LA Times Crossword 23 Sep 25, Tuesday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Ben Zimmer

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Filled with Joy

Themed answers are each “FILLED” WITH a hidden word meaning “JOY”:

• 57A Feeling euphoric, and what the answers to the starred clues literally are : FILLED WITH JOY

• 20A *Lines on a family tree : RELATIONSHIPS (filled with “elation”)
• 36A *Treated unseriously : MADE LIGHT OF (filled with “delight”)
• 42A *App with layered satellite images : GOOGLE EARTH (filled with “glee”)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 13s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Material for a “No. 1” finger : FOAM

The concept of a foam hand gesturing “number one” dates back to a prototype made out of hardware cloth and papier-mâché in 1971 by a high school student in Ottumwa, Iowa. Steve Schmelar was photographed supporting his school wearing his giant “hand”, and the photo was published by several outlets. A few years later, Texas high school teacher Geral Fauss recreated the design in foam to raise funds for an arts club at his school. Building on the popularity of the foam fingers, Fauss went on to create Spirit Industries for mass-production, and I’d say he made a pretty penny …

9A Maddow’s channel : MSNBC

TV host and commentator Rachel Maddow hosted a radio version of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Air America from 2005 until 2010. She started hosting a TV show of the same name on MSNBC in 2008, making her the first openly gay anchor to host a prime-time news program in the US. In 2018, Maddow was the co-creator of a “New York Times” crossword. And, I found it to be an excellent puzzle …

18A Perlman of “Barbie” : RHEA

Rhea Perlman’s most famous role has to be Carla Tortelli, the irascible waitress in the long-running sitcom “Cheers”. Perlman is also a successful children’s author, and has published a series of six books called “Otto Undercover”. She married Hollywood actor Danny DeVito in 1982.

23A Grimm offerings : TALES

The Brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm) were two German academics noted for collecting and publishing folk tales. Among the tales in their marvelous collection are “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella”.

38A Cornell University’s namesake : EZRA

Ezra Cornell was an associate of Samuel Morse and made his money in the telegraph business. After he retired he co-founded Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He provided a generous endowment and donated his farm as a site for the school, and was then rewarded by having the institute named after him.

40A NAACP co-founder __ B. Wells : IDA

Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist and leader of the civil rights movement. She published a pamphlet in 1892 called “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases”, which publicized the horrors of lynching of African Americans by white mobs in the South.

41A Fallon predecessor : LENO

“The Tonight Show” has had six permanent hosts so far:

• Steve Allen (1954-57)
• Jack Paar (1957-62)
• Johnny Carson (1962–92)
• Jay Leno (1992–2009, 2010–14)
• Conan O’Brien (2009–10)
• Jimmy Fallon (2014–present)

42A *App with layered satellite images : GOOGLE EARTH (filled with “glee”)

Google Earth is a program that maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images and aerial photographs. Google acquired the technology when it purchased Keyhole, Inc in 2004. Keyhole had been partially funded by the CIA.

47A Take a gander : SEE

To take a gander is to take a long look. “Gander” is a term we’ve been using in this sense since the 1880s, coming from the idea that in taking a long look one might be craning one’s neck like a goose (or gander).

48A West Coast burger chain : IN-N-OUT

In-N-Out Burger is a fast food chain that’s very popular out here on the left coast. Unusually for a fast food business, In-N-Out Burger has no franchises and is privately owned. The company also prides itself on paying all employees above minimum wage. Also, if you check the packaging of the food and drink items, you’ll find a bible verse discreetly printed on the bottom of cups and wrappers, reflecting the Christian beliefs held by the company ownership. In-N-Out Burger was founded in 1948 by Harry and Esther Snyder, and is now owned by Lynsi Snyder, the couple’s only grandchild.

49A Water nymph in Greek mythology : NAIAD

The Naiads of Greek mythology were water nymphs associated with fountains, wells, springs and streams. The saltwater equivalents of the freshwater Naiads were the Oceanids.

57A Feeling euphoric, and what the answers to the starred clues literally are : FILLED WITH JOY

“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.

62A British pop singer Lewis : LEONA

Leona Lewis rocketed to fame after winning the British TV show called “The X Factor” (the show that spawned the UK’s “Pop Idol” and America’s “American Idol”).

66A 2020 film about Shaggy’s canine sidekick : SCOOB!

“Scoob!” is a 2020 animated comedy movie that is part of the “Scooby-Doo” franchise. The title character is voiced by voice actor Frank Welker, who is best known for voicing Scooby-Doo’s companion Fred Jones in the original animated TV series. In “Scoob!”, Fred Jones is voiced by actor Zac Efron.

67A “The Star-Spangled Banner” topic : FLAG

“The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key was adopted as the US national anthem in 1931. The song had been used officially by the US Navy since 1889, and was played when raising the flag.

71A Driver on a movie set : ADAM

Adam Driver is an actor perhaps best known to TV audiences for playing Adam Sackler on the show “Girls” that airs on HBO. Driver’s movie career got a huge boost in 2015 when he played villain Kylo Ren in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

Down

1D Final __: March Madness round : FOUR

In the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship, the teams remaining at various stages of the tournament are known as:

• The “Sweet Sixteen” (the regional semi-finalists)
• The “Elite Eight” (the regional finalists)
• The “Final Four” (the national semi-finalists)

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

3D Speedy Northeast Corridor train : ACELA

Amtrak’s 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”.

4D Olympian’s haul : MEDALS

In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.

5D Worker with a daily grind? : BARISTA

A barista is a person who serves coffee in a coffee shop. “Barista” is Italian for “bartender”.

6D Nueve preceder : OCHO

In Spanish, “ocho” (eight) is “nueve menos uno” (nine minus one).

7D Superheroes trained at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters : X-MEN

The X-Men are a team of superheroes created by Stan Lee for Marvel Comics. Nowadays, the X-Men are perhaps best known as the subject of a series of movies, with Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine and Patrick Stewart playing Professor Xavier (or simply “Professor X”). Some very respected actors have also played the villains whom the X-Men have to battle. For example, the enemy called Magneto is portrayed by veteran Shakespearean actor Sir Ian McKellen.

8D Sourdough starter component : YEAST

The active ingredient used to make sourdough bread is found in a pre-ferment (also “starter”). This pre-ferment is a mixture of flour and water that has been allowed to ferment for some time (maybe days) to grow a colony of wild yeast and lactobacilli. The starter is added to the dough used to make the final bread, with the starter accounting for about 20% of the weight of the final mixture. During baking, the wild yeast causes the bread to rise and the lactobacilli produce lactic acid, which gives sourdough its characteristic sour taste.

9D Little pet that may be pot-bellied : MINI-PIG

It seems that potbellied pigs are becoming increasingly popular as pets. Originally from Vietnam, these pigs are smaller than farm pigs. They can be house-trained, and form strong bonds with their owners.

11D Vox, Axios, Reuters, et al. : NEWS SITES

“Vox” is a news and opinion website that was founded by former “Washington Post” journalist Ezra Klein in 2014. “Vox” is Latin for “voice”.

The name of the news website Axios is a Greek word meaning “worthy”. The organization’s motto is “Smart Brevity”, reflecting the site’s style of presentation of news and analysis, in a scannable, bulleted format. The goal is to present only information that is “worthy” of the reader’s time and attention, living up to the company name.

The Reuters news agency was formed way back in 1851 by German-born, British entrepreneur Paul Julius Reuter. Reuter had checked the feasibility of a news service for a couple of years prior to launching the agency, and the technologies he used for his study were the telegraph and carrier pigeons!

22D Audiophile’s apparatus : HI-FI

Hi-fi systems were introduced in the late 1940s. They are pieces of audio equipment designed to give a much higher quality reproduction of sound than cheaper systems available up to that point. “Hi-fi” stands for “high fidelity”.

27D Crusoe creator : DEFOE

Daniel Defoe is most famous today as the author of the novels “Robinson Crusoe” and “Moll Flanders”. He was also a trader … and a spy for King William III!

“Robinson Crusoe” is a novel written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. It is widely considered to be the first English novel. Before “Robinson Crusoe”, most works of fiction were written in verse or drama, but Defoe’s novel was written in prose and followed a narrative structure that would become standard for the novel genre.

29D Actress Falco : EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

30D Midsize car : SEDAN

The American sedan car is the equivalent of the British and Irish saloon car. By definition, a sedan car has two rows of seating and a separate trunk (boot in Britain and Ireland), although in some models the engine can be at the rear of the car.

32D Org. with Kraken on ice : NHL

The Kraken are an NHL team based in Seattle. They played their first league game in Seattle in 2021, marking the first time that Seattle hosted a professional hockey team since the days of the Seattle Totems in 1975.

34D Stratospheric shield : OZONE

Ozone gets its name from the Greek word “ozein” meaning “to smell”. It was given this name as ozone’s formation during lightning storms was detected by the gas’s distinctive smell. Famously, there is a relatively high concentration of the gas in the “ozone layer” in the Earth’s stratosphere. This ozone layer provides a vital function for animal life on the planet as it absorbs most of the sun’s UV radiation. A molecule of ozone is made up of three oxygen atoms (O3), whereas a “normal” oxygen (O2) has just two atoms.

The stratosphere is a layer of the atmosphere that is so called because it is stratified in temperature, with the warmer layers at the top. One important constituent of the stratosphere is ozone. The ozone absorbs UV radiation coming from space, protecting us on the planet’s surface.

37D Fictional archaeologist Croft : LARA

Lara Croft was introduced to the world in 1996 as the main character in a pretty cool video game (or so I thought, back then) called “Tomb Raider”. Lara Croft moved to the big screen in 2001 and 2003, in two pretty awful movie adaptations of the game’s storyline. Angelina Jolie played Croft, and she did a very energetic job.

43D Newborn soother : LULLABY

A lullaby is a soothing song, one usually used to quiet children. The term “lullaby” has its roots in Middle English and is related to our contemporary word verb “to lull”, as in “to lull to sleep”.

46D Comedian Kevin : HART

Kevin Hart is an actor and comedian from Philadelphia. Hart plays the lead role on a reality TV parody on BET called “Real Husbands of Hollywood”.

50D Mexican flower : DAHLIA

The dahlia is a flowering plant native to Mexico and Central America. It was named the national flower of Mexico relatively recently, in 1963. The plant was given the name “dahlia” in 1791, in honor of Swedish botanist Anders Dahl.

55D Nordic cruise sight : FJORD

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, and both are formed as sea levels rise. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

56D Toy truck brand : TONKA

The toy manufacturer today known as Tonka started out as a manufacturer of garden implements in Mound, Minnesota in 1946. By 1955, toys had become the main product line for the company. At that time the owners decided to change the company name and opted for “Tonka”, a Dakota Sioux word meaning “great, big”.

59D “Melting clocks” painter Salvador : DALI

“The Persistence of Memory” is probably Salvador Dalí’s most famous work. It features the celebrated melting clocks/watches, and you can see them in the painting in the MoMA in New York City.

60D Lunch order in a wheat tortilla : WRAP

“Tortilla” translates literally from Spanish as “little cake”.