LA Times Crossword 19 Oct 24, Saturday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Erica Hsiung Wojcik
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 13m 08s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Portmanteau for Disney World’s wintery mix : SNOAP

One of Disney’s magic tricks is making it snow, when the temperatures are maybe in the eighties. Disney snowflakes are made from “snoap”, i.e. soap converted in flakes and blown into the air by a “secret” machine.

13 Swinton of “Asteroid City” : TILDA

Tilda Swinton is an English actress who is quite famous in her native land. She made a big name for herself outside the UK when she played the “baddie” in the 2007 movie “Michael Clayton”, opposite the “goodie” played by George Clooney. That performance earned Swinton a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

“Asteroid City” is a comedy drama film released in 2023. It’s set in a fictional version of 1955, and features UFOs and extraterrestrials. It was written and directed by Wes Anderson, which probably explains why I didn’t like this one at all …

16 They’re not basic : ACIDS

The “opposite” of an acid is a base. Acids turn litmus paper red, and bases turn it blue. Acids and bases react with each other to form salts. An important subset of the chemicals called bases are alkalis, hydroxides of the alkali metals and of ammonium. The term “alkali” is sometimes used interchangeably with “base”, especially if that base is readily soluble in water.

17 Many a Maine newborn : MOOSE CALF

The moose is the largest species in the deer family, and can stand almost at 7 feet at the shoulder. Moose are a little unusual in that they are solitary animals, unlike other deers who tend to move in herds. We use the term “moose” here in North America, but confusingly, the same animal is referred to as “elk” in British English.

22 Copacabana city, casually : RIO

Copacabana is a neighborhood in the city of Rio de Janeiro that is home to a famous (and much-used) beach. The neighborhood is named for a chapel there, dedicated to the Virgen de Copacabana (Our Lady of Copacabana). The Virgen de Copacabana is the patron saint of Bolivia, with the original Copacabana being a Bolivian town located on the southeastern shore of Lake Titicaca.

23 Frank : WIENER

What we call a wiener in this country is known as a Vienna sausage in Germany. It was first produced by a butcher from Frankfurt who was living in Vienna, hence the name “Wiener”, which is German for “of Vienna”. Paradoxically, the same sausage is called a Frankfurter in Vienna, as it was created by someone from Frankfurt. It’s all very confusing …

26 Key compound in a cell’s energy cycle: Abbr. : ADP

Cellular energetics, as the name suggests, is the study of energy in cells, its production, distribution and use. A major focus is the biochemistry of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the organic molecule that provides energy to support many of the processes in living cells. That energy is provided when adenosine triphosphate (ATP) converts into adenosine diphosphate (ADP) or adenosine monophosphate (AMP).

29 Product with a Frosted Chocolatey Chip Pancake variety : POP-TART

Pop-Tart is the most successful single brand for the Kellogg company, as millions of the sugary treats are sold every year. The US Military bought quite a few in 2001, and dropped 2.4 million Pop-Tarts into Afghanistan during the invasion after 9/11.

32 Place to buy a screwdriver : CASH BAR

The cocktail called a screwdriver is a mix of fresh orange juice with vodka. Apparently the drink originated with a group of engineers in the late forties who used to spike small cans of orange juice with vodka, and then stir it in with their screwdrivers.

36 Allen who was part of the Celtics “New Big Three” : RAY

Ray Allen is a retired NBA player who has made a name for himself as an actor. He gave a lauded performance as basketball prodigy Jesus Shuttlesworth in the 1998 film “He Got Game”, appearing alongside Denzel Washington.

37 Rover : NOMAD

A nomad is someone who roams about. The term “nomad” comes from the Latin “nomas” meaning “wandering shepherd”. In turn, “nomas” comes from the Greek “nomas” meaning “roaming (especially when looking for pasture)”.

44 Purple-brown : PUCE

The name of the purple shade known as “puce” has a strange derivation. “Puce” came into English from French, in which language “puce” means “flea”. Supposedly, puce is the color of a flea!

45 Scapegoat : FALL GUY

A scapegoat is a person chosen to take the blame in place of others. The term comes from the Bible’s Book of Leviticus, which describes a goat that was cast into the desert along with the sins of the community.

50 Cell service letters : LTE

In the world of telecommunications, the initialism LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution, and is wireless broadband communication standard. In general terms, LTE improves broadband speeds. As I understand it, LTE technology allows a 3G network to perform almost as well as a true 4G network, and so LTE is sometimes marketed as 4G LTE, even though it’s really “3G plus”.

51 Miembro de la familia : ABUELA

In Spanish, an “abuela” (grandmother) is a “miembro de la familia” (member of the family).

52 Shiner accompanier, maybe : FAT LIP

A shiner is something that shines. The term “shiner” has been used to mean “black eye” since 1904.

57 Renaissance Tour attendees, collectively : BEYHIVE

Beyoncé Knowles established herself in the entertainment industry as the lead singer with the R&B group Destiny’s Child. She launched her solo singing career in 2002, after making her first appearance as an actor. In 2006 she played the lead in the very successful movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls”. Beyoncé is married to rap star Jay-Z. She is also referred to affectionately as “Queen Bey”, a play on the phrase “the queen bee”. Her fan base goes by the name “Beyhive”.

Beyoncé embarked on her Renaissance World Tour In May of 2023, starting in Stockholm and ending in Kansas City in October of the same year. By the time the concert tour finished, it had the highest-grossing box office receipts for any female artist.

58 Marmaduke, for one : GREAT DANE

The Great Dane breed of dog isn’t actually from Denmark, and rather is from Germany. Great danes were originally bred to hunt wild boar, and were also used for protection and as guard dogs.

Marmaduke is the title character in a newspaper comic strip that has been drawn by Brad Anderson since 1954. Marmaduke is a Great Dane, and the pet dog of the Winslow family.

61 Airport on Boston Harbor : LOGAN

Boston’s Logan Airport (BOS) is named for General Edward Lawrence Logan, a military officer from South Boston who fought in the Spanish-American War.

62 Frank Lloyd Wright estate in Wisconsin : TALIESIN

Taliesin is an estate that was owned by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is located about 25 miles west of Madison, Wisconsin. He designed an expansive house-studio campus on about 600 acres of land that had been in Wright’s mother’s family. Wright chose the name of the estate in honor of a renowned Welsh bard named Taliesin who was active in the 6th century.

63 Go on the stump : ORATE

“To stump” can mean “to go on a speaking tour during a political campaign”. This peculiarly American term dates back to the 19th century. Back then, a stump speech was an address given by someone standing on a large tree stump that provided a convenient perch to help the speaker get his or her message across to the crowd.

Down

1 Epic based in part on Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress” : STAR WARS

“The Hidden Fortress” is a 1958 Japanese adventure film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The main characters are two peasants escorting a man and a woman across enemy lines. The peasants do not realize that the man is a general, and the woman a princess. George Lucas tells us that he was heavily influenced by “The Hidden Fortress” when he wrote his epic movie “Star Wars”. Kurosawa’s two peasants map into the C-3PO and R2-D2 characters in “Star Wars”, and Leia is the princess in disguise.

3 Kalamata center : OLIVE PIT

The kalamata olive is a large, dark purple, almond-shaped olive that is perhaps the most common table olive from Greece. It is named for the city of Kalamata in the southern Peloponnese, which is at the center of the region where the olive variety is grown. Even though the EU reserves the name “kalamata” for only those olives grown in the region, we can buy kalamata olives grown elsewhere, from California for example.

7 Nwodim of “SNL” : EGO

Actress and comedian Ego Nwodim joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 2018. She was a biology major at the University of Southern California, a classic foundation for a successful comedian …

10 Low-rimmed skillet : CREPE PAN

“Crêpe” is the French word for “pancake”.

11 First of three O’s : TIC

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

12 Region near Kalamata : SPARTA

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece that was famous for her military might. Spartan children had a tough upbringing, and newborn babies were bathed in wine to see if the child was strong enough to survive. Every child was presented to a council of elders that decided if the baby was suitable for rearing. Those children deemed too puny were executed by tossing them into a chasm. We’ve been using the term “spartan” to describe something self-disciplined or austere since the 1600s.

15 More conniving : SLIER

To connive is to conspire with, to cooperate in secret. The term comes from the Latin verb “connivere” meaning “to wink”, the idea being that connivers might give each other a sly wink.

20 “The __ Andre Show” : ERIC

Eric André is a comedian, TV host and musician who is perhaps best known as creator and host of “The Eric André Show”. He also voiced Azizi, one of the spotted hyenas in the 2019 remake of “The Lion King”.

25 Traditional shaving tool : STROP

A strop is a strip of leather used to sharpen a razor.

28 HBO series about a hitman who joins an acting class : BARRY

“Barry” is a dark comedy TV series starring Bill Hader as an Ohio hitman who questions his life of crime. Veteran actor Henry Winkler plays an award-winning supporting role as the teacher of an acting class that the hitman joins.

29 Kingdom divisions : PHYLA

Biological classification is a method used to group organisms by biological type. The method uses a hierarchy of nested classes, with an organism being classified with reference to evolutionary traits. The major taxonomic ranks used are:

• Life
• Domain
• Kingdom
• Phylum (plural “phyla”)
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus (plural “genera”)
• Species

31 Harper Lee’s given name : NELLE

Nelle Harper Lee was an author from Monroeville, Alabama. For many years, Lee had only one published novel to her name, i.e. “To Kill a Mockingbird”. That contribution to the world of literature was enough to earn her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Pulitzer Prize. Harper Lee was a close friend of fellow author Truman Capote who was the inspiration for the character named “Dill” in her novel. Lee was all over the news in 2015 as she had published a second novel, titled “Go Set a Watchman”. The experts seem to be agreeing that “Go Set a Watchman” is actually the first draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Lee passed away less than a year after “Go Set a Watchman” hit the stores.

33 __ Paulo : SAO

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. It is also the city with the highest number of helicopters in the world. This is partly driven by the horrendous traffic jams in São Paulo, but also by the wealthy having a very real fear of being kidnapped on the city’s streets.

35 Bit of literary contrivance : DOG LATIN

Dog Latin is the declining and conjugating of English words as if they were Latin. The resulting jargon is usually used quite humorously. An example from my school days would be the nouns “picus-nicus” (picnic) and “Cocam-Colam” (Coca-Cola).

38 Do-over : MULLIGAN

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive account for the origin of the term “mulligan”, which is most often used for a shot do-over in golf. There are lots of stories about golfers named Mulligan though, and I suspect that one of them may be true …

43 What happens to you while you’re busy making other plans, per “Beautiful Boy” : LIFE

“Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” is a John Lennon song that was released on the 1980 album “Double Fantasy”, which was the last album released by Lennon before he was murdered. The “beautiful boy” in the song is Sean, the only child that Lennon and Ono had together. The song contains the famous line “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.

45 Viper tooth : FANG

The Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes commonly referred to as vipers.

47 __ phase: post-ovulation stage : LUTEAL

The menstrual cycle of the human female lasts about 28 days, and can be divided into four phases:

1. The menstrual phase (~day 1-7), when the uterine lining sheds itself
2. The follicular phase (~day 1-14), when a pituitary hormone stimulates follicles in an ovary, one of which (usually) matures into an egg
3. The ovulatory phase (~day 14), when a fully developed egg is released from the ovary
4. The luteal phase (~day 14-28), when the corpus luteum in the ovary releases hormones that stimulate thickening of the uterine lining in anticipation of fertilization

53 Actress Birch : THORA

Thora Birch is an actress from Los Angeles. Birch is probably best known for her breakthrough role in the 1999 movie “American Beauty” in which she was the insecure daughter of a married couple played by Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening.

56 The Bay State, for short : MASS

“The Bay State” is one of the nicknames of Massachusetts. Other nicknames for Massachusetts are “The Old Colony State” and “The Codfish State”.

60 “The Marvels” director DaCosta : NIA

Nia DaCosta was the first woman to direct a superhero movie, doing so for 2023’s “The Marvels”.

“The Marvels” is a 2023 superhero film, and a sequel to 2019’s “Captain Marvel”. Brie Larson reprises the role of Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers. Unusually for superhero movies, this one didn’t do too well at the box office and actually lost money after its run in theaters.