Tuesday, May 27, 2025 Alan Massengill and Doug Peterson

A Friendly Word of Advice.  Each of the theme answers is in the Down position to create a Column of Advice.

4-Down. "Things are going well, so avoid sudden changes": DON'T ROCK THE BOAT.

8-Down. "If you rush, you won't do it right": HASTE MAKES WASTE.

17-Down. "Relax and take things as they come": ONE DAY AT A TIME.

And the unifier: 

9-Down. "Dear Abby," "Ask Amy," et al., and an apt description of 4-, 8-, and 17-Down: ADVICE COLUMNS.

In The Graduate, the advice Dustin Hoffman was given was Plastics.  My advice to you is AirTags.  We were just vacationing and were flying from one tiny island to another.  Our luggage was inadvertently taken by another guest's cab driver to the ferry station.  We were heading to the airport.  Fortunately, the AirTags in allowed us to locate our luggage, which we were able to retrieve before it headed off to a location unknown.

Here's the Grid so you can more easily find the Advice Columns.

What other advice does today's puzzle give us?

Across:

1. Basic bed: COT.

4. Vader's title: DARTH.  A Star Wars reference.

9. Tablet downloads: APPS.

13. Language similar to Thai: LAO.  //  And 5-Down. Like 13-Across: ASIAN.

14. Tennis champion Naomi: OSAKA.  Naomi Osaka (b. Oct. 16, 1997) is a Japanese professional tennis player and has been ranked as the world's number 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association.

15. Self-improvement icon Carnegie: DALE.  Dale Carnegie taught courses in self-improvement and is probably best known for being the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People.  I don't believe he wrote advice columns, however.

16. "The Simpsons" bus driver: OTTO.

18. Yucatán boys: NIÑOS.  Today's Spanish lesson.  It's a short flight from New Orleans to the Yucatán.

19. Scenic sight: VIEW.

20. "Game" of missed connections: PHONE TAG.

22. Classic Fords: T-BIRDS.

24. Acquire with effort: EARN.

25. Former Ford div.: MERC.  Mercury was a division of Ford Motor Company until 2011, when Ford phased out the brand.

26. "No choice, sorry": I HAD TO.

29. In a melancholy way: SOMBERLY.

33. Astronauts org.: NASA.

34. Brownie ingredient: COCOA.

36. Farewell accompanied by an air kiss: CIAO.  Today's Italian lesson.

37. DVD holder: TRAY.  It took me a minute to figure out this clue.  We haven't used DVDs in centuries!

38. Rap: KNOCK.

39. The Grand Ole __: OPRY.

40. Div. of Labor: OSHA.

41. Church donation: TITHE.  A Tithe is traditionally considered one tenth of annual produce or earnings for the support of the Church.

42. Italian lake: LAGO.  I confidently wrote in Como, until the perps let me to realize that we were looking for a more generic Italian lake.  This is a continuation of today's Italian lesson.

43. Impassioned to the extreme: WHITE HOT.

45. Lightly fries in oil: SAUTÉS.

47. Prayer ending: AMEN.

48. Did the first stage of a triathlon: SWAM.  The three stages of a triathlon are: swimming, cycling, and running, all in sequence.

49. Spot for a therapeutic cold plunge: ICE TUB.

52. Colorful reef dweller: SEA SNAKE.

56. Full-length skirt: MAXI.

57. Hockey Hall of Famer Adam: OATES.  Adam Robert Oates (b. Aug. 27, 1962) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player.  He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012.

59. Iditarod vehicle: SLED.  This Alaskan race has an interesting history.

60. British baby carriage: PRAM.

61. Change with the times: ADAPT.

62. Wooden pin: PEG.

63. Equivalent: SAME.

64. Succinct: TERSE.

65. Foxy: SLY.

Down:

1. Hoofbeat sound: CLOP.

2. Pledge in court: OATH.

3. Dorothy Gale's pup: TOTO.

6. Called up: RANG.

7. MMA decision: TKO.  As in Mixed Martial Arts and a Technical KnockOut.

10. Connect via Bluetooth, say: PAIR.  What, exactly, is Bluetooth?  Bluetooth technology is named after Danish and Norwegian King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson.  He was known for uniting (pairing) Norway and Denmark in 958.  

11. Swore: PLED.

12. Stitches (up): SEWS.

21. Consume: EAT.

23. Texter's "Gimme a sec": BRB.  Textspeak for Be Right Back.

25. Freeloading sort: MOOCH.

26. Following behind: IN TOW.

27. Like an arctic winter: HARSH.

28. Beer with sushi, maybe: ASAHI.

29. "The Great Gatsby" novelist F. __ Fitzgerald: SCOTT.  The Great Gatsby, which was published in 1925, focuses millionaire Jay Gatsby and his pursuit of love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan.  The novel is narrated by Nick Carraway, a young man who becomes acquainted with Gatsby and witnesses his extravagant life and the tragic consequences of his desire.  The novel has been adapted into many movie versions.  The Great Gatsby is arguably the best known novel by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (Sept. 24, 1896 ~ Dec. 21, 1940).

30. Open eagerly, as a present: RIP AT.

31. Not quite jumbo: LARGE.

32. Up-and-down toys: YOYOs.

35. Pungent bulb: ONION.

44. Bird on the Australian coat of arms: EMU.  The Australian shield is held up by the native Australian animals the kangaroo and the emu, which were chosen to symbolize a nation moving forward, based on the fact that neither animal can move backwards easily.

46. Small batteries: AAs.

48. Oozes: SEEPS.

49. Real troublemakers: IMPS.

50. Chanel model Delevingne: CARA.  Cara Jocelyn Delevingne (b. Aug. 12, 1992) is an English model and actress.

51. Academic hurdle: EXAM.

52. Betelgeuse, for one: STAR.  Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star located in the constellation Orion.  The name Betelguese is derived from the Arabic term bat al-jawzāʾ, which means “the giant's shoulder."

53. Mont Blanc's range: ALPS.  Also the name of an expensive pen.

54. On an even __: stable: KEEL.

55. With just a bit of spice: EDGY.

58. Citrus drink suffix: -ADE.  And a shout-out to our friend Lemonade.

~~~~~~
Many thanks to Rusty Brain for taking the Tuesday spot while I was away.

See you next week!

חתולה

Monday May 12, 2025 Doug Peterson and Angela Kinsella Olson

  

Happy Monday, everyone! sumdaze here. Doug Peterson is a frequent contributor to the LAT and we met Angela Kinsella Olson once before . Today they have teamed up for a notable puzzle.

Theme:  

Today's themed answers are all vertical entries -- a refreshing change for a Monday grid. We have:

3 Down. *Neighborhood where the Brooklyn Dodgers played: FLATBUSH.  Before moving to Los Angeles, the Brooklyn Dodgers played at Ebbets Field from 1913-1957. The ball park was located in FLATBUSH, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

While this answer might not be common knowledge, I like that it connects with Los Angelenos. After all, this is the LA Times.

Ebbets Field facts, figures, photos, & history

5 Down. *ZZ Top hit with the lyric "Silk suit, black tie": SHARP DRESSED MAN. Gotta love this song from 1983!  

9 Down. *Soil, water, or wind, e.g.: NATURAL RESOURCE.  

Now for the reveal:

40 Down. Initial perfume scents, or what can be found in the answers to the starred clues: TOP NOTES.

Perfume is a mixture of different scents. These scents are created through a combination of fragrance oils, essential oils, and other aroma compounds. Each perfume has a unique scent that is made up of different notes in perfume. These notes are divided into three categories: top notes (the initial scent that you perceive right after application), middle notes (the heart of the fragrance that develops after the top notes fade), and base notes (the perfume’s lasting aroma that lingers for hours).  source

Also, the three themers all have a type of musical NOTE at their TOP.  FLAT (♭), SHARP (♯) and NATURAL (♮) are collectively called accidentals (hence today's theme). They let us know if the note should be moved down half a step, up half a step, or unaltered.

Works for me! Here is the grid:  

Check out those suspenders!

Shall we play on?

Across:

1. U.S. president who wrestled at Yale: TAFT.  There were five presidents with four-letter last names:  Polk, Taft, Ford, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. All but Polk attended Yale.

Taft was a wrestling champ at Yale. He was known for throwing his opponents hard with the "flying mare." A mare in collar and elbow is any throw that puts the adversary's feet above his head. As you can imagine, it's devastating. All you have to do is take a look at the size of Taft, and you can envision what his powerful wrestling capabilities were.  source

5. Reject: SPURN.

10. "How does that __ you?": GRAB.  

14. Beaut: LULU.  We had this one on May 2. I cannot tell if beaut is being used sarcastically. I think it is but some of these synonyms are compliments.  

15. Hebrew prophet: HOSEA.  I had mOSEs for a while because for some reason I was thinking the song was SmARt Dressed Man. Good grief!

16. Traditional tales: LORE.

17. "Nerts!": DRAT. Both are exclamations of exasperation...or so I am told.

18. Go with the flow: ADAPT.  

The print is tiny. It says,
"My ability to ADAPT is the key to my success."

19. "The Brutalist" actress Laird: EMMA.  The Brutalist received ten nominations at this year's Oscars. This is Emma's IMDb page.

20. Not for children: RATED R.  I had the first R so I tried R-rated. Nope.

22. "No problem!": I SURE CAN.

24. Paging device: BEEPER.  Pagers were popular from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. However, by the 2000s, smaller, more affordable cell phones with better battery life led most consumers to switch to cellular communication.  source

26. Dee Dee of punk rock: RAMONE.  [1951-2002] Born Douglas Glenn Colvin, Dee Dee Ramone was an American musician and founding member of the Ramones.  

Ramones   ~   Teenage Lobotomy   ~   1977

"Now I guess I'll have to tell 'em that I got no cerebellum."

27. Spike Lee's employer: Abbr.: NYU.  Director Spike Lee has taught at New York University for 30 years.

29. __ Bach: fictional "forgotten son" of classical music: P. D. Q.  He is a satirical persona used by composer Peter Schickele to parody classical music.  

Portrait of P. D. Q. Bach album cover (1977)

30. Droop: SAG.

31. Mediocre, in Gen Z slang: MID.  as in "MIDdle of the road"

32. The "T" of SAT: TEST.  But it's not only a TEST. 

34. Stole steers: RUSTLED.  

37. "So funny!": HA HA.

38. Lotus-__: EATER.  This one is a Greek mythology reference.  more info

39. Shopping cart unit: ITEM.  

43. Fashion magazine that went digital-only in 2022: INSTYLE.  I cannot show you this month's cover because they no longer do covers.

45. Home of Tulane University, for short: NOLA.  Let's take another musical interlude:  

Willie Nelson  ~  City of New Orleans   ~  1984

(Willie wrote over 300 songs but Steve Goodman wrote this one.)

46. Overwhelming feeling: AWE.

49. "__ it or lose it": USE.  <See the song for 26A.>

50. Winter hrs. in Las Cruces: MST.  hours and Mountain Standard Time

52. Domino dimple: PIP.

53. Mock mercilessly: DERIDE.  Def.:  (verb) to laugh at or insult contemptuously.

55. Unlace, say: LOOSEN.  

57. Bestowed upon: HANDED TO.  

59. Signify approval of, as a Reddit post: UPVOTE.  Def.: (noun) a vote made by clicking an onscreen icon to signify one's approval or agreement with an online comment or post.

62. Foil alternative: ÉPÉE.  

this type of foil                                 not this

63. Alma __: MATER.  This can mean the place you went to school or the school's song.

I remember how cool it felt to be a high school freshman singing the alma mater for the first time after a football game.

65. Slanted type: Abbr.: ITAL.  ITALics

I did not find this clue to be very bold.

66. Stephanie's "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" role: ROSA.  The clue uses parallelism to tell us we only need the character's first name. 

I saw every episode of this TV show but still could not come up with a name.  

Rosa is second from the right.

67. San Diego State athlete: AZTEC.  This would be a gimme if SDSU is your 63A.

68. Six years for a U.S. senator, e.g.: TERM.

69. Docs who perform tonsillectomies: ENTS.

70. Disappointing turnout: NO ONE.  Yah, that's pretty rough.

71. Nile vipers: ASPS.  They are asp-olutely venomous.

Down:

1. Abbr. before a summary: TL;DR.  Too Long; Didn't Read

2. Mystical glow: AURA.  

4. Solo scholar: TUTEE.

6. Cacao container: POD.  

$67 from Miami Fruit

7. Old Pan Am rival: USAIR.

8. Union agts.: REPS.  agents and REPresentativeS

10. Electric toothbrush brand: GLEEM.  GLEEM also sold toothpaste in the U.S. from 1952-2014. Funny how sometimes things disappear and we do not notice.  

11. Date night flick: ROM-COM.  ROMantic-COMedy  

You've Got Mail   ~  (1998)   ~  "I wanted it to be you."   ~   (2:51 min.)

12. Italian fashion house: ARMANI.

13. Conked with a curveball: BEANED.  

21. Opp. of withdrawal: DEP.  Opposite and DEPosit  --  together a clueing composite!

23. Fury: RAGE.

25. Treat as the same: EQUATE.

27. To the __ degree: NTH.

28. Word of support: YEA.  Think "voting".

30. Patron of sailors: ST ELMO.  I knew this one from doing XWDs. 

AKA St. Erasmus, he is also the patron saint of stomach diseases and women in labor but those make for longer clues. His feast day is June 2.

33. Mai __: cocktail: TAI.  I learned from Good Job, Brain! that this cocktail was invented at the Trader Vic's restaurant in Oakland, CA in 1944.

35. Foul territory?: STY.  The clue is using sports terminology to talk about a place that smells foul.

36. Cacophony: DIN.

41. Yale grad: ELI.  Along with those listed in 1A, Bill Clinton is the fifth ELI U.S. president.

42. Hiker's graphic: MAP.  A MAP with elevation lines is preferable when hiking.  

44. Wearing nothing: NUDE.

46. Stick fast: ADHERE.

47. Clue category: WEAPON.  This one takes advantage of the capitalize-the-first-letter convention to distract solvers from thinking about the board game Clue.

48. Novelist Hemingway: ERNEST.

51. Amt. that may be "heaping": TSP.  amount and teaspoon

54. Mental flashes: IDEAS.  

55. State-run game: LOTTO.

56. Patti LuPone role: EVITA.  

So beautiful!

58. Brand with an Organic Blonde Tea Latte variety: TAZO.  

60. Rain delay cover: TARP.  

61. Colonnade trees: ELMS.

64. Poetic nightfall: E'EN.  EvENing

It's getting late. Time to sign out. Have a good week!