LA Times Crossword 22 Mar 25, Saturday

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Constructed by: David P. Williams
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 13m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Clue academic: PLUM

Clue is a board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

10 Tesla, for one: SERB

Nikola Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire in a village located in modern-day Croatia, and later moved to the US. Tesla’s work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

14 Certain king-maker: 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

15 Actress Chaplin: OONA

Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

16 Ancient Roman conqueror?: AMOR

“Omnia vincit amor” is a line from Eclogue X, one of the major works of the Latin poet Virgil. We know the phrase in English as “love conquers all”.

17 Survive scrutiny: PASS MUSTER

“To pass muster” means “to be deemed acceptable”. One musters troops, often for inspection. So, the original meaning of “pass muster” was to “get through a military inspection successfully”.

19 Green party, briefly?: LPGA

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) was founded in 1950 by a group of 13 lady golfers, and today it is the oldest ongoing women’s sports professional organization in the US.

20 Samovar kin: TEAPOTS

The samovar originated in Russia. It is a water boiler, one usually used for making tea. As such, there is often an attachment on top of a samovar to keep a teapot warm.

34 Continental capital: BERN

Bern (sometimes “Berne”, especially in French) is the capital city of Switzerland. The official language of the city is German, but the language most spoken in Bern is a dialect known as Bernese German.

36 Piece of one’s mind?: LOBE

The four main lobes of the brain are:

• Frontal lobe: Located at the front of the brain, it is responsible for higher cognitive functions such as planning, decision-making, and personality.
• Parietal lobe: Situated behind the frontal lobe, it processes sensory information like touch, temperature, and pain.
• Temporal lobe: Located on the sides of the brain, it plays a role in auditory processing, memory, and emotion.
• Occipital lobe: Found at the back of the brain, it is primarily responsible for visual processing.

37 Oft-redacted fig.: SSN

Our word “redact”, meaning to revise or edit, comes from the past participle of the Latin “redigere” meaning “to reduce”.

39 Unit of energy: JOULE

James Joule was an English physicist who spent much of his life working in the family brewing business. Joule used his work in the brewery to study the relationship between heat and mechanical work. In honor of his achievements, his name is used for the unit of energy in the International System of Units (i.e. the joule).

40 Pool problem?: BRACKET BUSTER

In the context of a sports tournament, a bracket buster is a lower-seeded team or individual that unexpectedly defeats a higher-seeded opponent, disrupting predictions and potentially changing the outcome of the tournament.

43 Perfect figures?: SQUARES

In mathematics, a perfect square is a number obtained by squaring a whole number by itself. For example, 9 is a perfect square because it’s the result of 3 x 3 (3 squared).

46 Takeoff locale: TARMAC

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”.

47 Portrayer of Andy Bernard on “The Office”: ED HELMS

Comedic actor Ed Helms got his big break in television on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, after which he joined the cast of “The Office”. Helms is now making a name for himself on the big screen. Notably, he co-stars in “The Hangover” series of films.

50 Actress __ Deavere Smith: ANNA

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, and professor who I know best for portraying National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in the excellent television series “The West Wing”. In addition to her artistic work, Smith is a dedicated professor, serving as the Founding Director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University. She has previously held professorships at Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Southern California.

55 Tagliatelle topper: RAGU

Bolognese is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna in Italy, hence the name. The recipe is usually referred to as “ragù alla bolognese” in Italian, or simply “ragù”. Note that the Ragú brand of sauces introduced in North America in 1937 takes its name from the same source (pun … sauce!). However, the brand name uses the wrong accent (“Ragú” instead of “Ragù”), which drives a pedant like me crazy ..

Tagliatelle is a type of pasta from eastern Italy. It is similar to fettuccine, and so is made up of long, flat ribbons. The name “tagliatelle“ comes from the Italian “tagliare” meaning “to cut”.

57 Ealy capital of Japan: NARA

The Japanese city of Nara, located not far from Kyoto, was the nation’s capital from 710 to 784 CE.

59 Frank who co-designed Prague’s Dancing House: GEHRY

Frank Gehry is an architect from Toronto who is based in Los Angeles. Listed among Gehry’s famous creations are the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in Spain, The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and his own private residence in Santa Monica, California. More recently, he designed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial located in Washington, D.C.

The Dancing House is a unique and striking building located in Prague, Czech Republic. It was designed by architects Vlado Milunić and Frank Gehry and completed in 1996. The building’s distinctive shape, resembling a pair of dancers, earned it the nickname “Fred and Ginger” after the famous dance duo, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Down

6 Preserved jams?: POSTER DUNKS

In basketball, “posterized” refers to the act of dunking the ball over an opponent in a spectacular and emphatic way. This image of the dunk, with the defender seemingly helpless in the background, is reminiscent of a poster, hence the term “posterized”.

8 A word to les sages?: UNE

In French, feminine nouns take the indefinite article “une”, and the definite article “la”.

In French, one might give a word to “les sages” (the wise).

10 Bow low: SALAAM

The word “salaam” is an Anglicized spelling of the Arabic word for “peace”. The term can describe an act of deference, and in particular a very low bow.

12 “The Lion King” voice actor Seth: ROGEN

2019’s “The Lion King” is described as a “photorealistic” remake of 1994’s movie of the same name, which was made using “traditional animation”. The voice cast for the 2019 film is different from the 1994 version, with one notable exception. We hear the magnificent voice of actor James Earl Jones as Mufasa in both productions. In fact, the lines spoken by Jones are almost identical in both films. Other cast members are Donald Glover (Simba), Seth Rogen (Pumbaa) and Beyoncé (Nala).

22 Buccaneer booze: GROG

Edward Vernon was a naval officer with the nickname “Old Grog”. In 1740, Vernon ordered that the daily ration of rum for his sailors should be watered down, in order to reduce discipline problems caused by drunkenness. The diluted rum was sweetened with sugar, and lemon or lime added to help preserve it on long voyages. This recipe, found to reduce scurvy among sailors (because of the citrus) spread throughout the Royal Navy, and “grog” was born. As an aside, George Washington’s older half-brother named the famous Washington Mount Vernon Plantation in honor of Edward Vernon. We use the derivative term “groggy” to mean “unsteady on the feet”, as if under the influence of “grog”.

Buccaneers were pirates who worked the Caribbean in the 1800s, mainly attacking Spanish vessels. The original buccaneer was a French hunter living on Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). These hunters used a local design of frame called a “buccan” as a smokehouse for meat, and so picked up the name “buccaneer”. In the first half of the 17th century, many of the buccaneers were driven off the island of Hispaniola by the Spanish and so they turned to the sea, making their living by pirating Spanish shipping.

24 L.A. venue where “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” was filmed: SOFI STADIUM

SoFi Stadium is an arena in Inglewood, California just a few miles from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It is the home of two NFL teams: the LA Rams and the LA Chargers.

“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is a 2023 concert movie that was filmed at three shows staged by Taylor Swift in August 2023. Swift had tried to strike a deal with major film studios to distribute the movie, but negotiations broke down. Instead, she made an agreement with AMC and Cinemark Theatres directly, a unique and unprecedented arrangement. As a result, the studios had to move the released dates planned to several of their films, so as not to go up against what turned out to be a spectacular opening. “The Eras Tour” is the highest-grossing concert film of all time.

27 Match that’s lit: BARN BURNER

A barn burner is something exciting, intense, or full of action, often in a competitive or dramatic context.

28 Spirit of myth: GENIE

The “genie” in the bottle (or lamp) takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

33 Ginger __: BEER

Ginger beer was my favorite soda as a child. Brewed ginger beer is made by fermenting ginger spice and sugar with yeast. Most of the ginger “beer” in the stores today is just carbonated water with added flavors. Ginger beer is NOT ginger ale …

35 Drag performers: RACE CARS

Back in the 18th century, “drag” was slang for a wagon or buggy, as it was “dragged” along by a horse or horses. In the 1930s, the underworld adopted “drag” as slang for an automobile. This sense of the word was imported into automobile racing in the 1940s, giving the name to “drag racing”. A drag race is basically a competition between two cars to determine which can accelerate faster from a standstill.

38 Rooney of “Women Talking”: MARA

Actress Rooney Mara is noted for her role in the 2010 film “The Social Network” and for playing the title character in the 2011 hit movie “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Mara has American football in her blood. Her mother’s family founded the Pittsburgh Steelers, and her father’s family founded the New York Giants.

“Women Talking” is a 2022 film based on a 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews. In turn, the novel was inspired by true events that took place in the ultraconservative Mennonite community of Manitoba Colony in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia. The cast of the movie is excellent, and includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Frances McDormand portraying three of the title characters. The title refers to the debate taking place among the women of an isolated Mennonite community who come to realize that they have been raped by the men while sedated with livestock tranquilizer.

39 Beetle in the scarab family: JUNE BUG

June bugs are beetles that have a life cycle of about a year. Females lay eggs in mid-summer, which hatch in about 18 days. This appearance around June led to the name “June bug”.

41 Wyndham brand: RAMADA

The Ramada Inn hotel chain takes its name from the Spanish word for a shady resting place. A ramada is a shelter with a roof and no walls, mainly found in the American southwest. Nowadays a ramada can be temporary or permanent, but originally ramadas were makeshift shelters constructed by aboriginal Indians from branches or bushes.

42 __-chic: BOHO

Boho-chic is a style of fashion that grew out of the bohemian and hippie looks.

48 Lepidopterist’s subject: MOTH

A lepidopterist is a person who studies butterflies and moths. The term “lepidopterist” comes from “Lepidoptera”, the order of insects that encompasses such flying insects. “Lepidoptera” itself comes from the Greek words for “scale” and “wing”.

49 Toffee bar: SKOR

The candy bar named “Skor” is produced by Hershey’s. “Skor” is Swedish for “shoes”, and the candy bar’s wrapping features a crown that is identical to that found in the Swedish national emblem. What shoes have to do with candy, I don’t know …

52 Persian Gulf fed.: UAE

The Persian Gulf is in effect an inland sea, although it is technically an offshoot of the Indian Ocean. The outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean is one of the most famous maritime “choke points” in the world, and is known as the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s supply of petroleum passes through the Strait of Hormuz.