LA Times Crossword 13 May 19, Monday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Dan Margolis
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer(s): This is U S

Themed answers are common two-word phrases starting with the letters US:

  • 63A With 64-Across, NBC drama … or, in four parts, a hint to the answers to starred clues : THIS …
  • 64A See 63-Across : … IS US (or “this is U S”)
  • 19A *Anonymous Arlington honoree : UNKNOWN SOLDIER
  • 31A *Evil Cinderella sibling : UGLY STEPSISTER
  • 38A *Possibly the perp : UNDER SUSPICION
  • 51A *Entryway conveniences for rain deflectors : UMBRELLA STANDS

Bill’s time: 5m 07s

Bill’s errors: 2!!!

  • CLIO (Cleo!!)
  • GIDE (Gede)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 After-bath powder : TALC

Talc is a mineral, actually hydrated magnesium silicate. Talcum powder is composed of loose talc, although these days “baby powder” is also made from cornstarch.

13 Cookie in some Breyers Cookies & Cream : OREO

Breyers ice cream was introduced by William A. Breyer in 1866, in Philadelphia. Always known for using all-natural ingredients, Breyers products made in recent years contain more and more food additives in an attempt to cut costs in a competitive market. In fact, most Breyers products can’t even be labeled “ice cream” anymore as they don’t contain enough milk and cream and so are labeled “frozen dairy dessert” instead.

14 Vintner’s prefix : OENO-

In Greek mythology, Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oeno-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. For example, oenology is the study of wine and an oenophile is a wine-lover.

16 “The Twelve Days of Christmas” tree : PEAR

The fabulous Christmas Carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” dates back at least to 1780 when it was first published in England, though it may be French in origin. The concept of twelve days of Christmas comes from the tradition that the three kings came to visit the Christ Child twelve days after he was born. This same tradition is the origin of the title to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”.

17 Crooner Crosby : BING

The singer Bing Crosby was a great lover of the game of golf. Crosby had just finished up 18 holes on a course in Spain in 1977 when he suffered a massive heart attack on the final green. Crosby’s last words were “That was a great game of golf, fellas.”

19 *Anonymous Arlington honoree : UNKNOWN SOLDIER

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery was completed and opened to the public in 1932. Entombed there are unknown soldiers from WWI, WWII, and the Korean War. The remains of the unknown soldier entombed there in 1984 were identified in 1998 as those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael J. Bassie, using DNA testing. The remains were interred i Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in near St. Louis, where Blassie’s family resided.

23 Dispenser candy : PEZ

PEZ is an Austrian brand of candy sold in a mechanical dispenser. Famously, PEZ dispensers have molded “heads”, and have become very collectible over the years. The list of heads includes historical figures like Betsy Ross and Paul Revere, characters from “Star Wars” and “Star Trek”, and even British royalty like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (“William and Kate”). The name PEZ comes from the first, middle and last letters of “Pfefferminz”, the German word for “peppermint”.

24 Boot the ball : ERR

That would be baseball …

25 Wall St. specialist : ARB

An arbitrageur (arb.) is someone one who profits from the purchase of securities in one market and the subsequent sale in another, by taking advantage of price discrepancies across markets.

26 Fill to the gills : SATE

“Sate” is a variant of the older word “satiate”. Both terms can mean either to satisfy an appetite fully, or to eat to excess.

28 __-Wan Kenobi : OBI

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the more beloved of the “Star Wars” characters. Kenobi was portrayed by two fabulous actors in the series of films. As a young man he is played by Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and as an older man he is played by Alec Guinness.

31 *Evil Cinderella sibling : UGLY STEPSISTER

The folktale usually known as “Cinderella” was first published by French author Charles Perrault in 1697, although it was later included by the Brothers Grimm in their famous 1812 collection. The storyline of the tale may date back as far as the days of Ancient Greece. A common alternative title to the story is “The Little Glass Slipper”.

35 History Muse : CLIO

In Greek mythology, the muses are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. The number of muses is a subject of debate at times, but the most popular view is that there are nine:

  • Calliope (epic poetry)
  • Clio (history)
  • Erato (lyric poetry)
  • Euterpe (music)
  • Melpomene (tragedy)
  • Polyhymnia (choral poetry)
  • Terpsichore (dance)
  • Thalia (comedy)
  • Urania (astronomy)

Before the adoption of the nine muses of Greek mythology, there were originally three muses, the three Boeotian Muses. These were:

  • Mneme (memory)
  • Melete (meditation)
  • Aoede (song)

36 Sean Lennon’s mom Yoko : ONO

Sean Lennon is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and godson of Elton John. Sean is a musician and composer, and has a band called the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.

37 School orgs. : PTAS

Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

38 *Possibly the perp : UNDER SUSPICION

Perpetrator (perp)

43 Singer Carly __ Jepsen : RAE

Carly Rae Jepsen is a singer/songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. Jepsen got her start on TV’s “Canadian Idol” when she placed third in the show’s fifth season.

44 Where Cork is : EIRE

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland. Cork has been a major port for many years, and was the last port of call for many, many Irish emigrants to America. When these Irish people reached the US it was common for them to give their point of origin as “Cork”, whereas they may have come from almost anywhere in Ireland. It’s because of this that many descendants of Irish immigrants who had been told they were from a Cork family often find out they were under a misapprehension as their ancestors just sailed from Cork.

48 Freelancer’s enc. : SAE

An SAE is a “stamped, addressed envelope”. An SASE is a “self-addressed, stamped envelope”.

57 MacFarlane of “Family Guy” : SETH

Seth MacFarlane is best known for creating the very successful (although they don’t get my vote!) animated TV shows “Family Guy” and “American Dad!”. My kids love ’em …

58 Lane at the Daily Planet : LOIS

The “Daily Planet” is the fictional newspaper for which Clark Kent and Lois Lane work in the “Superman” universe. Clark and Lois’ editor-in-chief is Perry White.

60 Part of un opéra : ACTE

In French, “un opéra” (an opera) usually comprises several “actes” (acts).

61 “The African Queen” screenwriter James : AGEE

James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

“The African Queen” is a 1935 novel by C. S. Forester that was adapted into a very successful 1951 film of the same name starring Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. The title refers to a steam-powered launch that travels the Ulanga River. The story is set during World War I. At the climax of the tale, the African Queen is used as a makeshift torpedo to sink a German gunboat (spoiler!).

63 With 64-Across, NBC drama … or, in four parts, a hint to the answers to starred clues : THIS ….

64 See 63-Across : … IS US

“This Is Us” is a television drama that debuted in 2016. The storyline centers on three siblings and their parents. Two of the siblings are the surviving members of a triplet pregnancy. The parents decide to adopt a child born on the same day as the surviving siblings. The adopting family is white, and the adopted child is black.

Down

4 Succotash kernel : CORN

The main ingredients in succotash are corn and lima beans, although in parts of the South, succotash can be made with any collection of vegetables prepared with lima beans and topped with butter.

5 Attic accumulation : COBWEBS

An attic or loft is a room or space located below the roof of a building. The term “attic” is a shortened form of “attic story”, the uppermost story or level of a house. This term “attic story” originally applied to a low, decorative level built on top of the uppermost story behind a building’s decorative facade. This use of decoration at the top of buildings was common in ancient Greece, and was particularly important in the Attica style. That Attica style was so called because it originated in the historical region of Attica that encompassed the city of Athens. And that’s how our attics are linked to ancient Greece.

6 “57 Varieties” brand : HEINZ

The HJ Heinz Company is an American concern that is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1869 by Henry John Heinz. It was Heinz himself who came up with the marketing slogan of “57 Varieties”. The “57” really doesn’t have any relevance to the range of products available as Heinz chose the “5” because it was his lucky number, and the “7” because it was his wife’s lucky number.

8 Possum in comics : POGO

“Pogo” is a comic strip launched in 1948 that was the creation of cartoonist Walt Kelly. The story centers on animals that live in the Okefenokee Swamp on the Georgia-Florida border, with the title character “Pogo Possum” being an anthropomorphic opossum.

10 Icy winter coating : RIME

Rime is the beautiful coating of ice that forms on surfaces like roofs, trees and grass, when cold water freezes instantly under the right conditions.

12 Media mogul Turner : TED

Ted Turner’s big initiative in the world of business was the founding of CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel. Turner never graduated from college as he was expelled from Brown University for having a female student in his dormitory room. Years later, in 1989, Brown awarded him an honorary B.A.

15 Peace Nobelist Sakharov : ANDREI

Andrei Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, and in his later life a human rights activist. Sakharov participated in the USSR’s program to develop the country’s first atomic bomb, and was an even more crucial contributor to the development of the devastating hydrogen bomb. By the fifties, he was concerned about the consequences of his work, and in the sixties Sakharov started to become active, raising awkward questions not appreciated by the Soviet administration. He was banned from further work with the military as a consequence, and later found himself under constant police surveillance and harassment. He was then moved from Moscow and put into internal exile in Gorky. It was only under Mikhail Gorbachev’s leadership, that Sakharov was able to return home to Moscow. Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.

20 Grand Ole __ : 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.

28 Director Preminger : OTTO

Otto Preminger was noted for directing films that pushed the envelope in terms of subject matter, at least in the fifties and sixties. Great examples would be 1955’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” that dealt with drug addiction, 1959’s “Anatomy of a Murder” that dealt with rape, and 1962’s “Advise and Consent” that dealt with homosexuality. If you’ve seen these films, you’ll have noticed that the references are somewhat indirect and disguised, in order to get past the censors.

29 Noggin : BEAN

Slang terms for “head” are “bean”, “coconut”, “gourd” and “noggin”.

30 W-2 agcy. : IRS

Form W-2 is provided by US employers to their employees by January 31 each year. The form reports wages paid to the employees and taxes withheld.

31 Bone parallel to the radius : ULNA

The radius and ulna are bones in the forearm. If you hold the palm of your hand up in front of you, the radius is the bone on the “thumb-side” of the arm, and the ulna is the bone on the “pinkie-side”.

32 “The Immoralist” author André : GIDE

André Gide was an author from Paris who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. His works weren’t popular with the Roman Catholic church, and were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1952.

35 Mangy mutt : CUR

Mange is a skin disorder in animals caused by parasitic mites that embed themselves in the skin, perhaps living in hair follicles. The same disorder in humans is called scabies.

42 Penny : CENT

The official name of our smallest denomination coin is “cent”, and our use of the word “penny” is just a colloquialism derived from the British coin of the same name. In the UK, the plural of penny is “pence”, whereas we have “pennies” in our pockets.

46 Instruments among the reeds : OBOES

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”.

47 Singer LaBelle : PATTI

“Patti LaBelle” is the stage name of singer Patricia Holt-Edwards from Philadelphia. She started her career in the sixties as the lead singer of the vocal group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, later changing its name to simply “LaBelle”. When the group disbanded in 1976, Patti launched a remarkably successful solo career.

48 Canoodles, in Britain : SNOGS

“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.

49 French bye word : ADIEU

“Adieu” is the French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

50 Letters after ars : ESSES

In the alphabet, the letter R (ar) precedes the letter S (ess).

53 Future atty.’s hurdle : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

54 Solidarity leader Walesa : LECH

Lech Walesa worked as an electrician in the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland. Walesa was active in the trade union movement in the days when unions were not welcome behind the Iron Curtain. His efforts resulted in the founding of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in Soviet-controlled territory. For his work, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and in 1990 he became the first democratically elected President of Poland. He has lost support in Poland in recent years, but he is a very popular booking on the international speaking circuit.

55 Jai __ : ALAI

Jai alai is a game that derives from Basque pelota, and is known as “cesta-punta” in the Basque language. The name “jai alai” translates from the original Basque as “merry festival”.

56 Republican org. : GOP

The Republican Party has had the nickname Grand Old Party (GOP) since 1875. That said, the phrase was coined in the “Congressional Record” as “this gallant old party”. The moniker was changed to “grand old party” in 1876 in an article in the “Cincinnati Commercial”. The Republican Party’s elephant mascot dates back to an 1874 cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast for “Harper’s Weekly”. The Democrat’s donkey was already an established symbol. Nast drew a donkey clothed in a lion’s skin scaring away the other animals. One of the scared animals was an elephant, which Nast labeled “The Republican Vote”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 After-bath powder : TALC
5 Crunchy potato snack : CHIP
9 Stew (over) : FRET
13 Cookie in some Breyers Cookies & Cream : OREO
14 Vintner’s prefix : OENO-
15 Still in the running : ALIVE
16 “The Twelve Days of Christmas” tree : PEAR
17 Crooner Crosby : BING
18 Entitled : NAMED
19 *Anonymous Arlington honoree : UNKNOWN SOLDIER
22 Be worthwhile : PAY
23 Dispenser candy : PEZ
24 Boot the ball : ERR
25 Wall St. specialist : ARB
26 Fill to the gills : SATE
28 __-Wan Kenobi : OBI
31 *Evil Cinderella sibling : UGLY STEPSISTER
35 History Muse : CLIO
36 Sean Lennon’s mom Yoko : ONO
37 School orgs. : PTAS
38 *Possibly the perp : UNDER SUSPICION
43 Singer Carly __ Jepsen : RAE
44 Where Cork is : EIRE
45 Bottom line : NET
46 Rowing implement : OAR
47 Criticize harshly, as a film : PAN
48 Freelancer’s enc. : SAE
51 *Entryway conveniences for rain deflectors : UMBRELLA STANDS
56 Best man’s best friend, often : GROOM
57 MacFarlane of “Family Guy” : SETH
58 Lane at the Daily Planet : LOIS
59 Makes eyes at : OGLES
60 Part of un opéra : ACTE
61 “The African Queen” screenwriter James : AGEE
62 Dogs, to dog owners : PETS
63 With 64-Across, NBC drama … or, in four parts, a hint to the answers to starred clues : THIS ….
64 See 63-Across : … IS US

Down

1 Refresh, as a cup of coffee : TOP UP
2 Sports venue : ARENA
3 Hardly watertight : LEAKY
4 Succotash kernel : CORN
5 Attic accumulation : COBWEBS
6 “57 Varieties” brand : HEINZ
7 Overnight places : INNS
8 Possum in comics : POGO
9 Natural aptitude : FLAIR
10 Icy winter coating : RIME
11 In any way : EVER
12 Media mogul Turner : TED
15 Peace Nobelist Sakharov : ANDREI
20 Grand Ole __ : OPRY
21 “Shall we?” response : LET’S
25 Burn soother : ALOE
26 Sight or smell : SENSE
27 Per unit : A POP
28 Director Preminger : OTTO
29 Noggin : BEAN
30 W-2 agcy. : IRS
31 Bone parallel to the radius : ULNA
32 “The Immoralist” author André : GIDE
33 Sightseeing outing : TOUR
34 Roasting rod : SPIT
35 Mangy mutt : CUR
39 Provides with more weapons : REARMS
40 Beget : SIRE
41 Reduced to rubble, as by a fire : IN ASHES
42 Penny : CENT
46 Instruments among the reeds : OBOES
47 Singer LaBelle : PATTI
48 Canoodles, in Britain : SNOGS
49 French bye word : ADIEU
50 Letters after ars : ESSES
51 Advocate : URGE
52 Shed skin : MOLT
53 Future atty.’s hurdle : LSAT
54 Solidarity leader Walesa : LECH
55 Jai __ : ALAI
56 Republican org. : GOP