LA Times Crossword 25 Jun 26, Thursday

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Constructed by: Jeffrey Wechsler

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer(s): Cutting Corners

Today’s grid includes four CUTTING tools in the CORNERS, spelled out with circled letters:

• KNIFE
• SNIPS
• SWORD
• BLADE

• 40A With 42-Across, risky business practice, or what can be found in this puzzle’s circles? : CUTTING…
• 42A See 40-Across : … CORNERS

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

Bill’s time: 7m 42s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Carrot relative : PARSNIP

The parsnip is a root vegetable that is usually left in the ground through winter frosts in order to increase the root’s sugar content. Parsnips can be so sweet that they were commonly used as sweeteners before sugar beets and sugarcane became readily available. Parsnip juices were collected and evaporated to produce a brown residue that resembled honey.

15A Reminiscent of an almond’s flavor, say : NUTLIKE

“Almond” is the name of a deciduous tree, and of the edible seed of that tree. The fruit of the almond tree is a drupe, and not a nut. The drupe comprises an outer hull surrounding a woody endocarp. The edible seed is found inside the woody shell, and that’s the almond “nut”.

16A Guises for gamers : AVATARS

The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of online presences one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

17A Activity of a rogue : KNAVERY

We’ve been using “knave” to mean “cad” since about 1200, and as an alternative name for the jack in a deck of cards since the mid-1500s. “Knave” comes from the Old English word “cnafa”, a “boy, male servant”.

29A Shea successor : CITI

Citi Field is a relatively new baseball stadium used by the New York Mets (NYM) that sits right next door to the site of Shea Stadium, where the Mets had played for decades. The new facility’s name comes from corporate sponsor Citigroup.

32A Tax cheat : EVADER

Tax evasion is illegal, and tax avoidance is legal. Evading taxes involves dishonest tax reporting, whereas avoiding taxes uses the tax laws as written to reduce the amount of tax owed. Both evasion and avoidance might be regarded as noncompliance, because tax avoidance often involves legal manipulation of the system (using “loopholes”) in a manner that subverts the intent of the tax code.

36A Hush-hush doc : NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

37A Carmichael who plays Lady Edith on “Downton Abbey” : LAURA

Actress Laura Carmichael’s career really took off when she landed the role of Lady Edith Crawley on the hit TV show “Downton Abbey”. She discovered that she was awarded the part while she was working as a receptionist in a doctor’s office. Carmichael found love on the “Downton Abbey” set, starting a relationship with fellow actor Michael C. Fox, who portrayed the footman Andrew Parker. That “upstairs, downstairs” relationship led to the couple welcoming a son into the world in 2022.

39A Land of the Minotaur : CRETE

Crete is the largest of the Greek Islands, and figures heavily in Greek mythology. Zeus was born in a cave at Mount Ida, the highest peak on the island. Crete was also home to the Labyrinth where the Minotaur was slain by Theseus. Icarus and Daedalus, after having crafted the Labyrinth, escaped from the island using wings that they crafted.

44A “Will all great Neptune’s __ wash this blood / Clean from my hand?”: Macbeth : OCEAN

In William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”, the title character utters the line “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?” right after he kills Duncan, King of Scotland.

45A “__ bleu!” : SACRE

French speakers don’t really use the profanity “sacré bleu”, at least not anymore, but we see it a lot in English literature featuring native French speakers. Most famously it is uttered by Agatha Christie’s delightful Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. There is some dispute about the origins of “sacré bleu” (sacred blue), but French dictionaries explain that it is a “softening” of the alternative “sacré Dieu” (Holy God).

47A Actress Whitman : MAE

Actress Mae Whitman played “the daughter” in some successful movies early in her career. She was Meg Ryan’s daughter in “When a Man Loves a Woman”, George Clooney’s daughter in “One Fine Day” and Bill Pullman’s daughter in “Independence Day”. More recently, she voiced the title character in Disney’s “Tinker Bell” series of animated films.

48A Bring out the blue pencil again : RE-EDIT

The tradition is that an editor writes corrections to written copy using a blue pencil. The practice arose with the introduction of the “non-photo blue” pencil, which had a color that did not show up in some photographic reproduction processes.

55A “Captain’s __, stardate … ” : LOG

“Stardates” are fictional dates used in the “Star Trek” universe.

70A Electric current units : AMPERES

The unit of electric current is the ampere, which is abbreviated correctly to “A” rather than “amp”. It is named after French physicist André-Marie Ampère, one of the main scientists responsible for the discovery of electromagnetism.

71A Montana neighbor : ALBERTA

Alberta (Alta.) is a big province, one about the size of Texas. It is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Princess Louise also donated her name to Lake Louise, the large glacial lake in the province, now within the bounds of Banff National Park.

72A First name of the 28th U.S. president : WOODROW

Woodrow Wilson was a professor at Princeton from 1890 to 1902 at which time he was promoted to president of the university. Professor Wilson had earned his PhD. at Johns Hopkins University in 1886, so that when he was elected 28th President of the United States in 1912, he became the only US President to hold a PhD.

Down

1D Calligraphy supply : INK

Calligraphy is the art of fine handwriting. The term “calligraphy” comes from the Greek “kallos” meaning “beauty” and “graphein” meaning “to write”.

4D “Jailhouse Rock” star : ELVIS

“Jailhouse Rock” is a 1957 Elvis Presley film that was originally titled “The Hard Way”. The movie was renamed in order to cash in on the anticipated success of the title song. The opening dance sequence, in which he performs “Jailhouse Rock”, is perhaps Presley’s most memorable moment on the big screen.

6D Gumbo vegetable : OKRA

Gumbo is a type of stew or soup that originated in Louisiana. The primary ingredient can be meat or fish, but to be true gumbo it must include the “holy trinity” of vegetables, namely celery, bell peppers and onion. Okra used to be a requirement but this is no longer the case. Okra gave the dish its name as the vernacular word for the African vegetable is “ki ngombo”, from the Bantu language spoken by many of the slaves brought to America.

11D RR stop : STA

A station (“stn.” or “sta.”) is a railroad (RR) stop.

12D “The Greatest Average American” host Bargatze : NATE

Nate Bargatze is a stand-up comedian from Nashville who is known for his clean comedy, generally avoiding potentially controversial material. That’s pretty unusual, I’d say …

“The Greatest Average American” is a TV game show that debuted in 2026. Contestants are tested on how well they can predict the habits, trivia, and mindsets of everyday citizens. A clever twist is that the grand prize is $67,920, the average American annual salary.

24D Vandyke kin : GOATEE

A goatee is a beard formed by hair on a man’s chin. The name probably comes from the tuft of hair seen on an adult goat.

The style of facial hair known as a vandyke is made up of a mustache and a goatee, with the cheeks fully shaven. The style takes its name from the 17th century Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck who wore such a beard, as did many of the men whose portrait he painted.

30D Actor McKellen : IAN

Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, one who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings”. In the UK, Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

34D Online NYSE choice : E-TRADE

E*Trade is mainly an online discount brokerage. It was founded in 1982 in Palo Alto, California, and I used to drive by its headquarters almost every day. The company is now run out of New York City. E*Trade used to produce those famous Super Bowl ads with the talking babies staring into a webcam.

43D Bauxite, e.g. : ORE

Bauxite is an aluminum ore. It takes its name from the absolutely beautiful village of Les Baux in southern France, the home of the geologist who first recognized that the mineral was a useful source of the metal.

53D Thompson of “Selma” : TESSA

Tessa Thompson is an actress from Los Angeles who is known for playing the supporting role of Jackie Cook on the TV show “Veronica Mars”, and for playing student leader Diane Nash in the 2014 film “Selma”. She also portrays superheroine Valkyrie in movies based on Marvel Comics characters.

“Selma” is a 2014 film about the Selma-to-Montgomery marches of 1965. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson.

55D Helen of Troy’s mother : LEDA

In Greek mythology, Leda was the beautiful Queen of Sparta who was seduced by Zeus when he took the form of a swan. Leda produced two eggs from the union. One egg hatched into Clytemnestra and the beautiful Helen of Troy, over whom was fought the Trojan War. The other egg hatched into the twins Castor and Pollux. Castor and Pollux had different fathers according to the myth. Pollux was the son of Zeus and was immortal, while Castor was the son of Leda’s earthly husband, and so he was a mortal. In the world of the arts, William Butler Yeats wrote a famous sonnet called “Leda and the Swan” in 1924, and Peter Paul Rubens made a copy of a now-lost painting called “Leda and the Swan” by Michelangelo.

56D Scott Turow work : ONE L

Scott Turow is an author and lawyer from Chicago. Turow has had several bestselling novels including “Presumed Innocent”, “The Burden of Proof” and “Reversible Errors”, all three of which were made into films. He also wrote the autobiographical book “One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School”.

59D “Saint Joan” playwright : SHAW

“Saint Joan” is a historical tragedy play penned by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. It had its debut on Broadway, in 1923.

61D Blue Buffalo rival : ALPO

Blue Buffalo is a company that makes cat and dog food. Founder Bill Bishop named the company for his pet Airedale Terrier “Blue”.

64D Austrian lang. : GER

The name “Austria” is a Latin variant of the German name for the country, “Österreich”. “Österreich” itself means “Eastern borderlands”, a reference to the country’s history as a prefecture of neighboring Bavaria to the west.

67D __ Speedwagon : REO

REO Speedwagon is an American rock band that formed in 1967, and is still going strong. The band’s biggest hits are “Keep On Loving You” (1980) and “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (1985). The founding members chose the name for the REO Speed Wagon flatbed truck. Note that the band’s name is one word “Speedwagon”, whereas the vehicle’s name uses two words “Speed Wagon”.