google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner

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Jun 13, 2024

Thursday, June 13, 2024, Katie Hale & Sam Acker

 

 

I struggled to come up with that theme description, and usually when I struggle it means I'm missing something.  But I can always count on you folks to tell me what it is. 😀

There are five theme clues, no reveal, no asterisks, no circles -- just the 5 longest fills clued with this pattern: a sport playing area; a non-branded ("generic") person, place, or thing making the sport happen; and a (mostly) unnamed organization sponsoring the endeavor ...

17A. Racing venue with a generic speaker sponsorship?: SOUND TRACK.  A speaker produces SOUND and racing is conducted on a TRACK?  Here's a RACE TRACK SOUND TRACK ...
24A. Basketball arena with a generic pollster sponsorship?: DATA CENTER.  A pollster collects DATA and a CENTER is another name for a basketball court, or alternately it's the name of a position on the court?   This one is for all you hoopsters, sponsored by the NBA ...
35A. Cricket ground with a generic lift sponsorship?: ELEVATOR PITCH.  A "lift" is Brit for ELEVATOR and a Cricket PITCH is the central strip in the middle of the playing field.
50A. Baseball stadium with a generic zoo sponsorship?: SAFARI PARK.  Here's the ultimate baseball dream team at the SAFARI PARK ...
58A. Soccer venue with a generic military sponsorship?: FORCE FIELD.  Argentinian Lionel Messi is a one man soccer FORCE FIELD, now playing for Inter Miami CF ...
Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Rock classic with the lyric "Darling, won't you ease my worried mind": LAYLA. ... and "you've got me on my knees!"  A masterpiece by Eric Clapton CBE (born 30 March 1945), an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. He ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" ...
LEILA (pronounced the same as Clapton's crush) was the heroine of Bizet's opera The Pearl Fishers, and she had two men on their knees!


6. Cardi set piece: CAMI.  "Cardi" is short for "cardigan", a woman's top that buttons up the front and is sold with a matching camisole ...
Cardigan and camisole
10. Bloke: CHAP.  An English CHAP, e.g. this one ...
14. Far from narrow: BROAD.

15. Fanatical: AVID.  See 58D.

16. More than just edit: REDO.

17. [Theme clue]

19. Bumblers: OAFS.

20. Sticky pine products: RESINS.  E.g. those in the infamous Pine Tar incident.

21. Longtime Yankee manager Joe: TORRE.   From 1996 to 2007, Joe Torre was the manager of the New York Yankees, and guided the team to six American League (AL) pennants and four World Series championships. Like they say "Baseball is a game of numbers", and Joe's number was Four Thousand Two Hundred Seventy-Two ...
Joe Torre
22. Some pens: BICSWhere did that name come from?
24. [Theme clue]

27. Olympian Katie Ledecky's country, for short: USAKathleen Genevieve Ledecky (born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive swimmer. She has won seven Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer.
Katie Ledecky
28. Gym unit: REP.

29. Gravy, on menus: JUS.  Today's French lesson: Jus is a specific type of sauce, made from meat juice that has typically been derived from a roast.

30. "Definitely!": YES.

31. 2017 Emma Watson role: BELLE Beauty and the Beast.

33. Many a reggae artist: RASTA. Practitioners of an Abrahamic  religion called Rastafarianism. Here's reggae artist Bob Marley singing Stir it Up ...
35. [Theme clue]

40. Rot: DECAY.

41. Ice sheets: FLOES.  An ice floe is a large pack of floating ice often defined as a flat piece at least 20 m across at its widest point, and up to more than 10 km across.
Ice floes in the Hudson Strait

43. D'backs, in box scores: ARIThe Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) West Division.
46. Go on the __: LAM.

47. "Gangnam Style" rapper: PSY.  Crazy stuff ...

49. Teensy: WEE.  Today's Scottish lesson: LITTLE.

50. [Theme clue]

53. Ibiza, por ejemplo: ISLA.  Today's Spanish lesson: ISLAND, specifically this one.

54. __ owl: bird with white feathers: SNOWY.  The snowy owl, also known as the polar owl, the white owl and the Arctic owl, is a large, white owl of the true owl family. Snowy owls are native to the Arctic regions of both North America and the Palearctic, breeding mostly on the tundra.
Snowy Owl
55. Saudi Arabia's capital: RIYADHRiyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate.
Riyadh skyline
57. Sicilian volcano: ETNA.  This volcano shows up so often crosswords, I figured we ought to make it a permanent resident (remember Sicily is 7 hours ahead of Minnesota time) ...

58. [Theme clue]

62. Chitchat: TALK.  Or as the Brits would say a "Chin wag".

63. Lotion additive: ALOE.  Hahtoolah is on vacation, so I'm helping myself to one of her cartoons ...
64. "Star Wars" spin-off: ANDORAndor, also known as Star Wars: Andor, is an American science fiction television series created by Tony Gilroy for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise and a prequel to the film Rogue One (2016), which in turn is a prequel to the original Star Wars film (1977).

65. Eyelid inflammation: STYE.

66. Tidings: NEWS.

67. Hoarse: RASPY.

Down:

1. Wt. units: LBS.

2. One with a platonic partner, for short: AROA ROmantic.

3. "I have no preference": YOUR CALL.

4. Parkway divisions: LANES.  This suggests another themer: "Bowling LANES with generic speed sponsorship".  A friend of ours upstairs was obviously praying for this guy ...!  It's interesting that he didn't get a Guinness for this feat (for all sorts of technicalities).  I guess he's just not stout enough. 😀

5. Has a summer job?: ADDS.  And he doesn't need a number in the dentist chair. 😀

6. Rest of the road?: CARNAP. Uh, I don't think I parsed this one correctly (I'm not kidding 😀) ...
More on Rudolph Carnap
7. Sailor's "Halt!": AVAST.

8. Bug, maybe: MIC.  A politician's worst enemy is a HOT MIC.

9. Brief "You got me": IDK.  Short for I DON'T KNOW, its opposite being I KNOW -- an infinitesimally small amount of WHAT THERE IS TO KNOW!

10. Serenade, maybe: CROON.  ... A daughter serenades her father ...

11. Like comfort food: HEARTY.

12. Like some subscriber-based apps: AD FREE.

13. Wannabes: POSERS.

18. Beach widener, at times: TIDE.

21. Take the stand: TESTIFY.

22. Rude address: BUB. The net seems divided on this ...
OTOH ...
23. "Understood": I SEE.  Every time I see this I'm reminded of Husker's motto - I hear and I forget.  I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

25. Not closed: AJAR.

26. Turning point: CUSP.  Another word with several meanings depending on the context.  All of these connote a turning point toward a different direction ...
OTOH it also has additional meanings in mathematics, science, astrology etc.

28. Merrymaking: REVELRY.  This suggests dancing and as Terpsichore was the muse of the dance,  here are some selections from a suite of dances dedicated to her, by Renaissance composer Michael Praetorius ...
32. Was in first: LED.

33. "The Natural" protagonist Hobbs: ROY.  An ode to baseball, The Natural is a 1984 American sports film based on Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel of the same name, directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, and Barbara Hershey. The film recounts the experiences of Roy Hobbs, an individual with great "natural" baseball talent.  Here's the final home run ...

34. The "A" of "RHOA": Abbr.: ATL. The Real Housewives of Atlanta, abbreviated RHOA, is an American reality television series that premiered on Bravo on October 7, 2008. Developed as the third installment of The Real Housewives franchise, it has aired fifteen seasons and focuses on the personal and professional lives of several women residing in and around Atlanta, Georgia.  All peaches I'm sure ...
36. Beneficial berry: ACAI.  Rich in vowels and especially beneficial to constructors.😀

37. Pack (down): TAMP.

38. Dairy structures: COWSHEDSBARNS was too short.

39. "Come to my side, pup!": HEELHEEL is Dog 101 for an Irish sheep dog.  We had a friend who used to raise them -- they are high spirited and have to be kept constantly busy.  Our friend used to enter them in various dog "obstacle races", but a better way to keep them busy is to have them herd sheep ...

42. __ shanty: SEA.  A sea shanty, shanty, chantey, or chanty (from Latin cantare ("to sing")) is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term shanty most accurately refers to a specific style of work song belonging to this historical repertoire. Here is What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor, sung by the Irish Rovers ...
 43. Cash on hand, investments, etc.: ASSETS.

44. Give a piece of one's mind: RANT AT

45. "That'd be nice": IF ONLY.  A game people play -- in this case with themselves.  It will never happen, IF YOU don't make it happen.

47. Tag lines?: PRICES.

48. Actress Ione: SKYEIone Skye Lee (/aɪˈoʊni/; née Ione Skye Leitch; born September 4, 1970)[a] is a British-American actress and the daughter of singer Donovan. She made her film debut in the thriller River's Edge (1986) before gaining mainstream exposure for her starring role in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything... (1989). She continued to appear in films throughout the 1990s, with notable roles in Gas Food Lodging (1992), Wayne's World (1992) and One Night Stand (1997).
Iona Skye
51. Wide __: AWAKE.

52. Bow projectile: ARROW.

53. Tony winner Menzel: IDINAIdina Kim Menzel (née Mentzel; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly recognized for her work in musicals on Broadway, she has been nicknamed the "Queen of Broadway" for her commanding stage presence, powerful mezzo-soprano, and reputation as one of the most influential stage actors of her generation.  Here she performs the song that won her the Tony: Defying Gravity from the Broadway musical Wicked ...
56. Not close: AFAR.
 
58. Swiftie, to Swift: FAN.  I'm not a FAN, but I have a theory about music -- if lots of people like a musician, they're probably hearing something I'm not.  But when it came to picking this next selection I found that Swift has had so many hits and all of her FANS seem to like different ones -- so I just threw a dart and hit All Too Well ...

59. Joyful cry at a fútbol match: OLE.
60. Cut back: LOP.

61. Needing a humidifier: DRY.


Cheers,
Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley