LA Times Crossword 26 Nov 23, Sunday

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Constructed by: Ricky Sirois
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Lend Me Your Ears!

Themed answers all sound as if they end with something EAR-related:

  • 22A Promo for a production at the Globe Theatre? : SHAKESPEARE PLUG (from “earplug”)
  • 33A Sign of impending bad weather? : ATMOSPHERE DROP (from “eardrop“)
  • 49A Essay by the author of “The Martian”? : ANDY WEIR PIECE (from “earpiece”)
  • 67A Jewelry displayed next to keychains and fridge magnets? : SOUVENIR RINGS (from “earrings”)
  • 87A Polish for posh light fixtures? : CHANDELIER WAX (from “earwax”)
  • 102A School friends in Troy, New York? : RENSSELAER BUDS (from “earbuds”)
  • 116A Soreness after a long day working at Sotheby’s? : AUCTIONEER ACHES (from “earaches”)

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

Bill’s time: 15m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 “The Goonies” role for Ke Huy Quan : DATA

Ke Huy Quan is an actor who returned to our screens in 2021 after a 19-year hiatus that followed two notable appearances in movies. He played the young orphan named Short Round in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, and then the James Bond fanatic named Data in the 1985’s “The Goonies”.

18 Chapati flour : ATTA

Chapati is an unleavened flatbread that is associated with India. The name of the bread comes from the Hindi word “chapat” meaning “flat”.

19 Former Ford div. : MERC

The Mercury brand of car was made by Ford from 1938 until 2011. Mercury was introduced by Henry Ford’s son Edsel Ford. Mercury vehicles were positioned as being more luxurious that the regular Ford models, and more economical than Ford’s high-end Lincoln models.

22 Promo for a production at the Globe Theatre? : SHAKESPEARE PLUG (from “earplug”)

The Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599, and was used mainly for staging works by William Shakespeare and his theater company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The theater was destroyed by fire in 1613. A second Globe was built on the site a year later, and it remained open until 1642. The original theater was reconstructed on a nearby site by the Thames and opened in 1997. I had the privilege of seeing a fabulous performance of “As You Like It” in Shakespeare’s Globe (as the new theater is called) about a decade ago. Seeing a play in that remarkable theater is tremendous entertainment, much recommended for anyone visiting London.

25 Cygnets’ parents : SWANS

An adult male swan is a cob and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

30 Bobby honored at Boston’s TD Garden : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking. While still 31 years old, in 1979, Orr became the youngest person inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Prior to that, in 1967, Orr became the youngest person named the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

38 Scuba spot : REEF

The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) was co-invented by celebrated French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

41 Canadian prov. : PEI

Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a maritime Canadian province. The island at the center of the province was named for Prince Edward, the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria. PEI is the smallest Canadian province, both in terms of land area and population.

42 Escarole kin : ENDIVE

Endive is a leaf vegetable belonging to the chicory genus, and so is in the daisy family. Endive is also known as “escarole”.

43 Doone of fiction : LORNA

The novel “Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor” was written by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. R. D. Blackmore was an English novelist, very celebrated and in demand in his day (the late 1800s). His romantic story “Lorna Doone” was by no means a personal favorite of his, and yet it is the only one of his works still in print.

48 Madre’s sister : TIA

In Spanish, the “hermana” (sister) of your “madre” (mother) is your “tia” (aunt).

49 Essay by the author of “The Martian”? : ANDY WEIR PIECE (from “earpiece”)

“The Martian” is an intriguing 2015 science fiction film starring Matt Damon as an astronaut who is accidentally stranded on Mars. The movie is based on a 2011 novel of the same name by Andy Weir. One thing that I liked about the film is that the science cited is fairly realistic. In fact, NASA collaborated with the filmmakers extensively from script development to principal casting.

53 Country with the southernmost capital city in the Americas : URUGUAY

Montevideo is the capital and main port of Uruguay. Famously, Montevideo featured in the Battle of the River Plate in WWII that resulted in the scuttling of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

56 Rich dessert : TORTE

A torte is a type of cake made primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts (but no flour).

62 Milky birthstone : OPAL

An opal is often described as having a milky iridescence known as opalescence.

67 Jewelry displayed next to keychains and fridge magnets? : SOUVENIR RINGS (from “earrings”)

A souvenir is a memento, a token of remembrance. We imported “souvenir” from French, in which language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin “subvenire” meaning “to come to mind”, or literally “to come up”.

72 “No seats” sign : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

73 Bygone depilatory brand : NEET

A depilatory agent is something capable of removing hair. The root of the term is “pilus”, the Latin for “hair”, and the same word that gives us “pile” (as in a carpet).

81 Invents, as a word : COINS

To coin a phrase is to invent a new phrase or expression. The greatest “coiner” of them all has to be William Shakespeare. Here are a few everyday expressions that were created by the Bard:

  • The game is afoot (Henry IV, Part I)
  • Brave new world (The Tempest)
  • Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)
  • Dead as a doornail (Henry VI, Part II)
  • Eaten me out of house and home (Henry IV, Part II)
  • Forever and a day (As You Like It)
  • For goodness’ sake (Henry VIII)
  • Knock knock! Who’s there? (Macbeth)
  • Set my teeth on edge (Henry IV, Part I)
  • Wild-goose chase (Romeo and Juliet)

83 Taurasi who was the first WNBA player to score more than 9,000 points : DIANA

WNBA player Diana Diana Taurasi was the first pick in the 2004 draft, and signed up with the Phoenix Mercury. That first season, she won the league’s Rookie of the Year Award, the first of many, many awards in her career, including five Olympic gold medals.

87 Polish for posh light fixtures? : CHANDELIER WAX (from “earwax”)

A chandelier is a relatively elaborate light fixture that is mounted on a ceiling. The term “chandelier” ultimately comes from “candela”, the Latin for “candle”.

93 Parsonage : MANSE

A manse is a minister’s home in various Christian traditions. “Manse” derives from “mansus”, the Latin for “dwelling”. The term can also be used for any stately residence.

96 French masculine pronoun : LUI

In French, “lui” is the word for “him” and “elle” is the word for “her”.

97 Winter Games gp. : IOC

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894, and has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

102 School friends in Troy, New York? : RENSSELAER BUDS (from “earbuds”)

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a private school in Troy, New York. The university is named after its founder Stephen Van Rensselaer who set up the school in 1824. The goal of RPI has always been the “application of science to the common purposes of life”, an objective set by the founder. Given that, the name for the school’s sports teams is quite apt: the Engineers.

107 Angular abode : A-FRAME

An A-frame house is one that has a steeply-angled roof, one forming the shape of the letter “A”. The A-frame design is popular in snowy regions, as the roof is so steeply pitched that it does not collect snow.

109 __ World Service: international news org. based in London : BBC

BBC World Service is an international broadcast service based in London. The BBC is the largest international broadcaster in the world. Programming goes out in 28 languages, with English programming being aired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The BBC World Service’s audience has been reported as between 180 and 190 million people around the globe.

111 “Bridesmaids” actor Chris : O’DOWD

Irish actor and comedian Chris O’Dowd hit the big time on the other side of the Atlantic with a starring role in the quirky British sitcom “The IT Crowd”. His first major role in the US, I think, was as the Irish-American Wisconsin State Patrol officer in the comedy film “Bridesmaids”. O’Dowd married Scottish writer and TV presenter Dawn Porter in 2012, after which Dawn changed her name to “O’Porter”.

“Bridesmaids” is a 2011 comedy movie co-written by and starring Kristen Wiig. I wasn’t crazy about this film until Chris O’Dowd turned up as a traffic cop. Wiig and O’Dowd were great together, I thought. Pity about the rest of the movie …

116 Soreness after a long day working at Sotheby’s? : AUCTIONEER ACHES (from “earaches”)

Sotheby’s is one of the world’s oldest auction houses, having opened its doors for business in 1744 in London. However, the company is now headquartered in New York City. The ticker symbol for Sotheby’s on the New York Stock Exchange is quite apt, i.e. “BID”.

121 Home of the southeast route to Everest : NEPAL

Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

Mount Everest was first summited in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese-Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Hillary and Norgay were part of an expedition from which two pairs of climbers were selected to make a summit attempt. The first pair were Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, and they came within 330 feet of their goal but had to turn back. The expedition sent up the second pair two days later, and history was made on 29 May 1953.

122 Pixar clownfish : NEMO

“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and, until 2010’s “Toy Story 3”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.

123 NBA legend Bryant : KOBE

Kobe Bryant played basketball for the LA Lakers. Bryant got his given name from a menu, would you believe? His parents were in a Japanese restaurant and liked the name of “Kobe” beef, the beef from around the city of Kobe on the island of Honshu in Japan. Very sadly, Bryant and his daughter Gianna, along with seven others, were killed in a helicopter crash in 2020.

124 Home of the northeast route to Everest : TIBET

Tibet is a plateau region that is part of China, and is located northeast of the Himalayas. Tibet declared its independence from China in 1913, but fell back under Chinese control after the Invasion of Tibet in 1951. The Tibetan leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled the country during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion. Since then, he has led the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

127 Wet septet : SEAS

The phrase “the seven seas” has been used for centuries by many different peoples. The actual definition of what constitutes the collection of seven has varied depending on the period and the culture. Nowadays we consider the seven largest bodies of water as the seven seas, namely:

  • The North Pacific Ocean
  • The South Pacific Ocean
  • The North Atlantic Ocean
  • The South Atlantic Ocean
  • The Indian Ocean
  • The Southern Ocean
  • The Arctic Ocean

Down

1 Fforde who writes the “Thursday Next” mystery novels : JASPER

English author Jasper Fforde is best known for his “Thursday Next” series of novels, in which Thursday Next is a literary detective, and the daughter of Wednesday Next and Colonel Next.

2 Hydrocarbon gas : ETHANE

Ethane is the second largest component of natural gas after methane. Ethane’s main use is in the production of ethylene, a compound that is widely used in the chemical industry.

10 The Hawks, on scoreboards : ATL

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

12 Harmon of “Rizzoli & Isles” : ANGIE

“Rizzoli & Isles” is a detective drama that is inspired by the “Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli” series of novels by Tess Gerritsen. In the show, Angie Harmon plays detective Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander plays medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles.

15 Two-time Best Director Oscar winner Alejandro González __ : INARRITU

Alejandro G. Iñárritu is a film director from Mexico City. The years 2014 and 2015 were great for Iñárritu. He won Oscars for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for “Birdman” in 2014. He won Best Director again the following year, for “The Revenant”.

16 Liberia’s capital : MONROVIA

Monrovia is the capital of Liberia in West Africa. The city was named for US President James Munroe. Monroe was a supporter of the American Colonization Society, which helped found the colony of Liberia.

17 Triage ctrs. : ERS

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

24 Sleep cycle letters : REM

“REM” is an acronym standing for “rapid eye movement”. REM sleep takes up 20-25% of the sleeping hours and is the period associated with one’s most vivid dreams.

29 Allowed to graze : FREE RANGE

Outside of the US, the term “free range” is used to describe farming in which animals are allowed to roam freely and are not caged or penned up. In the US, the term is simply a marketing device, usually indicating that the animal has some access to an outdoor area, the size or nature of which is undefined. The politics of food …

34 __ bar : SPACE

In early typewriters, the space bar was indeed a bar. It was a metal bar that stretched across the full width of the keyboard.

35 Euro pop? : PERE

In French, a “père” (father) is a “membre de la famille” (member of the family).

37 Austin __: Tennessee university : PEAY

Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee was established in 1927. The school was named for then-Governor Austin Peay. Indeed, the university’s athletic teams go by the name of “Governors”.

40 Singer DiFranco : ANI

Ani DiFranco is a folk-rock singer and songwriter. DiFranco has also been labeled a feminist icon, and in 2006 won the Woman of Courage Award from the National Organization for Women.

44 Berlin Olympics star Jesse : OWENS

Jesse Owens is famous for winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, much to the chagrin of Adolf Hitler. Jesse’s real name was James Cleveland Owens, and he went by “JC” as a child. However, his Alabama accent was misconstrued at school when his family moved to Cleveland, so teachers and classmates called him “Jesse” instead of “JC”, and the name stuck.

46 Frilly underskirt : PETTICOAT

A petticoat is an undergarment worn from the waist that goes under a skirt or dress. That said, the term “petticoat” was used in my day back in Britain and Ireland for a full-length slip. The name translates literally as “small coat” and originally described a padded coat worn by men under armor.

47 Martin Van __ : BUREN

Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the US, and also served as Vice President and Secretary of State under President Andrew Jackson. Although Van Buren was the first president who was born a US citizen, he was the only president whose first language wasn’t English. Our eighth president grew up speaking Dutch.

49 Narnia lion : ASLAN

In the C. S. Lewis series of books known as “The Chronicles of Narnia”, Aslan is the lion character (as in the title “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). “Aslan” is actually the Turkish word for lion. Anyone who has read the books will recognize the remarkable similarity between the story of Aslan and the story of Christ, including a sacrifice and resurrection.

Apparently, it’s not certain how C. S. Lewis came to choose Narnia as the name of the fantasy world featured in his series of children’s books, including “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. There was an ancient city in Umbria that the Romans called Narnia, but there is no evidence of a link.

51 Male mallard : DRAKE

The mallard is perhaps the most recognizable of all ducks and is also known as the wild duck. The name “mallard” has the same Latin root as our word “male”, probably reflecting how flamboyant the coloring is of the male of the species relative to the female.

54 Cable TV’s Nat __ Wild : GEO

The National Geographic Channel (Nat Geo) is jointly owned by Fox and the National Geographic Society, and was launched in 2001. Nat Geo has a sister channel known as National Geographic Wild (Nat Geo Wild) that focuses on programming about wildlife.

57 Agnus __ : DEI

“Agnus Dei” is Latin for “Lamb of God”, The expression is used in Christian traditions to describe Jesus Christ, hence symbolizing his role as a sacrificial offering (sacrificial lamb) to atone for the sins of man.

65 “I speak for the trees” Seuss character : LORAX

“The Lorax” is a 1971 children’s book written by Dr. Seuss. It is an allegorical work questioning the problems created by industrialization, and in particular its impact on the environment. At one point in the story, the Lorax “speaks for the trees, for the trees have no tongues”. “The Lorax” was adapted into an animated film that was released in 2012, with Danny DeVito voicing the title character.

He was shortish, and oldish, and brownish and mossy. And he spoke with a voice that was sharpish and bossy.

69 Zoo doc : VET

The world’s first zoo opened in Britain in 1820. Now known as “London Zoo”, the facility was referred to back then as the “Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London”. The term “zoo” is a shortening of “zoological”.

70 Cologne’s river : RHINE

Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany, and is known as “Köln” in German.

71 Heads and tails : SIDES

The two sides of a coin are known as the “obverse” and the “reverse”. The obverse is commonly referred to as “heads”, as it often depicts someone’s head. The reverse is commonly called “tails”, as it is the opposite of “heads”.

74 La Brea abundance : TAR

The La Brea Tar Pits are located right in the heart of the city of Los Angeles. At the site there is a constant flow of tar that seeps up to the surface from underground, a phenomenon that has been around for tens of thousands of years. What is significant is that much of the seeping tar is covered by water. Over many, many centuries animals came to the water to drink and became trapped in the tar as they entered the water to quench their thirst. The tar then preserved the bones of the dead animals. Today a museum is located right by the Tar Pits, recovering bones and displaying specimens of the animals found there. It’s well worth a visit if you are in town …

78 Mustang’s prints? : TIRE TRACKS

The Ford Mustang car was introduced in 1964. Back then the Mustang wasn’t a brand new design, but was based on the Ford Falcon. The Mustang was the first of the “pony cars”, American models that are compact and affordable, as well as sporty in image and performance.

84 Jack of early talk TV : PAAR

Jack Paar was most famous as the host of “The Tonight Show”, from 1957 to 1962. When he died in 2004, “Time” magazine wrote that Paar was “the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: “Before Paar and Below Paar”. Very complimentary …

85 Ninth grade math course, often : ALGEBRA I

Algebra (alg.) is a branch of mathematics in which arithmetical operations are performed on variables rather than specific numbers (x,y etc). The term “algebra” comes from the Arabic “al jebr” meaning “reunion of broken parts”.

86 Crafty street art : YARN BOMB

Yarn bombing, also known as yarnstorming and guerrilla knitting, is a type of street art that involves covering public surfaces with knitted or crocheted pieces. Exactly where yarn bombing originated is disputed, but the practice seems to have taken off in 2005 and examples are encountered all around the world.

87 “Professor Plum, in the library, with the candlestick” board game : CLUE

Clue is a board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

88 Southeast Asian language : LAO

Lao, the language of Laos, does not use spaces between words (or periods!), although this is apparently changing. Spaces are used between sentences and clauses.

89 Peru native : INCA

The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Túpac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.

99 Nevada’s second-most populous county : WASHOE

Washoe County is the second-most populous county in Nevada after Clark County. Clark County is home to Las Vegas, and Washoe County is home to Reno. Washoe County was one of the Nevada Territory’s original nine counties, and was named for the Washoe Native American people who lived in the area near Lake Tahoe.

100 Pond protozoan : AMOEBA

An ameba (also “amoeba”) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe”, meaning change. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

103 “Big Little Lies” novelist Moriarty : LIANE

Liane Moriarty is an author from Sydney, Australia. Her most famous work is a 2014 novel titled “Big Little Lies”, which was adapted into a very successful TV series starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz.

105 Asparagus-like vegetable in some miso soup recipes : UDO

Udo is a perennial plant native to Japan known taxonomically as Aralia cordata. The stems of udo are sometimes boiled up and served in miso soup.

106 Disco legend Summer : DONNA

Donna Summer is known as “The Queen of Disco”, with great hits like “Love to Love You, Baby”, “I Feel Love” and “Hot Stuff”. In the late sixties and early seventies, LaDonna Gaines (her real name) lived and worked in Germany. There she met and married an Austrian actor called Helmuth Sommer. They divorced not long after the marriage, but Donna kept his family name, just changing the “o” to “u” to give her the stage name of “Donna Summer”.

108 Govt. mortgage insurer : FHA

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was set up in 1934 to insure loans made by lenders for the building and purchasing of homes. The FHA was created in response to the bank failures of the Great Depression, with the intent of creating a more favorable environment for lending.

115 “Spring forward” letters : DST

On the other side of the Atlantic, daylight saving time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (“spring forward”), and backwards in the fall (“fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight. Here in the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March, and ends on the first Sunday of November.

117 Bk. reviewer? : CPA

Certified public accountant (CPA)

118 Flat cap : TAM

A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap worn traditionally by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”) but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of the Robert Burns poem “Tam o’ Shanter”. A pom-pom adorning a tam is known as a toorie.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Kid around : JEST
5 Agcys. : ORGS
9 “The Goonies” role for Ke Huy Quan : DATA
13 Wind instrument? : CHIME
18 Chapati flour : ATTA
19 Former Ford div. : MERC
20 Discover, as a solution : HIT ON
21 Organ __ : DONOR
22 Promo for a production at the Globe Theatre? : SHAKESPEARE PLUG (from “earplug”)
25 Cygnets’ parents : SWANS
26 Comics unit : PANEL
27 Proprietor : OWNER
28 Image file type : GIF
30 Bobby honored at Boston’s TD Garden : ORR
31 Pitch tents : ENCAMP
33 Sign of impending bad weather? : ATMOSPHERE DROP (from “eardrop”)
38 Scuba spot : REEF
39 Pup’s bark : YAP
41 Canadian prov. : PEI
42 Escarole kin : ENDIVE
43 Doone of fiction : LORNA
45 Crash site? : SPARE BED
48 Madre’s sister : TIA
49 Essay by the author of “The Martian”? : ANDY WEIR PIECE (from “earpiece”)
53 Country with the southernmost capital city in the Americas : URUGUAY
55 “Yes __, Bob!” : SIREE
56 Rich dessert : TORTE
57 Fall loosely : DRAPE
58 Memorizes : LEARNS
60 Tennis do-over : LET
61 “We’ve all __ there” : BEEN
62 Milky birthstone : OPAL
66 “Crikey!” : ACK!
67 Jewelry displayed next to keychains and fridge magnets? : SOUVENIR RINGS (from “earrings”)
72 “No seats” sign : SRO
73 Bygone depilatory brand : NEET
75 GPS lines : RTES
76 Chinese tea : CHA
77 “Whichever” : EITHER
79 Bit the dust : ATE IT
81 Invents, as a word : COINS
83 Taurasi who was the first WNBA player to score more than 9,000 points : DIANA
84 Regular expense for an employer : PAYROLL
87 Polish for posh light fixtures? : CHANDELIER WAX (from “earwax”)
90 Taking after : A LA
91 Shoe reinforcement : TOEPLATE
93 Parsonage : MANSE
94 Jibes : AGREES
96 French masculine pronoun : LUI
97 Winter Games gp. : IOC
98 Quaint contraction : ‘TWAS
102 School friends in Troy, New York? : RENSSELAER BUDS (from “earbuds”)
107 Angular abode : A-FRAME
109 __ World Service: international news org. based in London : BBC
110 Oil field apparatus : RIG
111 “Bridesmaids” actor Chris : O’DOWD
113 Wears : HAS ON
114 Expansive : BROAD
116 Soreness after a long day working at Sotheby’s? : AUCTIONEER ACHES (from “earaches”)
120 Room brighteners : LAMPS
121 Home of the southeast route to Everest : NEPAL
122 Pixar clownfish : NEMO
123 NBA legend Bryant : KOBE
124 Home of the northeast route to Everest : TIBET
125 Dutch cheese : EDAM
126 Tiny particle : ATOM
127 Wet septet : SEAS

Down

1 Fforde who writes the “Thursday Next” mystery novels : JASPER
2 Hydrocarbon gas : ETHANE
3 Position : STANCE
4 Gamble (on) : TAKE A FLYER
5 Sounds of meditation : OMS
6 Bank’s takeback : REPO
7 Lost intimacy, say : GREW APART
8 Negligible : SCANT
9 Quick swim : DIP
10 The Hawks, on scoreboards : ATL
11 Head-scratcher : TOUGHIE
12 Harmon of “Rizzoli & Isles” : ANGIE
13 LP successors : CDS
14 [Scratches head] : [HOW ODD]
15 Two-time Best Director Oscar winner Alejandro González __ : INARRITU
16 Liberia’s capital : MONROVIA
17 Triage ctrs. : ERS
20 Protagonist : HERO
23 Furniture wood : ELM
24 Sleep cycle letters : REM
29 Allowed to graze : FREE RANGE
32 Funeral rite pile : PYRE
34 __ bar : SPACE
35 Euro pop? : PERE
36 Land : END UP
37 Austin __: Tennessee university : PEAY
40 Singer DiFranco : ANI
44 Berlin Olympics star Jesse : OWENS
45 Part of an emergency warning system : SIREN
46 Frilly underskirt : PETTICOAT
47 Martin Van __ : BUREN
49 Narnia lion : ASLAN
50 Female kin : NIECE
51 Male mallard : DRAKE
52 Flag bearers : POLES
54 Cable TV’s Nat __ Wild : GEO
57 Agnus __ : DEI
59 Player who pouts after a rout : SORE LOSER
61 __ new : BRAND
63 “As if!” : PSHAW!
64 Place for matches : ARENA
65 “I speak for the trees” Seuss character : LORAX
68 Practical : UTILE
69 Zoo doc : VET
70 Cologne’s river : RHINE
71 Heads and tails : SIDES
74 La Brea abundance : TAR
78 Mustang’s prints? : TIRE TRACKS
80 “Completely,” casually : TOTES
81 Committee leader : CHAIR
82 Like some chocolate : SEMISWEET
84 Jack of early talk TV : PAAR
85 Ninth grade math course, often : ALGEBRA I
86 Crafty street art : YARN BOMB
87 “Professor Plum, in the library, with the candlestick” board game : CLUE
88 Southeast Asian language : LAO
89 Peru native : INCA
92 Troubled greatly : PLAGUED
95 Get away from it all : ESCAPE
99 Nevada’s second-most populous county : WASHOE
100 Pond protozoan : AMOEBA
101 Has a feeling : SENSES
103 “Big Little Lies” novelist Moriarty : LIANE
104 More than simmer : BOIL
105 Asparagus-like vegetable in some miso soup recipes : UDO
106 Disco legend Summer : DONNA
108 Govt. mortgage insurer : FHA
112 Many a helpful video, for short : DEMO
114 Letters on a lunch menu : BLT
115 “Spring forward” letters : DST
117 Bk. reviewer? : CPA
118 Flat cap : TAM
119 __-com : ROM

12 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 26 Nov 23, Sunday”

    1. Bill Butler’s various Web sites are ALL “labors of love,” and NONE of them contain ANY advertisements! NOT EVEN ONE!
      If you are “seeing” ads (on Mr. Butler’s sites) on your devices, check your anti-virus settings and/or check with your Internet service provider. Your Internet access MAY have been “compromised.”

  1. Several one-off letter errors. Thought I knew what author was going for but I was not on the same page.

    I guess if you went to RPI, one of the entry level courses might be “how do you spell the name of our college?”…

    Quite the test of long words.

  2. 29:12, no errors. Decent Sunday puzzle. In the 1960s, I had a co-worker who was a graduate of RPI (RENSSELAER Polytechnic Institute). I’d have sworn that he pronounced it to rhyme with “layer”. But that was a long time ago, so I could be wrong. (At least he made it easy for me to fill in RPI whenever I see a clue about a private university in Troy, NY … 🙂.)

  3. 28 mins, and 6 seconds, DNF: with 6 left unfilled because the theme fills made NO F***ING SENSE.

    Enough already with these badly forced soundalike puns. This is utter shite.

    1. Lighten up, please!
      And, the themed answers, which you were unable to determine on your own, SHOULD have filled themselves in using “perps” (a term I learned while becoming an experienced cruciverbalist!).
      Again, please lighten up!

  4. So one wrong letter (I had “yard bomb” instead of “yarn bomb”) for 86 Down and 2 errors. I’ll take it.

  5. @Joe Me thinks we get adds because Bill gets the site for free. It’s the price we pay to avoid dues.

    A lot of false starts today: ONT->PEI, PLAY->PLUG, ECUADOR->URUGUAY and SPAS->SEAS. Plenty of fun though as I knew a few of the obscure clues.

  6. 52:39 – and enough check grids/letter gets to consider it a DNF.

    Neat puzzle, but I didn’t know a lot of the PPPs and it really killed me.

    Gotta get better.

    Be Well.

    p.s.: I don’t know where some are getting ads – I don’t get any and I shut my ad blocker off just to test it.

    Bill – thanks again, as always.

  7. 24:43 – no errors or lookups. False starts: JPG>GIF, ACH>ACK.

    New or forgotten: “Le Huy Quan,” “escarole,” ANDYWEIR, DIANA Taurasi, LUI, JASPER Eforde, “Thursday Next,” WASHOE, LIANE Moriarty, UDO.

    An easy sound-alike theme that was a little help to confirm some answers.

    A pretty good Sunday “workout” without much stress.

  8. I’ve never heard (80D) “TOTES” used for ‘ “completely,”, casually’ ! And I’ve been around long enough to have seen Jack Paar live on TV. 🙂

    I get ads, but I expect that for a free site.

  9. There is no such thing as an “atmosphere drop” and therefore it is not “sign of impending bad weather”. It is nothing at all–some made up term to generate an abysmal pun. Even with the question mark added to the clue to signify that something is amuck between it and the answer, it is more than just a bit of a stretch.

    I see they gave us another WNBA clue. Relentless.

    From Rensselaer and Peay, it seems someone expects people to know the name of every college in the country.

    ‘Agencies’ is not spelled with a ‘y’, therefore there is no ‘y’ in any abbreviation of ‘agencies’.

    If you asked all 26 million people in Australia what ‘Crikey!’ means, I’d be willing to bet that not a single one of them would respond that it means ‘ack!’.

    I will avoid future Ricky Sirois’ abominations. Nobody needs this kind of stupid in their life.

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