LA Times Crossword 15 Jun 22, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Rebecca Goldstein
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Make Ends Meet

Themed answers each comprise two ENDS:

  • 36A Get by … or what the answers to the starred clues literally do : MAKE ENDS MEET
  • 17A *Close contest : TIGHT GAME (TIGHT END meets END GAME)
  • 25A *Good thing to go out on : HIGH NOTE (HIGH END meets ENDNOTE)
  • 50A *Area with no cell service : DEAD ZONE (DEAD END meets END ZONE)
  • 59A *Military academy on the Hudson : WEST POINT (WEST END meets END POINT)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 18s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Anti-art art movement : DADA

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement was launched in Zurich, Switzerland by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire. The same group frequently expressed disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

5 Israeli diplomat Abba : EBAN

Abba Eban was an Israeli diplomat and politician. He was born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban in Cape Town, South Africa. While working at the United Nations after WWII, Eban changed his given name to “Abba”, the Hebrew word for “father”. Reportedly, he made this change as Eban saw himself as the father of the nation of Israel.

9 “Jack Ryan” actress Cornish : ABBIE

Abbie Cornish is an actress and rap singer from Australia. As an actress, Cornish played the wife of Police Chief Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) in the excellent movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”. She also plays the title character’s love interest in the TV series “Jack Ryan”. As a rapper, Cornish performs under the name “Dusk”.

Jack Ryan is the most famous fictional character created by author Tom Clancy. The set of novels (and related media) featuring Ryan are often referred to as the Ryanverse. He has been portrayed on the big screen by several actors, including Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Afleck and Chris Pine. On the small screen, Ryan has been portrayed very ably by John Krasinski.

15 __ monster : GILA

A Gila monster is a venomous lizard found in the southwestern US and northern Mexico, and is the only venomous lizard native to America. Gila monsters move along at a snail’s pace so aren’t normally a danger to humans. The name “Gila” is a reference to the Gila River Basin in the American Southwest, where the Gila monster was prevalent.

16 Dern of “Big Little Lies” : LAURA

Actress Laura Dern is the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Among her many notable roles, Laura Dern played the Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the 2008 movie “Recount”, and Dr. Ellie Sattler in the 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park”.

“Big Little Lies” is a 2017 TV miniseries that is based on a 2014 novel of the same name. It stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley as three women who, while dealing with their own emotional problems, find themselves involved in a murder investigation. I haven’t seen this one, but hear very good things …

20 Remote possibilities? : AAS

Those would be AA batteries going in a remote control, possibly.

21 Boring gadgets : AWLS

An awl is a pointed tool used for marking a surface or for piercing small holes. The earliest awls were used to pierce ears, apparently. The tool then became very much associated with shoemakers.

28 LPN’s needle : HYPO

Anything described as hypodermic (such as “hypodermic needle”) is related to parts under the skin. The term “hypodermic” comes from the Greek “hypo-” meaning “under” and “derma” meaning “skin”.

Licensed practical nurse (LPN)

32 Tater morsel : TOT

Ore-Ida’s founders came up with the idea for Tater Tots when they were deciding what to do with residual cuts of potato. They chopped up the leftovers, added flour and seasoning, and extruded the mix through a large hole making a sausage that they cut into small cylinders. We eat 70 million pounds of this extruded potato every year!

34 Horned buglers : ELK

Male elks are called bulls, and females are known as cows. Bull elks are known for their very loud screaming, which is called bugling. Cow elks are attracted to bulls that bugle more often and most loudly.

35 Urchin’s stinger : SPINE

Sea urchins are globular, spiny creatures found just about everywhere in the ocean. The “roe” of a sea urchin is eaten as a delicacy in several cuisines around the world. In a sushi restaurant, the sea urchin roe is called “uni”. The term “roe” normally means “fish eggs”, but in the case of the sea urchin it refers to the gonads of both the male and female.

39 Many Dubai residents : ARABS

Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy.

43 The Big Easy, for short : NOLA

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), Louisiana (LA).

44 “One Day More” musical, to fans : LES MIZ

The 1980 musical “Les Misérables” is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London’s West End. My wife and I saw “Les Miz” in the Queen’s Theatre in London many years ago, but were only able to get tickets in the very back row. The theater seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting drinking Coke, even smoking cigarettes. On cue, the stagehands would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor who had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn’t really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the musical version of the storyline just didn’t seem to hang together for me.

46 Pool regimen : LAPS

Quite often, the terms “regime” and “regimen” seem to be used interchangeably. In contemporary usage, “regime” is applied more generally, and “regimen” more specifically. A “regimen” is a systematic approach that one might apply to something, to exercise or diet for example. The term “regime” can also be used in such contexts, but can have additional definitions, such as “government in power”. A form of government cannot be described as a “regimen”.

54 Feudal domains : FIEFS

In the days of feudalism, a “fief” was basically a “fee” (the words “fee” and “fief” have the same origins) paid by a Lord in exchange for some benefit to him, perhaps loyalty, or military service. The fief itself was often land granted by the Lord. We use the term “fiefdom” (and sometimes “fief) figuratively, to describe a sphere of operation controlled by one dominant person or entity.

55 Reebok competitor : FILA

Fila was originally an Italian company, founded in 1911 and now based in South Korea. Fila was started in Piedmont by the Fila brothers, primarily to make underwear that they sold to people living in the Italian Alps. The company started to focus on sportswear in the seventies, using tennis-great Bjorn Borg as their major endorser.

59 *Military academy on the Hudson : WEST POINT (WEST END meets END POINT)

West Point is a military reservation in New York State, located north of New York City. West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army way back in 1778, making it the longest, continually-occupied military post in the country. Cadet training has taken place at the garrison since 1794, although Congress funding for a US Military Academy (USMA) didn’t start until 1802. The first female cadets were admitted to West Point in 1976, and as of 2018, about 15% of all new cadets were women.

The West End of London is a part of the central area of the city that contains many tourist attractions and in particular a large number of theaters (“theatres”). It is also home to the most expensive office space in the world.

The Hudson River flows through eastern New York State from Henderson Lake in the Adirondacks to the Port of New York and New Jersey. The river is named for the English explorer Henry Hudson, who navigated the waterway in 1609.

62 __ Domini : ANNO

The Latin word for year is “annus”. We often see it used in Latin phrases, but usually with a different spelling. In “anno Domini”, the “anno” is the ablative case of “annus” as the phrase means “in the year of the Lord”. Another example is “per annum”, in which “annum” is the accusative case as the literal translation of the phrase is “during the year”.

63 Genre featuring sitars : RAGA

Raga isn’t really a genre of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners). Western rock music with a heavy Indian influence might be called raga rock.

65 Set at a sports bar : HDTV

High-definition television (HDTV)

66 Soccer star Morgan on the San Diego Wave : ALEX

Alex Morgan is a professional soccer player and co-captain of the US national team from 2018 to 2020. Off the pitch, Morgan is a children’s author who has written books for middle-schoolers. Her 2013 “Saving the Team” debuted at number seven on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children’s Middle Grade. Her books have been adapted into a TV show called “The Kicks”.

The San Diego Wave is a professional soccer team that joined the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in 2022.

Down

2 Beekeeper’s setup : APIARY

An apiary is an area where bees are kept, apiculture is beekeeping, and an apiphobe has a fear of bees. The Latin word for “bee” is “apis”.

4 Hamburger beef? : ACH!

The German exclamation “ach!” is usually translated into English as “oh!”

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany (after Berlin), and the third largest port in Europe (after Rotterdam and Antwerp).

6 Flat rolls named for a Polish city : BIALYS

“Bialy” is a Yiddish name for a small onion roll that takes its name from Bialystok, a city in Poland.

9 Hebrew letter before “beth” : ALEPH

Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and beth is the second.

10 Skins that can be marinated and fried to make vegan “bacon” : BANANA PEELS

The banana is actually a berry, botanically speaking. And, bananas don’t really grow on trees. The “trunk” of the banana plant is in fact a pseudostem. The pseudostem is a false stem comprising rolled bases of leaves, and it can grow to 2 or 3 meters tall.

13 Unit of maize : EAR

“Maize” is another name for “corn”. Even though there is more maize grown in the world than wheat or rice, a relatively small proportion of the total maize crop is consumed directly by humans. That’s because a lot of maize goes to make corn ethanol, animal feed and derivative products like cornstarch and corn syrup. Here in the US, over 40% of the maize produced is used to feed livestock, and about 30% is used to make ethanol.

18 Tic-__-toe : TAC

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

22 Roller derby spots : RINKS

The sport of roller derby has an international footprint, with almost half the world’s teams being located outside of the US. Most of the teams playing the sport are all-female.

25 Poker variety : HOLD ‘EM

The official birthplace of the incredibly popular poker game of Texas hold ’em is Robstown, Texas where the game dates back to the early 1900s. The game was introduced into Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan enthusiasts including Doyle Brunson, a champion often seen playing on TV today. Doyle Brunson published a poker strategy guide in 1978, and this really helped increase the popularity of the game. But it was the inclusion of Texas hold ‘em in the television lineup that really gave the game its explosive surge in popularity, with the size of the prize money just skyrocketing.

26 Point value of “five” in Scrabble : TEN

The 4-letter word “F-I-V-E” has a point value of 10 in a game of scrabble.

27 Woolly mama : EWE

An adult male sheep is a ram, although a castrated ram is known as a wether. An adult female is a ewe, and a young sheep is a lamb.

30 Role for Lena on “Master of None” : DENISE

Lena Waithe’s break as an actress came with a supporting role in the comedy-drama show “Master of None” starting in 2015. The same show brought her significant success as a writer, winning a Primetime Emmy for co-writing the “Thanksgiving” episode with the show’s creator Aziz Ansari. Waithe also serves as executive producer for the horror-drama anthology series “Them”.

35 Make use of a Singer : SEW

Isaac Singer was not only an inventor, but also an actor. For much of his life, profits made from his inventions supported him while he pursued his acting career. Singer didn’t actually invent the sewing machine, and never claimed to have done so. What he did do though, was to invent a version of the machine that was practical and easily used in the home.

36 In bad faith, in legal jargon : MALA FIDE

“Mala fide” is Latin for “in bad faith” and is in essence the opposite to “bona fide” meaning “in good faith”. Bad faith is a concept defined by the law that addresses the motives behind certain actions.

38 Cry heard after stomping on a glass : MAZEL TOV!

“Mazel tov!” is a Yiddish phrase meaning “Good luck!”

49 Linguistics subject : SYNTAX

Syntax is the way linguistic elements are assembled to form phrases and clauses. The term “syntax” comes from Greek via Latin, and ultimately from “syn” meaning “together” and “tassein” meaning “arrange”.

57 2010 health law, for short : ACA

The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA).

60 Rita featured on Iggy Azalea’s “Black Widow” : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

“Iggy Azalea” is the stage name of Australian rapper Amethyst Kelly. I haven’t heard of her outside of crosswords, I must admit …

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Anti-art art movement : DADA
5 Israeli diplomat Abba : EBAN
9 “Jack Ryan” actress Cornish : ABBIE
14 Massive : EPIC
15 __ monster : GILA
16 Dern of “Big Little Lies” : LAURA
17 *Close contest : TIGHT GAME (TIGHT END meets END GAME)
19 Hub : CENTER
20 Remote possibilities? : AAS
21 Boring gadgets : AWLS
22 Knock on : RAP AT
23 Peanut butter choice : CRUNCHY
25 *Good thing to go out on : HIGH NOTE (HIGH END meets ENDNOTE)
28 LPN’s needle : HYPO
29 Has had enough : IS DONE
31 From the top : ANEW
32 Tater morsel : TOT
34 Horned buglers : ELK
35 Urchin’s stinger : SPINE
36 Get by … or what the answers to the starred clues literally do : MAKE ENDS MEET
39 Many Dubai residents : ARABS
41 Compete : VIE
42 Slack-jawed state : AWE
43 The Big Easy, for short : NOLA
44 “One Day More” musical, to fans : LES MIZ
46 Pool regimen : LAPS
50 *Area with no cell service : DEAD ZONE (DEAD END meets END ZONE)
52 With no chill : TENSELY
54 Feudal domains : FIEFS
55 Reebok competitor : FILA
56 Sprint : RUN
57 Betwixt : AMIDST
59 *Military academy on the Hudson : WEST POINT (WEST END meets END POINT)
61 59-Across student : CADET
62 __ Domini : ANNO
63 Genre featuring sitars : RAGA
64 Regions : AREAS
65 Set at a sports bar : HDTV
66 Soccer star Morgan on the San Diego Wave : ALEX

Down

1 Take off : DETACH
2 Beekeeper’s setup : APIARY
3 Unearths : DIGS UP
4 Hamburger beef? : ACH!
5 Omelet specification : EGG WHITE
6 Flat rolls named for a Polish city : BIALYS
7 Donations : ALMS
8 “You wish, laddie!” : NAE!
9 Hebrew letter before “beth” : ALEPH
10 Skins that can be marinated and fried to make vegan “bacon” : BANANA PEELS
11 “Zip your lip” : BUTTON IT
12 Wrath : IRE
13 Unit of maize : EAR
18 Tic-__-toe : TAC
19 Shark diver’s enclosure : CAGE
22 Roller derby spots : RINKS
24 “That just might work!” : NOT A BAD IDEA
25 Poker variety : HOLD ‘EM
26 Point value of “five” in Scrabble : TEN
27 Woolly mama : EWE
30 Role for Lena on “Master of None” : DENISE
33 Greenlights : OKS
35 Make use of a Singer : SEW
36 In bad faith, in legal jargon : MALA FIDE
37 Makes level : EVENS
38 Cry heard after stomping on a glass : MAZEL TOV!
39 “What’s more … ” : AND …
40 Sushi topper : ROE
44 Industrial apartment style : LOFT
45 “You’re wrong about that” : IT ISN’T
47 Like drone footage : AERIAL
48 Polar __: wintertime fundraiser : PLUNGE
49 Linguistics subject : SYNTAX
51 Grates, as citrus : ZESTS
53 Drop off for a bit : NAP
55 Ward (off) : FEND
57 2010 health law, for short : ACA
58 Damage : MAR
59 Sob syllable : WAH!
60 Rita featured on Iggy Azalea’s “Black Widow” : ORA