LA Times Crossword 26 Aug 25, Tuesday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Susan Gelfand

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Easy!

Themed answers are all common phrases meaning “EASY!”

• 17A “Easy!” : PIECE OF CAKE!
• 28A “Easy!” : LIKE CHILD’S PLAY!
• 46A “Easy!” : A WALK IN THE PARK!
• 60A “Easy!” : NOTHING TO IT!

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

Bill’s time: 4m 59s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Brother of Chico, Harpo, and Groucho : ZEPPO

“Zeppo” was the stage name of Herbert, the youngest of the five Marx Brothers. Zeppo appeared in the first five Marx Brothers movies, always playing the straight man and the romantic lead. After he quit acting, Zeppo owned a company called Marman Products, and developed what’s known today as the Marman Clamp. Marman clamps were used to secure the first atomic bombs used by the US military. They are still used today in spaceflight systems.

6A 1965 Alabama march site : SELMA

The Bloody Sunday march took place between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama on 7 March 1965. The 600 marchers involved were protesting the intimidation of African-Americans registering to vote. When the marchers reached Dallas County, Alabama they encountered a line of state troopers reinforced by white males who had been deputized that morning to help keep the peace. Violence broke out with 17 marchers ending up in hospital, one nearly dying. Because the disturbance was widely covered by television cameras, the civil rights movement picked up a lot of support that day. The route of the march is memorialized as a US National Historic Trail called the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Trail.

11A Draft animal : ASS

Draft animals are working animals that are used to pull things like sleds, ploughs and wheeled vehicles.

14A Earth Day month : APRIL

Earth Day was founded in the US, where it was introduced by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Earth Day was designed to increase awareness and appreciation of our planet’s natural environment. The original Earth Day was on April 22nd, 1970. Decades later, the day is observed in over 175 countries.

15A Starting 11 in soccer, e.g. : A-TEAM

Soccer (also known as “association football”) is the most popular sport in the world. The term “association football” was introduced in 1863 in England, with the name chosen to distinguish the sport from rugby football. The term “soccer” started to appear about 20 years later in Oxford, as an abbreviation for “association”.

16A Org. for Sharks and Ducks : NHL

The San Jose Sharks hockey team play their home games at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, a venue that we locals call “the Shark Tank”.

The Walt Disney Company founded the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey team in 1993, with the franchise’s name being a nod to the 1992 Disney movie called “The Mighty Ducks”. The name was changed to the Anaheim Ducks when Disney sold the team before the 2006-2007 season.

17A “Easy!” : PIECE OF CAKE!

The Cakewalk is a dance that originated in the African American community from the “Prize Walk”, in the days of slavery. The Prize Walk was a procession in which couples “walked” with as much style as possible, with the intent of winning the big prize, a large cake. Our term “cakewalk”, meaning something easily accomplished, derives from this tradition, as does “piece of cake” meaning the same thing. The expression “take the cake” shares this etymology.

19A “__ willikers!” : GEE

“Gee willikers!” is a minced oath. It’s a softening alteration of “Jesus”, and emerged in the 19th century as a way to express surprise without using the Lord’s name in vain. It’s similar to “gosh” , from “God”. The “willikers” part has no inherent meaning on its own and seems to have been added simply to further soften the exclamation.

20A Obama daughter : SASHA

The youngest child of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama is known as “Sasha”, although her full given name is Natasha Marian Obama. She was the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr.. After starting at the University of Michigan, Sasha later transferred to the University of Southern California (USC), where she graduated with a degree in sociology in 2023.

21A Shirt with a button-down collar : OXFORD

The “Oxford” in Oxford shirt refers to the unique basketweave fabric, not the university city itself. A Scottish mill developed four new fabric weaves in the 19th century. Purely as a marketing strategy, each was named after a prestigious university: Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, and Oxford. While the other three weaves didn’t last, the Oxford fabric became a staple. The button-down collar, a common feature of Oxford shirts, was originally added by polo players to prevent their collars from flapping during matches. Who knew …?

34A Jungian inner self : ANIMA

The concepts of anima and animus are found in the Carl Jung school of analytical psychology. The idea is that within each male there resides a feminine inner personality called the anima, and within each female there is a male inner personality known as the animus.

35A Set up for solitaire : DEALT

I think that a single-player card game is usually called “Solitaire” in the US, whereas we use the name “Patience” back in Ireland.

43A Doesn’t make the podium : LOSES

“Podium” (plural “podia”) is the Latin word for “raised platform”.

45A Around about : CIRCA

“Circa” is a Latin word meaning “around, near, about the time of”. We use “circa” directly in English to mean “about the time of”, as well as in derivative words such as “circle” and “circus”.

51A London lavatory : LOO

Our word “lavatory” (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s, “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.

56A Seize by force : WREST

The verb “to wrest” can mean to obtain by violent twisting and pulling. The term comes from the Middle English “wresten” meaning “to twist”. Our word “wrestling” has the same etymology.

59A Museum collection : ART

The term “museum” comes from the ancient Greek word “mouseion” that denoted a temple dedicated to the “Muses”. The Muses were the patrons of the arts in Greek mythology.

65A Happy hour haunt : BAR

I personally think that Happy Hour is best enjoyed shaken, not stirred; and with a good crossword …

66A Cedar Rapids resident : IOWAN

Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in the state of Iowa. It is named for rapids on the Cedar River on which the city is located. The river itself was named for the red cedars growing along the river’s banks.

67A Movie legend Greta : GARBO

Famously, Greta Garbo lived a life of seclusion in New York City after she retired from the entertainment business. Commentators often associated her need for privacy with a line she uttered in the great 1932 movie “Grand Hotel”. Her character Grusinskaya the Russian ballerina said, “I want to be alone (…) I just want to be alone”.

68A Rainbow’s backdrop : SKY

Sunlight reflected by airborne water droplets can produce rainbows. The water droplets act as little prisms, dispersing the white light into its constituent colors. Sometimes we see double rainbows. If we look carefully, we can see that the order of the colors in the first and second arcs is reversed.

69A Flip-flop : THONG

The use of the word “thong” to describe a sandal dates back to the 1960s in the US, before the term “flip-flop” became more widespread. The sandal comprises a flat sole with a y-shaped strap (toe thong) that crosses the top of the foot and passes between the first and second toes. In Australia, and some other parts of the world, flip-flops are still primarily known as “thongs”.

Down

1D Thaw in the microwave : ZAP

The first household microwave oven was introduced to the market in 1955, by the Tappan Stove Company in Ohio.

2D Prefix for a lifesaving “Pen” : EPI-

EpiPen is a brand of epinephrine auto-injector. An EpiPen delivers a measured dose of epinephrine, which is a common treatment for an extreme allergic reaction.

4D Printing measure : PICA

A pica is a unit of measure used in typography. One pica is equivalent to 1/6 of an inch. Also, each pica unit contains 12 points.

5D Cheers at the Bienal de Flamenco : OLES

The Bienal de Flamenco (“Flamenco Biennial”) is an international event dedicated to flamenco music and dance held every two years in Seville, Spain. It premiered in 1980, a few years after the death of Francisco Franco. During the Francoist dictatorship, Flamenco was used by the regime to promote tourism, while at the same time sanitizing the genre’s more “unruly” elements. The festival was conceived as a vehicle to give the flamenco art form back to the people.

6D Serengeti adventure : SAFARI

The Serengeti is a region in Africa located in northern Tanzania and southwest Kenya. The name “Serengeti” comes from the Maasai language and means “Endless Plains”.

8D __ & Perrins steak sauce : LEA

Sauce producer Lea & Perrins was founded way back in 1837, in the city of Worcester, England. The company’s most famous product is Worcestershire sauce, which was named for the county in which the condiment was first produced.

9D Fastest known shark : MAKO

The shortfin mako shark can appear on restaurant menus, and as a result the species is dying out in some parts of the world. The mako gets its own back sometimes though, as attacks on humans are not unknown. It is the fastest-swimming shark, and has been clocked at speeds of over 40 miles/hour. And the shark in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”, that’s a mako. “Mako” is the Maori word for “shark” or “shark tooth”.

10D Discover or MC alternative : AMEX

“Amex” is short for “American Express”, the name of the financial services company that is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler’s check businesses. The company name is indicative of its original business. American Express was founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York as an express mail service.

11D Soft sweater wool : ANGORA

Angora wool comes from the Angora rabbit. On the other hand, the Angora goat produces the wool known as mohair. Both rabbit and goat are named for Turkey’s capital Ankara, which was known as “Angora” in many European languages.

12D Fortified wine from Andalusia : SHERRY

Sherry is a fortified wine made using grapes from around the town of Jerez de la Frontera (formerly “Xerez” or “Xeres”) in the autonomous community of Andalusia in Spain. The word “sherry” is an anglicized form of the name “Jerez”.

22D Soft pen type : FELT-TIP

The felt-tip marking pen was patented in 1910. The marking pen was popularized when the Magic Marker brand was introduced in 1953.

24D Rock legend Turner : TINA

“Tina Turner” was the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties, splitting her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

26D “I was today years __ when … ” : OLD

The phrase “I was today years old when…” is a relatively modern expression. It’s used to preface a newly learned fact that the speaker feels they should have known much earlier in their life. I need to start using it, a lot …

30D “O Holy Night,” for one : CAROL

The Christmas carol known in English as “O Holy Night” is also known as “Cantique de Noël” in the original French. The melody was written by French composer Adolphe Adam, and the French lyrics are a poem called “Minuit, chrétiens” written by Placide Cappeau. Interestingly, it was the second piece of music ever to be broadcast on radio. The Canadian-American inventor Reginald Fessenden made what is thought to be the first AM radio broadcast on Christmas Eve 1906. He included some music, starting with a piece by Handel, followed by “O Holy Night” played on the violin.

31D __ Plaines, Illinois : DES

Des Plaines is a suburb of Chicago that is located next to O’Hare International Airport. The city is named for the Des Plaines river that runs through the area.

32D Sticky stuff on a tree : SAP

There are two types of sap in a plant. Xylem sap is a watery solution that moves from the roots to the leaves. Phloem sap is a sugary solution that moves from the leaves (where sugars are produced) to the parts of the plant where sugars are used.

33D Finish second in a horse race : PLACE

In a horse race, the first-place finisher is said to “win”. The second-place finisher “places” and the third-place finisher “shows”.

44D Skit show with musical guests, briefly : SNL

Musician Dave Grohl holds the record for the most appearances on “Saturday Night “Live” as a musical guest, having played on the show as a band member of Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Them Crooked Vultures. He also appeared as a guest drummer for other artists. However, the musician with the most overall appearances on SNL is Paul Simon, as he has been both a musical guest, hosted on many occasions, and had several cameos in skits.

46D Outerwear suitable for cold, frosty, and snowy conditions : ANORAK

Anoraks really aren’t very popular over here in America. Everyone has one in Ireland! An anorak is a heavy jacket with a hood, often lined with fur (or fake fur), and is an invention of the Inuit people.

48D AAA service : TOWING

The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

55D Eeyore’s pal : POOH

Eeyore is the donkey character in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”. He is very lovable, but has a gloomy and pessimistic outlook on life.

57D Frozen waffle brand : EGGO

Eggo is a brand of frozen waffles that was introduced by Kellogg in 1953. The brand experienced a surge in popularity in the 1980s due to a successful ad campaign featuring a family sitting down to breakfast together and enjoying Eggo waffles. The tagline of the commercials, “Leggo my Eggo”, is still recognized today.

58D Baseball Hall of Famer Musial : STAN

Stan Musial was a baseball player who went by the nickname “Stan the Man”, a moniker he was awarded by the Brooklyn Dodgers fans in 1946. Off the field, Stan was quite the harmonica player.

61D Number needed to tango : TWO

The dramatic tango dance originated in the late 1800s in the area along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. Dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires in particular traveled to Europe and beyond in the early twentieth century and brought the tango with them. The tango craze first struck Europe in Paris in the 1910s, and from there spread to London and Berlin, crossing the Atlantic to New York in 1913.

62D “To All the Boys” series creator Jenny : HAN

The “To All the Boys” films are a series of teenage romance dramas based on a trilogy of novels of the same name by Jenny Han. The series title is a reference to five letters written by a young lady to boys that she had crushes on. She never plans to mail the letters, but they get sent out anyway.