LA Times Crossword 14 Aug 25, Thursday

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Constructed by: Kathy Lowden

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Split-Level House

Today’s puzzle includes four sets of circled letters SPLIT between LEVELS in the grid. Those letters spell out types of HOUSE:

• 39A Common midcentury modern suburban home, or what is depicted by each set of circled letters : SPLIT-LEVEL HOUSE

Those HOUSES are:

• VILLA
• COTTAGE
• MANSION
• RANCH

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

Bill’s time:8m 18s

Bill’s errors: 2

• BASILISK (basihisk)
• LLOSA (Lhosa)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Picnic spoilers : ANTS

Our term “picnic” comes from the French word “pique-nique”, which now has the same meaning. The original “pique-nique” was a fashionable potluck affair, and not necessarily held outdoors.

5A Dad jokes, often : PUNS

Here are a few dad jokes that I use to annoy my kids:

• When does a joke become a “dad joke”? When it becomes apparent.
• I had a happy childhood. My dad used to put me in tires and roll me down hills. Those were Goodyears.
• It’s a shame that the Beatles didn’t make the submarine in that song green. That would’ve been sublime.
• I told your mom she needs to start embracing her mistakes. So she hugged me
• When your mom is depressed, I let her color in my tattoos. She just needs a shoulder to crayon.

9A Hardly reticent : VOCAL

To be garrulous is to be tiresomely talkative. To be reticent is to be inclined to keep one’s thoughts to oneself.

17A With the bow, in music : ARCO

“Arco” is a musical direction instructing a string player to return to normal bowing technique after a passage played using some other technique (perhaps pizzicato).

18A Muppet who refers to himself in the third person : ELMO

In 2002, The Muppet Elmo got to testify before a US House subcommittee. Elmo’s goal was to get an increase in funding for music education. In the transcript of the hearing, his statements are ascribed to “Elmo Monster” and “Mr. Monster”.

19A Detective Holmes : ENOLA

“The Enola Holmes Mysteries” is a series of detective novels for young adults by American author Nancy Springer. The title character is the 14-year-old sister of 34-year-old Sherlock Holmes, the detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Springer’s novels were adapted into a 2020 film “Enola Holmes” that Netflix picked up at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. I saw this one, and the sequel, and enjoyed both …

20A Slow-cooked rice dishes : RISOTTOS

Risotto is an Italian rice dish that is usually served as a first course in Italy, but as a main course here in North America.

23A Sorts projects by priority : TRIAGES

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

25A CGI invaders : ETS

Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

26A Summitt in the Basketball Hall of Fame : PAT

Pat Summitt was a college basketball head coach. She coached the Tennessee Lady Vols team for 38 years starting in 1974. Sadly, Summitt stepped down in 2012 following a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and passed away in 2016.

30A Oxidize : RUST

Rust is iron oxide. It forms when iron oxidizes, reacts with oxygen.

33A Iridescent gems : OPALS

An iridescent surface appears to change color gradually with a change in the angle of view, or a change in the angle that the light is hitting that surface.

35A “Ugly Betty” actress : ANA ORTIZ

The breakthrough role for actress Ana Ortiz was playing the title character’s older sister in the TV series “Ugly Betty”.

“Ugly Betty” is a drama-comedy show that originally aired on television from 2006 to 2010. The show is based on a telenovela soap opera from Colombia called “Yo soy Betty, la fea”. The title role of Betty Suarez is played by America Ferrera.

39A Common midcentury modern suburban home, or what is depicted by each set of circled letters : SPLIT-LEVEL HOUSE

A split-level home typically features three or more short sets of stairs connecting living spaces that are staggered by half-flights, often with the main entrance opening onto a mid-level floor. This style of house really took off with post-World War II suburban development, emerging as a creative solution to utilize sloped lots.

42A Cadillac SUV : ESCALADE

The Escalade is a full-size SUV that Cadillac introduced in 1999. The word “escalade” describes the act of scaling defensive walls with ladders during a siege.

44A Steep-walled formation : MESA

“Mesa” is the Spanish for “table” and is how we get the term “mesa” that describes the geographic feature. A mesa is similar to a butte. Both are hills with flat tops, but a mesa has a top that is wider than it is tall. A butte is a much narrower formation, taller than it is wide.

45A Off-rd. ride : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

48A Org. for locavores : CSA

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

A locavore is someone who limits their diet to food that is produced locally, often within 100 miles of its point of purchase. There’s a great memoir by the author Barbara Kingsolver that discusses the experiences of her and her family with the locavore lifestyle called “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” An excellent read …

51A Rahm who was U.S. Ambassador to Japan until 2025 : EMANUEL

Rahm Emanuel was an Illinois representative in the US House before resigning in 2009 to take up President Obama’s offer to become the White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel moved on from the White House the following year in order to run as a candidate in Chicago’s mayoral election in 2011. He won the 2011 race, and held office till 2019. Under the Biden administration, Emanuel served as the 31st US Ambassador to Japan.

54A First-stringers : A-TEAMS

We’ve been using the phrases “first string” and “second string” in athletics since the mid-19th century. The expressions come from archery, in which a competitor would carry a second bowstring in case the first broke.

57A Legendary reptile with a fatal gaze : BASILISK

According to European legend, a basilisk is a mythical reptile that is the king of serpents. The term “basilisk” comes from the Greek “basilískos” meaning “little king”.

62A Google __ : DOCS

Google Docs is a word processing application that is part of the Google Drive suite of services. In fact, I am typing this blog post right now in Google Docs.

64A Judges’ seats : BANCS

“Banc” is the French word for “bench, seat”.

65A Pernicious : EVIL

Something pernicious is very harmful, causing death or serious injury. The term ultimately comes from the Latin “per-” meaning “completely” and “necis” meaning “violent death”.

68A Target of CRISPR editing : GENE

CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is basically bacteria’s immune system. Bacteria keep little bits of DNA from past viral attacks, and if those same viruses show up again, the CRISPR system uses those stored bits to recognize and chop up the invading DNA, protecting the bacterium. Scientists figured out how to use this natural system to precisely edit genes in living things, and potentially correct genetic defects that cause diseases like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell anemia.

69A 50+ group : AARP

AARP is the official name now for the interest group that used to be called “The American Association of Retired Persons”. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired. The AARP was founded by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus in 1958 and is a successor to the National Retired Teachers Association, also founded by Andrus over ten years earlier.

Down

1D Partly open : AJAR

Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

2D Seaweed wrapper on Spam musubi : NORI

Spam musubi is a snack food comprising a slice of grilled Spam and a block of rice, both wrapped in nori (dried edible seaweed from traditional Japanese cuisine). Spam musubi are particularly popular in Hawaii and Guam.

4D Snob : SNOOT

“Snoot” is a variant of “snout”, and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is snooty, or “snouty”, tends to look down their nose at the rest of the world.

7D Claim on some ramen packets : NO MSG

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of a naturally-occurring, non-essential amino acid called glutamic acid. It is used widely as a flavor enhancer, particularly in many Asian cuisines, intensifying the umami flavor. Whether or not MSG is harmful seems to be still under debate.

8D __-Caps : SNO

Sno-Caps are a brand of candy usually only available in movie theaters. They have been around since the 1920s, would you believe?

9D Powerful engine : V-TEN

The engine known as a V10 is configured with two rows of five cylinders mounted on the crankcase. The rows of cylinders are offset from each other around the crankshaft at right angles, or perhaps a little less. This arrangement of ten cylinders in a V-shape gives rise to the name “V10”.

13D Exams for future AGs : LSATS

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

Attorneys General (AGs) head up the Department of Justice (DOJ). When the office of the Attorney General was created in 1789 it was a part-time job, with no departmental support. The Department of Justice came into being in 1870.

21D Railroad support : TRESTLE

A trestle is a frame that is used as a support, particularly a support forming part of a bridge.

26D Cat or cow, e.g., in yoga : POSE

The yoga pose called bidalasana is also referred to as the cat pose. The practitioner usually kneels on all fours, and arches the back. The counterpose, with the back lowered, is the cow pose.

28D Soft mineral : 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.

32D 1982 film set inside a mainframe : 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”.

34D Actor Neeson : LIAM

Irish actor Liam Neeson’s big break came with the role of Oskar Schindler in the Spielberg epic, “Schindler’s List”. Neeson was in the news some years later when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a tragic skiing accident in 2009. Earlier in his life, in the 1980s, Neeson lived for several years with Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren.

38D Key lime pie garnish : ZEST

The species of citrus fruit called Key lime is so named due to its association with the Florida Keys.

45D Big name in headache remedies : ANACIN

Anacin is a brand of pain reliever that comprises aspirin and caffeine as active ingredients.

48D Nutrients eschewed on Atkins : CARBS

Perhaps most notably, the eating of relatively few carbohydrates is central to the diet proposed by Robert Atkins. Atkins first laid out the principles behind the Atkins diet in a research paper published in 1958 in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”. He popularized his diet starting in 1972 with his book “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution”.

49D Momentum : STEAM

In physics, momentum is a property of a moving body that is calculated by multiplying the body’s mass by its velocity. Conceptually, it is a property that defines the length of time it would take to bring the moving body to rest by applying a constant force. The greater the mass and the greater the velocity, the harder it is to bring the body to rest, i.e. the greater is the body’s momentum.

50D Insurer owned by CVS Health : AETNA

When the healthcare management and insurance company known as Aetna was founded, the name was chosen to evoke images of Mount Etna, the Italian volcano.

The name of the drugstore chain CVS once stood for “Consumer Value Stores”, although these days the company uses the initialism to denote “Convenience, Value and Service”.

53D Literature Nobelist Mario Vargas __ : LLOSA

Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer of renown, and one of the most significant authors from Latin America by all accounts. Llosa is also very active politically, and in 1990 ran unsuccessfully for the Peruvian presidency.

55D Story lines : ARCS

A story arc is a continuing storyline in say a television show that runs through a number of episodes. Story arcs are also found in comics, books, video games, and other forms of media.

56D __ pit : MOSH

Moshing (also “slam dancing”) is the pushing and shoving that takes place in the audience at a concert (usually a punk or heavy metal concert). The area directly in front of the stage is known as the mosh pit. When a performer does a “stage dive”, it is into (or I suppose “onto”) the mosh pit. It doesn’t sound like fun to me. Injuries are commonplace in the mosh pit, and deaths are not unknown.

58D Machu Picchu native : INCA

Machu Picchu is known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, and it can be visited on a mountain ridge in Peru, 50 miles northwest of the city of Cuzco in the southeast of the country. The name Machu Picchu means “old peak”. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu originates about 50 miles from Cusco on the Urubamba River in Peru. It can take travelers about 5 days to trek the full length of the trail, passing through many Incan ruins before reaching the Sun Gate on Machu Picchu mountain. The trail was becoming greatly overused, forcing the Peruvian government to limit the number of people on the trail each day to 500. Book early …

60D Dole’s 1996 running mate : KEMP

Jack Kemp was a candidate for US Vice President in the 1996 presidential election, on the Republican ticket with Bob Dole. Prior to politics, Kemp played football in the NFL, serving as quarterback and captain of the San Diego Chargers and the Buffalo Bills. Kemp passed away in 2009, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

62D Ph.D., for one : DEG

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.