LA Times Crossword 2 Aug 25, Saturday

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Constructed by: Adrian Johnson & Will Nediger

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time:13m 00s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Strategic chess move, casually : SAC

Sacrifice (sac)

4A Vegetable in Nigerian cuisine : TARO

Taro is a staple in many tropical regions, and is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants. There is evidence suggesting its cultivation dates back over 10,000 years in Papua New Guinea.

8A 41-Across developer : SALK
41A Major medical breakthrough of the 1950s : POLIO VACCINE

When Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in the 1950s, he refused to patent his discovery, stating, “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”. His decision ensured the vaccine would be widely accessible. There’s a lesson there …

12A Thin reed : OBOE

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”.

15A Home of the Nubian Pyramids : SUDAN

The Nubian Pyramids are a collection of royal tombs located in the Nile Valley in modern-day Sudan. While Egypt’s pyramids are more famous, Sudan actually has about twice as many pyramids than Egypt. The Nubian Pyramids are smaller, and built with a much steeper incline.

19A Chap with chaps, perhaps : RANCHER

Chaps are leather leggings that are worn when riding a horse. The purpose of the garment is to provide protection for the legs when riding through bushy terrain, perhaps a heavy thicket. The name “chaps” comes from the Spanish name for the leggings, which is “chaparejos” or “chaparreras”. The Spanish term comes from chaparro, a Spanish word that can be used for a low-growing thicket.

26A Least sanguine : PALEST

The word “sanguine” comes from the Latin “sanguis” meaning “blood”. It can refer to the color red, or a blood-red color, and can also be used to describe someone who is optimistically cheerful in a difficult situation. In medieval physiology, sanguine was one of the four temperaments believed to be determined by the predominance of certain bodily fluids (humors). A person with a sanguine temperament was thought to be cheerful and optimistic due to an abundance of blood.

27A Niger neighbor : CHAD

The landlocked African country called Chad takes its name from the second largest wetland on the continent, which is known as Lake Chad.

34A Hockey great Tikkanen from Finland : ESA

Esa Tikkanen is a retired hockey player from Finland. He was on the winning team in five Stanley Cup finals, between 1985 to 1994.

37A “Glad and big” protagonist of an e.e. cummings poem : OLAF

“i sing of Olaf” is a 1931 poem by e.e. cummings that is notable for its exploration of the brutal consequences faced by an individual who refuses to participate in war. The hero of the piece is a conscientious objector during WWI who is tortured by the US Army, and eventually dies in prison.

46A Tidbits : MORSELS

A morsel is a small bite, a mouthful of food. The term “morsel” comes from the Latin “morsus” meaning “bite”.

49A City west of the Wasatch Mountains : OGDEN

Ogden was the first permanent settlement by people of European descent in what is now the state of Utah.

The Wasatch Range is at the western edge of the Rocky Mountains and runs through Utah. “Wasatch” is a Ute word meaning “mountain pass”.

50A Salvadoran eatery : PUPUSERIA

A pupuseria is a restaurant that specializes in pupusas, a traditional Salvadoran and Honduran dish. Pupusas are thick, handmade corn tortillas filled with a variety of ingredients like cheese, refried beans, or seasoned pork.

53A Brownie point? : OVEN

Apparently, the first brownies were created for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The recipe was developed by a pastry chef at the city’s Palmer House Hotel. The idea was to produce a cake-like dessert that was small enough and dainty enough to be eaten by ladies as part of a boxed lunch.

54A Home of many a steppe family : YURT

A yurt is a wood-framed dwelling that is used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. Although a yurt is a substantial structure, it is also extremely portable.

A steppe is a grassland that is devoid of trees, apart from those growing near rivers and lakes. The term “steppe” is Russian in origin, and is used to describe the geographical feature that extends across Eurasia. In South Africa, the same feature is called a “veld”, and in North America it is called a “prairie”.

56A “Charlie’s Angels” star Cheryl : LADD

Cheryl Ladd’s most famous role was Kris Munroe in television’s “Charlie’s Angels”. Ladd replaced Farrah Fawcett-Majors when the latter opted out of the show. Cheryl was the daughter-in-law of famed Hollywood actor Alan Ladd, as she was married to Ladd’s son, David. After the couple divorced, Cheryl retained the Ladd name.

When the TV show “Charlie’s Angels” first aired in the mid-seventies, it was a little unusual in that it featured three women playing private detectives, a role usually reserved for men. The name first chosen for the show was “The Alley Cats”, then “Harry’s Angels”, before finally settling on “Charlie’s Angels”.

57A Astronaut Jemison : MAE

Mae Jemison was a crew member on the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a 1992 mission, and as such became the first African-American woman to travel in space. She is also a big fan of “Star Trek” and appeared on an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. That made Jemison the first real astronaut to appear on any of the “Star Trek” shows.

Down

2D Pokémon that ultimately evolves into Alakazam : ABRA

In the “Pokémon” universe, the species known as “Abra” can evolve into “Kadabra”, and then into “Alakazam”.

5D Liqueur similar to Campari : APEROL

Aperol is a bitter apéritif from Italy that has a bright orange color. It was formulated in 1919, and today is a popular ingredient in many cocktails. The name “Aperol” comes from the French slang word “apero” meaning “apéritif”.

6D Dodgers legend Campanella : ROY

Roy Campanella was a Major League Baseball player considered by many to have been one of the greatest catchers the game has ever seen. Campanella played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the forties and fifties and was a pioneer in breaking the color barrier as he started out playing in the Negro Leagues. Sadly, he was paralyzed in a car accident when in his late thirties and so his career was tragically cut short.

11D Arthroscopy target : KNEE

Arthroscopy is surgery that is minimally invasive and is performed on a joint, often the knee, hip or shoulder.

13D Epoch that produced the earliest primate fossils : EOCENE

The Eocene Epoch lasted from 56 to 34 million years ago. The name “Eocene” comes from the Greek “eos” meaning “dawn” and “kainos” meaning “new”. This is a reference to the “new dawn” for mammals, which emerged during the Eocene epoch.

15D Carnival performers : SAMBA DANCERS

The samba is a Brazilian dance that is very much symbolic of the festival of Carnival. Like so much culture around the world, the samba has its roots in Africa, as the dance is derived from dances performed by former slaves who migrated into urban Rio de Janeiro in the late 1800s. The exact roots of the name “samba” seem to have been lost in the mists of time. However, my favorite explanation is that it comes from an African Kikongo word “semba” which means “a blow struck with the belly button”. We don’t seem to have a need for such a word in English …

22D Loc. of an annual November marathon : NYC

The annual New York City Marathon has more competitors than any other marathon run in the world, with over 50,000 racers completing the course in 2013. The race has been held every year since 1970, except for 2012 when it was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy, and 2020 when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

25D __ package : CARE

The humanitarian agency CARE was founded in 1945 as the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe. It was this agency who introduced the original “CARE package”, a carton of food aid delivered to individuals. Since 1993, the acronym CARE has been standing for “Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere”.

28D Source of immunity : ANTISERUM

Blood serum (plural “sera”) is the clear, yellowish part of blood i.e. that part which is neither a blood cell nor a clotting factor. Included in blood serum are antibodies, the proteins that are central to our immune system. Blood serum from animals that have immunity to a particular disease can be transferred to another individual, hence providing that second individual with some level of immunity. Blood serum used to pass on immunity can be called “antiserum”.

29D Satyr kin : FAUN

Fauns are regarded as the Roman mythological equivalent of the Greek satyrs, but fauns were half-man and half-goat and much more “carefree” in personality than their Hellenic cousins. In the modern age we are quite familiar with Mr. Tumnus, the faun-like character encountered by the children entering the world of Narnia in C. S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.

The satyrs of Greek mythology came with a very high sex drive. They are the “rude” male subjects drawn on the side of old Greek vases. The nubile maidens known as nymphs were often an object of attention for the satyrs.

30D “Just My __: A Book About Fonts” : TYPE

“Just My Type: A Book About Fonts” by British journalist Simon Garfield explores the history and cultural impact of various typefaces. The term “font” itself has quite an interesting etymology, coming from the Old French word “fonte” meaning “a casting” or “a melt”. This directly refers to the historical process of pouring molten metal into molds to create printing type.

38D Concert stage effect : FOG

Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO2). The material’s main use is to preserve food and for cooling in general. It is also used in fog machines in theaters and haunted houses.

40D “Juno and the Paycock” playwright : O’CASEY

Seán O’Casey’s 1924 play “Juno and the Paycock” is part of his “Dublin Trilogy”, coming after 1923’s “The Shadow of a Gunman” and 1926’s “The Plough and the Stars”. The whole series portrays the struggles of working-class Dubliners during the Irish revolutionary period. Juno is a working mother who earned her name because all of the significant events in her life took place in June. The Paycock is Juno’s unemployed husband, whom she views as vain and useless, like a “peacock” (pronounced as “paycock” in colloquial Dublin English).

42D Took off at a jazz club : VAMPED

To vamp is to improvise musically, usually on a piano. A vamp is often an accompaniment to a solo.

44D __ fast : MEDIA

A media fast (also “digital detox”) is a period of abstaining from consuming various forms of media, particularly digital media like social media, news, television, and the Internet. A friend of mine went on such a fast some time back, and now she is addicted to jigsaw puzzles 🙂.

47D Source of some Turkish delight? : LIRA

The currency of Turkey is the Turkish lira, which is divided into 100 kuruş. In 1927, the Turkish lira replaced the Ottoman lira, which had been in use since 1844.

51D Cavaliers sch. : UVA

The University of Virginia (UVA) sports teams are known officially as “the Cavaliers”. The unofficial nickname is “the Wahoos”.