LA Times Crossword 4 Sep 25, Thursday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Beth Rubin & Owen Bergstein

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Knock on Wood

Today’s grid includes three groups of hidden words (in circled letters). One is a synonym of “KNOCK”, and it sits ON top of a synonym of “WOOD”:

• 60A “Let’s hope so!,” or what is found in this puzzle’s circled letters : KNOCK ON WOOD

• 17A Consciousness-raising discussions : RAP SESSIONS
• 20A West ___ : Williams-Sonoma subsidiary : ELM (RAP on ELM)

• 32A Checkmate symbol : POUND SIGN
• 35A Volcanic depression : CALDERA (POUND on ALDER)

• 45A Member of the Syncopated Ladies, e.g. : TAP DANCER
• 49A Tennis icon Arthur : ASHE (TAP on ASH)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A First film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize : EBERT

Roger Ebert co-hosted a succession of film review television programs for over 23 years, most famously with Gene Siskel until Siskel passed away in 1999. Siskel and Ebert famously gave their thumbs up or thumbs down to the movies they reviewed. Ebert died in 2013.

Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually for achievements in journalism, literature and musical composition. The prize was established back in 1917 by the Hungarian-American newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer left money in his will for the prize, and for its administration by Columbia University.

16A “Sorry, but it’s __ from me” : A NO

And me too …

19A Pt. of USNA : NAV

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is located in Annapolis, Maryland. It was founded in 1845 and educates officers for both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. The motto of the USNA is “Ex Scientia Tridens”, which translates as “From Knowledge, Sea Power”.

20A West ___ : Williams-Sonoma subsidiary : ELM

West Elm is an upscale furniture store that is owned by Williams-Sonoma. The West Elm chain was founded in 2002.

24A Library patron : USER

Our word “library” ultimately derives from the Latin “liber” meaning “book”.

29A God whose chariot is pulled by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr : THOR

The Norse god Thor rode in a chariot pulled by two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. Somewhat ungratefully (!), he would actually roast and eat his goats to sustain himself. Fortunately for all concerned, Thor could use his celebrated hammer, Mjölnir, to resurrect the goats, provided their bones were intact.

32A Checkmate symbol : POUND SIGN

The # symbol is usually referred to as the “number sign”, but here in the US the name “pound sign” is very common as well, as is “hash mark”.

In chess notation, the pound sign (#) is used to indicate a checkmate. For example, if a move leads to a checkmate, you might see it written as “Qh7#” which means the Queen moves to h7, resulting in a checkmate.

35A Volcanic depression : CALDERA

A caldera forms when a volcano erupts. Often mistaken for just a large crater, a caldera is actually a vast, bowl-shaped depression. It forms when the land around a volcano collapses inward after a massive eruption empties the magma chamber beneath it. Fittingly, the name “caldera” comes from the Spanish word for “cooking pot”.”

42A Tamagotchi, e.g. : DIGI-PET

Tamagotchis are hand-held digital pets from Japan. They come housed in tiny egg-shaped computers, usually with a three-button interface. The Tamagotchis can be named, get hungry, and can be happy or sad. Care is provided by the owner using the interface buttons. The name “Tamagotchi” comes from the Japanese word “tamago” meaning “egg”, melded with the English word “watch”.

44A Penne __ vodka : ALLA

Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish with a sauce made of vodka, cream, tomatoes, onions and sausage or bacon.

45A Member of the Syncopated Ladies, e.g. : TAP DANCER

The Syncopated Ladies are an all-female tap dance band known for their viral videos that have amassed over 200 million views online. The troupe was founded by choreographer Chloé Arnold, a protégé of Debbie Allen. They gained significant global attention when Beyoncé not only shared their work but also featured them on her official website and invited them to perform live internationally.

49A Tennis icon Arthur : ASHE

The great American tennis player Arthur Ashe spent the last years of his life writing his memoir called “Days of Grace”. He finished the manuscript just a few days before he passed away, dying from AIDS caused by a tainted blood transfusion.

50A Communication sys. at Gallaudet : ASL

Gallaudet University is a private school in Washington, D.C. that is focused on the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. Gallaudet was founded in 1864 and is officially a bilingual institution, with classes held in both English and American sign language (ASL).

51A Musical note part : STEM

In musical notation, a note is made up of the note head connected to the straight line called the stem, and perhaps a flag(s) at the opposite end of the stem to the note head.

52A The first “M” of MGM : METRO

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio was founded in 1924 by Marcus Loew. Loew was already a successful movie theater owner when he purchased Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919, and then Goldwyn Pictures in 1924. Later in 1924, Loew also purchased Louis B. Mayer Pictures, mainly so that Louis B. Mayer could merge all three studios and run them himself as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

54A Spot in the agua : ISLA

In Spanish, an “isla” (island) is “tierra en el agua” (land in the water).

59A “__ Maria” : AVE

“Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary” in English) is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “”Hail Mary”” comes from the Gospel of Luke. The words in Latin are:

AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

The prayer has been adapted as a hymn. The two most famous musical versions of “Ave Maria” are by Charles Gounod (based on a piece by Bach) and by Franz Schubert.”

65A Maui neighbor : LANAI

Lanai is the sixth largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Lanai was first spotted by Europeans just a few days after Captain Cook was killed on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1779. In 1922, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company bought the whole island of Lanai and turned most of it into the world’s largest pineapple plantation. Since then, Lanai has been known as “The Pineapple Island”. Today, 98% of the island is owned by Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, and 2% is owned by the State of Hawaii.

66A Bones at the bases of spines : SACRA

The sacrum is a large, triangular bone at the base of the spine, formed by the fusion of typically five sacral vertebrae in adulthood. The term “sacrum” comes from the Latin “os sacrum”, meaning “sacred bone,” possibly because it was offered in sacrifices or believed to contain the soul.

68A “Get Smart” role : AGENT

The satirical comedy series called “Get Smart” was the creation of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, and starred Don Adams as Agent 86, Maxwell Smart. Agent 86 worked for the spy agency CONTROL, alongside the lovely Agent 99 (played by Barbara Feldon). CONTROL’s sworn enemy was the criminal organization called KAOS. Smart’s shoe phone was a hilarious prop used in almost every episode. When Smart dialed the number 117, the shoe converted into a gun. Cool stuff …

Down

1D Critter that moves like a rabbit : HARE

Hares belong to the genus Lepus. Young hares under one-year-old are called leverets.

3D Chappell Roan genre : POP MUSIC

“Chappell Roan” is the stage name of singer/songwriter Kayleigh Amstutz. Roan got her start in the music industry after she uploaded an original song titled “Die Young” to YouTube, when she was just 17 years old. She signed on with Atlantic Records soon after.

6D City near Bath : BRISTOL

Bristol is the most populous city in the southwest of England. It is a port city, one that had a notorious role in the growth of slavery in America. Manufactured goods from the UK were shipped from Bristol to West Africa where they were traded for Africans who were forcibly transported across the Atlantic for trade in the Americas. The slave ships brought back plantation goods to Bristol.

Bath is a beautiful city in South West England of which I have very fond memories. It is an old Roman spa town, and the city’s name comes from the Roman baths that have been excavated and restored.

7D Nwodim of “SNL” : EGO

Actress and comedian Ego Nwodim joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 2018. She was a biology major at the University of Southern California, a classic foundation for a successful comedian …

8D Become messy, as mascara : RUN

Variants of mascara have been around a long time, and certainly there was a similar substance in use in ancient Egypt. “Mascara” is a Spanish word meaning “stain, mask”.

9D Model Holliday : TESS

Tess Holliday is a plus-size model and body-positive activist. She was born Ryann Hoven and changed her name to Tess Munster when she started modeling. That choice was purely because she was a fan of “The Munsters” TV show. In 2015, she adopted the family name of Nick Holliday, the father of her two children.

10D Leader who was nominated for but never won a Nobel Peace Prize : GANDHI

Mohandas Gandhi was a political and spiritual leader in India in the first part of the 20th century, as the country sought independence from Britain. He was also referred to as “Mahatma”, meaning “great soul”. His remarkable philosophy of nonviolence and living a modest lifestyle was a great inspiration to the Indian people. India (and Pakistan) was granted independence in 1947. Tragically, Gandhi was assassinated the very next year.

11D Like grandfather clocks : ANALOG

There are several sizes of longcase clocks, tall and freestanding clocks driven by a pendulum swinging inside a tower below the clock face. A longcase clock over 6 feet tall is called a grandfather, and one below five feet is a granddaughter, One that falls between five and six feet is known as a grandmother. The name of the clock derives from an 1876 song called “My Grandfather’s Clock”.

14D __ decimal system : DEWEY

Dewey Decimal Classification is a system used in libraries worldwide to place books in appropriate locations, sorted by genre. The system was invented by Melvil Dewey in 1876.

25D Surfer who rips : SHREDDER

In the surfing world, to shred is to surf a wave in a flashy but skillful manner.

27D Steering option : RUDDER

A rudder is usually a flat sheet of wood or metal located at the stern of a boat, and under the waterline. The rudder is attached to a rudder post, which rotates to change the orientation of the rudder hence steering the boat. That rotation of the rudder post can be achieved by pulling or pushing a lever called a tiller, which is located at the top of the post.

28D Like neon : INERT

An inert gas can be different from a noble gas. Both are relatively non-reactive, but a noble gas is an element. An inert gas might be a compound, i.e. made up of more than one element.

Neon (Ne) was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

30D Pay-__-click : PER

The “pay-per-click” (PPC) advertising model is one in which advertisers pay only when a user clicks on their ad.

31D Thurman of “Red, White & Royal Blue” : UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

“Red, White & Royal Blue” is a 2023 romcom film that is based on a 2019 novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston. Central to the story is a love affair between a British prince and a son of the US president. The two big names in the cast (to me, anyway) are Uma Thruman playing the American president and Stephen Fry playing the British king.

32D Loses it : PANICS

In Greek mythology, Pan was a lecherous god who was part-man and part-goat, and one who fell in love with Echo the mountain nymph. Echo refused Pan’s advances so that he became very angry. Pan’s anger created a “panic” (a word derived from the name “Pan”) and a group of shepherds were driven to kill Echo.

33D “Black-ish” father : DRE

“Black-ish” is a sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross that premiered in 2014. The lead actors play Dre and Rainbow Johnson, a married couple leading an upper-middle class black family. The show is noted for tackling tough issues such as racism, police brutality, attitudes toward the LGBT community, and the 2016 US presidential election.

35D Aetna rival : CIGNA

The health care management company known as Cigna was formed in 1982 by a merger of two insurance companies. One was Connecticut General (CG) and the other was the Insurance Company of North America (INA).

37D __ de los Muertos : DIA

The “Día de Muertos” (also “Dia de los Muertos”, both meaning “Day of the Dead”) is a holiday that originated in Mexico, and is now celebrated around the world. It is traditionally celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, and involves family and friends gathering to remember those who have died. Despite the somber nature, the Day of the Dead usually has a joyful tone, as family remembers the happier events and anecdotes associated with the departed.

39D Campy genre : GLAM ROCK

I remember the days of glam rock so well, as it was a hugely popular genre of music in Britain and Ireland during the early seventies. Artistes wore the wildest of clothes, big hair, shiny outfits and really high platform boots. Names associated with glam rock are T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music and the infamous Gary Glitter.

41D Morse mark : DAH

A “dah” or “dash” is Morse code for the letter “T”.

43D Image on Louisiana license plates : PELICAN

The official nickname of Louisiana is the Pelican State, but it is also known as the Bayou State, the Child of Mississippi, the Creole State, the Sportsman’s Paradise and the Sugar State.

45D Tunie of “Beyond the Gates” : TAMARA

I mainly know actress Tamara Tunie for playing medical examiner Melinda Warner in “Law & Order: She grew up in a family-run funeral home in Homestead, a borough just outside Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. Early in her acting career, in 1981, Tunie made her Broadway debut alongside the legendary Lena Horne in “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music”.

47D Acidity check : PH TEST

As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

48D Huge supporters, in slang : STANS

“Stan” is a song by rapper Eminem (featuring Dido) that was recorded in 2000. The title refers to a fictional Eminem fan named “Stan” who becomes obsessed with the rapper, and who grows irate when his letters to his idol go unanswered. Stan’s final act is to make a voice recording as he drives into a river, with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk. One of the legacies of the song is that “stan” is now used as a slang term for an obsessed and maniacal fan.

53D Ark. neighbor : OKLA

The state of Oklahoma takes its name from the Choctaw words “okla humma” meaning “red people”.

57D Makimono layer : NORI

The Japanese word “makimono” literally translates to “rolled thing”. Here in the West, we usually associate “makimono” with sushi rolls, but the term actually has a broader meaning in Japanese art and culture. It can also refer to various types of hand scrolls, including those with paintings or text, designed to be viewed as they are unrolled horizontally.

58D Scott of “Severance” : ADAM

Adam Scott is an actor from Santa Cruz, California who is perhaps best known for playing Ben Wyatt on the hit sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. More recently, Scott has been playing the lead in the entertaining sci-fi TV show “Severance”.