LA Times Crossword 3 Jun 25, Tuesday

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Constructed by: George Simpson & Zhouqin Burnikel
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Dark Circles

Themed answers each start with something that can be DARK, shown with CIRCLED letters in the grid:

• 59A Signs of fatigue, and what can be found in 17-, 24-, 35-, and 52-Across : DARK CIRCLES

• 17A Seasoning in a grinder : BLACK PEPPER
• 24A Exorcist’s target : EVIL SPIRIT
• 35A Phone setting that dims the screen : NIGHT MODE
• 52A Hush-hush agreement : SECRET DEAL

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

Bill’s time: 7m 36s

Bill’s errors: 2

• MAI (Cai)
• GMAT (GCAT)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Island in the Gulf of Naples : CAPRI

The island of Capri off the coast of Southern Italy has been a tourist resort since the days of ancient Rome. Capri is home to the famous Blue Grotto, a sea cave that is illuminated with sunlight that’s colored blue as it passes through the seawater into the cave.

The Gulf of Naples (also “Bay of Naples”) is on the southwest coast of Italy between the city of Naples and the town of Sorrento. The gulf is a major destination for tourists seeking to visit iconic locales like Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, the island of Capri as well as Naples itself.

14 “The Raven” poet Edgar __ Poe : ALLAN

The first verse of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” is:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

17 Seasoning in a grinder : BLACK PEPPER

The fruit of the black pepper plant are drupes called peppercorns. Each peppercorn is dark red in color, and contains a stone that in turn encloses a single black pepper seed. Black pepper is made by grinding dried berries that have been picked before they ripen. White pepper is made by grinding the seeds of ripe peppercorns, The seeds are extracted by soaking the fruit in water and removing the outer layer.

20 Baby garment : ONESIE

A onesie is a baby’s one-piece bodysuit, and is a common gift at a baby shower.

24 Exorcist’s target : EVIL SPIRIT

An exorcist is a religious figure who is believed to be able to cast out demons that have possessed a person or perhaps a building.

28 Word between surnames : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”. The term “née” is mainly used in English when referring to a married woman’s birth name, assuming that she has adopted her husband’s name, e.g. Michelle Obama née Robinson, Melania Trump née Knavs, and Jill Biden née Jacobs.

30 Tragic Shakespearean king : LEAR

Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous drama “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.

33 Note between fa and la : SOL

The sol-fa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti.

42 “Boo’d Up” singer Ella __ : MAI

Ella Mai is an R&B singer from England. Mai went to high school in New York City before returning to Britain.

43 Charlotte __: creamy dessert : RUSSE

Charlotte Russe is a cold dessert consisting of Bavarian cream set in a mold layered with ladyfingers. The dessert was named by its creator in honor of Princess Charlotte, daughter of British King George IV, and in honor of Czar Alexander I of Russia (“russe” is French for “Russian”).

47 Smoothie bowl berry : ACAI

Açaí na tigela is a dish made from the frozen, mashed fruit of the açaí palm and served as a smoothie. Often topped with granola, banana, other berries and syrup, the dish is a specialty in much of Brazil. There’s even a savory version of açaí na tigela (“açaí in the bowl”) that includes shrimp or dried fish and tapioca. Açaí bowls are becoming very popular in North America, especially as a health food.

56 Niger or Nigeria : NATION

The Republic of Niger is a landlocked country in Western Africa that gets its name from the Niger River. 80% of the country lies within the bounds of the Sahara Desert.

Nigeria is in West Africa, and it takes its name from the Niger River that flows through the country. Nigeria is the most populous country on the continent, with over 180 million inhabitants. It is also the most populous member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

65 “Hamilton” Tony winner Renée __ Goldsberry : ELISE

Renée Elise Goldsberry is an actress and singer who is best known to me for playing the attorney Geneva Pine on the TV show “The Good Wife”. Goldsberry also originated the role of Angelica Schuyler Church in the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton”.

67 Some Ph.D. students : TAS

Teaching Assistants (TAs)

68 Gently protest : 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”.

69 Analyze, as a sentence : PARSE

The verb “to parse” means “to state the parts of speech in a sentence”. “Parse” comes from the Latin word “pars” meaning “part”.

Down

5 Inserts for some printers : INKS

Supertank printers are inkjet printers that use a continuous feed of ink from tanks, rather than ink from individual cartridges. The idea is to spend the big bucks up front on a supertank, and save on those expensive cartridges in the long run. Personally, I just stick to black-and-white printing and use a laserjet. Way, way cheaper …

9 Round chart shape : PIE

A pie chart can also be referred to as a circle graph. It is often stated that Florence Nightingale invented the pie chart. While this is not in fact true, she is due credit for popularizing it, and for developing the pie chart variation known as the polar area diagram. The earliest known pie chart appears in a book published in 1801 by Scottish engineer William Playfair.

10 Throat affliction : STREP

Streptococcus bacteria multiply and divide along a single axis so that they form linked chains. That behavior gives the genus of bacteria its name, as “streptos” is Greek for “easily twisted, like a chain”. I had to battle with streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) twice in the past few years and it was not at all pleasant, I must say. Another species of streptococcus is responsible for that terrible “flesh-eating” infection that makes the news from time to time.

12 J, F, or K, for JFK : INITIAL

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was the son of Joe Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, hence the president’s double-barreled name.

22 Surroundings : MILIEU

We use the French term “milieu” (plural “milieux”) to mean “environment, surroundings”. In French, “milieu” is the word for “middle”.

23 “Bag Piece” artist Yoko : ONO

Yoko Ono’s conceptual artwork called “Bag Piece” was first performed in the 1960s. Audience members are invited to enter and remain within large fabric bags.

26 Weaving device : LOOM

There are many types of loom used to weave cloth, but they all hold parallel threads in tension in one direction, while allowing the interweaving of threads in the perpendicular direction. The threads held under tension are the warp threads, and the “woven” threads are the “weft” threads.

29 D-backs, in box scores : ARI

The Arizona Diamondbacks (also “D-backs”) joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, they became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.

36 Exam for future MBAs : GMAT

If you want to get into a business school’s graduate program then you might have to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), which will cost you $275-300, I believe …

37 Like a coconut shell : HARD

The coconut is the fruit of the coconut palm. The term “coconut” comes from “coco” and “nut”, with “coco” being 16th-century Spanish and Portuguese for “head”, and more specifically “grinning face”. The three holes found in the base of a coconut shell might be said to resemble a human face.

39 Superlative for Usain Bolt : FASTEST

Usain Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter who won the 100m and 200m race gold medals in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. Back in Jamaica, Bolt was really into cricket, and probably would have been a very successful fast bowler had he not hit the track instead.

40 Fiji’s region : OCEANIA

The part of the Pacific Ocean known as “Oceania” is roughly equivalent to the area that includes the tropical islands of the South Pacific. Oceania can be divided into the regions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.

The island nation of Fiji is an archipelago in the South Pacific made up of over 330 islands, 110 of which are inhabited. Fiji was occupied by the British for over a century and finally gained its independence in 1970.

41 Tennis paddles : RACKETS

The instrument striking a tennis ball, here in America, is a “racket’. In Britain and Ireland, and other English-speaking nations, the spelling “racquet” is more common. Interestingly (to me, anyway!), the spelling “racket” dates back to the 14th century. “Racquet” appeared later, in the early 16th century.

44 Erudite individual : SCHOLAR

“Erudite” is a lovely-sounding word meaning “learned, well-educated”. The term comes from the Latin verb “erudire” meaning “to educate”, or more literally “to bring out of the rough”.

45 Oklahoma State rivals : SOONERS

The University of Oklahoma was founded in 1890 in the city of Norman, as the Norman Territorial University. The school’s sports teams are called the “Sooners”, from the state of Oklahoma’s nickname.

The 1889 Indian Appropriations Act officially opened up the so-called Unassigned Lands, land in Oklahoma on which no Native American tribes had settled. Once the Act was signed, those lands became available for settlement. Those people who settled the same lands illegally, prior to the date specified, were termed “Sooners” as their situation was defined in the “sooner clause” of the Act. “Sooner State” is now a nickname for Oklahoma.

49 Dasher’s teammate : DANCER

In the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, better known today by its first line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”, the narrator lists for us the names of Santa’s reindeer:

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!

”

50 Jai __ : ALAI

Jai alai is a game that derives from Basque pelota, and is known as “cesta-punta” in the Basque language. The name “jai alai” translates from the original Basque as “merry festival”.

54 Religion with covens : WICCA

Wicca is a relatively new phenomenon. It is a Neopagan religion that developed in the twentieth century. Typically, followers of Wicca worship one goddess and one god, namely the Moon Goddess and the Horned God. A follower of Wicca is called a Wiccan or a Witch.

60 Bitter pub drink : ALE

What’s known as “bitter ale” in the UK corresponds to “pale ale” in the US. I’m a fan …

62 Sch. west of Topeka : KSU

Kansas State University (KSU) was founded as the Kansas State Agricultural College in 1863 during the Civil War. The main KSU campus is located in the city of Manhattan, which is 56 miles northwest of Topeka, Kansas.

Topeka is the capital of Kansas, and is located on the Kansas River in the northeast of the state. The name “Topeka” was chosen in 1855 and translates from the Kansa and the Ioway languages as “to dig good potatoes”. The reference isn’t to the common potato but rather to the herb known as the prairie potato (also “prairie turnip”), which was an important food for many Native Americans.