LA Times Crossword 16 Dec 24, Monday

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Constructed by: Janice Luttrell
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: High-Definition

Themed answers each start with a word that meets the DEFINITION of “HIGH”:

• 56A Like most televisions, and what can be found at the start of 20-, 36-, or 46-Across : HIGH-DEFINITION

• 20A Above-the-street rumblers : ELEVATED TRAINS
• 36A Possibly unattainable entry on a bucket list : LOFTY GOAL
• 46A Really big ask : TALL ORDER

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

Bill’s time: 5m 14s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Words to a bride and groom : TOAST

The tradition of toasting someone probably dates back to the reign of Charles II, when the practice was to drink a glass of wine to the health of a beautiful or favored woman. In those days, spiced toast was added to beverages to add flavor, so the use of the word “toast” was an indicator that the lady’s beauty would enhance the wine. Very charming, I must say …

9 “All I Want for Christmas Is You” singer Mariah : CAREY

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a 1994 song recorded by Mariah Carey that has become a holiday standard. The song was co-written by Carey with Walter Afanasieff … in just 15 minutes.

14 Mole sauce chile : ANCHO

An ancho is a dried poblano pepper used in Mexican cuisine. The poblano is a mild chili.

15 Short “As I see it” : IMO

In my opinion (IMO)

17 Ross who ran for president twice : PEROT

Ross Perot graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, as president of his class. Perot served his 4-year commitment but then resigned his commission, apparently having become somewhat disillusioned with the navy. He was ranked number 101 on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans in 2012, and at that time was worth about $3.5 billion. Back in 1992, Perot ran as an independent candidate for US president. He founded the Reform Party in 1995, and ran as the Reform Party candidate for president in 1996.

19 Downton Abbey staffers : MAIDS

Fans of the wonderful TV drama “Downton Abbey” will be very familiar with the exterior appearance of Highclere Castle in Hampshire. Highclere is used as the location for exterior and many interior shots of the fictitious Grantham residence called Downton Abbey. The exterior of Highclere is very reminiscent of the Houses of Parliament building in London. That similarity exists because the house was largely rebuilt from 1839 to 1842 by architect Sir Charles Barry soon after he finished work on the refurbished Houses of Parliament.

23 Younger “ManningCast” brother : ELI

“Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli”, also known as “ManningCast”, is an alternate, live broadcast of Monday Night Football hosted by brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. It is produced by Peyton’s production company Omaha Productions. And airs on ESPN2 and ESPN+. The show premiered in 2021, and In its first season averaged 1.1 million viewers, which was more than double the viewership of the traditional Monday Night Football broadcast on ABC. The Manningcast was also the most-watched program on ESPN+ in its first season.

25 Govt. ID issuer : SSA

Social Security Administration (SSA)

36 Possibly unattainable entry on a bucket list : LOFTY GOAL

A bucket list is a list of things one wants to achieve before dying, before “kicking the bucket”. The expression hasn’t been used in this context for very long, only a decade or so, but was popularized by the 2007 film “The Bucket List” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

39 Gooey campfire treat : S’MORE

S’mores are treats peculiar to North America that are usually eaten around a campfire. A s’more consists of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers. The earliest written reference to the recipe is in a 1927 publication called “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts”. Girl Scouts always did corner the market on cookies and the like!

48 Vice president Kamala : HARRIS

Kamala Harris was a US Senator for California starting in 2017, after serving for six years as the Attorney General of California. In early 2019, Harris announced her run for the Democratic nomination for US president in the 2020 election. Although she dropped out of the race, she was chosen by eventual nominee Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. When the Biden-Harris ticket won the election, Harris became the first female US vice president, and the highest-ranking female politician in the history of the nation.

52 “Cheers” bartender : SAM

On the sitcom “Cheers”, bartender Sam Malone was played by Ted Danson. Malone is a retired relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, and a recovering alcoholic. Great show …

54 Nonprofit org. with a Directors Series : AFI

The American Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1967 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). One of the AFI’s more visible programs is the “100 Year Series”, including lists of Best Movies in several categories and a list of the Best Movie Quotes in 100 years of movie-making.

64 Greek fable writer : AESOP

Aesop is remembered today as a fabulist, a writer of fables. Aesop lived in ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

67 Airline based in Atlanta : DELTA

Delta Air Lines were the first airline to ban smoking on all flights, in 1995. They were also the first airline to board more than 100 million passengers in a year, doing so in 1997.

68 With 66-Across, like some menus : A LA …
66 See 68-Across : … CARTE

On a restaurant menu, items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately. A menu marked “table d’hôte” (also called “prix fixe”) is a fixed-price menu with limited choice. “Table d’hôte” translates from French as “table of the host”.

70 Classic theater name : ODEON

In ancient Greece, an odeon (also “odeum”) was like a small theater, with “odeon” literally meaning “building for musical competition”. Odea were used in both Greece and Rome for entertainments such as musical shows and poetry readings.

72 Church council : SYNOD

The word “synod” comes from the Greek word for “assembly, meeting”. A synod is a church council, usually one in the Christian faith.

Down

1 Scotch __ : TAPE

Scotch Tape is a brand of adhesive tape made by 3M. “Scotch Tape” is one of those brand names that has become a generic term for the product. The equivalent brand name of the product that we use over in Ireland is Sellotape. This British brand also has become a generic term, and so is our equivalent to “Scotch tape”.

2 Law school newbie : ONE L

“One L” is a name used in general for first-year law students, especially those attending Harvard.

6 Cone-bearing tree : PINE

There are many species of pine tree (well over 100). The smallest is probably the Siberian dwarf pine, which usually grows to less than 10-feet tall. The tallest is the ponderosa pine, which regularly grows to over 200-feet tall.

9 Chevy muscle cars : CAMAROS

The Chevrolet Camaro is a car produced by General Motors from 1966 to 2002, and reintroduced in 2009. The Camaro shared much of its design with the Pontiac Firebird, and was introduced as a potential competitor to the Ford Mustang.

12 Takeoff guesses: Abbr. : ETDS

Estimated time of departure (ETD)

21 Supermodel Cheryl : TIEGS

Cheryl Tiegs was only 17-years-old when she appeared as a model on the cover of “Glamour” magazine. After that Tiegs became famous for sequential appearances in the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue” throughout the seventies.

29 Farm animal with horns : GOAT

Male goats are bucks or billies, although castrated males are known as wethers. Female goats are does or nannies, and young goats are referred to as kids.

30 Comedian Silverman : SARAH

Sarah Silverman is a comedian, and also a singer and actress. Her material is very “edgy”, as she takes on social taboos such as racism, sexism and religion. She had a celebrity boyfriend for five years as she started dating Jimmy Kimmel in 2002, soon after Kimmel’s divorce from his first wife.

35 Clairvoyants : SEERS

We’ve been using the term “clairvoyant” to describe a psychic since the nineteenth century. Prior to that, a clairvoyant was a clear-sighted person. The term comes from French, with “clair” meaning “clear” and “voyant” meaning “seeing”.

38 Stitch’s pal : LILO

“Lilo & Stitch” was released by Disney in 2002. Compared to other Disney feature-length cartoons, “Lilo & Stitch” was relatively cheaply produced, using the voices of lesser-known actors. One interesting change had to take place in the storyline during production, when Lilo was meant to fly a Jumbo Jet through downtown Honolulu in one sequence. This was replaced with a sequence using a spaceship instead, as the producers were sensitive to public sentiment after the September 11 attacks.

42 Memorial __ Kettering : SLOAN

The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City comprises the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, and Sloan Kettering Institute. The center was founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital by a group of philanthropists led by John Jacob Astor and his wife Charlotte. The Sloan-Kettering Institute is the research arm of the center. The institute was set up in 1945 with funds from the charitable foundation of Alfred P. Sloan. Jr. Charles F. Kettering was an executive at General Motors at the time, and he organized the application of industrial research techniques to the fight against cancer. Sloan and Kettering jointly announced the founding of the institute in the days following the dropping of the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. The pair pointed out that if a two billion dollar scientific effort could produce an atomic bomb, then surely a similar application of funds and scientific talent could make enormous strides in the fight against cancer.

53 Olympian’s prize : MEDAL

In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.

55 Country shaped like a boot : ITALY

In the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, the “boot” is the mainland of Italy, and the “ball” being kicked by the boot is the island of Sicily.

59 Sportswear brand : FILA

Fila was originally an Italian company, founded in 1911 and now based in South Korea. It was started in Piedmont by the Fila brothers, primarily to make underwear that they sold to people living in the Italian Alps. The company started to focus on sportswear in the seventies, using tennis-great Bjorn Borg as their major endorser.

61 Tehran’s country : IRAN

Tehran is the capital of Iran and is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around a really long time and Tehran is actually the country’s 31st national capital.

62 __ the Orange: Syracuse mascot : OTTO

The current Syracuse mascot, Otto the Orange, was introduced unofficially in 1980, and gained official recognition by the University in 1995.