LA Times Crossword 31 Mar 23, Friday

Constructed by: Rena Cohen
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Ego Boosts

Themed answers each BOOST the letters “ME” into the line above in the grid:

61A Lifts for one’s self-esteem, and what’s been given to the answers to the starred clues : EGO BOOSTS

17A *Brunch station for custom orders : OMELETTE BAR
23A *TV competition won by singer Noah Thompson in 2022 : AMERICAN IDOL
37A *Many a retired pro athlete : SPORTS COMMENTATOR
48A *Masquerade, e.g. : COSTUME PARTY

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Bill’s time: 8m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Lead characters in “Mike & Molly”? : EMS

The lead letters in “Mike & Molly” are letters M (ems).

“Mike & Molly” is a sitcom starring Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy in the title roles. Mike and Molly are a couple who met at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.

4 Pockets for falafel : PITAS

Falafel is a ball of ground chickpeas or fava beans that has been deep fried and served in pita bread. I love chickpeas, but falafel is often too dry for me …

9 Hawkeye : IOWAN

Iowa is nicknamed the Hawkeye State in honor of Chief Black Hawk, a leader of the Sauk people during the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War.

14 “That’s Not All Folks” memoirist Blanc : MEL

Mel Blanc was known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices”. We’ve all heard Mel Blanc at one time or another, I am sure. His was the voice behind such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Woody Woodpecker, Elmer Fudd and Barney Rubble. And the words on Blanc’s tombstone are … “That’s all folks”.

15 Not quite right : ACUTE

In geometry, there are several classes of angles:

Acute (< 90 degrees)
Right (= 90 degrees)
Obtuse (> 90 degrees and < 180 degrees)
Straight (180 degrees)
Reflex (> 180 degrees)

20 Christ the __: Rio landmark : REDEEMER

The iconic statue of Jesus overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is known as “Cristo Redentor” (Christ the Redeemer). The statue was constructed between 1922 and 1931. It is the largest Art Deco statue in the world, as it stands over 30 meters tall.

23 *TV competition won by singer Noah Thompson in 2022 : AMERICAN IDOL

“American Idol” is a spin-off show that was created after the amazing success of the British television show “Pop Idol”. Aired on Fox from 2002 to 2016, the show “jumped ship” and moved to ABC starting in the 2018 season.

31 Checked thoroughly? : MATED

In the game of chess, when the king is under immediate threat of capture it is said to be “in check”. If the king cannot escape from check, then the game ends in “checkmate” and the player in check loses. In the original Sanskrit game of chess, the king could actually be captured. Then a rule was introduced requiring that a warning be given if capture was imminent (today we announce “check!”) so that an accidental and early ending to the game doesn’t occur.

36 Irish actor Stephen : REA

Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

42 Roman moon goddess : LUNA

“Luna” is the Latin word for “moon”, and is the name given to the Roman moon goddess. The Greek equivalent of Luna was Selene. Luna had a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome but it was destroyed during the Great Fire that raged during the reign of Nero.

43 Actress Spacek : SISSY

Actress Sissy Spacek got her big break in the movies when she played the title role in the 1976 horror movie “Carrie”, which is based on a Stephen King novel. Her most acclaimed role is the lead in the 1980 biopic about Loretta Lynn called “Coal MIner’s Daughter”, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. Spacek’s first cousin was the actor Rip Torn.

51 Former home of the Mets : SHEA

Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York was named after William A. Shea, the man credited with bringing National League baseball back to the city in the form of the New York Mets. Shea Stadium was dismantled in 2008-2009, and the site now provides additional parking for the new stadium nearby called Citi Field.

55 Asian festival : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

58 Book that’s all mapped out? : ATLAS

The first modern atlas was published in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius, a Flemish cartographer. It was called “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” (Theater of the World).

63 Flower part : SEPAL

In a flower, the sepals are the green, leaf-like structures that are “interleaved” with the petals, providing support. Prior to acting as support for the petals, the sepals protect the flower in bud.

65 Burj Khalifa’s city : DUBAI

Burj Khalifa is a spectacular skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the tallest man-made structure in the world, and has been so since the completion of its exterior in 2009. The space in the building came onto the market at a really bad time, during the global financial crisis. The building was part of a US$20 billion development of downtown Dubai that was backed by the city government which had to go looking for a bailout from the neighboring city of Abu Dhabi. The tower was given the name Burj Khalifa at the last minute, apparently as a nod to UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan who helped to broker the bailout.

66 Barilla rival : PREGO

The Prego brand of pasta sauce is owned by the Campbell Soup Company. It is actually based on the family recipe of one of the company’s chefs. “Prego” literally means “I pray” in Italian, but it translates best in English as “you’re welcome” when it is used after a “thank you” (“grazie”, in Italian).

Barilla is a supplier of Italian foods that is headquartered in Parma, Italy. It was founded as a bakery shop in Parma back in 1877, and now supplies almost 50% of the pasta sold in Italy, and about 15% of pasta sold in the US.

67 Hurler’s stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA), in baseball.

Down

1 Georgia school whose unofficial mascot is Dooley the Skeleton : EMORY

Dooley the Skeleton is an unofficial mascot at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The tradition of having a skeleton as a mascot began in 1899 when a group of medical students at the university stole a skeleton from the anatomy lab and began using it as a prop for practical jokes and pranks. Over time, the skeleton became known as “Dooley,” and in 1913, the Emory student newspaper declared Dooley to be the “official spirit” of the university. Today, Dooley is considered the “Lord of Misrule” during the school’s annual Dooley’s Week celebration.

2 Wild brawl : MELEE

Our term “melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means “confused fight”.

3 Bobrun runners : SLEDS

Bobsleds are so called because competitors in the sport originally would “bob” in and out of the sled in order to increase its speed.

4 Bánh mì spread : PATE

The French introduced the baguette into Vietnam in the days the country was a French colony. Today, a single-serving baguette is known in Vietnam as “bánh mì” (meaning “wheat bread”). The term has been extended, particularly here in the US, to describe a Vietnamese sandwich.

5 Marvel hero with super cool powers? : ICEMAN

The superhero Iceman is a founding member of the X-Men in the Marvel universe. Also known as Bobby Drake, he is a mutant with the ability to manipulate ice and create frozen structures. Iceman first appeared in print in 1963. The storyline in a 2015 comic book revealed that Iceman was gay, the first out gay Marvel superhero.

6 Rutabaga, e.g. : TUBER

The names of veggies cause me grief sometimes. What’s called a turnip here in the US, we call a swede back in Ireland. An Irishman’s turnip is a rutabaga over here. Thank goodness a potato is a potato, or I’d just give up altogether …

7 Game company featured in “Ready Player One” : ATARI

“Ready Player One” is a 2018 film based on a 2011 sci-fi novel of the same name by Ernest Cline. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg, and is about a future world in which many humans choose to live life in a virtual reality simulation.

8 Spanish 101 verb : SER

The verb “to be” is “ser” in Spanish and “être” in French.

9 Christmas or Easter : ISLAND

Christmas Island is an Australian territory located in the Indian Ocean. The island is so named because it was discovered by an English East India Company vessel on Christmas Day, in 1643.

“Rapa Nui” is the Polynesian name for what we are more likely to call “Easter Island”. The European name was coined by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who came across the island on Easter Sunday in the year 1722. Chilean-owned Easter Island is inhabited and is a location that is remarkably distant from neighboring civilization. The nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, which is almost 1300 miles away.

10 Giraffe kin : OKAPIS

The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs, and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

25 Board game? : DARTS

Darts is a game that’s often played in English and Irish pubs, even over here in America. The scoring in a traditional game of darts is difficult to describe in a sentence or two, but the game of darts called “Round the Clock” is simply hitting the numbers 1 through 20 on the dartboard in sequence.

26 Cookies that can illustrate phases of the moon : OREOS

National Oreo Cookie Day is March 6th each year. There is an urban legend that the particular day was chosen as this was the day that the name “Oreo” was registered as a trademark. However, that’s not the case. The application was filed on March 14, 1912 and registration took place on August 12, 1913. The suggestion is that the first Oreos went on sale on March 6, 1912.

27 “The Sandlot” actor Denis : LEARY

Denis Leary is a comic who is perhaps better known today as an actor. Leary co-created and starred in the successful comedy-drama series “Rescue Me”, which ran for over seven years. I mainly know Leary from playing the lead detective in the 1999 film “The Thomas Crown Affair”.

“The Sandlot” is a 1993 sports comedy movie about a group of youngsters who play baseball each day in a local sandlot in Southern California. It is usually described as a coming-of-age film, and tells the story of a shy fifth-grader who joins the group despite being a terrible player.

29 D.C. clock setting during baseball season : EDT

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

31 Rachel Maddow’s channel : MSNBC

We used to be able to listen to “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Air America Radio before the radio station went bust. Now we can see Maddow on a TV show with the same name, every night on MSNBC. She was the first openly gay anchor to host a primetime news program in the US.

32 Speed skater Ohno : APOLO

Speed-skater Apolo Ohno has won more Winter Olympics medals than any other American. Ohno also did a great job winning the 2007 season of television’s “Dancing with the Stars”.

33 Ruckuses : TO-DOS

The word “ruckus” is used to mean “commotion”, and has been around since the late 1800s. “Ruckus” is possibly a melding of the words “ruction” and “rumpus”.

34 “Precision Crafted Performance” sloganeer : ACURA

Acura is a luxury vehicle brand produced by the Japanese automaker Honda. Acura was the first Japanese luxury car brand to be introduced to the US, in 1986. The Acura Legend and Acura Integra were the first two models released.

39 “Four Quartets” monogram : TSE

T. S. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, largely because of his “Four Quartets”, a set of four poems that Eliot himself considered to be his life’s masterpiece. He also won a Tony Award in 1950 for Best Play, for “The Cocktail Party”, as well as two posthumous Tony Awards in 1983 for his poems that are used in the musical “Cats”.

45 Parliament site in North America : OTTAWA

Parliament Hill is on the banks of the Ottawa River in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. The Parliament buildings were constructed in a Gothic Revival style, so there is a passing resemblance to the Houses of Parliament in London. There’s a Parliament Hill in London too, but it has no real connection to the Parliament buildings at the Palace of Westminster, which is miles away.

46 Cereal mix : MUESLI

“Muesli” is a Swiss-German term describing a breakfast serving of rolled oats, nuts, fruit and milk. The dish can be soaked overnight in milk before serving (“overnight oats”). “Muesli” is a diminutive of the German word “Mues” meaning “puree”. Delicious …

50 Familiar theme : TROPE

A trope is a figure of speech. The term “trope” comes from the Greek word “tropos” that has the same meaning. The term has evolved in meaning to also describe a common or overused device or theme.

52 “Steppenwolf” author : HESSE

“Steppenwolf” is a 1927 novel by German-Swiss author Hermann House. The title translates from German as “Steppe Wolf”, referring to a wolf found primarily in the steppes of Europe and Asia.

57 “Carpe diem” acronym : YOLO

You only live once (YOLO)

“Carpe diem” is a quotation from Horace, one of ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets. “Carpe diem” translates from Latin as “seize the day” or “enjoy the day”. The satirical motto of a procrastinator is “carpe mañana”, “translating” as “seize tomorrow”.

59 Capote nickname : TRU

The larger-than-life Truman “Tru” Capote was an author and comedian. Capote is perhaps most associated with his novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and his true crime novel “In Cold Blood”. Truman Capote grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. There he met, and became lifelong friends with, fellow novelist Harper Lee. Capote was the inspiration for the character “Dill” in Lee’s celebrated work “To Kill a Mockingbird”. In turn, Harper Lee was the inspiration for the character “Idabel” in Capote’s “Other Voices, Other Rooms”.

60 CSI setting : LAB

Crime scene investigation (CSI)

61 Unproven ability : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Lead characters in “Mike & Molly”? : EMS
4 Pockets for falafel : PITAS
9 Hawkeye : IOWAN
14 “That’s Not All Folks” memoirist Blanc : MEL
15 Not quite right : ACUTE
16 Evade, as the truth : SKIRT
17 *Brunch station for custom orders : OMELETTE BAR
19 Gate part : LATCH
20 Christ the __: Rio landmark : REDEEMER
21 400 meters, on a standard track : LAP
22 Polite assent : YES’M
23 *TV competition won by singer Noah Thompson in 2022 : AMERICAN IDOL
28 Write : PEN
30 “Most likely … ” : ODDS ARE …
31 Checked thoroughly? : MATED
34 Peak : ACME
36 Irish actor Stephen : REA
37 *Many a retired pro athlete : SPORTS COMMENTATOR
41 Drop off : NOD
42 Roman moon goddess : LUNA
43 Actress Spacek : SISSY
44 Late __ : BLOOMER
47 Shining example : GEM
48 *Masquerade, e.g. : COSTUME PARTY
51 Former home of the Mets : SHEA
55 Asian festival : TET
56 Military shelter : ARMY TENT
58 Book that’s all mapped out? : ATLAS
61 Lifts for one’s self-esteem, and what’s been given to the answers to the starred clues : EGO BOOSTS
62 Southern twang : DRAWL
63 Flower part : SEPAL
64 “Happy now?” : SEE?
65 Burj Khalifa’s city : DUBAI
66 Barilla rival : PREGO
67 Hurler’s stat : ERA

Down

1 Georgia school whose unofficial mascot is Dooley the Skeleton : EMORY
2 Wild brawl : MELEE
3 Bobrun runners : SLEDS
4 Bánh mì spread : PATE
5 Marvel hero with super cool powers? : ICEMAN
6 Rutabaga, e.g. : TUBER
7 Game company featured in “Ready Player One” : ATARI
8 Spanish 101 verb : SER
9 Christmas or Easter : ISLAND
10 Giraffe kin : OKAPIS
11 Quipster : WIT
12 Part of a circle : ARC
13 Ultimate power? : NTH
18 Disposition : TEMPER
21 Encumbered : LADEN
24 Date component, often : COMMA
25 Board game? : DARTS
26 Cookies that can illustrate phases of the moon : OREOS
27 “The Sandlot” actor Denis : LEARY
29 D.C. clock setting during baseball season : EDT
31 Rachel Maddow’s channel : MSNBC
32 Speed skater Ohno : APOLO
33 Ruckuses : TO-DOS
34 “Precision Crafted Performance” sloganeer : ACURA
35 Scam : CON
38 Dropped off : SLEPT
39 “Four Quartets” monogram : TSE
40 Has as a goal : AIMS TO
45 Parliament site in North America : OTTAWA
46 Cereal mix : MUESLI
47 Backpack in a locker, maybe : GYM BAG
49 Epic bash : RAGER
50 Familiar theme : TROPE
52 “Steppenwolf” author : HESSE
53 Key in : ENTER
54 Lost : AT SEA
57 “Carpe diem” acronym : YOLO
58 Do some sums : ADD
59 Capote nickname : TRU
60 CSI setting : LAB
61 Unproven ability : ESP

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