LA Times Crossword 12 Jun 25, Thursday

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Constructed by: Amie Walker & Amanda Rafkin
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Storybook Ending

The first words of themed answers give us the expanded meaning of the initialism LOML, i.e. LOVE OF MY LIFE:

• 62D Romantic initialism spelled out by the starts of the answers to the starred clues : LOML

• 17A *Elixirs that stir passion : LOVE POTIONS
• 27A *Steinbeck novella featuring George and Lennie : OF MICE AND MEN
• 48A *Franchise whose characters have “cutie marks” : MY LITTLE PONY
• 63A *”Appreciate every moment” : LIFE IS SHORT

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

Bill’s time: 6m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13 “Little Red Riding Hood” tool : AXE

“Little Red Riding Hood” is a fairy tale that originated in Europe and was first published in France by Charles Perrault in 1697. The title translates into French as “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge”.

14 Grey __ vodka : GOOSE

Grey Goose is a vodka that is produced in France. It was developed specifically for the American market using resources and expertise available in the French Cognac region.

15 Boatload : CARGO

Cargo is freight carried by some vehicle. The term “cargo” comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

17 *Elixirs that stir passion : LOVE POTIONS

An elixir is a solution of alcohol and water that is used to deliver a medicine. The term “elixir” can also be used to mean a medicine that has the power to cure all ills.

19 Fish sauce quality : UMAMI

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

26 Jargon suffix : -ESE

The noun “jargon” can describe nonsensical and meaningless talk, or the specialized language of a particular group, trade or profession. The term “jargon” is Old French, with the more usual meaning of “chattering”. How apt …

27 *Steinbeck novella featuring George and Lennie : OF MICE AND MEN

“Of Mice and Men” is a novella written by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1937. The title comes from the famous poem by Robert Burns, “To a Mouse”. The inspirational line from the poem is “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft tagley.” Steinbeck actually wrote “Of Mice and Men” as a “novel-play”, intending that the lines from the novel be used as a script for a play. I actually saw the theatrical version on stage for the first time some years ago, and really enjoyed it.

32 Hindu festival : HOLI

Holi is a Hindu festival, one celebrated in spring, that is also known as the Festival of Colours.

37 Morrison who said, “The function of freedom is to free someone else” : TONI

Writer Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Amongst other things, Morrison is noted for coining the phrase “our first black President”, a reference to President Bill Clinton.

42 Clip : PACE

A clipper was a three-masted sailing ship commonly crossing the seas in the 19th century. Clippers were built for speed, so were narrow and had less room for carrying freight than many vessels used in trade. They were developed largely due to the demand for speedy delivery of fresh tea from China to Europe. The name comes from the term “to clip” meaning to move swiftly (as in “at a clip”). Perhaps the most famous clipper ship is the Cutty Sark built in 1869, the last clipper to be built as a merchant vessel. The Cutty Sark owes her fame to the fact that she is on display as a museum ship in a dry dock in Greenwich in London.

48 *Franchise whose characters have “cutie marks” : MY LITTLE PONY

My Little Pony is a toy aimed at girls that was introduced in 1981 by Hasbro. The toy became a big winner for Hasbro, as they were able to use the basic concept in the development of a whole media franchise.

52 Rapper __ Nas X : LIL

“Lil Nas X” is the stage name of rapper Montero Lamar Hill. He was born and raised just outside of Atlanta. His first hit was “Old Town Road”, which is classified as country rap.

56 Rounds in tourneys : SEMIS

“Tourney” is another word for “tournament”. “Tourney” comes from the Old French word “tornei” meaning “contest of armed men”, from “tornoier” meaning “to joust, jilt”.

60 Cultured __ : PEARL

Nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, is the strong iridescent material laid down by some mollusks on the inside of their shells, and it’s also what makes up pearls. The creature lays down nacre as a defensive mechanism, protecting the soft tissue of its body from the rough surface of the outer shell. Similarly, it uses nacre to encapsulate harmful debris or a parasite that penetrates the shell, and that’s how a pearl is formed. Cultured pearls are made by inserting a tissue graft from a donor oyster, around which the nacre is laid down.

66 WC : LOO

It has been suggested that the British term “loo”, meaning “toilet”, comes from “Waterloo” (water closet … water-loo), but no one seems to know for sure. Another suggestion is that the term comes from the card game of “lanterloo”, in which the pot was called the loo!

68 Capitol Hill staffers : AIDES

The designer of Washington D.C., Pierre L’Enfant, chose the crest of a hill as the site for the future Congress House. He called the location “Jenkins Hill” and “Jenkins Heights”. Earlier records show the name as “New Troy”. Today, we call it “Capitol Hill”.

71 Some “Modern Family” figures : DADS

“Modern Family” is a marvelous television show shown on ABC starting in 2009. The show’s format is that of a “mockumentary”, with the cast often addressing the camera directly. In that respect “Modern Family” resembles two other excellent shows: “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”, both of which might also be described as “mockumentaries”.

72 Marina __ Rey, California : DEL

Marina del Rey is a coastal community in California located within the borders of the City of Los Angeles. Marina del Rey is home to the world’s largest harbor for small craft, with a capacity for 5,300 boats.

Down

1 Italian meat sauce : 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 ..

3 List that may include black bean chili and mushroom pot pie : VEGAN MENU

A vegan is someone who stays away from animal products. A dietary vegan eats no animal foods, not even eggs and dairy that are usually eaten by vegetarians. Ethical vegans take things one step further by following a vegan diet and also avoiding animal products in other areas of their lives, e.g. items made from leather or silk.

5 __ lane : HOV

In some parts of the country, one sees high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Out here in California we refer to them as carpool lanes.

8 National Black Cat Day month : OCTOBER

National Black Cat Day takes place annually on October 27th. It was first established in the UK in 2011 by the animal welfare charity to raise awareness about the lower adoption rates of black cats compared to those of other colors. The day aims to challenge negative superstitions surrounding black cats, superstitions that seem to explain the lower adoption rate.

10 Treasure stash : TROVE

The term “treasure trove” comes from the Anglo-French “tresor trové “ meaning “found treasure”.

11 Nosy neighbor in “WandaVision” : AGNES

“WandaVision” is a TV miniseries featuring characters from Marvel Comics. The title characters are Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) played by Elizabeth Olsen and Vision played by Paul Bettany. I am by no means a fan of screen adaptations of comic characters, but I might take a look at “WandaVision”. Wanda and Vision are living in suburbia, trying to conceal their superhero identities. Each episode progresses the storyline through several decades, using situations encountered in sitcoms of the day. Episodes use the format of shows such as:

• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• I Love Lucy
• Bewitched
• I Dream of Jeannie
• The Brady Bunch
• Good Times
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• Full House
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Modern Family
• Out of this World
• The Twilight Zone

Sounds very intriguing …

12 Entourage : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”

14 Bug : GLITCH

“Glitch” comes into English from German via Yiddish. The original German word is “glitschen” meaning “to slip”. It is a relatively new term, and generally applied to computer software bugs.

18 Reproductive cell : OVUM

“Ovum” (plural “ova”) is Latin for “egg”.

24 Angel hair topper : HALO

The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo” that is used for a radiant light depicted above the head of a saintly person.

35 Nobel Prize subj. : ECON

The Peace Prize is the most famous of the five prizes bequeathed by Alfred Nobel. The others are for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. There is also a Nobel Prize in Economics that is awarded along with the original five, but it is funded separately and is awarded “in memory of Alfred Nobel”. Four of the prizes are awarded by Swedish organizations (Alfred Nobel was a Swede) and so the award ceremonies take place in Stockholm. The Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and is presented in Oslo.

41 Home of Grace Hopper College : YALE

Grace Hopper College is one of the undergraduate residential colleges at Yale University. It was originally founded in 1933 as Calhoun College, named after US Vice President John C. Calhoun. The college was renamed in 2017 after significant debate and controversy surrounding Calhoun’s legacy as a white supremacist and defender of slavery. It was dedicated to the pioneering computer scientist Grace Murray Hopper, a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy who earned her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from Yale.

44 Some Subarus : HYBRIDS

Subaru is the automobile division of Fuji Heavy Industries, a Japanese conglomerate. “Subaru” is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. As a result, the Subaru logo is also a cluster of stars.

51 Food in “Sweeney Todd” and “Waitress” : PIE

“Sweeney Todd” was originally a 1936 film, later a 1973 play, then a 1979 musical, and then a movie adaptation of the musical in 2007. After Sweeney Todd has killed his victims, his partner in crime Mrs. Lovett helped him dispose of the bodies by taking the flesh and baking it into meat pies that she sold in her pie shop. Ugh!

“Waitress” is a 2015 musical by Sara Bareilles that is based on a 2007 movie of the same name starring Keri Russell in the title role. Both stage show and film are about a waitress and pie chef who is in an unhappy marriage, and who becomes pregnant. Feeling trapped, she sees a pie contest and its grand prize as her way out of her failed marriage.

52 Lavender kin : LILAC

The ornamental flowering plant known as lilac is native to the Balkans, and is a member of the olive family. The name “lilac” comes from the Persian word “lilaq,” which means “flower.”

“Lavender” is the common name for the plant genus Lavandula. It is used as an ornamental plant, as a culinary herb and for the production of essential oils. The plant’s name might ultimately be derived from the Latin word “lavare” meaning “to wash”, a reference to the use of essential oils in bathing.

53 Tony winner Menzel : IDINA

Actress and singer Idina Menzel came to public attention when she was a member of the original Broadway cast of “Rent”. She is known on the small screen for playing Shelby Corcoran on the musical TV show “Glee”. On the big screen, her most noted performance was as the voice actor behind Queen Elsa in the Disney hit “Frozen”. It is Menzel who sings the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” in “Frozen”.

58 __ chic : GEEK

Geek chic was a fashion trend in which mainly young people adopted clothing and accessories associated with stereotypical “geeks”. The trend popularized capri pants, suspenders and oversized black horn-rimmed glasses.

59 Branch of Islam : SHIA

Shiism, the second-largest branch of Islam, distinguishes itself from Sunni Islam primarily through its belief in the rightful succession of leadership after the Prophet Muhammad. Shia Muslims believe that leadership should have passed to Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali, and his descendants, known as Imams, whom they consider divinely appointed and infallible. In contrast, Sunni Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad did not explicitly designate a successor, and that leadership should be determined through consensus among the Muslim community.

62 Romantic initialism spelled out by the starts of the answers to the starred clues : LOML

Love of my life (LOML)