LA Times Crossword 22 May 25, Thursday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Joe Marquez & Boaz Moser
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Take Your Pick

Themed answers are all professionals who must TAKE THEIR PICKS to work:

• 50A “Go ahead and choose one,” and what one might say to a 19-, 30-, or 43-Across? : TAKE YOUR PICK

• 19A One who’s bound to get away? : ESCAPE ARTIST
• 30A Fiddler accompanist in bluegrass, often : BANJO PLAYER
• 43A Artist who makes some pretty cool pieces? : ICE SCULPTOR

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

Bill’s time: 5m 59s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8 PC shortcut employed when creating a draft : CTRL+S

Ctrl+S is a Windows keyboard shortcut for the command SAVE.

13 Noted host of a couples’ getaway? : NOAH

Genesis 6:19-20 states that Noah was instructed to take two animals of every kind into the ark. Later, in Genesis 7:2-3 Noah was instructed to take on board “every clean animal by sevens … male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth”. Apparently, “extras” (7 rather than 2) were needed for ritual sacrifice.

15 Figure skater Sonja : HENIE

Sonja Henie was a World and Olympic Champion figure skater from Oslo, Norway who competed in the days when “amateur” sports stars were not paid. Henie made up for her lack of income from competing by developing a career in Hollywood. She was one of the highest-paid film stars at the height of her movie career.

16 Yarn : TALE

The phrase “to spin a yarn”, meaning “to tell a tall tale”, originated in the early 1800s with seamen. The idea was that sailors would tell stories to each other while engaged in mindless work such as twisting yarn.

17 Middle East sultanate : OMAN

Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Oman is a monarchy, and the official name of the state is the Sultanate of Oman. All of the country’s legislative, executive and judiciary power resides with the hereditary sultan.

27 Small pellets : BBS

A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.070″ in diameter) to size FF (.230″). Birdshot that is size BB (0.180″ in diameter) gives the airgun its name.

30 Fiddler accompanist in bluegrass, often : BANJO PLAYER

The instrument that we know today as the banjo is a derivative of instruments that were used in Africa.

Bluegrass is a subgenre of country music, and has its roots in the traditional music brought over from Britain and Ireland. The style of music really evolved quite recently, just before WWII. Musician Bill Monroe is referred to as its “founding father”, and indeed bluegrass takes its name from Monroe’s band, the Blue Grass Boys.

39 Bass kin : CELLO

The word “cello” (plural “celli” or “cellos”) is an abbreviation for “violoncello”, an Italian word for “little violone”, referring to a group of stringed instruments that were popular up to the end of the 17th century. The name violoncello persisted for the instrument that we know today, although the abbreviation “‘cello” was often used. Nowadays, we just drop the apostrophe.

40 Button on a scale : TARE

Tare is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.

41 Seasonal vaccine target : FLU

Influenza (the “flu”) is an ailment that is caused by a virus. The virus is readily inactivated by the use of soap, so washing hands and surfaces is especially helpful in containing flu outbreaks, and other virus pandemics …

46 Many “Grey’s Anatomy” pros : DRS

The very successful hospital drama TV show “Grey’s Anatomy” premiered in 2005. The title is a reference to the show’s central character, Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo), as well as a reference to the classic human anatomy textbook commonly called “Gray’s Anatomy”.

48 Some Minecraft blocks : ORES

Minecraft is a video game that was released in 2011. Apparently, it is the most popular video game of all time, with well over 200 million units sold.

60 Pod in Creole cuisine : OKRA

Here in North America, we tend to associate Creole cuisine with Louisiana. However, the term “Creole cuisine” applies to several areas of the world, areas within the reach of the French, Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires. One definition of Creole culture refers to peoples of European origin, born in the New World, and who have integrated with local cultures. As a result, we encounter a variety of Creole-named cuisines beyond Louisiana, in places like Cuba, Brazil, Peru, Jamaica, Réunion and Cape Verde. All the variations share a leaning towards spiciness, the use of simpler techniques in preparing the food (stewing, frying, etc.), and the use of local products in traditional European dishes.

64 Kits, eventually : FOXES

Male foxes are usually called dogs, and sometimes tods or reynards. Females are vixens, and young foxes are cubs, pups or kits.

66 Two-time Newbery Medal winner DiCamillo : KATE

Children’s author Kate DiCamillo has achieved the rare feat of winning two Newbery Medals, and has also had several of her works adapted into various forms of media. “The Tale of Despereaux” and “Because of Winn-Dixie” have been made into successful films, while “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” has been adapted into both a musical and an opera.

The Newbery is an annual award given by the Association for Library Service to Children for “distinguished contributions to American literature for children”. The award was inaugurated in 1922, and was named for John Newbery, an English 18th-century publisher of books for juveniles and children. Newbery is sometimes referred to as “the Father of Children’s Literature”.

Down

5 Taxonomic classification broader than kingdom : DOMAIN

In taxonomic terms, life is divided into three main categories, the three domains called Eukaryota, Bacteria and Archaea. Eukaryotes are all organisms whose cells contain a nucleus within which genetic material is contained. The domain Eukaryota includes unicellular organisms such as protozoa, and all multicellular organisms including animals, plants and fungi. The organisms in the domains Bacteria and Archaea all lack a nucleus, and as such are known as prokaryotes.

7 Part of a suicide squeeze : BUNT

In baseball, a squeeze play (also “squeeze bunt”) is one in which a batter bunts the ball expecting to be thrown out at first, but gives a runner at third base a chance to score. In a safety squeeze the runner at third waits to see where the bunt is going before heading for home. In a suicide squeeze, the runner heads home as soon as the pitcher throws the ball.

10 Many ICU professionals : RNS

A registered nurse (RN) might work in an intensive care unit (ICU).

11 Simu who plays Shang-Chi : LIU

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” is a movie released in 2021. The title character is a superhero from the Marvel Comics universe. Shang-Chi is played by Canadian actor Simu Liu.

20 NOLA sandwich : PO’BOY

A po’ boy is a submarine sandwich from Louisiana. The name of the sandwich apparently dates back to 1929. It was a sandwich given away free to streetcar workers in New Orleans during a strike, i.e. to “poor boys” not earning a wage. A po’ boy differs from a regular submarine sandwich in that it uses Louisiana French bread, which is soft in the middle and crusty on the outside.

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), Louisiana (LA).

26 Box score statistic : ERRORS

In baseball, the line square is a summary set of statistics for the game. It is seen at every baseball stadium, and includes the number of runs (R) scored by each team per innings, as well as the total number of hits (H) and errors (E). The more comprehensive box score includes the line score, but also shows the individual performance of each player.

27 Like Latvia and Lithuania : BALTIC

The natives of modern day Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are sometimes referred to as Balts, a reference to the Baltic Sea on which the three countries lie. The term “Balt” is also used for someone who speaks one of the Baltic languages, a group of languages spoken by people mainly residing within the borders of Latvia and Lithuania, as well as in some immigrant communities around the world.

28 Sodium hypochlorite : BLEACH

The name “bleach” applies to any chemical used to remove color or stains from a fabric. The most common version that we encounter is probably liquid bleach, a dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite.

29 Upgrade from mono : STEREO

Monophonic sound (“mono”) is sound reproduced using just one audio channel, which is usually played out of just one speaker. Stereophonic sound is reproduced using two audio channels, with the sound from each channel played out of two different speakers. The pair of stereo speakers are usually positioned apart from each other so that sound appears to come from between the two. Quadraphonic sound (4.0 surround sound) uses four audio channels with the sound played back through four speakers that are often positioned at the corners of the room in which one is listening.

32 Covert maritime org. : ONI

The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the oldest of the US intelligence services. The ONI was set up in 1882 to determine the state of advancement of foreign naval forces.

38 Start and end of the Musketeers’ motto : ALL

“All for one, and one for all” is a motto associated with the title characters in the Alexandre Dumas novel “Three Musketeers”. Actually, it is the motto of the Three Musketeers along with their comrade d’Artagnan …

41 Doldrums : FUNK

The phrase “in a blue funk” has two different meanings, depending on what side of the Atlantic you are. Here in North America, to be in a blue funk is to be in a state of gloom. Over in Britain and Ireland, it is to be in a state of anxiety.

The doldrums are a band of generally light winds and calms that span the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans near the equator. More formally known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the phenomenon occurs at the interface between the northeast and southeast trade winds. We have come to use the term “doldrums” colloquially, to describe a state of listlessness, inactivity or stagnation.

49 Multipurpose utensil : SPORK

“Spork” is the more common name for the utensil that is a hybrid between a spoon and a fork. The same utensil is less commonly referred to as a “foon”.

51 Red Muppet with a goldfish : ELMO

The “Sesame Street” character named Elmo has a birthday every February 3rd, and on that birthday he always turns 3½ years old. The man behind/under Elmo on “Sesame Street” for many years was Kevin Clash. If you want to learn more about Elmo and Clash, you can watch the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”.

53 Big-box store with a Småland play area : IKEA

IKEA provides play areas for children in its stores. Those areas are labeled “Småland”, which is the name of the historical province in southern Sweden where IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was born and raised.

54 Lit __ : CRIT

Literary studies, also called literary criticism (lit crit), is the evaluation and interpretation of literature.

55 “Citizen __” : KANE

1941’s “Citizen Kane” was the first film made by Orson Welles, and is considered by many to be the finest movie ever made. It’s a remarkable achievement by Wells, as he played the lead and also produced and directed. Despite all the accolades for “Citizen Kane” over the decades, the movie was far from a commercial success in its early run and actually lost money at the box office.

58 Jazz horn : SAX

The saxophone was invented by Belgian musician Adolphe Sax, hence the name. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.