L.A Times Cross Word, Wednesday, December 30, 2020 Hoang-Kim Vu

Theme: VELOCITY.  Theme answers contain words that indicate rapidly and efficiently getting from one place to another

18 A. Academy attended by James T. Kirk: STAR FLEET.  From the original Star Trek TV series: boldly going where no man has gone before.  A Fleet is a group of ships under a single command.  FLEET here is an adjective - as all the theme words are - indicating rapid motion.  Fleet is also an enema, but we'll just let that go.

24 A. Artist with a record 32 American Music Awards: TAYLOR SWIFT.  [b 1989]  She's has some success.  SWIFT is another synonym for FLEET.  It's also a bird that, appropriately, holds the record for the fastest confirmed level flight, at 69.3 mph.

34 A. Deeply hurt: CUT TO THE QUICK.  Literally, this means to cut through the skin to the living tissue; figuratively it means to be hurt and offended.  Here, it's another synonym for SWIFT.  It's also a brand name for flavored powders to make your cold glass or warm mug of milk a bit less bland.

49 A. Inviolable, as a rule: HARD AND FAST.  This means it is fixed and definitive, not to be modified or avoided.  The sense of fast in this expression, now otherwise obsolete, is "locked in place."  It's the root of the verb fasten, meaning to firmly attach.  In the puzzle, FAST is another synonym for QUICK.

56 A. With immediacy, or a hint to the four other longest puzzle answers: POST HASTE.  Yet another synonym for FAST.  From my brief examination, it seems that this can either be a single word, or a two-word phrase, with or without a hyphen.

Hi, Gang, JazzBumpa here.  Hope your Christmas was happy and safe.  The holidays go by quickly.  The theme notwithstanding, let's not speed through this puzzle, but take it slow and steady.

Across:

1. Invents, as a word: COINS.  Devising a new word or phrase.  The phrase itselfe seems to have been coned in American Literature with the earliest recorded use being in the 'The Southport American' newspaper in 1848. 

6. Laugh-a-minute sort: RIOT.  Fun guy.

10. Lucas of "Raising Hope": NEFF.  [b 1985]  Most recently, he starred in the CBS sitcom Carol's Second Act.

14. Bandleader's exhortation: HIT  IT.  In all my decades of playing in all sorts of ensembles and venues, I don't remember ever hearing the leader say this.

15. Egyptian life symbol: ANKH.

Key of Life

16. Pest on a pooch: FLEA.  Dog annoyer

17. Red-tide contents: ALGAE.  The color is due to an algal bloom, often caused by an up-swelling of nutrients from the ocean floor following a storm.  

20. Shape, as clay: SCULPT.  Make it look like something other than a lump.

22. Mayberry lad: OPIE.  Young Ron Howard.

23. Org. in much recent news: CDC.  The Center for Disease Control.

26. "We'll let you know," on skeds: TBA. To Be Announced.

27. 18-Across jr. officer: ENS.  Ensign.

28. Threaded fastener: NUT.  To make a mechanical connection hard and fast.

29. Claw into: TEAR AT.  Rip apart

31. Fire truck alert: SIREN. Listen up!

33. Tourette syndrome symptoms: TICS.   Idiosyncratic and habitual features of a person's behavior.

39. Brooklyn Coll. is part of it: CUNY.  The City University of New York.

40. Double duty?: STUNT.  I had to think about this one.  Performing STUNTS - dangerous skilled maneuvers  in a movie scene - is the duty of a star's STUNT double.

41. Convent leader: ABBESS.  Head nun.

44. Shoelace, e.g.: TIE.  A tie is a type of fastener.

45. NBA's Heat, on scoreboards: MIA.  MIAMI's basketball team.

48. Inouye Airport arrival gift: LEI.   Hawaiian flower garland necklace.

53. Investment inits.: IRA.  Individual Retirement Account.

54. Common ointment ingredient: ALOE.  Extract of the ALOE vera plant, a succulent cultivated for tis medicinal uses.

55. Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil: NIEKRO.  [1939-2020]  He played for 24 years in the majors, from 1964 to 1987.  Sadly, he just passed the day after Christmas after a long battle with cancer.

59. Step: TREAD.  Stomping is optional.

60. Worked in a garden: HOED.  Used a hand-operated cultivating tool.  Or emulated Santa.

61. "Because You Loved Me" singer: DION.  Celine [b 1968]

62. Battle zone journalist: EMBED.  This was confusing.  I was expecting a specific name, not the category.  The answer is a bit awkward, since it is a noun that looks like a verb.

63. Criteria: Abbr.: STDS.  Standards.

64. Racy message: SEXT.   Portmanteau of SEX and TEXT.

65. Rotary phone features: DIALS.  Does anybody have one of these?

Down:

1. Unsullied: CHASTE. Refraining from sexual activity.  The Unsullied in Game of Thrones certainly did this.  But, in general, is this a good equivalence?  You decide.

2. Prop for the Tin Man: OIL CAN.  I still wonder how it happened that tin rusted.  Must be a Oz thing.

3. Men working on a network, informally: I. T.  GUYS.  Experts in Information Technology, aka nerds.

4. One Direction's "cute one" __ Horan: NIALL.  True?  You decide.

Cute?

5. "C'mon, we're in a hurry!":  STEP ON IT.  Go faster, referring to pressing a vehicles accelerator pedal.  Theme echo.

6. Late-summer orientation mtg. holders: RAs.  Resident Advisors:  students who are responsible for supervising and assisting other, typically younger, students who live in the same residence hall.  One of our granddaughters has this position in the honors dorm at her school.

7. Like many trailers: IN TOW.   Pulled by a vehicle

8. Giraffe relative: OKAPI.   An artiodactyl [ungulate with an even number of toes] mammal native to the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. 

Made from spare parts?

9. Frugality: THRIFT.

10. Patriots' org.: NFL.  National Football League.

11. Exciting, as an atmosphere: ELECTRIC.

12. Survey info: FEEDBACK.  Requested information.

13. Big shots with big balances: FAT CATS.  More specifically, rich political donors.  It is also commonly used to describe a rich, greedy person who, due to ownership of large amounts of capital, is able to "live easy" off the work of others. 

19. Honor in a big way: FETE. To honor or entertain (someone) lavishly.

21. Town near Provincetown: TRURO.  Two of the 15 towns surrounding Cape Cod Bay.

25. Editorial "let it stand": STET.  From Latin,  it is a form of the Latin verb sto, typically translated as "Let it stand."

30. Feuding: AT IT.  A multi-purpose phrase, depending on what the definition of "it" is.

31. Eyelid ailment: STYE.  An inflamed swelling on the edge of an eyelid, caused by bacterial infection of the gland at the base of an eyelash.

32. Smart students' org.: NHS.  National Honor Society.

34. Two, to eight, e.g.: CUBE ROOT.  To cube a number is to multiply it by itself twice.  That number is then the cube root of the product.

35. Impartial: UNBIASED.  

36. Sundance's sweetie: ETTA.  ETTA Place [dates uncertain]   Companion of Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, aka, the Sundance Kid.  Along with Butch Cassidy they were members of the outlaw gang known as Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. 

37. "Glee" cheerleader: QUINN.  Quinn Fabray is a fictional character from the TV series Glee, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. The character is portrayed by actress Dianna Agron.  

Cheer with Glee

38. Not yet corrected for publication: UNEDITED.  Having no STETs nor deles.

39. Islamic leaders: CALIPHS.  The chief Muslim civil and religious ruler, regarded as the successor of Muhammad. The caliph ruled in Baghdad until 1258 and then in Egypt until the Ottoman conquest of 1517; the title was then held by the Ottoman sultans until it was abolished in 1924 by Atatürk.

42. 1979 exile: SHAH.  Mohammad Reza Pahlavi [1919-1980]  of Iran.

43. Soup followers: SALADS.  In multi-course meals.

45. Folk singer Miriam known as "Mama Africa": MAKEBA. [1932 - 2008]

46. Gal Gadot's birthplace: ISRAEL.  In case you were wondering about this woman.

Probably needed a STUNT double

47. Disagreeing: AT ODDS.  Loggerheads doesn't fit.

50. Riveting icon: ROSIE.

Probably not what you think

51. Rehab program: DETOX.  A process designed to remove addictive toxins leave the body.

52. 1938 Physics Nobelist: FERMI.  Enrico [1901-1954] An American physicist who created the first nuclear reactor.  He won the Nobel Prize for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of transuranium elements. 

57. Six-pt. scores: TDS.  TouchDowns in American football.

58. Tolkien's Treebeard, e.g.: ENT.  

And thus does Fangorn bring our Wednesday to a slow moving close.  Hope you enjoyed the journey.  See you all next year.

Cool Regards!

JzB

L.A. Times Crossword Wednesday December 16, 2020 Brock Wilson

Theme: Happy Birthday! [Maybe?] Today might or might not be the birthday of the below identified composer.  Nobody really knows. In the theme, his name and some of his works or identified by either name or number.

17A. With 63-Across, musician born 12/16/1770: LUDWIG VAN.

63A . See 17-Across: BEETHOVEN.

Wikipedia

He was baptized on the 17th, so his birthday is assumed to be the 16th, but that is just a guess.  He could have been a week or a month earlier.  Anyway, later in life, he wrote some music. You can read more about him here.

39 D. 63-Across work: SYMPHONY. An elaborate musical composition for full orchestra, typically in four movements, at least one of which is traditionally in sonata form.

26 A. Nickname for a 63-Across 39-Down: CHORAL. Numerically, the 9th, and last.

 

Well, this set my write up back by 23 minutes, but it was time well spent.  Give it a listen if you have the time.  Schiller's poem is a hot, sappy mess, but I guess it works in the original German. And Beethoven's setting makes it truly heavenly.

40 A. Numerically, 63-Across' C-minor 39-Down: FIFTH.  Which gives us what is probably the most recognizable 4 note sequence in all of music.

50 A. Nickname for a 63-Across 39-Down: EROICA.  Numerically, the 3rd.

 

10 D. Nickname for a 63-Across 39-Down: PASTORAL.  Here is a Disneyfied excerpt.

 

Hi, gang.  Jazzbumpa here to conduct today's musical adventure.  Once upon a time, there was trombone themed puzzle, and by chance in landed on my blogging day.  This one is just about as fitting.  Beethoven was my introduction to what we call classical music, though he stood on the bridge between the classical and romantic periods.  Having him as my intro made it hard for me to appreciate the much simpler - and genuinely classical - music of his teacher Haydn.  But everything builds over time, and without Haydn and Mozart, there could have been no Beethoven.  Let's move on through this score, and hope there are no sour notes.

Across:

1. Quotable Yankee, familiarly: YOGI.  Berra [1925-1915] "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

5. "Yikes!": JEEZ.  Oh, my!

9. Fencing blades: EPEES.  A narrow-bladed sword with a blunted tip.

14. Tarzan raisers: APES.  I guess Jane was the gorilla his dreams.

15. Cher and Sade, vocally: ALTI.  Voices with  range above tenor and below soprano.

16. 16th-century English queen: MARY I.  "Bloody Mary" Tudor [1516 -1558]  in her 5 year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake. 

19. North Sea county: ESSEX.  Located north-east of London.

20. German steel city: ESSEN. Eight of the 100 largest publicly held German corporations are head-quartered there.

21. Offered an arm to: ESCORTED.  As into a formal event.

23. Basics: ABCS.  

25. Ming most look up to: YAO.  Because he is 7'6" tall.  He started his basketball career in Shanghai, China, then played for the Houston Rockets from 2002-2011. He was an 8-time all star.

29. Literate: WELL READ.  

34. __ Vegas: LAS.  Sin City, it's been called.

35. Marks for removal: DELES.  To be deleted.

37. "Inferno" poet: DANTE. From whom we get out modern, and at best only marginally Biblical concepts of hell and the devil.

38. Story lines: ARCS.  

42. Tolkien trilogy, to fans: LOTR.  Lord Of The Rings.

43. Remains: STAYS.

45. It's usually not a hit: SIDE-B.  Now here is some nostalgia - referring to the presumably less popular song on one side of a 45 RPM phonograph record.
 
47. Toon crime fighter __ Possible: KIM.  An American animated action comedy-adventure television series created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle for Disney Channel. The title character is a teenage girl tasked with fighting crime on a regular basis while coping with everyday issues commonly associated with adolescence.  It ran from 2002 to 2007, and was a favorite of our oldest granddaughter.

48. Spread throughout: PERMEATE.

52. Pipe plastic: PVC. PolyVinyl Chloride is the third most widely produced thermoplastic, after polyethylene and polypropylene.

53. Like cotton candy: SPUN.

54. Sticky stuff: ADHESIVE.  Glue

58. Facebook action: SHARE.

62. Unverified word: RUMOR.  A circulating story of uncertain or doubtful truth.

65. Tony winner Menzel: IDINA.  She originated the role of Elphaba Thropp in the Broadway musical Wicked in 2003.  Later she sang some songs in animated Disney movies.

 

 66. The M in BLT?: MAYO.   As an option.

67. Artist's quarters: LOFT.   An upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof, presumably with north light..

 
68. Record material: VINYL.  Here, phonograph records and PVC make another appearance - together.

69. Chopped side dish: SLAW.  Cabbage fragments, typically with a 66 A- based dressing.

70. Some traffic court cases: Abbr.: DWIS.  Driving While Intoxicated.

Down:

1. New Haven school: YALE. Where the Elis roam.

2. Musical work: OPUS.  These are given numbers, approximately in the order of publication date. 40 A is Beethoven's OPUS 67.

3. H.S. proficiency tests: GEDS.  General Educational Development, indicating an approximate equivalence to a high school diploma.

4. Oath beginning: I SWEAR.  And you'd better tell the truth.

5. XK-E, for short: JAG.  The Jaguar E Class, Marketed in the U.S. as the XK-E, was manufactured from 1961 to 1975.

6. Seasonal aides: ELVES.  Santa's helpers, also known as subordinate clauses.

7. Greek vowels: ETAS.  Notable, because they look like h's.

8. It makes cents: ZINC.  Usually when mixed with copper.

9. Important gem in Oz: EMERALD.  I was thinking in Australia, which would be the OPEL.  But it doesn't have enough letters.  In the wonderful land of OZ, there is the EMERALD city.

11. Gaelic language: ERSE. A Scottish or Irish language.

12. Watched closely: EYED.  Peered at.

13. Touchdown points: SIX.  The kicked extra point used to be automatic, but many have been missed this season.

18. __ humor: grumpy: IN BAD.  Irascible.

22. Bony Olive: OYL.  Popeye's often disloyal girlfriend.

Wikipedia

24. Musical symbol: CLEF.

26. Bracelet fastener: CLASP.  Hook and lock mechanism.

27. Gold rush storyteller: HARTE.  Francis Brett HARTE [1836-1902]  was an American short story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. 

28. "The Odd Couple" roommate: OSCAR. Madison and Felix Unger from the Neil Simon play and the resulting movie and TV series.

29. Group self-pic, in slang: WEFIE.  Everybody crowd in tight.

30. Started, as a co.: ESTD.  Established

31. Japanese mushroom: ENOKI.  Sounds like a minor Star Wars character.  But it is a  mushroom that naturally grows on the stumps of the Chinese hackberry tree (Celtis sinensis, "enoki" in Japanese) and on other trees, such as ash, mulberry and persimmon trees.

32. Web site: ATTIC.  Not the world wide web - the top floor of a house that seldom gets entered by a human.

33. Stuffed Jewish dish also called kishke: DERMA.  Make it here.

36. Itemize: LIST.   

41. Dickens sycophant: HEEP.   Uriah, a fictional character created by Charles Dickens in his 1850 novel David Copperfield. Heep is one of the main antagonists of the novel. His character is notable for his cloying humility, unctuousness, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own "'umbleness". 

44. A few: SEVERAL.  Less than many.

46. Salon item: BRUSH.  

49. Summer coolers, briefly: ACS.  Air Conditioners, not cooling drinks.

51. Indefinitely suspended: ON HOLD.  In limbo.

53. "Later!": SEE YA.  TTYL.

54. Autobahn auto: AUDI.  Audi AG is a German automobile manufacturer that designs, engineers, produces, markets and distributes luxury vehicles.  It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.

55. Key of the 26-Across 39-Down: Abbr.: D-MINor.  Has one flat.  And should probably have been included with the theme entries.

56. System/360s, e.g.: IBMS.  Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems?  Nope. Just a family of mainframe computer systems from IBM that were delivered between 1965 and 1978.

57. Piccata meat: VEAL.  It is sliced, dredged in flour, browned, then served in a sauce containing lemon juice, butter, and capers.  Yum!

59. Openly declare: AVOW.  Or Aver.  Always needs perps.

60. Mortgagee's option, for short: REFInance.  Looking for a lower interest rate and/or monthly payments.

61. Laryngitis docs: ENTS.  Ear, Nose and Throat specialists.

62. Ohio or Mississippi: Abbr.: RIV.  River

64. Auto club service: TOW.  As, frx, when my transmission decided to stop transmitting 20 miles north of Muskegon, and 200 miles from home.  That was fun.

So we reach the coda of another Wednesday, melody complete and chords resolved.  And every day is somebody's birthday.  HBD, if it's yours.

Cool regards!

JzB