LA Times Crossword 14 Oct 24, Monday

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Constructed by: Ethan McNamara & David Karp
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: … Stays in Vegas

Themed answers are places where one might STAY while IN VEGAS:

• 33A Second half of a famous tourism slogan, and what 16-, 22-, 43-, and 51-Across literally are : … STAYS IN VEGAS

• 16A Legendary sword of King Arthur : EXCALIBUR

The Excalibur Hotel and Casino is a Medieval-themed resort. The exterior of the building is reminiscent of a castle, and there’s a famous dinner show featuring knights and horses called “Tournament of Kings”.

• 22A Stevenson novel with buccaneers and buried gold : TREASURE ISLAND

Treasure Island is a resort and casino in Las Vegas that opened in 1993. The hotel used to feature a famous free “Buccaneer Bay” show in a man-made lake at the front of the property. However, the show was closed permanently in 2013 to make way for retail space. A shame …

• 43A The city so nice they named it twice : NEW YORK, NEW YORK

New York-New York is a Vegas hotel and casino. The exterior of the building is designed to be reminiscent of the New York City skyline, with downsized replicas of city landmarks and buildings. Appropriately enough, the tallest structure in the hotel is a replica of the Empire State Building, standing at almost 530 feet, and 47 stories. When the hotel opened in 1997, that made the New York-New York Hotel the tallest building in Nevada.

• 51A U-shaped object pitched at a stake : HORSESHOE

The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas opened in 1973, and back then was home to the world’s largest casino. Tragedy struck in 1980 when a fire broke out in one of the restaurants, killing 85 people. The building was reconstructed, and reopened in 1981. In 1986, a change in ownership resulted in the hotel being renamed “Bally’s”. The property was rebranded in 2022, taking on the name Horseshoe Las Vegas.

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

Bill’s time: 5m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Hefeweizen, for one : ALE

Hefeweizen is a wheat beer associated with the German state of Bavaria. It is also known as “Weissbier” in Germany, with “Hefeweizen” translating literally as “yeast wheat”, and “Weissbier” as “white beer”. For what it’s worth, true Hefeweizen, with strong banana-clove overtones, is my favorite beer in the world …

13 Bubblicious product : GUM

Chewing gum has been around for thousands of years, but bubblegum only dates back to 1928. The latter was developed by Walter Diemer of the Fleer Chewing Gum Company. Diemer was a Fleer accountant, and apparently an accountant who liked to mess around with gum recipes in his spare time.

14 Taylor Swift concert venue : ARENA

A swiftie is a fan of singer Taylor Swift. In 2017, the singer trademarked the term “Swifties”. She has also trademarked the term “Swiftmas”.

15 Ump’s place : HOME

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

16 Legendary sword of King Arthur : EXCALIBUR

Excalibur is the legendary sword of the legendary King Arthur of Great Britain. In some accounts, Arthur was given the sword by the Lady of the Lake. There is sometimes confusion about the origin of Excalibur, as Arthur famously is said to have pulled a sword from a stone, hence proving him to be a true king. The Sword in the Stone is a different sword, and not Excalibur.

18 The whole kit and caboodle : A TO Z

In the idiomatic expression “the whole kit and caboodle”, “caboodle” (sometimes spelled “kaboodle”) is an informal term describing a bunch of people, or sometimes “the whole lot”.

20 Some fiddle songs : REELS

The reel is a Scottish country dance that is also extremely popular in Ireland.

22 Stevenson novel with buccaneers and buried gold : TREASURE ISLAND

I’d say that the most celebrated work from the pen of Robert Louis Stevenson (RLS) is “Treasure Island”, which was originally written as a series for a children’s magazine in 1881. I remember “Treasure Island” as the first “real” novel I read as a youngster …

29 AT&T, for one : TELCO

A “telco” is a “telecommunications company”.

The original AT&T Corporation was known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, hence the contemporary abbreviation.

33 Second half of a famous tourism slogan, and what 16-, 22-, 43-, and 51-Across literally are : … STAYS IN VEGAS

“What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” is a marketing campaign slogan created for the city in 2004. The slogan helped bring a record 37.4 million visitors to Las Vegas in the year it was launched.

36 “9-1-1: Lone Star” actress Gina : TORRES

Actress Gina Torres plays the formidable Jessica Pearson on the USA Network show “Suits”. In real life, Gina is married to the actor Laurence Fishburne. Torres and Fishburne appeared together on the horror TV show “Hannibal”, in which they played a married couple.

“9-1-1: Lone Star” is a procedural drama show that is a spin-off of “9-1-1 “. The Texas (Lone Star State) version features Rob Lowe as a firefighter from New York City who relocates from Manhattan to Austin.

37 Je t’__: French words of endearment : AIME

“I love you” translates into “te amo” in Spanish, “Ich liebe dich” in German, and “je t’aime” in French.

38 African antelope : ELAND

The eland (plural “eland, elands”) is a large African antelope, in fact the largest antelope on the planet. Both male and female eland have horns, and those horns have a steady spiral ridge along their length.

39 Steel-cut grain : OAT

Oat cereals all start out as “groats”, toasted oat grains with the hull still intact:

• Steel-cut oats, sometimes called “Irish oats”, are groats that have been chopped into chunks about the size of sesame seeds.
• Stone-ground oats, sometimes called “Scottish oats”, have been ground into smaller pieces, about the size of poppy seeds.
• Old-fashioned rolled oats are made by first steaming the toasted groats, and then rolling them into flakes.
• Quick-cooking oats are similar to rolled oats, but thinner flakes.
• Instant oats have been chopped, rolled, pre-cooked, dehydrated and often have salt and sugar added.

40 Scouring pad brand : SOS

S.O.S is a brand of scouring pads made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The product was invented as a giveaway by an aluminum pot salesman in San Francisco called Ed Cox. His wife gave it the name “S.O.S” as an initialism standing for “Save Our Saucepans”. Note the punctuation! There is no period after the last S, and that is deliberate. When Cox went to register the trademark, he found that “S.O.S.” could not be a trademark because it was used as an international distress signal. So he dropped the period after the last S, and I hope made a lot of money for himself and his wife.

43 The city so nice they named it twice : NEW YORK, NEW YORK

One of the nicknames of New York, New York is “The City So Nice They Named It Twice”. The moniker comes from the 1978 song “New York, New York (So Good They Named It Twice)” written and recorded by native New Yorker Gerard Kenny. Paradoxically, Kenny’s song climbed the charts a few months after he emigrated from the US to the UK.

48 Adjust, as an apron : RETIE

In Old French, a “naperon” was a “small table-cloth”. The term was absorbed into English as “napron”, describing a cloth used to cover the front of a person at work. Over time, “a napron” was heard as “an apron”, giving us our contemporary noun “apron”.

49 “Will they __ learn?” : EVER

Probably not …

51 U-shaped object pitched at a stake : HORSESHOE

In the game of horseshoes, a ringer is scored when the tossed shoe lands around the target stake. A leaner is almost as good as a ringer, and is scored when a horseshoe lands upright or leans against the stake.

55 Former U.N. head Kofi : ANNAN

Kofi Annan was a diplomat from Ghana who served as secretary-general of the UN for ten years until the beginning of 2007. Annan was born into an aristocratic family, and had a twin sister named Efua Atta. Efua and Kofi shared the middle name “Atta”, which means “twin” in the Akan language of Ghana. Annan attended the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1971-72, and graduated with a Master of Science degree. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, winning jointly with the United Nations organization itself.

59 The NFL’s Travis Kelce and others, for short : TES

NFL tight end (TE) Travis Kelce was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 draft. Kelce’s life off the field garners as much attention as his playing career. He is quite an accomplished golfer, and participates regularly in celebrity tournaments. Oh, and I hear that he started dating Taylor Swift in 2023.

Down

3 Hosts an award show : EMCEES

The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism used for a Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

5 D’backs, in box scores : ARI

The Arizona Diamondbacks (also “D-backs”) joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, they became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.

6 Beirut’s country: Abbr. : LEB

Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon. After WWI, Lebanon was placed under administrative control of the French and Beirut flourished as a financial center in the Middle East and as a major world tourist destination. The city was devastated in the Lebanese Civil War that raged from 1975 to 1990, but reconstruction has restored the city to much of its former glory, making it a major cultural center once again.

11 “If u ask me … ” : IMO …

In my opinion (IMO)

12 Brick-shaped candy in a dispenser : PEZ

PEZ is an Austrian brand of candy sold in a mechanical dispenser. Famously, PEZ dispensers have molded “heads”, and have become very collectible over the years. The list of heads includes historical figures like Betsy Ross and Paul Revere, characters from “Star Wars” and “Star Trek”, and even British royalty like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (“William and Kate”). The name “PEZ” comes from the first, middle and last letters of “Pfefferminz”, the German word for “peppermint”.

17 Director DuVernay : AVA

Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, a feat she achieved in 2012 for her feature film “Middle of Nowhere”. “Middle of Nowhere” tells the story of a woman who drops out of medical school to focus on her husband when he is sentenced to 8 years in prison. DuVernay also directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

23 New England sch. : UMASS

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) is the largest public university in New England. UMass was founded back in 1863, although it took a while to get the school into service. Construction work was delayed and the college went through two presidents before William S. Clark took charge. He cracked the whip, completed the construction and enrolled the first students in the same year that he took over the reins, in 1867. As a result, although Clark was the third President of UMass, he is regarded by most as the school’s founding father.

24 Malek of “Bohemian Rhapsody” : RAMI

Actor Rami Malek’s big break came with the leading role in the television series “Mr. Robot”. In 2018, Malik gave an Oscar-winning performance playing Freddie Mercury in the hit biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”. That marked the first time that an actor of Egyptian descent won an Academy Award for Best Actor.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is an outstanding 2018 film about the life of Freddie Mercury, lead singer with the British rock band Queen. Rami Malek portrayed Mercury, in an Oscar-winning performance. The original choice to play Mercury was Sacha Baron Cohen, the title character in the “Borat” mockumentary films.

25 CBS franchise with the 2024 prequel series “Origins” : NCIS

NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates crimes in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The service gives its name to the CBS TV show “NCIS”, a spin-off drama from “JAG” in which the main “NCIS” characters were first introduced. The original big star in “NCIS” was actor Mark Harmon, playing Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

31 Ophthalmologist, casually : EYE DOC

Ophthalmology is that branch of medicine dealing with the physiology and health of the eye. “Ophthalmos” is the Greek word for “eye”.

33 Fish that may be served amandine : SOLE

Dover sole is the name given to two different species of flatfish. The common sole found in the Atlantic is called “Dover sole” in Europe, taking its name from the fishing port of Dover on the English coast where a lot of the fish was landed. The second species found in the Pacific is known as “Dover sole” on the Pacific coast of America. The Pacific species is called “Dover sole” just because it resembles the European species.

A dish prepared in the amandine style is usually cooked in butter and seasonings, and then sprinkled with toasted almonds. Note the correct spelling “amandine”. You might notice the misspelling “almondine” on a menu, but don’t say anything. Just sit there with a smug look on your face …

34 Fishing boats : TRAWLERS

The method of fishing known as trawling involves the pulling of a net through the water behind a boat (or boats). The trawling net is known as a trawl.

35 Tandoori-baked flatbread : NAAN

Naan (also “nan”) bread is very popular in Indian restaurants, as well as in other West, Central and South Asian cuisines. Indian Naan is traditionally baked in a clay oven known as a tandoor.

41 Baltimore ballplayer : ORIOLE

The Baltimore Orioles (also the O’s, the Birds) are one of the eight charter teams of MLB’s American League, so the franchise dates back to 1901. Prior to 1901, the team had roots in the Minor League Milwaukee Brewers, and indeed entered the American League as the Brewers. In 1902 the Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the Browns. The team didn’t fare well in St. Louis, so when it finally relocated to Baltimore in the early fifties the team changed its name completely, to the Baltimore Orioles. The owners so badly wanted a fresh start that they traded 17 old Browns players with the New York Yankees. The trade didn’t help the team’s performance on the field in those early days, but it did help distance the new team from its past.

42 Rockabilly legend McDonald : SKEETS

Skeets McDonald was a rockabilly musician who was popular in the fifties and sixties. Born Enos McDonald in Greenway, Arkansas, he earned his nickname as a child, as he used to call mosquitoes “skeets”.

45 Small songbirds : WRENS

The wren is a small songbird belonging to the family troglodytidae and the genus troglodytes. Wrens are known for making dome-shaped nests. Despite their small size, they are known for their loud and complex songs. Male wrens often sing to attract mates and to establish territory, They have been known to attack much larger birds that get too close to their nests.

52 Genetic messenger molecule : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA. An added complication is that small changes in the sequence of amino acids specified by DNA sometimes takes place in a process known as RNA editing. This RNA editing occurs after the nucleotide sequence has been transcribed from DNA, but before it is translated into protein.