LA Times Crossword 5 Jan 24, Friday

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Constructed by: Aidan Deshong & Nate Cardin
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Trademarks

Themed answers each start with a MARK. To make sense of them, we must TRADE the MARKS of the first and second themed answers, and of the third and fourth:

• 55A Corporate symbols, or how to make the answers to 15-/22-Across and 34-/46-Across match their clues : TRADEMARKS, or TRADE MARKS

• Trade DASH and PERIOD:
• 15A TV series that may have high costume budgets : PERIOD DRAMAS
• 22A Recording device in a vehicle : DASHCAM

• Trade BRACKET and SLASH:
• 34A Fan-written story that romantically links same-sex characters : SLASH FICTION
• 46A Office competition during March Madness : BRACKET POOL

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

Bill’s time: 8m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Software-driven FX : CGI

Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

“FX” (sometimes “f/x”) is an abbreviation for “effects”, as in “special effects”.

8 K-pop band with a community of fans known as ARMY : BTS

BTS is a boy band from South Korea with seven members. The initialism “BTS” stands for the phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, which translates literally as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. BTS is the best-selling musical act in the history of South Korea.

11 Colombian street snack : AREPA

An arepa is a cornmeal cake or bread that is popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines in particular. Each arepa has a flat, round shape and is often split to make a sandwich.

13 Laptop slot : PORT

In the world of computing, serial and parallel ports have essentially been replaced with newer technology that allows for faster data transfer (such as USB ports). One of the main differences between serial and parallel ports is that a parallel port can only transfer information in one direction, from the hard drive. A serial port transfers information both to and from the hard drive.

19 Uses one’s noggin : THINKS

Slang terms for “head” include “bean”, “coconut”, “gourd”, “noodle” and “noggin”.

21 Bun in a bamboo steamer : BAO

A baozi (also “bou, bao”) is a steamed, filled bun in Chinese cuisine.

22 Recording device in a vehicle : DASHCAM

Back in the 1800s, “dashboard” was the name given to a board placed at the front of a carriage to stop mud from “dashing” against the passengers in the carriage, mud that was kicked up by the hooves of the horses. Quite interesting …

24 Radish kin : TURNIP

The names of veggies cause me grief sometimes. What’s called a turnip here in the US, we call a swede back in Ireland. An Irishman’s turnip is a rutabaga over here. Thank goodness a potato is a potato, or I’d just give up altogether …

28 Energy bar brand : CLIF

A CLIF Bar is an energy bar, and is the flagship product of Clif Bar and Company based in Emeryville, California. The CLIF Bar was developed by baker and former mountain guide Gary Erickson in 1990. He named it for his father Clifford.

30 Crypto-linked collectibles: Abbr. : NFTS

Non-fungible token (NFT). I admit it, I don’t understand NFTs (or the related cryptocurrencies).

34 Fan-written story that romantically links same-sex characters : SLASH FICTION

Slash fiction is a kind of fan fiction that focuses on a romantic pairing of same-sex characters. The first examples came from the “Star Trek: The Original Series” universe in the 1970s. The first relationship to be explored was between Captain Kirk and Mister Spock. The genre’s name “slash fiction” is a reference to the “slash” in “Kirk/Spock”.

41 Like Robin Hood’s beneficiaries : POOR

Robin Hood is a figure from English folklore who is celebrated in story and song. Some stories suggest that Robin Hood the outlaw was actually a real nobleman, the Earl of Huntingdon. Robin Hood’s famous companion was Maid Marian. Interestingly, the legend of Maid Marian (full name Lady Marian of Leaford) had been around for centuries before she became associated with Robin Hood starting in the 1700s.

46 Office competition during March Madness : BRACKET POOL

“Bracketology” is a term used to describe the process of predicting which college basketball teams will advance in a bracket in the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament. President Barack Obama famously participates in an ESPN segment called “Baracketology” in which he predicts the outcome of the tournament, game by game.

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

50 Printing measures longer than ens : EMS

In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n’ character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years. The em dash seems to be going out of style, and indeed the application I am using to write this paragraph won’t let me show you one!

51 Gibson of the “Fast & Furious” films : TYRESE

Tyrese Gibson is singer-songwriter and actor who is known simply as “Tyrese”. Tyrese is best known for playing the character Roman Pearce in the “Fast And Furious” series of movies.

52 Parkinson’s drug : L-DOPA

The name of the drug L-3,4-DihydrOxyPhenylAlanine can be shortened, thankfully, to L-DOPA. Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson won a Nobel Prize for showing that L-DOPA could be used to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s Syndrome.

English apothecary and surgeon James Parkinson wrote “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy” in 1817. This work was the first to describe the disorder that was later to be called Parkinson’s disease in his honor.

60 Regatta equipment : OARS

The word “regatta” is Venetian dialect and was originally used to describe boat races among the gondoliers of Venice on the Grand Canal back in the mid-1600s.

64 Like DoorDash meals : TO-GO

DoorDash is the largest food delivery company in the country. Customers can order food from many different restaurants using the DoorDash app, and a DoorDash driver delivers it to a home or office. DoorDash also operates ghost kitchens, facilities that prepare meals for delivery customers of a group of restaurants.

Down

2 Reliever’s stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

4 Writer/director Nora : EPHRON

Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, which deals in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

6 Potatoes au __ : GRATIN

To cook “au gratin” is to prepare something in a shallow dish with a crust of bread or cheese on top. In America we tend to think mainly of potatoes prepared this way, but the technique can be used for many different dishes. What we call French onion soup, a soup with some bread and cheese baked on top, is called “gratinée” in France.

8 White vin : BLANC

In French, a “vin” (wine) might be “rouge” (red) or “blanc” (white).

9 Marinated tandoor dish : TIKKA

The word “tikka” in Indian cuisine refers to a small cutlet or croquette.

12 Limón who is the first Latina to be Poet Laureate of the United States : ADA

Ada Limón was named US Poet Laureate in 2022. Here is her poem “Field Bling”, which comes from her 2015 collection “Bright Dead Things”:

Nights when it’s warm
and no one is watching,
I walk to the edge
of the road and stare
at all the fireflies.
I squint and pretend
they’re hallucinations,
bright made-up waves
of the brain.
I call them,
field bling.
I call them,
fancy creepies.
It’s been a long time
since I’ve wanted to die,
it makes me feel
like taking off
my skin suit
and seeing how
my light flies all
on its own, neon
and bouncy like a
wannabe star.

21 Pack animal : BURRO

Our word “burro”, meaning “donkey”, comes from the Spanish word for the same animal, namely “burrico”.

23 Musical phrases : RIFFS

A riff is a short rhythmic phrase in music, especially one improvised on a guitar.

24 Can openers : TABS

The oldest method of opening a can with a device included in the can’s design is the pull-tab or ring pull, invented in Canada in 1956. The design was long-lived but it had its problems, so the world heaved a sigh of relief with the invention of the stay-on-tab in 1975. The new design led to fewer injuries and eliminated all those used pull-tabs that littered the streets.

29 Genius Bar employee, e.g. : IT PRO

The technical support desk found in Apple Retail Stores is rather inventively called the Genius Bar. The certified support technicians are known as “Geniuses”. The trainees are called GYOs: Grow-Your-Own-Geniuses.

31 Video game hero who defeats Goombas with flaming projectiles : FIRE MARIO

In Nintendo’s “Mario” series of video games, the Goombas are mushroom-like creatures who act as enemies of the main characters.

32 Around-the-world jaunts : TOURS

A jaunt is a short pleasure trip, although back in the 1500s, the word “jaunt” described a tiresome journey. Back then, one would jaunt a horse, meaning that one tired it out by riding it back and forth.

33 Classic game console, for short : SNES

The name “Super NES” (or “SNES”) stands for “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”.

35 Thicket : COPSE

A copse is a small stand of trees. The term “copse” originally applied to a small thicket that was specifically grown for cutting.

36 Tristan’s beloved : ISOLDE

According to Arthurian legend, Iseult (also “Isolde”) was the adulterous lover of Sir Tristan, one of the Knights of the Round Table. Iseult was an Irish Princess who fell in love with Tristan who had been sent to win Iseult’s hand in marriage for King Mark of Cornwall. The tale was used as the basis for Richard Wagner’s celebrated opera “Tristan und Isolde”.

37 Pos. for Lisa Leslie : CTR

Lisa Leslie is a former professional basketball player who played in the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks. Leslie is rather tall, and was the first player to dunk the ball in a WNBA game.

43 Met expectations? : OPERAS

The Metropolitan Opera (often simply “the Met”) of New York City is the largest classical music organization in the country, presenting about 220 performances each and every year. Founded in 1880, the Met is renowned for using technology to expand its audiences. Performances have been broadcast live on radio since 1931, and on television since 1977. And since 2006 you can go see a live performance from New York in high definition on the big screen, at a movie theater near you …

46 Flight unit : STAIR

A landing is the area at the top and bottom of a staircase. Apparently, we called the steps between the landings a “flight” of stairs, because one “flies” between landings! Can that be true?

47 Wetsuit material : LYCRA

What we call spandex in the US is known as lycra in Britain and Ireland. “Spandex” was chosen as the name for the elastic fiber as it is an anagram of “expands”.

49 Auto pioneer : OLDS

Ransom Eli Olds was a pioneer in the automotive industry, and the founder of the Oldsmobile and REO brands. Olds introduced the first modern “stationary” assembly line (Henry Ford’s famous innovation was the “moving” assembly line). As a result, it can be argued that the Oldsmobile Curved Dash was the first mass-produced, low-priced automobile, rather than Ford’s Model T.

56 “Consider This” co-host Shapiro : ARI

“Consider This” is an NPR news podcast that complements the radio news program “All Things Considered”.

Ari Shapiro served very ably as White House correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) for several years. He then became a co-host of the network’s drive-time program “All Things Considered” in 2015. When he’s not working, Shapiro likes to sing. He appears regularly as a guest singer with the group Pink Martini, and has appeared on several of the band’s albums.

58 OAK alternative : SFO

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC).