LA Times Crossword 18 May 23, Thursday

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Constructed by: Adam Wagner & Rebecca Goldstein
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Oil and Water

Themed answers all include the letters O-I-L-W-A-T-E-R, but with the order MIXED:

  • 57A Substances that never mix, except in the answers to the starred clues? : OIL AND WATER
  • 18A *Pronoun for a spokesperson : EDITORIAL WE
  • 23A *Decorative touch made with a small paintbrush, e.g. : DETAIL WORK
  • 36A *What “we are living in,” per a Madonna hit song : MATERIAL WORLD
  • 51A *Wraps at a spa : HAIR TOWELS

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

Bill’s time: 8m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 Participate in the gig economy, say : TEMP

Musicians use “gig” to describe a job, a performance. The term originated in the early 1900s in the world of jazz. The derivative phrase “gig economy” applies to a relatively recent phenomenon where workers find themselves jumping from temporary job to temporary job, from gig to gig.

8 Hornet’s defense : STING

A hornet is a large type of wasp, with some species reaching over two inches in length.

16 Youngest Kardashian sister : KHLOE

Khloé Kardashian, sister of Kim, managed to parlay her exposure on the reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” into spin-offs called “Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami” and “Khloé & Lamar”.

20 Missouri’s __ Mountains : OZARK

The Ozark Mountains aren’t really mountains geographically speaking, and so the Ozarks are better described by the alternate name, the Ozark Plateau. It’s not really certain how the Ozarks got their name, but my favorite theory is that “Ozarks” is the phonetic spelling of “aux Arks”, short for “of Arkansas” in French.

26 Text incessantly : SPAM

The term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

30 Mexico’s national flower : DAHLIA

The dahlia is a flowering plant native to Mexico and Central America. It was named the national flower of Mexico relatively recently, in 1963. The plant was given the name “dahlia” in 1791, in honor of Swedish botanist Anders Dahl.

31 Upscale cosmetics chain : SEPHORA

Sephora is a French chain of cosmetic stores, founded in 1969. The name “Sephora” is derived from the Greek for “beauty” (“sephos”). We’ve been able to visit Sephora outlets in JCPenney stores since 2006.

33 Boyos : LADS

“Boyo” is an informal term used in places like Australia, Wales and Ireland as an alternative for “laddie” or “lad”.

35 Time capsule object : RELIC

A time capsule is a container of items chosen to help someone in the future understand society at the time the container is sealed. Although time capsules have been around at least from the 18th century, the term “time capsule” wasn’t coined until 1938.

36 *What “we are living in,” per a Madonna hit song : MATERIAL WORLD

“Material Girl” is a 1984 song released by Madonna on her 1984 studio album “Like a Virgin”. “Material Girl” and “Like a Virgin” are two of Madonna’s most successful singles. Both, according to Madonna herself, are meant to be provocative numbers, and ironic. Madonna stated in a 2009 interview with “Rolling Stone”:

I liked them both because they were ironic and provocative at the same time but also unlike me. I am not a materialistic person, and I certainly wasn’t a virgin …

46 Universal basic __ : INCOME

The term “Universal basic income” (UBI) describes a government program in which each adult is provided a regular cash payment. That payment is provided equally to all adult citizens, regardless of their personal situation.

50 Symbol on the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant cooling towers : ATOM

“The Simpsons” television show is meant to be set in “Anytown, USA”. The creators chose the name “Springfield”, as it is one of most common town and city names in the country.

51 *Wraps at a spa : HAIR TOWELS

The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as “Spa” is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

62 Egg cells : OVA

“Ovum” (plural “ova”) is Latin for “egg”.

63 Word with number or time : PRIME …

A prime number is a number greater than 1 that can only be divided evenly by 1 and itself. There are still some unanswered questions involving prime numbers, perhaps most notably Goldbach’s Conjecture. This conjecture dates back to the 1740s and is assumed to be true, but has never been proven. It states that every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers.

In the world of television, prime time is that part of the day when networks and advertisers maximize revenues due to the high number of viewers. Prime time is often defined as 7-10 p.m. Mountain and Central Time, and 8-11 p.m. Pacific and Eastern Time.

64 “Cats” poet : ELIOT

T. S. Eliot (TSE) was born in New England but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Much of Eliot’s college education was at Oxford, and clearly he became comfortable with life in England. In 1927 he became a British citizen and lived the rest of life in the UK.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s source material for his hit musical “Cats” was T. S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”. Eliot’s collection of whimsical poems was published in 1939, and was a personal favorite of Webber as he was growing up. My wife and I have seen “Cats” a couple of times and really enjoyed it …

65 Cartoonist Sorensen who was the first woman to win the Herblock Prize : JEN

Cartoonist Jen Sorensen publishes a syndicated weekly cartoon strip that provides a liberal slant on current events. The strip debuted in the 1990s under the title “Slowpoke”, and from 2012 has been published using the simple title “Jen Sorenson”. Recommended …

The Herblock Prize is an award for editorial cartooning that has been presented annually since 2004. The prize is named for Pullitzer-winning cartoonist Herb Block, who published using the name “Herblock”. Block was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

67 Cravings : YENS

The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium.

Down

1 Judean king : HEROD

Herod the Great was a vassal king in the first century BCE who ruled Judea under Roman supremacy. According to the Christian Bible, It was Herod the Great who ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, the execution of all young, male children in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. When Herod the Great died circa 4 BCE, Rome divided his kingdom between his three sons and one daughter. The son named Herod Antipas became ruler of Galilee and Perea. It is Herod Antipas who is cited as “King Herod” in the Bible, and who played a key role in the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.

2 Gobsmacked : AMAZED

“Gobsmack” is slang from Britain and Ireland. Also “Gob” is slang for “mouth”. So someone who is gobsmacked has received a smack in the “mouth”, is stunned.

3 Handel bars? : SONATA

A cantata is a piece of music that is sung, as opposed to a sonata, which is a piece that is played on some instrument, often a piano. A sonatina is in effect a sonata that has been labeled as something lighter and shorter.

George Frideric Handel was the King of the Oratorio. Handel’s most famous oratorio is “Messiah”, which had its debut performance in Dublin, Ireland back in 1742.

4 “Mr. Brightside” band : THE KILLERS

The Killers rock band formed in 2001 in Las Vegas. The group took its name from a music video for the song “Crystal” by the English band New Order. The video features a fictional band (younger than New Order) called “The Killers, as evidenced by the logo on the bass drum.

5 Holiday on which it’s forbidden to fast, familiarly : EID

Eid al-Fitr is a religious holiday in the Muslim tradition that is known in English as the “Festival of Breaking the Fast”. It marks the end of Ramadan, a period of dawn-to-sunset fasting.

6 Picture of health? : MRI

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate images that can be used by medical professionals to diagnose injury and disease.

7 Place to buy fish : PETCO

Petco is a chain of retail stores that sells live animals and pet supplies. The Petco logo includes the two company mascots, Red Ruff the dog and Blue Mews the cat.

8 Gear for Mikaela Shiffrin : SKIS

Mikaela Shiffrin is a World Cup alpine skier from Vail, Colorado. Her remarkable list of victories in competition includes an Olympic Gold in 2014 in the slalom event. She was only 18 years of age, making her the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history.

25 Silicon __: Israel’s counterpart to California’s Silicon Valley : WADI

Most high-tech companies in Israel choose to locate their domestic facilities in the Israeli coastal plain, especially around the city of Tel Aviv. As a result, the area has been dubbed “Silicon Wadi” in English, a pun on California’s “Silicon Valley”.

29 Cheese partner : MAC

Thomas Jefferson’s name is associated with the dish we know today as “mac ‘n’ cheese”. The future president discovered baked macaroni with Parmesan cheese while in Paris and in northern Italy. He started serving the dish to guests in the US, and even had a machine imported to make the macaroni locally. Whether or not Jefferson was the first to bring mac ‘n’ cheese to America isn’t entirely clear, but it has been popular ever since.

32 Where teens are treated like royalty? : PROM COURTS

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

34 Richardson of “The Afterparty” : SAM

Sam Richardson is an actor and comedian whose big break came with the role of campaign aide and future politician Richard Spett on the hit TV show “Veep”.

“The Afterparty” is a murder mystery comedy show that first aired in 2022. The first series is set at a high school reunion. Each episode revisits the events at the reunion, but from the perspective of different characters. I haven’t seen this one, but it does sound interesting …

36 Academic : MOOT

To moot is to bring up as a subject for discussion or debate. So, something that is moot is open to debate. Something that is no longer moot, is no longer worth debating. We don’t seem to be able to get that right, which drives me crazy …

38 Bughouse chess, but not classic chess : TEAM GAME

Bughouse chess is chess played on two chessboards by two teams of two players. The rules of the game are the same as normal with one main exception: pieces captured by a player can be passed to that player’s teammate for use on the other board.

39 Hibernation spot : LAIR

When animals hibernate, they are minimally active, have low body temperatures, relatively slow breathing and a low metabolic rate overall. HIbernation can last days and even months, and is most closely associated with the winter season. The term “hibernation” comes from the Latin “hibernare” meaning “to pass the winter, occupy winter quarters”.

41 Org. with carts and drivers : PGA

The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916 and today has its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. Back in 1916, the PGA was based in New York City.

44 Barak of Israel : EHUD

Ehud Barak served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001, taking over from Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak left office after he called a special election for Prime Minister and lost the vote to Ariel Sharon. Barak resigned from the Knesset and took an advisory job with the US company Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and did some security-related work with a private equity company. In 2007, Barak took over leadership of Israel’s Labor Party.

48 iOS personal avatar : MEMOJI

Apple introduced the “Memoji” with the iOS 13 release of their mobile operating system, in 2019. Basically, Memojis are customizable personal avatars.

49 Gridiron number : ELEVEN

We never used the word “gridiron” when I was growing up in Ireland (meaning a grill used for cooking food over an open fire). So, maybe I am excused for taking two decades living in the US to work out that a football field gridiron is so called because the layout of yard lines over the field looks like a gridiron used in cooking.

52 European boot? : ITALY

In the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, the “boot” is the mainland of Italy, and the “ball” being kicked by the boot is the island of Sicily.

57 Nail polish brand : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film.

59 “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” songwriter __-Manuel Miranda : LIN

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a composer and playwright from New York City, and the creator and star of the hit Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights”. Miranda also co-wrote the songs for the 2016 Disney animated feature “Moana”. He started composing early, and wrote jingles as a child. One of those jingles was later used by Eliot Spitzer in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is a song by Lin-Manuel Miranda written for the 2021 Disney film “Encanto”. The song became a viral sensation, and topped the US charts for several weeks.

61 Geological span : EON

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

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Possesses : HAS
4 Participate in the gig economy, say : TEMP
8 Hornet’s defense : STING
13 Moody genre : EMO
14 Added to the staff : HIRED
16 Youngest Kardashian sister : KHLOE
17 Legged it : RAN
18 *Pronoun for a spokesperson : EDITORIAL WE
20 Missouri’s __ Mountains : OZARK
22 Land by the sea : COAST
23 *Decorative touch made with a small paintbrush, e.g. : DETAIL WORK
26 Text incessantly : SPAM
30 Mexico’s national flower : DAHLIA
31 Upscale cosmetics chain : SEPHORA
33 Boyos : LADS
35 Time capsule object : RELIC
36 *What “we are living in,” per a Madonna hit song : MATERIAL WORLD
41 Head-scratcher : POSER
42 Polite title : MA’AM
43 “You free?” : GOT A SEC?
46 Universal basic __ : INCOME
50 Symbol on the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant cooling towers : ATOM
51 *Wraps at a spa : HAIR TOWELS
54 Skin and bones : GAUNT
56 Not satisfied : UNMET
57 Substances that never mix, except in the answers to the starred clues? : OIL AND WATER
62 Egg cells : OVA
63 Word with number or time : PRIME …
64 “Cats” poet : ELIOT
65 Cartoonist Sorensen who was the first woman to win the Herblock Prize : JEN
66 “Nothing gets past me” : I KNEW
67 Cravings : YENS
68 Stuff in a pen : INK

Down

1 Judean king : HEROD
2 Gobsmacked : AMAZED
3 Handel bars? : SONATA
4 “Mr. Brightside” band : THE KILLERS
5 Holiday on which it’s forbidden to fast, familiarly : EID
6 Picture of health? : MRI
7 Place to buy fish : PETCO
8 Gear for Mikaela Shiffrin : SKIS
9 “She’s the one!” : THAT’S HER!
10 Not well : ILL
11 “And make it snappy” : NOW
12 “Huh!” : GEE!
15 Some portals : DOORS
19 Lawn tool : RAKE
21 Cheer syllable : RAH!
24 “I don’t believe you!” : LIAR!
25 Silicon __: Israel’s counterpart to California’s Silicon Valley : WADI
27 Opinion survey : POLL
28 Parched : ARID
29 Cheese partner : MAC
32 Where teens are treated like royalty? : PROM COURTS
34 Richardson of “The Afterparty” : SAM
36 Academic : MOOT
37 Concerning : AS TO
38 Bughouse chess, but not classic chess : TEAM GAME
39 Hibernation spot : LAIR
40 Crave : WANT
41 Org. with carts and drivers : PGA
44 Barak of Israel : EHUD
45 “Let us!” : CAN WE?!
47 __ goal: bit of self-sabotage : OWN
48 iOS personal avatar : MEMOJI
49 Gridiron number : ELEVEN
52 European boot? : ITALY
53 Wasn’t fresh, in a way : STANK
55 Fresh : ANEW
57 Nail polish brand : OPI
58 Bug : IRK
59 “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” songwriter __-Manuel Miranda : LIN
60 Connection : TIE
61 Geological span : EON