LA Times Crossword 8 May 25, Thursday

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Constructed by: Enrique Henestroza Anguiano
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Western Union

Themed answers each include the abbreviated name of two neighboring WESTERN US states, UNITED side by side within the answer:

• 65A Big name in money transfers, and a hint to the neighbors found in this puzzle’s circled letters : WESTERN UNION

• 18A Guest spot in a studio, perhaps : FOLD-OUT COUCH (UT-CO = Utah-Colorado)
• 31A Denim option : ACID WASH JEANS (ID-WA = Idaho-Washington)
• 49A Spot for a home bartender’s stash : LIQUOR CABINET (OR-CA = Oregon-California)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 20s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Network in Venice : CANALS

Anyone wanting to get around the historic center of the Italian city of Venice has to walk or travel on water. Cars are not allowed. In fact, Venice is the largest urban, car-free area in the whole of Europe.

7 Tire pattern : TREAD

One way to test the depth of tread on a tire is the Penny Test. Insert a penny into the tire’s tread, with Lincoln’s head upside down. If you can see all of the president’s head, then it’s time to replace that tire (tread depth is less than 2/32 inch).

12 LGBTQ History Mo. : OCT

LGBTQ History Month has been celebrated annually since 1994. The month of October was chosen so that it coincided with the already-existing National Coming Out Day, which is observed annually on October 11th.

16 32-Down need : VODKA
(32D Pink cocktail, familiarly : COSMO)

The distilled beverage vodka takes its name from the Slavic word “voda” meaning “water”, with “vodka” translating as “little water”.

30 “__ Lasso” : TED

“Ted Lasso” is a marvelous sports-comedy TV show about an American college football coach who moves to the UK to manage an English soccer team. The title character is played very admirably by Jason Sudeikis. Sudeikis first played Lasso in a series of TV commercials commissioned to promote NBC’s coverage of the British Premier League. The character became so popular that he inspired a whole TV series. Great stuff, and highly recommended …

31 Denim option : ACID WASH JEANS (ID-WA = Idaho-Washington)

Nîmes is a lovely city in the south of France. One of the claims to fame of the city is the invention of denim fabric. The French phrase “de Nîmes” (from Nîmes) gives us the word “denim”. Also, the French phrase “bleu de Gênes” (blue of Genoa) gives us our word “jeans”.

41 Nouveau réalisme artist Klein : YVES

French artist Yves Klein was a pivotal figure in postwar European art, is best known for his monochrome paintings, particularly those in his signature color: International Klein Blue (IKB). His artistic pursuits were heavily intertwined with his dedication to judo. He studied judo in Japan, and there became the first European to rise to the rank of “yodan” (4th dan black belt)

Nouveau réalisme was a French avant-garde art movement that emerged in the late 1950s as a European counterpart to American Pop Art. It was characterized by its use of real life and found objects, as works aimed to bridge the gap between art and life.

46 Many a viral GIF : MEME

The Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) is an image format developed in the 1980s by CompuServe (remember CompuServe?). GIF images are compressed, reducing the file size, but without losing information. So, the original image can be reconstructed perfectly from the compressed GIF version. But, and it’s a big but, GIF images use only 256 individual colors. This means that GIF is a relatively poor choice of compression for color photographs, while it is usually fine for logos with large blocks of single colors.

54 Coastal city in Andalusia : MALAGA

Málaga is the capital city of the autonomous community of Andalusia in Spain. Located on the Mediterranean coast, it is considered the southernmost large city in Europe, and lies about 80 miles north of Africa. Included in the list of notable people born in Málaga are artist Pablo Picasso, and Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas. I spent a very pleasant week in Malaga’s old-town in 2022 …

55 Breakfast burrito proteins : EGGS

A burrito is a common dish served in Mexican cuisine. It is a flour tortilla filled with all sorts of good stuff. The term “burrito” is Spanish for “little donkey”, the diminutive of “burro” meaning “donkey”. It’s thought that the name was applied as a burrito looks like a bedroll or pack that might be carried by a donkey.

59 WordPress sites : BLOGS

At its heart, WordPress is a blog-publishing system. And, that’s what I use to manage the content for this blog …

61 Word derived from the Japanese for “a bit” : SKOSH

“Skosh” is a slang term meaning “a little bit”. It was originally military slang that came out of the Korean War. “Skosh” derives from the Japanese word “sukoshi” which translates as “few, little, some”.

63 Sign of summer : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

65 Big name in money transfers, and a hint to the neighbors found in this puzzle’s circled letters : WESTERN UNION

Western Union is a global financial services company best known today for its money transfer and payment services. It was founded in 1851 as a telegraph company, and it evolved over time to specialize in facilitating the quick and reliable transfer of funds, both domestically and internationally.

71 Meeting outline : AGENDA

“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.

73 “Music” from a cat organ : MEOWS

A cat organ (also “Katzenklavier”) is a hypothetical and rather macabre musical instrument. It would be an organ where the “keys” are connected to mechanisms that pinch the tails of live cats, causing them to yowl at different pitches. Thankfully, such an instrument has never existed in reality.

74 Tin alloy used in ancient Egypt : PEWTER

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

Down

2 Love, in Firenze : AMORE

Florence is the capital city of the Tuscany region in Italy. Something from or related to Florence is described as “Florentine”. The city is known as “Firenze” in Italian.

3 Parachute fabric : NYLON

The term “parachute” was coined by Frenchman François Blanchard, from “para-” meaning “defense against” and “chute” meaning “a fall”.

4 Lifesaving device for an EMT : AED

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically analyzes the heart rhythm of a person who is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and, if necessary, delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore a normal heart rhythm. AEDs are becoming more common sights, especially as most can now be used to help a patient, even if the operator has no training. On a recent trip to Britain and Ireland, I noticed that the iconic telephone boxes are being used to house AEDs rather than remove them as public phones become unnecessary.

5 Vietnam neighbor : LAOS

The present-day nation of Laos can trace its roots back to the historic Lao kingdom of Lan Xang that existed from 1354 to 1707. The full name of the kingdom was “Lan Xang Hom Khao”, which translates as “The Land of a Million Elephants and the White Parasol”.

9 Howard URL suffix : EDU

Howard University is a private school in Washington, D.C. Howard was founded soon after the Civil War with a focus on the education of African-American students, although it was open to all races, both sexes and was non-sectarian.

10 Pedigree org. : AKC

The American Kennel Club (AKC) is the organization that handles registration of purebred dogs The AKC also promotes dog shows around the country, including the famous Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

11 Yogurt in lassi : DAHI

“Dahi” (also “curd”) is a yogurt that is popular in the Indian subcontinent.

13 State of bliss : CLOUD NINE

I don’t think that anyone is really certain of the etymology of the term “on cloud nine” meaning “elated”, but I do like the following explanation. The 1896 “International Cloud-Atlas” was a long-standing reference used to define cloud shapes that was based on a classification created by amateur meteorologist Luke Howard some decades earlier. The biggest and fluffiest of all cloud shapes (and most comfortable-looking to lie on) is cumulonimbus. And you guessed it, of the ten cloud shapes defined in the atlas, cumulonimbus was cloud nine …

19 Three-__ sloth : TOED

All four of the extant species of three-toed sloths are native to South and Central America. Cousins of the three-toed sloths are the two-toed sloths, of which there are two species still living.

24 Fr. holy title : STE

“Sainte” (ste.) is French for “saint”, when referring to a “femme” (woman).

29 UPS competitor : DHL

Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn). DHL was acquired by Germany’s Deutsche Post in 2002.

32 Pink cocktail, familiarly : COSMO

Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a very nice drink, in my humble opinion. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry cocktail.

33 Matchmaking app available in Hebrew : JDATE

Spark Networks is a company that owns several special-interest dating sites online. The most famous is probably ChristianMingle.com, but there is also BlackSingles.com, LDSSingles.com, JDate.com and CatholicMingle.com.

34 Donkey Kong Country console, for short : SNES

The name “Super NES” (or “SNES”) stands for “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”.

The first video game featuring the ape named Donkey Kong was created in 1981. That same game introduced the world to the character known as Mario, four years before the game Super Mario Bros became such a big hit.

37 Punctuation made with bunny ears : AIR QUOTES

Air quotes are those gestures that some make with their fingers to emphasise sarcastically a particular word or phrase.

41 Community gym org. : YMCA

The YMCA (the Y) is a worldwide movement that has its roots in London, England. There, in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded with the intent of promoting Christian principles through the development of “a healthy spirit, mind and body”. The founder, George Williams, saw the need to create YMCA facilities for young men who were flocking to the cities as the Industrial Revolution flourished. He saw that these men were frequenting taverns and brothels, and wanted to offer a more wholesome alternative.

42 Hearty beef dish : VEAL STEW

Veal is the meat from calves, whereas beef is the meat from mature cattle. Most veal comes from male calves, as the females can be more valuable as producers of cow’s milk. Historically, veal production has been one of the most controversial practices in animal farming. Some farmers restricted the movement of veal calves by confining them in crates for the whole of their short lives in order to produce paler and more tender meat.

44 Pear-shaped instrument : LUTE

The lute is a stringed instrument with a long neck and usually a pear-shaped body. It is held and played like a guitar, and was popular from the Middle Ages right through to the late Baroque era. A person who plays the lute can be referred to as a “lutenist”.

50 Comfy boot brand : UGG

Uggs are sheepskin boots that were first produced in Australia and New Zealand. The original Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. “Ugg” is a generic term Down Under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

51 Patisserie staff : BAKERS

A patisserie is a French bakery that sells pastries, or “tartes”.

52 “Petrushka” composer Stravinsky : IGOR

“Petrushka” is a ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky that premiered in Paris in 1911. It tells the story of three puppets, Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor, brought to life during a Russian Shrovetide Fair. The tragic clown Petrushka experiences unrequited love for the Ballerina, who favors the Moor. Tragedy ensues …

57 Glittery rock : GEODE

A geode is a rock in which there is a cavity that is lined or filled with crystal formations. The crystals inside a geode form when mineral-rich water seeps into a cavity in a rock, leaving behind dissolved minerals that gradually build up over time. Some of the largest geodes ever discovered have been as big as a room and can take millions of years to form.

58 Shipwreck-finding tech : SONAR

The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defense demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the “IC” from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging), playing off the related application, RADAR. And so, the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

59 Smurf-colored : BLUE

The Smurfs are little blue people created in 1958 by the Belgian cartoonist who went by the pen name Peyo. The Smurfs became famous in the US when Hanna-Barbera used them in a children’s cartoon series. The characters are largely a group of males. The original lineup included just one “Smurfette”, who is wooed by almost all of the boy Smurfs. Later, another female was introduced into the mix called Sassette, and still later along came Granny Smurf.

67 Second-busiest Calif. airport : SFO

Here are the three busiest airports in California:

1. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
2. San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
3. San Diego International Airport (SAN)

68 Top condition on eBay listings : NEW

There have been some notable things sold on eBay over the years. For example:

• Ad space on a guy’s forehead, in the form of a temporary tattoo – $37,375
• William Shatner’s kidney stone – $25,000
• A cornflake shaped like Illinois – $1,350
• A single corn flake – $1.63
• A box of 10 Twinkies – $59.99
• The original Hollywood sign – $450,400
• The meaning of life – $3.26