LA Times Crossword 17 Aug 22, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Scott Earl
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Food for Thought

Themed answers are common phrases. Each starts with an adjective often associated with FOOD items, and ends with a noun often associated with THOUGHT:

  • 52A Something to chew on, and a hint to the answers to the starred clues : FOOD FOR THOUGHT
  • 20A *Rehearsed reply : CANNED RESPONSE
  • 35A *Spoke indirectly : MINCED WORDS
  • 41A *Knowledge based on empirical evidence : GROUND TRUTH

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

Bill’s time: 8m 17s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Young amiga : CHICA

In Spanish, a “niña” is a young girl, a child. The term “chica” applies to an older girl or perhaps a young woman. The term “muchacha” applies to girls in general, I think …

6 Austen heroine played by Anya Taylor-Joy : EMMA

The 2020 film “Emma” is a very entertaining adaptation of the 1815 novel of the same name by Jane Austen. Anya Taylor-Joy plays the title role, and musician/actor Johnny Flynn plays “Mr. Knightly”. Veteran actor Bill Nighy makes a welcome appearance as Emma’s father “Mr. Woodhouse”. I enjoyed this one …

Actress Anya Taylor-Joy had quite the international upbringing. She was born in Miami, and raised in Buenos Aires and then London. She is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the 2020 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma”, and the lead role in the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit”.

10 Turner in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame : TINA

“Tina Turner” is the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner has always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties. She now splits her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

17 Brolly carriers : BRITS

Our term “umbrella” ultimately derives from the Latin “umbra” meaning “shade, shadow”. Famously, British folks are likely to refer to the device as a “brolly”, a term that is just a shortening of “umbrella”.

22 “Mom” actor Corddry : NATE

Nate Corddry is an actor and comedian who is perhaps best known for playing the manager of the restaurant where Christy works in the sitcom “Mom”. Corddry also played lawyer Adam Branch on the sitcom “Harry’s Game” alongside Kathy Bates. Nate is the younger brother of comedian and actor Rob Corddry, whe turned up quite frequently as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”.

23 Dim sum beverage : TEA

Dim sum is a Chinese cuisine made up of small portions of various dishes. The tradition of serving dim sum is associated with the serving of tea, when small delicacies were offered to travelers and guests along with tea as a refreshment. The name “dim sum” translates as “touch the heart” implying that dim sum is not a main meal, just a snack “that touches the heart”.

24 Sporty option : T-TOP

A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

26 Debonair : SUAVE

Someone described as debonair is very courteous and gracious. The term comes into English via the French “debonaire”, which itself is derived from “de bon’ aire” meaning “of good race”, a phrase that originally applied to the breeding of hawks.

30 Target of some mining : DATA

The process of data mining is used to extract information from a database and present it in a form that facilitates further use.

34 Omega, to an electrician : OHM

The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

35 *Spoke indirectly : MINCED WORDS

The verb “to mince” can mean “to make light of”, and more specifically “to criticize using polite language”. William Shakespeare used the term in such a sense in a couple of his plays, although the derivative expression “mince words” was first used in print in Benjamin Disraeli’s first novel “Vivian Grey”, published in 1826:

Your Lordship’s heart is very warm in the cause of a party, which, for I will not mince my words, has betrayed you.

So, to mince words is to moderate one’s language while still giving criticism. The related phrase “minced oath” describes a euphemistic phrase used to replace a more profane phrase, e.g. “gosh” for “God”, “heck” for “hell”.

37 Unlikely esports champions : NOOBS

“Noob” (sometimes “newb”) is a not-so-nice slang term for a “newbie”, and often refers to someone who is new to an online community.

Esports (electronic sports) are video game competitions. The International Olympic Committee has held meetings to consider the inclusion of esports in the Olympic Games. What about medals for crossword solving …?

39 Lithium-__ battery : ION

Lithium-ion and nickel-cadmium are types of rechargeable batteries.

The International Olympic Committee has held meetings to consider the inclusion of esports in the Olympic Games. What about medals for crossword solving …?

40 “The Jetsons” dog : ASTRO

“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it debuted in 1963 on ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” is like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family in Orbit City are their household robot Rosie and pet dog Astro.

45 Two-time Wimbledon winner Murray : ANDY

Andy Murray is a tennis player from Scotland who became British number-one in 2006, rising to world number-one in 2016. Much to the delight of the locals, Murray won the Wimbledon Championship in 2013, making him the first British male player to win in 77 years. Murray also won Olympic gold in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and again in the Rio Games in 2016. Sir Andy Murray was knighted in 2017.

46 Soprano Fleming : RENEE

Renée Fleming is a marvelous soprano from Indiana, Pennsylvania. Famous for her appearances in opera houses and concert halls all over the world, Fleming is also noted for her willingness to bring her craft to the masses. She was a guest on “Sesame Street” singing “counting lyrics” to an aria from “Rigoletto”, and she has appeared a few times on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion”.

48 Island ring : LEI

“Lei” is a Hawaiian word meaning “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a lei is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

50 “Believe” diva : CHER

When Cher recorded the 1998 song “Believe”, the audio engineers routinely corrected the sound of Cher’s voice to ensure that all notes were sung with perfect pitch (all singers “cheat”, it seems!). The software that does this pitch correction is called “Auto-Tune”. Then, for a bit of fun, the same engineers played with the Auto-Tune software and created a special effect in her voice that she liked so much, it was left in the final release. You can easily detect the strange effect if you listen to the song. The process is now called the “Cher Effect” and is used by other artists in their recordings.

60 Black-and-white dunkers : OREOS

There is an “official” competition involving Oreo cookies, in case anyone is interested in participating. A competitor has to take several steps to finish an OREO Lick Race:

  1. Twist open the cookie.
  2. Lick each half clean of creme.
  3. Show the clean cookie halves to the fellow competitors.
  4. Dunk the cookie halves in a glass of milk.
  5. Eat the cookie halves.
  6. Drink the milk.
  7. Ready, set, go …

61 Black-and-white swimmer : ORCA

The taxonomic name for the killer whale is “Orcinus orca”. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

62 “Veep” award : EMMY

“Veep” is a political satire sitcom on HBO that is a remake of the British show “The Thick of It” (Warning: strong language!). “Veep” is set in the office of fictional US Vice President Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

63 Cosmic comeuppance : KARMA

Karma is a religious concept with its basis in Indian faiths. Karma embraces the notion of cause and effect. Good deeds have good consequences at some later point in one’s life, one’s future life, or one’s afterlife. And, bad deeds have bad consequences.

64 Spa treatment : PEEL

A chemical peel is a technique used to improve the look and feel of the skin. It involves using a chemical to deliberately injure the outermost layer of the skin. The damaged skin dies and peels off, revealing regenerated skin below.

Down

1 “American Greed” channel : CNBC

CNBC is a business news channel owned by NBC. Launched in 1989, CNBC was known as the Consumer News and Business Channel up until 1991.

“American Greed” is a documentary series in the “true crime” genre that is aired weekly on CNBC. The crimes explored are corporate and white collar crimes.

2 Wedding ring? : HORA

The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. It was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional, Israeli folk songs. The hora (also “horah”) is a regular sight at Jewish weddings. Sometimes the honoree at an event is raised on a chair during the dance.

7 “Dibs!” : MINE

The phrase “to have dibs on” expresses a claim on something. Apparently, the term “dibs” is a contraction of “dibstone”, which was a knucklebone or jack used in a children’s game.

8 Rx orders : MEDS

There seems to be some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

10 Storms that may be chased : TORNADOS

Although a tornado (plural “tornadoes, tornados”) can be encountered in many locations around the world, it is most likely to be experienced in North America, and particularly in “Tornado Alley” in the central US. The Canadian Tornado Alley in southern Canada is where one is second most likely in the world to encounter a tornado.

11 Some “hazy” brews, for short : IPAS

Hazy IPAs tend to be unfiltered, and so retain some yeast sediment. These days, I am almost forced to drink IPAs (what else is available?!), and usually opt for a hazy IPA. Please, please, brewers, bring back hefeweizens …

12 State bird that sometimes nests on lava fields : NENE

The nene is a bird that is native to Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is an imitation of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful. The nene was named State Bird of Hawaii in 1957.

21 “The Daily Show” correspondent Lydic : DESI

Comedian and actress Desi Lydic is perhaps best known as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”, a gig that she signed up for in 2015.

24 Fiji neighbor : TONGA

The Kingdom of Tonga is made up of 176 islands in the South Pacific, 52 of which are inhabited and scattered over an area of 270,000 square miles. Tonga was given the name Friendly Islands in 1773 when Captain James Cook first landed there, a reference to the warm reception given to the visitors. The nation’s capital is the city of Nukuʻalofa on the island of Tongatapu.

The island nation of Fiji is an archipelago in the South Pacific made up of over 330 islands, 110 of which are inhabited. Fiji was occupied by the British for over a century and finally gained its independence in 1970.

25 Side issue? : THORN

A “thorn in the side” (sometimes “thorn in the flesh”) is an idiom describing an irritant. The phrase comes from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians in the Christian Bible:

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

28 Oak of the future : ACORN

These days, we don’t usually consider acorns (the fruit of the oak tree) as a foodstuff. But in days past, many cultures around the world have used acorns as food. Usually, bitter tannins that occur in acorns need to be leached out in water. Acorn meal can be a substitute for grain flour, which can then be used to make bread. Acorns have also been used as a substitute for coffee, especially when coffee was rationed. Notably, acorn coffee was brewed up by Confederates during the American Civil War, and by Germans during World War II.

29 Locale : VENUE

A venue is a specified locale used for an event. The term “venue” came into English via French from the Latin “venire” meaning “to come”. So, a “venue” is a place to which people “come” for an event.

31 Museum curator’s concern : ART FORGERY

The term “curator” is Latin and applies to a manager, guardian or overseer. In English, the original curators were the guardians and overseers of minors and those with mental disease. Today, we use the term “curator” particularly for someone in charge of a museum, zoo or other exhibition.

32 Successful sprint to the end zone, briefly : TD RUN

Touchdown (TD)

35 Bing company : MSN

The Microsoft Network (MSN) used to be an Internet service provider (ISP). These days, MSN is mainly a Web portal.

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft. Bing is the latest name for an engine that Microsoft used to call Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search.

42 Vagabond : DRIFTER

A vagabond is a person without a home who moves from place to place. The term derives from the Latin “vagabundus” meaning “wandering, strolling about”.

43 Georgia __ : TECH

The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly “Georgia Tech”) is located in Atlanta. The school was founded in 1885 as part of the reconstruction effort to rebuild the infrastructure in the South after the Civil War. President Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address to the school in 1905, and then shook hands with every single student. Back then the school didn’t have over 20,000 students as it does today …

47 Like some biological networks : NEURAL

It used to be that “neural network” was just the name given to a network of nerve cells in an organism. In the modern world, the term “neural net” (short for “neural network”) also applies to virtual or electronic devices designed to mimic the function of the human brain, and in particular learning from past experiences.

49 Dreyer’s partner in ice cream : EDY

Dreyer’s ice cream sells its products under the name Dreyer’s in the Western United States, and Edy’s in the Eastern states. The company’s founders were William Dreyer and Joseph Edy.

52 Uber charge : FARE

When transportation company Uber went public in 2019, it was a well-subscribed offering. However, Uber’s shares dropped in value soon after trading opened, and finished the day 11% down. As a result, Uber shares suffered the biggest IPO first-day dollar loss in US history.

53 “Fool me __ … ” : ONCE

The idiomatic phrase “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” means that if you’ve taken advantage of me twice, I only have myself to blame. The expression dates back at least to the 17th century when it appears in a 1651 book by Anthony Wheldon titled “The Court and Character of King James”:

The Italians having a Proverb, “He that deceives me once, it’s his fault; but if twice, it’s my fault.”

So true …

55 Hindu epic hero : RAMA

In the Hindu tradition, the god Vishnu has several different avatars i.e. incarnations or manifestations. Rama is the seventh of these avatars.

56 Short “Chat again soon” : TTYL

Talk to you later (TTYL)

57 Second novel in Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” series : HOME

Author Marilynne Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005 for her 2004 novel “Gilead”. Her other notable work is her 1980 novel “Housekeeping”, which was a Pulitzer finalist.

58 Winter Palace monarch : TSAR

The Winter Palace is a magnificent building in St. Petersburg in Russia that was home to the Russian tsars (and tsarinas). Today, the Winter Palace houses the famous Hermitage Museum. I was lucky enough to visit the Palace and museum some years ago, and I have to say that I have rarely been more impressed by a historical building.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Young amiga : CHICA
6 Austen heroine played by Anya Taylor-Joy : EMMA
10 Turner in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame : TINA
14 Spanish “That’s enough!” : NO MAS
15 Competed (for) : VIED
16 Willing to talk : OPEN
17 Brolly carriers : BRITS
18 “Done venting!” : END OF RANT!
20 *Rehearsed reply : CANNED RESPONSE
22 “Mom” actor Corddry : NATE
23 Dim sum beverage : TEA
24 Sporty option : T-TOP
26 Debonair : SUAVE
30 Target of some mining : DATA
34 Omega, to an electrician : OHM
35 *Spoke indirectly : MINCED WORDS
37 Unlikely esports champions : NOOBS
39 Lithium-__ battery : ION
40 “The Jetsons” dog : ASTRO
41 *Knowledge based on empirical evidence : GROUND TRUTH
44 Good times : FUN
45 Two-time Wimbledon winner Murray : ANDY
46 Soprano Fleming : RENEE
47 Less than some : NONE
48 Island ring : LEI
50 “Believe” diva : CHER
52 Something to chew on, and a hint to the answers to the starred clues : FOOD FOR THOUGHT
59 “Go figure!” : FANCY THAT!
60 Black-and-white dunkers : OREOS
61 Black-and-white swimmer : ORCA
62 “Veep” award : EMMY
63 Cosmic comeuppance : KARMA
64 Spa treatment : PEEL
65 Sincere : REAL
66 Sneakier : SLYER

Down

1 “American Greed” channel : CNBC
2 Wedding ring? : HORA
3 “Do not push me right now” : I’M IN NO MOOD
4 Revitalizing snooze : CATNAP
5 Interview talking point : ASSET
6 “Best. Day. __!” : EVER
7 “Dibs!” : MINE
8 Rx orders : MEDS
9 Enlarged one’s family, in a way : ADOPTED
10 Storms that may be chased : TORNADOS
11 Some “hazy” brews, for short : IPAS
12 State bird that sometimes nests on lava fields : NENE
13 Tiny toiler : ANT
19 Adversary : FOE
21 “The Daily Show” correspondent Lydic : DESI
24 Fiji neighbor : TONGA
25 Side issue? : THORN
27 Come together : UNITE
28 Oak of the future : ACORN
29 Locale : VENUE
31 Museum curator’s concern : ART FORGERY
32 Successful sprint to the end zone, briefly : TD RUN
33 Together : AS ONE
35 Bing company : MSN
36 Sound that may wake sleeping parents : WAH!
38 Patronize neighborhood shops, say : BUY LOCAL
42 Vagabond : DRIFTER
43 Georgia __ : TECH
47 Like some biological networks : NEURAL
49 Dreyer’s partner in ice cream : EDY
51 Catchy parts of pop songs : HOOKS
52 Uber charge : FARE
53 “Fool me __ … ” : ONCE
54 Woeful cry : OH ME!
55 Hindu epic hero : RAMA
56 Short “Chat again soon” : TTYL
57 Second novel in Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” series : HOME
58 Winter Palace monarch : TSAR
59 Snappy dresser : FOP