LA Times Crossword 4 Aug 23, Friday

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Constructed by: Taylor Johnson & Christina Iverson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Take the Letters Outside

Themed answers are common phrases, with the last word a synonym of “outside”. The first word is made from the outside letters of the first words of the corresponding clue:

• 17A Op-ed column feature? : “OPEN” BORDER (“op-ed column” border)
• 25A Spa service feature? : “SPACE” CASE (“spa service” case”)
• 35A Free booze feature? : “FREEZE” FRAME (“free booze” frame)
• 48A Lotus pose feature? : “LOOSE” ENDS (“lotus pose” ends)
• 58A Chocolate mousse feature? : “CHOSE” SIDES (“chocolate mousse” sides)

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

Bill’s time: 9m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Neck, in Nottingham : SNOG

“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.

5 Antlered ruminants : STAGS

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and the females called cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

Ruminants are animals that “chew the cud”. Ruminants eat vegetable matter but cannot extract any nutritional value from cellulose without the help of microbes in the gut. Ruminants collect roughage in the first part of the alimentary canal, allowing microbes to work on it. The partially digested material (the cud) is regurgitated into the mouth so that the ruminant can chew the food more completely, exposing more surface area for microbes to do their work. We also use the verb “to ruminate” in a figurative sense, to mean “to muse, ponder, chew over”.

10 European range : ALPS

There are eight Alpine countries:

• Austria
• Slovenia
• France
• Switzerland
• Liechtenstein
• Germany
• Monaco
• Italy

14 Cab, for one : WINE

The cabernet sauvignon (often just “cab”) grape has been around since the 17th century, and is the result of a chance crossing in southwestern France of the cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc grapes.

17 Op-ed column feature? : “OPEN” BORDER (“op-ed column” border)

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

19 “Un-Break My Heart” singer Braxton : TONI

“Un-Break My Heart” is a Grammy-winning song released by Toni Braxton in 1996. It is a ballad about begging a former lover to return, to “un-break my heart”.

23 Nickname that drops -in : KEV

“Kevin” minus “in” is “Kev”.

24 MIT __: business school : SLOAN

MIT’s School of Management is named for MIT graduate Alfred P. Sloan, a former chairman of General Motors.

25 Spa service feature? : “SPACE” CASE (“spa service” case”)

A space case is a space cadet, someone who has little grasp on reality.

The expression “space cadet” is used to describe someone who is eccentric and disconnected from reality. It may even imply that the person is a user of hallucinogens. The phrase has been around since the sixties, and may be derived from the science fiction TV show “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” that aired in the fifties.

28 School of whales : GAM

A group of whales can be called a gam, as well as a pod.

30 __ sauce: seafood dressing : TARTAR

Tartar sauce is basically mayonnaise with some chopped pickles, capers and onion or chives. The recipe was invented by the French (as “sauce tartare”) with the name somehow linked to the Tatars, a people who once occupied Ukraine and parts of Russia.

31 Garnish in Mexican cuisine : PEPITA

Pumpkin seeds are also known as “pepitas”, from the Mexican Spanish term “pepita de calabaza” meaning “little seed of squash”.

35 Free booze feature? : “FREEZE” FRAME (“free booze” frame)

A freeze frame is a point in a video or movie in which a single frame is shown continuously, hence “freezing” the action.

38 Singer Parks with the 2023 album “My Soft Machine” : ARLO

“Arlo Parks” is the stage name of British singer and poet Anaïs Marinho. Parks seems to have hit the big time early in her career, with her first studio album “Collapsed in Sunbeams” (2021) garnering a lot of positive attention.

40 Tick off : ENRAGE

The term “to tick off” came into use in the early 1900s when it meant “to reprimand, scold”. We still use it in this sense in Ireland. The usage “to peeve, annoy” only came into being in the mid-seventies.

48 Lotus pose feature? : “LOOSE” ENDS (“lotus pose” ends)

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word that translates literally as “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

51 Lyric poem : EPODE

An epode is a lyric poem made up of couplets in which the first line is long, and the second line much shorter. The form was invented by the Greek poet Archilochus, and was most famously used by the Roman poet Horace.

53 Former Russian orbiter : MIR

Russia’s Mir space station was a remarkably successful project. It held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at just under 10 years, until the International Space Station eclipsed that record in 2010. Towards the end of the space station’s life however, the years began to take their toll. There was a dangerous fire, multiple system failures, and a collision with a resupply ship. The Russian commitment to the International Space Station drained funds for repairs, so Mir was allowed to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in 2001. “Mir” is a Russian word meaning “peace” or “world”.

55 __ wheel : FERRIS

The first Ferris Wheel was built for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. That wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. who lent his name to wheels built from then on.

56 Some early PCs : IBMS

The original IBM Personal Computer is model number 5150, which was introduced to the world on August 12, 1981. The term “personal computer” was already in use, but the success of the IBM 5150 led to the term “PC” being used for all computer products compatible with the IBM platform.

58 Chocolate mousse feature? : “CHOSE” SIDES (“chocolate mousse” sides)

Our word “mousse” is an Old French term meaning “froth”.

60 “Marriage Story” writer/director Baumbach : NOAH

Noah Baumbach is a filmmaker from New York. He often collaborates with actress and screenwriter Greata Gerwig, both on and off the screen as they started a romantic relationship after meeting on the set of the 2010 film “Greenberg” (co-written by Baumbach and co-starring Gerwig). Baumbach and Gerwig really hit the big time with the release of the hit 2023 movie “Barbie”, which they wrote together and which Gerwig directed.

61 Desert refuges : OASES

The most famous oasis in the US is … Las Vegas, which is located in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

62 Pivot around : SLUE

To slue (also “slew) is to turn sharply, or to rotate on an axis.

63 Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, for one : ESPY

“Jimmy V” was the nickname of basketball player, coach and broadcaster Jim Valvano. Valvano made a memorable speech at the first ESPY awards ceremony in 1993 that included the words:

To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.

Jimmy V passed away from bone cancer less than two months later.

Down

1 Sportswear logo : SWOOSH

I remember seeing a lady named Carolyn Davidson on the television show “I’ve Got a Secret”. Davidson created the Nike “swoosh” back in 1971 when she was a design student at Portland State. She did it as freelance work for Blue Ribbon Sports, a local company introducing a new line of athletic footwear. The “swoosh” is taken from the wing of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike. Years later, BRS changed its name to Nike, so I suppose the company should be grateful to Carolyn for both the great design, and a great company name.

3 Pickup spec : ONE TON

Pickup trucks are probably so called because they can be used to “pick up” bulky items from say a store, and then deliver them elsewhere. Here in North America, we call a pickup with four rear wheels (instead of two) a “dually”, a colloquial term. A dually can carry more weight on the rear axle than a regular pickup.

4 Ligurian port on a namesake gulf : GENOA

Genoa is a seaport in the very north of Italy, in the region known as Liguria. One of Genoa’s most famous sons was Christopher Columbus. Another was the violinist Niccolò Paganini.

5 Glasgow citizen : SCOT

Glasgow sits on the River Clyde, and is the largest city in Scotland and. Back in the Victorian Era, Glasgow earned a reputation for excellence in shipbuilding and was known as “Second City of the British Empire”. Glasgow shipyards were the birthplaces of such famous vessels as the Lusitania, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. People from Glasgow are known as Glaswegians.

6 Road goo : TAR

The terms “tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call “tarmac”.

8 Davis of “Beetlejuice” : GEENA

As well as being a successful Hollywood actress, Geena Davis is an accomplished archer and came close to qualifying for the US archery team for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Davis is also a member of American Mensa. She is quite the lady …

“Beetlejuice” is a 1988 comedy-horror film directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton in the title role. Beetlejuice is an underworld character who tries to scare away the new inhabitants of a house that is haunted by the ghosts of a deceased couple (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis).

12 Turpentine ingredient : PINE SAP

Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. It is a colorless, oily, odorous, flammable, water-immiscible liquid. Showing my age perhaps, I mostly think of turpentine as a paint thinner, and a solvent used to clean paint brushes.

13 Tweezers targets : SLIVERS

The terms “sliver” and “splinter” seem to be used interchangeably, both referring to a fragment of a larger object that penetrates the skin. I grew up in Ireland using the term “splinter”, but I must say that I’ve really only heard the term “sliver” used in the US. That might just be me …

18 Jumper cable? : BUNGEE

The first bungee jump using the modern latex cord was from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. It was an illegal jump, with all five jumpers getting arrested soon after “hitting” the ground.

25 Portmanteau coined by Tyra Banks on “America’s Next Top Model” : SMIZE

To smize is to smile with the eyes. The term “smize” was popularized by host Tyra Banks on the reality show “America’s Next Top Model”.

26 Harlan Coben genre : CRIME

Harlan Coben is an extremely successful author who specializes in mystery novels and thrillers. Coben has a close relationship with Netflix, so that many of his stories have been adapted into Netflix Original production. I highly recommend all of them …

29 Simian : APE

“Simian” means “pertaining to monkeys or apes”, from the Latin word “simia” meaning “ape”.

31 Dances with queens : PROMS

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

35 Blueprint : FLOOR MAP

Blueprints are reproductions of technical or architectural drawings that are contact prints made on light-sensitive sheets. Blueprints were introduced in the 1800s and the technology available dictated that the drawings were reproduced with white lines on a blue background, hence the name “blue-print”.

36 “Black Beatles” hip-hop duo __ Sremmurd : RAE

Rae Sremmurd is a hip hop act consisting of two brothers from Tupelo, Mississippi: Khalif “Swae Lee” Brown and Aaquil “Slim Jxmmi” Brown. The pair used to perform as Dem Outta St8 Boyz, with the brothers using the names Kid Krunk and Caliboy, along with a third brother known as Lil Pantz. The name “Rae Sremmurd” is a backward spelling of the words making up “EarDrummers”, which is the name of the production company that signed the duo.

39 Herbal red 22-Down : ROOIBOS
[22D 39-Down, e.g. : TEA]

Red tea is made from the leaves of the South African rooibos plant. The name “rooibos” translates as “red bush”.

42 Unadon fish : EEL

“Unadon” is the Japanese word for “eel bowl”. “Unadon” is actually a contraction of “unagi no kabayaki” (grilled eel) and “donburi” (rice bowl dish).

45 Guessing game where the answer can be false, but not true? : WORDLE

The word game Wordle requires the guessing of 5-letter words. So, “FALSE” might be an answer, but not “TRUE”.

Wordle is a web-based word game that a Welsh software engineer developed to play with his partner during the COVID pandemic. The name “Wordle” is a play on the engineer’s own name: Josh Wardle. Wardle published the game on its own website in 2021, primarily for the use of Wardle’s family. One month later, the game had 90 players, and a month later 300,000 players. A week later, the number of daily players had grown to two million! The New York Times purchased Wordle in 2022 “for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”.

46 Farewells : ADIEUS

“Adieu” is French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

49 Hangzhou “Hello” : NIHAO

Hangzhou (also “Hangchow”) in eastern China is the capital city of the province of Zhejiang (also “Chekiang”). The city has a reputation as a center of excellence for information technology, and is home to the headquarters of technology giant Alibaba.

50 Metallic waste : DROSS

When metals are smelted, there is a scum made up of impurities that floats on the surface of the molten metal. This scum is called “dross” and is drawn off and discarded. The term “dross” has come to mean any waste or impure matter.

52 Spectrum-maker : PRISM

When light passes through a prism, it splits up (disperses) into differing wavelengths. It then becomes clear that white light is actually a mixture of different colors, which show up as a beautiful spectrum.

55 Own (up) : FESS

The term “fess” is most often seen as part of the phrasal verb “to fess up” meaning “to admit to something”. “Fess” is simply a shortened form of “confess”.