LA Times Crossword 30 Sep 24, Monday

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Constructed by: Zhouqin Burnikel
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Snakehead

Themed answers are each HEADED by a kind of SNAKE:

• 63A Predatory fish capable of crawling on land, or what each part of 16-, 24-, 37- and 53-Across can be : SNAKEHEAD

• 16A Netflix true crime series about big cats : TIGER KING (giving “tiger snake”)
• 24A Evergreen that grows well in coastal soil : SAND PINE (giving “sand snake”)
• 37A Backyard hideout : TREE HOUSE (giving “tree snake”)
• 53A Great Barrier Reef locale : CORAL SEA (giving “coral snake”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 39s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16 Netflix true crime series about big cats : TIGER KING (giving “tiger snake”)

“Tiger King” is a remarkable documentary about former zookeeper Joe Exotic who is accused of abusing and exploiting wild animals. Well, the first season broadcast was remarkable, but I hear that the second and third seasons really flopped.

A tiger snake is a large, venomous snake that is native to southern Australia and the island of Tasmania. They like coastal habitats. Even though tiger snakes spend most of the time on land, they are capable of swimming.

21 Parent company of Simmons : SERTA

Serta was founded in 1931 when a group of 13 mattress manufacturers came together, essentially forming a cooperative. Today, the Serta company is owned by eight independent licensees in a similar arrangement. Serta advertisements feature the Serta Counting Sheep. Each numbered sheep has a different personality, such as:

• #1 The Leader of the Flock
• #½ The Tweener
• #13 Mr. Bad Luck
• #53 The Pessimist
• #86 Benedict Arnold

24 Evergreen that grows well in coastal soil : SAND PINE (giving “sand snake”)

The sand pine (also “spruce pine”) is a native to the Southeastern US, mainly Florida and Alabama.

Sand snakes are endemic to the Indian subcontinent, Pakistan and Nepal. They thrive in arid environments, and are well adapted to sandy surroundings.

33 The Matterhorn’s range : ALPS

“Matterhorn” is the German name for the famous Alpine peak that lies on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The Italian name for the same mountain is “Monte Cervino”, and the French call it “Mont Cervin”. “Matterhorn” comes from the German words Matte and Horn meaning “meadow” and “peak”. “Cervino” and “Cervin” come from the Latin name for the mountain, i.e. “Mons Silvius”, meaning “Forest Mountain”.

35 Actress Durance : ERICA

Erica Durance is an actress from Calgary, Alberta. Durance played Lois Lane in the TV show “Smallville” and moved on to play the lead in the medical drama “Saving Hope”.

37 Backyard hideout : TREE HOUSE (giving “tree snake”)

The common name “tree snake” is used for several species of snake found mainly in Asia, Australia and South America.

44 Co. such as Verizon Fios : ISP

FiOS is a service from Verizon that bundles Internet, telephone and television service. All three services are provided over fiber-optic lines, right to the door. I presume that the name FiOS comes from something like “Fiber-Optic Service” …

47 15, for a quinceañera : AGE

“Quinceañera” is a celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday, and is an event common in many parts of Latin America.

53 Great Barrier Reef locale : CORAL SEA (giving “coral snake”)

The Coral Sea is part of the South Pacific Ocean lying off the northeast coast of Australia. It is home to the renowned Great Barrier Reef.

Coral snakes are a widely distributed group of snakes, with species found in much of the world. In North America, they are mainly found in the southern US. The bite of a coral snake is particularly nasty, although few such bites are reported each year.

57 Powwow host : TRIBE

“Powwow” means “gathering”, and is a word used by Native Americans. The term derives from the Algonquian Narragansett “powwow” which translates as “spiritual leader”. The Narragansett also gave us such words as “moose”, “papoose” and “squash”.

63 Predatory fish capable of crawling on land, or what each part of 16-, 24-, 37- and 53-Across can be : SNAKEHEAD

Snakeheads are predatory, freshwater fish endemic to Africa and Asia. They have gills that extract oxygen from water, but also from air. So, snakeheads can move short distances over land.

Down

1 Spill the beans : TATTLE

To spill the beans is to divulge a secret. The expression first appeared in American English, in the early 1900s. The phrase arose as an alternative to “spoil the beans” or “upset the applecart”. The similarly meaning phrase “spill the tea” is more prevalent on the other side of the Atlantic.

3 Input analyzed by a supercomputer : BIG DATA

A supercomputer is basically a computer that operates at or near the highest operational speed that’s possible given the technology of the day.

5 Pans for making beef chow fun : WOKS

Chow fun is a Cantonese dish consisting of stir-fried, wide rice noodles that are typically cooked with a savory sauce.

6 Sneakers brand : AVIA

The Avia brand name for athletic shoes was chosen as “avia” is the Latin word for “to fly”, and suggests the concept of aviation. Avia was founded in Oregon in 1979.

7 Second rock from the sun : VENUS

The planet Venus is the second planet from the Sun in our solar system. It is very bright in the night sky, brighter than any other planet or any star. When visible after sunset, Venus may be referred to as the Evening Star. When visible before sunrise, it is known as the Morning Star.

8 Energy unit : ERG

An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, with one joule comprising 10 million ergs. It has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

9 Like some cheddar : SHARP

Cheddar cheese takes its name from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. Over 50% of the cheese sold in the UK is cheddar. Here in the US, cheddar is the second-most popular cheese sold, behind mozzarella.

10 Shaken or stirred drink : MARTINI

The term “martini” probably takes its name from the “Martini & Rossi” brand of dry vermouth, although no one seems to be completely sure. What is clear is that despite the Martini name originating in Italy, the martini drink originated in the US. The original martini was made with gin and sweet vermouth, but someone specifying a “dry” martini was given gin and dry vermouth. Nowadays we use dry vermouth for all martinis, and the term “dry” has become a reference to how little vermouth is included in the drink. Famously, Noël Coward liked his drink very dry and said that a perfect martini is made by “filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy”. The German-American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken referred to the martini as “the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet”.

15 Heavy hammers : SLEDGES

A sledgehammer is a big hammer, one used to apply a lot of force. The word “sledgehammer” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “Slaegan” meaning “to strike violently”. “Slaegan” is also the root of the words “slag”, “slay” and “slog”.

23 Bean in refried beans : PINTO

Pinto beans are so-called because their skins have a mottled (“pinto”) appearance.

28 Dubai’s fed. : UAE

Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy.

34 Noodle soup with a Saigon style : PHO

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food. It is often ordered with a side of hanh dam, pickled white onions.

38 Race car safety feature : ROLL BAR

An anti-roll bar (also “anti-sway bar” and “roll bar”) is part of a car’s suspension that reduces body roll as the vehicle takes a turn.

39 Actress Thurman : UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

45 Prix fixe offering : SET MENU

On a restaurant menu, items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately. A menu marked “table d’hôte” (also called “prix fixe”) is a fixed-price menu with limited choice. “Table d’hôte” translates from French as “table of the host”.

46 Process of validating a will : PROBATE

“Probate” is the process of establishing the validity of a will. The term derives from the Latin “probare” meaning “to prove”.