LA Times Crossword 11 Feb 23, Saturday

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Constructed by: Rafael Musa
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 10m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Bumpkin : RUBE

A rube is a person lacking sophistication, someone often described as a country bumpkin. The term derives from the masculine name “Reuben”, which was considered back in the early 1800s to be a typical name used in rural areas.

“Bumpkin” is really a not-so-nice term for someone from a rural area. The term has an even less nice derivation. It comes from from the Middle Dutch “bommekijn” meaning “little barrel”. “Bumpkin” was used as a derogatory term for Dutch people, who were regarded as short and plump.

9 Well-connected co.? : ISP

Internet service provider (ISP)

13 Hebrew for “spring” : AVIV

The full name of Israel’s second largest city is Tel Aviv-Yafo. “Tel Aviv” translates into “Spring Mound”, and is a name that was chosen in 1910. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a housing development outside the port city of Jaffa. Tel Aviv and Jaffa merged in 1950.

16 Beset : UNDER SIEGE

Our word “siege” comes from a 13th-century word for a “seat”. The military usage derives from the concept of a besieging force “sitting down” outside a fortress until it falls.

18 Rihanna album with the hit single “Work” : ANTI

“Anti” is a 2016 studio album released by Barbadian singer Rihanna. The cover uses a photo of a very young Rihanna, one that was taken on her first day at daycare.

19 Book full of legends? : ROAD ATLAS

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas” that is used for a book of maps.

21 Australian member of the music supergroup LSD : SIA

LSD is a supergroup, formed in 2018, comprising British rapper Labrinth, Australian singer Sia, and American music producer Diplo.

24 “Welp” : I SPOKE TOO SOON

“Welp” is a slang term used at the beginning of a sentence to indicate disappointment. “Welp” is used in the same way that we use the interjection “well”.

Well, that worked out.

Welp, that didn’t work out.

29 Singer Morissette : ALANIS

Alanis Morissette is a Canadian singer-songwriter. After releasing two pop albums in Canada, in 1995 she recorded her first album to be distributed internationally. Called “Jagged Little Pill”, it is a collection of songs with more of a rock influence. The album was a huge success, the highest-selling album of the 1990s, and the highest-selling debut album by any artist at any time (selling over 30 million units).

31 Bit of hardware : T-NUT

A T-nut is so called because it has a T-shape when viewed from the side.

36 Bake, as eggs : SHIRR

Shirred eggs are eggs that have been baked without their shells in a flat-bottomed dish. The term “shirred” comes from the name of the dish that was traditionally used for the baking.

37 Vegetable with golden and Chioggia varieties : BEET

Chard is a lovely leafy vegetable, in my humble opinion. It is the same species as the garden beet, but chard is grown for the leaves and beet is grown for the roots. Chard also goes by the names Swiss chard, silverbeet, mangold. In some parts of Australia, it’s even known as spinach.

38 Jupiter, to Saturn : SON

Jupiter, also known as Jove, was the king of the gods in the Roman tradition, as well as the god of sky and thunder. Jupiter was the Roman equivalent to the Greek god Zeus.

Saturn was a Roman deity, the god of agriculture and the harvest. Both the planet Saturn and day “Saturday” are named after Saturn the god.

39 “Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem” author Gorman : AMANDA

Amanda Gorman is a poet and activist who, in 2017, was the first person named as the National Youth Poet Laureate. Famously, Gorman recited her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Biden in 2021.

When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.

40 Not taking a back seat : RIDING SHOTGUN

The person riding alongside the driver of a vehicle is said to be “riding shotgun”. Even though the phrase is a reference to the armed guard who rode beside the driver of a stagecoach in the Old West, the term wasn’t coined until the early 20th century.

45 “LOL, I can’t even” : OMG

“OMG” is text-speak for “Oh My Gosh!” “Oh My Goodness!” or any other G-words you might care to use …

53 Bridges in Hollywood : BEAU

Actor Beau Bridges is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges, and brother of actor Jeff Bridges. Beau’s best-known role is perhaps one of “The Fabulous Baker Boys” alongside brother Jeff.

56 “The __ U Give”: Angie Thomas novel : HATE

“The Hate U Give” is a 2018 film that is based on a 2017 novel of the same name by Angie Thomas. Both the film and novel center on the aftermath of a police officer shooting an unarmed teenager.

57 Cristiano Ronaldo’s jersey number : SEVEN

Cristiano Ronaldo is a professional soccer player from Portugal who is often referred to as the finest player in the world. Ronaldo spent five years playing in the UK with Manchester United, and then relocated to Spain to play for Real Madrid starting in 2009.

58 Finch family creator : LEE

Atticus Finch is the protagonist in Harper Lee’s great novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Atticus is the father of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the narrator of the piece, and of Scout’s older brother Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch.

60 __ leches cake : TRES

A tres leches cake is a type of sponge cake that has been soaked in three kinds of milk, in heavy cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk.

Down

1 City near Tahoe : RENO

Reno, Nevada was named in honor of Major General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer killed in the Civil War. The city has a famous “Reno Arch”, a structure that stands over the main street. The arch was erected in 1926 to promote an exposition planned for the following year. After the expo, the city council decided to keep the arch and held a competition to decide what wording should be displayed, and the winner was “The Biggest Little City in the World”.

2 “The West Wing” Emmy winner : ALDA

Alan Alda has had a great television career, most notably as a lead actor in “M*A*S*H”. He was born Alphonso D’Abruzzo in the Bronx, New York City. Alda won his first Emmy in 1972, for playing surgeon Hawkeye Pierce on “M*A*S*H”. He also won an Emmy in 2006 for his portrayal of Presidential candidate Senator Arnold Vinick in “The West Wing”. When it comes to the big screen, my favorite of Alda’s movies is the 1978 romantic comedy “Same Time, Next Year” in which he starred opposite Ellen Burstyn.

“The West Wing”, when it was being written by Aaron Sorkin, was such a fabulous television event. It is remarkable how quickly it went downhill after Sorkin moved on. Sorkin is also famous for having written the play “A Few Good Men”, and the screenplay for one of my favorite movies, namely “Charlie Wilson’s War”.

4 Hits the slopes with a chute : PARASKIS

Paraskiing is skiing across snowy terrain while being pulled along by a parachute.

6 Layer between the sclera and the retina : UVEA

The uvea is the middle of the three layers that make up the eyeball. The outer layer is called the fibrous tunic, and the inner layer is the retina.

The retina is the tissue that lines the inside of the eye, and is the tissue that is light-sensitive. There are (mainly) two types of cells in the retina that are sensitive to light, namely rods and cones. Rods are cells that best function in very dim light and only provide black-and-white vision. Cones on the other hand function in brighter light and can perceive color.

The sclera is the white part of the human eye. The sclera is white in most mammals, but in horses it is black. Really! Go check …

7 One in a cuddle : BIG SPOON

When two people are “spooning”, cuddling in bed perhaps, the person in the back is referred to as the “big spoon”, and the person in front is the “little spoon”.

10 Going dark : SUNTANNING

Melanin is a natural pigment found in most organisms. In humans, melanin is the pigment in the skin, the production of which accelerates in response to UV radiation causing a “tan”. Melanin is also what is released as cephalopod ink, a defensive cloud squirted into the water by squids and octopodes.

11 __ four : PETIT

A petit four is a small confection served at the end of a meal, either as a dessert or with coffee. The name “petit four” is French for “small oven”.

12 Abundance for a Chewbacca cosplayer : FUR

Wookiees are a biped race featured in “Star Wars”. The most notable Wookiee is Chewbacca (aka “Chewie”), the loyal friend and associate of Han Solo who serves as co-pilot on the Millennium Falcon spaceship.

Cosplay (costume play)

20 Transfusion letters : ABO

The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which other antigens are labeled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a universal donor.

23 GI hangout : USO

The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

The initialism “GI” stands for “Government Issue”, and not “General Infantry” as is widely believed. “GI” was first used in the military to denote equipment made from Galvanized Iron and during WWI, incoming German shells were nicknamed “GI cans”. Soon after, the term GI came to be associated with “Government Issue” and eventually became an adjective to describe anything associated with the Army.

24 Foot that’s part of a meter : IAMB

An iamb is a metrical foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The lines in Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” use four sequential iambs, e.g. “Whose woods / these are / I think / I know”. With that sequence of four iambs, the poem’s structure is described as iambic tetrameter.

In poetry, a foot is the natural unit of stressed and unstressed syllables which make up the work. For example, an iambic foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

The meter of a poem is its rhythmic structure.

25 Blueberry-like fruit : SLOE

The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, and the main flavoring ingredient in sloe gin. A sloe looks like a small plum, but is usually much more tart in taste.

32 Qurratulain Hyder’s language : URDU

Qurratulain Hyder was a novelist from India who wrote and published her books in the Urdu language. Her 1959 historical novel “Aag Ka Darya” (River of Fire) is considered her magnum opus.

33 Kelly Marie who voices Raya in “Raya and the Last Dragon” : TRAN

Actress Kelly Marie Tran’s big break came when she was cast as Resistance fighter Rose Tico in the “Star Wars” films “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker”. After those performances, she appeared on the cover of “Vanity Fair” alongside actor John Boyega (who played Finn in the movies). That made her the first woman of Asian descent to appear on the magazine’s cover.

36 Exhaustive analysis? : SMOG TEST

“Smog” is a portmanteau formed by melding “smoke” and “fog”. The term was first used to describe the air around London in the early 1900s. Several cities around the world have a reputation of being particularly smoggy. For example, the most smog-plagued city in Latin America is Mexico City, which is located in a highland “bowl” that traps industrial and vehicle pollution.

39 Jazz pianist Jamal : AHMAD

Ahmad Jamal is an American jazz pianist who often played with Miles Davis.

41 Bindi, e.g. : DOT

A bindi is a bright decorative dot worn applied to the middle of the forehead, particularly by Hindu women living on the Indian subcontinent. The term “bindi” comes from the Sanskrit “bindu” meaning “point, dot, small particle”.

43 Lipstick container : TUBE

Lipsticks have a remarkably long list of ingredients. Die-hard vegans have to be careful in their choice of lipstick, as most contain beeswax. and the “shimmering” types often contain fish scales. Yuk …

44 Youngest Oscar winner : O’NEAL

Tatum O’Neal is the youngest actress to win a competitive Oscar. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award in 1974 when she was just 10 years old, for her role as Addie in “Paper Moon”. The youngest person to win an honorary Academy Award was Shirley Temple, who was only 5 years old when she was presented with an Oscar in 1934.

48 Bit : IOTA

Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet, and one that gave rise to our letters I and J. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small, as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

50 Queen’s realm : HIVE

A queen bee has a stinger, just like worker bees. When a worker bee stings, it leaves its stinger in its victim. The worker bee dies after losing its stinger as the loss rips out part of its insides. However, a queen bee can sting with impunity as her stinger’s anatomy is different.

51 Helpful blackjack cards, maybe : ACES

In the card game blackjack, an ace has the point value of one or eleven. When one of the two cards dealt to a player is an ace, the hand is called “soft”. This means that the player cannot go bust by taking another card, as the ace can be revalued at “one” if necessary in order to stay under 21.

52 Helpful blackjack card, maybe : TEN

The card game known as “twenty-one” was first referred to in print in a book by Cervantes, the author famous for writing “Don Quixote”. He called the game “veintiuna” (Spanish for “twenty-one”). Cervantes wrote his story just after the year 1600, so the game has been around at least since then. Twenty-one came to the US but it wasn’t all that popular so bonus payments were introduced to create more interest. One of the more attractive bonuses was a ten-to-one payout to a player who was dealt an ace of spades and a black jack. This bonus led to the game adopting the moniker “Blackjack”.

54 High deg. : PHD

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.