LA Times Crossword 11 Apr 23, Tuesday

Constructed by: Adam Vincent
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Bucket List

Today’s LIST of themed answers might easily apply to a BUCKET:

28D Enumeration of life goals, on which one should also find the answers to the starred clues? : BUCKET LIST

20A *Has significant influence : CARRIES WEIGHT
44A *Is able to wrap one’s head around : HAS GOT A HANDLE ON
26D *Stands up to scrutiny : HOLDS WATER

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

Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment

Bill’s time: 5m 49s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Emery board target : NAIL

Emery is a very hard type of rock that is crushed for use as an abrasive. Emery paper is made by gluing small particles of emery to paper. Emery boards are just emery paper with a cardboard backing. And emery boards are primarily used for filing nails.

14 No-frills grocery chain that collects a deposit for a shopping cart : ALDI

Aldi is an extremely large discount supermarket chain based in Germany with outlets in many countries, including the main European nations and Australia. Here in the US, Aldi owns the Trader Joe’s chain of stores. The chain was founded in 1946 by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. The name “Aldi” is an abbreviation of “Albrecht Diskont”, “Albrecht Discount” in English.

16 Michigan neighbor : OHIO

The Toledo War of 1835-36 was a relatively minor dispute between Ohio and Michigan that arose because of a discrepancy in the maps of the time. The maps showed a strip of land (the “Toledo Strip”) as being located in Ohio, but Michigan claimed that the strip was actually part of its territory. The main issue was that the strip included the mouth of the Maumee River, allowing access to inland shipping routes. The “war” was resolved by the US Congress in a compromise in which Michigan gave up the strip of land in return for statehood and three quarters of the Upper Peninsula.

18 Batch of Brownies : TROOP

Brownies are members of the Girl Guiding organization who are seven to ten years old. When the group was founded in 1914 by Lord Baden-Powell, they were known as Rosebuds. That name wasn’t popular with the membership and so was changed, taking inspiration from an 1870 story by Juliana Horatia Ewing called “The Brownies”.

23 AirPods holders : EARS

AirPods are Apple’s line of bluetooth earpods. When AirPods were introduced in 2016, the market reacted with some skepticism. The left and right AirPods are not connected by any wire, so there was concern that individual earbuds could fall out of the ear, and possibly get lost. Another concern was Apple’s stated intent to abandon the wired headphone socket on new iPhone models.

27 Bubble tea “bubbles” : BOBA

Bubble tea, sometimes called “boba tea”, is a tea-based drink from Taiwan. The “bubbles” are chewy tapioca balls that are usually added to the drink.

30 Encapsulated ecosystem : BIODOME

A biodome is an enclosed ecological system, and usually a man-made structure. I visited one of the more famous biodomes a few years ago, namely Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona. The Arizona facility was built as a closed-system experiment and used during the nineties as home to two small teams of people for extended periods. Both experiments ran into problems. The first group confronted insufficient generation of food and oxygen. The second group generated sufficient food, but oxygen eventually had to be injected into the habitat.

39 Margaret of “Fire Island” : CHO

Margaret Cho is a Korean-American comedian and actress who was born in San Francisco in 1968. As well as performing as a comedian, Cho has also had a successful acting career, appearing in films such as “Face/Off,” “Bam Bam and Celeste,” and “All About Steve,” as well as TV shows such as “Drop Dead Diva” and “30 Rock.”

“Fire Island” is a 2022 romantic comedy about a group of gay friends taking a vacation on Fire Island on the South Shore of Long Island. The film’s storyline was inspired by Jane Austen’s classic novel “Pride and Prejudice”. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hear good things …

42 Base for jam and clotted cream : SCONE

Clotted cream is a product associated with the southwest of England. It is thick cream prepared by heating rich cow’s milk and allowing it to cool and “clot”. The clots are collected, and sold as “clotted cream”. If you ever order a “cream tea” in England, you’ll get scones, jam and clotted cream. Delicious …

43 Hershey toffee bar : SKOR

The candy bar named “Skor” is produced by Hershey’s. “Skor” is Swedish for “shoes”, and the candy bar’s wrapping features a crown that is identical to that found in the Swedish national emblem. What shoes have to do with candy, I don’t know …

47 Vessel in some Asian restaurant names : WOK

“Wok” is a Cantonese word, and is the name for the frying pan now used in many Asian cuisines.

48 __ favor : POR

“Por favor” is Spanish for “please”.

53 Boat pulling a fishing net : TRAWLER

The method of fishing known as trawling involves the pulling of a net through the water behind a boat (or boats). The trawling net is known as a trawl.

58 Footnote abbr. : OP CIT

“Op. cit.” is short for “opus citatum”, Latin for “the work cited”. Op. cit. is used in footnotes to refer the reader to an earlier citation. It is similar to ibid, except that ibid refers the reader to the last citation, the one immediately above.

62 Group of associates : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”

Down

2 Smart __: wisenheimer : ALEC

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

A smart Alec or wise guy might be called “Wisenheimer”. The term is mock German or Yiddish and dates back to the very early 1900s.

9 Like a universal donor’s blood : TYPE-O

In general, a person with type O-negative blood is a universal donor, meaning that his or her blood can be used for transfusion into persons with any other blood type: A, B, AB or O, negative or positive (although there are other considerations). Also in general, a person with type AB-positive blood is a universal recipient, meaning that he or she can receive a transfusion of blood of any type: A, B, AB or O, negative or positive.

13 Texting guffaw : LOL

“Guffaw”, meaning “boisterous laugh”, is an imitative word that is Scottish in origin.

21 Boca __, Florida : RATON

The name of the city of Boca Raton in Florida translates from Spanish as “Mouse Mouth”. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive etymology of the name but one plausible explanation is a nautical one. “Boca”, as well as meaning “mouth” can mean “inlet”. “Ratón”, as well as meaning “mouse” was also used to describe rocks that chewed away at a ship’s anchor cable. So possibly Boca Raton was named for a rocky inlet.

22 13-digit pub. codes : ISBNS

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was invented by one Gordon Foster who was a professor at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. The code was originally developed for booksellers, so that they had a unique number (and now a barcode) for each publication. ISBNs are ten digits long if assigned before 2007. Since the start of 2007, ISBNs have been thirteen digits long.

25 Fine hairs : CILIA

“Cilia” (singular “cilium”) is Latin for “eyelashes”.

28 Enumeration of life goals, on which one should also find the answers to the starred clues? : BUCKET LIST

A bucket list is a list of things one wants to achieve before dying, before “kicking the bucket”. The expression hasn’t been used in this context for very long, only a decade or so, but was popularized by the 2007 film “The Bucket List” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

29 Hay fever sound : ACHOO!

The common term “hay fever” describes a type of seasonal allergic rhinitis, inflammation of the nose due to an immune reaction to airborne allergens. The term “hay fever” is quite the misnomer. It is not usually caused by “hay”, and there is no “fever”.

30 Shindig : BASH

“Shindig” is such a lovely word, I think. It describes a party that usually includes some dancing. Although its origin isn’t really clear, the term perhaps comes from “shinty”, a Scottish game that’s similar to field hockey.

33 Grifter : CON ARTIST

Grift is money made dishonestly, especially as the result of a swindle. The term is perhaps an alteration of the word “graft”, which can have a similar meaning.

34 “Marry Me” actor Wilson : OWEN

Actor Owen Wilson was nominated for an Oscar, but not for his acting. He was nominated for co-writing the screenplay for “The Royal Tenenbaums” along with Wes Anderson. My favorite of Wilson’s performances, by far, is in the excellent movie “Midnight in Paris”. Both of Owen’s brothers, Andrew and Luke, are fellow actors.

43 Smooth R&B tune : SLOW JAM

“Slow jam” is a term used to describe ballads in the rhythm & blues and soul genres. The term dates back to a song called “Slow Jam” that was released by the group Midnight Star in 1983.

46 Subj. of Rosalind Franklin’s research : DNA

Rosalind Franklin was a chemist who specialized in X-ray crystallography. It was work by Franklin and her student that produced the famous “Photo 51” that was key to the determination of the structure of DNA. James Watson and Francis Crick used the photo as they constructed their model of the double-helix structures of DNA. The photo had been shared with Watson and Crick by Maurice Wilkins, who worked with Franklin, without Franklin’s consent. A few years after Franklin died (at the age of 37), Watcon, Crick and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on DNA. As Franklin received very little recognition for her contribution, she is sometimes referred to as the “dark lady of DNA” and the “wronged heroine”.

55 __ Williams bourbon : EVAN

Evan Williams is a brand of bourbon whiskey. It is named for a Welsh immigrant who settled in Kentucky and started distilling in 1783. However, the Evan Williams brand isn’t that old, having been introduced by Heaven Hill Distilleries in 1957.

56 Gym count : REPS

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

59 Forensic series whose theme song is “Who Are You” : CSI

The “CSI” TV show franchise uses hits from the Who as theme music:

“Who Are You” … “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
“Baba O’Riley” … “CSI: New York”
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” … “CSI: Miami”
“I Can See for Miles” … “CSI: Cyber”

Read on, or …
… return to top of page

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Emery board target : NAIL
5 Change as needed : ADAPT
10 “F” on a gas gauge : FULL
14 No-frills grocery chain that collects a deposit for a shopping cart : ALDI
15 With a long face : SADLY
16 Michigan neighbor : OHIO
17 Self-checkout sound : BEEP!
18 Batch of Brownies : TROOP
19 Paper towel purchase : ROLL
20 *Has significant influence : CARRIES WEIGHT
23 AirPods holders : EARS
24 Nothing to write home about : SO-SO
25 Small talk : CHAT
27 Bubble tea “bubbles” : BOBA
30 Encapsulated ecosystem : BIODOME
33 Lead an orchestra : CONDUCT
36 “Tutti,” in English : ALL
37 Ones who fail to keep up appearances? : NO-SHOWS
39 Margaret of “Fire Island” : CHO
40 Potluck contribution : SIDE
42 Base for jam and clotted cream : SCONE
43 Hershey toffee bar : SKOR
44 *Is able to wrap one’s head around : HAS GOT A HANDLE ON
47 Vessel in some Asian restaurant names : WOK
48 __ favor : POR
49 “Do __ disturb” : NOT
50 [Shrug] : BEATS ME
53 Boat pulling a fishing net : TRAWLER
57 Play part that follows an overture : ACT I
58 Footnote abbr. : OP CIT
60 Foolish talk : JIVE
61 Nurses a sprain, say : ICES
62 Group of associates : POSSE
63 “Make it snappy!” letters : ASAP!
64 Word : TERM
65 Touches up, as text : EDITS
66 Range components: Abbr. : MTNS

Down

1 Seize : NAB
2 Smart __: wisenheimer : ALEC
3 Planning session offering : IDEA
4 Comprehend without hearing, in a way : LIP-READ
5 Up and about : ASTIR
6 Has the guts (to) : DARES
7 Noisy commotions : ADOS
8 Farm machines : PLOWS
9 Like a universal donor’s blood : TYPE-O
10 Permanently : FOR GOOD
11 “I have a bad feeling about this” : UH-OH
12 Bouncy tune : LILT
13 Texting guffaw : LOL
21 Boca __, Florida : RATON
22 13-digit pub. codes : ISBNS
25 Fine hairs : CILIA
26 *Stands up to scrutiny : HOLDS WATER
28 Enumeration of life goals, on which one should also find the answers to the starred clues? : BUCKET LIST
29 Hay fever sound : ACHOO!
30 Shindig : BASH
31 __ Valuable Player : MOST
32 Sci-fi getaway option : ESCAPE POD
33 Grifter : CON ARTIST
34 “Marry Me” actor Wilson : OWEN
35 Unable to make up one’s mind : TORN
38 Jolly syllables : HO HO!
41 Self-absorption : EGOTISM
43 Smooth R&B tune : SLOW JAM
45 Gives the go-ahead : OKS
46 Subj. of Rosalind Franklin’s research : DNA
50 Can of worms, maybe : BAIT
51 Latin “behold” : ECCE
52 Wallow in sadness : MOPE
54 Numbered hwys. : RTES
55 __ Williams bourbon : EVAN
56 Gym count : REPS
59 Forensic series whose theme song is “Who Are You” : CSI

Leave a comment (below), or …
… return to top of page

The post LA Times Crossword 11 Apr 23, Tuesday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

from LAXCrossword.com https://ift.tt/fES0c8m