LA Times Crossword 9 Mar 23, Thursday

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Constructed by: Neville Fogarty
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: All Broken Up

Themed answers each include something that is BROKEN spelled out in circled letters in the UP-direction. And, these hidden words are BROKEN into two sections in the answers:

  • 27D Emotionally crushed, and an apt description of the circled elements in this puzzle? : ALL BROKEN UP
  • 3D Sport with teams of quadcopters : DRONE SOCCER (broken REC/ORD)
  • 7D Period of the Peloponnesian Wars : CLASSICAL GREECE (broken GL/ASS)
  • 9D Foyer : ENTRANCE HALL (broken HE/ART)
  • 21D Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards : GOLDEN GLOBES (broken BO/NE)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 “An Officer and a Gentleman” star : GERE

Richard Gere is an American actor who is a practicing Buddhist and has been a student of the Dalai Lama for many years. He has been married three times, including his first marriage to supermodel Cindy Crawford. They were married from 1991 to 1995.

“An Officer and a Gentleman” is a 1982 film starring Richard Gere as a candidate in the US Navy flight school who meets up and falls in love with a local girl played by Debra Winger. Despite the love shown on the screen between the characters played by Gere and Winger, it is fairly well known that the two leading actors did not get on well at all during the making of the film. At one point, Winger referred publicly to Gere as a “brick wall”.

18 Wyoming national park : GRAND TETON

Grand Teton National Park (NP) is located just south of Yellowstone NP, and a must-see if you are visiting the latter. The park is named after the tallest peak in the magnificent Teton Range known as Grand Teton. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although one story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French is a slang term meaning “breasts”.

20 Charmin maker, familiarly : P AND G

Procter & Gamble was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. Procter was a candlemaker, an immigrant from England. Gamble was a soapmaker, an immigrant from Ireland. The pair had settled in Cincinnati and married two sisters. Their father-in-law persuaded the two to set up in business together, and the rest is history.

Charmin is a brand of toilet paper made by Procter & Gamble.

24 Nocturnal birds of prey : OWLS

Owls have 14 vertebrae in their necks (compared to our 7). The extra bones in the neck, along with other adaptations allow owls to rotate the head and neck about 270 degrees.

26 Chicken tikka __ : MASALA

Chicken tikka masala is a dish consisting of chicken tikka (chunks of marinated chicken) served in a masala sauce. Masala is the Hindi word for “mixture”, and describes a mixture of spices. A dish named “masala” uses the spices incorporated into a sauce that includes garlic, ginger, onions and chili paste. Although served as part of Indian cuisine, there seems to be a lot of evidence that chicken tikka masala was actually invented in an Indian restaurant in Britain.

34 Hor. map line : LAT

Lines of latitude are imaginary horizontal lines surrounding the planet. The most “important” lines of latitude are, from north to south:

  • Arctic Circle
  • Tropic of Cancer
  • Equator
  • Tropic of Capricorn
  • Antarctic Circle

35 Guitar lesson basics : CHORDS

In music, a chord is a set of notes/pitches that are played and heard simultaneously.

37 Military title for POTUS : CINC

Commander-in-Chief (CINC)

38 JFK alternative : LGA

The three big airports serving New York City (NYC) are John F. Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark (EWR).

39 “Tabula rasa” philosopher John : LOCKE

John Locke was an English philosopher whose most famous work was “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”. Locke’s position was that at birth the mind is a blank slate, a “tabula rasa”, and that knowledge is determined by experiences perceived through our senses.

40 Video chat annoyance : LAG

In Internet terms, lag is a delay in response caused by network latency. We might notice lag when streaming a video, for example.

43 Hobbit enemy : ORC

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

46 “The View” Emmy winner Shepherd : SHERRI

Sherri Shepherd is a comedian and television personality who is best known by many as one of the co-hosts of the ABC daytime talk show “The View”. I remember Shepherd playing a police officer who was partnered with Robert Barone on the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”.

49 Post-WWII alliance : NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded not long after WWII in 1949 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The first NATO Secretary General was Lord Ismay, Winston Churchill’s chief military assistant during WWII. Famously, Lord Ismay said the goal of NATO was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

50 “Wiggle” singer Jason : DERULO

“Jason Derulo” is the stage name of singer Jason Desrouleaux from Miramar, Florida. He is pretty popular on TikTok, having the 15th most-followed account on the platform.

52 Sushi prep verb : ROLL

When I’m thinking of sushi, I’m really picturing “makizushi” (also “maki”), which is fish, vegetables and sushi rice combined in layers and rolled up in seaweed. “Makizushi” translates from Japanese as “rolled sushi”.

59 Gibbons of talk TV : LEEZA

Leeza Gibbons had her own radio show called “Hollywood Confidential”, and her own talk show on NBC television that aired from 1994 to 2000. Gibbons is the founder of a nonprofit group called Leeza’s Place which supports people giving care to patients with memory disorders. Since 2007, she has been a board member of California’s stem cell research agency, appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

67 “West Side Story” pair : ACTS

Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story” is based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. The musical is set in New York City and features two rival gangs: the Sharks from Puerto Rico and the Jets with working-class, Caucasian roots. Tony from the Jets (played by Richard Beymer) falls in love with Maria (played by Natalie Wood) from the Sharks. All this parallels Romeo from the House of Montague falling for Juliet from the House of Capulet in the Italian city of Verona. The stage musical was adapted into a very successful 1961 movie with the same title.

68 Old character : RUNE

A rune is a character in an alphabet that is believed to have mysterious powers. In Norse mythology, the runic alphabet was said to have a divine origin.

69 The Brownings, e.g. : POETS

Robert Browning met fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett in 1845. Elizabeth was a sickly woman, confined to her parents’ house in Wimpole Street in London, largely due to the conservative and protective nature of her father. Robert and Elizabeth eventually eloped in 1846, and lived in self-inflicted exile in Italy. Away from the country of his birth, Browning was moved to write his now famous “Home Thoughts, From Abroad”, the first line of which is “Oh, to be in England …”

71 Newspaper commentary : OP-ED

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

Down

3 Sport with teams of quadcopters : DRONE SOCCER (broken REC/ORD)

Drone soccer is an organized air sport that uses drones encased in protective, flexible orbs. Each team has a striker drone that is trying to score a goal by passing through a circular goal. The non-striker team drones try to help their own striker to score, and prevent the opposing striker from scoring.

4 Tourney rank : SEED

A seeded player or team in a tournament is one given a preliminary ranking that is used in the initial draw. The intention is that the better competitors are less likely to meet each other in the early rounds.

5 Rowing machine, informally : ERG

An indoor rowing machine is often referred to as an ergometer (or simply “erg”). However, the term “ergometer” really applies to a device that measures the amount of work performed.

7 Period of the Peloponnesian Wars : CLASSICAL GREECE (broken GL/ASS)

The Peloponnesian War was fought from 431 to 404 BC between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Prior to the war, Athens was the strongest city-state in Greece. After the victory by the Peloponnesian League, Sparta emerged as the leading power.

9 Foyer : ENTRANCE HALL (broken HE/ART)

“Foyer”, meaning “lobby”, is a French word that we imported into English. In French, “foyer” is used for what we would call a “green room”, a place where actors can gather when not on stage or on set.

11 Word before “Shorty,” “Smart,” “Hard,” and “Out,” in film titles : GET …

“Get Shorty” is a 1995 crime-comedy with a great cast that includes John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo and Danny DeVito. That said, the storyline is a little too zany for me so I didn’t really enjoy it …

The satirical comedy series called “Get Smart” was the creation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, and starred Don Adams as Agent 86, Maxwell Smart. Agent 86 worked for the spy agency CONTROL, alongside the lovely Agent 99 (played by Barbara Feldon). CONTROL’s sworn enemy was the criminal organization called KAOS. Smart’s shoe phone was a hilarious prop used in almost every episode. When Smart dialed the number 117, the shoe converted into a gun. Cool stuff …

21 Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards : GOLDEN GLOBES (broken BO/NE)

The first Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held in 1944 to honor the best in filmmaking. The award was created by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which had been formed the year before by a group of writers in Los Angeles. One of the most famous of the Golden Globes is the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which is presented for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”.

25 Director Craven : WES

Wes Craven was a very successful film director and writer specializing in movies of the horror genre, which means that I don’t watch them! He was responsible for “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and the “Scream” films. Craven passed away in August 2015.

28 Beer choice : LAGER

Lager is so called because of the tradition of cold-storing the beer during fermentation. “Lager” is the German word for “storage”.

29 Centipede maker : ATARI

Centipede is an arcade game from Atari (it is my favorite!). The game was designed by Ed Logg and Dona Bailey, with Bailey being one of the few female game designers back then (it was released in 1980). Perhaps due to her influence, Centipede was the first arcade game to garner a significant female following.

31 Ararat lander : ARK

Mount Ararat is in Turkey. It is a snow-capped, dormant volcano with two peaks. The higher of the two, Greater Ararat, is the tallest peak in the country. Ararat takes its name from a legendary Armenian hero called Ara the Beautiful (or “Ara the Handsome”). According to the Book of Genesis, Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat as the Great Flood subsided.

33 Semi : RIG

A “semi” is a “semi-trailer truck”. The vehicle is so called because it consists of a tractor and a half-trailer. The half-trailer is so called because it only has wheels on the back end, with the front supported by the tractor.

36 Belmont Stakes racer : HORSE

The Belmont Stakes is a horse race held in June each year, at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, New York. The Belmont Stakes is the last of the US Triple Crown races, following the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

40 Shang-Chi player Simu : LIU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was playing the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”.

46 Punkie Johnson’s NBC show : SNL

“Punkie Johnson” is the stage name of standup comedian Jessica Williams. Johnson joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” as a featured player in 2020, and became an SNL repertory player in 2020.

51 Part of a Cinderella story : UPSET

In the world of sports, a Cinderella story is a situation in which a competitor or team is far more successful than is reasonably expected. The term is a reference to the “Cinderella” fairy tale.

The folktale usually known as “Cinderella” was first published by French author Charles Perrault in 1697, although it was later included by the Brothers Grimm in their famous 1812 collection. The storyline of the tale may date back as far as the days of ancient Greece. A common alternative title to the story is “The Little Glass Slipper”.

55 Online periodical : E-ZINE

Online magazines are variously referred to as webzines, e-zines, cyberzines, hyperzines or maybe e-magazines.

58 Common result in championship chess : DRAW

There are several ways that a game of chess can end in a draw. For example, if a player who is not in check cannot make a legal move, there is said to be a stalemate, which is a draw. Another example of a draw is a dead position, a situation in which neither player can make a sequence of legal moves that would result in a checkmate.

60 Currency symbolized by € : EURO

The euro sign (€) looks like a letter C, but with two horizontal lines drawn across the middle. Inspiration for the design comes from the Greek letter epsilon.

64 Psychedelic letters : LSD

The term “psychedelic” was coined in 1956 by British-born psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. He proposed the term to describe the effects of taking the drugs LSD and mescaline. He suggested that “psychedelic” be defined as “mind-manifesting”, from the Greek “psyche” (mind) and “delos” (manifest).

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Mixes in : ADDS
5 Pricing word : EACH
9 Tidied, as a lawn : EDGED
14 “An Officer and a Gentleman” star : GERE
15 Run the show : RULE
16 Many a flower girl : NIECE
17 Lotion component : ALOE
18 Wyoming national park : GRAND TETON
20 Charmin maker, familiarly : P AND G
22 Put forward : ASSERT
23 Needle hole : EYE
24 Nocturnal birds of prey : OWLS
26 Chicken tikka __ : MASALA
30 “Everything must go” event : SALE
32 De-pleat? : IRON
34 Hor. map line : LAT
35 Guitar lesson basics : CHORDS
37 Military title for POTUS : CINC
38 JFK alternative : LGA
39 “Tabula rasa” philosopher John : LOCKE
40 Video chat annoyance : LAG
41 Live coal : EMBER
43 Hobbit enemy : ORC
44 __ polish : NAIL
46 “The View” Emmy winner Shepherd : SHERRI
47 Purpose : USE
48 Gurgling sound : GLUG
49 Post-WWII alliance : NATO
50 “Wiggle” singer Jason : DERULO
52 Sushi prep verb : ROLL
54 Brewpub barrel : KEG
57 Meditate on : PONDER
59 Gibbons of talk TV : LEEZA
61 “No need to mince words” : LET’S BE REAL
65 __ pricing : UNIT
66 Think alike : AGREE
67 “West Side Story” pair : ACTS
68 Old character : RUNE
69 The Brownings, e.g. : POETS
70 Garden annoyance : WEED
71 Newspaper commentary : OP-ED

Down

1 Obviously impressed : AGAPE
2 Supply chain inconvenience : DELAY
3 Sport with teams of quadcopters : DRONE SOCCER (broken REC/ORD)
4 Tourney rank : SEED
5 Rowing machine, informally : ERG
6 Hearing-related : AURAL
7 Period of the Peloponnesian Wars : CLASSICAL GREECE (broken GL/ASS)
8 Layers on a farm : HENS
9 Foyer : ENTRANCE HALL (broken HE/ART)
10 Eating patterns : DIETS
11 Word before “Shorty,” “Smart,” “Hard,” and “Out,” in film titles : GET …
12 Environmental prefix : ECO-
13 Bear’s lair : DEN
19 Evil spirit : DEMON
21 Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards : GOLDEN GLOBES (broken BO/NE)
25 Director Craven : WES
27 Emotionally crushed, and an apt description of the circled elements in this puzzle? : ALL BROKEN UP
28 Beer choice : LAGER
29 Centipede maker : ATARI
31 Ararat lander : ARK
33 Semi : RIG
35 Billowy mass : CLOUD
36 Belmont Stakes racer : HORSE
40 Shang-Chi player Simu : LIU
42 Converged : MET
45 Without help : ALONE
46 Punkie Johnson’s NBC show : SNL
51 Part of a Cinderella story : UPSET
53 Give a speech : ORATE
55 Online periodical : E-ZINE
56 __ community : GATED
58 Common result in championship chess : DRAW
60 Currency symbolized by € : EURO
61 Track circuit : LAP
62 Self-image : EGO
63 Italian three : TRE
64 Psychedelic letters : LSD