Joseph Knecht

  Making Ends Meet   As near as I can tell today's constructors Simon Marotte and Trenton Lee Stewart  are both making their debuts in the LA Times, although they have previously published with the NYT here and here .  Their 4 themers remind us that even famous people had to take odd jobs to make ends meet when they were starting out.  Each clue consists of two famous people, tells us what their (fictional) side hustle was, and plays on it to give us a punny two word fill ... 17A. Earnhardt and Andretti work as ushers?:  DRIVERS SEAT .  Ralph Dale Earnhardt (April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001) was an American professional stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series.  Sadly, Earnhardt died in a racing accident in 2001 . Dale Earn...

  Super Heroes They all started here ...   Action Comics #1 June 1938 This was the first issue of the original run of the comic book/magazine series Action Comics . It features the first appearance of several comic-book heroes—most notably the Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster creation, Superman —and sold for 10 cents (equivalent to $2 in 2023).  On April 7, 2024, a copy of  Action Comics #1  was auctioned for $6 million , becoming the most expensive comic book ever.  In the intervening years since 1938 the market for comics, animation, and gaming that originated with that $2.00 publication has exploded, and will reach an estimated  $400 billion dollars by the end of this year .  Today our veteran constructors Gary Larson and Amy Ensz take us on a brief tour of the super h...