, but those charges were eventually dropped. The Democratic-Republican Party had already decided not to nominate Burr as candidate for vice president to run alongside Jefferson in the 1804 election, largely because the relationship between Vice President Burr and President Jefferson was so poor. The subsequent fallout resulting from the killing of Alexander Hamilton effectively ended Burr’s political career.

Thomas Jefferson was the US’s first Secretary of State (under George Washington), the US’s second Vice President (under John Adams), and the US’s third president. Anyone interested in biographies of US presidents might like to read Jon Meacham’s “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power”. I highly recommend it …

23 Hosp. scan : MRI

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

25 Prize that may need to be altered if a player wins it again : GREEN JACKET

Golf’s Masters Tournament is the first of the four major championships in the annual calendar, taking place in the first week of April each year. It is played at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, and has a number of traditions. One is that the winner is awarded the famous “green jacket”, but he only gets to keep it for a year and must return it to the club after twelve months.

26 Eats : CHOW

“Chow” is a slang term for “food” that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

28 Gomiti, for one : ELBOW PASTA

Gomiti is a type of short, chunky pasta that is shaped like a curved elbow. It is often used in soups, stews, and sauces.

30 Trying to resolve a tie, briefly : IN OT

In overtime (in OT)

42 Alley follower : -OOP

An alley-oop is a play in basketball in which one player lobs the ball close to the basket for a teammate who usually scores with a slam dunk.

44 Aerie newborn : EAGLET

An aerie (sometimes “eyrie”) is an eagle’s nest, and a young eagle is an eaglet.The term “aerie” can also more generally describe any bird’s nest that is located on a cliff or a mountaintop.

45 Title horse in a Mary O’Hara children’s novel : FLICKA

“My Friend Flicka” is a 1941 novel by Mary O’Hara. Set in Wyoming, it tells the story of Ken McLaughlin, a 10-year-old boy who has a wild mustang colt that he names Flicka. The novel has been adapted into several films and television shows, perhaps most notably into a 1943 film of the same name starring Roddy McDowell as young McLoughlin.

48 Half-note feature : STEM

Where I grew up, a whole note is called a semibreve, and a half note is a minim.

51 White __: hard seltzer brand : CLAW

White Claw Hard Seltzer was introduced in 2016 by the same Canadian company that produces Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

52 The law : PO-PO

“Po-po” is a slang term meaning “police”.

53 Fromage hue : BLEU

Being a bit of a French speaker (admittedly, a very poor one), the term “bleu cheese” has always kind of irritated me. I would prefer that we use either “blue cheese” or “fromage bleu” and not mix the languages, but then I can be annoyingly picky! It’s said that blue cheese was probably discovered accidentally, as molds tend to develop in the same conditions that are best for storing cheese. The blue mold in the cheese is introduced by adding Penicillium spores before the cheese is allowed to set. And yes, it’s the same mold that is used to produce penicillin, the antibiotic.

54 Barcelona-born muralist : SERT

José Maria Sert was a painter of murals from Barcelona. He was a good friend of fellow-artist Salvador Dali.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, after the capital Madrid. It is also the largest European city that sits on the Mediterranean coast, and the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia.

56 Jenny, e.g. : ASS

A female donkey/ass is known as a jenny and a male is known as a jack, or sometimes “jackass”. We started using the term “jackass” to mean “fool” in the 1820s.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Erosion control supply : STRAW MATS
10 Composer Bruckner : ANTON
15 Ahead of its time : PROPHETIC
16 Held up : BORNE
17 Pizza sauce choice : RED TOMATO
18 Condition : STATE
19 “__, Chef”: Marcus Samuelsson memoir : YES
20 Nabokov novel : LOLITA
22 Condition that can interfere with focusing, briefly : ADHD
23 Reagle of “Wordplay” : MERL
24 Go along : AGREE
26 Pupil of Beethoven : CZERNY
29 Things that are worth looking into? : MIRRORS
31 Trope intro : HELIO-
32 Summer Olympics racer since 1936 : CANOE
33 Pac-12 athlete : UTE
35 Round figure : ORB
36 Like many ’50s cars : TWO-TONE
38 HBO __ : MAX
39 Court : WOO
40 Romance novelist Brenda : HIATT
41 Poor showing : NO ONE
43 Chirp : TWEEDLE
45 Coastal features of Washington and Alaska : FJORDS
46 Bridget Riley genre : OP ART
47 Rebuke, maybe : SLAP
48 Fluffy rug : SHAG
49 Last-minute, often : HECTIC
52 “Death in Paradise” airer : PBS
55 Model 3 maker : TESLA
57 Inescapable situation : BLACK HOLE
59 Some deco works : ERTES
60 One who makes the rounds? : BARKEEPER
61 Circular defense mechanisms : MOATS
62 Anxiously awaits : SWEATS OUT

Down

1 Agile : SPRY
2 Corner : TREE
3 Fish sticks? : RODS
4 Keenly intelligent : APT
5 Totally different, slangily : WHOLE NOTHER
6 Broadway classic with the lyrics “I can smile at the old days / I was beautiful then” : MEMORY
7 In any way : AT ALL
8 South American monkey : TITI
9 Shetland native : SCOT
10 Six-pack contents? : ABS
11 Tig with a recurring role on “Star Trek: Discovery” : NOTARO
12 News about a possible exchange : TRADE RUMOR
13 Testifying : ON THE STAND
14 Sine qua non : NEED
21 Vice president after Thomas : AARON
23 Hosp. scan : MRI
25 Prize that may need to be altered if a player wins it again : GREEN JACKET
26 Eats : CHOW
27 Process of dramatic character change : ZERO TO HERO
28 Gomiti, for one : ELBOW PASTA
29 Lacking luster : MATTE
30 Trying to resolve a tie, briefly : IN OT
32 __-fired : COAL
34 Former union members? : EXES
37 Side to side? : WIDTH
42 Alley follower : -OOP
44 Aerie newborn : EAGLET
45 Title horse in a Mary O’Hara children’s novel : FLICKA
47 Unsettling look : STARE
48 Half-note feature : STEM
50 Weakens : EBBS
51 White __: hard seltzer brand : CLAW
52 The law : PO-PO
53 Fromage hue : BLEU
54 Barcelona-born muralist : SERT
56 Jenny, e.g. : ASS
58 Dads and lads : HES

19 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 13 May 23, Saturday”

  1. As a former editor, Mr. Norris should know to be consistent with his clues. For example: he specifies “slangily” in his 5-Down clue but omits it for 52-Down (which is the epitome of “slang”!).

    1. I’d have to agree here, this is definitely a sloppier effort than I would expect from Rich Norris, given as many as he has done of these over the years. Most notably being the “green paint” no-no of REDTOMATO but a few other spots for sure. Are there even other choices for tomatoes than red for pizza sauce?

      1. Google “pizza sauces” to find a number of sites suggesting other choices. A small list from one of the sites includes: Pesto; White Garlic Sauce; Garlic Ranch Sauce; Hummus; Buffalo Sauce; and Marinara Sauce.

        You can also Google “green tomato sauce”. Check this out:

        https://www.food.com/recipe/green-tomato-pasta-sauce-394031

        Admittedly, it doesn’t specifically mention pizza, but … 😜.

  2. This was a long haul for me. My typical attack for these types is to gain a foothold somewhere. I had several partially started but couldn’t get a quick finish. Nothing came to me at the moment. Needed to stop and shift my paradigm.

    Gained momentum but there were words or people I just didn’t know. Like the cross of 10A 16A, 11D and 14D. I ended with ALTOS, LUTARO, BURNT and STED. should have been ANNTON, NOTARO, BORNE and NEED….

    then I also messed up 23D. Had MCL vs MRL. but I didn’t know CZERNY either.

    I enjoyed it.

  3. Less than an hour to finish with one incorrect letter: An h instead of a z in Czerny. Did a lot of good guessing, and answers fell into place rather quickly. One nitpick: “Red Tomato” as pizza sauce choice. That seemed redundant, especially in regard to pizza.

  4. This was a difficult one for me, probably because of all the proper
    names. Finally, when I was almost done, I had to look up “the law”
    which corrected my “CBS” to “PBS” and finish. Whew!!

  5. Filling in “two door” instead of “two tone” had me spinning in circles for awhile. Finally got that straightened out and that’s when the puzzle came to fruition. No final errors. On to the 21X21 WSJ grid next.

  6. One other thing. Yesterday Dave Kennison (If I messed up the spelling of Dave’s last name just now please forgive me), came to the defense of Mary when she was mildly criticized by someone for looking up some answers and then saying she finished without error. I’ll only say I think I got better doing crossword puzzles over time by first guessing and writing in the answer I thought was correct, and only then looking up the answer to see if I got it right. That seemed to help me remembered some esoteric clues and answers better than if I looked up the blank squares I had and then filling in the correct answers. That also meant that when I guessed wrong I had to count those as errors. My two cents.

    1. @Tony …

      What irritated me about the comment I replied to was the part saying that Mary should describe her experience as a DNF (an initialism that I would like to see disappear). At times in the past, such comments have appeared rather too often here. As far as I’m concerned, if someone tells me what they did to solve a puzzle, they can call it whatever they please.

      One clarification: The “lookups” I personally accept as legitimate “research” do not include just copying an answer from an answer key for the puzzle. I began doing crosswords in grade school, long before the advent of the internet, so my idea of “research” was to use our beat-up old copies of Webster’s Second and various encyclopedias to compensate for the massive holes in my knowledge base. My whole object was to complete the puzzle before the answers appeared in the paper the following day. If someone had told me that I was “cheating” or that I wasn’t “finishing” the puzzles, I’d have laughed at them. Nowadays, I seldom need such “research”, but it does happen (almost always with much harder puzzles than those in the NYT or the LAT) and, when it does, I continue until it becomes clear that I’m facing a gap in my current knowledge base that I simply can’t work around in the ways that the nature of crossword puzzles make possible; whatever happens, if I report it here, I describe what I did as clearly as I can.

      1. One of my fondest memories is looking up answers in the dictionary to help my mother work the crossword puzzle. Not cheating – just spending sweet time together. Now, sometimes my husband and grown children like to help me with the puzzle. If they begin to look something up on their phone, I tell them “No, you have to just know it!” Now, that’s just silly. Maybe we solvers are a little eccentric.

  7. 27 mins, 21 seconds, and needed significant Check Grid help to finish. This was fiendishly difficult, cynically clued, had some *ridiculous* fills, like “Whole ‘nother”. Exhibit A for “manufactured difficulty”.

  8. No look ups no errors. 2 changes on the fly
    brick wall/ black hole and Rebs/exes. Good
    challenge today. I thought I wouldn’t finish
    at one point. I put the puzzle aside for a
    while and when I went back it opened
    right up. That seems to help for some reason….

  9. Alley Oop was also a comic strip popular in the forties about a cave man and his posse.
    His popularity was revived in 1960 by a hit record by the Hollywood Argyles

  10. A bit too tough for me today; fizzled out at about 60% fill and did a grid-check which yielded 15 errors…ugh. Poked along with 5 more grid checks and a few more errors to the finish. Well at least I got Mon-Fri all right, without help.

    You’d think, this being the LA Times they’d work in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s 5th after that recent performance 🙂

  11. Hoo boy! 1:08:24 with assistance from my wife. One lookup to confirm the spelling of CZERNY.

    False starts: STRAWBAGS>STRAWMATS, AARON>ANTON, “Marcus Samuelsson,” STEW>CHOW, EST>ORB, RAGTOPS>TWOTONE, CAT>OOP, ETRES>ERTES, MEN>HES.

    New: MERL Reagle, Brenda HIATT, “Bridget Riley,” TITI, “gomiti,” SERT.

    Quite a struggle on this one. Finally got into the “home stretch” by figuring out GREENJACKET, TWOTONE, FJORDS, that gomiti is pasta, ORB, and MATS vs BAGS.

  12. The puzzle was a slog. As for Bill’s comment on 10A, I’ve never heard anyone describe Bruckner as dissonant. His symphonies, like Mahler’s, are long but very much in the romantic style.

  13. 28:55, with about half of that time spent in the NW corner. Excuse me, the NW “tree”, apparently. MEMORY took me too long because I kept trying to think of the name of a show, not a song, I thought I knew my monkeys but never heard of the TITI, and was completely expecting REDTOMATO to be some fancy Italian name I had never heard of. I resorted to a strategy of putting in nonsense just to fill in the grid to see if that would help me see the correct answers (at one point my 1A was WORMWHALE, it took me too long to give up on WILY/WIRY for 1D) and that did help me finally see PROPHETIC

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