LA Times Crossword 25 Feb 25, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Nate Cardin
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Board Meeting

Themed answers each comprise two parts, both being types of BOARD:

• 64A High-level get-together, or an apt description of the pairing found in 19-, 25-, 30-, 48-, or 56-Across?: BOARD MEETING

• 19A Bit of sidewalk art: CHALK DRAWING (chalkboard & drawing board)
• 25A Checking account problem: OVERDRAFT (overboard & draft board)
• 30A Make one’s way to a previous location: HEAD BACK (headboard & backboard)
• 48A Shower gel: BODYWASH (bodyboard & washboard)
• 56A Ballpark buy that may come with a free pencil: SCORECARD (scoreboard & cardboard)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 52s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Insta upload: PIC

Instagram (often abbreviated to “Insta”, or “IG”) is a photo-sharing application, one that is extremely popular. Instagram started in San Francisco in 2010. Facebook purchased Instagram two years later, paying $1 billion. The billion-dollar Instagram company had just 13 employees at the time of the sale …

4 Rod on a cello’s base: END PIN

The “spike” at the bottom of a cello or double bass is known as an end pin. It contacts the floor and supports the instrument’s weight. Prior to the introduction of the endpin in the mid-1800s, a cello would be held tightly between the legs by the musician. This was practically impossible for women due to the voluminous dresses worn at the time. So, the end pin is credited with the increase in popularity of the cello with female musicians.

16 “Gran __”: Clint Eastwood film featuring a 1972 Ford: TORINO

“Gran Torino” is a 2008 Clint Eastwood movie in which he plays an angry, widowed Korean War veteran named Walt Kowalkski. Kowalski’s young neighbor attempts to steal his 1972 Ford Gran torino muscle car (hence the film’s name), but gets caught in the act. Much of the storyline is about Kowalski and the family of the young thief/neighbor developing a surprising relationship.

Ford produced the Torino from 1968 to 1976. The name “Torino” is Italian for “Turin”, a nod to the city that has been dubbed “the Italian Detroit”, as Turin is home to auto manufacturers FIAT, Lancia and Alfa Romeo. Ford extended the Torino line’s offering by adding the Gran Torino, and the Gran Torino Sport in 1972. Famously, the Ford Gran Torino was used by the title characters in the seventies cop show “Starsky & Hutch”. Starsky’s Torino was red in color, with a large white vector stripe running along both sides. Ford cashed in on the popularity of the show by producing a thousand replicas of the “Starsky and Hutch” car, although they weren’t much more than the standard vehicle with a specialty paint job.

17 “America’s Got Talent” judge Mandel: HOWIE

Howie Mandel is a Canadian comic. He was a regular on TV a few years ago as host of “Deal or No Deal”, and more recently as a judge on “America’s Got Talent”. I remember Mandel from “St. Elsewhere” in the eighties, which was the first American TV show that I watched regularly when I moved to the US …

18 Special pampering, for short: TLC

Tender loving care (TLC)

19 Bit of sidewalk art: CHALK DRAWING (chalkboard & drawing board)

Back in Ireland, the “pavement” is what we call the “sidewalk, footpath” (because the footpath is “paved”, often with “paving” stones!). It’s very confusing when you arrive in this country from Ireland, and a little dangerous when one has been taught from a young age to “walk on the pavement” …

21 Caramel candy: ROLO

Rolo was a hugely popular chocolate candy in Ireland when I was growing up. It was introduced in the thirties in the UK, and is produced under license in the US by Hershey. I was a little disappointed when I had my first taste of the American version as the center is very hard and chewy. The recipe used on the other side of the Atlantic calls for a soft gooey center.

23 Actress Thurman: UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

25 Checking account problem: OVERDRAFT (overboard & draft board)

The US government maintains information on all males who are potentially subject to military conscription, using what is called the Selective Service System (SSS). In the event that a draft was held, men registered would be classified into groups to determine eligibility for service. Class 1-A registrants are those available for unrestricted military service. Other classes are 1-A-O (conscientious objector available for noncombatant service), 4-A (registrant who has completed military service) and 4-D (Minister of religion).

Checks and checking accounts caused me some language trouble when I first came to the US. Back in Ireland (and the UK) we write “cheques” using funds from our “current” accounts.

29 Book that a bookkeeper keeps: LEDGER

A ledger is an account book. The term ”ledger” comes from the Middle English “leggen” meaning “to lay”. The original ledger was a large book “laid” in one particular place permanently, an example being a breviary in a church.

35 “Cozy” literary genre: MYSTERY

Cozy mysteries are a subgenre of crime fiction that typically feature amateur sleuths solving murders in quaint, seemingly safe settings. Such stories often emphasize the puzzle-solving aspect of the crime, with minimal violence and gore. The settings are often charming villages, cozy bookshops, or idyllic small towns. A great example of the genre would be the “Miss Marple” series by Agatha Christie.

39 Partridges, turtledoves, and French hens: BIRDS

Partridges are medium-sized game birds known for their plump bodies and short, rounded wings. They are primarily ground-dwelling birds, inhabiting grasslands, scrublands, and farmlands, and are known for their distinctive calls and their tendency to run rather than fly when threatened.

Turtledoves are small, slender doves known for their soft, mournful cooing and gentle nature. They get their name from the low, purring sound of their call, which can sound like “turtur”.

The French hens in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” are not a separate breed. Rather, they are French breeds of hens, hens from France. At the time the song was written, French breeds were very popular in Britain.

43 Fat-heavy diet: KETO

A ketogenic (also “keto”) diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. When a body consumes insufficient carbohydrates to meet the need for energy, then the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies in order to make up the energy deficit. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the bloodstream is known as “ketosis”, a term that gives rise to the name “ketogenic diet”. Medical professionals sometimes prescribe a ketogenic diet in order to control epilepsy in children. A condition of ketosis can reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures.

44 “Let’s Make a Deal” host Wayne: BRADY

Wayne Brady is a TV personality and comedian who is known for key roles on several television shows including “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and “Let’s Make a Deal”. Brady was a regular on the original British version of “Whose Line …”, and then became a regular on the American version of the show when a US “Whose Line …” was commissioned with Drew Carey as host.

The game show “Let’s Make a Deal” first aired way back in 1963. For many years the show was hosted by Monty Hall, from 1963 until 1986, and again briefly in 1991. In more recent years, Wayne Brady took over as host in 2009.

46 Paloma of fashion: PICASSO

Paloma Picasso is a fashion designer based in Paris. She is the youngest daughter of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and French author and painter Françoise Gilot.

48 Shower gel: BODYWASH (bodyboard & washboard)

Bodysurfers ride waves without using a surfboard, bodyboard or any other buoyant device. They do however use swim fins in order to gain speed through the water, and help catch the wave.

A jug band features a jug player, as well as others playing ordinary objects perhaps modified to make sound. One such instrument is the washtub bass. The “tub” is a stringed instrument that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. A washboard might also be used in a jug band, as a percussion instrument. The ribbed surface of the washboard is usually scraped using thimbles on the ends of the fingers.

50 Starbucks size: TRENTA

Starbucks introduced us to coffee drinks in a whole range of volumes:

• Demi … 3 fl oz
• Short … 8 fl oz
• Tall … 12 fl oz
• Grande … 16 fl oz (Italian for “large”)
• Venti … 20 fl oz (Italian for “twenty”)
• Trenta … 30 fl oz (Italian for “thirty”)

59 Sacred Egyptian beetle: SCARAB

Scarabs were amulets in ancient Egypt. They were modeled on the dung beetle, as it was viewed as a symbol of the cycle of life.

62 Bitter beer, briefly: IPA

Hops are what give beer its bitterness, and IPAs are relatively bitter because extra hops are used when brewing. Different types of hops have different levels of bitterness, and brewers can choose how much to add to make their IPA more or less bitter.

71 “Silly” honkers: GEESE

A male goose is called a gander, with the female simply being referred to as a goose. Young geese are called goslings.

Down

1 Walk a beat: PATROL

In the context of policing, a beat is territory that is patrolled regularly. Back in the 1700s, a beat was a regular route traveled by a person or an animal, from the sense of the “beat” of the feet on the ground while walking.

3 Rode a Peloton, say: CYCLED

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.

7 Rice side: PILAF

“Pilaf” is a Persian word, one that we use to describe rice that is browned in oil and then cooked in a seasoned broth. It can also be called “pilau”.

11 Maker of ProteinPlus snacks: POWERBAR

PowerBar is a brand of energy bars that was founded by Canadian track and field athlete Brian Maxwell in 1986. The first formulation Maxwell and his team developed was aimed at endurance athletes.

26 Blue state pols: DEMS

On political maps, red states are predominantly Republican and blue states predominantly Democrat. The designation of red and blue states is a very recent concept, only introduced in the 2000 presidential election by TV journalist, the late Tim Russert. In retrospect, the choice of colors is surprising, as in other democracies around the world red is usually used to describe left-leaning socialist parties (the reds under the bed!), and blue is used for conservative right-wing parties. In election cycles, swing/battleground states are often depicted in purple.

36 Gear for Gus Kenworthy: SKIS

Gus Kenworthy is a British-American freestyle skier who won a silver medal at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, representing the US. More recently, he branched out into acting, notably appearing in the FX anthology series “American Horror Story: 1984”.

41 Like Ronald McDonald’s shoes: RED
64 Like Ronald McDonald’s shoes: BIG

“Fast Food Nation” is an expose by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that reveals in the inner workings of the US fast food industry. One of Schlosser’s more controversial findings was the deliberate targeting of children by the marketing folks at McDonald’s. McDonald’s copied the marketing plans of Walt Disney to attract not only children, but also their parents and grandparents. That’s how Ronald McDonald was born …

42 Frightening visions: DAYMARES

A daymare is a condition experienced while awake featuring a pressure on the chest that is normally associated with the sense of fear experienced during a nightmare.

46 Old TWA rival: PAN AM

Pan American World Airways (usually just “Pan Am”) started out as a mail and passenger service between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba in 1927. From very early in the company’s life it was the de facto representative air carrier of the United States. For many years, Pan Am’s fleet was built around the Boeing 314 Clipper, a long-range flying boat that was one of the largest aircraft around at the time. Pan Am adopted the Clipper as part of its image, even using “clipper” as the call sign for its flights.

49 Digital game with yellow and green hints: WORDLE

Wordle is a web-based word game that a Welsh software engineer developed to play with his partner during the COVID pandemic. The name “Wordle” is a play on the engineer’s own name: Josh Wardle. Wardle published the game on its own website in 2021, primarily for the use of Wardle’s family. One month later, the game had 90 players, and a month later 300,000 players. A week later, the number of daily players had grown to two million! The New York Times purchased Wordle in 2022 “for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”.

52 Language spoken in Arizona: NAVAJO

There are more speakers of the Navajo (also “Navaho”) language than any other Native American language north of the US-Mexico border. Famously, the Navajo language was used by the “code talkers” in the Pacific Theater during WWII to send secure communications by radio. These Navajo “coded” messages were used in fast tactical communications, with one bilingual Navajo speaker talking over the radio to another speaker, and the two acting as translators at either end of the conversation. The Navajo code was never broken by the Japanese.

53 “In Cold Blood” writer Capote: TRUMAN

The larger-than-life Truman “Tru” Capote was an author and comedian. Capote is perhaps most associated with his novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his true crime novel “In Cold Blood”. Truman Capote grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. There he met, and became lifelong friends with, fellow novelist Harper Lee. Capote was the inspiration for the character “Dill” in Lee’s celebrated work “To Kill a Mockingbird”. In turn, Harper Lee was the inspiration for the character “Idabel” in Capote’s “Other Voices, Other Rooms”.

Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” is a nonfiction novel that delves into the brutal 1959 murders of the Clutter family in rural Kansas. Capote reconstructs the crime and its aftermath, exploring the lives of the victims, the investigation, and the eventual capture and trial of the killers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. Capote was significantly aided by Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Lee, Capote’s childhood friend and fellow Southern writer, played a crucial role in the research process. Her presence in Kansas, where the Clutter family murders took place, was less conspicuous than Capote’s, allowing her to establish rapport with locals and gather valuable information that might have been withheld from Capote.

61 Grizzly animal: BEAR

The North American brown bear is usually referred to as the grizzly bear. The name “grizzly” was given to the bear by Lewis and Clark. The term “grizzly” might mean “with gray-tipped hair”, or “fear-inspiring”. Both definitions seem to be apt …