LA Times Crossword 19 Dec 25, Friday

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Constructed by: Samantha Podos Nowak

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: To Be or Not to Be

Themed answers are common phrases containing a letter B, but only match the clues when that letter B is removed:

• 36A Soliloquy dilemma, and a phonetic hint to 17-, 25-, 51-, and 61-Across : TO BE OR NOT TO BE, and TO “B” OR NOT TO “B”

• 17A “Pencils down!,” for one? : TIMER LINE (TIMBERLINE – B)
• 25A “What I did last summer” essay penned by a lifeguard? : POOL TALE (POOL TABLE – B)
• 51A Ice cream truck jingle, e.g.? : SUGAR CUE (SUGAR CUBE – B)
• 61A Fee for a reunion dinner? : ALUM COVER (ALBUM COVER – B)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 14s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A “Black Widow” singer Rita : ORA

“Black Widow” is a 2014 song by Australian rap artist Iggy Azalea, featuring English singer Rita Ora. It was co-written by Katy Perry, and originally intended for Perry’s album “Prism”. When the song didn’t make the final cut, she passed the demo to Azalea to complete.

14A Loonie currency, briefly : CAD

Canadian dollar (CAD)

The common loon (also “great northern diver”) is the provincial bird of Ontario, and the state bird of Minnesota. The loon once appeared on Canadian $20 bills and also appears on the Canadian one-dollar coin, giving the coin the nickname “the loonie”.

15A Prestige : CACHET

“Cachet” is a French word that we use in English for an official seal, usually one applied to a document. We also use the term figuratively. When we say that something has “a certain cachet”, we are implying that it has a certain level of prestige, as if some authority has given it a seal of approval.

16A Lentil pancake : DOSA

A dosa is a thin, savory pancake from South Indian cuisine. Dosas are made using a fermented batter consisting of ground black lentils and rice. They are usually served hot, and often with chutney and sambar, a lentil-based vegetable stew.

20A More than half of the world’s population : ASIANS

Most of the world’s population lives in Asia (60%), and Asia is the largest continent in terms of landmass (30% of the world). Asia also has the highest population density (246 people per square mile), and the most populous city on the continent is Shanghai, China.

24A Curriculum __ : VITAE

A curriculum vitae (“CV” or “vita”) is a listing of someone’s work experience and qualifications, and is used mainly in making a job application. The term “curriculum vitae” can be translated from Latin as “course of life”.

28A USN rank : ENS

Ensign is (usually) the most junior rank of commissioned officer in the armed forces. The name comes from the tradition that the junior officer would be given the task of carrying the ensign flag.

31A Burrito option : ASADA

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

32A Alien-seeking org. : SETI

“SETI” is the name given to a number of projects searching for extraterrestrial life. The acronym stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence”. One of the main SETI activities is the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves) reaching the Earth in the hope of finding a transmission from a civilization in another world.

35A Class with pastels : ART

A “pastel” is a crayon made from a “paste” containing a powdered pigment in a binder. The term “pastel” can also be used to describe a work created using pastels.

36A Soliloquy dilemma, and a phonetic hint to 17-, 25-, 51-, and 61-Across : TO BE OR NOT TO BE

There has been centuries of debate about how one interprets Hamlet’s soliloquy that begins “To be or not to be …”. My favorite opinion is that Hamlet is weighing up the pros and cons of suicide (“to not be”).

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles …

A soliloquy is an act of talking to oneself, with “soliloquy” coming from the Latin “solus” meaning “alone” and “loqui” meaning “to speak”. We mostly hear the term in the context of theater, where it is a monologue from a character that gives voice to otherwise unspoken thoughts.

42A Bygone JFK carrier : TWA

Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan Am and TWA’s purchase by Howard Hughes, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original meaning of the initialism “TWA”) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.

43A Silver State city : RENO

The official nickname of Nevada is the Silver State, a reference to the importance of silver ore in the state’s growth and economy. An unofficial nickname is the Battle Born State. “Battle Born” is a reference to Nevada being awarded statehood during the American Civil War.

45A Fountain spot, perhaps : PLAZA

“Plaza” is a Spanish word meaning “square, place”.

50A Keebler baker : ELF

The famous Keebler Elves have been appearing in ads for Keebler since 1968. The original head of the elves was J. J. Keebler, but he was toppled from power by Ernest J. Keebler in 1970. The Keebler Elves bake their cookies in the Hollow Tree Factory.

51A Ice cream truck jingle, e.g.? : SUGAR CUE (SUGAR CUBE – B)

Sir Henry Tate was a 19th-century English sugar magnate who revolutionized the sugar industry by introducing sugar cubes to the masses. A generous philanthropist, Tate is best known for his founding of the Tate Gallery in London in 1897. The Tate Gallery, now known as Tate Britain, has since expanded to become a network of four major art museums.

54A “Groundhog Day” writer/director Harold : RAMIS

Harold Ramis was a real all-rounder; a very successful actor, director and writer. Indeed, in both “Ghostbusters” and “Stripes” he was a co-writer as well as playing a lead character. Ramis worked as writer-director on “Caddyshack”, “National Lampoon’s Vacation”, “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze This”.

“Groundhog Day” is a 1993 comedy film that has already become a classic. The star of the movie is Bill Murray, with Andie MacDowell putting in a great supporting performance. “Groundhog Day” is set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania although it was actually filmed in the town of Woodstock, Illinois.

57A __ Quixote : DON

The full name of Cervantes’s novel is “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”. In the story, Don Quixote is a retired country gentleman who heads out as a knight-errant and who renames himself Don Quixote of La Mancha. In his mind he designates a neighboring farm girl called Aldonza Lorenzo as his lady love, and renames her Dulcinea del Toboso.

58A From the beginning : DE NOVO

“De novo” is Latin for “anew”, and is a term that we use in English with the same meaning.

59A Luau strings : UKES

The ukulele (uke) originated in the 1800s and mimicked a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

The anglicized name of the Hawaiian feast “luau” comes from the Hawaiian word “lu’au”, which translates literally as “young taro tops”. Taro leaves and corms are often served at luaus.

61A Fee for a reunion dinner? : ALUM COVER (ALBUM COVER – B)

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

64A Bambi, for one : DEER

In the 1942 animated feature “Bambi”, the title character is a white-tailed deer. His best friends are a pink-nosed rabbit named Thumper, a skunk named Flower, and another deer named Faline with whom Bambi eventually falls in love.

66A QB mistake : INT

In football, if a quarterback’s (QB’s) pass ends up in the hands of an opponent, then that’s an interception (INT).

69A Season opener? : ESS

The word “season” opens with a letter S (ess).

Down

1D So-so ranges? : OCTAVES

I find that terminology in music can be confusing. My way of looking at an octave (my way … don’t shout at me!) is thinking of a piano keyboard. In the key of C, the seven notes of the octave are C, D, E, F, G, A, B (or “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti”). These are all white keys. Most of these “white notes” are separated by whole tones, so there is room to add a “semitone” in between most of them, and these are the black keys (C-sharp for example). There is room for five black keys in an octave, and 7 + 5 adds up to 12. I assume we use the term “octave” because we often add an eighth note on the end “to bring us back to do” as the song says (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do … or … C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C). That eighth note is really the first note in the next octave up.

2D Chocolate-covered bite : RAISINET

Raisinets are chocolate-covered raisins produced by Nestlé. They are often sold in boxes in movie theaters.

5D Works on the road : TARS

The terms “tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call “tarmac”.

6D Knee pt. : ACL

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

7D Home of the Cubbies and the Bears : CHI

The Chicago Cubs baseball team was supposedly subject to the “Curse of the Billy Goat” from 1945 until 2016. Billy Sianis, the owner of a Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, took his pet goat with him to a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. Fans sitting nearby didn’t like the smell of the goat, and so the owner was asked to leave. As he left, Sianis yelled out, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” And that is how a curse is born …

The Chicago Bears football team was founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1919 and moved to Chicago in 1921. The Bears are one of only two franchises in the NFL that were around at the time of the league’s founding (the other being the Arizona Cardinals, also based in Chicago in 1921).

8D Martial art that began as sword exercises practiced by samurai : KENDO

Kendo is a Japanese martial art based on sword fighting. Participants wear protective armor, and use bamboo swords.

11D Floor model? : 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 …

12D The Penguin’s first name : OSWALD

The origin of the villain known as “The Penguin” is disputed, but one of his co-creators claimed the character was inspired by the advertising mascot for Kool cigarettes, a penguin with a top hat and cane. Burgess Meredith famously portrayed him in the 1960s “Batman” TV series, and Danny DeVito played a memorable version in the 1992 film “Batman Returns”. More recently, Colin Farrell played the character, aka Oswald “Oz” Cobb, in the 2022 film “The Batman”, and in a 2024 spin-off miniseries “The Penguin”.

13D Supercontinent of the late Paleozoic Era : PANGEA

Pangaea (also “Pangea”) was a supercontinent that existed during the age of the dinosaurs, the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. Pangaea broke apart due to movement of tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust. All of today’s continents were once part of Pangaea.

The Paleozoic Era (with “Paleozoic” meaning “ancient life”) was a geologic era from roughly 542 to 251 million years ago. Notably in the Paleozoic Era, fish populations thrived and vast forests of primitive plants covered the land. Those forests were the source material for the coal which we dig out of the ground now in Europe and the eastern parts of North America. The end of the Paleozoic Era was marked by the largest mass extinction in the history of the Earth, killing off 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrates. Causes of the extinction have been suggested, with one hypothesis being gradually accelerating climate change (scary!).

26D Bill with round numbers? : OPEN TAB

When we run a “tab” at a bar, we are running a “tabulation”, a listing of what we owe. Such a use of “tab” is American slang that originated in the 1880s.

27D Mary of “The Maltese Falcon” : ASTOR

Mary Astor was an American actress who is best remembered perhaps for playing Brigid O’Shaughnessy in 1941’s “The Maltese Falcon” opposite Humphrey Bogart. As well as being an Oscar-winning actress, Mary Astor was also the author of five novels and a best-selling autobiography.

30D Oklahoma Natives : OTOE

The Otoe are a Native American people who originated in the Great Lakes region. Around the 16th century, they migrated westward and settled in the lower Nemaha River valley in modern-day Nebraska. Like many Plains tribes, they adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle centered on the American bison, living in earth lodges while farming and using tipis while traveling for hunts. The Otoe encountered the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804, and subsequently succumbed to the European American expansion, which resulted in their removal to a reservation in present-day Oklahoma.

33D Island near Majorca : IBIZA

Ibiza is a Mediterranean island located almost 100 miles off the Spanish coast. It is a very popular tourist destination, largely for its legendary nightlife.

39D Animated film in which Renée Zellweger voices a florist named Vanessa Bloome : BEE MOVIE

“Bee Movie” is a 2007 animated feature starring Jerry Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger. Seinfeld voices a honeybee named Barry B. Benson, and Zellweger a human named Vanessa whom he befriends. Seinfeld also co-wrote and produced the film.

45D Ersatz : PSEUDO

Something described as ersatz is a copy, and usually not a good one. “Ersatz” comes from the German verb “ersetzen” meaning “to replace”.

58D Contacted privately, briefly : DM’ED

Direct message (DM)

60D B’way sign : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)