LA Times Crossword 22 Dec 23, Friday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Wendy L. Brandes & Amie Walker
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Evens Out

Themed answers require us to take OUT the circled letters, which spell out words that sound like EVEN numbers:

  • 57A Balances, or, phonetically, how to make 18-, 32-, and 39-Across match their clues? : EVENS OUT
  • 18A *Place that experiments with soup recipes? : PHO LAB (PHOTO LAB – TO, sounds like 2)
  • 32A *Curling team’s specialty? : PERMING ARTS (PERFORMING ARTS – FOR, sounds like 4)
  • 39A *Penalty boxes? : TEMPER ZONES (TEMPERATE ZONES – ATE, sounds like 8)

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

Bill’s time: 15m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Tropical fruit : PAPAYA

The papaya (also “papaw”) tropical fruit is native to Mexico and South America. When cultivating papaya trees, only female plants are used. Female plants produce just one, high-quality fruit per tree. Male plants produce several fruit per tree, but they are very poor quality.

7 Cannabis compound : THC

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive in cannabis.

10 Grabber in an arcade game : CLAW

Our word “arcade” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “arc”. The first arcades were passages made from a series of arches. This could be an avenue of trees, and eventually any covered avenue. I remember arcades lined with shops and stores when I was growing up on the other side of the Atlantic. Arcades came to be lined with lots of amusements, resulting in amusement arcades and video game arcades.

18 *Place that experiments with soup recipes? : PHO LAB (PHOTO LAB – TO, sounds like 2)

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food. It is often ordered with a side of hanh dam, pickled white onions.

20 Oscar of “Moon Knight” : ISAAC

Oscar Isaac is an actor from Guatemala who was raised in Miami. Before acting, Isaac played lead guitar in his own band called the Blinking Underdogs. Isaac portrayed X-wing pilot Poe Dameron in several of the “Star Wars” movies.

“Moon Knight” is a TV miniseries featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name, played by Oscar Isaac.

21 Geological periods : EPOCHS

Geologic time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

  • supereon
  • eon (also “aeon”)
  • era
  • period
  • epoch
  • age

22 ABBA classic : SOS

The palindromic band “ABBA” recorded the palindromic song “SOS”. Crazy …

25 Fate : KISMET

“Kismet” is a Turkish word meaning “fate, fortune, lot”.

29 Trait carrier : GENE

The set of all genes in a particular population is known as the “gene pool”, a term coined in Russian by geneticist Aleksandr Sergeevich Serebrovskii in the 1920s. In general, the larger the gene pool, the more diverse and robust the population.

30 Gimlet need : GIN
61 Gimlet need : LIME

A gimlet is a relatively simple cocktail that is traditionally made using just gin and lime juice. The trend in more recent times is to replace the gin with vodka.

32 *Curling team’s specialty? : PERMING ARTS (PERFORMING ARTS – FOR, sounds like 4)

“Perm” is the common name given to a permanent wave, a chemical or thermal treatment of hair to produce waves or curls.

36 Big rig : SEMI

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.

37 “Montero” singer Lil __ X : NAS

“Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” is a 2021 song by rapper Lil Nas X. The recording made a big splash due to its queer themes. The song’s subtitle is the name of a 2017 LGBT romance film, which in turn is an adaptation of a 2007 coming-of-age novel “Call Me by Your Name” by André Aciman.

44 Brown, for one : IVY

Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island is one of the eight Ivy League schools. Brown has been around a long time, founded in 1764, years before America declared independence from England. The university took the name of Brown in 1804 after one Nicholas Brown, Jr. gave a substantial gift to the school. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Brown Bears, and their mascot is Bruno.

45 128 oz. : GAL

The name of our fluid measure called a “gallon” ultimately comes from the Medieval Latin term “galleta” meaning “bucket, pail”.

46 Swag bag contents : LOOT

Swag is loot, stolen property, and a term that started out as criminal slang in England in the 1830s. “Swag” is also the name given to the promotional freebies available at some events. That said, there’s an urban myth that the promotional version of “swag” is an acronym standing for “stuff we all get”.

55 Boxer Ali : LAILA

Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila’s professional record is an impressive 24 wins, including 21 knockouts. Now retired, she never lost a fight, and nor did she ever draw. One of those victories was against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, daughter of her father’s nemesis Joe Frazier. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

60 Silverware wrap : NAPKIN

Our word “napkin” dates back to the 1300s, when it had the same meaning as today. The term comes from the old French word “nape” meaning “tablecloth” and the Middle English suffix “-kin” meaning “little”. So, a napkin is a little tablecloth.

62 Old lang. : LAT

The Latins were a race who migrated into the Italian peninsula during the Bronze Age, settling in a triangular region on the west coast that became known as Latium. It was the Latins who founded the city of Rome in Latium. The language that developed among the people of Latium is what we now know as “Latin”.

Down

1 City Hemingway called “a moveable feast” : PARIS

“A Moveable Feast” is a 1964 memoir penned by Ernest Hemingway that was published three years after his death by suicide. The memoir was a work in progress when the author died, and so his widow Mary made the final edits prior to publication. The title came from Ernest Hemingway’s friend and biographer A. E. Hotchner, who remembered the author using the phrase:

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast.

3 Flatbreads served with labneh : PITAS

Labneh is food served in some cuisines from North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It is a dairy product made by straining the liquid from yogurt so that it acquires a consistency similar to soft cheese.

4 On the briny : ASEA

The briny is the sea, with “brine” meaning “salty water”. The term “briny” was originally used for “tears”.

6 Pantry pest : ANT

The word “pantry” dates back to 1300, when it came into English from the Old French “panetrie” meaning a “bread room”. Bread is “pain” in French, and “panis” in Latin.

7 Issuer of a Mickey Mantle card sold for a record amount : TOPPS

Topps was a relaunch of an older company called American Leaf Tobacco, with the Topps name used from 1938. The earlier company was in trouble because it could not get supplies of its Turkish tobacco, so it moved into another chewy industry, making bubblegum. Nowadays, Topps is known for including (mainly) sports-themed trading cards in the packs of gum.

Mickey Mantle only played professional baseball for one team, spending 18 years with the New York Yankees. Mickey Mantle memorabilia is highly prized, especially since he retired from the game in 1969, and even more so since he died in 1995. The only other player memorabilia said to command a higher price is Babe Ruth’s. Mantle holds the record for the most career home runs by a switch hitter, as well as the most World Series home runs.

10 Symbol on the Swiss flag : CROSS

The flag of Switzerland is the very distinctive white cross on a red background. Unlike most national flags, the Swiss flag is a square, although the version used as the Swiss naval ensign is rectangular.

12 Poet laureate Limón : ADA

Ada Limón was named US Poet Laureate in 2022. Here is her poem “Field Bling”, which comes from her 2015 collection “Bright Dead Things”:

Nights when it’s warm
and no one is watching,
I walk to the edge
of the road and stare
at all the fireflies.
I squint and pretend
they’re hallucinations,
bright made-up waves
of the brain.
I call them,
field bling.
I call them,
fancy creepies.
It’s been a long time
since I’ve wanted to die,
it makes me feel
like taking off
my skin suit
and seeing how
my light flies all
on its own, neon
and bouncy like a
wannabe star.

26 Code creator : MORSE

Samuel Morse was a very accomplished and reputable painter (he was engaged to paint a portrait of President John Adams, for example). In 1825 Morse was in Washington working on a commissioned painting when he received a one-line letter by horse-messenger telling him that his wife was ill. He left immediately for his home in New Haven, Connecticut but by the time that Morse arrived his wife had already died and had been buried. This single event spurred him to move from painting to the development of a rapid means of long distance communication, leading to the single-wire telegraph and Morse code.

27 “The Hundred Dresses” Newbery honoree Eleanor : ESTES

“The Hundred Dresses” is a 1944 children’s book penned by Eleanor Estes. It is about a young and lonely Polish-American girl named Wanda Petronski who is teased by the other children at school. Wanda wears the same blue dress to school every day, but claims to have a hundred dresses in the closet in her worn-down home.

28 Shovel pass, e.g. : TOSS

That would be American football.

30 Princess of “Enchanted” and “Disenchanted” : GISELLE

“Enchanted” is quite an entertaining 2007 Disney film. It tells the story of Princess Giselle, who is forced from her animated world to live in the real world of New York City. Amy Adams plays the princess, a role that she reprised in a 2022 sequel titled “Disenchanted”.

32 Pet-ty offense? : PEEVE

The phrase “pet peeve”, meaning “thing that provokes one most”, seems to be somewhat ironic. A “peeve” is a source of irritation, and the adjective “pet” means “especially cherished”.

33 TV awards : EMMYS

The Emmy Awards are the television equivalent of the Oscars from the world of film, the Grammy Awards in music and the Tony Awards for the stage. Emmy Awards are presented throughout the year, depending on the sector of television being honored. The most famous of these ceremonies are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. The distinctive name “Emmy” is a softened version of the word “immy”, the nickname given to the video camera tubes found in old television cameras. The Emmy statuette was designed by television engineer Louis McManus in 1948, and depicts a woman holding up an atom. McManus used his wife as a model for the woman.

35 May, to Peter Parker : AUNT

Aunt May and Uncle Ben Parker are characters in the spider-Man universe created by Marvel Comics. The couple’s nephew is Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man.

42 “Special Ops: Lioness” actress Saldaña : ZOE

American actress Zoë Saldana played the Na’vi princess in “Avatar”, and Uhura in the 2009 movie “Star Trek” (and sequels). Saldana seems to pick the right movies, as she is the only actress to have three different films in the top twenty at the box office for three consecutive weeks (“Avatar”, “The Losers” and “Death at a Funeral”).

“Special Ops: Lioness” is a spy-thriller TV show that started airing in 2023. The series has quite the cast, with Zoe Saldaña playing the lead, and Nicile Kidman and Morgan Freeman in supporting roles. The title refers to Team Lioness, a real-life group of female US Army soldiers in an unofficial program used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The team was tasked with respecting local customs that prohibited men touching or searching local women, as well as gathering intelligence from the female population.

48 __ Hebrides : INNER

The Hebrides are a group of islands just off the west coast of Scotland. They are divided into two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides.

49 Montana city named for a landform : BUTTE

The city of Butte, Montana was founded as a mining town in the late 1800s. Although mining brought great growth to the area, it also brought environmental problems. Today, Butte is home to the country’s largest Superfund cleanup site.

51 Writer Munro : ALICE

Alice Munro is a short story writer from Canada, who sets many of her works in her native southwestern Ontario. She won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.

52 Many Lego House employees : DANES

Lego House is a huge visitor center in Billund, Denmark that is located near the Lego Group headquarters. It is home to several experience zones and exhibitions, as well as the Lego Museum. Inside the building, there are about 25 million Lego bricks!

54 Feast with haupia and poi : LUAU

Haupia is coconut pudding from Hawaiian cuisine. One recipe calls for the mixing of coconut milk with water, sugar, salt and starch, and then heating the mixture until it thickens and sets.

56 Gibbons, e.g. : APES

Gibbons are referred to as lesser apes as they differ in size and behavior from the great apes e.g. chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans.

57 Lauryn Hill trio? : ELS

There is a trio of letters L (els) in the name “Lauryn Hill”.

Lauryn Hill is a singer-songwriter from South Orange, New Jersey who is best known as a member of the band called the Fugees (from 1994 to 1996). Off stage, Hill is known for having five children with Rohan Marley, the son of reggae icon Bob Marley. She was also in the public eye in 2010 when she served 3 months in jail for tax evasion.

59 Outback bird : EMU

In Australia, the land outside of urban areas is referred to as the outback or the bush. That said, I think that the term “outback” is sometimes reserved for the more remote parts of the bush.

60 Giants and Titans org. : NFL

The New York Giants (NYG) football team plays home games in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a stadium shared with the New York Jets (NYJ). The Giants are the only team remaining from a group of five that joined the league in 1925. For many years, the Giants shared team names with the New York Giants MLB team, before the baseball franchise moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season.

The Tennessee Titans are a football team based in Nashville. The team relocated to Nashville from Houston in 1997. They were called the Tennessee Oilers for two seasons, before adopting the “Titans” moniker.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Tropical fruit : PAPAYA
7 Cannabis compound : THC
10 Grabber in an arcade game : CLAW
14 Out of bed : ARISEN
15 Ingredient replaced by applesauce in some recipes : OIL
16 Participated in a bike-a-thon, say : RODE
17 Check again : RETEST
18 *Place that experiments with soup recipes? : PHO LAB (PHOTO LAB – TO, sounds like 2)
20 Oscar of “Moon Knight” : ISAAC
21 Geological periods : EPOCHS
22 ABBA classic : SOS
23 Humble homes : HUTS
25 Fate : KISMET
29 Trait carrier : GENE
30 Gimlet need : GIN
31 Spanish bear : OSO
32 *Curling team’s specialty? : PERMING ARTS (PERFORMING ARTS – FOR, sounds like 4)
36 Big rig : SEMI
37 “Montero” singer Lil __ X : NAS
38 Employs : USES
39 *Penalty boxes? : TEMPER ZONES (TEMPERATE ZONES – ATE, sounds like 8)
44 Brown, for one : IVY
45 128 oz. : GAL
46 Swag bag contents : LOOT
47 Accept an extension : RE-SIGN
49 “Eww!” : BLEH!
50 Boy : LAD
53 “Beats me!” : NO CLUE!
55 Boxer Ali : LAILA
57 Balances, or, phonetically, how to make 18-, 32-, and 39-Across match their clues? : EVENS OUT
60 Silverware wrap : NAPKIN
61 Gimlet need : LIME
62 Old lang. : LAT
63 Cool-weather lining : FLEECE
64 Goad : SPUR
65 Expected : DUE
66 Girls : LASSES

Down

1 City Hemingway called “a moveable feast” : PARIS
2 Defensive retort : ARE SO!
3 Flatbreads served with labneh : PITAS
4 On the briny : ASEA
5 Response in the kitchen : YES, CHEF!
6 Pantry pest : ANT
7 Issuer of a Mickey Mantle card sold for a record amount : TOPPS
8 Sunny greeting : HI-HO
9 Press for time? : CLOCK IN
10 Symbol on the Swiss flag : CROSS
11 “haha” : LOL
12 Poet laureate Limón : ADA
13 Part of a mitt : WEB
19 Whatsis : THING
21 Never-ending : ETERNAL
24 __, dos, tres : UNO
26 Code creator : MORSE
27 “The Hundred Dresses” Newbery honoree Eleanor : ESTES
28 Shovel pass, e.g. : TOSS
29 “Get a __!” : GRIP
30 Princess of “Enchanted” and “Disenchanted” : GISELLE
32 Pet-ty offense? : PEEVE
33 TV awards : EMMYS
34 Small rug : MAT
35 May, to Peter Parker : AUNT
36 Mix things up : STIR
40 Easy-to-make waffles : EGGOS
41 Lost heat, as a shower : RAN COLD
42 “Special Ops: Lioness” actress Saldaña : ZOE
43 “Fan-cee!” : OOH LA LA!
48 __ Hebrides : INNER
49 Montana city named for a landform : BUTTE
50 Taps a heart button, say : LIKES
51 Writer Munro : ALICE
52 Many Lego House employees : DANES
54 Feast with haupia and poi : LUAU
56 Gibbons, e.g. : APES
57 Lauryn Hill trio? : ELS
58 Short “Kind of a big deal” : VIP
59 Outback bird : EMU
60 Giants and Titans org. : NFL