LA Times Crossword 26 Dec 24, Thursday

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Constructed by: Kevin Christian & Doug Peterson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Singers’ Named Stuff

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted with reference to the “family” name of a singer cited in the corresponding clue:

  • 17A Iggy’s therapist? : POP PSYCHOLOGIST
  • 23A Taylor’s comeback? : SWIFT RECOVERY
  • 39A Donna’s time off? : SUMMER VACATIONS
  • 51A Fiona’s rapidly changing backup band? : APPLE TURNOVER
  • 61A Al’s state-of-the-art recording equipment? : GREEN TECHNOLOGY

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

Bill’s time: 7m 39s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Rock blaster? : AMP

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.

9 Celery unit : STALK

There’s an urban myth that the process of eating celery burns more calories than the body can obtain from the vegetable through digestion. While celery is indeed a low-calorie food, eating it does provide a net-positive number of calories.

16 Sunporch : LANAI

A lanai is a type of veranda, and a design that originated in Hawaii. A kind blog reader tells me that the etymology of “lanai” seems unclear, but that the island name of “Lana’i” is not related.

17 Iggy’s therapist? : POP PSYCHOLOGIST

Iggy Pop is a punk rock performer from Muskegon, Michigan. When he was in high school, he was a drummer for a local band called the Iguanas, and so was given the nickname “Iggy”. He was the vocalist for a band called the Stooges, and is often referred to as the Godfather of Punk.

20 __ equity : SWEAT

Sweat equity is the increase in value of a property directly attributed to work done without drawing a salary.

23 Taylor’s comeback? : SWIFT RECOVERY

Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is the first person to become a billionaire primarily through a music career. As of 2024, she is the world’s richest female musician (only Jay-Z has a greater net worth as a musician).

30 “Cobra __”: Netflix series about a dojo : KAI

“Cobra Kai” is a TV show that premiered in 2018 as a sequel to “The Karate Kid” series of films, the first of which was released in 1984. Actor Ralph Macchio reprises his role from the movies, playing protagonist Daniel LaRusso. William Zabka also reprises his role from the big screen, playing Johnny Lawrence, LaRusso’s rival in karate competitions. The title of the show “Cobra Kai” is the name of the karate dojo in which Johnny Lawrence trained as a youth, and which he decides to reopen 34 years later.

31 Primatologist’s subject : APE

Primatology is the study of primates, especially non-human primates.

32 Chocolate-and-caramel candy : ROLO

Rolo was a hugely popular chocolate candy in Ireland when I was growing up. It was introduced in the thirties in the UK, and is produced under license in the US by Hershey. I was a little disappointed when I had my first taste of the American version as the center is very hard and chewy. The recipe used on the other side of the Atlantic calls for a soft gooey center.

39 Donna’s time off? : SUMMER VACATIONS

Donna Summer is known as “The Queen of Disco”, with great hits like “Love to Love You, Baby”, “I Feel Love” and “Hot Stuff”. In the late sixties and early seventies, LaDonna Gaines (her real name) lived and worked in Germany. There she met and married an Austrian actor called Helmuth Sommer. They divorced not long after the marriage, but Donna kept his family name, just changing the “o” to “u” to give her the stage name of “Donna Summer”.

45 2016 Super Bowl MVP Miller : VON

American footballer Von Miller started his professional career with the Denver Broncos in 2011. A year later, Miller founded the Von’s Vision foundation that provides free eye exams and glasses for children living in the Denver area.

46 Apr. 15 addressee : IRS

April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

51 Fiona’s rapidly changing backup band? : APPLE TURNOVER

Fiona Apple is a singer-songwriter and pianist from New York City. “Fiona Apple” is the artist’s real name, although “Apple” is a given name. She was born Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart.

57 Honest prez : ABE

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the US. There are several stories told about how he earned the nickname “Honest Abe”. One story dates back to early in his career as a lawyer. Lincoln accidentally overcharged a client and then walked miles in order to right the wrong as soon as possible.

61 Al’s state-of-the-art recording equipment? : GREEN TECHNOLOGY

Al Green is a gospel and soul music singer. He was born in Arkansas, where he started out as a gospel singer and moved into R&B. In 1974, Green was assaulted by a girlfriend who burned him badly on much of his body by pouring boiling grits over him (and then she committed suicide). The incident changed Green’s life and he turned to the church, becoming a pastor in Memphis in 1976. He continued to record music, but never really enjoyed the same success that he had in the early seventies with hits like “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still In Love With You”.

70 Elitist sort : SNOOT

“Snoot” is a variant of “snout”, and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is snooty, or “snouty”, tends to look down his or her nose at the rest of the world.

Down

1 Jungfrau’s range : ALPS

The Jungfrau is a peak in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. “Jungfrau” translates from German as “maiden” or “virgin”.

4 Ride-or-die pal : BESTIE

“Ride or die” is a slang term describing someone incredibly loyal and committed to another person, willing to face any challenge or hardship with them.The term’s etymology can be traced back to 1950s biker culture, where it literally meant that if a biker couldn’t ride their motorcycle, they’d rather die.

5 Stridex shelfmate : OXY

OXY 10 is a brand medication with the active ingredient benzoyl peroxide. Benzoyl peroxide is used as an acne treatment as well as for dyeing hair, whitening teeth and is also used in the preparation of flour.

Stridex is a line of acne treatments owned by Blistex that comes as medicated pads. The active ingredient in most Stridex products is salicylic acid, but others include benzoyl peroxide.

6 Actor Cage, informally : NIC

Actor Nicolas “Nic” Cage was born Nicolas Coppola. Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, both of whom are Nic Cage’s father’s siblings.

7 Playbill carrier : USHER

I get quite a kick out of reading the bios in “Playbill” as some of them can be really goofy and entertaining. “Playbill” started off in 1884 in New York as an in-house publication for just one theater on 21st St. You can’t see any decent-sized production these days anywhere in the United States without being handed a copy of “Playbill”.

10 See 12-Down : TAG
12 With 10-Down, game with light weapons? : LASER

The name “Laser Tag” is really a misnomer as lasers are rarely used in the game. The “guns” actually send out infrared light, and not laser light, that is picked up by infrared detectors worn by the players.

11 “Demon Slayer” genre : ANIME

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” is a popular Japanese manga and anime series set in Taisho-era Japan. It follows Tanjiro Kamado, a young boy who becomes a demon slayer after his family is slaughtered and his sister, Nezuko, is turned into a demon.

18 Front-row chess piece : PAWN

In the game of chess, the pawns are the weakest pieces on the board. A pawn that can make it to the opposite side of the board can be promoted to a piece of choice, usually a queen. Using promotion of pawns, it is possible for a player to have two or more queens on the board at one time. However, standard chess sets come with only one queen per side, so a captured rook is often used as the second queen by placing it on the board upside down.

24 Jamie of “M*A*S*H” : FARR

Actor Jamie Farr is best known for playing the cross-dressing Max Klinger in the sitcom ”M*A*S*H”. Although Farr landed a role in the 1955 movie “Blackboard Jungle”, his career didn’t really take off until he started appearing regularly on “The Red Skelton Show”. Years later he managed to get a one-episode appearance in ”M*A*S*H”, and his character and performance were received so well that he became a regular on the show. Farr actually did serve in the US Army in Korea, although it was after hostilities had ended. The dog tags that Farr wore when filming ”M*A*S*H” were the ones that he actually wore while serving in the military.

25 Cache : TROVE

The term “treasure trove” comes from the Anglo-French “tresor trové “ meaning “found treasure”.

26 Hops drier : OAST

An oast is a kiln used for drying hops as part of the brewing process. Such a structure might also be called an “oast house” or “hop kiln”. The term “oast” can also apply to a kiln used to dry tobacco.

28 Org. that oversees the Artemis moon program : NASA

NASA’s Artemis program has the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. Artemis is viewed as a step along the road to sending humans to Mars in the 2030s.

33 Loo : LAV

Our word “lavatory” (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s, “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.

34 Surname of heist masterminds played by Sinatra, Clooney, and Bullock : OCEAN

“Ocean’s 11” is a great film from 1960, starring Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean. The original storyline is updated for the excellent 2001 remake, with George Clooney playing the lead. In the 1960 movie, the love interest is a character called Beatrice Ocean, played by Angie Dickinson. In the 2001 version, the love interest gets a new name, Tess Ocean, and is played by Julia Roberts. The 2001 remake (titled “Ocean’s Eleven”, note the spelling) spawned two sequels: “Ocean’s Twelve” in 2004 and “Ocean’s Thirteen” in 2007.

2018’s “Ocean’s 8” is the fourth in the “Ocean’s” series of films made by Steven Soderbergh. The lead character in the original trilogy is Danny Ocean, played by George Clooney. The lead character in “Ocean’s 8” is Danny’s sister Debbie Ocean, played by Sandra Bullock. The gang of “8” thieves is an all-female troupe played by the likes of Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna and Helena Bonham Carter.

36 Flatfish named for an English port : DOVER SOLE

Dover sole is the name given to two different species of flatfish. The common sole found in the Atlantic is called “Dover sole” in Europe, taking its name from the fishing port of Dover on the English coast where a lot of the fish was landed. The second species found in the Pacific is known as “Dover sole” on the Pacific coast of America. The Pacific species is called “Dover sole” just because it resembles the European species.

Dover is a town and port in the county of Kent on the south coast of England. Dover lies just 25 miles from the coast of France, and is a terminus on the much-used Dover-Calais ferry service. The town is also famous for its magnificent chalk cliffs that are known as the White Cliffs of Dover.

37 Mireille of “Hanna” : ENOS

Mireille Enos is an actress from Kansas City. She is perhaps best known for her TV work, playing Sarah Linden on “The Killing” and for playing twins Kathy and JoDean Marquart on “Big Love”. Enos is married to actor Alan Ruck, who I mainly remember playing Cameron Frye in the great movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.

“Hanna” is an excellent action drama series that is based on a 2011 film of the same name. The title character in the TV show is played by English actress Esmé Creed-Miles. Hanna is one of a group of children who were born with deliberately enhanced DNA in order to create a cadre of super-soldiers. Good stuff …

40 Lancelot’s strong suit? : MAIL

Sir Lancelot is one of the knights in the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table. Lancelot is the most trusted of Arthur’s knights when it comes to battle, but off the field he has a poorer reputation. Famously, Lancelot had an affair with Guinevere, Arthur’s wife.

41 Literary governess : EYRE

“Jane Eyre” is a celebrated novel written by Charlotte Brontë, under the pen name Currer Bell. The love story is perhaps represented by the oft-quoted opening lines of the last chapter, “Reader, I married him”. There is a wonderful 4-hour television adaptation made by the BBC that I highly recommend to fans of the novel …

42 With the bow, in music : ARCO

“Arco” is a musical direction instructing a string player to return to normal bowing technique after a passage played using some other technique (perhaps pizzicato).

49 Ryan Seacrest, for one : TV HOST

Radio and television personality Ryan Seacrest is best known as the host of the talent show “American Idol”. He also started hosting “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC in 2005, and co-hosting “Live with Kelly and Ryan” in 2017. As a producer, Seacrest is the man behind the show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” (so, he has a lot to answer for …).

52 “Evita” name : PERON

Eva Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón who was in office from 1946 to 1955. The Argentine First Lady was known affectionately by the people as “Evita”, the Spanish language diminutive of “Eva”. “Evita” is also the title of a tremendously successful musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that is based on the life of Eva Perón.

“Evita” was the follow-up musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). “Evita” was made into a film in 1996, with Madonna playing the title role and Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce playing her husband Juan Perón.

64 “The White Lotus” network : HBO

“The White Lotus” is a comedy-drama TV series about the fictional White Lotus chain of resort hotels. The first season is set in Hawaii, and the second in Sicily. Each season covers a week’s stay at a White Lotus resort. The first season is set in Hawaii, and the second in Sicily. A white lotus flower is symbolic of purity and innocence. Most of the guests and staff at “The White Lotus” are far from pure and innocent. Very enjoyable television, I think …

65 Opposite of paleo- : NEO

The prefix “paleo-” means “prehistoric, primitive”. It comes from the Greek word “palaios” which means “old, ancient”. The prefix “neo-” would be the opposite, meaning “new, recent”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Rock blaster? : AMP
4 Plus : BONUS
9 Celery unit : STALK
14 Fragrant garland : LEI
15 Are : EXIST
16 Sunporch : LANAI
17 Iggy’s therapist? : POP PSYCHOLOGIST
20 __ equity : SWEAT
21 Tide competitor : ERA
22 Came across : MET
23 Taylor’s comeback? : SWIFT RECOVERY
28 Far away : NOT NEAR
30 “Cobra __”: Netflix series about a dojo : KAI
31 Primatologist’s subject : APE
32 Chocolate-and-caramel candy : ROLO
35 Square quartet : SIDES
39 Donna’s time off? : SUMMER VACATIONS
43 Evaluate : ASSAY
44 Even once : EVER
45 2016 Super Bowl MVP Miller : VON
46 Apr. 15 addressee : IRS
48 Word on some Oscars : ACTRESS
51 Fiona’s rapidly changing backup band? : APPLE TURNOVER
56 Wedding notice word : NEE
57 Honest prez : ABE
58 Attacks with vigor : HAS AT
61 Al’s state-of-the-art recording equipment? : GREEN TECHNOLOGY
66 “Mercy!” : LORDY!
67 Judges’ attire : ROBES
68 Prune : LOP
69 Happen next : ENSUE
70 Elitist sort : SNOOT
71 __ trip : EGO

Down

1 Jungfrau’s range : ALPS
2 13-Down greeting : MEOW
3 Mouthpieces for some smokers : PIPESTEMS
4 Ride-or-die pal : BESTIE
5 Stridex shelfmate : OXY
6 Actor Cage, informally : NIC
7 Playbill carrier : USHER
8 Put away : STORE
9 __-mo : SLO
10 See 12-Down : TAG
11 “Demon Slayer” genre : ANIME
12 With 10-Down, game with light weapons? : LASER
13 Cat, affectionately : KITTY
18 Front-row chess piece : PAWN
19 Deficiency : LACK
24 Jamie of “M*A*S*H” : FARR
25 Cache : TROVE
26 Hops drier : OAST
27 Two before X : VIII
28 Org. that oversees the Artemis moon program : NASA
29 Major work : OPUS
33 Loo : LAV
34 Surname of heist masterminds played by Sinatra, Clooney, and Bullock : OCEAN
36 Flatfish named for an English port : DOVER SOLE
37 Mireille of “Hanna” : ENOS
38 Hyphenated IDs : SSNS
40 Lancelot’s strong suit? : MAIL
41 Literary governess : EYRE
42 With the bow, in music : ARCO
47 ESPN datum : STAT
49 Ryan Seacrest, for one : TV HOST
50 Concrete : REAL
51 A matter of degrees? : ANGLE
52 “Evita” name : PERON
53 Scholarly article reviewers : PEERS
54 Gets taken for a ride, in a way : UBERS
55 Intel gathered by scouts : RECON
59 Awestruck : AGOG
60 Autocorrect target : TYPO
62 College domain : EDU
63 Dec. 31 : NYE
64 “The White Lotus” network : HBO
65 Opposite of paleo- : NEO