LA Times Crossword 5 Dec 24, Thursday

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Constructed by: Amie Walker
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Lido Shuffle

Themed answers each include the letter sequence “LIDO”, but with the order SHUFFLED:

• 58A Boz Scaggs hit with the lyric “One more for the road,” and what can be found in 17-, 23-, 37-, and 48-Across? : LIDO SHUFFLE

• 17A Petroleum giant co-founded by John D. Rockefeller : STANDARD OIL
• 23A Ambience setter, often : MOOD LIGHTING
• 37A Line for product placement? : NOT SOLD IN STORES
• 48A Martini garnish with blue cheese or red pepper : STUFFED OLIVE

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

Bill’s time: 5m 51s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

17 Petroleum giant co-founded by John D. Rockefeller : STANDARD OIL

John D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist whose biggest success came with the Standard Oil Company that he founded and ran for over 25 years. Rockefeller became the richest man in the world, and America’s first billionaire.

20 Marina del __, California : REY

Marina del Rey is a coastal community in California located within the borders of the City of Los Angeles. Marina del Rey is home to the world’s largest harbor for small craft, with a capacity for 5,300 boats.

22 Actress Kendrick : ANNA

Anna Kendrick is a marvelous actress whose big break came when she played the sidekick to George Clooney’s character in the very interesting 2009 film “Up in the Air”. Kendrick can sing as well as act, and played a student a cappella singer in the 2012 movie “Pitch Perfect”.

32 Vinegary marinade : ADOBO

In Spanish and Mexican cuisine, a dish prepared adobo-style has been marinated in a mixture containing paprika, oregano, salt, garlic and vinegar. “Adobo” is Spanish for “marinade, seasoning”.

34 Kissing in the open, for short : PDA

Public display of affection (PDA)

42 Laden deposits : LODES

A lode is a metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure. The mother lode is the principal deposit in a mine, usually of gold or silver. “Mother lode” is probably a translation of “veta madre”, an expression used in mining in Mexico.

43 Cold desert in northern China : GOBI

The Gobi, the large desert in Asia, lies in northern China and southern Mongolia. It is growing at an alarming rate, particularly towards the south. This “desertification” is caused by increased human activity. The Chinese government is trying to halt the desert’s forward progress by planting great swaths of new forest, the so-called “Green Wall of China”. The name “Gobi” is Mongolian for “waterless place, semidesert”.

44 “Killers of the Flower Moon” people : OSAGE

“Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” is a 2017 book about the Osage murders written by journalist David Grann. The victims of the killing spree were wealthy Osage people who owned land beneath which were lucrative oil deposits. After an investigation by the newly formed FBI, cattle rancher and crime boss William King Hale was found guilty of masterminding the scheme. Martin Scorsese adapted the book into the hit 2023 film “Killers of the flower Moon”.

57 Unit on a Taylor Swift tour : ERA

The Eras Tour by singer-songwriter Taylor Swift began on Saint Patrick’s Day 2023. Having not toured for her studio albums “Lover”, “Folklore”, and “Evermore” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Swift pulled together the Eras Tour in support of all of her albums.

58 Boz Scaggs hit with the lyric “One more for the road,” and what can be found in 17-, 23-, 37-, and 48-Across? : LIDO SHUFFLE

“Lido Shuffle” is a song by Boz Scaggs, co-written with David Paich of Toto fame. Released in 1977 from Scaggs’ album Silk Degrees, it became a chart-topping hit. The song’s title is a nod to the atmosphere found at a beachside lido.

The Lido de Venezia is a famous sandbar in Venice, Italy. About 11 km in length, it is home to about 20,000 residents, as well as the Venice Film Festival that takes place there every September. The Lido is also the setting for Thomas Mann’s famous novel “Death in Venice”. The name “lido” has become a term for any fashionable beach resort. In the UK, the term “lido” is often used for a recreation facility with a pool. This usage has been adopted on cruise ships, where the lido deck is home to the outdoor swimming pool(s) and related facilities.

62 Uru. neighbor : ARG

The Argentina–Uruguay border runs for 360 miles, and is defined by the course of the Uruguay River.

64 American buffalo : BISON

There are two species of bison left (four species are extinct). We are most familiar with the American bison (commonly called the American buffalo), but there is also a European bison, which is sometimes called a “wisent”.

65 Slice with caraway seeds : RYE

Caraway is a plant in the carrot family that is prized for its fruits. The caraway “seeds” that we use in cooking are actually caraway “fruits” that each contain a single “seed”.

67 Four-award achievements, casually : EGOTS

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar & Tony Awards (EGOT)

Down

1 USA rival in the space drama “For All Mankind” : USSR

The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite towards the end of 1957 in a development that shocked the establishment in the US. Within months, President Eisenhower created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now DARPA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Space Race had begun …

“For All Mankind” is an interesting sci-fi TV series that first aired in 2019. The fascinating premise of the show is that the Soviet Union beat the US to send the first humans to the Moon. The two superpowers set up moon bases, and conflict ensues.

5 “The Year of Magical Thinking” memoirist Joan : DIDION

Joan Didion is a journalist and author who was profiled in the Netflix documentary “The Center Will Not Hold”. She won a Pulitzer for her autobiographical work “The Year of Magical Thinking”, which book she used as the basis for a stage play of the same name. The book focuses on the year following the death of her husband, while the play also encompasses the subsequent death of her daughter.

6 Whit : SHRED

Both “whit” and “fig” are used to describe a trivial amount, a mere trifle.

7 Ride a Peloton : PEDAL

Peloton is a New York-based company that manufactures exercise equipment, and also provides fitness classes. Those classes are streamed to touchscreens incorporated into the equipment itself. Participation in the classes requires a subscription.

In military terms, a platoon is a subdivision of a company-sized unit, and is usually divided into squads or sections. The term “platoon” arose in the 1630s from the French “peloton”. “Peloton” translates literally as “little ball”, and is used to this day to mean “agglomeration”. “Peloton” gives rise to our word “pellet”. Also, we use the Modern French “peloton” in English now to refer to the main body (agglomeration) of riders in a bicycle race.

8 Musician Yoko : ONO

Artist Yoko Ono operates the website ImaginePeace.com. I checked it out once and found these two lovely quotes:

• Imagine all the people living life in peace … John Lennon
• A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality … Yoko Ono

12 The Huskies of the NCAA : UCONN

The UConn Huskies are the sports teams of the University of Connecticut. I wasn’t able to uncover the derivation of the “Huskies” moniker. Although it is true that “UConn” sounds like “Yukon”, that isn’t the derivation of the “Huskies” nickname. The school didn’t become the University of Connecticut (UConn) until 1939, and the Huskies name has been used since 1933.

13 Emergency kit : GO BAG

A bug-out bag (also “go bag”) is a portable collection of items that one would grab when evacuating from a disaster. One well-accepted guideline is that a bug-out bag contains all that would be needed to survive for 72 hours. A related kit is a get-home bag that might be kept in one’s car or place of work. A get-home bag contains the items needed to get back home in the absence of public transportation. My wife and I put together bug-out bags a few years ago, after moving into an area that is at high risk for wildfires …

22 NL East city : ATL

The Atlanta Braves are the only team to have won baseball’s World Series in three different home cities. They won as the Boston Braves in 1914, the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and the Atlanta Braves in 1995.

26 “Give a __! Don’t pollute!” : HOOT

Woodsy Owl is an icon used by the US Forest Service. Woodsy’s job is to promote the appreciation of nature and is associated with the tag-lines “Give a hoot — don’t pollute!” and “Lend a hand — Care for the Land!”

33 Game cube : DIE

The numbers on dice are arranged so that the opposite faces add up to seven. Given this arrangement, the numbers 1, 2 and 3 all meet at a common vertex. There are two ways of arranging the 1, 2 and 3 around the common vertex, a so-called right-handed die (clockwise 1-2-3) or a left-handed die (counterclockwise 1-2-3). Traditionally, dice used in Western cultures are right-handed, whereas Chinese dice are left-handed. Quite interesting …

36 Seller’s caveat : AS IS

A caveat is a warning or a qualification. “Caveat” is the Latin for “let him beware”.

38 “Frozen” snowman : OLAF

In the 2013 animated film “Frozen”, Olaf is a happy-go-lucky snowman who provides a lot of comic relief in the movie. He is voiced by actor and comedian Josh Gad.

39 Seating level : LOGE

In most theaters and stadiums today, “loge” is the name given to the front rows of a mezzanine level. Loge can also be used for box seating.

45 NorCal airport : SFO

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) served as the main base of operations for Virgin America (sold to Alaska Airlines), and is also the maintenance hub for United Airlines. Even though SFO is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport is located to the south in San Mateo County.

Northern California (NorCal)

46 __ and chips : FISH

In Britain and Ireland, the most common fish that is used in traditional “fish and chips” is Atlantic cod. Cod has been overfished all over the world, and is now considered to be an endangered species by many international bodies. Confrontations over fishing rights in the North Atlantic led to conflicts called “the Cod Wars” between Iceland and the UK in the 1950s and the 1970s, with fishing fleets being protected by naval vessels and even shots being fired.

49 “America’s Got Talent” host Crews : TERRY

Terry Crews is a former football player who became a very successful actor and comedian after retiring from the sport. Crews is a multi-talented person. He is a very capable flute player, and quite the portrait artist. Crews took over as host of “America’s Got Talent” in 2019.

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” is part of a global franchise based in the UK. The original show is called “Britain’s Got Talent”, and the whole franchise is owned by Simon Cowell. The first host of “America’s Got Talent” was Regis Philbin (2006), followed by Jerry Springer, Nick Cannon, Tyra Banks and Terry Crews.

60 Actor Billy __ Williams : DEE

Actor Billy Dee Williams is most famous for playing the character Lando Calrissian in two of the “Stars Wars” movies.

61 Cookie fruit : FIG

The fig is the fruit of a small tree in the mulberry family. Once picked, figs don’t travel very well, so the bulk of figs consumed have been preserved by drying.