LA Times Crossword 25 Jun 25, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Dana Edwards
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: U Can’t Touch This

Themed answers are all things YOU CAN’T TOUCH:

• 34A MC Hammer hit, and an important reminder about 16-, 22-, 45-, and 55-Across : U CAN’T TOUCH THIS

• 16A Plant that can cause an itchy rash : POISON IVY
• 22A Piece at the Met or the Louvre : MUSEUM ARTWORK
• 45A Furry helper who often wears a vest : SERVICE ANIMAL
• 55A Power source for some trains : THIRD RAIL

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

Bill’s time: 6m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Waterloo” group : ABBA

“Waterloo” is the song that effectively launched the astounding career of Swedish band ABBA. They performed “Waterloo” in 1974 as the Swedish entry in the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and walked away with the competition (I remember it well!). The contest has been running since 1956, and “Waterloo” was chosen (in 2005) as the best song in the competition’s history.

9 HS exams with many multiple-choice questions : SATS

Today, the standardized test for admission to colleges is known as the SAT Reasoning Test, but it used to be called the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test, which led to the abbreviation “SAT”.

14 Milky gemstone : OPAL

An opal is often described as having a milky iridescence known as opalescence.

15 Bloke : CHAP

“Chap” is an informal term meaning “lad, fellow” that is used especially in England. The term derives from “chapman”, an obsolete word meaning “purchaser” or “trader”.

16 Plant that can cause an itchy rash : POISON IVY

Two of the plants that are most painful to humans are poison oak and poison ivy. Poison oak is mainly found west of the Rocky Mountains, and poison ivy to the east.

18 Morning TV host Kelly : RIPA

When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting gig. Ripa has acted as spokeswoman for several brands over the years, including Electrolux and Rykä.

20 Pouty expression : MOUE

The term “moue” comes from French, and means “small grimace, pout”.

21 “Old Time Rock and Roll” singer Bob : SEGER

“Old Time Rock & Roll” is a rock-and-roll anthem released initially by Bob Seger on his 1976 album “Night Moves” It wasn’t released as a single until 1979, after its prominent inclusion in the film “Risky Business”. I must admit that, to this day, hearing the song “Old Time Rock and Roll” evokes memories of Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear …

22 Piece at the Met or the Louvre : MUSEUM ARTWORK

New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (“the Met”) was founded in 1870 by a group of private citizens. The current museum is huge, with 2 million square feet of floor space.

The Musée du Louvre has the distinction of being the most visited art museum in the whole world. The collection is housed in the magnificent Louvre Palace that was the seat of power in France until 1682, when Louis XIV moved to Versailles.

27 Absurdist art movement : DADA

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement was launched in Zurich, Switzerland by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire. The same group frequently expressed disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

Absurdism is a philosophy holding that the universe is meaningless and irrational. Further, it is the search for meaning that leads to individual and global conflict.

30 Red __: cinnamon candies : HOTS

Red Hots are cinnamon-flavored candy pieces. I recently found out that Red Hots are sometimes used in apple sauce …

“True” cinnamon sticks are taken from the inner bark of the Cinnamomum verum tree. However, a lot of cinnamon sticks are also sold that come from a related species of tree, and these are more correctly referred to as “cassia”.

31 Nickname for Ernesto Guevara : CHE

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in Argentina, and in 1948 he started to study medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. While at school he satisfied his need to “see the world” by taking two long journeys around South America, the stories of which are told in Guevara’s memoir later published as “The Motorcycle Diaries”. While traveling, Guevara was moved by the plight of the people he saw and their working conditions and what he viewed as capitalistic exploitation. In Mexico City he met brothers Raul and Fidel Castro and was persuaded to join their cause, the overthrow of the US-backed government in Cuba. He rose to second-in-command among the Cuban insurgents, and when Castro came to power Guevara was influential in repelling the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing Soviet nuclear missiles to the island. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to continue his work as a revolutionary. He was captured by Bolivian forces in 1967, and was executed. Fidel Castro led the public mourning of Guevara’s death, and soon the revolutionary was an icon for many left-wing movements around the world.

34 MC Hammer hit, and an important reminder about 16-, 22-, 45-, and 55-Across : U CAN’T TOUCH THIS

“U Can’t Touch This” is the signature song of rapper MC Hammer, released in 1990 from his album “Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em”. It topped charts worldwide, and is still a widely celebrated anthem of confidence and untouchable status.

43 Swiatek who was the first Polish tennis player to win a major singles title : IGA

Iga Swiatek is a professional tennis player, and the first from Poland to win a major singles title (the French Open in 2020).

55 Power source for some trains : THIRD RAIL

The first commercial uses of a third rail to power trains were actually in Ireland, with the Giant’s Causeway Tramway in 1883, and the Bessbrook and Newry Tramway in 1885.

57 Cartoon manufacturer of explosive tennis balls : ACME

The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.

58 Big name in headphones : BOSE

Bose Corporation specializes in audio equipment, including headphones, speakers, and sound systems. The company was founded in 1964 by Dr. Amar G. Bose, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Bose Corp. started as a research project in psychoacoustics, the study of how humans perceive sound.

60 Med. condition once called shell shock : PTSD

“Shell shock” is a term that originated during World War I, coined around the Battle of Loos in 1915. The etymology reflects the inaccurate assumption that the psychological symptoms observed in soldiers were a direct result of the physical impact of exploding artillery shells, the “shock” of the “shell”. Over time, the understanding of combat-related psychological trauma evolved, and the term “shell shock” has largely been replaced by “post-traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD).

Down

1 Venomous snakes : ASPS

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

2 Bouquet element : BLOOM

“Bouquet” comes from the French word for “bunch” in the sense of “bunch of flowers”. In French, the term is derived from an older word describing a little wood or small grove of trees. We started using “bouquet” to mean “perfume from a wine” in the early 1800s.

3 Tech giant known as the “Google of China” : BAIDU

Baidu is often lauded as the “Google of China” due to the company’s dominant search engine and expanding tech ecosystem. However, it has faced significant controversies, particularly concerning censorship. As the primary gateway to online information for hundreds of millions of Chinese users, Baidu operates under strict government regulations, leading to the filtering and outright blocking of search results deemed politically sensitive or contrary to state ideology.

4 Muscles worked in boat pose : ABS

The yoga pose known as navasana, or boat pose, is a seated position. The body assumes a v-shape, with the legs raised while straight, and the torso tilted backwards allowing balance on the sitting bones.

6 Yves Saint Laurent fragrance : OPIUM

The Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) perfume named “Opium” was introduced in 1977. Opium caused quite a stir when it first hit the stores, as many interpreted the use of the term “opium” as an endorsement of drug usage.

8 “Tarzan” actor Ron : ELY

Ron Ely is most famous for playing the title role in the “Tarzan” TV series in the sixties. Years later, Ely hosted the 1980 and 1981 “Miss America” pageants right after longtime host Bert Parks retired, before the job was taken over by Gary Collins. And Ely is a successful mystery novelist. He wrote “Night Shadows” and “East Beach” in the mid-nineties, both of which featured his private eye Jake Sands.

11 Gradually decrease : TAPER

I used to think that the word “taper” was used for a slender candle because said candle was “tapered” in shape, but it’s exactly the opposite. It turns out that our word “tapered” comes from the candle. “Taper” and “tapur” are Old English words meaning “candle”. From these nouns arose the verb “to taper” meaning “shoot up like flame”. This meaning evolved into “become slender” from the idea that a candle’s flame has such a shape.

17 Gathering of crows, to some : OMEN

The superstition of a gathering of crows (a “murder”) as a bad omen, often linked to death, has roots stretching back to at least the 15th century, with the term “murder” itself likely arising from the birds’ association with carrion and battlefields.

23 Megafan : STAN

“Stan” is a song by rapper Eminem (featuring Dido) that was recorded in 2000. The title refers to a fictional Eminem fan named “Stan” who becomes obsessed with the rapper, and who grows irate when his letters to his idol go unanswered. Stan’s final act is to make a voice recording as he drives into a river, with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk. One of the legacies of the song is that “stan” is now used as a slang term for an obsessed and maniacal fan.

24 Univ. military gp. : ROTC

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC)

30 Lawn game item pitched at a stake : HORSESHOE

In the game of horseshoes, a ringer is scored when the tossed shoe lands around the target stake. A leaner is almost as good as a ringer, and is scored when a horseshoe lands upright or leans against the stake.

32 “That bloke” : HIM

“Bloke” is British slang for “fellow”. The etymology of “bloke” seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

33 Telepath’s talent : ESP

The term “telepathy” was coined in 1882 by Frederic W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research. The word comes from the Greek words “têle” meaning “afar, at a distance” and “pathos” meaning “feeling, perception”. So, “telepathy” literally means “distant feeling” or “perception at a distance” reflecting the concept of mind-to-mind communication across space without physical senses.

35 “Bartender” singer : T-PAIN

“Bartender” is a popular R&B and hip-hop song by T-Pain featuring Akon that was released in 2007. The music video depicts T-Pain at a club, showcasing his signature Auto-Tune vocals and dance moves as he flirts with the bartender.

36 Soft silicate : TALC

Talc is a mineral, hydrated magnesium silicate. Talcum powder is composed of loose talc, although these days “baby powder” is mainly made from cornstarch.

48 Carne __ burrito : ASADA

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

49 Mario character in green : LUIGI

Mario Bros. started out as an arcade game back in 1983, developed by Nintendo. The more famous of the two brothers, Mario, had already appeared in an earlier arcade game “Donkey Kong”. Mario was given a brother called Luigi, and the pair have been around ever since. In the game, Mario and Luigi are Italian American plumbers from New York City.

55 Samantha Bee’s former network : TBS

Samantha Bee is a comedian from Toronto who found fame as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” starting way back in 2003. Bee left “The Daily Show” in 2015 to host her own late-night talk show “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” on TBS.