LA Times Crossword 13 May 25, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Rebecca Goldstein
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Extremely Online

The EXTREMES of themed answers spell out ONLINE abbreviations:

• 55A Like someone who spends too much time on the internet, and like this puzzle’s circled letters? : EXTREMELY ONLINE

• 17A “That was a great day” : I REMEMBER IT WELL (IRL = in real life)
• 22A Wearable that can detect heart rate : SMARTWATCH (SMH = shaking my head)
• 35A Numbered element in a drawing : LOTTO BALL (LOL = laugh out loud)
• 49A Morsel in Hansel and Gretel’s trail : BREADCRUMB (BRB = be right back)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 43s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Low-pH solution : ACID

As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

14 Tortoise racer : HARE

“The Tortoise and the Hare” is perhaps the most famous fable attributed to Aesop. The cocky hare takes a nap during a race against the tortoise, and the tortoise sneaks past the finish line for the win while his speedier friend is sleeping.

15 e-tron carmaker : AUDI

The Audi e-tron is a series of electric vehicles introduced originally as a mid-size luxury SUV. Its market launch began in select European countries in late 2018, with deliveries to the US starting in mid-2019.

16 Ancient Greek region : IONIA

The geographic region called Ionia is located in present-day Turkey. It was prominent in the days of ancient Greece, although it wasn’t a unified state and rather a collection of tribes. The tribal confederacy was more based on religious and cultural similarities than a political or military alliance. Nowadays we often refer to this arrangement as the Ionian League.

22 Wearable that can detect heart rate : SMARTWATCH

Smartwatches measure heart rate primarily using what’s called photoplethysmography (PPG). LEDs shine light on the skin, and sensors detect changes in reflected light caused by blood volume fluctuations with each heartbeat. This data is then used to calculate the pulse rate.

28 Skewered dish : SATAY

The dish known as “satay” originated in Java, Indonesia and is marinated pieces of meat served on a skewer in a sauce, often a spicy peanut sauce. “Satay” is the Indonesian spelling, and “sate” is the Malay spelling.

29 Muslim monarch : EMIR

An emir is a prince or chieftain, one most notably from the Middle East in Islamic countries. In English, “emir” can also be written variously as “emeer, amir, ameer” (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

31 Actor and advocate for science communication Alan : ALDA

Even though actor Alan Alda is the son of fellow actor Robert Alda, both were born with the family name “D’Abruzzo”. Alan is a vocal advocate for science education. He is a founder of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, where he became a visiting professor. He also hosted the TV show “Scientific American Frontiers” for 14 years.

33 [Not my error] : [SIC]

[Sic] indicates that a quotation is written as originally found, perhaps including a typo. “Sic” is Latin for “thus, like this”. The term is more completely written as “sic erat scriptum”, which translates as “thus was it written”.

34 Princess from the planet Alderaan : LEIA

The full name of the character played by Carrie Fisher in the “Star Wars” series of films is Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, and later Leia Organa Solo. Leia is the twin sister of Luke Skywalker, and the daughter of Anakin Skywalker (aka “Darth Vader”) and Padmé Amidala. Leia is raised by her adoptive parents Bail and Breha Organa. She eventually marries Han Solo.

35 Numbered element in a drawing : LOTTO BALL

Originally, lotto was a type of card game, with “lotto” being the Italian for “a lot”. We’ve used “lotto” to mean a gambling game since the late 1700s.

38 Book that’s hardly light reading : TOME

“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century, “tome” had come to mean “large book”.

39 Chest muscle, for short : PEC

“Pecs” is the familiar name for the chest muscle, which is more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle. “Pectus” is the Latin word for “breast, chest”.

40 “RuPaul’s __ Race” : DRAG

RuPaul is a famous drag queen who has developed a diverse career beyond performing on stage. He works as an actor, model, author and a recording artist. Famously, RuPaul doesn’t mind whether one addresses him as “he” or as “she” …

You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don’t care! Just as long as you call me.

He currently hosts his own reality TV show called “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, which is billed as a search for “America’s next drag superstar”.

44 Bellicose god : ARES

Someone described as bellicose is inclined to favor strife or war. The term “bellicose” comes from “bellum”, the Latin word for “war”.

47 “Yo,” in Rio : OLA

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). “Rio de Janeiro” translates as “January River”. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Year’s Day in 1502.

48 Galaxy brain? : CPU

The central processing unit (CPU) is the main component on the motherboard of a computer. The CPU is the part of the computer that carries out most of the functions required by a program. Nowadays you can get CPUs in everything from cars to telephones.

The Galaxy is a series of mobile computing devices made by Samsung that was introduced in 2009. Almost all of the Galaxy devices have used Google’s Android operating system, until a Windows 10 Galaxy device was introduced by Samsung in 2016.

49 Morsel in Hansel and Gretel’s trail : BREADCRUMB

“Hansel and Gretel” is a Germanic fairy tale found in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. It tells of two siblings, Hansel and Gretel, the children of a woodcutter. The youngsters are abandoned in a forest at the behest of an evil stepmother. Clever Hansel hears of the plan and leaves a trail of pebbles so that he and his sister can find their way home, which they do. But the children are abandoned again and this time leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, the crumbs are eaten by birds and so the children do indeed become lost. But eventually they do all live happily ever after …

51 Leftover schmutz : RESIDUE

“Smut” means “dirt, smudge” and more recently “pornographic material”. The term comes from the Yiddish “schmutz”, which is a slang word used in English for dirt, as in “dirt on one’s face”.

60 “The Leftovers” producer Lindelof : DAMON

Damon Lindelof is a screenwriter, comic book writer, and producer who gained widespread recognition as the co-creator and showrunner of the television series “Lost”. He has more recently created critically acclaimed shows like “The Leftovers” and “Watchmen”.

“The Leftovers” is a television drama that is based on a novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta. I haven’t seen the show or read the book, but the premise sounds very interesting. It is set in a small New York town and takes place three years after a global “Rapture”, an event in which two percent of the world’s population disappeared inexplicably. The focus is on those folks “left over”, and not the people who disappeared.

Down

2 Sweet sundae sauce : CARAMEL

There’s a lot of speculation about how the dessert called a sundae got its name, but there seems to be agreement that it is an alteration of the word “Sunday”.

3 Home country of novelist Sally Rooney : IRELAND

Irish author Sally Rooney has published novels, short fiction and poetry. Her 2018 novel “Normal People” was adapted into a very successful TV miniseries of the same name that first aired in 2020.

4 Raise objections : DEMUR

To demur is to voice opposition, to object. It can also mean to delay and has its roots in the Latin word “demorare”, meaning “to delay”.

7 “__ to Neptune”: Phillis Wheatley poem : ODE

Phillis Wheatley was a remarkable figure in American literary history. Born in West Africa around 1753, she was enslaved as a child and brought to Boston. The Wheatley family recognized her exceptional intelligence, providing her with an education. She became the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral” (1773).

8 “Our Flag Means Death” subject : PIRACY

“Our Flag Means Death” is a historical comedy television series that reimagines the life of Stede Bonnet, a real-life aristocrat who abandoned his privileged life to become a pirate. I haven’t seen this one, but I hear very good things …

10 Gordie known as “Mr. Hockey” : HOWE

Gordie Howe was a Canadian hockey player. Regarded as one of the game’s greatest players, Howe was sometimes referred to as “Mr Hockey”. He was the only hockey player to have competed in the NHL for five decades (from the forties through the eighties), and held the NHL record for most games and most seasons played.

11 Lethargy : INERTIA

“Languor”, “lassitude”, “lethargy” and “listlessness” are such lovely words, all l-words meaning “lack of physical energy, torpor”.

18 Ambulance staff: Abbr. : EMTS

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

Our word “ambulance” originated from the French term “hôpital ambulant” meaning “field hospital” (literally “walking hospital”). In the 1850s, the term started to be used for a vehicle transporting the wounded from the battlefield, leading to our “ambulance”.

29 Unagi fish : EEL

“Unagi” is the Japanese term for” freshwater eel”, and “anago” is the term for “saltwater eel”.

34 Tied, as a corset : LACED

A corset is a close-fitting undergarment that is stiffened with a material such as whalebone. Corsets are more usually worn by women, to shape the body. The word “corset” is a diminutive of the Old French “cors” meaning “body”.

36 Meditative mantras : OMS

A mantra is a word that is used as a focus for the mind while meditating. The term is Sanskrit in origin, and is now used figuratively in English to describe any oft-repeated word or phrase.

42 Nuts with a high water footprint : ALMONDS

Our everyday usage of “nut” is often at odds with the botanical definition of the term. Examples of “true nuts” are acorns, chestnuts and hazelnuts. On the other hand, even though we usually refer to almonds, pecans and walnuts as “nuts”, botanically they are classified as “drupes”. Both drupes and true nuts are fruits, the vehicles that flowering plants use to disseminate seeds. True nuts are examples of a “dry fruit”, a fruit that has no fleshy outer layer. Drupes are examples of a “fleshy fruit”, a fruit with a fleshy outer layer that often makes it desirable for an animal to eat. Familiar examples of drupes are cherries, peaches and plums. We eat the fleshy part of these drupes, and discard the pit inside that contains the seed. Other examples of drupes are walnuts, almonds and pecans. The relatively inedible flashy part of these drupes is usually removed for us before they hit our grocery stores shelves. We crack open the pit inside and eat the seed of these drupes. No wonder we use the term “nuts” to mean “crazy”!

46 Multifunction printer function : SCAN

An all-in-one printer is a multifunctional computer peripheral that typically incorporates a photocopier, printer and scanner.

48 Operating principle : CREDO

A creed or credo is a profession of faith, or a system of belief or principles. “Credo” is Latin for “I believe”.