LA Times Crossword 24 Apr 20, Friday

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Constructed by: Brian Temte & Jeff Chen
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Average

Themed answers include words associated with an “AVERAGE” hidden within. Also, there are several answers that refer to being BELOW AVERAGE:

  • 71A Garden-variety, and a hint to what’s hidden in 18-, 43- and 65-Across : AVERAGE
  • 18A “The Shape of Water” director : GUILLERMO DEL TORO (hiding “MODE”)
  • 43A Snapchat marketing expert, in modern lingo : SOCIAL MEDIA NINJA (hiding “MEDIAN”)
  • 65A “Watch your mouth!” : DON’T GIVE ME ANY LIP! (hiding “MEAN”)
  • 22A Below 71-Across : BLAH
  • 47A Below 71-Across : SUBPAR
  • 72A Below 71-Across : POOR

Bill’s time: 10m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 35th pres. : JFK

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was the son of Joe Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, hence the president’s double-barreled name.

8 Larger-than-life creations : COLOSSI

A colossus (plural “colossi”) is an exceptionally large statue, the most famous of which was the Colossus of Rhodes. This was a statue of the god Helios that stood over 100 feet tall, on the Greek island of Rhodes. New York’s Statue of Liberty was designed to have similar dimensions. The Emma Lazarus poem that is inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty is in fact titled “The New Colossus”.

15 Spleen : IRE

“To vent one’s spleen” means to vent one’s anger, perhaps by shouting and screaming. This expression is rooted in the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that a person’s temperament was dictated by the balance of the body’s four “humors”. The spleen produced the humor known as yellow bile, which was associated with an aggressive and energetic personality.

16 Hilo shindig : LUAU

The Hawaiian party or feast known as a “luau” really dates back to 1819, when King Kamehameha II removed religious laws that governed the eating of meals. These laws called for women and men to eat separately. At the same time as he changed the laws, the king initiated the luau tradition by symbolically eating with the women who moved in his circle.

Hilo is the largest settlement on the big island of Hawaii, and has a population of over 43,000 (that’s not very many!). I love the Big Island …

18 “The Shape of Water” director : GUILLERMO DEL TORO (hiding “MODE”)

Guillermo del Toro is a film director from Guadalajara in Mexico who has had success directing and producing American films. His best-known works are probably action movies like “Blade II” (2002) and “Hellboy” (2004). Del Toro won an Oscar for Best Director for the 2017 movie “The Shape of Water”.

“The Shape of Water” is a 2017 movie that is described as a “romantic monster” film, and so is in a pretty unique genre, I’d say. It was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who also co-wrote the script. It’s all about a mute young lady working in a government laboratory and falling in love with a humanoid amphibian who is held captive there. Not my cup of tea …

23 “Frontline” network : PBS

“Frontline” is a much-acclaimed PBS documentary program that has been airing since 1983. The show is a creation of WGBH-TV in Boston.

28 Evergreen shrubs : ERICAS

It is a commonly held belief that heather and erica are the same thing botanically, but in fact, erica is another name for a different species called “heath”.

31 Meat on a stick : KEBAB

The term “kebab” (also “kabob”) covers a wide variety of meat dishes that originated in Persia. In the West, we usually use “kebab” when talking about shish kebab, which is meat (often lamb) served on a skewer. “Shish” comes from the Turkish word for “skewer”.

33 English “L’chaim!” : TO LIFE!

“L’Chaim!” is a Hebrew toast meaning “To life!”, with “chai” being the Hebrew word for “life”.

39 “Gimme the skinny!” : TELL IT!

The use of the word “skinny”, meaning “information”, comes from WWII military slang for “the truth”. The term is probably a derivative of the expression “the naked truth”, which is evocative of “skinny-dipping”.

43 Snapchat marketing expert, in modern lingo : SOCIAL MEDIA NINJA (hiding “MEDIAN”)

The ninjas were around in Japan at the time of the samurai, but were a very different type of warrior. The ninjas were covert operatives, specializing in the use of stealth to accomplish their missions. As they were a secretive cadre they took on a mystical reputation with the public, who believed they had the ability to become invisible or perhaps walk on water. We now use the term “ninja” figuratively, to describe anyone highly-skilled in a specific field.

Snapchat is a messaging system that allows users to send photos and video clips to a limited list of recipients. The photos and clips, called “snaps”, can be viewed for only a few seconds before they are deleted from the recipient’s device, and from the Snapchat servers.

46 Northern Iraqis : KURDS

Most of the Kurdish people live in a region known as Kurdistan, which stretches into parts of Iran, Syria, Turkey as well as northern Iraq.

48 Virtual-city denizen : SIM

SimCity is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. SimCity was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

Nowadays we use “denizen” to mean simply “resident”, but historically a denizen was an immigrant to whom certain rights had been granted, somewhat like today’s resident alien.

49 __ column : SPINAL

The human spine comprises five regions of vertebrae, which are (starting at the neck):

  • Cervical (C1 – C7)
  • Thoracic (T1 – T12)
  • Lumbar (L1 – L5)
  • Sacral (S1 – S5)
  • Coccyx (also known as the tailbone)

51 Cabbage in a French café? : EUROS

Lettuce, cabbage, kale, dough, scratch, cheddar, simoleons, clams and moola(h) are all slang terms for money.

56 Old tankard metal : PEWTER

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

59 Suffix for but- : -ANE

Butane is a highly flammable organic gas, one that is used as a fuel for lighters, for example. Butane was discovered in 1849, and is closely related to butyric acid, a compound discovered in 1814 and from which the gas gets its name. In turn, butyric acid gets its name from “butyrum”, the Latin for butter. Butyric acid was first isolated from butter.

71 Garden-variety, and a hint to what’s hidden in 18-, 43- and 65-Across : AVERAGE

In a set of numbers, the mean is the average value of those numbers. The median is the numeric value at which half the numbers have a lower value, and half the numbers a higher value. The mode is the value that appears most often in the whole set of numbers.

75 Ward with awards : SELA

Actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently, Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast. And, Ward played Dr. Richard Kimble’s murdered wife in the 1993 film version of “The Fugitive”.

76 Explosive stuff : TNT

“TNT” is an abbreviation for “trinitrotoluene”. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

Down

1 Lively dances : JIGS

The jig is a dance most associated with Ireland and Scotland. In traditional Irish dancing, the jig is second in popularity only to the reel. The most famous Irish jig is probably “The Irish Washerwoman”. I may not dance a jig, but I sure do know the tune of “The Irish Washerwoman” …

2 __ Roll-Ups : FRUIT

Fruit Roll-Ups are fruit snacks consisting of chewy strips of sugary, fruit-flavored strips. The strips largely get their structure frome pectin, a gelling agent that is also found in jams and marmalades.

3 Urban of country : KEITH

Keith Urban is a country singer from Australia who was actually born in New Zealand. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1992, and married Australian actress Nicole Kidman in 2006.

6 Pole in a lock : OAR

Oarlocks are swivelling braces on the sides of a rowing boat that hold the oars as the boat is being propelled. Back in Ireland, we call them “rowlocks” (pronounced “rollox”).

8 Chest material : CEDAR

Cedar is used for the manufacture of some wardrobes and chests as it has long been believed that the fragrant oil in the wood is a moth-repellent. However, whether or not cedar oil is actually effective at keeping moths away seems to be in doubt.

9 Like some wonders : ONE-HIT

Here’s a 2002 list of one-hit wonders that VH1 dubbed the top-10 greatest of all time:

  1. “Macarena” – Los del Río (1996)
  2. “Tainted Love” – Soft Cell (1982)
  3. “Come on Eileen” – Dexys Midnight Runners (1982)
  4. “I’m Too Sexy” – Right Said Fred (1991)
  5. “Mickey” – Toni Basil (1982)
  6. “Who Let the Dogs Out?” – Baha Men (2000)
  7. “Ice Ice Baby” – Vanilla Ice (1990)
  8. “Take On Me” – A-ha (1985)
  9. “Rico Suave” – Gerardo (1990)
  10. “99 Luftballons” – Nena (1984)

10 LeBron’s team, on scoreboards : LAL

The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team started out in 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The team chose the Lakers name in honor of the nickname of Minnesota, “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960.

Basketball player LeBron James (nicknamed “King James”) seems to be in demand for the covers of magazines. James became the first African-American man to adorn the front cover of “Vogue” in March 2008. That made him only the third male to make the “Vogue” cover, following Richard Gere and George Clooney.

11 World Series mo. : OCT

The first World Series of baseball in the so-called “modern” era was played in 1903, between the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League and the Boston Americans (now the Red Sox) of the American League. Boston emerged victorious by five games to three.

13 Balkan native : SERB

Serbs are an ethnic group native to the Balkans in southeastern Europe. Although Serbs exist as a minority group in many countries in the region, they are the majority ethnic group in Serbia, in Montenegro and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe is usually referred to as “the Balkans”. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains located in present-day Bulgaria and Serbia. “Balkan” is Bulgarian for “mountain”.

19 Welsh national emblem : LEEK

The leek is a vegetable closely related to the onion and the garlic. It is also a national emblem of Wales (along with the daffodil), although I don’t think we know for sure how this came to be. One story is that the Welsh were ordered to wear leeks in their helmets to identify themselves in a battle against the Saxons. Apparently, the battle took place in a field of leeks.

20 Cheer for a banderillero : OLE!

In bullfighting, the banderillero is the torero (bullfighter) who plants the little flags in the bull’s shoulder. The Spanish “banderilla” translates as “little flag”. I can’t say that I approve …

26 Genesis victim : ABEL

In the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis, Cain murders his brother Abel. Subsequently, God asks Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain replies, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

29 Stylist’s braid : CORNROW

The traditional braids known as “cornrows” can also be called “crows”, which is a shortened version of the original term. The style was imported into the US from Africa.

32 French flag couleur : BLEU

In French, the national flag of France is a tricolor comprising the “couleurs” (colors) “bleu, blanc et rouge” (blue, white and red).

34 Island nation whose flag has a Union Jack on it : FIJI

The national flag of Fiji was adopted during the state’s colonial period, and has not been changed since the nation achieved independence from Britain in 1970. The flag comprises a Union Jack and a shield from Fiji’s coat of arms, all on a light blue background.

35 Dutch cheese : EDAM

Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

38 Bartleby, notably : SCRIVENER

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a short story penned by Herman Melville and first published in 1853. The title character is a clerk hired by a Wall Street lawyer. The new employee shows promise at the beginning, but then takes to refusing to do tasks required of him. Bartleby’s job is that of scrivener, someone engaged to copy legal documents by hand.

45 Swiss river : AARE

The Aar (also called the “Aare” in German) is the longest river entirely in Switzerland. The Aar is a major tributary of the Rhine and flows through Bern, the nation’s capital.

50 Spanish soccer association that means “the league” : LA LIGA

The premier division of Spanish club soccer is the “Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División”, or more usual “La Liga” (The League).

52 Command to Fido : STAY

“Fido”, the name for many a dog, is Latin for “I trust”.

54 Bench mallet : GAVEL

The small hammer that one raps on a table or desk to call a meeting to order, or perhaps to signify a sale at an auction, is called a gavel. The term “gavel” is actually American English, and a word that emerged in the early 19th century.

57 Conspicuous display : ECLAT

“Éclat” can describe a brilliant show of success, as well as the applause or accolade that one receives for that success. The word “éclat” derives from the French “éclater” meaning “to splinter, burst out”.

59 Savage of “MythBusters” : ADAM

“MythBusters” is an entertaining TV show which was originally hosted by Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. Prior to the launch of “Mythbusters”, Hyneman and Savage had both developed careers in the world of special effects. In the show, the hosts test the validity of myths and assumptions used in famous movie scenes.

60 Super star : NOVA

A nova (plural “novae”) is basically a star that suddenly gets much brighter, gradually returning to its original state weeks or even years later. The increased brightness of a nova is due to increased nuclear activity causing the star to pick up extra hydrogen from a neighboring celestial body. A supernova is very different from a nova. A supernova is a very bright burst of light and energy created when most of the material in a star explodes. The bright burst of a supernova is very short-lived compared to the sustained brightness of a nova.

62 Roadie’s haul : AMPS

A “roadie” is someone who loads, unloads and sets up equipment for musicians on tour, on the “road”.

An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

67 Noir weapon : GAT

“Gat” is a slang term for a gun that is derived from “Gatling gun”, the precursor to the modern machine gun. The Gatling gun was invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861. Apparently he was inspired to invent it so that one man could do as much damage as a hundred, thereby reducing the size of armies and diminishing the suffering caused by war. Go figure …

The expression “film noir” has French origins, but only in that it was coined by a French critic in describing a style of Hollywood film. The term, meaning “black film” in French, was first used by Nino Frank in 1946. Film noir often applies to a movie with a melodramatic plot and a private eye or detective at its center. Good examples would be “The Big Sleep” and “D.O.A”.

68 Fair-hiring initials : EOE

Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE)

69 Co. that bought Netscape in 1999 : AOL

Netscape’s flagship product was its browser, which eventually came to be known as Netscape Navigator. Navigator had a huge impact on computing, basically bringing the Net to the masses by offering an intuitive, user-friendly interface. So popular was the product, that when the company had its IPO, the initial stock price set at $14 a share had to be doubled to $28 at the last minute. At the end of the first day’s trading, the stock closed at $75, and there were a lot of very rich people as a result (at least on paper!).

70 Food service trade org. : NRA

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) was founded in 1919. Perhaps the most famous name associated with the association is Herman Cain. Cain ran for US president in 2011, with his 9-9-9 tax plan at the center of his platform.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 35th pres. : JFK
4 Smaller-than-life depiction : ICON
8 Larger-than-life creations : COLOSSI
15 Spleen : IRE
16 Hilo shindig : LUAU
17 Put into play : ENACTED
18 “The Shape of Water” director : GUILLERMO DEL TORO (hiding “MODE”)
21 Construction __ : SITE
22 Below 71-Across : BLAH
23 “Frontline” network : PBS
24 What a pursuer seeks to narrow : THE GAP
28 Evergreen shrubs : ERICAS
31 Meat on a stick : KEBAB
33 English “L’chaim!” : TO LIFE!
36 Pack animal : ASS
39 “Gimme the skinny!” : TELL IT!
42 Stiff : RIGID
43 Snapchat marketing expert, in modern lingo : SOCIAL MEDIA NINJA (hiding “MEDIAN”)
46 Northern Iraqis : KURDS
47 Below 71-Across : SUBPAR
48 Virtual-city denizen : SIM
49 __ column : SPINAL
51 Cabbage in a French café? : EUROS
53 Long trip : VOYAGE
56 Old tankard metal : PEWTER
59 Suffix for but- : -ANE
61 Rolling rock? : LAVA
63 High pair : ACES
65 “Watch your mouth!” : DON’T GIVE ME ANY LIP! (hiding “MEAN”)
71 Garden-variety, and a hint to what’s hidden in 18-, 43- and 65-Across : AVERAGE
72 Below 71-Across : POOR
73 In bygone days : AGO
74 __ status : MARITAL
75 Ward with awards : SELA
76 Explosive stuff : TNT

Down

1 Lively dances : JIGS
2 __ Roll-Ups : FRUIT
3 Urban of country : KEITH
4 Not well : ILL
5 Numberless type of ball : CUE
6 Pole in a lock : OAR
7 Indifferent : NUMB
8 Chest material : CEDAR
9 Like some wonders : ONE-HIT
10 LeBron’s team, on scoreboards : LAL
11 World Series mo. : OCT
12 Corner quartet, perhaps : STOP SIGNS
13 Balkan native : SERB
14 Altar words : I DOS
19 Welsh national emblem : LEEK
20 Cheer for a banderillero : OLE!
25 Have one’s chance to speak : GET A SAY
26 Genesis victim : ABEL
27 Conceals, in a way : PALMS
29 Stylist’s braid : CORNROW
30 Others, in Latin : ALII
32 French flag couleur : BLEU
34 Island nation whose flag has a Union Jack on it : FIJI
35 Dutch cheese : EDAM
36 Seeks permission : ASKS
37 Common stock option? : SOUP
38 Bartleby, notably : SCRIVENER
40 “__ delighted!” : I’D BE
41 Hold higher, as a baby bottle : TIP UP
44 License fig. : ID NO
45 Swiss river : AARE
50 Spanish soccer association that means “the league” : LA LIGA
52 Command to Fido : STAY
54 Bench mallet : GAVEL
55 Christmas __ : EVE
57 Conspicuous display : ECLAT
58 Hold sway : REIGN
59 Savage of “MythBusters” : ADAM
60 Super star : NOVA
62 Roadie’s haul : AMPS
64 Stain : SPOT
66 Prefix with angle or athlete : TRI-
67 Noir weapon : GAT
68 Fair-hiring initials : EOE
69 Co. that bought Netscape in 1999 : AOL
70 Food service trade org. : NRA