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Constructed by: Emily Biegas & Sala Wanetick
Edited by: Patti Varol
Today’s Reveal Answer: Youth Group
Themed answers are all musical GROUP names, with each including a synonym of “YOUTHS”:
- 63A Ministry community for religious teens, and what the answer to each starred clue can be called : YOUTH GROUP
- 17A *Posh quintet? : SPICE GIRLS
- 29A *”Robbers & Cowards” indie rock band : COLD WAR KIDS
- 48A *Musical duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe : PET SHOP BOYS
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
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Bill’s time: 6m 42s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Danish shoe brand : ECCO
I have to say, after owning several pairs, that ECCO shoes are the most comfortable in the world. The company is headquartered in Denmark.
5 __ Sketch : ETCH A
Etch A Sketch was introduced in 1960. The toy was developed in France by inventor André Cassagnes, who initially named it “L’Écran Magique” (The Magic Screen).
15 Croc kin : GATOR
Crocodiles and alligators do indeed bear a resemblance to each other, although they belong to distinct biological families. One of the main ways used to distinguish them is by their teeth and jaws. Both the upper and lower sets of teeth of a crocodile are visible when its mouth is closed, whereas only the upper teeth of an alligator are visible with the mouth shut.
16 Subway fare? : HERO
The SUBWAY chain of fast food restaurants is the largest single-brand restaurant in the world. I’m a big fan of SUBWAY sandwiches, especially the toasted ones …
17 *Posh quintet? : SPICE GIRLS
Victoria Beckham (nee Adams) became famous as a member of the Spice Girls girl group, using the stage name Posh Spice. She married football legend David Beckham in 1999, not long after the celebrity couple had earned the nickname “Posh and Becks”. Their main home for several years was a large mansion on 24 acres of Hertfordshire countryside called Rowneybury House. After a multimillion-dollar renovation, the media dubbed the home “Beckingham Palace”. Oh, when she was a young girl, Victoria used to have her father drop her off at school each day in his Rolls Royce. All very posh …
29 *”Robbers & Cowards” indie rock band : COLD WAR KIDS
Cold War Kids are an indie rock band that formed in Long Beach in 2004. Bass guitarist Matt Maust came up with the band’s name several years earlier while traveling in Eastern Europe. It popped into his mind while visiting a park in Budapest that had empty plinths where Communist statues had once stood. Born in 1979, Maust realized that he was a “Cold War kid”.
38 “__ Break”: Kathryn Bigelow surfing film : POINT
“Point Break” is a 1991 film about an FBI agent investigating a series of robberies, with suspicion falling on a group of surfer dudes. Famously, Patrick Swayze plays the leader of the surfers, and Keanu Reeves the rookie FBI agent. A “point break” is a location where waves hit a point of land jutting out from a coastline. The film was remade in 2015 under the same title.
Kathryn Bigelow is a movie director and writer. Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar, for 2009’s “The Hurt Locker”. James Cameron was also nominated as Best Director that year, for “Avatar”. Bigelow and Cameron were a married couple from 1989 to 1991.
48 *Musical duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe : PET SHOP BOYS
Pet Shop Boys are a pop duo from England consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. The pair originally performed in the West End in the early 1980s, because they loved London’s West End. When they decided to rename their act, they chose Pet Shop Boys simply because they had good friends working in a nearby pet shop.
51 Ra or Odin : GOD
Ra (sometimes “Re”) was the ancient Egyptian sun god. He was associated with the falcon, and was often depicted as a man with a falcon’s head.
In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. He is usually depicted as having one eye, reflecting the story of how he gave one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom.
52 Business casual top : POLO
René Lacoste was a French tennis player who went into the clothing business, and came up with a more comfortable shirt that players could use. This became known as a “tennis shirt”. When it was adopted for use in the sport of polo, the shirts also became known as “polo shirts”. The “golf shirt” is basically the same thing. The Lacoste line of clothing features a crocodile logo, because René was nicknamed “The Crocodile”.
58 Spa rooms with heated stones : SAUNAS
As my Finnish-American wife will tell you, “sauna” is a Finnish word. It is pronounced more correctly as “sow-nah” (“sow”, as in the female pig).
66 Avocado app : GUAC
Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.
67 Closing section of music : OUTRO
In the world of pop music, an outro is the opposite to an intro. An outro might perhaps be the concluding track of an album, for example.
Down
2 Means of emphasis : CAPS
An uppercase (also “capital”) letter is more formally known as a majuscule letter. A letter written in lowercase is referred to as minuscule.
4 Muppet who sings “I Love Trash” : OSCAR
Oscar the Grouch is the Muppet who lives in a garbage can. Oscar’s persona comes from various sources. He is named after Oscar Brand who was one of the board members of the Children’s Television Workshop, the backers for “Sesame Street” as the Muppets were being developed in the sixties. Oscar’s personality was inspired by an angry waiter that once served Jim Henson (father of the Muppets). The voice was modeled on a grumpy New York cab driver encountered one day by Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who brings Oscar to life.
5 Stirred up : EGGED ON
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”.
6 Mai __ : TAI
The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.
7 NFL snapper : CTR
The quarterback (QB) starts each play in football with a snap (also called a “hike”). He announces to his teammates the exact moment of the snap by calling out signals, usually including the word “hut” one or more times in a prearranged sequence.
9 Premier League powerhouse : ARSENAL
Arsenal Football Club (nicknamed “the Gunners”) is an English soccer team based in the Holloway district of London. The club was founded in 1886 as Dial Square by workers at the Royal Arsenal munitions factory. Dial Square was the name given to the workshops at the center of the Royal Arsenal complex. After just a few weeks in existence, the club changed its name to Royal Arsenal, which was eventually shortened to just Arsenal.
10 Gesture of approval : CHEF’S KISS
A chef’s kiss is a gesture used by a chef to indicate that a dish has achieved perfection. The gesture involves kissing the tips of the gathered fingers.
12 Museu Picasso pieces : ARTE
The Museu Picasso (“Picasso Museum) in Barcelona, Spain opened its doors in 1963, as the first museum dedicated to the art of Pablo Picasso. The facility’s collection is huge, numbering over 4,000 works.
28 Apple Watch spot : WRIST
The Apple Watch was announced in 2014 and started shipping in 2015. The device works as an extension to a user’s smartphone, although it also has capabilities of its own. I’m not a big fan of smartwatches; I really don’t see the point …
33 Word with dating or skating : SPEED …
Speed dating is a matchmaking process in which single people meet a relatively large number of potential partners in a short period of time. The first speed-dating event took place in Beverly Hills in 1998 at a Peet’s Café.
The competitive sport of speed skating has been enjoyed for a long, long time. When the International Skating Union was formed in 1892 to govern speed skating, it was the world’s first international governing body for a winter sport.
35 Column to the left of a decimal : ONES PLACE
The decimal separator in a number written in decimal form is the symbol that separates the integer part of the number from the fractional part. Here in the US, we tend to use a decimal point for that separation. In Central Europe, a decimal comma is the norm.
39 Lake in the Sierra Nevadas : TAHOE
The American Sierra Nevada range lies in California and Nevada. The Spanish Sierra Nevada range is in Andalusia, with the name meaning “snowy range” in Spanish.
49 Allowing for osmosis : POROUS
Osmosis is the movement of a solvent (often water) across a semipermeable membrane. In the process of osmosis, the solvent tends to flow from an area of less concentration to an area of higher concentration. This sense of absorbing water effortlessly gives rise to the expression “learning by osmosis”.
50 Party favors : SWAG
Swag is loot, stolen property, and a term that started out as criminal slang in England in the 1830s. “Swag” is also the name given to the promotional freebies available at some events. That said, there’s an urban myth that the promotional version of “swag” is an acronym standing for “stuff we all get”.
54 Glamping options : YURTS
A yurt is a wood-framed dwelling that is used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. Although a yurt is a substantial structure, it is also extremely portable.
“Glamping” is “glamorous camping”, camping with comforts and amenities.
56 “So You Want To Talk About Race” writer Ijeoma : OLUO
Author Ijeoma Oluo is known for her writings about racism, misogyny, and social justice. Three of her more famous titles are:
- “The Badass Feminist Coloring Book” (2015)
- “So You Want to Talk about Race” (2018)
- “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America”
57 Actor Neeson : LIAM
Irish actor Liam Neeson’s big break came with the role of Oskar Schindler in the Spielberg epic, “Schindler’s List”. Neeson was in the news some years later when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a tragic skiing accident in 2009. Earlier in his life, in the 1980s, Neeson lived for several years with Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren.
59 Biblical ark builder : NOAH
The term “ark”, when used with reference to Noah, is a translation of the Hebrew word “tebah”. The word “tebah” is also used in the Bible for the basket in which Moses was placed by his mother when she floated him down the Nile. It seems that the word “tebah” doesn’t mean “boat” and nor does it mean “basket”. Rather, a more appropriate translation is “life-preserver” or “life-saver”. So, Noah’s ark was Noah’s life-preserver during the flood.
60 German automaker : AUDI
In most countries around the world, Audi uses its corporate tagline in advertising, namely “Vorsprung durch Technik” (which translates as “Advancement through Technology”). However, the literal translation from the German was dropped for the US market, in favor of “Truth in Engineering”.
/p>
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Danish shoe brand : ECCO
5 __ Sketch : ETCH A
10 Study desperately : CRAM
14 Contented sighs : AAHS
15 Croc kin : GATOR
16 Subway fare? : HERO
17 *Posh quintet? : SPICE GIRLS
19 Grub : EATS
20 Wriggle out of : ESCAPE
21 Paper handout : LEAFLET
23 Eliminates : RIDS
25 “Our treat!” : ON US!
26 Cutting tool : SAW
29 *”Robbers & Cowards” indie rock band : COLD WAR KIDS
34 Other, in Spanish : OTRO
36 “Stat!” : NOW!
37 On bed rest, say : LAID UP
38 “__ Break”: Kathryn Bigelow surfing film : POINT
40 Verve : PEP
42 Lauder of cosmetics : ESTEE
43 Remove from office : UNSEAT
45 Before, in poetry : ERE
47 Fill up : SATE
48 *Musical duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe : PET SHOP BOYS
51 Ra or Odin : GOD
52 Business casual top : POLO
53 Moist : DEWY
55 Consonant sound common in Spanish : ROLLED R
58 Spa rooms with heated stones : SAUNAS
62 Et __: and others : ALIA
63 Ministry community for religious teens, and what the answer to each starred clue can be called : YOUTH GROUP
66 Avocado app : GUAC
67 Closing section of music : OUTRO
68 Cry of accomplishment : TA-DA!
69 Ambiguous amount : SOME
70 “Can you __ in a sentence?” : USE IT
71 Lower leg part : SHIN
Down
1 Make less demanding : EASE
2 Means of emphasis : CAPS
3 Stylish : CHIC
4 Muppet who sings “I Love Trash” : OSCAR
5 Stirred up : EGGED ON
6 Mai __ : TAI
7 NFL snapper : CTR
8 Lacking substance : HOLLOW
9 Premier League powerhouse : ARSENAL
10 Gesture of approval : CHEF’S KISS
11 True-to-life : REAL
12 Museu Picasso pieces : ARTE
13 The better part : MOST
18 Monumental : EPIC
22 Mystical halos : AURAE
24 Unappetizing fare : SLOP
26 Absorb, as a spill : SOP UP
27 Do penance (for) : ATONE
28 Apple Watch spot : WRIST
30 Dorky sort : DWEEB
31 Heart on a dog collar, perhaps : ID TAG
32 Caused by : DUE TO
33 Word with dating or skating : SPEED
35 Column to the left of a decimal : ONES PLACE
39 Lake in the Sierra Nevadas : TAHOE
41 Poke : PROD
44 “Just like I said!” : TOLD YOU!
46 Field of view : EYESHOT
49 Allowing for osmosis : POROUS
50 Party favors : SWAG
54 Glamping options : YURTS
55 __ to riches story : RAGS
56 “So You Want To Talk About Race” writer Ijeoma : OLUO
57 Actor Neeson : LIAM
59 Biblical ark builder : NOAH
60 German automaker : AUDI
61 Era : SPAN
64 Native of the Great Basin : UTE
65 Swim-bike-run race, for short : TRI
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17 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 26 Oct 23, Thursday”
Comments are closed.
10:30ish with multiple errors, most due to me hurriedly filling in the NE corner with a BEST instead of MOST for “the better part”.
Pretty normal for me at about 13 minutes..
Knew or heard of all the groups except COLD WAR KIDS. I looked them up on Utube… they don’t look like kids.. didn’t recognize any of their music either.
Powerhouse is a good double clue for Arsenal
I too had Eccos and can attest to their comfort. I got them mostly because they were one of the few latex free options for shoes way back when.
Struggled with this one. Didnt know CHEFS KISS, but finally got it by getting the crosses. Had the kiss part but never heard of the other.
Had OTRE v OTRO and took me forever getting ROLLED R and ALIA.
Still, only one lookup, so that’s a good Thursday for me.
A bit of a struggle in NE corner not knowing HERO which eventually came out of crosses.
No errors but I struggled with 66A because there was nothing to indicate that app was an abbreviation and I was looking for some kind of computer answer😠
Stay safe😀
Maybe in this case, app is short for appetizer. But app is always short for something, since it’s not an actual word. In computer-ese, it’s application.
16:47 – had DAMP instead of DEWY and it threw me off.
Fun puzzle even though the only long I had heard of was SPICEGIRLS.
16:47 – had DAMP instead of DEWY and it threw me off.
Fun puzzle even though the only long I had heard of was SPICEGIRLS … sigh, I guess a lead too sheltered a life …
My time for a Thursday is just fine with me.
Be Well.
I hope I didn’t double post, my browser’s been acting up.
8:45 – no errors, lookups, or false starts.
New or forgotten: “Robbers & Cowards,” COLDWARKIDS, Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe, PETSHOPBOYS, POINT Break, Ijeoma OLUO.
An okay theme, only sort of helpful if you get 63A first.
Good day for me! Struggled with ARSENAL for Premier League powerhouse, but otherwise pretty straightforward.
8 minutes 20 seconds, and needed Check Grid help on one fill 67A: Avocado “app” has got to be one of the WORST clues EVER. Guacamole is not an “app” or even an “application of” avocado. That is a pure BULLSH*T clue that is purely the fault of the editor, either for writing it herself, or for allowing it to make it unedited into the grid. Give me an effing BREAK!!!
I’m thinking that “app” in this case is short for appetizer which, in its shortened form, allows for the shortened answer “guac” instead of the full guacamole.
I think app is short for appetizer in this case. One of those “think outside the box” clues for sure.
“app noun [C] (FOOD) abbreviation for appetizer: a small dish served as the first part of a meal: Chicken souvlaki makes a nice, refreshing app.
Meaning of app in English – Cambridge Dictionary”
App short for appetizer
So sorry – I posted too soon, before seeing others’ explanations!
Mostly easy Thursday, except for the SW; took 14:56 with no peeks or errors. Everything was going smoothly until I put in ONES spACE, which lead to a lot of moving things around and puzzled looks. Finally untangled it, after an extra 4-5 minutes…sheesh!
Fun theme and I’ve never heard of Cold War Kids for some reason.