LA Times Crossword 23 Aug 25, Saturday

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Constructed by: Matthew Stock & Willa Angel Chen Miller

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 14m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Green party? : NEWB

“Noob” (sometimes “newb” or “n00b”) is a not-so-nice, slang term for a “newbie”, and often refers to someone who is new to an online community.

17A Bit of sign language? : OLDE

The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint antique feel to brand names, shop names etc. as in “Ye Olde Shoppe”.

23A Argentine “other” : OTRO

Argentina is the second largest country in South America (after Brazil), and the world’s largest Spanish-speaking nation. The name “Argentina” comes from the Latin “argentum”, the word for “silver”. It is thought that the name was given by the early Spanish and Portuguese conquerors who also named the Rio de la Plata (the “Silver River”). Those early explorers got hold of lots of silver objects that they found among the native population.

24A “Watch this space” letters : TBA

To be advised/announced (TBA)

27A Oscar nominee Gladstone : LILY

Actress Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Apparently, her inspiration to become an actress came at the tender age of five, after watching “Return of the Jedi” and wanting to portray an Ewok!

32A Fried fish at the Minnesota State Fair : WALLEYE

Walleye is a freshwater fish that is native to Canada and the northern US, and takes its name from its distinctive eyes. The eyes reflect light, rather like those of a cat, creating a phenomenon of “eyeshine”. The walleye’s eyes are well adapted for hunting for food in turbid waters, but makes them a more visible prey to anglers that hunt for them at nighttime. It is the state fish of Minnesota and South Dakota, and the state warm water fish of Vermont.

33A Long-haired cat breed : PERSIAN

The Persian is that long-haired cat with a squashed muzzle. The breed takes its name from its place of origin, namely Persia (Iran).

35A Curry and others : WARRIORS

The Golden State Warriors are an NBA franchise based in San Francisco, California. The team was founded in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors, becoming the San Francisco Warriors when they moved to City by the Bay in 1962. They changed names again (to Golden State) when they relocated to Oakland in 1971. The statewide name reflected the fact that the team played some of their 1971-72 season games in San Diego, and as such were “California’s” team. The team kept the Golden State name even though they returned to San Francisco in 2019.

36A Bob Marley’s “__ Little Birds” : THREE

Bob Marley’s iconic song “Three Little Birds” is often mistakenly called “Don’t Worry About a Thing” or “Every Little Thing is Gonna Be Alright” due to its memorable chorus:

Singing, “Don’t worry about a thing”
”Cause every little thing gonna be alright”
Singing, “Don’t worry about a thing” (Don’t worry)
”Cause every little thing gonna be alright”

37A Macro type : CARB

While both are essential for our health, macronutrients and micronutrients differ in the quantities our bodies need. Macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are required in large amounts to provide energy and support growth and repair. Micronutrients, on the other hand, are needed in smaller amounts. These include vitamins and minerals, which act as catalysts for various bodily functions, supporting everything from immune health to bone strength.

38A Medical discipline with a five-year residency, for short : ENT

The ear, nose and throat (ENT) branch of medicine is more correctly called “otolaryngology”.

43A Classic rock singer : SIREN

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were seductive bird-women who lured men to their deaths with their song. When Odysseus sailed close to the island home of the Sirens he wanted to hear their voices, but in safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not to free him until they were safe. On hearing their song Odysseus begged to be let loose, but the sailors just tightened his bonds and the whole crew sailed away unharmed. We sometimes use the term “siren” today to describe a seductively charming woman, and “siren song” to describe an utterance that is particularly appealing.

44A Literature Nobelist Tokarczuk : OLGA

Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018. She also won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize for her novel “Flights”. Her epic historical novel “The Books of Jacob”, published in 2014, is generally regarded as Tokarczuk’s magnum opus.

54A Class with a mean teacher? : AP STATS

In a set of numbers, the mean is the average value of those numbers. The median is the numeric value at which half the numbers have a lower value, and half the numbers a higher value. The mode is the value that appears most often in the whole set of numbers.

Down

3D Name-dropping abbr. : ET AL

“Et alii” (et al.) is the equivalent of “et cetera” (etc.), with “et cetera” being used in place of a list of objects, and “et alii” used for a list of names. “Et al.” can stand for “et alii” (a group of males, or males and females), “et aliae” (a group of women) and “et alia” (a group of neuter nouns, or a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

4D Bite on a rope or cluster : NERD

The Willy Wonka Candy Company brand is owned by Nestle, and operates using licensed materials from the Roald Dahl book “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory”. “Nerds” is a name on a whole line of candy produced within the brand’s portfolio.

5D First sign of spring : ARIES

Aries the Ram is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, and is named after the constellation. Your birth sign is Aries if you were born between March 21 and April 20, but if you are an Aries you would know that! “Aries” is the Latin word for “ram”.

6D Holiday __ : INN

The first Holiday Inn hotel opened in 1952. The name for the hotel chain was inspired by the 1942 movie “Holiday Inn” starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. The Holiday Inn chain has been British-owned since 1988.

7D Pilates movement : LEG RAISE

Pilates is a physical exercise system developed by, and named for, Joseph Pilates. Pilates introduced his system of exercises in 1883 in Germany.

8D Some models with click wheels : NANOS

The iPod Nano was the successor to the iPod Mini and was introduced to the market at the end of 2005. There were seven versions of the Nano, until it was discontinued in 2017.

9D AED experts : EMTS

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically analyzes the heart rhythm of a person who is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and, if necessary, delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore a normal heart rhythm. AEDs are becoming more common sights, especially as most can now be used to help a patient, even if the operator has no training. On a recent trip to Britain and Ireland, I noticed that the iconic telephone boxes are being used to house AEDs rather than remove them as public phones become unnecessary.

10D Rhyme of “Romeo” in the last couplet of “Romeo and Juliet” : WOE

The concluding couplet of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is not spoken by either of the title characters, and rather by Prince Escalus, the Prince of Verona:

For never was a story of more woe,
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

11D Peter Pan’s destination : BUS STATION

Peter Pan Bus Lines is an intercity bus company headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts that operates services across the Northeastern US. The company was founded in 1933 by Peter Carmine Picknelly, who named it after his son’s favorite storybook, “Peter Pan”.

13D Immune system components : T CELLS

T cells are a group of white blood cells that are essential components of the body’s immune system. T cells are so called because they mature in the thymus, a specialized organ found in the chest.

14D Matt who lived in a van down by the river on “SNL” : FOLEY

Matt Foley is a character portrayed by Chris Farley on “Saturday Night Live”. He is an abrasive and clumsy motivational speaker whose most memorable line is warning his audience that they could end up “35 years old, eating a steady diet of government cheese, thrice divorced, and living in a van down by the river!” Farley actually named the character after one of his Marquette University rugby teammates, who later became an Army chaplain and then a Roman Catholic priest.

15D Picture with a lot of space : STAR CHART

A star chart is a map of the night sky. The oldest known such map might be a 32,500-year-old mammoth tusk discovered in Germany, which features a carving that resembles the constellation Orion. A drawing in the Lascaux caves in France, dating back as far as 33,000 years ago, has been suggested to be a graphical representation of the Pleiades star cluster.

20D Arcade handful : TOKENS

Our word “arcade” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “arc”. The first arcades were passages made from a series of arches. This could be an avenue of trees, and eventually any covered avenue. I remember arcades lined with shops and stores when I was growing up on the other side of the Atlantic. Arcades came to be lined with lots of amusements, resulting in amusement arcades and video game arcades.

22D They’re fired before being sent home : CLAYS

Clay is a naturally-occurring soil material that becomes moldable when wet, and hardens when fired in a kiln. That makes it a ceramic material, the oldest known ceramic used by humans.

23D Pajama Day attire : ONESIE

Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.

25D Salvation Army volunteer : BELLRINGER

The Salvation Army is a Christian charitable organization that is organized along military lines. The group was founded by William Booth and his wife Catherine in 1865 in the East End of London. Booth originally described his organization as a “volunteer army”, and soon changed this to a “salvation army”. William spent much of his time preaching to the poor and became known as “the General”. Catherine focused on addressing the wealthy to gain financial support, and earned the moniker “Mother of the Salvation Army”.

28D Australian model Miranda : KERR

Miranda Kerr is an Australian model who rose to prominence as one of the Victoria’s Secret Angels. She used to be married to English actor Orlando Bloom, with whom she had her first son. Since 2017, she has been married to Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel.

29D Justin.tv successor : TWITCH

Twitch is a very popular live streaming platform that began as a gaming section of a broader live video streaming site called Justin.tv. The latter was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan (hence the name) and a group of co-founders. Justin.tv’s initial concept was “lifecasting”, with Kan himself broadcasting his life 24/7. Justin.tv evolved into an open network allowing anyone to broadcast, and gained a wide user base. In 2011, the gaming content’s immense popularity led to its spin-off into Twitch.tv. In 2014, Justin.tv was shut down, to focus solely on Twitch.

30D “Mayor __”: national politics moniker : PETE

Politician Pete Buttigieg is a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and an unsuccessful candidate for US president in 2020 Democratic Party primaries. He is a Harvard graduate and also graduated from Oxford, which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. He served as an intelligence officer in the US Navy Reserve for eight years, and was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months in 2014. He was appointed as Secretary of Transportation in the Biden administration in 2021, making him the first openly gay cabinet secretary in the history of the US.

31D Balkan natives : SERBS

Serbs are an ethnic group native to the Balkans in southeastern Europe. Although Serbs exist as a minority group in many countries in the region, they are the majority ethnic group in Serbia, in Montenegro and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

33D “Beau Is Afraid” theme : PARANOIA

“Beau Is Afraid” is a 2023 film starring Joaquin Phoenix that can be described as a surrealist tragicomedy horror film. Filmmaker John Waters called it the best movie of 2023, describing it as “a laugh riot from hell you’ll never forget, even if you want to”. I’m still not going to watch it …

37D Moans and groans : CARPS

The word “carp” used to mean simply “talk” back in the 13th century, with its roots in the Old Norwegian “karpa” meaning “to brag”. A century later, the Latin word “carpere” meaning “to slander” influenced the use of “to carp” so that it came to mean “to find fault with”.

40D Oily compound : LIPID

Lipids are a group of naturally occurring molecules including fats, waxes and fat-soluble vitamins (like A, D and E). Sometimes we use the words “fat” and “lipid” interchangeably but fats are a subgroup of lipids, specifically a group best called triglycerides.

43D Indigenous people known for reindeer herding : SAMI

Lapland is a geographic region in northern Scandinavia, largely found within the Arctic Circle. Parts of Lapland are in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The people who are native to the region are called the Sami people. The Sami don’t like to be referred to as “Lapps” and they regard the term as insulting.

The reindeer species of deer is also known as “caribou” in North America.

49D New __: cap brand : ERA

The New Era Cap Company is a headwear manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York. It is New Era that supplies all the official baseball caps used by the Major League teams.

51D Short records, for short : EPS

An extended-play (EP) record, CD or download contains more music than a single, but less than a long-play (LP) record.