LA Times Crossword 27 Mar 25, Thursday

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Constructed by: Joe Rodini
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Odd Numbers

Themed clues are musical NUMBERS with titles that include a synonym of “ODD”:

• 59A Figures on right-hand pages, or an apt title for this puzzle: ODD NUMBERS

• 18A One-hit-wonder by the New Zealand band OMC: HOW BIZARRE
• 27A Title theme song of a 1985 John Hughes film: WEIRD SCIENCE
• 36A Tom Jones classic that accompanied the Carlton dance on “Fresh Prince”: IT’S NOT UNUSUAL
• 45A ELO hit from the album “Face the Music”: STRANGE MAGIC

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

Bill’s time: 7m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Cookie with a Dirt Cake flavor: OREO

Dirt cake (sometimes “dirt pie, dirt pudding”) is a dessert usually made by breaking up Oreo cookies and scattering the pieces over chocolate pudding, and then adding gummy worms on top. Sounds delicious …

16 Miller option: LITE

The first light beer was produced by Chicago’s Meister Brau brewery in the sixties. Miller took over Meister Brau, reformulated the light beer using the same process and became the first of the big breweries to come out with a light beer, “Lite Beer from Miller” introduced in 1973. There really wasn’t a serious competitor to Miller Lite until Anheuser-Busch finally came up with a process and a product in 1982 that they called Bud Light.

17 Director Preminger: OTTO

Otto Preminger was noted for directing films that pushed the envelope in terms of subject matter, at least in the fifties and sixties. Great examples would be 1955’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” that dealt with drug addiction, 1959’s “Anatomy of a Murder” that dealt with rape, and 1962’s “Advise and Consent” that dealt with homosexuality. If you’ve seen these films, you’ll have noticed that the references are somewhat indirect and disguised, in order to get past the censors.

18 One-hit-wonder by the New Zealand band OMC: HOW BIZARRE

The Otara Millionaires Club (OMC) was a New Zealand musical group, best known for their 1996 international hit “How Bizarre”. The band’s name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Ōtara, a suburb of Auckland, which was known to be a lower income area.

Here’s a 2002 list of one-hit wonders that VH1 dubbed the top-10 greatest of all time:

1. “Macarena” – Los del Río (1996)
2. “Tainted Love” – Soft Cell (1982)
3. “Come on Eileen” – Dexys Midnight Runners (1982)
4. “I’m Too Sexy” – Right Said Fred (1991)
5. “Mickey” – Toni Basil (1982)
6. “Who Let the Dogs Out?” – Baha Men (2000)
7. “Ice Ice Baby” – Vanilla Ice (1990)
8. “Take On Me” – A-ha (1985)
9. “Rico Suave” – Gerardo (1990)
10. “99 Luftballons” – Nena (1984)

25 Advil target: PAIN

The anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen is sold under the brand names Advil and Motrin.

26 Online convos: DMS

Convo (conversation)

27 Title theme song of a 1985 John Hughes film: WEIRD SCIENCE

“Weird Science” is a song by Oingo Boingo, released in 1985. It was commissioned by director John Hughes as the theme song for his 1985 movie of the same name, and was also used for the sitcom spinoff of the movie that aired in the 1990s.

John Hughes was a very successful director whose name is associated with many teen films. Great examples are “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club”, two of my all-time favorite movies.

32 Mosul’s country: IRAQ

Mosul is located in northern Iraq and is the third largest city in the country, after Baghdad and Basra. It is located on the west bank of the Tigris river, opposite the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh in the east bank. Mosul was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2014. Those residents of Mosul who did not escape suffered under the rule of ISIL until the city’s liberation following the Battle of Mosul in 2016/2017.

36 Tom Jones classic that accompanied the Carlton dance on “Fresh Prince”: IT’S NOT UNUSUAL

“It’s Not Unusual” is a classic pop song that became Tom Jones’ signature song. Released in 1965, it was one of his first and biggest hits, reaching number one in the UK and the top ten in the US. The song was featured in the sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” where it was famously paired with Carlton Banks’s signature dance.

42 Steak sauce brand: A-ONE

The original A.1. steak sauce comes from a recipe created for King George IV of England by one of his personal chefs in 1824. King George declared it to be “A.1.”, and the rest is history.

45 ELO hit from the album “Face the Music”: STRANGE MAGIC

“Strange Magic” is a song by English rock band the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) that was released as a single in 1976. It had appeared earlier as a track on ELO’s 1975 album “Face the Music”.

50 Texting segue: BTW

A segue is a transition from one topic to the next. “Segue” is an Italian word that literally means “now follows”. It was first used in musical scores directing the performer to play into the next movement without a break. The oft-used term “segway” is given the same meaning, although the word “segway” doesn’t really exist. It is a misspelling of “segue” that has been popularized by its use as the name of the personal transporter known as a Segway.

53 “Dateline NBC” anchor Lester: HOLT

Lester Holt is a television journalist. When Holt became the permanent anchor of “NBC Nightly News” in 2015, he became the first African-American solo anchor for a daily network news program.

55 Snoopy alter ego: JOE COOL

When cartoon beagle Snoopy adopts his “Joe Cool” alias, he puts on sunglasses and just leans against a wall doing nothing.

57 “Cabaret” director: FOSSE

Bob Fosse won more Tony Awards for choreography than anyone else, a grand total of eight (and another Tony for direction). Fosse also won an Oscar for Best Director for the 1972 movie “Cabaret”, even beating out the formidable Francis Ford Coppola who was nominated that same year for “The Godfather”.

The musical “Cabaret” is based on “I Am a Camera”, a 1951 play written by John Van Druten. In turn, the play was adapted from a novel “Goodbye to Berlin” written by Christopher Isherwood. The action in the musical takes place in the 1930s, in a seedy Berlin cabaret called the Kit Kat Klub. “Cabaret” is a great stage musical, although the 1972 film of the musical isn’t one of my favorites.

61 “Ferrari” actor Driver: ADAM

Adam Driver is an actor perhaps best known to TV audiences for playing Adam Sackler on the show “Girls” that airs on HBO. Driver’s movie career got a huge boost in 2015 when he played villain Kylo Ren in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

“Ferrari” is a 2023 biopic that is based on the 1991 biography “Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine” by Brock Yates. Adam Driver (pun?!) plays Enzo, and Penélope Cruz his estranged wife Laura Ferrari.

Down

2 Objet d’__: ART

An “objet d’art” is an item that has artistic merit. The term is French for “art object”. The plural is “objets d’art”.

4 Child of the 1950s: BOOMER

A baby boomer is someone who was born in the post-WWII baby boom. The rate of births had been falling fairly steadily in the US at least since 1900, but this trend was sharply reversed in 1946 after WWII. The higher birth rate continued until 1964, when it returned to pre-war levels. Since then the birth rate has continued to decline, although at a slower pace. The period between 1946 and 1964 is often defined as the “baby boom”.

6 Mil. addresses: APOS

Army post office (APO)

8 Fibulae neighbors: TIBIAE

The tibia is the shinbone, and is the larger of the two bones right below the knee. It is the strongest weight-bearing bone in the human body. “Tibia” is the Roman name for a Greek flute and it is thought that the shinbone was given the same name because flutes were often fashioned out of the shinbones of animals.

10 Serb or Croat: SLAV

The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

• the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
• the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
• the South Slavic (including Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs)

19 Metal in pennies: ZINC

Zinc is the chemical element with the atomic number 30 and the element symbol “Zn”. It is a metal that can form pointed crystals after smelting. It is probably these crystals that gave zinc its name, which comes from the Old High German “zint” meaning “point”.

The original one-cent coin was introduced in the US in 1793 and was made of 100% copper, giving rise to the nickname “copper”. The composition varied over time, and was 100% bronze up to the 1940s. During WWII there was a shortage of copper to make bronze, so the US Mint switched to zinc-coated steel for production of one-cent coins in 1943. The “steelie” is the only coin ever issued by the US mint that can be picked up by a magnet. Today’s one-cent coin consists mainly of zinc.

23 __ Jima: IWO

Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. The name is Japanese for “Sulfur Island”, referring to the sulfur mining on which Iwo Jima’s economy once depended. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since. Control of the island was wrested from the Japanese in the five-week Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Said battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific theater in WWII.

24 New Jersey athlete: DEVIL

The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark. The club was founded in 1974 in Kansas City, originally as the Mohawks, and then quickly renamed the Scouts. The franchise moved to Denver in 1976, becoming the Colorado Rockies. The move to Newark happened in 1982, when the team was renamed the New Jersey Devils.

28 Packed theater letters: SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

29 Monopoly token that replaced the iron: CAT

The tokens included with a game of Monopoly have changed over the years. Two of the more interesting tokens are the battleship and cannon. These were created by Hasbro for a board game called Conflict. When Conflict failed in the market, the excess tokens were recycled and included with Monopoly.

30 __ de cologne: EAU

Back in 1709, an Italian perfume-maker moved to Cologne in Germany. There he invented a new fragrance that he named Eau de Cologne after his newly adopted town. The fragrance is still produced in Cologne, using a secret formulation. However, the terms “Eau de Cologne” and “cologne”, are now used generically.

35 Pitcher of milk?: ELSIE

Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. She is so famous and respected that she has been awarded the degrees of Doctor of Bovinity, Doctor of Human Kindness and Doctor of Ecownomics. Elsie was also given a husband named Elmer the Bull. Elmer eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.

38 Eggy drink: NOG

It’s not really clear where the term “nog” (as in “eggnog”) comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

39 Arles article: UNE

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of living just a short car-ride from the beautiful city of Arles in the South of France. Although Arles has a long and colorful history, the Romans had a prevailing influence over the city’s design. Arles has a spectacular Roman amphitheater, arch, circus as well as old walls that surround the center of the city. In more modern times, it was a place Vincent van Gogh often visited, and was where he painted many of his most famous works, including “Cafe Terrace at Night” and “Bedroom in Arles”.

40 18-wheelers: SEMIS

An 18-wheeler semi-trailer truck has eight wheels under the trailer, i.e. four on each of the two rear axles. There are 10 wheels under the tractor unit. Two of the ten wheels are on the front axle, and eight are on the rear two axles that sit under the front of the trailer.

46 Commandment start: THOU …

In the Christian and Jewish traditions, the Ten Commandments are a set of principles relating to worship and ethics that the faithful should observe. Also known as the Decalogue, the Book of Exodus describes the revelation of the principles by God to Moses on Mount Sanai. Also according to Exodus, the Ten Commandments were inscribed by the finger of God onto a pair of stone tablets that were kept in a chest known as the Ark of the Covenant.

47 iRobot vacuum: ROOMBA

The Roomba vacuum cleaner is a cool-looking device that navigates its way around a room by itself, picking up dirt as it goes. Like I said, it’s cool-looking, but I am not sure how effective it is …

50 ABBA singer Ulvaeus: BJORN

I am an unapologetic fan of ABBA’s music. ABBA was the Swedish group who topped the charts in the seventies and eighties. The name ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters of the given names of each of the band members: Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid. Early in their careers, the four fell in love and formed two married couples: Agnetha and Bjorn, and Benny and Anni-Frid. However, at the height of their success, the relationships became strained and both couples divorced.

52 Trivial Pursuit piece: WEDGE

Trivial Pursuit was invented in 1979 by two Canadians from Montreal. The pair decided to come up with their own game after they discovered that there were pieces missing from the game of Scrabble that they wanted to play. There was a full blown launch of a commercial version of the game in 1982. In 2008, Hasbro bought the complete rights to Trivial Pursuit, for US$80 million! On a personal note, I met my lovely wife while playing a game of Trivial Pursuit …

56 Tech review site: CNET

CNET is an excellent technology website. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a CNET show.

57 Boot company since 1863: FRYE

The Frye Company is a manufacturer of leather goods, primarily shoes and boots. Founded in 1863 by John A. Frye, it claims to be the oldest continuously operating shoe company in the US.

58 Mount of Greek myth: OSSA

Mount Ossa in Greece is located between Mount Pelion in the south, and the famed Mount Olympus in the north. Mount Ossa is also known as Kissavos.

60 Volkswagen model until 2016: EOS

The Eos is a two-door compact made by Volkswagen from 2006 to 2016. A unique feature of the EOS is a hardtop retractable roof that comes in five sections.