LA Times Crossword 16 Dec 23, Saturday

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Constructed by: Ryan Patrick Smith
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 26m 09s

Bill’s errors: 2

  • ORLAN (Orlap)
  • NIECE (piece!!!)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Like some windows : ONE-WAY

A one-way mirror is a mirror that reflects when viewed from one-side, but is transparent when viewed from the other. In order for a one-way mirror to work properly, one side of the mirror must be brightly lit, while the other side is dark. One-way mirrors are also known as two-way mirrors. I tried to work out which is the “correct” name, and just got a headache …

7 Notes app? : SHAZAM

The Shazam application is used to identify a piece of music as it is picked up by the microphone on which the app is installed.

13 Sotomayor alma mater : YALE LAW

Yale Law School was established in 1824. The school only admitted male applicants up until 1918, when it began accepting the first female students.

Sonia Sotomayor was the first Hispanic justice appointed to the US Supreme Court, and the third female justice. Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to replace the retiring Justice David Souter in 2009. She is the subject of a picture book in the series “Ordinary People Change the World” by Brad Meltzer. “I Am Sonia Sotomayor” was published in 2018.

15 Gap : LACUNA

A lacuna is a missing piece of text (or music) in a larger work. Usually the text has been lost due to damage of an older manuscript. Lacunae can be very controversial as experts vie with each other to suggest what words have been lost.

16 Wyo. has one : STATE REP

As a result of the 2020 census, the state with the largest delegation to the US House of Representatives is California, with 52 representatives. Six states have just one representative: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.

18 GM system : ONSTAR

The OnStar system was developed as a joint venture between GM, EDS and Hughes. The product itself was launched in 1996. Today, OnStar is only available on GM cars, although it used to be offered on other makes of car through a licensing agreement. OnStar is a subscription service that packages vehicle security, telephone, satellite navigation and remote diagnostics.

23 Disney heroine whose sister is beguiled by 8-Down : ELSA
[8D See 23-Across : HANS]

“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film is all about the exploits of Princess Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, Snow Queen of Arendelle. Elsa was originally intended to be a villain, a malicious and power-hungry character. By the final version of the film, Elsa had transformed from a one-dimensional villain into a fully fleshed-out protagonist. Spoiler alert: Prince Hans of the Southern Isles seems to be a good guy for most of the film, but turns out to be a baddie in the end.

25 Texas MLBers : ‘STROS

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

27 Instagram feature since 2020 : REELS

Reels is a feature introduced by Instagram in 2020. Essentially, it is a feature that competes with TikTok.

29 Pedant’s preoccupation : NIT

A pedant is a person “who trumpets minor points of learning”, a person who tends to nit-pick. “Pedant” comes via Middle French from the Italian word “pedante” meaning “teacher”.

30 Small garden party? : GNOME

In English folklore, the fairy’s anti-hero is the diminutive gnome, an evil ugly character. Although the charastics of gnomes vary in folklore, typically they are described as diminutive humanoids who live underground. Over the centuries, the gnome has become more lovable. We now have garden gnomes, and even the Travelocity Gnome.

31 Subject with strange attractors : CHAOS THEORY

Chaos theory has been called the science of surprises, and directs us to expect the unexpected. A lot of science that we learn at school deals with predictable phenomena such as electricity, magnetism, gravity and chemical reactions. Chaos theory covers phenomena that are relatively impossible to predict such as weather, turbulence and the movement of the stock market.

36 Gambits : RUSES

A gambit is a chess opening that intrinsically involves the sacrifice of a piece (usually a pawn) with the intent of gaining an advantage. The term “gambit” was first used by the Spanish priest Ruy Lopez de Segura who took it from the Italian expression “dare il gambetto” meaning “to put a leg forward to trip someone”. Said priest gave his name to the common Ruy Lopez opening, which paradoxically is not a gambit in that there is no sacrifice. The chess term dates back to the mid-1600s. We’ve been using “gambit” more generally for any opening move designed to gain advantage since the mid-1800s.

37 Wane : EBB

The verbs “to wax” and “to wane” come from Old English. To wax is to increase gradually in size, strength, intensity or number. To wane is to decrease gradually.

38 Features of some classic coupes : T-TOPS

A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

The type of car known as a “coupe” or “coupé” is a closed automobile with two doors. The name comes from the French word “couper” meaning “to cut”. In most parts of the English-speaking world the pronunciation adheres to the original French, but here in most of North America we go with “coop”. The original coupé was a horse-drawn carriage that was cut (coupé) to eliminate the rear-facing passenger seats. That left just a driver and two front-facing passengers. If the driver was left without a roof and out in the open, then the carriage was known as a “coupé de-ville”.

43 French multimedia artist who refers to her work as “carnal art” : ORLAN

French multi-media artist Orlan is perhaps best known for pioneering what she calls “carnal art”. Between 1990 and 1993, she underwent several surgical procedures that she described as performances.

46 Voyage opener : BON …

“Bon voyage” translates literally from French into English as “good journey”.

49 Actress Tyler : LIV

Actress and model Liv Tyler is the daughter of Steven Tyler, lead singer with Aerosmith, and Bebe Buell, a celebrated model and singer. Apparently, Buell hid the fact that Tyler was Liv’s father until Liv was 8 years old. Buell wanted to insulate her child from the rock-and-roll lifestyle. Liv Tyler plays the Elf maiden Arwen Undómiel in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

54 Repetitive Black Eyed Peas hit : IMMA BE

“Imma Be” is a 2010 song co-written and recorded by the Black Eyed Peas. The song’s title is a slang term meaning “I am going to be”.

55 Moped kin : SCOOTER

The word “moped” was coined in 1952 by a Swedish journalist named Harald Nielsen. The term is a portmanteau of “motor” and “pedal”.

57 War reporters, often : EMBEDS

Although journalists have been directly reporting from the front lines in military conflicts for some time, the term “embedded journalism” only came into fashion during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. A formal arrangement was made between the US Military and hundreds of reporters allowing journalists to travel with military units and, under pre-ordained conditions, report directly from those units. Some say that the arrangement was mutually beneficial. On the one hand the journalists had relatively little to worry about in terms of transportation and travel through combat zones. On the other hand, the military had better control over what did and did not get reported.

Down

1 Peacemaker po’boy morsel : OYSTER

One variant of the po’boy sandwich features both fried shrimp and fried oysters. That variant is known as a peacemaker (or “La Médiatrice” in French).

A po’ boy is a submarine sandwich from Louisiana. The name of the sandwich apparently dates back to 1929. It was a sandwich given away free to streetcar workers in New Orleans during a strike, i.e. to “poor boys” not earning a wage. A po’ boy differs from a regular submarine sandwich in that it uses Louisiana French bread, which is soft in the middle and crusty on the outside.

2 Celebrazione religiosa a dicembre : NATALE

In Italian, one “celebrazione religiosa a dicembre” (religious celebration in December) is “Natale” (Christmas).

5 Model Wek who was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR in 2013 : ALEK

Alek Wek is a supermodel originally from Southern Sudan. In her native language, Wek’s name translates as “Black Spotted Cow”, which is a symbol of good luck for the Dinka, her native people.

The UN agency tasked with aiding and protecting refugees is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It was created in 1950, initially in response to the refugee crisis resulting from World War II, and is headquartered in Geneva.

6 Longtime Toyota subcompact : YARIS

The Yaris is a subcompact car made by Toyota since 1999. The Yaris was sold into some markets from 1999 to 2005 as the Toyota Echo. The name “Yaris” was inspired by the Charites (singular “Charis”), the Greek goddesses of charm and beauty.

7 Mirage enticement : SLOTS

When the Mirage Hotel opened in Las Vegas in 1989, it was the most expensive hotel built in history, costing $630 million. The building has distinctive gold windows that were colored using real gold dust.

10 “Sacré bleu!” : ZUT ALORS!

“Zut alors!” is a relatively mild exclamation that translates from French as maybe “oh no!” or “oh dear!”. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Frenchman use the expression …

11 Gray area? : ANATOMY

“Gray’s Anatomy” is a very successful human anatomy textbook that was first published back in 1858 and is still in print today. The original text was written by English anatomist Henry Gray, who gave his name to the work. The TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” (note “Grey” vs. Gray”) is centered on the character Dr. Meredith Grey, but the show’s title is a nod to the title of the famous textbook.

12 Role for Laura in 2019’s “Little Women” : MARMEE

The “Little Women” in Louisa May Alcott’s classic (1868) novel are all sisters. The names of the five main characters in the book are a mother and her four daughters:

  • Margaret “Marmee” (the mother)
  • Margaret “Meg”
  • Josephine “Jo”
  • Elizabeth “Beth”
  • Amy Curtis

24 Mosques’ mihrabs, e.g. : ALCOVES

A mihrab (also “mehrab”) is a semicircular niche in an inside wall of a mosque. As such, it resembles an apse in a Christian church. However, a mihrab also indicated the direction of Mecca, and hence the direction the faithful should face when praying.

A minaret is an architectural feature of Islamic mosques, a tall tower with an onion-shaped crown that is used for the call to prayer. The world’s oldest minaret is part of the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, having been completed in 836 CE. The term “minaret” comes from the Arabic for “lighthouse”.

32 Dossier letters : AKA

A dossier is a collection of papers with information about a person or subject. “Dossier” is a French term meaning “bundle of papers”.

39 Rock whose name means “egg stone” : OOLITE

Oolite is a sedimentary rock also called “egg stone”. Indeed, the term “oolite” comes from the Greek “ooion” meaning egg. The rocks are often round and white (hence the name) and are composed of calcium carbonate.

47 A’ja Wilson’s org. : WNBA

Professional basketball player A’ja Wilson was the first pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, after which she signed for the Las Vegas Aces. She won Olympic Gold at the 2020 Olympics, and captained the Aces in 2022 when the team won their first league championship title.

48 Ancient Dead Sea kingdom : EDOM

Edom is an ancient Iron Age kingdom located in the south of modern-day Jordan. The area is known for its red-colored sandstone, which gave the kingdom its name. According to the Bible, the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. “Edom” translates from Hebrew as “red”, and was the name given to Esau when he ate the “red pottage”.

The Middle East’s Dead Sea lies more than 1,400 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on the Earth’s landmass. It is also one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, with a salt content that is almost ten times that of most oceans.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Like some windows : ONE-WAY
7 Notes app? : SHAZAM
13 Sotomayor alma mater : YALE LAW
15 Gap : LACUNA
16 Wyo. has one : STATE REP
18 GM system : ONSTAR
19 Pub fixture : TAP
20 Motion-sensing Xbox peripherals : KINECTS
22 Tender robot? : ATM
23 Disney heroine whose sister is beguiled by 8-Down : ELSA
25 Texas MLBers : ‘STROS
26 Smoothie option : ALOE
27 Instagram feature since 2020 : REELS
29 Pedant’s preoccupation : NIT
30 Small garden party? : GNOME
31 Subject with strange attractors : CHAOS THEORY
34 “Speak of the devil” : LOOK WHO IT IS
35 Contribute to : HAVE A HAND IN
36 Gambits : RUSES
37 Wane : EBB
38 Features of some classic coupes : T-TOPS
42 22-Across figs. : AMTS
43 French multimedia artist who refers to her work as “carnal art” : ORLAN
45 Put out : SORE
46 Voyage opener : BON …
47 Hazardous 55-Across maneuver : WHEELIE
49 Actress Tyler : LIV
50 Muscular : BRAWNY
52 Trip down a hill : SLED RIDE
54 Repetitive Black Eyed Peas hit : IMMA BE
55 Moped kin : SCOOTER
56 Taken for : SEEN AS
57 War reporters, often : EMBEDS

Down

1 Peacemaker po’boy morsel : OYSTER
2 Celebrazione religiosa a dicembre : NATALE
3 Pass : ELAPSE
4 Not yet set : WET
5 Model Wek who was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR in 2013 : ALEK
6 Longtime Toyota subcompact : YARIS
7 Mirage enticement : SLOTS
8 See 23-Across : HANS
9 Cooling systs. : ACS
10 “Sacré bleu!” : ZUT ALORS!
11 Gray area? : ANATOMY
12 Role for Laura in 2019’s “Little Women” : MARMEE
14 Never got off the ground : WENT NOWHERE
17 Things that may take a turn for the worse : PERISHABLES
21 Medicine cabinet supply : COTTON BALLS
24 Mosques’ mihrabs, e.g. : ALCOVES
26 Rubs the rite way? : ANOINTS
28 Low pair? : SHOES
30 Question after a moment of silence : GET IT?
32 Dossier letters : AKA
33 Screened : HID
34 Uniform feature, often : LAST NAME
35 “I know, but please try” : HUMOR ME
36 Some wedding parties : RABBIS
39 Rock whose name means “egg stone” : OOLITE
40 __ oneself on : PRIDED
41 Cuts off : SEVERS
43 “And how!” : OH YES!
44 One who might have a grand opening? : NIECE
47 A’ja Wilson’s org. : WNBA
48 Ancient Dead Sea kingdom : EDOM
51 Ashy : WAN
53 Take badly? : ROB

43 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 16 Dec 23, Saturday”

    1. Do you understand the answer to this clue: “One who might have a grand opening?”. The answer is “niece”. I don’t get it and it’s driving me crazy. Thanks.

  1. I didn’t like this puzzle.. again with the never heard ofs…

    When I look back on the grid, there are some gimmes that I should have and that would fill in the unknowns. Sounds easier side then done.

    I just have to remember that.

    1. Do you understand the answer to this clue: “One who might have a grand opening?”. The answer is “niece”. I don’t get it and it’s driving me crazy. Thanks.

  2. 33:05, with a one-square error: ALE(C) and (C)INECTS. Unfamiliar with the person and the thing referenced by the clues. Should have guessed it, but only considered a “C” or an “X”; never thought of using a “K”.

    And … @Jose … others will no doubt chime in, but … there is such a thing as one-way glass.

    1. Do you understand the answer to this clue: “One who might have a grand opening?”. The answer is “niece”. I don’t get it and it’s driving me crazy. Thanks.

      1. As in one’s “Grand niece” if one is a “Great aunt or uncle.” An “opening” comes before the object word.

  3. Only took a little more than five minutes to realize this puzzle was unsolveable. Every clue was absolutely WORTHLESS. Might as well just not provided any clues.

    I just don’t know why the editor can’t do her f***ing job and screen us from crap like this!!!

  4. DNF too many PPP’s for a Saturday puzzle
    in my humble opinion. A real slog today.
    And I believe there is a Generation “Gap”
    between the constructor and my Boomer
    Knowledge. Xbox,apps etc….

  5. Can someone explain the answer to “one who might have a grand opening”. How is the answer “niece”?

    1. In that “grand” comes before niece to form grandniece, or grand-niece, or grand niece. Sometimes also said as great niece, if one is a great aunt or uncle.

    2. The daughter (or son) of your sibling would be your niece (or nephew). The daughter of your niece (or nephew) would be your “GRAND” niece.

  6. This was quite a trial! 1:20:18 with four lookups: YALELAW, REELS (forgot that one), OYSTER, ALEK (might have seen that one before?). And that was after scanning the clues to try and figure out where to start (which was the SE corner).

    False starts: TBD>WET, PRIUS>YARIS, HOUSEREP>STATEREP, KONECTS>KINECTS, ACAI>ALOE (aloe in a smoothie to drink?), TREYS>SHOES, _____PILLS>COTTONBALLS, __FORME>HUMORME, RISKS>RUSES.

    New or forgotten: SHAZAM app, “Sotomayor alma mater,” LACUNA, REELS, ORLAN (not what I would call art), IMMABE, “Peacemaker po’boy,” ALEK Wek, “mihrabs,” OOLITE, “A’Ja Wilson.”

    Took a while to figure out: if “Mirage” was hallucination, car, or casino; if “put out” was as in emit, extinguish, or perturbed.

    The term “zut alors” is used in The Little Mermaid movie as the chef begins chasing Sebastian the crab around the palace kitchen: “Zut alors! I have missed one.”

  7. Being a long-time puzzle solver, with LA Times and NYT (30 yrs, and I almost never DNF anything) I can confidently say nobody solved this one. You might read somebody’s comment that they did it, with no errors….but they didn’t.
    Sadly, this constructor set out to make an unsolvable puzzle and they succeeded. The whole north, and specifically the NW, was not doable by anyone. So…..if you’re used to knocking out these Saturdays, and you didn’t get this one, don’t feel too badly.

    1. @Anonymous …

      “I can confidently say nobody solved this one. You might read somebody’s comment that they did it, with no errors … but they didn’t.”

      What complete and utter nonsense! And a shameless display of ego!

      I would prescribe another 30 years of practice … 🙂.

    2. Feel is a linking verb that takes the adjective bad, not badly. In the same way, one feels sad, not sadly. One way to think of it is that to feel badly would mean to have a poor sense of touch.

    3. Feel is a linking verb that takes the adjective bad, not badly. In the same way, one feels sad, not sadly. One way to think of it is that to feel badly would mean to have a poor sense of touch.

  8. Zut Alors! A well structured puzzle will reward you by having this answer fill itself in by getting the across words rights.

  9. A ridiculous waste of time. People like this should never be allowed to publish their stupid clues

  10. Well, too tough for me as well; took 1:17:43 but with a ton of errors and check-grids. I did get most of the NW, SE and at least a few words in each other section.

    I have an android Pixel, so I just use the built in song recognition and never heard of SHAZAM. I also needed just a little bit of ZUT ALORS, since I once corresponded with a SF Chronicle columnist on exactly that idiom! Ha! In retrospect, there are some areas that were completely fair, if difficult…just needed to think a bit outside the box.

    Well, learned a few interesting things and a few not so interesting things. I like OOLITE – kind of a rock version of a pearl. And since I need to predict or guess which way the stock market or a stock is going to react, I guess I’m a chaos theorist 🙂

    @Dave – I took another look at which way the TALE rotates, at least from the top to the bottom 4 square block, and they do go CCW. I guess I was looking at each 4 square block by itself, and they go CW.

  11. Solved most of it over 2 days, always helps me to leave it when I get stuck, then come back later. Bottom corners not too bad, had to do lookups for NE corner (Shazam, zutalors??) and a couple NW corner words (I don’t speak Spanish or French, and have always thought it unfair for a CW author to use anything other than basic foreign words). I did get Yalelaw and all the phrases, including chaos theory. A little too “out there” for me to finish without a little help.

  12. Got about 2/3 done. Too many fills I knew were right but with no connection to the clues I could ascertain and too many fills that I knew had to be wrong but that seemed to fit. I could tell I wasn’t going to have any sense of accomplishment even if I did finish so I quit.

  13. 38A: What is your criterion for a “classic” car? The t-tops I know of are not old enough to be “classic”.

    24D: “The world’s oldest minaret … completed in 836 BCE.” BCE means Before the Common Era, i.e before the 1st century. Islam came in the 7th century, and the minaret was completed in 836 CE.

    Zut alors!

    1. Thanks, Peter, for catching that BCE/CE typo. I appreciate the help. All fixed now.

      Bill

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