LA Times Crossword 26 May 23, Friday

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Constructed by: Andrew Anker
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Subject Lines

Themed answers are common phrases starting with RE-, but instead parsed as phrases starting with the word “RE”:

  • 20A Subject line on an email about bog vandals? : RE PEAT OFFENDERS
  • 25A Subject line on an email about CPA training? : RE FORM SCHOOL
  • 42A Subject line on an email about a guide to raising twins? : RE PAIR MANUAL
  • 48A Subject line on an email about art studios? : RE CREATION AREAS

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

Bill’s time: 8m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Datum from Elias Sports Bureau, e.g. : STAT

The Elias Sports Bureau has been providing research and statistics for professional sports since 1913. The business was set up in 1913 in New York City by Al Munro Elias and his brother Walter.

14 Gyro part : PITA

A gyro is a traditional Greek dish of meat roasted on a tall vertical spit that is sliced from the spit as required. Gyros are usually served inside a lightly grilled piece of pita bread, along with tomato, onion and tzatziki (a yogurt and cucumber sauce).

16 Field mouse : VOLE

Vole populations can increase very rapidly. Mama vole is pregnant for just three weeks before giving birth to litters of 5-10 baby voles. Then, the young voles become sexually mature in just one month! If you have one pregnant vole in your yard, within a year you could have over a hundred of the little critters.

17 Berserk : AMOK

The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had a good reason for that frenzy …

Our word “berserk” meaning “deranged” comes from the “Berserkers”, Norse warriors described in Old Norse literature. Berserkers were renowned for going into battle in a fury, and some believe that they consumed drugged food to get themselves worked up for the fighting ahead.

19 Somali-born supermodel : IMAN

Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid is a supermodel from Somalia who goes simply by the name “Iman” these days. “Iman” is an Arabic word for “faith”. She is a smart cookie. She has a degree in political science and is fluent in five languages: Somali, Arabic, Italian, French and English. Iman was married to English rock star David Bowie from 1992 until his death in 2016.

20 Subject line on an email about bog vandals? : RE PEAT OFFENDERS

When dead plant matter accumulates in marshy areas, it may not fully decay due to a lack of oxygen or acidic conditions. We are familiar with this in Ireland, because this decaying matter can form peat, and we have lots and lots of peat bogs around the country.

23 __ Grande : RIO

The Rio Grande (Spanish for “big river”) is a waterway that forms part of the border between Mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Río Bravo or Río Bravo del Norte (Spanish for “furious river of the north”).

25 Subject line on an email about CPA training? : RE FORM SCHOOL

Certified public accountant (CPA)

31 Creme-filled cookies : OREOS

The Oreo was the best-selling cookie in the 20th century, and almost 500 billion of them have been sold since they were introduced in 1912 by Nabisco. In those early days the creme filling was made with pork fat, but today vegetable oils are used instead. If you take a bite out of an Oreo sold outside of America you might notice a difference from the homegrown cookie, as coconut oil is added in the overseas version to give a different taste.

32 Sticker : THORN

Believe it or not, roses don’t have any thorns as such. Thorns are derived from shoots, spines are derived from leaves, and prickles are derived from the epidermis. The rose’s defensive barbs are in fact prickles.

37 Behr product : PAINT

The name of the Behr brand of paint is pronounced “bear”, and the cans even have a bear logo. The company was founded in 1947 by Otho Behr, Jr.

38 Lucy van __: “Peanuts” girl : PELT

In Charles Schulz’s fabulous comic strip “Peanuts”, Charlie Brown is friends with at least three members of the van Pelt family. Most famously there is Lucy van Pelt, who bosses everyone around, and who operates a psychiatric booth that looks like a lemonade stand. Then there is Linus, Lucy’s younger brother, the character who always has his security blanket at hand. Lastly there is an even younger brother, Rerun van Pelt. Rerun is constantly hiding under his bed, trying to avoid going to school.

39 Green vegetable in minji stew : PEA

Minji stew is a Kenyan dish made with green peas, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and spices.

40 __ Park, California : MENLO

Menlo Park is a town in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town was built around land previously owned by two Irish immigrants. The pair called their property “Menlo Park”, naming it for Menlo in County Galway, which is where the Irishmen came from.

57 Miranda of “Homeland” : OTTO

Miranda Otto is an actress from Brisbane, Australia. She played Éowyn in “The Lord of the Rings” series of films.

“Homeland” is a psychological drama on Showtime about a CIA officer who is convinced that a certain US Marine is a threat to the security of the United States. The show is based on a series from Israeli television called “Hatufim” (Prisoners of War”). I highly recommend it …

60 Stick in one’s __ : CRAW

“Craw” is another name for “crop”, a portion of the alimentary tract of some animals, including birds. The crop is used for the storage of food prior to digestion. It allows the animal to eat large amounts and then digest that food with efficiency over an extended period. The expression “to stick in one’s craw” is used when one cannot accept something, cannot “swallow” it.

61 Cloverleaf element : EXIT

Cloverleaf interchanges allow two highways to cross without the need for stopping traffic. They are so called as when viewed overheard they look like the leaves of a four-leaf clover.

63 “We came to play” sneakers brand : KEDS

Keds is a brand of athletic shoe first introduced in 1916 by US Rubber. The shoe was originally marketed as a rubber-soled, canvas-topped sneaker. The company first opted for the brand name “Peds”, from the Latin “ped” meaning “foot”. That name was already taken by another product, and so a quick rebranding took place resulting in “Keds”. The brand celebrated its centennial with a “Ladies First Since 1916” campaign that focuses on female empowerment.

Down

2 Life partner : TIME

Time Life is a publishing company that formed in 1961 as a division of Time, Inc. focused on the marketing of books. The name “Time Life” came from the titles of two of the parent company’s most successful magazines: “Time” and “Life”.

9 Appear out of nowhere? : TELEPORT

Teleportation is a favorite of authors of science fiction. The hypothetical process results in the transfer of matter from one point to another, with actually crossing the intervening space. Beam me up, Scotty!

11 Simpson who demands, “Operator! Give me the number for 911!” : HOMER

The first use of a national emergency phone number was in 1937 in the UK, where the number 999 was introduced to call emergency services. If you need emergency services in the UK or Ireland to this day, you have to dial 999. It’s not really clear why 911 became the emergency number in the US. The most credible suggestion (to me) is that when it was introduced by the FCC in 1967, it was a number that “fit” with the numbers already used by AT&T for free services (211-long distance; 411-information; 611-repair service).

12 Rating unit for 29-Down : ALARM
[29D Cook-off potful : CHILI]

The spiciness or “heat” of a serving of chili is often designated by an unofficial scale ranging from one-alarm upwards.

13 Perfect or imperfect : TENSE

Although we often say “perfect tense” in English, we are usually referring to the “present perfect tense”. The present perfect takes its place alongside the past perfect and future perfect. Verbs in the perfect form use the auxiliary verb “to have” alongside a past participle. For example:

  • I had solved the puzzle (past perfect)
  • I have solved the puzzle (present perfect)
  • I will have solved the puzzle (future perfect)

In English, an imperfect tense is one describing an unfinished or continually repeated action. All continuous tenses are classified as imperfect. Some examples are:

  • I was solving the crossword while enjoying a pint of Guinness (past continuous)
  • Which crossword are you solving? (present continuous)
  • I will be solving the crossword tomorrow evening (future continuous)

22 Halfway to midnight : NOON

Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

26 Lake that drains into the Niagara : ERIE

The mighty Niagara River flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, and forms part of the border between the US and Canada. The river is only about 35 miles long, so some describe it as a “strait”. It has a drop in elevation of 325 feet along its length, with 165 feet of that drop taking place at Niagara Falls.

27 Crumbly cheese : FETA

Feta is a Greek cheese made from sheep’s milk, or a mixture of sheep and goat’s milk. The cheese is salted and cured in a brine solution for several months before it is eaten.

28 “Castle” co-star __ Katic : STANA

Stana Katic is a Canadian-American actress who is perhaps best known for playing homicide detective Kate Beckett on the crime series “Castle”. After “Castle” ended its run, Katic took the lead role of FBI Agent Emily Byrne on the thriller show “Absentia”.

“Castle” is a crime-drama series starring Nathan Fillion as the title character, mystery novelist Richard Castle. Castle works alongside NYPD homicide detective Kate Beckett, played by Stana Katic. There’s romance in the air between those two lead characters.

29 Cook-off potful : CHILI

The full name of the dish that is often called simply “chili” is “chili con carne”, Spanish for “peppers with meat”. The dish was created by immigrants from the Spanish Canary Islands in the city of San Antonio, Texas (a city which the islanders founded). The San Antonio Chili Stand was a popular attraction at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and that stand introduced the dish to the rest of America and to the world.

30 Lionize : HONOR

The term “lionize” dates back to the late 1700s when there were lions kept in the Tower of London. The lions were quite famous, and attracted many visitors. Hence the term “lionize” means “treat someone as a celebrity”.

33 Ucayali River country : PERU

The Ucayali in Peru is the main river source for the mighty Amazon.

34 “Heart on My Sleeve” singer __ Mai : ELLA

Ella Mai is an R&B singer from England. Mai went to high school in New York City before returning to Britain.

35 “Chat soon,” in texts : TTYL

Talk to you later (TTYL)

38 Rotten genre? : PUNK ROCK

Johnny Rotten is the former stage name of English punk rock singer John Lydon. Lydon was most famous as the lead singer for the Sex Pistols in the seventies. Apparently he was given the name “Rotten” as he had very poor oral hygiene as a teenager, which turned his teeth green. So, one of the Sex Pistols declared, “You’re rotten, you are!”

40 Viral post : MEME

A meme (from “mineme”) is a cultural practice or idea that is passed on verbally or by repetition from one person to another. The term lends itself very well to the online world where links, emails, files etc. are so easily propagated.

41 La __ Azul: Frida Kahlo museum : CASA

The Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City is dedicated to the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The building was Kahlo’s family home, and opened as a museum in 1958. The walls of the museum are cobalt-blue, and so an alternate name for the facility is “the Blue House”, or “La Casa Azul” in Spanish.

43 Hall of Famer known as “The Mick” : MANTLE

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.

46 Common recall trigger : E COLI

Escherichia coli (E. coli) are usually harmless bacteria found in the human gut, working away quite happily. However, there are some strains that can produce lethal toxins. These strains can make their way into the food chain from animal fecal matter that comes into contact with food designated for human consumption.

49 Jabber at the table? : TINE

The points on a fork are known as tines.

51 Many Louvre works : OILS

The Musée du Louvre has the distinction of being the most visited art museum in the whole world. The collection is housed in the magnificent Louvre Palace that was the seat of power in France until 1682, when Louis XIV moved to Versailles.

52 Raison d’__ : ETRE

“Raison d’être” is a French phrase meaning “reason for existence”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Datum from Elias Sports Bureau, e.g. : STAT
5 Take it easy : COAST
10 “Fine, be like __!” : THAT
14 Gyro part : PITA
15 Forget, as a repulsive image : UNSEE
16 Field mouse : VOLE
17 Berserk : AMOK
18 Sparkling alternative : STILL
19 Somali-born supermodel : IMAN
20 Subject line on an email about bog vandals? : RE PEAT OFFENDERS
23 __ Grande : RIO
24 Pity party cry : POOR ME!
25 Subject line on an email about CPA training? : RE FORM SCHOOL
31 Creme-filled cookies : OREOS
32 Sticker : THORN
33 Stroke : PET
36 Glove : MITT
37 Behr product : PAINT
38 Lucy van __: “Peanuts” girl : PELT
39 Green vegetable in minji stew : PEA
40 __ Park, California : MENLO
41 __ fries : CURLY
42 Subject line on an email about a guide to raising twins? : RE PAIR MANUAL
44 Fantasized : DREAMT
47 Set as a price : ASK
48 Subject line on an email about art studios? : RE CREATION AREAS
55 Cream additive : ALOE
56 Permissible : LICIT
57 Miranda of “Homeland” : OTTO
58 Buds : PALS
59 Mound : KNOLL
60 Stick in one’s __ : CRAW
61 Cloverleaf element : EXIT
62 Know without knowing why : SENSE
63 “We came to play” sneakers brand : KEDS

Down

1 Practice boxing : SPAR
2 Life partner : TIME
3 Straddling : ATOP
4 Become established : TAKE ROOT
5 Made to order : CUSTOM
6 Aware of : ONTO
7 “Get real!” : AS IF!
8 Mirror image : SELF
9 Appear out of nowhere? : TELEPORT
10 Small-screen fave : TV IDOL
11 Simpson who demands, “Operator! Give me the number for 911!” : HOMER
12 Rating unit for 29-Down : ALARM
13 Perfect or imperfect : TENSE
21 Publicizes : AIRS
22 Halfway to midnight : NOON
25 Easy win : ROMP
26 Lake that drains into the Niagara : ERIE
27 Crumbly cheese : FETA
28 “Castle” co-star __ Katic : STANA
29 Cook-off potful : CHILI
30 Lionize : HONOR
33 Ucayali River country : PERU
34 “Heart on My Sleeve” singer __ Mai : ELLA
35 “Chat soon,” in texts : TTYL
37 Pregame motivators : PEP TALKS
38 Rotten genre? : PUNK ROCK
40 Viral post : MEME
41 La __ Azul: Frida Kahlo museum : CASA
42 Most prized, perhaps : RAREST
43 Hall of Famer known as “The Mick” : MANTLE
44 Fall in folds : DRAPE
45 “Don’t get so worked up” : RELAX
46 Common recall trigger : E COLI
49 Jabber at the table? : TINE
50 Screen image : ICON
51 Many Louvre works : OILS
52 Raison d’__ : ETRE
53 Hardly any : A TAD
54 Scatters seed : SOWS