LA Times Crossword 12 Apr 24, Friday

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Constructed by: Amie Walker & Wendy L. Brandes
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: You Had to Be There

The letter “U” HAD TO BE THERE in the themed clues, in order to match the corresponding answers:

• 40A “It was even funnier at the time,” or a hint to making the starred clues match their answers : YOU HAD TO BE THERE or “U” HAD TO BE THERE

• 18A *Big moth : CHATTERBOX (Big mouth)
• 24A *Theater debt : OPENING NIGHT (Theater debut)
• 52A *Frozen state : ICE SCULPTURE (Frozen statue)
• 62A *Title bot : PRIZE FIGHT (Title bout)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 __ test : ACID

Gold is a metallic chemical element with the symbol “Au”. It is extremely unreactive. Silver and other base metals dissolve in nitric acid, and so testing an unknown sample with nitric acid can confirm the presence of gold. This assaying practice gave rise to the figurative use of the term “acid test” to describe any definitive test.

5 Oft-poached pear : BOSC

Bosc is a cultivar of the European pear that is grown mainly in the northwest of the United States. It is named for French horticulturist Louis Bosc. The cultivar originated in Belgium or France in the early 19th century. The Bosc is that pear with a skin the color of a potato, with a long neck.

20 “Da 5 Bloods” actor Whitlock Jr. : ISIAH

Actor Isiah Whitlock Jr. is perhaps best known for playing state senator Clay Davis on the hit TV show “The Wire”. Whitlock picked up a colorful catchphrase from his character on “The Wire”, as the actor used his rich, deep voice to the full pronouncing a mild expletive as “sheeeeeeeee-it”. 🙂

“Da 5 Bloods” is a 2020 Spike Lee film about four aging veterans of the Vietnam War who go back to Vietnam. Their mission is to find the remains of their fallen squad leader, and to find a stash of gold bars they hid during the conflict. I haven’t seen this one, but am putting it on “the list” …

22 Cookbook writer Garten : INA

Ina Garten is an author as well as the host of a cooking show on the Food Network called “Barefoot Contessa”. She is a mentee of Martha Stewart, and indeed was touted as a potential “successor” to the TV celebrity when Stewart was incarcerated in 2004 after an insider trading scandal. Garten has no formal training as a chef, and indeed used to work as a nuclear policy analyst at the White House!

36 Parker products : PENS

The Parker Pen Company was founded in 1888 in Janesville, Wisconsin by George Safford Parker. Parker had repaired and sold fountain pens as a sideline for many years. With this experience, he created pens that were less likely to leak ink and founded his company based on these patented designs.

38 Made in Taiwan, say : ASIAN

Prior to 1945, the island that we know today as Taiwan was called “Formosa”, the Portuguese word for “beautiful”. Portuguese sailors gave the island this name when they spotted it in 1544. The official name for the state of Taiwan is the “Republic of China”.

44 Cantaloupe, e.g. : MELON

The cantaloupe is the most popular type of melon consumed in the US. Apparently the cantaloupe was first cultivated in Cantalupo in Sabina, a town near Rome in Italy.

46 August hrs. : DST

On the other side of the Atlantic, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring and backwards in the fall so that afternoons have more daylight. DST was first observed in the US in 1918, and is observed in all states other than Hawaii and Arizona. Hawaii doesn’t really “need” DST as the length of daylight doesn’t vary much due to the state’s tropical latitude. Arizona’s climate dictates that extra afternoon daylight is an economic burden due to increased use of air conditioning systems.

47 Beach city where Barbie’s Dreamhouse is available for short-term rentals : MALIBU

Malibu is a beach city in Southern California that is known as home to many Hollywood movie stars. It is also home to several beaches including Malibu Surfrider Beach, which was dedicated in 2010 as the first World Surfing Reserve.

Mattel, the supplier of Barbie dolls, purchased a 3,500 square-foot house in Malibu, and had it redecorated to resemble the company’s Barbie Dreamhouse dollhouse. The creation of a life-size Barbie Dreamhouse was part of a promotion on the occasion of Barbie’s 50th birthday.

60 Spacewalk initials : EVA

Extravehicular activity (EVA) is the name given to any work done by an astronaut outside of his or her spacecraft. The term would encompass walking on the moon, as well as making a space walk i.e. floating around in space tethered to spacecraft.

67 Falafel bread : PITA

Falafel is a ball of ground chickpeas or fava beans that has been deep fried and served in pita bread. I love chickpeas, but falafel is often too dry for me …

71 Setting for much of “The Mummy” franchise : EGYPT

“The Mummy” is a 1999 horror film, a remake of the 1932 film of the same name starring Boris Karloff in the title role. Arnold Vosloo plays Karloff’s role in the 1999 version. “The Mummy” series of films developed into a franchise with the release of 2017’s “The Mummy”, this time starring Tom Cruise.

73 Wall St. index : NYSE

The roots of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) go back to 1792 when a group of 24 stock brokers set up the New York Stock & Exchange Board. They did so in an agreement signed under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street. That document became known as the Buttonwood Agreement. Today, the NYSE is located in a National Historic Landmark building with the address 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

Down

4 Fiji competitor : DASANI

Dasani is a Coca-Cola brand of bottled water. It is simply filtered tap water with some trace minerals added.

8 Opposite of dogbane? : CATNIP

About 50% of all cats are affected in some way by the plant catnip. There is a terpenoid in the oil of the plant called nepetalactone that the cat inhales and that can cause anything from drowsiness to anxiety.

Dogbanes are a group of plants that have the reputation of repelling, or even killing, dogs. One common example of a dogbane is oleander, which contains cardiac glycosides that alter the function of cardiac muscle cells. It’s not just dogs that can be harmed by dogbanes.

11 Baja resort, familiarly : CABO

Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

21 __ Heritage Month: September 15 to October 15 : HISPANIC

Hispanic Heritage Month dates back to 1988. The start of the 30-day period was chosen as September 15th as the countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua all declared independence on September 15th, 1821. Also, Mexico celebrates independence on September 16th, Chile on September 17th, and Belize on September 18th.

28 Derriere : TUSH

“Tush”, a word meaning “backside”, is an abbreviation of “tochus” that comes from the Yiddish “tokhes”.

“Derrière” is a French term meaning “back part, rear”.

32 Sculler’s tools : OARS

A scull is a boat used for competitive rowing. The main hull of the boat is often referred to as a shell. Crew members who row the boat can be referred to as “oars”. And, a scull is also an oar mounted on the stern of a small boat. It’s all very confusing …

33 Muscle building? : GYM

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

34 Ada Limón work : POEM

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.

35 Toni Morrison’s second novel : SULA

“Sula” is a 1973 novel by Toni Morrison. The title character is a young woman who returns to her hometown in Ohio. Sula’s return disrupts the community as she defies social norms.

39 __ zero emissions : NET

To have net zero emissions globally, the carbon dioxide generated by human activities balances out with the removal of those emissions. We aren’t there yet, not even close …

41 Colorful Hindu festival : HOLI

Holi is a Hindu festival, one celebrated in spring, that is also known as the Festival of Colours.

42 “Sacre __!” : BLEU

French speakers don’t really use the profanity “sacré bleu”, at least not anymore, but we see it a lot in English literature featuring native French speakers. Most famously it is uttered by Agatha Christie’s delightful Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. There is some dispute about the origins of “sacré bleu” (sacred blue), but French dictionaries explain that it is a “softening” of the alternative “sacré Dieu” (Holy God).

43 Countess counterpart : EARL

In the ranking of nobles, an earl comes above a viscount and below a marquis. The rank of earl is used in the British peerage system and is equivalent to the rank of count in other countries. Other British ranks have female forms (e.g. marquis and marchioness, viscount and viscountess), but there isn’t a female word for the rank of earl. A female given the same rank as an earl is known as a countess.

48 Emmy-winning Ali Wong series : BEEF

“Beef” is a comedy-drama TV show that debuted in 2023. It stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong as two people in a prolonged feud after a road rage and car chase incident. The critics really like this one.

Ali Wong is a stand-up comedian from San Francisco who is a protégé of Chris Rock. She made two very successful Netflix stand-up specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”. She also worked as a writer for the hit sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”.

49 Certain travel doc. : US VISA

A visa is usually a stamp in one’s passport, an indication that one is authorized to enter (and less often, to exit) a particular country. The word “visa” comes into English, via French, from the Latin expression “charta visa” meaning “paper that has been seen”, or “verified paper”.

55 Flatbreads made with atta flour : ROTIS

Whole-wheat

57 Recess on a Catholic school campus? : APSE

An apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally, apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

58 Mesopotamian symbol of fertility : FROG

Mesopotamia was the land that lay between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, that flow through modern-day Iraq. The name “Mesopotamia” means “between the rivers”.

63 Cook in the microwave : ZAP

The microwave oven was invented in 1946 by Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon. While he was standing beside an active radar unit, which used microwaves, he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. Spencer proceeded to expose various foods to microwaves in tests that would lead to the development of the first commercial microwave oven.