LA Times Crossword 16 Aug 25, Saturday

Advertisement

Constructed by: August Miller

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 15m 56s

Bill’s errors: 2

• TRY (cry)
• ARTBOARDS (arc-boards)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A “Odelay” musician : BECK

“Odelay” is a 1996 studio album released by musician Beck. Apparently, the title is a pun on the phrase “Oh delay”, and a reference to how long the album took to record.

14A Terence Blanchard work : OPERA

Terence Blanchard is a trumpeter and composer. He is a frequent collaborator with movie director Spike Lee, for whom he writes film scores. When New York’s Metropolitan Opera staged his opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones”, Blanchard became the first African-American composer to have a work performed by the company.

15A Boba tea additive : ALOE

Bubble tea, sometimes called “boba tea”, is a tea-based drink from Taiwan. The “bubbles” are chewy tapioca balls that are usually added to the drink.

16A Igloo shape : DOME

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

17A Modern farm technology : SOLAR ARRAY

Solar panels are arrays of solar cells that make use of what’s known as the photovoltaic effect. We are more likely to have learned about the photoelectric effect in school, in which electrons were ejected from the surface of some materials when it was exposed to light or other forms of radiation. The photovoltaic effect is related but different. Instead of being electrons ejected from the surface, in the photovoltaic effect electrons move around in the material creating a difference in voltage.

19A Rollover subj. : IRAS

A rollover IRA is a subtype of traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The funds for a rollover IRA come from another qualified plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b) account.

21A Way around D.C. : METRO

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) provides transit service within and around Washington, D.C. The service generally goes by the name “Metro”. The authority’s two main services are Metrorail and Metrobus.

25A “American Hustle” org. : FBI

“American Hustle” is a 2013 movie with a plotline that is loosely based on the famous FBI ABSCAM sting of the late seventies and early eighties. The film stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced to work with an FBI agent played by Bradley Cooper.

26A Orbiter until 2001 : MIR

Russia’s Mir space station was a remarkably successful project. It held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at just under 10 years, until the International Space Station eclipsed that record in 2010. Towards the end of the space station’s life however, the years began to take their toll. There was a dangerous fire, multiple system failures, and a collision with a resupply ship. The Russian commitment to the International Space Station drained funds for repairs, so Mir was allowed to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in 2001. “Mir” is a Russian word meaning “peace” or “world”.

27A Clerical tunic : ALB

An alb is a white, neck-to-toe vestment worn by priests, usually with a rope cord around the waist. The term alb comes from “albus”, the Latin word for “white”.

36A Springtime side : ASPARAGUS SPEARS

Asparagus is a perennial flowering plant that is grown mainly for its edible shoots (or “spears”). The shoots must be harvested when they are very young, as they become woody very quickly.

37A “The Substance” Golden Globe nominee : MARGARET QUALLEY

Actress Margaret Qualley is the daughter of actress and model Andie MacDowell. Qualley is known for her roles in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Maid”. She originally trained as a ballet dancer in her youth, and earned an apprenticeship at the American Ballet Theatre. She even left home at 14 to board at the North Carolina School of the Arts to study dance.

38A Natori Feathers garment : BRA

Natori is a women’s clothing supplier that was founded in New York City in 1977 by Josie Natori. Natori, a native of the Phillipines, was the first female VP in corporate finance at Merrill Lynch, when she embarked on a career as an entrepreneur in fashion.

40A Rte. 180? : UEY

Hang a “uey” or “uie”, make a u-turn, make a 180.

41A First name in couture : YVES

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

“Haute couture”, literally “high dressmaking” in French, is a name given to the creation of exclusive fashions. A couturier is someone who creates or sells such fashions.

43A Tip for a writer? : NIB

“Nib” is a Scottish variant of the Old English word “neb”, with both meaning “beak of a bird”. This usage of “nib” as a beak dates back to the 14th century, with “nib” describing the tip of a pen or quill coming a little later, in the early 1600s.

53A Gathering where everyone gets shots? : BOTOX PARTY

Here’s a little bit of trivia: the “Botox capital of the world” is the town of Westport in the west of Ireland. Almost all of the Botox used worldwide is manufactured in the Allergan facility located there.

56A __-Norman French : ANGLO

Anglo-Norman French was a dialect of Old Norman used in England after the Norman Conquest. While it eventually faded, there is evidence of its existence in today’s English language. There are English legal terms where the usual noun-adjective order is reversed, in the French “style”, as seen in phrases like “attorney general” and “heir apparent”.

Down

1D Crew : POSSE

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

5D Fabled napper : HARE

“The Tortoise and the Hare” is perhaps the most famous fable attributed to Aesop. The cocky hare takes a nap during a race against the tortoise, and the tortoise sneaks past the finish line for the win while his speedier friend is sleeping.

7D Orbit City boy : ELROY

“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it debuted in 1963 on ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” is like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family in Orbit City are their household robot Rosie and pet dog Astro.

8D Cajole : COAX

To coax is to cajole, to influence using gentle persuasion. Back in the 16th century, “coax” was a noun meaning “fool”, and was used in the sense of “make a coax of, make a fool of”.

10D Parting mot : ADIEU

“Adieu” is French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God” The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

12D Actor Sy of the Netflix series “Lupin” : OMAR

Omar Sy is a French actor. In the field of French cinema, he was the first Black individual to win the César Award for Best Actor, doing so for his performance in 2011’s “Intouchables”. He gained a lot of recognition from international audiences for portraying the lead in the excellent Netflix series “Lupin”.

13D 100 centavos : PESO

“Centavo” is a Spanish and Portuguese word, and is used for the coin that represents 1/100 of the basic monetary units of quite a few countries, including Cuba. “Centavo” comes from the Latin “centum” meaning “one hundred” and “-avo” meaning “portion, fraction”.

26D Summer cloud : MOSQUITOES

Mosquitoes have a relatively short life cycle. Males live a matter of days, and females just a few weeks. In order to reproduce, male mosquitoes form large swarms, usually late in the day. Female mosquitoes fly into the swarm when ready to mate.

30D “For one,” for one : IAMB

An iamb is a metrical foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The lines in Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” use four sequential iambs, e.g. “Whose woods / these are / I think / I know”. With that sequence of four iambs, the poem’s structure is described as iambic tetrameter.

31D Ruler until 1917 : TSAR

The year 1917 saw two revolutions in Russia, with the pair collectively called “the Russian Revolution”. As a result of the February Revolution that centered on Petrograd, the last Emperor of Russia (Tsar Nicholas II) abdicated and members of the Imperial parliament took control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The Provisional Government was itself overthrown in the October Revolution, which was led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik party.

32D Some faux coats : SPRAY TANS

The most “effective” fake tans available today are not dyes or stains. Instead, they are sprays with the active ingredient dihydroxyacetone (DHA). DHA reacts chemically with amino acids in the dead layer of skin on the surface of the body. Sounds a little risky to me …

44D American way? : PLANE

American Airlines was founded in 1930 through the acquisition of 82 existing small airlines, and initially operated as American Airways. The company name was changed to “American Air Lines” in 1934. Back then, airlines made their profits by carrying the US mail, and American became the first airline to turn a profit on a route that could solely carry passengers. It did so by working with Donald Douglas to develop the DC-3 passenger plane. At that time, American started calling its aircraft “Flagships” and introduced its more wealthy passengers to the first Admirals Club.

45D Features of icy breakups : BERGS

An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that is floating freely after having broken away from a glacier or ice shelf. Our use of “iceberg” comes from the Dutch word for the same phenomenon “ijsberg”, which translates literally as “ice mountain”.

46D Actor who played the Emperor of China in 2020’s “Mulan” : JET LI

Actor Jet Li’s real name is Li Jian Jie. He is a martial artist and international film star from Beijing, China. Li played a villain in “Lethal Weapon 4”, and had a leading role in the 2000 movie “Romeo Must Die”.

2020’s “Mulan” is a live-action remake of the 1998 animated Disney film of the same name. Chinese-American actress Liu Yifei plays the title character, a woman from Chinese legend. The movie was received well by the critics, but fans of the animated original were largely unimpressed.

50D Vera Wang design : GOWN

Vera Wang’s first choice for a career was figure skating. Although she is a very capable skater, Wang failed to make the 1968 US Olympics team. She switched to the world of fashion, and is now famous for her designs of wedding dresses … and also costumes for figure skaters.

53D Serpentine creature : BOA

Boa constrictors are members of the Boidae family of snakes, all of which are non-venomous. Interestingly, the female boa is always larger than the male.