Theme: Divided we stand - united we fall? The reveal tell us what to look for:
59A. Politically diverse ballot ... and an apt description of each set of puzzle circles: SPLIT TICKET
The tickets that we find within the circled squares are, in order, SEASON, LIFT, GOLDEN, PARKING and MEAL, all split across two entries, just as the reveal tells us. As the "ticket" entries are each on a single line and separated by only one black square, I don't think it would be impossible to find them without the help of the circles, in fact I think I'd prefer if the circles weren't there and we were left to our own treasure-hunt devices.
No matter, the puzzle was a nice smooth solve. This seems to be the LA Times debut for Sean. He first blipped the cruciberb radar in the NYT back in January of this year, so congratulations on this first appearance in the LAT.
Without more ado, let's see what else we've got to talk about:
Across:
1. Astrological Ram: ARIES
6. Cleans out badly?: ROBS
10. __-pitch softball: SLO
13. Dry up: PARCH
14. Old photo hue: SEPIA. Not just old photographs. Sepia toning is used to give monochrome photographs a warmer tone, and also to increase their shelf-life in archives - the metallic silver in the print is converted to much-more-stable silver sulphide. Sodium sulphide was traditionally used, which has the unfortunate property of smelling like rotten eggs. You have to feel sympathy for the dark-room technician.
15. Equivocate: HEM. I'd call this a partial equivocation, can you hem without hawing, or haw without hemming? We should be told.
16. International waters: THE HIGH SEAS. I like this phrase. It really is an official designation in maritime law, being the open ocean not part of the territorial waters of any nation. When I was a kid it always conjured up pictures of decks awash with stormy waters, scurvied deckhands lashing down unruly sails and piratical ne'er-do-wells scavenging for treasure ships. Quite poetical, but the legal definition ignores all this.
18. Scrabble vowel value: ONE
19. Focus of a modern crisis: OPIOIDS. I tried OPIATES first, but then relatively quickly corrected myself.
20. Branch bit: TWIG
21. "The Persistence of Memory" artist: DALI. I think most of us call this work "The Melting Clocks". It can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dali described the clocks as "the camembert of time". I love the description. If you've ever watched a mature camembert slowly spread across the cheese board, you'll know exactly what he meant.
24. Teleflora rival: FTD. These folk popped up a couple of weeks ago.
25. Ice Capades setting: ARENA. My friend Richard Dwyer "Mr. Debonair" skated with the Ice Follies and the Ice Capades. He made his debut in 1950 when he was 14 and still skates today!
26. Word with string or sing: ALONG
28. Washington post: SENATOR. Nice clue.
31. Ulaanbaatar native: MONGOL. One of my high school friends quit her fledgling career in the Foreign Office when they tried to post her to Mongolia. She wasn't thrilled with the prospect, Paris, Milan or New York would have been more her style.
33. One concerned with bites: DENTIST
35. South of France?: SUD. I used to buy the newspaper "Sud Ouest" when I was on vacation in the south of France to improve my vocabulary. I learned a lot of sports-related words!
36. Trifling amount: SOU. More French. Originally any small coin of low denomination.
38. Former NBA exec Jackson: STU
39. "Dumbo" (2019) director Burton: TIM. This movie got terrible reviews, I don't think I'll be checking it out any time soon (ever!).
41. Off-leash play area: DOG PARK. There's a lot here in LA. One of my friends met his future wife at one when their dogs became acquainted.
44. Like many courtside interviews: IN-GAME
46. Pine detritus: NEEDLES
48. New York Harbor's __ Island: ELLIS
49. "Mad About You" daughter: MABEL
51. __ Zion Church: AME. WAG'ed this one, almost a personal natick with the crossing of KEATING, I didn't know either.
53. Actor Alan: ALDA
54. Runs: AIRS. TV shows.
55. Audit: SIT IN ON
58. Holstein sound: MOO. The holstein friesian dairy cow has the distinctive black-and-white coloring.
63. New Haven alum: ELI
64. L.L.Bean headquarters locale: MAINE
65. River in some Renoir paintings: SEINE
66. "Voices Carry" pop group __ Tuesday: TIL. Who? I YouTubed this, and of course I knew the song, I just didn't know the name of the group, the singer nor the title. Very '80's. Here's the link if you're interested.
67. Unaccompanied: STAG
68. Lauder of cosmetics: ESTÉE
Down:
1. Fitting: APT
2. Root word?: RAH. Another nice clue. Rah! Go Team!
3. Hot temper: IRE
4. Bouncing off the walls: ECHOING
5. Castaway's salvation: SHIP. Do you remember the screensaver that was all the rage in the early 90's? Johnny Castaway was never rescued.
6. Lived: RESIDED
7. Slanted page: OP-ED
8. Slant: BIAS
9. KLM rival: SAS. Scandinavian Airline System to give it its full name. Easier to remember than Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, that's for sure.
10. Locker room feature: SHOWER STALL
11. Red Square honoree: LENIN
12. Luxury watch: OMEGA
14. They're poured at bars: SHOTS
17. Many an animated Twitter pic: GIF
20. Picard's counselor: TROI. Two characters in the "Star Trek" franchise. I'd heard of Picard, not Troi, I'm not a Trekkie. Thank you, crosses.
21. Stops up: DAMS
22. Vocally: ALOUD
23. Marinated beef dish: LONDON BROIL Like our friend the English Horn last week, London Broil doesn't come from the other side of the pond.
25. Harmonize: ATTUNE
27. Grammy category: GOSPEL
29. Game console letters: N.E.S. Altogether now - Nintendo Entertainment System.
30. Member of the opposition: ANTI
32. Attachment to a car or a boat?: LOAD. Or a bus, or a coach, or a plane, or a train, or a wagon, or ... you get the idea.
34. Shy: TIMID
37. Result of Googling: URL
40. Natural table: MESA
42. Heist units: GEES. Not my favorite, this one. I'd write it as "G's", but I guess it suits the purpose here.
43. "How to Get Away With Murder" lawyer Annalise: KEATING. I learn she's a fictional character on a show that I'd never heard of. Tough cross for me with AME as I mentioned earlier.
45. Quick looks: GLANCES
47. Clobber, biblically: SMITE. Also British slang for clothing, so biblical clobber might be "Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat". Except this isn't a British crossword, and it doesn't fit. OK, moving right along ...
49. "Glengarry Glen Ross" playwright: MAMET. My daughter handled the publicity for the 2017 London revival featuring Christan Slater. Did I get tickets comp'ed? Not a chance, it was a sell-out.
50. Garlicky spread: AÏOLI. There's a subtle difference between this and garlic mayonnaise. Aïoli uses olive oil. If you try making mayo with olive oil using a blender you'll get a nasty bitter taste, the blender breaks the olive oil down into its sour-tasting components. I've done it. Ergo, you can't make traditional aïoli using a blender.
52. Tonsillitis-treating doc: E.N.T.
55. Row: SPAT
56. Parts of hips: ILIA
57. 65-Across feeder: OISE
59. Texting format, briefly: SMS. Simple Messaging System, remember?
60. Set for assembly: KIT
61. Dallas-to-Memphis dir.: E.N.E.
62. Simple top: TEE
And here's a simple tail - the grid!
Steve
59A. Politically diverse ballot ... and an apt description of each set of puzzle circles: SPLIT TICKET
The tickets that we find within the circled squares are, in order, SEASON, LIFT, GOLDEN, PARKING and MEAL, all split across two entries, just as the reveal tells us. As the "ticket" entries are each on a single line and separated by only one black square, I don't think it would be impossible to find them without the help of the circles, in fact I think I'd prefer if the circles weren't there and we were left to our own treasure-hunt devices.
No matter, the puzzle was a nice smooth solve. This seems to be the LA Times debut for Sean. He first blipped the cruciberb radar in the NYT back in January of this year, so congratulations on this first appearance in the LAT.
Without more ado, let's see what else we've got to talk about:
Across:
1. Astrological Ram: ARIES
6. Cleans out badly?: ROBS
10. __-pitch softball: SLO
13. Dry up: PARCH
14. Old photo hue: SEPIA. Not just old photographs. Sepia toning is used to give monochrome photographs a warmer tone, and also to increase their shelf-life in archives - the metallic silver in the print is converted to much-more-stable silver sulphide. Sodium sulphide was traditionally used, which has the unfortunate property of smelling like rotten eggs. You have to feel sympathy for the dark-room technician.
15. Equivocate: HEM. I'd call this a partial equivocation, can you hem without hawing, or haw without hemming? We should be told.
16. International waters: THE HIGH SEAS. I like this phrase. It really is an official designation in maritime law, being the open ocean not part of the territorial waters of any nation. When I was a kid it always conjured up pictures of decks awash with stormy waters, scurvied deckhands lashing down unruly sails and piratical ne'er-do-wells scavenging for treasure ships. Quite poetical, but the legal definition ignores all this.
18. Scrabble vowel value: ONE
19. Focus of a modern crisis: OPIOIDS. I tried OPIATES first, but then relatively quickly corrected myself.
20. Branch bit: TWIG
21. "The Persistence of Memory" artist: DALI. I think most of us call this work "The Melting Clocks". It can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dali described the clocks as "the camembert of time". I love the description. If you've ever watched a mature camembert slowly spread across the cheese board, you'll know exactly what he meant.
24. Teleflora rival: FTD. These folk popped up a couple of weeks ago.
25. Ice Capades setting: ARENA. My friend Richard Dwyer "Mr. Debonair" skated with the Ice Follies and the Ice Capades. He made his debut in 1950 when he was 14 and still skates today!
26. Word with string or sing: ALONG
28. Washington post: SENATOR. Nice clue.
31. Ulaanbaatar native: MONGOL. One of my high school friends quit her fledgling career in the Foreign Office when they tried to post her to Mongolia. She wasn't thrilled with the prospect, Paris, Milan or New York would have been more her style.
33. One concerned with bites: DENTIST
35. South of France?: SUD. I used to buy the newspaper "Sud Ouest" when I was on vacation in the south of France to improve my vocabulary. I learned a lot of sports-related words!
36. Trifling amount: SOU. More French. Originally any small coin of low denomination.
38. Former NBA exec Jackson: STU
39. "Dumbo" (2019) director Burton: TIM. This movie got terrible reviews, I don't think I'll be checking it out any time soon (ever!).
41. Off-leash play area: DOG PARK. There's a lot here in LA. One of my friends met his future wife at one when their dogs became acquainted.
44. Like many courtside interviews: IN-GAME
46. Pine detritus: NEEDLES
48. New York Harbor's __ Island: ELLIS
49. "Mad About You" daughter: MABEL
51. __ Zion Church: AME. WAG'ed this one, almost a personal natick with the crossing of KEATING, I didn't know either.
53. Actor Alan: ALDA
54. Runs: AIRS. TV shows.
55. Audit: SIT IN ON
58. Holstein sound: MOO. The holstein friesian dairy cow has the distinctive black-and-white coloring.
63. New Haven alum: ELI
64. L.L.Bean headquarters locale: MAINE
65. River in some Renoir paintings: SEINE
66. "Voices Carry" pop group __ Tuesday: TIL. Who? I YouTubed this, and of course I knew the song, I just didn't know the name of the group, the singer nor the title. Very '80's. Here's the link if you're interested.
67. Unaccompanied: STAG
68. Lauder of cosmetics: ESTÉE
Down:
1. Fitting: APT
2. Root word?: RAH. Another nice clue. Rah! Go Team!
3. Hot temper: IRE
4. Bouncing off the walls: ECHOING
5. Castaway's salvation: SHIP. Do you remember the screensaver that was all the rage in the early 90's? Johnny Castaway was never rescued.
6. Lived: RESIDED
7. Slanted page: OP-ED
8. Slant: BIAS
9. KLM rival: SAS. Scandinavian Airline System to give it its full name. Easier to remember than Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, that's for sure.
10. Locker room feature: SHOWER STALL
11. Red Square honoree: LENIN
12. Luxury watch: OMEGA
14. They're poured at bars: SHOTS
17. Many an animated Twitter pic: GIF
20. Picard's counselor: TROI. Two characters in the "Star Trek" franchise. I'd heard of Picard, not Troi, I'm not a Trekkie. Thank you, crosses.
21. Stops up: DAMS
22. Vocally: ALOUD
23. Marinated beef dish: LONDON BROIL Like our friend the English Horn last week, London Broil doesn't come from the other side of the pond.
25. Harmonize: ATTUNE
27. Grammy category: GOSPEL
29. Game console letters: N.E.S. Altogether now - Nintendo Entertainment System.
30. Member of the opposition: ANTI
32. Attachment to a car or a boat?: LOAD. Or a bus, or a coach, or a plane, or a train, or a wagon, or ... you get the idea.
34. Shy: TIMID
37. Result of Googling: URL
40. Natural table: MESA
42. Heist units: GEES. Not my favorite, this one. I'd write it as "G's", but I guess it suits the purpose here.
43. "How to Get Away With Murder" lawyer Annalise: KEATING. I learn she's a fictional character on a show that I'd never heard of. Tough cross for me with AME as I mentioned earlier.
45. Quick looks: GLANCES
47. Clobber, biblically: SMITE. Also British slang for clothing, so biblical clobber might be "Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat". Except this isn't a British crossword, and it doesn't fit. OK, moving right along ...
49. "Glengarry Glen Ross" playwright: MAMET. My daughter handled the publicity for the 2017 London revival featuring Christan Slater. Did I get tickets comp'ed? Not a chance, it was a sell-out.
50. Garlicky spread: AÏOLI. There's a subtle difference between this and garlic mayonnaise. Aïoli uses olive oil. If you try making mayo with olive oil using a blender you'll get a nasty bitter taste, the blender breaks the olive oil down into its sour-tasting components. I've done it. Ergo, you can't make traditional aïoli using a blender.
52. Tonsillitis-treating doc: E.N.T.
55. Row: SPAT
56. Parts of hips: ILIA
57. 65-Across feeder: OISE
59. Texting format, briefly: SMS. Simple Messaging System, remember?
60. Set for assembly: KIT
61. Dallas-to-Memphis dir.: E.N.E.
62. Simple top: TEE
And here's a simple tail - the grid!
Steve
