L.A TIMES CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Persepolis ruins locale 5 Prickly plants 10 Former Supreme Court first name 14 iPod model 15 Garden nuisance 16 Protection org. since 1970

17 Lions in the city? 19 Slangy sweeties 20 Pulitzer-winning author Lurie

21 Spring

23 Conan's network 24 Willamette River capital 25 Fish with experience? 27 UFO fliers, presumably 28 __ bath

30 Luke and Leia's mother 31 Show-offs

35 Pats gently

36 Bees behind bars? 38 Inland Asian sea 40 Fixture in some no-parking zones 41 Starr man

43 One kept on a child at the pool

44 Hole goal 47 Whales on the run?

51 GE rival

53 “Alas!” prompter 54 Seafarers

55 USC athlete

56 Novel ending? 58 Wolves with a clean lair? 60 Miranda __ of “Homeland” 61 Dutch cheeses 62 Czech track legend Zátopek

63 Zen riddle 64 “Building a Mystery” singer McLachlan 65 Cook of comedy

DOWN

1 If

2 Scold harshly

3 Wile E. Coyote weapons 4 White __

5 Bo's'n boss

6 Loan fig.

7 Put on ice 8 Helped through a tough time, with “over” 9 Brainstorming session output

10 Director Reiner 11 Paper with Money and Life sections

12 Awesome, slangily 13 Bothers

18 Public town park 22 Narc's find 25 “Funny thing is ... ”

26 “I __ thought of that” 29 Home to the Ogden Raptors of MILB 31 Hägar the Horrible's wife 32 Med. condition with repetitive behavior 33 Hurt in a ring

34 Take out, as a vampire 36 Italian bacon

37 Like difficult push-ups 38 “Do you and I need to clear the air?”

39 Dish with arborio rice 42 Withdraw, with “out” 44 __ party

45 Aleve rival

46 Really get to

48 Wasp nest sites 49 Red-carpet brand 50 NBA great Robertson nicknamed “The Big O” 52 Minibike kin 55 Derriere

57 Long time to wait, facetiously 59 Thurman in films