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Constructed by: Amie Walker
Edited by: Patti Varol
Today’s Reveal Answer(s): Disco Bars
Themed answers are lines (BARS) from the DISCO hit “GET DOWN TONIGHT” by KC and the Sunshine Band:
- 62A With 63-Across, 1970s nightclubs, or, in another sense, what 20-, 36-, and 47-Across are? : DISCO …
- 63A See 62-Across : … BARS
- 20A Conga line? : DO A LITTLE DANCE
- 36A Neck line? : MAKE A LITTLE LOVE
- 47A Party line? : GET DOWN TONIGHT
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment
Bill’s time: 6m 23s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
10 Wheel of Fortune option : SPIN
Contestants have been spinning the “Wheel of Fortune” since the game show first aired in 1975.
14 Music genre for Jill Scott : SOUL
Jill Scott is a singer, songwriter and actress. Her fourth studio album, 2011’s “The Light of the Sun”, was her first album to top the charts. As an actress, she has had several roles on the small and big screens, including the role of James Brown’s second wife in the 2014 film “Get on Up”.
15 Asian capital whose opera house is modeled on Paris’s Palais Garnier : HANOI
The Hanoi Opera House in the Vietnamese capital was built by the French colonists in the early 1900s. It was modeled on the world-famous Palais Garnier in Paris.
17 Italian dish, familiarly : PARM
Parmigiana (familiarly “parm”) is a dish from southern Italy. The original parmigiana was made with an eggplant filling, with cheese and tomato layers and then baked. Versions originating outside of Italy have replaced the eggplant with breaded cutlets of chicken or veal.
19 Corner chess piece : ROOK
The corner piece in the game of chess is called a “rook”, a word coming from the Persian “rokh” meaning a “chariot”. The rook has also been called, perhaps incorrectly, the castle, tower, marquess and rector.
20 Conga line? : DO A LITTLE DANCE
The conga line is a dance that originated as a Cuban carnival march. It became popular in the US starting in the thirties. The dance is apparently named after the Congo region of Africa, and it was originated by slaves who were brought from there to Cuba.
23 Resource in Catan : ORE
The Settlers of Catan (now just “Catan”) is a board game that was introduced in 1995, in Germany as “Die Siedler von Catan”. The game is very popular in the US and was called “the board game of our time” by the “Washington Post”. My son plays it a lot, and as a lover of board games, I am going to have to check it out …
28 Prepare to advance after a fly ball : TAG UP
That would be baseball.
31 Radio host John : TESH
John Tesh is a pianist and composer, as well as a radio and television presenter. For many years Tesh presented the show “Entertainment Tonight”. For “ET” he once covered the filming of an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. As part of the piece, he volunteered to act as a Klingon warrior. If you see the “Star Trek: TNG” episode called “The Icarus Factor” in reruns, watch out for John Tesh engaging in ritual torture with Mr. Worf as his victim.
32 Cinnamon-scented seasonal decor : PINE CONES
The cones of conifers are the tree’s reproductive structures. There are both male and female cones. We are most familiar with woody cones, and these are the female structures that produce seeds. Male cones are softer and are not woody, and they produce pollen.
36 Neck line? : MAKE A LITTLE LOVE
The term “necking” applies to kissing and caressing. I like what Groucho Marx had to say on the subject:
Whoever named it necking was a poor judge of anatomy.
40 MGM co-founder : LOEW
Marcus Loew was a New Yorker born into a poor Jewish family. He started out in a penny arcade business and used its profits to buy into a nickelodeon. He built a whole chain of movie theaters, and then moved into the production of films so that he could guarantee supply of features that he could show in his theaters. Eventually he pulled together the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film production company, and sadly passed away just three years after he inked the deal.
41 Many “Saved by the Bell” characters : TEENS
The sitcom “Saved by the Bell” originally aired from 1989 to 1993. It was based on an earlier sitcom “Good Morning, Miss Bliss”, which was later renamed to “Saved by the Bell: The Junior Years”. There were also two spin-offs: “Saved by the Bell: The college Years” and “Saved by the Bell: The New Class”.
44 Heckling chorus : BOOS
Originally, the verb “to heckle” meant “to question severely”, and for many years was associated with the public questioning of parliamentary candidates in Scotland. In more recent times, the meaning has evolved into questioning that is less polite and that is directed at stand-up comics.
54 Bruno Mars’s birthplace : OAHU
Bruno Mars is a singer-songwriter from Honolulu who has been active in the music business since 2006. “Bruno Mars” is a stage name, as Mars was born “Peter Hernandez”.
60 Froyo topping option : OREO
Frozen yogurt (“froyo” or “fro-yo”)
62 With 63-Across, 1970s nightclubs, or, in another sense, what 20-, 36-, and 47-Across are? : DISCO …
63 See 62-Across : … BARS
Discotheques first appeared during WWII in Occupied France. American-style music (like jazz and jitterbug dances) was banned by the Nazis, so French natives met in underground clubs that they called discotheques where records were often played on just a single turntable. After the war, these clubs came out into the open. One famous Paris discotheque was called “Whiskey a Gogo”. In that Paris disco, non-stop music was played using two turntables next to a dance-floor, and this concept spread around the world.
Down
1 Egyptian cobra : ASP
The Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) is also known as the asp. That said, the term “asp” can apply to several species of snake, including the Egyptian cobra. Legend has it that Cleopatra committed suicide by enticing an asp to bite her. If that’s true, then that asp was probably an Egyptian cobra.
3 Greek currency : EURO
The Greek drachma was in use until it was replaced by the euro in 2002. As well as being Greece’s currency in modern times, the drachma was also used in ancient Greece.
4 __ mater : ALMA
The term “alma mater” is used to describe a school from which one has graduated. It can also describe a school’s song or hymn.
6 Cupful with steamed milk : LATTE
The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk; there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.
8 Mermaid Barbie, for one : DOLL
The famous Barbie doll was created by businesswoman Ruth Handler and first appeared on store shelves in 1959. Barbie was based on a German fashion doll called Bild Lilli that was introduced in 1955. Lilli had been a German cartoon character before taking on a three-dimensional form. Prior to the introduction of Bild Lilli and Barbie, children’s dolls were primarily representations of infants.
10 Informal surveys : STRAW POLLS
A straw poll is an unofficial vote used to gauge popular opinion. The term “straw poll” may allude to holding up a thin stalk of a plant to determine wind direction, to see where the wind blows.
12 Some Camaros : IROCS
The IROC-Z is a model of Camaro that was introduced by Chevrolet in 1978. The IROC-Z takes its name from a famous stock car race, the International Race of Champions.
13 Heat in a microwave : NUKE
The first microwave oven was invented in 1946 by Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon. While he was standing beside an active radar unit, which used microwaves, he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. Spencer proceeded to expose various foods to microwaves in tests that would lead to the development of the first commercial microwave oven.
22 Low card : DEUCE
A two in a deck of playing cards might be called a “deuce”, from the Middle French “deus” (or Modern French “deux”) meaning “two”.
25 One of 32 in the NHL : TEAM
The National Hockey League (NHL) was formed in 1917 in Montreal as a successor to the defunct National Hockey Association (NHA) that had been founded in 1909.
27 Residue from an orange snack : CHEETO DUST
Cheetos snacks were developed by the same guy who created Fritos, hence the similarity in name. On the market since 1948, up until the turn of the century the name was written as “Chee-tos”. Oh, and Cheetos contain pork enzymes, so vegetarians beware!
28 Welliver of “Bosch” and “Bosch: Legacy” : TITUS
Actor Titus Welliver is probably best known for recurring appearances in TV shows. Perhaps most notably, he played the “Man in Black” in the show “Lost”, and the title character in the excellent Amazon web TV show “Bosch”.
29 Pantry pests : ANTS
The word “pantry” dates back to 1300, when it came into English from the Old French “panetrie” meaning a “bread room”. Bread is “pain” in French, and “panis” in Latin.
31 Brief “Yikes, didn’t need that in my brain” : TMI
Too much information (TMI)
32 Subatomic particle : PION
“Pion” is short for “pi meson”, and is the name given to a subatomic particle.
A meson is an unstable subatomic particle, one made up of a quark and an antiquark.
43 “The Phantom Menace” boy : ANI
“Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” was the fourth film released in the “Star Wars” franchise, and the first in a prequel trilogy (the first three films were Episodes IV, V & VI). “The Phantom Menace” was released in 1999, twenty-two years after the original “Star Wars” movie, and sixteen years after the previous episode, “Return of the Jedi”.
44 Memphis street of blues fame : BEALE
Beale Street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee is a major tourist attraction. In 1977, by act of Congress, the street was officially declared the “Home of the Blues” due to its long association with the musical genre. Apparently “Beale” is the name of some forgotten military hero.
46 Greek column style : DORIC
The Doric was one of the three classical orders of architecture, the others being the Corinthian and the Ionic. The Doric was the earliest of the three orders, and the simplest.
49 Sushi seaweed : NORI
Nori is an edible seaweed that we used to know as “laver” when we were living in Wales. Nori is usually dried into thin sheets. Here in the US, we are most familiar with nori as the seaweed used as a wrap for sushi.
50 Guitar player’s aid : TABS
Tablature (also “tab”) is a kind of musical notation that indicates instrument fingering, rather than musical notes.
52 Wife of Zeus : HERA
In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth. She was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.
57 Call for help repeated in the Police’s “Message in a Bottle” : SOS!
“Message in a Bottle” is a great 1979 song released by the Police, and written by the band’s lead singer Sting. There is quite a bit of repetition in the lyrics, with Sting “sending and SOS” a total of 31 times.
Read on, or …
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Field of study : AREA
5 Lumps : CLODS
10 Wheel of Fortune option : SPIN
14 Music genre for Jill Scott : SOUL
15 Asian capital whose opera house is modeled on Paris’s Palais Garnier : HANOI
16 Drive-__ ATM : THRU
17 Italian dish, familiarly : PARM
18 Lopsided : ATILT
19 Corner chess piece : ROOK
20 Conga line? : DO A LITTLE DANCE
23 Resource in Catan : ORE
24 Woolly moms : EWES
25 Cantina fare : TACOS
28 Prepare to advance after a fly ball : TAG UP
31 Radio host John : TESH
32 Cinnamon-scented seasonal decor : PINE CONES
36 Neck line? : MAKE A LITTLE LOVE
39 “No, really!” : I’M SERIOUS
40 MGM co-founder : LOEW
41 Many “Saved by the Bell” characters : TEENS
42 Chores : TASKS
44 Heckling chorus : BOOS
46 Cozy spot : DEN
47 Party line? : GET DOWN TONIGHT
54 Bruno Mars’s birthplace : OAHU
55 Squirrel away : HOARD
56 Floral garlands : LEIS
58 World Cup cheers : OLES
59 Cosmic path : ORBIT
60 Froyo topping option : OREO
61 Saucy : PERT
62 With 63-Across, 1970s nightclubs, or, in another sense, what 20-, 36-, and 47-Across are? : DISCO …
63 See 62-Across : … BARS
Down
1 Egyptian cobra : ASP
2 Fork locale : ROAD
3 Greek currency : EURO
4 __ mater : ALMA
5 Dining set array : CHAIRS
6 Cupful with steamed milk : LATTE
7 I got this!” : ON IT!
8 Mermaid Barbie, for one : DOLL
9 Field of study, perhaps : SITE
10 Informal surveys : STRAW POLLS
11 Device not allowed during a family meal, maybe : PHONE
12 Some Camaros : IROCS
13 Heat in a microwave : NUKE
21 Bathroom, to a Brit : LOO
22 Low card : DEUCE
25 One of 32 in the NHL : TEAM
26 Queries : ASKS
27 Residue from an orange snack : CHEETO DUST
28 Welliver of “Bosch” and “Bosch: Legacy” : TITUS
29 Pantry pests : ANTS
30 Solidify : GEL
31 Brief “Yikes, didn’t need that in my brain” : TMI
32 Subatomic particle : PION
33 Cozy spot : NOOK
34 Present-wrapping nights, for procrastinators : EVES
35 Work with a needle and thread : SEW
37 “Am not!” retort : ARE SO
38 Fib : LIE
42 Take care of : TEND TO
43 “The Phantom Menace” boy : ANI
44 Memphis street of blues fame : BEALE
45 Significant __ : OTHER
46 Greek column style : DORIC
47 Slime : GOOP
48 “__’ve thunk it?” : WHO’D
49 Sushi seaweed : NORI
50 Guitar player’s aid : TABS
51 Lump : GLOB
52 Wife of Zeus : HERA
53 Level : TIER
57 Call for help repeated in the Police’s “Message in a Bottle” : SOS!
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10 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 25 Sep 23, Monday”
Comments are closed.
Not as quick for a monday.
Once I realized it was Disco time, I went faster.
Never heard of BOSCH tv series.
More challenging than usual for a Monday but the theme really helped for a change…at least for me.
False starts with OIL instead of ORE; BED instead of DEN (this one not helped by not knowing/forgetting ANI or DORIC)
So errors there!
9 minutes no errors. Never heard of pion.
11:07 (estimated, as I was interrupted by a long phone call), no errors. Actual time may have been as much as fifteen minutes. The theme refers to the lyrics of a song I’ve never heard, so the puzzle was rather more difficult than it would otherwise have been. Enjoyable, nonetheless … 🙂.
Fairly easy Monday; the theme helped. No errors. A little under 7:00.
Some setters just don’t seem to know what a Monday puzzle is supposed to look like
I believe the Message In A Bottle lyric is, “Sending out an SOS.”
8:16 – no errors, lookups, or false starts.
New or forgotten: “Jill Scott,” “Palais Garnier,” “Bruno Mars’ birthplace,” TITUS Welliver, “Bosch” TV shows, PION.
I grew up in the 70s, so after figuring out two of the three theme answers, the third one needed no help at all.
Despite the gift of seeing the lyric entries almost immediately, I squandered the advantage and, not only did it take 7 minutes 8 seconds to finish, couldn’t quite “see” the final theme fill, BARS (not thinking with my musician hat on), and the 51D and 53D crosses didn’t help (enough). Still, a very fun Monday grid. Any puzzle that can get in a mention of the Police is good, even if it does reach back into KC and the Sunshine Band in the same grid.
Mostly easy Monday for me; took 9:43 with no peeks or errors. Didn’t know the same things as Ray C. and I initially “read” Gil Scott…so jazz, but left it blank just in case. Had CHEEse DUST before CHEETO DUST.
Knew the song, even if I was more into Rock, and got the 3rd theme answer straight away.