L.A Times Crossword Wednesday, March 9, 2022 Stella Zawistowski

Theme: FITNESS, NOT FATNESS.  The first word of each theme answer describes a fitness activity, in a phrase that is repurposed from its surface meaning. 

16. Work out like a hairdresser?: PUMP UP THE VOLUME. Play your music louder.  Alternatively, a hairdresser can give you a puffy do.  Also, the verb relates to weight or resistance training. 

30. Work out like a bartender?: LIFT YOUR SPIRITS.  Literally, to make someone more cheerful.  Spirits are alcoholic beverages that one might imbibe festively when the bartender lifts the bottle.  LIFT is what one does with free weights, a type of resistance training.

38. Work out like a fine artist?: SWEAT THE DETAILS.  Pay close attention to, or perhaps worry excessively about the minor aspects of some activity.  This one doesn't quite fit the pattern, since SWEAT is the result of physical activity, not the activity itself.   Oh, well.

57. Work out like a stockbroker?: EXERCISE OPTIONS.  An OPTION is the right to buy or sell a security at a given price within a given time frame.  To complete that transaction is to EXERCISE the OPTION.  In the theme context, EXERCISE is any physical activity designed to improve health and fitness.

Hi Gang, JazzBumpa here.  I'm not qualified to be a physical training instructor, though I do work out most days.  So lets move forward and work out the rest of this puzzle.

Across:

1. Expand, as bread dough: RISE.  It pumps itself up

5. Lift option: T-BAR.  A type of ski lift to glide you up the hill.

9. Guard's order: HALT.  Stop.

13. Responsibility: ONUS.  The weight of duty or responsibility that must be exercised.

14. It borders It.: AUSTria, home of Hans and Franz.

15. Crown-wearing literary elephant: BABAR.  Elephant King from kiddie lit.

19. Time worth naming: ERA.  As, frex. jazz, occurring 100 or so years ago, when jazz music and dance styles were sweeping America.

20. Late time, in ads: NITE.  Night, mis-spelt.

21. Bills worth a hundo: C-NOTES.  Worth $100; but hundo?!?

22. Enjoy a La-Z-Boy: RECLINE.  I am sitting in my La-Z-Boy recliner with my lap top as I write this,

24. "Didn't hear you" interjections: EHs.  So pump up the volume.

25. A lot, to Auden: OFT. Often, I suppose, but I don't get the reference.

26. Mother of life, in Greek myth: GAIA.  In Greek mythology, GAIA is the personification of the Earth, and one of the Greek primordial deities. GAIA is the ancestral mother of all life. 

27. Needing to be settled: DUE.  As a bill.

35. Evidence of shortages, for short: IOUS.  I owe, I owe . . .

36. Catch, as a flick: SEE.  Watch a movie

37. __ menu: EDIT.  A list of operations available in computer software.

43. Good buddy: PAL.

44. Little winged singer: WREN.  Any of numerous small, active songbirds of the family Troglodytidae, especially Troglodytes troglodytes, of the Northern Hemisphere

45. Slice (off): LOP.  

46. Crew implement: OAR.  Used in the sport of racing human propelled boats, called rowing, or CREW in the U.S. In this sport, the Oars are attached to the boat by oarlocks.

47. Top-flight: CLASSIC.  Of high quality.

51. Training song in "Flashdance": MANIAC.

 

 55. Protagonist of the "Divergent" novels: TRIS.  Never read them.  Divergent is a series of young adult science fiction adventure novels by American novelist Veronica Roth set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago.  There is a parallel movie trilogy, realized in March of 2014, 2015, and 2016.

56. Exec with the purse strings: CFO.  Chief Financial Officer.

60. Be worthy of: MERIT.  What one has earned.

61. Cons' counterparts: PROS.  For, as opposed to against.

62. Destine for failure: DOOM.  Experience a terrible fate.

63. Partner of ends: ODDS.  Those things in your junk drawer.

64. Avonlea adoptee: ANNE.  Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan girl, who is mistakenly sent to two middle-aged siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had originally intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island, Canada.   The novel, "Anne of Green Gables," was published in 1908.

65. Numero dopo le sette: OTTO.  The number after seven is eight, especially in Italy.

Down:

1. Rodeo performer: ROPER.  A person who uses a lasso to catch an animal, especially in a rodeo.

2. Accustom (to): INURE.  Accustom (someone) to something, especially something unpleasant.

3. Component of the spice blend za'atar: SUMAC.  Sumac is a spice that is popular in the Middle East. It is related to the poisonous shrub by the same name, but the culinary variety is safe to use and easily identifiable by its vibrant red berries (poisonous sumac is white).1 The berries are turned into a coarse powder and sold as a ground spice.

4. Medium ability: ESP.  A medium is an individual held to be a channel of communication between the earthly world and a world of spirits, by using Extra Sensory Perception.  A 4 foot 2 spiritualist on the lam is a small medium at large.

5. Take advantage of: TAP INTO.

6. Raised landform: BUTTE.  AKA: Mesa or table land

7. Tennis immortal: ASHE.  Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. [1943 - 1993] was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. 

8. U.S. __ 1, East Coast hwy.: RTE.  Route.

9. Saintly symbol: HALO.  A disk or circle of light shown surrounding or above the head of a saint or holy person to represent their holiness.

10. Share a border with: ABUT.  To touch or lean on.  The human butt ABUTS the lower back.  A BUTTE, on the other hand, ABUTS nothing.

11. Tinseled fabric: LAMÉ.  A type of fabric woven or knit with thin ribbons of metallic fiber.  Not to be confused with lame, which might describe a trombonists attempt at humor.

12. Half of seis: TRES.  Six and three en Español.

15. Literally, "tray planting": BONSAI.  The art of growing ornamental, artificially dwarfed trees or shrubs.

17. Bring together: UNIFY.

18. Parental control option: V-CHIP.  A computer chip installed in a television receiver that can be programmed by the user to block or scramble material containing a special code in its signal indicating that it is deemed violent or sexually explicit.

23. Much, casually: LOTSA.  A compressed form of "lots of."

24. Relaxed: EASED.

26. Golfer's target: GREEN.  The smooth grassy area at the end of a golf fairway containing the hole.

27. Gregorius of the Phillies: DIDI.  Mariekson Julius "Didi" Gregorius, OON*, is a Dutch professional baseball shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. He previously played in MLB for the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, and New York Yankees.

* Orde van Oranje-Nassau, Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɔrdə vɑn oːˌrɑɲə ˈnɑsʌu]) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the Queen regent Emma, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina.  The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has earned special merits for society.” [Wikipedia]

28. Either of two Monopoly properties that can't be built on: Abbr.: UTILities -- Water Works and Electric Company

29. Ballpark figs.: ESTS.  Estimates.  "In the ballpark" indicated a reasonable approximation.

30. Have trouble with one's sisters?: LISP.  Or perhapth one'th thithters.

31. Where much of "Children of the Corn" was filmed: IOWA.  

32. Coal, for one: FUEL. Material such as coal, gas, or oil that is burned to produce heat or power.

33. Arena worker: USHER.  A person who shows people to their seats, especially in a theater or at a wedding.

34. Harvests: REAPS.

39. Like many a Broadway musical: TWO ACT.   A two-act play consists of two parts with an intermission in between. This allow for more complex sets, since the stage crew can set up a new scene during the intermission.

40. Bingham of "Baywatch": TRACI. Traci A. Bingham (born January 13, 1968) is an American actress, model, and television personality. Beginning her professional career in the early 1990s, Bingham is best known for her role as Jordan Tate on the NBC action drama television series Baywatch (1996–1998).

[Wikipedia]

41. Conic section: ELLIPSE.  A regular oval shape, traced by a point moving in a plane so that the sum of its distances from two other points (the foci) is constant, or resulting when a cone is cut by an oblique plane which does not intersect the base.

Oval

42. Canapé base, often: TOAST.  A canapé is a type of hors d'oeuvre, a small, prepared, and often decorative food, consisting of a small piece of bread, puff pastry, or a cracker wrapped or topped with some savoury food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite. TOAST is sliced bread browned on both sides by exposure to radiant heat.

47. Sing like Michael Bublé: CROON.  Hum or sing in a soft, low voice, especially in a sentimental manner.

48. Slide (over): SCOOT.

49. Otherwise: IF NOT.  Else

50. "Fun Fearless Female" mag: COSMOpolitan.   An American monthly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, since 1965, has become a women's magazine.

51. Company message: MEMO.  Short for memorandum, a usually brief written message or report .

52. Cut: AXED.  Either literally with an ax, or figuratively, as in sacked or fired.

53. "__ alert!": NERD.   It's used to signify learning, reading, being smart, acting dorky, or “geeking out” to your guilty pleasures.

 

 54. Centenarian fashion icon Apfel: IRIS.  An American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion icon [b 1921.] In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel led a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies. 

55. Fork-tailed flier: TERN.  Seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. There was a boy who went to the shore to throw rocks at them.  He was so efficient he left no TERN unstoned.

58. Relaxing resort: SPA.  A commercial establishment offering health and beauty treatment through such means as steam baths, exercise equipment, and massage.

59. Courtroom affirmation: I DO. Swearing to tell the truth.

So - another Wednesday heads for the shower.  Hope this puzzled exercised your brain, and maybe gave you a lift.  

Cool regards!

JzB