LA Times Crossword 12 Aug 25, Tuesday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Jared Cappel

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Cash up Front

Themed answers each have a form of foreign CASH UP FRONT, at the start:

• 35A Demand for payment prior to service, or what 18-, 27-, 41-, and 54-Across all have : CASH UP FRONT

• 18A Was victorious in the ring, but not by a knockout : WON ON POINTS (Korean won)
• 27A Drawn from actual events : REAL-WORLD (Brazilian real)
• 41A Dessert made with equal parts sugar, eggs, butter, and flour : POUND CAKE (UK pound sterling)
• 54A Big name in map publishing : RAND MCNALLY (South African rand)

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

Bill’s time:6m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Gift of __ : GAB

Blarney is a town in County Cork in the south of Ireland. Blarney is home to Blarney Castle, and inside the castle is the legendary Blarney Stone. “Kissing the Blarney Stone” is a ritual engaged in by many, many tourists (indeed, I’ve done it myself!), but it’s not a simple process. The stone is embedded in the wall of the castle, and in order to kiss it you have to sit on the edge of the parapet and lean way backwards so that your head is some two feet below your body. There is a staff member there to help you and make sure you don’t fall. The Blarney Stone has been referred to as the world’s most unhygienic tourist attraction! But once you’ve kissed it, supposedly you are endowed with the “gift of the gab”, the ability to talk eloquently and perhaps deceptively without offending. The term “blarney” has come to mean flattering and deceptive talk.

9A Durango automaker : DODGE

The Dodge Durango has been produced since 1998, back then built on the Dodge Dakota and Dodge Ram platforms. Starting in 2011, the third generation Durango was based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee platform.

14A Org. concerned with mental health : APA

American Psychiatric Association (APA)

15A __-3 fatty acid : OMEGA

Fish oils are noted for containing omega-3 fatty acids, which have many health benefits including the reduction of inflammation. Like so many essential nutrients that we get from animals, the only reason the animal has them is that it feeds on plants. In this case, fish cannot manufacture omega-3 fatty acids, and instead absorb them from algae. Omega-3 fatty acids are also readily found in other plant oils such as flaxseed oil.

16A Orchestral woodwinds : OBOES

When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance, you’ll note (pun!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”.

17A FIFA zero : NIL

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA, standing for “Fédération Internationale de Football Association”) is the governing body of the game of soccer.

20A Shows to be false : DEBUNKS

The word “bunk” is short for “bunkum”, the phonetic spelling of “Buncombe”, which is a county in North Carolina. Supposedly, a state representative made a dull and irrelevant speech that was directed to his home county of Buncombe, bringing the term “bunkum” into the language with the meaning of “nonsense”. The derivative word “debunk” first appeared in a novel by William Woodward in 1923, when he used it to describe “taking the bunk out of things”.

22A Small roles for big stars : CAMEOS

Even in my day, a cameo role was more than just a short appearance in a movie (or other artistic piece). For the appearance to be a cameo, the actor had to play themself, and be instantly recognizable. With this meaning it’s easy to see the etymology of the term, as a cameo brooch is one with the recognizable carving of the silhouette of a person. Nowadays, a cameo is any minor role played by a celebrity or famous actor, regardless of the character played.

25A Informal “I’ve heard enough!” : TMI!

Too much information! (TMI!)

35A Demand for payment prior to service, or what 18-, 27-, 41-, and 54-Across all have : CASH UP FRONT

Our word “cash” comes from the Middle French “caisse” meaning “money box”.

37A Ancient Greek city-state : SPARTA

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece that was famous for her military might. Spartan children had a tough upbringing, and newborn babies were bathed in wine to see if the child was strong enough to survive. Every child was presented to a council of elders that decided if the baby was suitable for rearing. Those children deemed too puny were executed by tossing them into a chasm. We’ve been using the term “spartan” to describe something self-disciplined or austere since the 1600s.

40A Tube-shaped pasta : PENNE

The pasta known as penne comes in two main types, i.e. penne lisce (which is smooth) and penne rigate (which is furrowed).

41A Dessert made with equal parts sugar, eggs, butter, and flour : POUND CAKE

Pound cake is so called because the traditional recipe calls for a pound of each of four ingredients:

• a pound of flour
• a pound of butter
• a pound of eggs
• a pound of sugar

I’d say that’s a lot of cake …

46A B+, but not A+ : ION

Boron is the chemical element with the atomic number of 5 and symbol B. It lies over to the right in Group 13 of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Uncombined, elemental boron is not found naturally on Earth. The boron that is mined is found in oxide form, and not as uncombined boron.

47A Former soccer pro Morgan : ALEX

Alex Morgan is a professional soccer player and co-captain of the US national team from 2018 to 2020. Off the pitch, Morgan is a children’s author who has written books for middle-schoolers. Her 2013 “Saving the Team” debuted at number seven on the New York Times Best Seller List for Children’s Middle Grade. Her books have been adapted into a TV show called “The Kicks”.

51A “Acupuncture is a jab well done” et al. : BAD PUNS

Wanna hear some bad puns?

• Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired!
• What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh!
• What do you call a sad strawberry? A blueberry.
• I only know 25 letters of the alphabet. I don’t know Y.
• What do you call a sleeping bull? A bulldozer.
• What’s orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot.

Acupressure and acupuncture are related alternative medical techniques. Both aim to clear blockages in the flow of life energy through the body’s meridians. The treatment is given by stimulating “acupoints” in the body, by applying pressure in the case of acupressure, and by applying needles in the case of acupuncture.

54A Big name in map publishing : RAND MCNALLY

Rand McNally is a company long associated with the city of Chicago. Its roots go back to 1856 when William Rand opened a printing shop in the city. Two years later he hired an Irish immigrant named Andrew McNally and the pair turned to printing tickets and timetables for the railroad industry. They diversified into “railroad guides” in 1870, including the first Rand McNally map in the December 1872 edition. When automobile travel started to become significant, Rand and McNally turned their attention to roads and they published their first road map in 1904, a map of New York City. Rand and McNally popularized the use of highway numbers, and indeed erected many roadside highway signs themselves, long before the state and federal authorities adopted the idea.

56A Bon __ : witty remark : MOT

“Bon mot” translates from French as “good word”. We use “bon mot” (and sometimes just “mot”) to mean “quip, witticism”.

57A Yoga pose : ASANA

The word “asana” comes from the Sanskrit root “as”, which means “to sit” or “to be present”. In ancient yogic texts, “asana” primarily referred to a stable and comfortable seated position for meditation, rather than the array of physical postures that we associate with modern yoga practice today.

58A Site with an RSVP tracker : EVITE

Evite.com is a website launched in 1998 that is used to create, send and manage “evites”, online invitations.

RSVP is an initialism derived from the French phrase “Répondez s’il vous plaît”, meaning “Please respond”. It’s a polite way to ask your invited guests to let you know if they will be attending your event.

59A Nikola Jokic’s org. : NBA

Nikola Jokić is a professional basketball player who was born in former-Yugoslavia. He was playing in the Serbian League before being drafted in 2014 by the Denver Nuggets of the NBA. Jokić won a silver medal with the Serbian national team when they lost to the USA in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Down

1D Male goose : GANDER

A male goose is called a gander, with the female simply being referred to as a goose. Young geese are called goslings.

3D Movie boxer Rocky : BALBOA

If ever there was a movie that defined a career breakthrough for an actor, it would have to be “Rocky” for Sylvester Stallone. Stallone was a struggling actor in 1975 when a Muhammad Ali fight inspired Stallone to write a screenplay for a boxing movie, which he did in just three days. His efforts to sell the script went well but for the fact that the interested studios wanted a big name for the lead role, and Stallone was determined to be the star himself. Stallone persevered and “Rocky” was eventually made with him playing the title role of Rocky Balboa. The movie won three Oscars, and “Sly” Stallone had arrived …

6D Till bills : TENS

The obverse of the US ten-dollar bill features the image of Alexander Hamilton, the first US Secretary of the Treasury. As such, ten-dollar bills are sometimes called “Hamiltons”. By the way, the $10 bill is the only US currency in circulation in which the portrait faces to the left. The reverse of the ten-dollar bill features the US Treasury Building.

7D Narcissist’s problem : EGO

Narcissus was a proud and vain hunter in Greek mythology. He earned himself a fatal punishment, falling in love with his own reflection in a pool. So, taken was he by his own image that he could not leave it, and wasted away and died by the pool. Narcissus gives us our term “narcissism” meaning “excessive love of oneself”.

8D Did the mambo : DANCED

The form of music and dance known as “mambo” developed in Cuba. “Mambo” means “conversation with the gods” in Kikongo, a language spoken by slaves taken to Cuba from Central Africa.

10D Off-Broadway award : OBIE

The Obies are the Off-Broadway (“OB”) Theater Awards. They have been presented annually since 1956. The recipients used to be chosen by “The Village Voice” newspaper, but now are jointly administered with the American Theatre Wing.

26D Part of TGIF : IT’S

“Thank God it’s Friday” (TGIF)

29D Workplace std. setter : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

30D Street Fighter fighter : RYU

Capcom’s “Street Fighter” franchise of video games debuted in arcades in 1987, and in 1991 became a leading one-on-one fighting game with its best-selling 1991 release, “Street Fighter II”. This series is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time.

34D Sci-fi classic with a 2010 sequel : TRON

Released in 1982, Disney’s “Tron” was one of the first mainstream films to make extensive use of computer graphics. The main role in the movie is played by Jeff Bridges. The original spawned a 2010 sequel called “Tron: Legacy”, as well as a 2012 TV show called “Tron: Uprising”.

35D Tijuana taverns : CANTINAS

Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.

36D NyQuil target : FLU

NyQuil is a medication designed to relieve the symptoms of a common cold. NyQuil contains loads of ingredients that will make you sleepy, so if you are taking it, it’s safer to do so at night. It’s a Procter & Gamble brand, and the equivalent non-drowsy formula is known as DayQuil.

37D Place where the cucumbers aren’t for eating? : SPA

Apparently, scientists have shown that the inside of a cucumber (“cuke” for short) growing in a field can be up to twenty degrees cooler than the surrounding air. That’s something that was believed by farmers as early as the 1730s, at which time the phrase “cool as a cucumber” was coined.

41D “Cooler Than Me” singer Mike : POSNER

Mike Posner is a singer-songwriter and rapper from Detroit, and an accomplished adventurer. In 2019, he completed a remarkable 2,800-mile walk across America, a journey that even included a rattlesnake bite in Colorado. In 2021, he summited Mount Everest, raising $250,000 for the Detroit Justice Center.

42D College fundraising source : ALUMNA

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

43D Obi-Wan __ : KENOBI

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the more beloved of the “Star Wars” characters. He was portrayed by two fabulous actors in the series of films. As a young man Kenobi was played by Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and as an older man by Alec Guinness.

46D Bus. card letters : INC

A company that has incorporated uses the abbreviation “Inc.” after its name. By incorporating, a company forms a corporation, which is a legal entity that has legal rights similar to those of an individual. For example, a corporation can sue another corporation or individual. However, a corporation does not have all the rights of citizens. A corporation does not have the Fifth Amendment right of protections against self-incrimination, for example. It is perhaps understandable that the concept of “corporations as persons” is a frequent subject for debate.

49D “Show Boat” novelist Ferber : EDNA

“Show Boat” is a 1926 novel by Edna Ferber that tells the story of performers on a floating theater, a riverboat named Cotton Blossom. The novel was famously adapted into a stage musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein that premiered in 1927. “Show Boat”, the musical, gave us classic songs such as “Ol’ Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”.

51D Radar screen dot : BLIP

Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Range and Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called “Radio Detection And Ranging”, which was shortened to the acronym “RADAR”.

54D Singer Carly __ Jepsen : RAE

Carly Rae Jepsen is a singer/songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. She got her start on TV’s “Canadian Idol” when she placed third in the show’s fifth season. In addition to her music career, Jepsen has also dabbled in acting. She made her Broadway debut in 2014 playing the title in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Cinderella.”

55D NYC’s Fifth, e.g. : AVE

Fifth Avenue in New York City is sometimes referred to as the “most expensive street in the world”. The section that runs through Midtown Manhattan is home to upscale stores, such as Saks Fifth Avenue.