LA Times Crossword 23 Sep 20, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Joe Deeney
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: You’re Out of Order

Themed answers each include the letter sequence Y-O-U-R-E, but OUT OF ORDER:

  • 55A Judge’s words … and a hint to this puzzle’s circles : YOU’RE OUT OF ORDER
  • 17A University offerings : FOUR-YEAR DEGREES
  • 26A Bob Dylan title lyrics that follow “in my heart you’ll always stay” : FOREVER YOUNG
  • 42A “The Wrestler” Oscar nominee : MICKEY ROURKE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 56s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Creek croaker : TOAD

The “warts” on the skin of a toad have no relation to the viral infection that can occur on human skin. A toad’s warts are colored bumps that are believed to help the animal blend more effectively into its environment.

16 Nashville highlight : OPRY

The Grand Ole Opry started out as a radio show in 1925 originally called the WSM “Barn Dance”. In 1927, the “Barn Dance” radio show was broadcast in a slot after an NBC production called “Musical Appreciation Hour”, a collection of classical works including Grand Opera. In a December show, the host of “Barn Dance” announced, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry'”. That name was used for the radio show from then on.

The Tennessee city of Nashville was founded in 1779 near a stockade in the Cumberland River valley called Fort Nashborough. Both the settlement and the fort were named for General Francis Nash, a war hero who died in combat during the American Revolution.

20 Open patio : ATRIUM

In modern architecture, an atrium (plural “atria” or “atriums”) is a large open space usually in the center of a building and extending upwards to the roof. The original atrium was an open court in the center of an Ancient Roman house. One could access most of the enclosed rooms of the house from the atrium.

21 Original angel on “Charlie’s Angels” : SABRINA

When the TV show “Charlie’s Angels” started airing in the mid-seventies, it was a little unusual in that it featured three women playing private detectives, a role usually reserved for men. The name first chosen for the show was “The Alley Cats”, then “Harry’s Angels”, before finally settling on “Charlie’s Angels”.

Actress Kate Jackson is best known for her TV work, playing Sabrina Duncan in “Charlie’s Angels” in the seventies and Amanda King in “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” in the eighties. I must admit, Sabrina was my favorite “Angel” back then …

22 Driver’s role in “Star Wars” sequels : REN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

Adam Driver is an actor best known to TV audiences for playing Adam Sackler on the show “Girls” that airs on HBO. Driver’s movie career got a huge boost in 2015 when he played villain Kylo Ren in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

23 Easiness exemplar : PIE

The idiom “as easy as pie” is used to describe something that is simple to do. It appears that the reference here is to the simplicity of eating pie, rather than making a pie.

25 Johns in Scotland : IANS

The name “John” translates into Scottish as “Ian”, into Russian as “Ivan”, into Italian as “Giovanni”, into Spanish as “Juan”, into Welsh as “Evan”, and into Irish as “Seán”.

26 Bob Dylan title lyrics that follow “in my heart you’ll always stay” : FOREVER YOUNG

Bob Dylan released his song “Forever Young” in 1973. Rod Stewart released his song “Forever Young” in 1988. Because Stewart’s song had similar lyrics and melody to the Dylan song, Stewart sent it to Dylan to see if the latter had a problem with it. An agreement was made that Dylan shared royalties for Stewart’s “Forever Young”.

35 Cause of some royal insomnia : PEA

“The Princess and the Pea” is a fairy tale from the pen of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The essence of the story is that a prince’s mother tests the royal blood of an apparent princess by placing a pea under a pile of mattresses on which the young girl sleeps. The girl complains of a restless night, demonstrating a physical sensitivity that can only be attributed to a princess. And they all lived happily ever after …

39 Hill worker : ANT

Anthills are actually underground nests. The ants in the colony excavate below ground, resulting in a pile of sand or soil above ground.

40 Works in Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends” : POEMS

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a collection of children’s poetry written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. The book is named for the 1974 poem of the same name that is included in the collection.

42 “The Wrestler” Oscar nominee : MICKEY ROURKE

Actor Mickey Rourke had trained as a boxer before his acting career took off. He turned to professional boxing when he lost his love for acting. Rourke took a lot of punishment in the ring in the nineties, resulting in a lot of damage to his face. He also admits that some problems with his appearance were aggravated by botched plastic surgery.

“The Wrestler” is a really hard, gritty movie from 2008, and a comeback film for actor Mickey Rourke. Rourke stars as an over-the-hill professional wrestler, with Marisa Tomei playing a faded stripper, and the love interest. The film received really strong reviews, but I found it to be a tough movie to sit through.

45 Gets moving : HIES

To hie is to move quickly, to bolt.

46 Luau finger food : POI

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.

47 Lead-in to a texter’s afterthought : BTW …

By the way (BTW)

53 Canadian metropolis : OTTAWA

Ottawa is the second-largest city in the Province of Ontario (after Toronto) and is the capital city of Canada. The name “Ottawa” comes from an Algonquin word “adawe”, which means “to trade”.

57 MM and MMXX, for two : ANNI

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”.

60 Enzo’s eight : OTTO

In Italian, “due” (two) cubed is “otto” (eight).

61 Where Southwest Airlines is LUV : NYSE

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) can give some quite descriptive ticker symbols to companies, for example:

  • Anheuser-Busch (BUD, for “Budweiser”)
  • Molson Coors Brewing Company (TAP, as in “beer tap”)
  • Steinway Musical Instruments (LVB, for “Ludwig van Beethoven”)
  • Sotheby’s (BID, for the auction house)

When Southwest Airlines started flying, the company operated out of Dallas Love Field. The company then chose a “love” theme, offering “love bites” (peanuts) and “love potions” (drinks) to passengers during flights. That’s why Southwest is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as “LUV”.

Down

2 Fed. security : T-NOTE

A Treasury note (T-note) is a government debt that matures in 1-10 years. A T-note has a coupon (interest) payment made every six months. The T-note is purchased at a discount to face value, and at the date of maturity can be redeemed at that face value. A Treasury bill (T-bill) is a similar financial vehicle, but it matures in one year or less, and a T-bond matures in 20-30 years.

3 One-eighty : U-TURN

Hang a “uey” or “uie”, make a u-turn, make a 180.

4 Port on Italy’s “heel” : BARI

Bari is a major port city on the Adriatic coast of Italy. Bari has the unfortunate distinction of being the only city in Europe to experience chemical warfare during WWII. Allied stores of mustard gas were released during a German bombing raid on Bari in 1943. Fatalities caused by the chemical agent were reported as 69, although other reports list the number as maybe a thousand military personnel and a thousand civilians.

6 Sched. uncertainty : TBA

Something not yet on the schedule (“sked” or “sched.”) is to be advised/announced (TBA).

7 Shows one’s humanity? : ERRS

According to the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger, “Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum”. This translates literally as “To err is human, to persist (in committing such errors) is of the devil”.

8 Zip : NADA

“Nada” is the Spanish word for “nothing”.

The use of the words “zip” and “zippo” to mean “nothing” dates back to the early 1900s, when it was student slang for being graded zero on a test.

9 Hitchcock thriller set in Bodega Bay : THE BIRDS

“The Birds” is a 1963 film made by Alfred Hitchcock based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier. I’ve read the story and seen the film and find them both strangely disturbing (it’s probably just me!). I can’t stand the ending of either version, as nothing resolves itself!

10 Piemonte city : TORINO

Turin (“Torino” in Italian) is a major city in the north of Italy that sits on the Po River. Back in 1861, when the Kingdom of Italy was formed, Turin was chosen as the first capital of the country.

Piedmont in the northwest of Italy is one of the nation’s twenty administrative regions. It is a mountainous region that is surrounded on three sides by the Alps. The Italian name for the region, “Piemonte”, translates as “foot of a mountain”. Piedmont’s capital city is Turin.

13 Start to function? : DYS-

The prefix “dys-” comes from the Greek for “bad”. Examples of the use of the prefix would be: dyslexia (bad + word), dyspepsia (bad + digested).

18 Bahrain bigwig : EMIR

An emir is a prince or chieftain, one most notably from the Middle East in Islamic countries. In English, “emir” can also be written variously as “emeer, amir, ameer” (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

24 Like “Halloween,” and then some : EERIER

I really, really don’t do horror films. The one exception is the original “Halloween” movie, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance. To me, this first movie in the “Halloween” series is more in the style of Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, whereas the sequels were chock full of gore and graphic violence.

27 Mobile payments app owned by PayPal : VENMO

Venmo is a smartphone payment app that is now owned by PayPal. The first version of the product was introduced in 2009 by two entrepreneurs who had met as freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania. They sold the company in 2012 for over $26 million, and then PayPal acquired it the following year for a whopping $800 million. I wonder if PayPal ever buys blogs …

29 Second-lightest noble gas : NEON

Neon was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

The noble gases (also “rare gases”) are those elements on the extreme right of the Periodic Table. Because of their “full” complement of electrons, noble gases are very unreactive. The six noble gases that occur naturally are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.

31 Linguist Chomsky : NOAM

Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at MIT. Chomsky is known as one of the fathers of modern linguistics.

32 Luxury hotel name : OMNI

Omni Hotels & Resorts is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has properties in the US, Canada and Mexico.

37 Father Flanagan’s orphanage : BOYS TOWN

The village of Boys Town, Nebraska is a suburb of Omaha. The village was founded in 1917 as the headquarter of the Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, which is dedicated to the care of at-risk children.

38 “__ sells seashells … ” : SHE

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I’m sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore shells.

40 Actress/author Holly Robinson __ : PEETE

Actress Holly Robinson Peete has achieved a lot of success on and off the screen. She was one of the original co-hosts on the daytime show “The Talk”, and in 2011 won a NAACP Image Award for her children’s book “My Brother Charlie”. She appeared on a reality TV show called “For Peete’s Sake” that followed her life from 2016-2017.

43 South Korean subcompact : KIA RIO

Kia have made the subcompact model called a Rio since 2000.

44 Solar panel spot : ROOF

Solar panels are arrays of solar cells that make use of what’s known as the photovoltaic effect. We are more likely to have learned about the photoelectric effect in school, in which electrons were ejected from the surface of some materials when it was exposed to light or other forms of radiation. The photovoltaic effect is related but different. Instead of being electrons ejected from the surface, in the photovoltaic effect electrons move around in the material creating a difference in voltage.

47 Reason for spin, briefly : BAD PR

Public relations (PR)

48 Limited message : TWEET

I have never tweeted in my life, and have no plans to do so (but one should never say “never”!). Twitter is a microblogging service that limits any post sent to just 280 characters. In a sense, it is similar to this blog. Here I send out a post once a day containing information that I think might be useful to folks (thank you for reading!). I don’t think I could send out much of interest using just 280 characters.

51 Newsman Lewis? : HUEY

Huey Lewis and the News are a band based in San Francisco. When the movie “Ghostbusters” came out in 1984, the band sued Ray Parker, Jr. who wrote the film’s theme song, claiming that it was very similar to their own song “I Want a New Drug”. The case was settled out of court, and the following year “Huey Lewis and the News” made the most of an opportunity to write a movie theme themselves. Their smash hit “The Power of Love” was written for “Back to the Future”, and propelled the band into stardom.

52 LAX postings : ETAS

Los Angeles International Airport is the sixth busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and the busiest here on the West Coast of the US. The airport was opened in 1930 as Mines Field and was renamed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941. On the airport property is the iconic white structure that resembles a flying saucer. This is called the Theme Building and I believe it is mainly used as a restaurant and observation deck for the public. The airport used to be identified by the letters “LA”, but when the aviation industry went to a three-letter standard for airport identification, this was changed to “LAX”. Apparently, the “X” has no significant meaning.

54 Rock’s Ben Folds Five, surprisingly : TRIO

Ben Folds Five was a rock group for Chapel Hill, North Carolina that was active, on and off, from 1993 until 2003. Ben Folds formed the group, and despite the name, it comprised just three members.

55 NBA great Ming : YAO

Yao Ming is a retired professional basketball player from Shanghai who played for the Houston Rockets. At 7’6″, Yao was the tallest man playing in the NBA.

56 Minecraft material : ORE

Minecraft is a video game that was released in 2011. It has been cited as one of the most influential video games of all time.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Bits of trash often swept up with popcorn : STUBS
6 Outdoor party rental : TENT
10 Creek croaker : TOAD
14 Like much beer : ON TAP
15 “Dude!” : BRAH!
16 Nashville highlight : OPRY
17 University offerings : FOUR-YEAR DEGREES
20 Open patio : ATRIUM
21 Original angel on “Charlie’s Angels” : SABRINA
22 Driver’s role in “Star Wars” sequels : REN
23 Easiness exemplar : PIE
25 Johns in Scotland : IANS
26 Bob Dylan title lyrics that follow “in my heart you’ll always stay” : FOREVER YOUNG
31 Hopeless, as a situation : NO-WIN
34 Tears to shreds : RENDS
35 Cause of some royal insomnia : PEA
36 Leave out : OMIT
37 Ties together : BINDS
38 Go no further : STOP
39 Hill worker : ANT
40 Works in Silverstein’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends” : POEMS
41 Provided light : SHONE
42 “The Wrestler” Oscar nominee : MICKEY ROURKE
45 Gets moving : HIES
46 Luau finger food : POI
47 Lead-in to a texter’s afterthought : BTW …
50 Words said in disbelief : WHAT THE …?!
53 Canadian metropolis : OTTAWA
55 Judge’s words … and a hint to this puzzle’s circles : YOU’RE OUT OF ORDER
57 MM and MMXX, for two : ANNI
58 Tire (out) : WEAR
59 Beat, with “out” : WIPED …
60 Enzo’s eight : OTTO
61 Where Southwest Airlines is LUV : NYSE
62 Puts in like piles : SORTS

Down

1 Words often suggesting unmet goals : SO FAR
2 Fed. security : T-NOTE
3 One-eighty : U-TURN
4 Port on Italy’s “heel” : BARI
5 Watch surreptitiously : SPY UPON
6 Sched. uncertainty : TBA
7 Shows one’s humanity? : ERRS
8 Zip : NADA
9 Hitchcock thriller set in Bodega Bay : THE BIRDS
10 Piemonte city : TORINO
11 Confides in : OPENS UP TO
12 Region : AREA
13 Start to function? : DYS-
18 Bahrain bigwig : EMIR
19 Charcoal pencil shades : GRAYS
24 Like “Halloween,” and then some : EERIER
26 In good shape : FIT
27 Mobile payments app owned by PayPal : VENMO
28 Finally arrives (at) : ENDS UP
29 Second-lightest noble gas : NEON
30 Stare slack-jawed : GAPE
31 Linguist Chomsky : NOAM
32 Luxury hotel name : OMNI
33 Prejudiced investigation and harassment : WITCH HUNT
37 Father Flanagan’s orphanage : BOYS TOWN
38 “__ sells seashells … ” : SHE
40 Actress/author Holly Robinson __ : PEETE
41 Mountain resort aids : SKI TOWS
43 South Korean subcompact : KIA RIO
44 Solar panel spot : ROOF
47 Reason for spin, briefly : BAD PR
48 Limited message : TWEET
49 Hospital sections : WARDS
50 Refuses to : WON’T
51 Newsman Lewis? : HUEY
52 LAX postings : ETAS
54 Rock’s Ben Folds Five, surprisingly : TRIO
55 NBA great Ming : YAO
56 Minecraft material : ORE