LA Times Crossword 24 Mar 23, Friday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Samantha Podos Nowak & Katie Hale
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Keyless Entry

Themed answers only make sense if we remove a keyboard KEY, shown in circled letters in the grid:

• 53A Modern way into a building, and what each answer to 20-, 29-, and 43-Across needs to be to match its clue? : KEYLESS ENTRY

• 20A Portrait painter who specializes in primates? : APE ARTIST (ESCAPE ARTIST – ESC)
• 29A Foot, essentially? : LEG ENDER (LEGAL TENDER – ALT)
• 43A Pilot’s standard routine after leaving the gate? : RUNWAY MO (RUNWAY MODEL – DEL)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 “Last four digits” ID : SSN

So often, we are asked for “the last four digits” of our Social Security Numbers (SSNs).

8 Cold feet or cold shoulder : IDIOM

To give someone the cold shoulder is to ignore the person deliberately. A little research into the etymology of “cold shoulder” reveals that there’s some dispute over the origin of the phrase. To me, the most credible suggestion is that the term was coined by Sir Walter Scott in his writings, and he simply used the imagery of someone “turning away, coldly”, to suggest the act of ignoring someone. Less credible is the suggestion that unwelcome visitors to a home in days gone by might be offered a “cold shoulder” of mutton, rather than a hot meal.

14 October birthstone : OPAL

Here is the “official” list of birthstones, by month, that we tend to use today:

• January: Garnet
• February: Amethyst
• March: Bloodstone or Aquamarine
• April: Diamond
• May: Emerald
• June: Pearl or Moonstone
• July: Ruby
• August: Sardonyx or Peridot
• September: Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli
• October: Opal or Pink Tourmaline
• November: Topaz or Citrine
• December: Turquoise or Zircon (also now, Tanzanite)

16 Record holder? : LINER

These days, the term “liner notes” is used for the informational booklet which comes with a music CD. The original liner notes (also “sleeve notes”) were the informational text printed on the inner sleeve (“liner”) of a 12-inch vinyl record.

17 __ Alto : PALO

The city of Palo Alto, California takes its name from a specific redwood tree called El Palo Alto (Spanish for “the tall stick”) that is located within the bounds of the city. The tree is 110 feet tall and over a thousand years old.

18 Camembert cousin : BRIE

Brie is a soft cheese that is named for the French region in which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) Camembert. Brie is often served baked in puff pastry with fig jam.

Camembert cheese is named after the place it was first produced, the commune of Camembert in Normandy in the north of France.

20 Portrait painter who specializes in primates? : APE ARTIST (ESCAPE ARTIST – ESC)

Primates are mammals, many of whom are omnivorous and make good use of their hands. They also have larger brains relative to their body size, compared to other animals. The order Primates includes apes, lemurs, baboons and humans.

23 Turnpike sign : NO U-TURN

Back in the 15th century, a turnpike (tpk., trke.) was a defensive barrier across a road. By the 17th century the term was used for a barrier that stopped travelers until a toll was paid. By the 18th century a turnpike was the name given to a road with a toll.

24 Tiny amount : SOU

A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “an almost worthless amount”.

25 CPR giver : EMT

An emergency medical technician (EMT) might administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

28 Aidy Bryant’s former show, briefly : SNL

Actor and comedian Aidy Bryant made her debut on “Saturday Night Live” in 2012. Bryant married fellow comedian Conner O’Malley in 2018.

32 Battery fluid : ACID

A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electric energy. A simple battery is made up of three parts: a cathode, an anode and a liquid electrolyte. Ions from the electrolyte react chemically with the material in the anode producing a compound and releasing electrons. At the same time, the electrolyte reacts with the material in the cathode, absorbing electrons and producing a different chemical compound. In this way, there is a buildup of electrons at the anode and a deficit of electrons at the cathode. When a connection (wire, say) is made between the cathode and anode, electrons flow through the resulting circuit from the anode to cathode in an attempt to rectify the electron imbalance.

34 “The Princess Diaries” princess : MIA

“The Princess Diaries” is a series of novels for young adults by Meg Cabot. There have been two Disney adaptations of the books, both starring Anne Hathaway as Mia Thermopolis and Julie Andrews as Queen Clarisse Renaldi.

40 Actress Falco : EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

41 Novelist Wolitzer : MEG

Meg Wolitzer is an American novelist and writer, known for her novels which explore the themes of gender, power, and identity. She started her writing career at a very young age. She wrote her first novel, “Sleepwalking,” while she was still an undergraduate. Her most famous work has to be her 2003 novel “The Wife”, which was adapted into an excellent film released in 2017 starring Glen Close in the title role.

42 Peter of reggae : TOSH

Peter Tosh was a musician from Jamaica, a member of the Wailers reggae band. Sadly, Tosh was murdered in a home invasion and extortion attempt in 1987.

43 Pilot’s standard routine after leaving the gate? : RUNWAY MO (RUNWAY MODEL – DEL)

“Modus operandi” (plural “modi operandi”) is the Latin for “mode of operating”, a term we’ve been using since the mid-1600s. It’s often used by the police when referring to the methods typically employed by a particular perpetrator of a crime, and is usually abbreviated to “M.O.”

46 Sentient hairball of 1960s TV : ITT

In the television sitcom “The Addams Family”, the family had a frequent visitor named Cousin Itt. Itt is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. He was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family.

50 “Ew! Stop talking!” : TMI

Too much information (TMI)

58 Shiny fabric : LAME

Lamé is a fabric that has metallic yarns included in the weave. It is a popular fabric for stylish evening wear, and also in the sport of fencing. The metallic threads are conductive and so help register a touch by an épée.

59 Piece of maguro : TORO

In a sushi restaurant, the dish called “toro” is the fatty tissue from the belly of the bluefin tuna.

“Maguro” is the Japanese word for “tuna”. The term is sometimes used to refer to the bluefin tuna, although more commonly it is used as a generic label.

63 En pointe : ON TOE

“En pointe” is ballet dancing on the tips of the toes, and is a French term. A ballerina wears pointe shoes (sometimes “toe shoes”) to perform this delightful-looking, albeit unhealthy, feat (pun!).

64 Wordle publisher, familiarly : NYT

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”.

65 Strings for Orpheus : LYRE

Orpheus is a figure from Greek mythology very often associated with poetry, singing, music and the lyre in particular. In ancient Greece there was even an Orphic cult that in effect adopted the poetry ascribed to Orpheus as central to the cult’s belief system. The adjectives “Orphic” and “Orphean” describe things pertaining to Orpheus, and because of his romantic, musical bent, the term has come to describe anything melodious or enchanting. One of the more famous stories about Orpheus describes his attempts to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld.

Down

1 Quakers in a forest : ASPENS

The “quaking” aspen tree is so called because the structure of the leaves causes them to move easily in the wind, to “tremble, quake”.

4 Short-tailed weasel : STOAT

The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

Weasels are small mammals with long, thin bodies. That body shape is an advantage when weasels chase their prey into narrow burrows.

7 “Queen of Katwe” director Mira __ : NAIR

Indian-American director Mira Nair has an impressive list of movies on her résumé, most notably perhaps “Mississippi Masala”, “Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love” and “Monsoon Wedding”.

“Queen of Katwe” is a biographical film that tells the true story of Phiona Mutesi, a young girl from the slums of Kampala, Uganda who becomes a chess prodigy and competes in international tournaments. The film’s star, Madina Nalwanga, was a first-time actress with no prior acting experience. When she watched the finished movie, it was only the second time she had been inside a theater.

11 Uni resource : OED

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

In Australia (Down Under), and in Britain and Ireland, the term “uni” is used routinely for “university”.

12 “The Marvelous __ Maisel” : MRS

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is a comedy drama TV show set in the late fifties and early sixties. The title character, played by Rachel Brosnahan, is a New York housewife who opts for a career as a standup comedian.

21 Sheepdogs from Hungary : PULIS

The puli is a small herding dog that is noted for its coat with tight curls that resemble dreadlocks. Pulik (the plural of “puli”) originated in Hungary.

22 Letter before kappa : IOTA

Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet, and one that gave rise to our letters I and J. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small, as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

27 City tricked by a wooden horse : TROY

The story of the Wooden Horse of Troy is told in Virgil’s poem “The Aeneid”. According to the tale, the city of Troy finally fell to Greeks after a siege that had lasted for ten years. In a ruse, the Greeks sailed away in apparent defeat, leaving behind a large wooden horse. Inside the horse were hidden 30 crack soldiers. When the horse was dragged into the city as a victory trophy, the soldiers sneaked out and opened the city’s gates. The Greeks returned under cover of night and entered the open city.

31 Military police procedural : NCIS

NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates crimes in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The service gives its name to the CBS TV show “NCIS”, a spin-off drama from “JAG” in which the main “NCIS” characters were first introduced. The big star in “NCIS” is the actor Mark Harmon. “NCIS” is now a franchise, with spin-off shows “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “NCIS: New Orleans”.

38 Choreographer Agnes who wrote a biography of Martha Graham : DE MILLE

Agnes de Mille was a dancer and choreographer from New York City. She was the niece of famous director Cecil B. DeMille, and the daughter of William C. deMille who was also a Hollywood director. Agnes turned to dance after she was told that she was “not pretty enough” to pursue her first love, which was acting …

Martha Graham was a much-respected modern dancer and choreographer from Pittsburgh. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. In fact, First Lady Betty Ford had studied dance with Martha Graham in New York City in the 1930s.

39 Detective assisted by Archie Goodwin : WOLFE

Archie Goodwin is a character in the “Nero Wolfe” series of detective novels by Rex Stout. Goodwin’s job is secretary and chauffeur to Wolfe, but he also serves as the narrator of the stories.

53 “The Last Jedi” villain Ren : KYLO

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is a 2017 movie from the “Star Wars” film franchise, and the second installment of the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy. The title character is Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill. Ah, but is Luke in fact the “last Jedi”?

55 Calif. hub : 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.