LA Times Crossword 17 Dec 25, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Adam Shapiro

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Triple-Double

Themed answers all TRIPLETS of words that can follow “DOUBLE”:

• 58A Impressive basketball feats, and what 20-, 36-, and 43-Across have : TRIPLE-DOUBLES

• 20A Artist with success in more than one genre : CROSSOVER STAR (double cross + double over + double star)
• 36A What an angsty teenager may slam : BEDROOM DOOR (double bed + double room + double door)
• 43A Be useless : TAKE UP SPACE (double take + double up + double space)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 38s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Biblical kingdom east of the Dead Sea : MOAB

In the Bible, Moab was the first son of Lot, and the founder of the Kingdom of Moab. Moab was located on a plateau above the Dead Sea.

5A “But there is __ in Mudville … ” : NO JOY

“Casey at the Bat” is a poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer, first published in the San Francisco Examiner. The poem became very popular due to repeated live performances in vaudeville by DeWolf Hopper. Casey played for the Mudville Nine, and the last line of the poem is “But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.”

14A Poet __ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright, and the third woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (in 1923 for “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”). Millay was noted not only for her work, but also for the open arrangement that she and her husband had in their marriage. Millay took many lovers, including the poet George Dillon for whom she wrote a number of sonnets.

16A Nevada city on the Truckee River : RENO

The Truckee River is the only outlet of the magnificent Lake Tahoe in the High Sierra of California/Nevada. The Truckee River flows northeast through Reno, Nevada and empties into Pyramid Lake.

27A Fortuneteller’s deck : TAROT

Tarot cards originated in 15th-century Italy, not as a mystical tool, but as playing cards for a game similar to bridge. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that they became widely associated with divination, particularly after French occultists began publishing treatises on their symbolic meanings.

31A Home for Sharks or Kraken : ARENA

The San Jose Sharks hockey team play their home games at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, a venue that we locals call “the Shark Tank”.

The Kraken are an NHL team based in Seattle. They played their first league game in Seattle in 2021, marking the first time that Seattle hosted a professional hockey team since the days of the Seattle Totems in 1975.

33A Frito-__ snacks : LAY

The manufacturers of Frito and Lay potato chips merged to form Frito-Lay in 1961. Frito-Lay then merged with Pepsi-Cola in 1965 to form PepsiCo.

39A Skin care brand : OLAY

Oil of Olay was developed in South Africa in 1952. When Oil of Olay was introduced internationally, it was given slightly different brand names designed to appeal in the different geographies. In Ireland we know it as Oil of Ulay, for example, and in France it is Oil of Olaz.

42A BMW competitor : AUDI

The predecessor to today’s Audi company was called Auto Union. Auto Union was formed with the merger of four individual entities: Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer. The Audi logo comprises four intersecting rings, each representing one of the four companies that merged.

46A Sum of the first three prime numbers : TEN

2 + 3 + 5 = 10

A prime number is a number greater than 1 that can only be divided evenly by 1 and itself. There are still some unanswered questions involving prime numbers, perhaps most notably Goldbach’s Conjecture. This conjecture dates back to the 1740s and is assumed to be true, but has never been proven. It states that every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers.

50A Big D sch. : SMU

Southern Methodist University (SMU) is located in University Park, Texas (part of Dallas) and was founded in 1911. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Mustangs. Also, SMU is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

51A Org. that may confiscate liquids : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) loosened the ban on liquids, aerosols and gels in carry-on baggage in 2006, From that date onwards, passengers had to abide by the 3-1-1 rule, i.e. 3.4-ounce or less containers (3), in a one-quart ziploc bag (1), one bag per person (1).

54A Torah teacher : RABBI

The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, are traditionally believed to have been written by Moses. As such, they are sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses, or Mosaic Law. Those five books are:

• Bereshit/Genesis
• Shemot/Exodus
• Vayikra/Leviticus
• Bamidbar/Numbers
• Devarim/Deuteronomy

58A Impressive basketball feats, and what 20-, 36-, and 43-Across have : TRIPLE-DOUBLES

In the world of basketball, a “double” is the accumulation of double digits in either points, rebounds, assists, steals or blocked shots. A “double-double” is getting double digits in two of these five categories. A player can also earn a triple-double, quadruple-double or quintuple-double.

63A Find an extra level, à la Spinal Tap : GO TO ELEVEN

The idioms “these go to eleven” (sometimes “up to eleven”) come from the 1984 movie “This is Spinal Tap”. In the film, the band’s guitarist is proud of his amplifier that can attain a volume of “eleven” as opposed to the standard “ten”. And so, we can say “turning it up to eleven” when we are taking something to the extreme.

67A Like a baseball bat’s symmetry : AXIAL

An object exhibits axial symmetry, also known as line symmetry or reflection symmetry, if it can be divided into two identical halves by a line. This line, the axis of symmetry, acts like a mirror, with each half of the shape being a reflection of the other.

70A Running total : TALLY

Back in the mid-1600s, a tally was a stick marked with notches that tracked how much one owed or paid. The term “tally” came from the Latin “talea” meaning “stick, rod”. The act of “scoring” the stick with notches gave rise to our word “score” for the number in a tally.

71A Juicy bit of info : DEET

“Deets” is slang for “details”.

Down

1D Hajj destination : MECCA

Mecca is in the Makkah province of Saudi Arabia. It was the birthplace of Muhammad and is the holiest city in Islam. Every year, several million Muslims perform the Hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

4D Type of dog serenaded by Elvis on “The Steve Allen Show” : BASSET

Elvis Presley made a famous (and perhaps infamous) television appearance in 1956 on “The Steve Allen Show”. These were the days when rock-and-roll songs, and the famous Elvis hip gyrations, were frowned upon by many TV executives. Steve Allen, likely in an attempt to tone down Elvis’s controversial stage presence, had Elvis sing the song while dressed in a tuxedo. To make the performance comedic, he had Elvis sing the song “Hound Dog” to a real basset hound that was sitting placidly on a stool, complete with a top hat. Elvis gamely sang his rock-and-roll anthem to the unimpressed-looking dog, although he was pretty disgusted by the experience, by all accounts.

5D Fictional clownfish : NEMO

“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and, until 2010’s “Toy Story 3”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.

Clownfish are very colorful, attractive-looking fish. They are orange and often have broad strips of white and black on their bodies depending on species. Clownfish spend their lives in a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones.

6D Royal name of Norway : OLAV

Of the many kings of Norway named Olaf/Olav (and there have been five), Olaf II is perhaps the most celebrated, as he was canonized and made the patron saint of the country. Olaf II was king from 1015 to 1028 and was known as “Olaf the Big” (or “Olaf the Fat”) during his reign. Today he is more commonly referred to as “Olaf the Holy”. After Olaf died he was given the title of “Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae”, which is Latin for “Norway’s Eternal King”.

7D Card material : JOKE

A very amusing person might be referred to as a card, stitch, wag or riot.

8D Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking,” for one : OPERA

“Dead Man Walking” is a successful 21st-century opera by American composer Jake Heggie based on a memoir by Roman Catholic Sister Helen Prejean. Both book and opera deal with Sister Helen’s work as a spiritual adviser to convicts on death row. I haven’t seen the opera, but I hear good things. Apparently, the compelling story is supported by music that is emotionally direct and deeply melodic, unlike so many contemporary works (sadly!).

9D Beer foam producer : YEAST

Yeasts are unicellular microorganisms in the kingdom Fungi. The species of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for centuries in the making of wine and beer, and in breadmaking. Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and alcohol in the process of fermentation. When making beer and wine, the carbon dioxide and alcohol may be captured by the liquid. When making bread, the carbon dioxide and alcohol is driven off by heat.

10D Mex. miss : SRTA

“Señorita” (Srta.) is Spanish, and “Mademoiselle” (Mlle.) is French, for “Miss”.

13D Orca family group : POD

Orcas tend to live in groups. Those groups center around a matriarch, a female orca surrounded by male and female offspring. A male orca tends to stay with his mother for life. A female orca does spend time away from her mother, creating her own pod. Her pod usually travels relatively close to the matriarch’s group.

25D Cathode’s counterpart : ANODE

The anode and cathode are the two electrodes in an electrical device, like a battery. Anodes “give away” electrons, and cathodes “accept” electrons. In a typical battery powering a device, the anode gives away electrons that travel through the device (like a lightbulb, making it light up). Those electrons then flow to the cathode, which accepts them, completing the circuit.

30D Familiar theme : TROPE

A trope is a figure of speech. The term “trope” comes from the Greek word “tropos” that has the same meaning. The term has evolved in meaning to also describe a common or overused device or theme.

32D Nutrition fig. : RDA

Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) were introduced during WWII, The primary goal wasn’t public health in general, but specifically to ensure that American soldiers and the general population supporting the war effort were getting enough nutrients to be effective.

33D Seated meditation pose : LOTUS

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word that translates as “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

35D Calorific tea ingredient in Tibet : YAK BUTTER

The English word “yak” is an Anglicized version of the Tibetan name for the male of the species. Yak milk is much prized in Tibetan culture. It is made into cheese and butter, and the butter is used to make a tea that is consumed in great volume by Tibetans. The butter is also used as a fuel in lamps, and during festivals the butter is even sculpted into religious icons.

45D Hosiery shade : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”, and has the same roots as our word “crude”.

49D Like busy browser windows : TABBED

A web browser is a piece of software used to access the World Wide Web. The first web browser was called “WorldWideWeb” and was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web. The browser known as Mosaic came out in 1993, and it was this browser that drove so much interest in the World Wide Web, and indeed in the Internet in general. Marc Andreessen led the team that created Mosaic, and he then set up his own company called Netscape. Netscape created the Netscape Navigator browser that further popularized the use of the Web starting in 1994. Microsoft responded by introducing Internet Explorer in 1995, which sparked the so-called “browser war”, a war that Microsoft clearly won. As Netscape floundered, the company launched the open-source Mozilla project which eventually led to the Firefox browser. Apple then came out with its own Safari browser in 2003. Google’s Chrome browser, introduced in 2008, is by far the most popular way to view the Web today.

55D Mandoline piece : BLADE

A mandoline (sometimes “mandolin”) is a kitchen slicer used for cutting very precise, uniform slices of vegetables and fruits. It is a notoriously dangerous implement because its blades are incredibly sharp. So we really do have to use the included safety guard …

62D Hulu’s “__ Murders in the Building” : ONLY

“Only Murders in the Building” is a hit comedy-mystery series, co-created by Steve Martin. It stars Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as three residents of an affluent Upper West Side apartment building in New York City. The trio bonds over their obsession with true-crime podcasts and decide to start their own to investigate murders in their building. The guest cast is essentially a rolodex of Steve Martin and Martin Short’s real-life best friends and colleagues. The show feels like it is a group of famous actors playing in their New York backyard. I love this show …

63D Gimlet liquor : GIN

A gimlet is a relatively simple cocktail that is traditionally made using just gin and lime juice. The trend in more recent times is to replace the gin with vodka.