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