LA Times Crossword 5 Mar 22, Saturday

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Constructed by: Agnes Davidson & C.C. Burnikel
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: None

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 12m 38s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Broad City” co-creator Jacobson : ABBI

Abbi Jacobson is a comedian and actress who is perhaps best known as the co-creator, along with Ilana Glazer, of the Comedy Central sitcom “Broad City”.

“Broad City” is a sitcom shown on Comedy Central that started out life as a web series on the Internet. It’s about two young Jewish American women having misadventures in New York City.

5 Goya’s “Duchess of __” : ALBA

María Cayetana de Silva was the 13th Duchess of Alba. She was a favorite subject of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. The duchess is the subject in the famous portraits known as “La maja desnuda” (The Nude Maja) and “La maja vestida” (The Clothed Maja). “Maja” translates from Spanish as “beautiful lady”.

15 Hero’s home : DELI

A hero is a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

16 Foot specialists? : POETS

In poetry, a foot is a metrical unit comprising usually two, three or four syllables. Lines of verse are often classified by the number of feet that they contain, e.g. pentameter: containing five feet.

19 One-piece dresses : SARIS

The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that it is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

22 Kunis who voices Meg on “Family Guy” : MILA

Mila Kunis is a Ukrainian-born, American actress who plays Jackie Burkhart on “That ’70s Show”. Fans of the cartoon series “Family Guy” might recognize her voicing the Meg Griffin character. In ”Black Swan”, Kunis plays a rival ballet dancer to the character played by Natalie Portman. In her personal life, Kunis dated Macaulay Culkin for 8 years, but married Ashton Kutcher, her co-star from “That 70s Show”, in 2015.

“Family Guy” is a very successful animated television show. It was created by Seth MacFarlane, the same guy who came up with “American Dad!”. My kids love them both. Me, I can’t stand ‘em …

25 Olympic gymnast Raisman with six medals : ALY

Aly Raisman is a retired gymnast. She captained the US gold-winning teams in the Olympics in 2012 (“The Fierce Five”) and in 2016 (“The Final Five”). Raisman also appeared on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2013, and finished up in fourth place.

35 Target division : AISLE

Target Corporation was founded by George Draper Dayton in 1902 in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Dayton Dry Goods Company. Dayton developed into a department store, and the company opened up a discount store chain in 1962, calling it Target. Today, Target is the second-largest discount retailer in the country, after Walmart.

39 “Rizzoli & Isles” actress Alexander : SASHA

“Sasha Alexander” is the stage name of Suzana Drobnjaković, a Serbian-American actress. Alexander is perhaps best known to television audiences for playing Dr. Maura Isles on the detective drama “Rizzoli & Isles”, and for playing Professor Helene Runyon on the US-version of the excellent comedy-drama “Shameless”. Alexander married Edoardo Ponti in 2017. Ponti is the son of actress Sophia Loren and producer Carlo Ponti.

“Rizzoli & Isles” is a detective drama that is inspired by the “Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli” series of novels by Tess Gerritsen. In the show, Angie Harmon plays detective Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander plays medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles.

40 He surpassed Ruth : MARIS

Roger Maris (whose original family name was “Maras”) was the son of Croatian immigrants. It was Maris’s single-season record of 61 home runs that Mark McGwire broke in 1998 (hitting 70 that season). Maris’s own record of 61 runs (from 1961) beat the previous record of 60 set in 1927 by Babe Ruth.

Baseball legend George Herman Ruth, Jr. had several nicknames, the best known being “Babe”. He was also called “the Bambino” and “the Sultan of Swat”.

41 10, at times: Abbr. : OCT

October is the tenth month in our calendar but was the eighth month in the old Roman calendar, hence the prefix “octo-”. Back then there were only ten months in the year. “Ianuarius” (January) and “Februarius” were then added as the eleventh and twelfth months of the year. Soon after, the year was reset and January and February became the first and second months.

42 Brownstone features : STOOPS

A stoop is a raised platform at the door of a house. “Stoop” came into American and Canadian English in the mid-1700s from the Dutch “stoep” meaning “flight of steps”.

44 It’s often iced : LATTE

The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk; there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

47 First word of #1 titles by Donovan and John Denver : SUNSHINE …

“Sunshine Superman” was a chart-topper for Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan in 1965. The song was so successful that Donovan became associated with the persona “Sunshine Superman”. The name “Sunshine Superman” appears on several of Donovan’s subsequent album releases.

“Sunshine on My Shoulders” is a 1971 hit that was co-written and performed by John Denver. Apparently, he started writing the song in “late winter, early spring”, on a very gray day when he was very much ready for the sun to arrive.

58 Major Southeast Asian financial hub : SINGAPORE

The Asian city-state of Singapore takes its name from the Malay word “Singapura” which means “Lion City”. However, lions in the wild never made it to Singapore, so the city is probably misnamed and perhaps should have been called “Tiger City”.

61 Neutral shade : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

62 “Ella Enchanted” villain : OGRE

“Ella Enchanted” is a fantasy novel written by Gail Carson Levine, and published in 1997. It is a retelling of the story of Cinderella, with lots of mythical creatures added. A film adaptation was released in 2004 that features Anne Hathaway in the title role.

63 “The Dance Class” painter : DEGAS

Edgar Degas’ 1874 painting “The Dance Class” can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It depicts ballet master Jules Perrot holding a class in a rehearsal room in the old Paris Opéra. The scene is imagined by the artist, as the building had been destroyed by fire the year before. The Musée d’Orsay in Paris owns a variant of the painting that goes by the title “The Ballet Class”, which was painted before the fire took place.

Down

1 Soundless speech syst. : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

4 Computer support provider : IT TEAM

Information technology (IT)

6 Bank barrier : LEVEE

A levee is an artificial bank, usually made of earth, that runs along the length of a river. It is designed to hold back river water at a time of potential flooding. “Levée” is the French word for “raised” and is an American term that originated in French-speaking New Orleans around 1720.

7 Like some locks : BLOND

In today’s world, the usage of masculine and feminine forms of English words is largely frowned upon. The one word that seems to have retained it’s gender specificity is “blond”, the feminine version of which is “blonde”.

8 Buenos __ : AIRES

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina, and is located on the estuary of the Ria de la Plata. As it is a port city, the people of Buenos Aires are known as porteños (“people of the port”). The name “Buenos Aires” can be translated from Spanish as “fair winds”.

9 Short albums, for short : EPS

An extended-play (EP) record, CD or download contains more music than a single, but less than an LP.

12 2014 drama that earned Julianne Moore a Best Actress Oscar : STILL ALICE

“Still Alice” is a 2014 film based on a 2007 novel of the same name by Lisa Genova. The title character in both movie and book is a professor of linguistics who develops early-onset Alzheimer’s disease just after she turns 50 years of age. In the film, Alice was portrayed by Julianne Moore, in a performance that won her that season’s Best Actress Oscar.

18 Dove output : FACE SOAPS

Dove is a brand of personal care products made by Unilever. The brand originated in the UK, back in 1955.

24 Annual salutation : DEAR SANTA

If you want to send a note to Santa from Canada, he has his own special postal code: “North Pole, HOH OHO”. The US Postal Service suggests that we send mail for Santa to zip code 99705, which directs it to the city of North Pole, Alaska.

26 “Old Fashioned” Campbell’s soup : TOMATO RICE

The Campbell’s Soup company is named for one of the enterprise’s two founders, Joseph A. Campbell. He and Abraham Anderson started the business in 1869. The iconic design of the Campbell’s can was introduced in 1898 and has hardly changed since then. The gold seal in the design comes from the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

27 Icky-sounding snack : ANTS ON A LOG

Ants on a log is a snack food prepared by spreading something like peanut butter or cream cheese on celery and placing raisins on top. If you leave out the raisins, the snack becomes “ants on vacation”.

32 National Mall tree : ELM

The National Mall is a park in downtown Washington, D.C. It is home to several museums that are part of the Smithsonian, as well as the National Gallery of Art.

33 Nabokov novel : ADA

“Ada” is a 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a “United States”, but that country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called “Canady”, and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province called “Estody”. The storyline is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.

34 Short creator? : MFR

Manufacturer (mfr.)

43 “How ya doin’?” : SUP?

“Sup?” is slang for “what’s up?”

48 Bouquets : NOSES

“Bouquet” comes from the French word for “bunch” in the sense of “bunch of flowers”. In French, the term is derived from an older word describing a little wood or small grove of trees. We started using “bouquet” to mean “perfume from a wine” in the early 1800s.

50 “The Dance II” artist Matisse : HENRI

“The Dance II” is a mural on canvas by Henri Matisse that he created for the Barnes Foundation building near Philadelphia in 1932. It is a 45’ by 15’ triptych featuring dancing, nude figures reminiscent of Matisse’s more famous 1910 work “La Danse”, which can be seen at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

52 “Aladdin” star Massoud : MENA

Mena Massoud is an Egyptian-born Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Tarek Kassar in the action drama series “Jack Ryan”, and the title character in the 2019 movie “Aladdin”.

The 2019 Disney movie “Aladdin” is a live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1992 animated feature of the same name starring Robin Williams. In the 2019 film, Will Smith plays the genie, and Mena Massoud plays the title character.

54 __ party : TOGA

In ancient Rome, the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae” or “togas”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

57 Brand name that looks like it has a missing period : SOS

S.O.S is a brand of scouring pads made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The product was invented as a giveaway by an aluminum pot salesman in San Francisco called Ed Cox. His wife gave it the name “S.O.S” as an initialism standing for “Save Our Saucepans”. Note the punctuation! There is no period after the last S, and that is deliberate. When Cox went to register the trademark, he found that “S.O.S.” could not be a trademark because it was used as an international distress signal. So he dropped the period after the last S, and I hope made a lot of money for himself and his wife.