Quoting from Husker's review of the April 1, 2023 puzzle, constructor "Katie Hale, originally from Houston, is now a stay-at-home mom in London and Patti's assistant editor for the LA Times puzzles. We have seen her in a collaborative role quite often." And it looks like Adam Arvidson, her collaborator today, is making his debut with the LA Times.
Together
they invite us on a whirlwind tour circle-navigating the scrambled
world of today's crossword with this theme reveal ...
60. Travel the world with one bag, and what can be found in this puzzle's circled letters?: BACKPACK. And while it may disappoint some, finding the BACKWARD PACKS wouldn't have been very easy without those round things ...
16A. "Not in public, you two!": GET A ROOM.
Publicly the speaker here is suggesting that a couple involved in a PDA
go someplace more private. But privately this clue refers to the RAT PACK,
an informal group of entertainers, the second iteration of which
ultimately made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues.
They originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as an evolving group
of A-list show business friends, including Errol Flynn, Nat King Cole, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra and others who met casually at the home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. By the 1960s, the group featured Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, among others. Here are some of the usual suspects:
25A. Spot to catch a ride: TAXI STAND. Drinking a cold one from a SIX PACK at a taxi stand might get you in some trouble. But if I were going to risk it, it would be one of these:
38A. Skydiving event: PARACHUTE JUMP. Parachuting has been around since 1617 and is a well established skill. OTOH a JET PACK is a device worn on the back which uses jets of gas or liquid to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and became widespread in the 1960s. However they still haven't taken off yet, primarily due to their weight, the dangers of the exhaust stream, and their limited range and unwieldiness. Work is underway developing electric versions which would eliminate at least some (but not all) of these limitations ...
I loved the narrator touting another video at the end on an "insane nuclear fusion break thru" (as always "just 10 years away" I'm sure).
49A. Safety device in some kitchens: CHILD LOCK. Here's a HOWTO on installing child locks on kitchen cabinets:
COLD packs are those BLUE BLOCKS you stash in your cooler to keep your SIX PACK cold.
Here's the grid ...
Across:
1. Peppermint __: TEA.
4. Float (in): WAFT.
8. Dangerous nestful: WASPS. Bob V shows you How to Get Rid of Wasps: Say “Goodbye!” in 5 Easy Steps. Here's one:
 |
| Wasp Nest |
13. Circle section: ARC.
14. Uttar Pradesh city: AGRA. A World Heritage site that has enshrined itself in the crossword canon by virtue of two vowels plus endings for a gerund and a comparative adjective:
 |
| Taj Mahal Uttar Pradesh, India |
15. Bakery-cafe chain: PANERA. We often take one of our granddaughters there after she's worked up an appetite after a volley ball game.
18. Longtime bud: OLD PAL.
19. Loops in, in a way: CC'S. Stuff owned by our fearless leader, who always keeps us in the loop. Also short for Carbon Copy. What the heck is that?
20. Nina Simone's "I Put a __ on You": SPELL. Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop. This song just might be enough for Jinx to get his letters straight. 😀
22. Bygone airline: TWA. Trans World Airlines for you younger folks.
23. Romanov dynast: TSAR. One of the dominant leaders in 4 letter fill, along with killer whales and irresistible cookies.
25. [Theme clue]
27. Clothes line: INSEAM.
30. Regarding: AS TO.
31. Lucy of "Elementary": LIU. Lucy Alexis Liu (born December 2, 1968) is an American actress. Her accolades include winning a Critics' Choice Television Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Seoul International Drama Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award. Here's a trailer for Elementary:
32. Schlocky stuff: KITSCH. or GEE GAWS.
35. "Curses!": FIE. Late 13c., possibly from Old French fi, exclamation of disapproval.
38. [Theme clue]
41. "Mr. Blue Sky" gp.: ELO. The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with futuristic iconography. Here's their 1977 hit Mr Blue Sky ...
42. Ride-hitching fish: REMORA. REMORA, (family Echeneidae), also called sharksucker or suckerfish are noted for attaching themselves to, and riding about on, sharks, other large marine animals, and even oceangoing ships. The hobos of the sea world I guess. This clip has more on these fascinating creatures ...
43. Card worth four points in bridge: ACE.
45. Cambodia neighbor: LAOS.
47. Peace in the Middle East: SHALOM. SHALOM is a Hebrew word meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility and can be used idiomatically to mean both hello and goodbye. We've been streaming a series called The Chosen about life during the time of Christ. As Hebrew doesn't have comparative endings it achieves this by repeating words. In one scene Peter is asked by a Roman friend, "I understand Shalom but what does it mean when you say Shalom, Shalom?" Peter replies that it means "Perfect peace". The Middle East is still trying to find SHALOM after nearly two millennia. For more on this subject see 4D.
 |
| Shalom |
54. Part in four-part harmony: ALTO. The A in SATB.
55. Flying Solo?: HAN. A famous Star Wars cowboy, who flew the Millennium Falcon.
56. "Glass Onion" star Janelle: MONAE. Glass Onion is a Knives Out Mystery starring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, and Janelle MONAE, who gets rave reviews from her fellow cast members in this trailer ...
.
57. Bauxite or hematite: ORE. Tin (Sn) and Iron (Fe).
58. 23-Across's realm: RUSSIA. The current TSAR makes that Romanov's realm look like the "good old days".
60. [Theme reveal]
64. Entry-level position: INTERN.
65. Part of A.D.: ANNO. Today's Latin lesson.
66. Sushi spheres: ROE. Tiny ones.
67. Clinton's former department: STATE. Hillary Clinton was the 67th Secretary of STATE.
 |
| Hillary Clinton |
69. Hog heaven: STY.
Down:
1. Playground game that is now a professional sport: TAG. At first I thought this was about Laser TAG, but it's really just about TAG.
2. Afore: ERE.
3. "Just pretend we belong here": ACT CASUAL. The art of being nonchalant ...
4. Conflicts in history class: WARS. We tend to think of WARS as a chaotic events, but in 1944 physicist Lewis F. Richardson published a peer reviewed article entitled The Distribution of Wars in Time, a mathematical analysis of wars that indicated that they were to a certain extent predictable, and perhaps even preventable. The previous article is behind a paywall but this article, The Mathematics of War: On Earthquakes and Conflicts is based on Richardson's work, et. al. and also contains a link to a TED TALK summarizing the topic. Unsatisfied at the conclusion of the TED TALK, I posited this question to Google's Bard: "What can we do to end war?", and got this response. I'm still not satisfied.
5. "Four score and seven years __ ... ": AGO. ... speaking of WARS.
6. "After Apple-Picking" poet: FROST. The first line of which is "My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree ..."
7. Florida's third-largest city: TAMPA.
8. NYC stretch originally called "Het Cingel" by the Dutch: WALL ST. Today's Dutch lesson (is this our first?). WALL STREET, the home of the New York Stock Exchange, was originally known in Dutch as "Het Cingel" (or "the Belt") when it was part of New Amsterdam in the 17th century. An actual wall existed on the street from 1653 to 1699. During the 18th century, Wall Street was a slave trading marketplace and a securities trading site, and from the early eighteenth century (1703) the location of Federal Hall, New York's first city hall:
 |
| The History of the Charging Bull |
10. Heart dividers: SEPTA. What to know about the septum of the heart.
12. Caesar __: SALAD.
15. Buffers: POLISHERS.
17. 43,560 square feet: ACRE.
21. Precise, in Peru: EXACTO. Today's Spanish lesson.
23. "Voices Carry" pop group __ Tuesday: TIL. 'TIL Tuesday (often stylized as 'til tuesday) was an American new wave band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The band, consisting of Aimee Mann (lead vocals, bass), Robert Holmes (guitar), Joey Pesce (keyboards), and Michael Hausman (drums), was active from 1982 to 1989. They are best known for their 1985 hit single [hush, hush] Voices Carry (or as my Father used to say to my Mother, "Little pitchers have big ears"). Lyrics ...
24. Toss insults (at): SNIPE.
26. Vegetarian staple: TOFU.
28. Letters between names: AKA.
29. Small amount of seed money: MICROLOAN. We saw this fill on March 30, 2023 clue 48A.
33. Holy Trinity member: THE SON. That is Jesus Christ. Christians celebrated his Resurrection from the dead just four days ago on Easter Sunday.
34. Bottom line amount: SUM.
36. "Tell me!": I'M ALL EARS. We had this fill on last Thursday, clue 60A. Did y'all hear it?
37. Spaceship Earth theme park: EPCOT. Where the Impossible Becomes Possible.
 |
| Epcot Theme Park |
39. $10 worth of quarters, e.g.: ROLL. A CSO to Lucina (she'll explain it to you). Every penny counts ...
40. God, in Rastafarianism: JAH. And yes, He speaks German!
44. Fall Out Boy genre: EMO. There seems to be some of controversy over whether Fall Out Boy is really EMO. You'll have to decide that one for your self (simulated violence) ...
46. Esteem: ADMIRE.
48. Org. founded by Ethel Percy Andrus: AARP. Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus: One Woman Who Changed America ...
 |
| Ethel Percy Andrus |
50. Weigh on: HAUNT.
51. The 'gram: INSTA. INSTA is the more commonly used abbreviation, to avoid confusing its users with the metric unit defined as the weight of 1 cubic centimeter of water.
52. Scheming group: CABAL.
53. Reeves of "Always Be My Maybe": KEANU. Always Be My Maybe is a 2019 American romantic comedy film, starring Randall Park and Ali Wong as childhood friends Marcus and Sasha, who have not been in touch since a brief teenage fling that ended badly. When Sasha returns to San Francisco to open a restaurant and romantic chemistry from their teenager years remains, Marcus's fears and Sasha's fame and demanding career challenge their potential new relationship. I don't think KEANU had to do much rehearsing for this scene ...
57. "Fine! Yes!": OK OK.
59. Prepared: SET.
61. Fareed Zakaria's channel: CNN. Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (born 20 January 1964) is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a weekly column for The Washington Post. He has been a columnist for Newsweek, editor of Newsweek International, and an editor at large of Time.
 |
| Fareed Zakaria |
62. Camp sight: COT.
63. Delete, e.g.: KEY.
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof
reading, for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
