LA Times Crossword 22 Aug 25, Friday

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Constructed by: Brian Keller & Katie Hale

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Turn up the Heat

Themed answers each feature a word associated with HEAT, and that HEAT TURNS UP as we descend the grid:

• 55A Increase pressure, or an apt title for this puzzle? : TURN UP THE HEAT

• 20A Diamonds can cut glass, corundum can scratch most other minerals, et al.? : COOL, HARD FACTS
• 34A Director’s guidance to be more affable? : PLAY IT WARM
• 41A Stuffed animals that go viral? : HOT FUZZIES

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

Bill’s time: 7m 56s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Signal and Line : APPS

Signal is a secure messaging service that competes with the likes of WhatsApp and Telegram. Apparently, many CIA employees have Signal installed by default on their devices, and its usage is covered by standard training when they are hired.

Line is a social networking and instant messaging app that is used by more than 70% of Japanese people. It was launched in 2011 in the wake of that year’s Tohuku earthquake and tsunami, in recognition of the need for a usable messaging service when power and phone lines go down.

9A Espresso or cappuccino, to Italians : CAFFE

Espresso is made by forcing extremely hot water, under pressure, through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a thick and concentrated coffee drink that contains quite a lot of solids and a lot of foam. An espresso machine was first patented in 1884 in Italy, although it was a machine to make the beverage in bulk. The first patent for a machine that made individual measures was applied for in 1901, also in Italy.

The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an order of Roman Catholic friars, an offshoot of the Franciscans. The order split from the Franciscans back in 1520, and were forced to go into hiding from church authorities. The new order was helped by the Camaldolese monks, and in recognition of their assistance, the breakaway monks adopted the Camaldolese hood, known as a capuccio. It is this “capuccio” that gave the order its name, and indeed ultimately gave the name to the Capuchin monkey. The cappuccino coffee is named for the coffee-and-white colored habits worn by Capuchin friars.

19A Clichéd : TIRED

“Cliché” is a word that comes from the world of printing. In the days when type was added as individual letters into a printing plate, for efficiency some oft-used phrases and words were created as one single slug of metal. The word “cliché” was used for such a grouping of letters. It’s easy to see how the same word would become a term to describe any overused phrase. Supposedly, “cliché” comes from French, from the verb “clicher” meaning “to click”. The idea is that when a matrix of letters was dropped in molten metal to make a cliché, it made a clicking sound.

20A Diamonds can cut glass, corundum can scratch most other minerals, et al.? : COOL, HARD FACTS

Corundum is a form of aluminum oxide, the color of which can vary depending on the presence of impurities. The presence of chromium gives us red rubies, and a range of transition metals result in varying shades of sapphire. Corundum is also very hard, and so it is used as an abrasive, particularly in sandpaper.

28A Some Kellogg grads : MBAS

The business school at Northwestern University is called the John L. Kellogg School of Management. John L. Kellogg was the son of Will Keith Kellogg of breakfast cereal fame, and John’s foundation made a generous donation in 1979, hence the current name for the business school.

30A “Breaking Bad” org. : DEA

The AMC drama “Breaking Bad” is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. It turns out that the teacher has a talent for making high-quality crystal meth. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as a producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show running on AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. If I’m honest, I enjoyed “Better Call Saul” even more than the original show …

37A Staff leaders : CLEFS

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on a stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

44A Bottom of the barrel stuff : LEES

The dregs in wine, the sediment that settles during fermentation (and sometimes in the bottle), are also called “lees”.

47A “The __ and the Pussycat” : OWL

“The Owl and the Pussycat” is a poem by Edward Lear first published in 1871. It tells of an owl and a pussycat who set out to sea in a pea-green boat with honey and plenty of money wrapped in a five pound note.

49A Listing agent’s field : REALTY

The terms “realty” and “real estate” actually date back to the late 1600s. Back then, the terms meant “real possessions, things owned that are tangible and real”.

51A Baja breaks : SIESTAS

We use the word “siesta” to describe a short nap in the early afternoon, and imported the word into English from Spanish. In turn, the Spanish word is derived from the Latin “hora sexta” meaning “the sixth hour”. The idea is that the nap is taken at the sixth hour after dawn.

58A Fast Amtrak train : ACELA

The Acela Express is the fastest train running routinely in the US, as it gets up to 150 mph at times. The service runs between Boston and Washington D.C. via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Introduced in 2000, the brand name “Acela” was created to evoke “acceleration” and “excellence”.

“Amtrak” is the name used commercially by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. It comes from a melding of the words “America” and “track”.

60A Euphoric feeling : GLEE

“Euphoria” is a Greek word meaning “power of enduring easily”. In the 18th century, the term was imported into English medical jargon to describe a sick person’s condition when feeling healthy and comfortable. Today, “euphoria” is used more generally to describe any feeling of well-being or elation.

61A Org. concerned with ergonomics : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

63A Moon goddess : LUNA

“Luna” is the Latin word for “moon”, and is the name given to the Roman moon goddess. The Greek equivalent of Luna was Selene. Luna had a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome but it was destroyed during the Great Fire that raged during the reign of Nero. She also had a temple on the Palatine Hill in which a lamp remained lit, illuminating the night.

64A Designer Cassini : OLEG

French-born American fashion designer Oleg Cassini developed a reputation for designing costumes for films, and dressing numerous film stars. He had two big names particularly associated with his designs. In the sixties he produced the state wardrobe for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. He was also the exclusive designer for Hollywood’s Gene Tierney, who was Cassini’s second wife.

65A Book maker : PRESS

The printing press was invented in the mid-15th century by German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg. Books were printed prior to the invention of the press, but the techniques used were clumsy and slow. Gutenberg introduced the concept of movable, reusable type, which revolutionized book production. Fifty years after the introduction of Gutenberg’s press, over twenty million volumes had been produced in Western Europe.

66A Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant : IGOR

The character Igor, the hunchbacked assistant to Dr. Frankenstein, is perhaps as well known as the “good” doctor himself. However, in Mary Shelley’s original 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”, Dr. Frankenstein works alone. There is no assistant named Igor, nor any hunchbacked lab helper. The character of Igor (or sometimes “Fritz” in early

Down

1D Pet welfare org. : ASPCA

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

7D Calendar page, maybe : GRID

Our word “calendar” ultimately derives from the Latin “calendae”. “Calends” were the first days of each Roman month. The Latin “calendarium” was an account book, as the debts fell due and accounts were reckoned on the first day of each month.

10D Singer Baker : ANITA

Anita Baker is an R&B and soul singer who was raised in Detroit, Michigan. Baker’s most successful song is the Grammy-winning “Sweet Love” that was released in 1986.

11D What one might Bumble into? : FIRST DATE

Bumble is a dating app that was founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd, the co-founder of Tinder. Bumble has been described as a “feminist dating app”. Indeed, first contact in a potential heterosexual relationship can only be made by a female user.

12D Cheetah, to Wonder Woman : FOE

The supervillain Cheetah appears in the DC Comics universe, and is mainly featured as an adversary to Wonder Woman. The current incarnation of Cheetah has an alias of Barbara Minerva, a British archaeologist and heiress. She is portrayed by Kristen Wiig in the film “Wonder Woman 1984”.

21D Kylo’s father : HAN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

22D Berry in a yogurt bowl : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

29D Tera- finisher : -BYTE

The prefix “tera-” signifies a trillion, and comes from the Greek word “teras” meaning “monster”.

32D Orange studder, at Christmas : CLOVE

A pomader is an aromatic ball, made by studding a citrus fruit with cloves. They were used in the Middle Ages and Renaissance to ward off infection or simply to mask unpleasant smells. In the Victorian Era, pomanders were created as decorations, and hung on Christmas trees.

33D Private meeting : TETE-A-TETE

A “tête-à-tête” is a one-on-one meeting, and a term that translates from French as “head-to-head”.

42D “Pillowtalk” singer : ZAYN

Zayn Malik is a singer from Yorkshire in northern England who found fame with the boy band One Direction. Malik quit the band in 2015 to launch a solo career. A year later, Malik became the first male artist to hit the number-one spot in both the UK and US charts with both a debut single (“Pillowtalk”) and a debut album (“Mind of Mine”).

50D Humdingers : LULUS

We call a remarkable thing or a person a lulu. The term “lulu” was coined in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

A humdinger or pip is someone or something outstanding. “Humdinger” is American slang dating back to the early 1900s, and was originally used to describe a particularly attractive woman.

51D Dictation taker : STENO

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing). A stenographer might be a court reporter, or a person provided captions accompanying a live television broadcast.

52D Physicist Nikola : TESLA

Nikola Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire in a village located in modern-day Croatia, and later moved to the US. Tesla’s work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

54D Bambi and others : STAGS

The 1942 Disney classic “Bambi” is based on a book written by Felix Salten called “Bambi, A Life in the Woods”. There is a documented phenomenon known as the Bambi Effect, whereby people become more interested in animal rights after having watched the scene where Bambi’s mother is shot by hunters.

56D Knobbly citrus : UGLI

The ugli fruit is a hybrid of an orange and a tangerine that was first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today. “UGLI” is a trademark name that is a variant of “ugly”, a nod to the fruit’s unsightly wrinkled rind.

58D Egyptian viper : ASP

We use the term “asp” today to refer to several venomous species of snakes found in the Nile region. Even though “asp” comes from the Greek “aspis” meaning “viper”, the asp that we know as the symbol of ancient Egyptian royalty was not a viper at all. Rather, it was the Egyptian cobra.

59D Token in The Game of Life : CAR

The board game we call “The Game of Life” (also just “Life”) was created quite a few years ago, in 1869 by Milton Bradley. Back then it was called “The Checkered Game of Life” and was the first parlor game to become a popular hit. The modern version of the game was first released in 1960.