LA Times Crossword 27 Sep 25, Saturday

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Constructed by: Doug Peterson & Samuel A. Donaldson

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 14m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Technique employed by funk artists : SLAP BASS

Slap bass is a playing technique commonly used in funk, jazz, and rock music that involves hitting the strings with the thumb and popping or slapping them with the fingers to produce a percussive sound.

18 On Signal, say : IM’ING

Signal is a messaging app set up as a rival to WhatsApp. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton became a billionaire when he and his partner sold the company to Facebook in 2014. He grew disillusioned with Facebook’s plans to monetize WhatsApp and its approach to user data. So he left the company in 2017, and the following year he publicly supported the “#DeleteFacebook” movement. Acton then put his money where his mouth was, providing an initial $50 million loan to launch the non-profit Signal Foundation, the parent organization of the Signal app. His goal was to create a secure, private messaging alternative that was not driven by profit or data collection.

19 Ketanji colleague : ELENA

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

Nominated by President Joe Biden, Ketanji Brown Jackson succeeded Associate Justice Stephen Breyer on the US Supreme Court in 2022. In doing so, she became the first Black woman to serve on the court. Jackson clerked for Justice Breyer, from 1999 to 2000.

22 Google crossword clues, some say : CHEAT

I google. But after I’ve finished with the puzzle …

23 Gazebo board : SLAT

A gazebo is a roofed structure, often octagonal in shape, that is found mainly in public spaces. Gazebos can be quite small, or can be large enough to perhaps serve as a bandstand. The actual etymology of the term “gazebo” seems to be a bit of a mystery, and there are some misconceptions out there.

25 25-Down, in Toledo : TRES
25 25-Across, in Toledo : THREE

Toledo is a city in central Spain that is located just over 40 miles south of the capital Madrid. Toledo is sometimes called the “City of Three Cultures”, due to the historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions.

Toledo, Ohio lies in the northwest of the state, at the western end of Lake Erie. Toledo was founded as a result of the prosperity that hit the area when the Miami and Erie Canal was constructed in the 19th century connecting Cincinnati to the Great Lakes. Toledo is known as the Glass City as several glass companies originated there, including Owens Corning and Pilkington North America. There is a large exhibition of glass art at the Toledo Museum of Art.

26 Like most Iraqis : SHIITE

Shiism, the second-largest branch of Islam, distinguishes itself from Sunni Islam primarily through its belief in the rightful succession of leadership after the Prophet Muhammad. Shia Muslims believe that leadership should have passed to Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali, and his descendants, known as Imams, whom they consider divinely appointed and infallible. In contrast, Sunni Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad did not explicitly designate a successor, and that leadership should be determined through consensus among the Muslim community.

29 Norse pantheon : AESIR

The gods and goddesses of Norse mythology generally belong to either the Aesir tribe or the Vanir tribe. Most of the Norse gods with which we are familiar belong to Aesir, including Odin, Thor, Frigg and Tyr. Examples of the Vanir gods are Freya and Njord. The Aesir live in Asgard, and the Vanir in Vanaheim. The Aesir and Vanir eventually united into one pantheon after the Aesir-Vanir War.

30 Launch-related stress : G-FORCE

The force of gravity (g-force) that we all feel is referred to as “one G”. As gravity is an accelerating force, acceleration is measured relative to that force of gravity. So, if we are sitting in a vehicle that accelerates at 3G, then we are experiencing a force that is three times that which we feel from the gravitational pull of the earth. Zero G is weightlessness that is experienced when in space, and outside the influence of the earth’s gravity.

32 Tool used to go suck a lemon? : CAR VAC

Long before we associated the term “lemon” with a defective car, it was used to describe defective items in general.

34 Queeg’s ship : CAINE

“The Caine Mutiny” is a Pulitzer-winning, 1951 novel by Herman Wouk. The story involves mutiny and court-martial aboard a US Navy vessel and reflected, at least partly, the personal experiences of Wouk as he served in the Pacific in WWII aboard a destroyer-minesweeper. The novel was adapted into a marvelous film released in 1954 starring Humphrey Bogart as Philip Queeg, the harsh captain of the USS Caine.

35 County, across the pond : SHIRE

The word “shire” comes from the Old English “scir” meaning “administrative district”. The term was replaced with “county” as far back as the 14th century, but the usage persists to this day. That is largely because some counties retain the use of “-shire” as a suffix (Yorkshire, Lancashire, etc.).

36 Jumps on board? : OLLIES

An ollie is a skateboarding trick invented in 1976 by Alan “Ollie” Gelfand. Apparently it’s a way of lifting the board off the ground, while standing on it, without touching the board with one’s hands. A similar move can be performed on a snowboard. Yeah, I could do that …

39 Lotion letters : SPF

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

42 Jessica of “Sin City” : ALBA

“Sin City” is a 2005 thriller movie that is based on a series of graphic novels by Frank Miller. Miller also co-directs the film. “Sin City” has a large ensemble cast that includes Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Clive Owen and Mickey Rourke. The author Frank Miller even plays a role himself.

43 Coward’s offerings : PLAYS

Noël Coward was the most flamboyant of personalities. A playwright, composer and actor, Coward worked in a remarkable range of genres. He wrote the wonderfully airy play “Blithe Spirit”, as well as the Oscar-winning WWII naval drama “In Which We Serve”. A couple of his more famous songs, many of which he performed himself in cabaret, are “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and “London Pride”.

45 2020 Pixar film : SOUL

“Soul” is a 2020 animated film from Pixar about a jazz pianist whose soul separates from his body after an accident. Jamei Foxx voices the main character, and the supporting cast includes Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Richar Ayoade and Phylicia Rashad. Critics and audiences alike loved this one …

47 Working stiff : PROLE

Back in the days of the Roman Republic, citizens with some material wealth were required to list in the census the property that they owned. Citizens with little or no property instead listed their “proles”, which is the Latin word for “offspring, children”. As a result, the class of people without property were referred to as the “proletarii”. Centuries later, Karl Marx popularized the term “proletariat” to describe the working class. Still later, author George Orwell used the term “prole” to describe a member of the working class in his novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.

48 Atlantic capital : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

52 Free pass from a manager : INTENTIONAL WALK

That could be baseball.

54 Royalty figure : NET SALES

The use of the word “royalty” to mean a payment to a creator comes directly from payments once made to actual royalty, i.e. fees paid to a king or queen for the right to use or exploit something that belonged to the Crown.

Down

1 Silky fabric that dates to the Middle Ages : SAMITE

Samite is a heavy, silk fabric that dates back to the Middle Ages. The name “samite” comes from the Byzantine Greek word “hexamiton”, which translates to “six threads”. This likely refers to the six yarns used in the warp for each unit of the pattern. The resulting textile was a heavy, opulent silk, often interwoven with gold or silver threads, making it so expensive it was reserved for royalty, high clergy and the very wealthy.

2 Characters in Anna Dewdney books : LLAMAS

“Llama Llama” is a series of children’s books penned by author and illustrator Anna Dewdney. The series is remarkably successful, and has been adapted into plays, musicals and an animated Netflix series.

3 Big name in middle management? : ATKINS

Perhaps most notably, the eating of relatively few carbohydrates is central to the diet proposed by Robert Atkins. Atkins first laid out the principles behind the Atkins diet in a research paper published in 1958 in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”. He popularized his diet starting in 1972 with his book “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution”.

4 Hammer heads? : PEENS

The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer), but usually it is shaped like a claw (mainly for removing nails).

5 Ocean cooler : BRIG

A brig is a two-masted sailing vessel, with the name “brig” coming from the related vessel known as a brigantine. Brigs and brigantines are both two-masted, but there is a difference in the sails used. It was the use of retired brigs as prison ships that led to the use of “brig” as the word for a jail or prison cell on a seagoing vessel.

8 Most like a chestnut : STALEST

An “old chestnut” is a tired old joke or story that has been told too many times. The term comes from a 1791 play, “The Broken Sword” by William Dimond. In the play, a character named Captain Zavior keeps repeating his old stories. He begins one by saying, “I entered the woods of Colloway, when suddenly from the thick boughs of a cork-tree …”. Another character, Pablo, cuts him off, claiming he’s heard the story countless times but that the tree was a chestnut, not a cork tree. Zavior insists it was a cork-tree, but Pablo retorts, “A chestnut! I have heard you tell the joke twenty-seven times, and I am sure it was a chestnut”. Soon, a chestnut was any joke or anecdote that had lost its freshness.

9 Home of Arizona’s idea Museum : MESA

The i.d.e.a. Museum was founded in Mesa, Arizona in 2014 as the Arizona Museum of Youth. The current name is an acronym standing for imagination, design, experience, art. The museum focuses on providing hands-on art experiences to encourage creativity in young children.

11 Work in the Louvre’s Salle des États : MONA LISA

The Salle des États (or “Hall of the States”) is the largest room in the Louvre in Paris. It was built in the 1850s for the legislative sessions of Emperor Napoleon III. The most famous work in the room today is the Mona Lisa, the small size of which surprises many visitors. When those visitors turn 180-degrees, they can view “The Wedding at Cana” by Paolo Veronese, which is the museum’s largest painting. The former is 30 x 21 inches in size, and the latter is over 22 x 32 feet.

13 Pesky little sucker : SKEETER

“Mosquito” is Spanish for “little fly”. The female mosquito actually has to have a “blood meal” before she is able to lay her eggs. Mosquitoes are sometimes referred to as “skeeters”.

15 Shopper’s “maze with meatballs” : IKEA

Every IKEA store features a restaurant that serves traditional Swedish food, including Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jam. Each store also has a Swedish Food Market where customers can purchase specialty foods from Sweden. And, IKEA makes 3-D printed meatballs that are served to potential new hires during the interview process!

27 Styles with many cuts : HARRY

Harry Styles is a singer from England who got his big break when he appeared on the British version of “The X Factor”, from which he was selected as an original member of the boy band One Direction. Styles turned to acting, and had a significant role in the 2017 war movie “Dunkirk”. Reading the gossip columns reveals that he dated Taylor Swift for a while in 2012.

28 Ketanji colleague : SONIA

Sonia Sotomayor was the first Hispanic justice appointed to the US Supreme Court, and the third female justice. Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to replace the retiring Justice David Souter in 2009. She is the subject of a picture book in the series “Ordinary People Change the World” by Brad Meltzer. “I Am Sonia Sotomayor” was published in 2018.

30 Vanilla liqueur : GALLIANO

Galliano is the key ingredient in the famous Harvey Wallbanger cocktail (vodka and orange juice topped with Galliano. Given that I live in the past, I still drink a Harvey Wallbanger every so often. Given that I am also cheap, I substitute that splash of Galliano with inexpensive, generic amaretto. Apparently, that combination is known as a bocce ball cocktail, but I still call it a Harvey Wallbanger …

31 Hazelnuts : FILBERTS

The hazelnut is the nut of the hazel tree. The nuts from some hazel species are referred to as cobnuts or filbert nuts.

32 Dull Knife’s people : CHEYENNE

Dull Knife (aka Morning Star) was a chief of the Northern Cheyenne people who was known for resisting the US expansion into the American West. He is largely credited with the eventual establishment of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in their Montana homeland in 1884.

34 Container for seamy material? : COAL BIN

Coal forms from peat that is subject to heat and pressure deep in the ground over millions of years. The peat is dead plant matter from former wetlands that we now refer to as “coal forests”.

35 Beach barker : SEA LION

The terms “seal” and “seal lion” are often used interchangeably, although they belong to two different families. tThere are several ways to tell them apart. The most obvious difference is the ears: sea lions have visible external ear flaps, whereas true seals just have ear holes. Another key distinction is how they move on land. A sea lion can rotate its large rear flippers forward, allowing it to “walk” on all fours. A seal cannot rotate its rear flippers and must move on land by wriggling on its belly. Finally, sea lions are noisy, and communicate in loud barks and roars, while seals are much quieter, using just soft grunts and hisses.

37 Mast attachment : SPRIT

A sprit is a pole that extends out from a mast, one often supporting a special sail called a spritsail.

39 Phishing target, informally : SOCIAL

Phishing is the online practice of stealing usernames, passwords and credit card details by creating a site that deceptively looks reliable and trustworthy. Phishers often send out safe-looking emails or instant messages that direct someone to an equally safe-looking website where the person might inadvertently enter sensitive information. “Phishing” is a play on the word “fishing”, as in “fishing for passwords, PINs, etc.”

40 Crayola’s wild orchid, e.g. : PURPLE

In the year 2000, the Crayola company held the “Crayola Color Census 2000”, in which people were polled and asked for their favorite Crayola colors. President George W. Bush chose “Blue Bell” and Tiger Woods chose “Wild Strawberry”.

44 “The Real” co-host Love : LONI

Loni Love is a comedian and TV personality from Detroit. She was the runner-up in 2003 on the relaunched “Star Search” show. In 2013, Love became one of the hosts of the daytime talk show “The Real”.

45 Either side of Alaska? : SCHWA

A schwa is an unstressed and toneless vowel found in a number of languages including English. Examples from our language are the “a” in “about”, the “e” in “taken” and the “i” in pencil.

48 Bands that may be strained on courts, briefly : ACLS

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

51 Noir piece : GAT

“Gat” is a slang term for a gun that is derived from “Gatling gun”, the precursor to the modern machine gun. The Gatling gun was invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861. Apparently, he was inspired to invent it so that one man could do as much damage as a hundred, thereby reducing the size of armies and diminishing the suffering caused by war. Go figure …