Theme: When is a city not a city?
Constructor Zachary Schiff is back with his third crossword puzzle in the L.A. Times, which is his second solo effort in these pages. Apparently Zachary is a writer living in New York City. Today Zachary asks us about city names used for other purposes. The theme answers appear in symmetrically placed rows Across, and two of them span the width of the grid.
20. Boston, e.g.: CLASSIC ROCK BAND. Boston (a band formed in Boston, Massachusetts) has been rocking since 1975. Their best-known songs include "More Than a Feeling," "Peace of Mind," "Foreplay/Long Time," "Rock and Roll Band," "Smokin,'" "Don't Look Back," "A Man I'll Never Be," "Hitch a Ride," "Party," "Amanda," and "Feelin' Satisfied."
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| Boston |
32. Tacoma, e.g.: PICKUP TRUCK. Tacoma is a city in Washington state, but also the name of a Toyota truck. The city moniker comes from the indigenous people's name for Mount Rainier. The mountain is a symbol of strength and rugged beauty -- qualities consumers might seek in a pickup truck.
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| Mount Rainier AKA Tacoma |
41. Philadelphia, e.g.: CREAM CHEESE. In 1872, William Lawrence, a dairyman from Chester, New York, attempted to make Neufchâtel, a tangy, crumbly cheese that was popular in Europe. He used too much cream and created a more spreadable cheese, eventually called "cream cheese." In 1880, Lawrence partnered with A.L. Reynolds, a cheese distributor in New York, to sell more cream cheese. At the time, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and its surrounding area had a reputation for high-quality dairy products, so they used the name "Philadelphia" on their foil-wrapped blocks. It is still one of the best selling brands of cream cheese, currently owned by Kraft Heinz and Mondelez International.
51. Manhattan, e.g.: BOURBON COCKTAIL. Manhattan is a borough of New York City, and also the name of a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters, traditionally garnished with a maraschino cherry. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is said to have originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the mid-1870s.
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| Maybe later, thanks! I just had cream cheese. |
Now that the geography quiz has gotten us oriented, it's time to find our way through the rest of the clues and answers.
Across:
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| Stealing is permitted in a Yankee swap. |
9. Go very slowly: INCH. "The car inched forward in heavy traffic."
13. In a heap: PILED.
15. "Black-ish" star Tracee Ellis __: ROSS. Even if you didn't watch Black-ish (which was very good), you've seen Tracee Ellis Ross here before! And you know her famous mom, Diana Ross.
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| Tracee Ellis Ross |
17. A-listers: ELITE.
18. Esq.: ATTY. In the United States, "Esquire," abbreviated as "Esq.," is a courtesy title used for attorneys in written communications, generally used after the attorney's name.
19. Like avocados and eggs: OVAL. Add bagels and CREAM CHEESE and call it brunch!
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20. [Theme clue]
23. Number of "Seinfeld" seasons: NINE.
24. State where five U.S. presidents are buried: OHIO. William Henry Harrison, James A. Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, and Warren G. Harding.
25. Takes an extra base: STEALS.
28. Fixed: INTENT. Both of these words can be used to mean focused, concentrated, resolved, determined.
32. [Theme clue]
36. Baby talk syllable: GOO.
37. Haitian friend: AMIE. Haitian Creole is a French-based language. A male friend in French is an AMI, and a female friend is an AMIE. They are pronounced the same.
38. Edgy fashion line?: HEM. The hem of a garment can be described as a line, and it is also the edge of the garment.
39. Happy look: GRIN.
40. Four-legged sentry: DOG. Dogs make good guards.
41. [Theme clue]
45. Make certain: ENSURE.
47. Element in a password: LETTER. Upper case, lower case, a number, and a symbol, too!
48. Snoozes: NAPS.
50. "Veni, vidi, __": VICI. "Veni, vidi, vici" is Latin for "I came, I saw, I conquered." It was reportedly uttered by Julius Caesar after a quick and decisive battle.
51. [Theme clue]
58. Unmoving: IDLE.
59. Botanical anchor: ROOT.
60. "The Hunchback of __ Dame": NOTRE. You don't need to understand French to know the name of the cathedral, Notre Dame, which translates to "Our Lady."
61. "How We Do (Party)" singer Ora: RITA. Rita Ora is crossword's favorite chanteuse (French for female singer.).
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| Rita Ora |
63. Again and again: OFTEN.
64. "Shake on it!": DEAL.
65. Risked a ticket, say: SPED.
66. Short-lived fashions: FADS.
Down:
1. Job detail, briefly: SPEC. A job spec or specification is a requirement such as knowledge, skills, abilities, and minimum qualifications.
2. Mental resolve: WILL. Intent can mean this, too!
3. Shawkat of "Being the Ricardos": ALIA. Being the Ricardos is a 2021 film about the relationship between I Love Lucy stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Alia Shawkat plays Madelyn Pugh, a writer on the show. She's played many other roles in movies and on TV, too.
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| Alia Shawkat |
5. "__ yourself": BRACE.
6. Fantasy trilogy, initially: LOTR. Lord Of The Rings.
7. "Life __ short to skip dessert": IS TOO.
8. Medium with powers: PSYCHIC.
9. Will Smith sci-fi film set in 2035: I, ROBOT. I, Robot is a 2004 science fiction film named after Isaac Asimov's 1950 short-story collection. Will Smith plays a detective investigating the death of a robotics company founder. Was it a suicide, or did a robot defenestrate the man?
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| Will Smith in "I, Robot" |
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| Villanova Wildcats mascot |
12. Maintained: HELD.
14. Production company started by Ball and Arnaz: DESILU. Echoes of 3-Down.
21. Clouseau's rank: Abbr.: INSP. In The Pink Panther movies, Inspector Clouseau is an incompetent French police detective. The role has been played by Peter Sellers, Alan Arkin, and Steve Martin.
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| Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau |
25. Comic actor David: SPADE. David Spade started out as a stand-up comic. He was a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1990 to1996. Since then, he's acted in TV sitcoms and quite a few movies. He hosts a podcast, Fly on the Wall, with Dana Carvey.
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| Dana Carvey and David Spade |
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29. Gulf Coast wading bird: EGRET.
30. Tick or tock: NOISE.
31. Skin care product: TONER. Toner is supposed to remove any remaining impurities after cleansing, balance the skin’s pH, and soothe and hydrate the skin.
33. Part of FTW: THE. For The Win! Possibly originating with the TV game show Hollywood Squares, "For The Win" is used to express support for a choice that should guarantee success. Lengthy example: "Dining out is the classic date experience, but it can be really expensive depending on when and where you go. Weekend brunch FTW! It’s cheaper than going out to dinner at the same restaurant, and many places offer unlimited mimosas or other alcoholic beverages. Plus, you get to choose between breakfast and lunch options. Brunch is the best meal of the day." -- https://lifehacker.com/top-10-wallet-friendly-date-ideas-1758826946
34. "V for Vendetta" actor Stephen: REA. Stephen Rea is an Irish actor of stage and screen. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1992 thriller The Crying Game. Other movie credits include V for Vendetta, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire and Breakfast on Pluto.
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| Stephen Rea |
39. Squeal when a bug lands in one's hair: GET IT OFF.
41. Soft-shell __: CRAB.
42. School assignments: REPORTS.
43. Bic's __ Stic: CLIC.
46. Absolutely amazing: UNREAL.
49. Do some poking around: SNOOP.
50. Cast a ballot: VOTED.
51. Nesting creature: BIRD. Here in Southern California, many eyes are glued to a webcam trained on a Bald Eagle nest in the local mountains. The parents spent an incredible amount of time on the nest during a massive snow storm, and in the end, two of their three chicks survived.
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| Jackie and Shadow keep the eaglets warm. |
52. Garfield's slobbering housemate: ODIE.
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| Garfield and Odie |
54. "On the __ Up": Angie Thomas novel about a teenage rapper: COME. Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was published in 2019.
55. Flour for roti and naan: ATTA. Learned in LA Times crossword puzzles.
56. Hopping mad: IRED. Ire can be used as a verb, to make angry. Nothing ires him more than having to wait for his dinner. He had to wait for his dinner, and was predictably ired. Or so Merriam-Webster's online thesaurus would have us believe.
57. Perspective, figuratively: LENS. As in, I see everything through the lens of cruciverbalism.
There was no reveal, but
ReplyDeleteperhaps none was really needed. Some of the clues seemed to me to be a bit obscure, however. Nonetheless, FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, getting my WAG @ SWAP x ALIA. BRACE yourself was originally blame yourself, but I really wanted one more letter and a fill starting with "go" then four more letters. I also got my Ektorps confused, filling Lipa where RITA was needed.
ReplyDeleteI've never had a Tacoma, but I have had a Sequoia. Same vehicle with a SUV body. Absolutely fabulous vehicle. Only problem I had was a recall to prevent the rear glass from refusing to go back up. The fix entailed removing a part from the rear door assembly and throwing it away. No replacement, just rid the vehicle of the offending part.
There will never be a day when I have a PET SNAKE.
I wanted a soft shell taco, but settled for a CRAB. Don't like them in real life.
Thanks to Zachary for the mostly-fun Thursday challenge. Too much A&E content for my liking, though. And thanks to NaomiZ for another fine review.
I'm with you on the PET SNAKE! Won't go into the reptile center at the zoo. Don't even like to see photos of snakes.
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteYankee SWAP? Is that an east coast thing? D-o also had a parsing error -- filled in the answer, but didn't recognize IRO BOT. Pitt? Penn? Nope, NOVA. Still it all came together in about 10 minutes, appropriate for a Thursday. Thanx, Zachary (any relation to Adam?) and NaomiZ.
Nidehululi was born and raised in Boston and never heard of a Yankee Swap.
DeleteTook 7:02 today to listen to Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know one of today's actresses (Alia, but I knew Ross), the book title (Come), clic, the Haitian friend (amie), or the spelling of the Latin (vici). My emphatic refusal was first "hell no."
I agree with the earlier comments about obscurity and A&E, but still a good puzzle.
FIR. For a Thursday this seemed somewhat easy. Several proper names I didn't know, but the perps came to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme on the first long answer, and that helped quite a lot.
Overall this was an enjoyable puzzle.
I spent my first 23 years living in New England and have never heard of a YANKEE SWAP , time to hit up wiki. What kind of Stealing is ok there? RITA ORA has a new audience since she joined the panel of The Masked Singer , a show Oo and I watch. The singing is often quite good, and the singers are often surprising.
ReplyDeleteIn most states Esq. is not a courtesy title, but one that can only be used if one has an active bar membership.
Not familiar with ALIA SHAWKAT but she sounds interesting.
Thank you, Zachary and Naomi.
Easiest puzzle of the week, got it 75% done before I even had to look at the "down" clues.
ReplyDeleteI only knew Yankee Swap thanks to a classic Christmas episode of "The Office."
The themers were filled easily with just a few scatterred perps.
I've owned many vehicles in my life, including 60's-70's classic muscle cars but my 2006 Tacoma is my all-time favorite.
Whoops... *scattered
DeleteYankee SWAP: “The Office” takes place in Scranton, maybe it’s a Pennsylvania thing. Never heard the term here in central NYS.
DeleteHaving enjoyed a recent string of solid, interesting, and well-clued puzzles, I guess it was inevitable that eventually things would revert to something unoriginal that you'd find in the grocery store checkout line.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle's overall identity was replete with obscurities that are just not in my bailiwick, such as TV personalities, fashion, cosmetics, comic actors, singers, movie characters, and on and on. The clue for TIMON was not a thoughtful or clever Shakespearean reference, but somebody from "The Lion King"!
Crossword fill should consist of words or names that we either know or can at least infer. This is impossible with an obscure clue; even if we get it right through the help of perps and wags, we have no idea if it's right. Down in the SW, I had no clue if RITA was correct, especially because it was violating another crossword guideline: crossing with another obscurity, ULTA.
I grew up back East, and like others, I never heard of a Yankee swap. Unless it was a trade, say, with the Red Sox, for Babe Ruth.
Thanks, Naomi, for your usual amusing and helpful recap.
Some hesitation/delay in the two upper corners for a while. Comfortably predictable theme: (“Philadelphia” “Manhattan” are also both movies, LIUed: didn’t know there was also “Boston” documentary film about the marathon plus a 2024 film “TACOMA”)…
ReplyDelete“Avocados” are ovoid (Egg-shaped), OVAL is 2 dimensional like a circle or a square.
Inkovers: Alta/ULTA, NOLA/NOVA (I shoulda known …. the clue said “Pennsylvania”
Only a PSYCHIC would know that Will Smith would star in a sci-fi film 10 years from now 😱. I put HE🏒🏒 before HECK. Know ATTA and RITA Ora from CW’s. EGRET, first entry was heron which screwed things up for a while
“A-listers” plural should be ELITES but ELITE probably used here as a collective plural. “Yankee” SWAP? Just read the explanation, toadily new to me.
IRED? “Lemme think” … UMM? NO!
Vehicle for meeting girls…. PICKUPTRUCK
If she insists on writing a handwritten note , ____ LETTER.
“Recommended by ____ out ____ doctors” (add a product name)…NINE, OFTEN
I just put out all the patio furniture so it’ll probably snow tomorrow 😟
Here is a list of real U.S. city names
ReplyDeleteYes, there really is a Ding Dong Tx, a Two Egg Fl, and believe it or not, a person from Accident Md is called an accidental...
Here's two more for your list: Cut and Shoot, TX and Truth Or Consequences, NM.
DeleteI've been through Howey-in-the-Hills, FL a few times.
DeleteI grew up in upstate New York. I never heard of a Yankee Swap until I moved to New Hampshire in 1983. Yankee Swaps are very common here during the Holidays. I attended one several years ago. The first person to select a gift received a bottle of Irish Cream Liqueur, much to his delight. The second person to select a gift opted to swap her gift for the liqueur resulting in hard feelings. The third person opted to swap his gift for the liqueur resulting in more hard feelings, and so on. Under the rules of a Yankee Swap, at the conclusion of the Swap, the first person to choose a gift can swap his or her gift for any of the other gifts. You can guess what happened.
ReplyDeleteThere were now hard feelings to the extent that people weren’t speaking to one another. I wanted to say, “Hey guys, there’s a State run Liquor Store less than a mile from here, and you’ll never guess what they sell!” Happy Holidays, indeed.
FIR but needed lots of perps. I didn’t know ALIA, ROSS, the meerkat, LOTR, or FTW. I didn’t know NOVA or COME as clued. I also didn’t know that Boston was the name of á band. The other long fills were easy enough.
ReplyDeleteAnd like so many so far, I’ve never heard of YANKEE SWAP although as Anonymous @ 9:48 describes it that is exactly what we do every Christmas but we just call it White Elephant.
DH loves soft shell CRABs.
We had ATTA, ALIA, ULTA.
Anon @ 9:48 thanks for splainin’ Yankee SWAP: sounds like the perfect way to lose friends ruin a Christmas party
ReplyDeleteAnd now for something completely different
Is the blog sponsored by ads? Seems both the reveal and comments are peppered with an increasing number of them. Sometimes I can’t distinguish ad spots from the reviewers’ pictures.
When I open the blog there is often an add that covers the entire phone screen I could swipe, “X” or “arrow” away but Iately I have to shut down the blog and reload.
I've just always assumed that CC makes a few bucks from those ads. The more readers, the more ad revenue goes to Blogger and the more bucks CC gets from Google. If that's the way it works, I'm glad to put up with the ads.
DeleteI forgot to thank NaomiZ for á fine Review.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI, too, have never heard of Yankee Swap, nor the book title, “On the Come up”, both of which (Swap and Come) could have been clued as the common, ordinary words that they are, along with Brace and and Crab which didn’t need a fill in the blanks clue. This habit of seemingly taking unnecessary shortcuts and/or deliberate embellishing simple word cluing lessens the quality of the puzzle, IMO. On a positive note, the theme was cute and fresh and the perps were fair.
Thanks, Zachary, and thanks, Naomi, for a thorough and enjoyable review. All of the photos were striking, especially the one of Alia Shawkut and her trademark multi-freckled visage.
Monkey, I’m sure your DH enjoyed the last episode of Bosch: Legacy as Maddie’s screen time was minuscule and the story line and circumstances were pure Bosch-centric. It was a very fitting ending to an otherwise so-so series.
Have a great day.
I think I've watched that episode of Will Trent with all its multiple threads. What was I supposed to notice (that I apparently did not)?
DeleteDO, I just thought the hallucinatory psychedelic segment a little silly and over the top.
DeleteTesting Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Zachary and NaomiZ.
ReplyDeleteI FIRed eventually, and got the city themes, but oh! the inkblots.
Kept instead of HELD held up the NE corner. This Canadian had no clue about NOVA. I was going to blame Canadian disadvantage for SWAP, but apparently some of you Americans were not familiar with it either. OHIO I guessed, even if I didn’t know the presidents.
“Fixed” was a look, not the act of mending
HMM changed to UMM.
The clue for NOISE was a Meh iIMHO.
I thought of Taco at 41D, but perps gave ClAm and then CRAB.
Heron soon perped to EGRET.
Back later.
Wishing you all a great day.
Not that difficult today, except for a brain freeze that made me flub two answers I have heard of before. I thought of ORA as a first name and couldn't remember ULTA, so I missed that crossing T. I was sure RITA was not a last name. Duh! Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
ReplyDeleteSussing the cute theme early helped the solve, but I didn't know Boston/ classic rock band and needed many perps.
Yankee Swap was unknown and perped. I have heard of white elephant exchanges. Often the gifts are gag gifts, so there are no hard feelings.
I was surprised that OHIO was spelled out when the clue included U.S.
The use of obscure here grates on me,
Google AI says, "No, "obscure" and "unknown" are not exactly the same, although they share some overlap. "Obscure" can refer to something that is not widely known, but it also implies a sense of being difficult to understand or find. "Unknown" simply means not being known or familiar.
For instance, Emmanuel Macron the president of France is not obscure, even though some individuals never heard of him.
I believe I'll just Echo T-Ken today. Pretty much sums up my take on this one. If both the clue and answers are unknown to me, they go in the "obscure" column. Ditto for actress/actors/singers I've never heard of from shows/movies I've never seen or songs I never heard. Definitely in the obscure column! That's my story, an' I'm stickin' to it.
ReplyDeleteTook me 15 minutes but I did FIR, I mistakenly looked for the theme in the answers and not the clues, so I was baffled by that. DNK ALIA, TIMON, or COME as clued, got NOVA when Pitt didn’t perp. Like almost everyone else Yankee SWAP was unknown to me. I sorta disagree with TK about RITA and ULTA being obscure as they make frequent appearances in the LAT CW, about as often as Issa, Açaí, and Adele etc. Thank you Zach for today’s challenge, and to NaomiZ for another fine detailed write-up. Job SPECs (at least in construction) also include exactly what materials are to be used and the procedures for putting it all together, ENSUREing the customer gets just what they ordered. Snowy EGRETs are a very common sight here in SW Florida.
ReplyDeleteYooperPhil makes a valid point about the word "obscurity," because what is obscure to me is not obscure to the next guy. We should probably use some other designation.
DeleteI am a member of Learned League, a web-based quiz league where we go head-to-head against each other. There are about 25 categories of questions. My lowest scores are in Pop Culture, TV, Pop Music, and Lifestyle. Obscurity is not the issue; i'm just not interested in, and don't follow, these things, so get about 0-1% of these questions correct. And will probably rontinue to run amiss of Tracee Ellis Ross or Rita Ora on crosswords no matter how often they appear.
Ken, I try to always use either unknown or unfamiliar.
DeleteI use “unknown to me”.
DeleteYeah, that's the reason I stopped using "Natick" and even "Personal Natick." I don't agree with trying to change the way people use words, but it's too trivial for me to fight about.
DeleteMy wife has lepidopterophobia (now that's a crossword!) an irrational fear of butterflies. And even though we joke about it, I've heard GET IT OFF more than once. Needless to say, a nearby attraction called Butterfly World featuring 20,000 live butterflies, is not on her bucket list!
ReplyDelete15 names, DNK 9, so this should have been a tough solve, but somehow it came together, FIR in 10, which for me is excellent Thursday time. WMOS re "Yankee Swap". TOYOTA also fit, and came to mind before PICKUP, but perps said otherwise. Only W/O was due to carelessly filling SPED at 66A instead of 65A, which caused some furrowed brow in the SE. IRED? Is that really a word? WMOS, not a big fan of obscure names. Anyway, got 'er done, and had fun doing it, so thanx ZS. Thanx too to NaomiZ for the terrific write-up. What, no BDs today?
ReplyDeleteOh, I meant to comment on the symmetry of the grid, especially the way the theme fills were placed. Well done, ZS.
ReplyDeleteYankee Swap is also known as Grab the Gift
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-I really liked the puzzle, the cluing and the gimmick
-A Yankee SWAP caused hard feelings at a faculty party and was not repeated. A nice gift made it into the mix and everyone kept stealing it in exchange for a true white elephant.
-I am chopping out surface ROOTS that are making my lawn bumpy and killing grass
-Yesterday, in another blog I follow, a man HELD that if you are confronted with an angry DOG charging you, you should stand your ground, growl back and perhaps charge the dog. Running is futile. Hmmm...
-I am grateful that seeing an E-CIG or a real cig is very uncommon in my world
-Yes, I’ll take Totie Fields For The Win
-The final round of The Masters seemed to be UNREAL
-Irish! You and I definitely connect on a higher plane! Well, higher for me and lower for you. :-)
-Nice job, Naomi!
Better clue for “tick tock” would have been “: where the clock went”
ReplyDeleteMy feelings about this puzzle are much the same as many of you have expressed. I did like the theme gimmick. I also very much liked your write-up, NaomiZ, and all your comments, folks.
ReplyDeleteI went to Villanova for a while. I learned much more there than at Yale or Stanford. My best learning was had during a very pleasant 4 years at the University of Oregon.
During his teen years, our son liked the music of bands like Boston, Journey, Men at Work, and Genesis.
Husker Gary, I have actually stopped a dog from being aggressive toward me by scowling, growling, showing my teeth, and looking him in the eye, like an alpha dog would do. It works. Or at least it worked in that one instance.
Speaking of "one," from last night, in the brief discussion of UNE vs UN, I respond to Lucina that indeed UNE is the feminine singular indefinite article, and would translate into English as "a," as in "a woman." And you are right in pointing out that it is not the number 1 used in counting, just as "half of dos" is not "una" but rather is "uno."
Good reading you all.
Yet is you are counting several women you would begin by une, and when counting down, it always begins with une, because the implicit word “fois” meaning time (as in one time, two times, etc) is á feminine noun.
DeleteMonkey, you are absolutely right.
DeleteHola! Busy day today and strong emotions in the comment section! our family has a "White Elephant" game; I've never heard it called a Yankee Swap and we are encouraged to take undesirable or amusing items. Some of them really are very funny and we have a good time. We've never had hard feelings as the items aren't usually worth it and everyone knows that gifts can be "stolen" so don't get attached!
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was fairly easy and fun, thank you, Zachary Schiff. And thank you, NaomiZ for explaining. I tried but could not find the theme. Enjoy a great day everyone!
Jayce thank you for further explaining UNE/UN.
ReplyDeleteSee my reply above for further complications.
DeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Zachary, for the City puzzle. Fun Stuff!
//(old) El Paso - PICANTE SAUCE [12]
Thanks, NaomiZ, for the City tour; great stuff as always.
WOs: N/A
ESP: ALIA, NOVA, RITA
Fav: I, ROBOT - great short story and wonderful (different) movie.
@7:26a: I had "__CK NO" at 44d and I couldn't get two letters out of my head ;-)
I enjoyed reading y'all!
Cheers, -T