LA Times Crossword 29 May 26, Friday

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Constructed by: Zachary David Levy

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Not My Job

Themed answers are JOBS, but clued as if they were different JOBS entirely:

• 38A “That’s someone else’s problem,” or an apt title for this puzzle : NOT MY JOB

• 18A Photographer? : CHEESEMONGER
• 26A Police officer? : TICKET AGENT
• 52A Carpenter? : FLOOR TRADER
• 63A Realtor? : STREET VENDOR

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

Bill’s time: 7m 30s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Like some temples : MASONIC

A Masonic Temple, or Masonic Hall, is the building in which meetings are held by a Masonic Lodge, the basic organizational unit of Freemasonry. The first Masonic Hall was built in Marseille, France in 1765. The world’s largest such building is the Detroit Masonic Temple, which opened in 1926.

8A Epiphany trio : MAGI

“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, “magi” is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born. In Western Christianity, the three Biblical Magi are:

• Melchior: a scholar from Persia
• Caspar (also “Gaspar”): a scholar from India
• Balthazar: a scholar from Arabia

The holiday in the Christian tradition known as the Epiphany falls on January 6th. In some Spanish-speaking countries, the Epiphany is known as “Día de los Reyes”, and in others as “Día de Reyes” (Day of Kings).

12A Maker of Sticking Point press-on nails : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film. Opi also launched a collection of nail lacquers inspired by the hit Broadway musical “Wicked” in celebration of its 10th anniversary on Broadway.

15A Tennis period since 1968 : OPEN ERA

In the sport of tennis, the Grand Slam tournaments were opened up to professional players, and not just amateurs, in 1968. So, the period since 1968 has been called the “Open Era”.

17A NFL Hall of Famer Dawson : LEN

Len Dawson was a retired AFL-NFL quarterback who played for the Kansas City Chiefs (originally the Dallas Texans). Dawson played for the Chiefs in the first ever Super Bowl, losing badly to the Green Bay Packers. However, he was on the winning team in Super Bowl IV, when the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings. Quarterback Dawson was named the MVP that day.

18A Photographer? : CHEESEMONGER

The suffix “-monger” indicates a dealer or trader. For example, A fishmonger sells fish, an ironmonger sells hardware, a warmonger proposes military conflict, and an ideamonger deals in ideas …

Photographers often instruct us to say “cheese” to elicit a smile-like expression. Even Japanese photographers use the word “cheese” to achieve the same effect. Bulgarians use the word “zele” meaning “cabbage”; the Chinese say “qiézi” meaning “eggplant”; the Danish say “appelsin” meaning “orange”, the Iranians say “sib” meaning “apple” and many Latin Americans just say “whiskey”.

23A Dry Italian whites : SOAVES

Soave is a dry white wine produced in the area around the city of Verona in northeast Italy. Soave is a small town located near Verona.

28A Sphinx, mostly : LION

The Great Sphinx of Giza is a huge limestone statue of a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. It is the largest monolithic statue in the world. Famously, the Great Sphinx is missing its nose and beard.

30A mRNA vaccine maker : MODERNA

Moderna is a biotech company founded in 2010, primarily to develop mRNA vaccines. The name “Moderna” is a portmanteau, a blend of the words “modified” and “RNA”. Moderna’s annual revenue was less than a billion dollars in 2019 and 2020, but almost 20 billion dollars in 2021 and 2022. I wonder what was going on around that time …?

Traditional vaccines typically use weakened or inactivated viruses, or pieces of the virus, to stimulate an immune response. mRNA vaccines use a small piece of genetic material from the virus, called messenger RNA (mRNA), to instruct cells in the body to produce a harmless piece of the virus to trigger the immune response. mRNA vaccines are developed more quickly than traditional vaccines. This was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, where mRNA vaccines were developed and authorized for emergency use within months of the emergence of the novel coronavirus.

37A Org. that issues Energy Star labels : EPA

The Energy Star standard was created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) during the Clinton Administration. In general, an item marked with an Energy Star uses 20-30% less energy than that mandated by federal standards. Not too long ago, we put an Energy Star roof on our house, and noticed a remarkable difference in our energy bills.

43A Quayle follower : GORE

Al Gore was born in Washington DC, and is the son of Al Gore, Sr., then a US Representative for the state of Tennessee. After deferring his military service in order to attend Harvard, the younger Gore became eligible for the draft on graduation. Many of his classmates found ways of avoiding the draft, but Gore decided to serve and even took the “tougher” option of joining the army as an enlisted man. Actor Tommy Lee Jones shared a house with Gore in college and says that his buddy told him that even if he could find a way around the draft, someone with less options than him would have to go in his place and that was just wrong.

Dan Quayle served as both a US Representative and a US Senator from Indiana before becoming the 44th Vice President, under President George H. W. Bush. Quayle refused to run for office in 1996, going up against the Clinton/Gore ticket, but entered the fray again in 2000 seeking the Republican nomination for president. Ironically, he was defeated by the son of his former Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush.

51A Florida coastal city, informally : BOCA

The name of the city of Boca Raton in Florida translates from Spanish as “Mouse Mouth”. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive etymology of the name but one plausible explanation is a nautical one. “Boca”, as well as meaning “mouth” can mean “inlet”. “Ratón”, as well as meaning “mouse” was also used to describe rocks that chewed away at a ship’s anchor cable. So possibly Boca Raton was named for a rocky inlet.

59A Skiffle singer Donegan : LONNIE

Lonnie Donegan was a British skiffle singer who was in his heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. I remember him well, although I doubt he is known by many in the US. This is despite the fact that he was the first British male artist to score two top-ten hits on the US Billboard charts, perhaps paving the way for the eventual British Invasion.

Skiffle is a genre of folk music that is often played with a mix of improvised instruments, such as washboards, tea-chest basses and cigar-box guitars. Skiffle originated in the US, but really took off in the UK in the 1950s. One of the early skiffle bands was the Quarrymen, formed by John Lennon. After the group was joined by Paul McCartney and George Harrison, it evolved into the Beatles.

61A Jeff Tweedy’s band : WILCO

Wilco is a rock band that formed in Chicago in 1994. The band’s most successful album is 2001’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. There is a well-received 2002 documentary “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco” that follows the band as they record and distribute “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”.

Jeff Tweedy was a founding member and lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Wilco. He is a two-time Grammy winner, and also achieved New York Times bestseller status with his 2018 memoir “Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back)”.

62A Vader, as a boy : ANI

Anakin “Ani” Skywalker is the principal character in the first six of the “Star Wars” movies. His progress chronologically through the series of films is:

• Episode I: Anakin is a 9-year-old slave boy who earns the promise of Jedi training by young Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• Episode II: Anakin is 18 years old and goes on a murdering rampage to avenge the killing of his mother.
• Episode III: Anakin is 21 years old and a Jedi knight, but he turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. His wife Padme gives birth to twins, Luke and Leia Skywalker.
• Episode IV: Darth Vader comes into conflict with his children, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
• Episode V: Darth Vader attempts to coax his son Luke over to the dark side, and reveals to Luke that he is his father.
• Episode VI: Luke learns that Leia is his sister, and takes on the task of bringing Darth Vader back from the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy. Vader saves his son from the Emperor’s evil grip, dying in the process, but his spirit ends up alongside the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan. They all live happily ever after …

63A Realtor? : STREET VENDOR

“Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as to trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

67A City west of Tulsa : ENID

Enid, Oklahoma takes its name from the old railroad station around which the city developed. Back in 1889, that train stop was called Skeleton Station. An official who didn’t like the name changed it to Enid Station, using a character from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”. Maybe if he hadn’t changed the name, the city of Enid would now be called Skeleton, Oklahoma! Enid has the nickname “Queen Wheat City” because it has a huge capacity for storing grain, the third largest grain storage capacity in the world.

Down

1D Rice cake that may be filled with ice cream : MOCHI

Mochi is a sweet rice cake in Japanese cuisine. Special versions of mochi are produced for certain times of the year or holidays, e.g. New Year, spring time, Children’s Day and Girls’ Day.

2D Rose pest : APHID

Aphids are called “greenfly” back in Britain and Ireland where I come from. The most effective way to control aphids, in my experience, is to make sure there are plenty of ladybugs in the garden (called “ladybirds” in Ireland!).

4D Actor Ed and food writer Molly : O’NEILLS

Ed O’Neill made it big on television playing Al Bundy on the sitcom “Married … with Children”, not a show I ever cared for. However, O’Neill is in the cast of a great show, namely “Modern Family”. Off screen, O’Neill is a very proficient practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, earning his black belt in 2007.

Molly O’Neill was a food writer who was the principal food columnist for “The New York Times” in the 1990s.

8D Capital of Belarus : MINSK

Minsk is the capital of Belarus, formerly known as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. One of Minsk’s more infamous residents was Lee Harvey Oswald, who lived there from 1960 to 1962.

9D Uru. neighbor : ARG

The Argentina–Uruguay border runs for 360 miles, and is defined by the course of the Uruguay River.

12D Bakery item dotted with kalamatas : OLIVE ROLL

The kalamata olive is a large, dark purple, almond-shaped olive that is perhaps the most common table olive from Greece. It is named for the city of Kalamata in the southern Peloponnese, which is at the center of the region where the olive variety is grown. Even though the EU reserves the name “kalamata” for only those olives grown in the region, we can buy kalamata olives grown elsewhere, from California for example.

19D Tolkien baddie : ORC

According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth. They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

26D Emerald City visitor : TOTO

Toto is Dorothy’s dog in the film “The Wizard of Oz”, and in the original book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. Toto was played in the movie by a dog called Terry, but Terry’s name was soon changed to Toto in real life due to the success of the film.

The Emerald City is the capital of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum’s series of “Oz” novels.

27D Key of Vivaldi’s “Spring”: Abbr. : E MAJ

“The Four Seasons” is the most famous work by Italian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi. It is a collection of four violin concerti that evoke the seasons of the year. Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” is a favorite choice for background music in elevators and lobbies. Personally, my favorite use of the piece is as a backdrop to the 1981 romantic comedy film “The Four Seasons”, starring Alan Alda and Carol Burnett.

29D “Amsterdam” novelist McEwan : IAN

“Amsterdam” is a 1998, Booker Prize-winning novel by British author Ian McEwan. Central to the story is a euthanasia pact entered into by two friends.

32D Kotero of “Purple Rain” : APOLLONIA

Actress and singer Apollonia Kotero is perhaps best known for playing the female lead in the Prince’s 1984 film “Purple Rain”. She recorded “Manic Monday” as a duet with Prince, who wrote the song. The recording was intended for a self-titled album recorded by Apollonia 6, a trio including Kotero that was formed by Prince. He pulled “Manic Monday” from the album’s lineup, and gave it to the Bangles, who had a huge hit with the song.

34D SHO subsidiary : TMC

The Movie Channel is owned by Showtime, which in turn is a subsidiary of Paramount. The channel’s name is often abbreviated to “TMC”, although this is informal usage.

44D Collar named for an elite school : ETON

An Eton collar is a wide, stiff, buttoned collar that is still part of the formal school uniform at Eton College near Windsor in England.

49D Purple 13-Downs : IRISES

Iris is a genus of flowering plants that come in a wide variety of flower colors. The term “iris” is a Greek word meaning “rainbow”. Many species of irises are called “flags”. One suggestion is that the alternate name comes from the Middle English “flagge” meaning “reed”. This term was used because iris leaves look like reeds.

50D Active volcano in Eur. : MT ETNA

Mount Etna, located on the island of Sicily, is one of the world’s most active stratovolcanoes and one of the most frequently erupting volcanoes on Earth. It has been active for at least 500,000 years, with historical eruptions documented for over 3,500 years.

51D Warren who played Dick Tracy : BEATTY

Actor Warren Beatty spends a lot of time in other roles in the film industry. He is the only person to have been nominated twice for an Academy Award for acting in, directing, writing and producing the same film. He was so honored for 1978’s “Heaven Can Wait” and for 1981’s “Reds”. Beatty is the younger brother of actress Shirley MacLaine, and has been married to fellow actor Annette Bening since 1992.

“Dick Tracy” is a 1990 film based on the comic strip of the same name that debuted in 1931. The title role is played by Warren Beatty, who also produced and directed the film.

53D Vegan body care brand : AVEDA

Horst Rechelbacher was traveling in India in 1970 when he was introduced to the Hindu science of longevity called Ayurveda, which inspired him to set up his own company of skin and hair care products that he called Aveda. The company opened its doors in 1978 and is based in Blaine, Minnesota.

64D 18-wheeler : RIG

An 18-wheeler semi-trailer truck has eight wheels under the trailer, i.e. four on each of the two rear axles. There are 10 wheels under the tractor unit. Two of the ten wheels are on the front axle, and eight are on the rear two axles that sit under the front of the trailer.