LA Times Crossword 13 Oct 25, Monday

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Constructed by: Ginny Too

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Bear Left

The LEFT side of each themed answer in the grid is a kind of BEAR:

• 63A One option at a fork in the road, and an apt description of 18-, 24-, 40-, and 52-Across : BEAR LEFT

• 18A “Dream a Little Dream” singer : MAMA CASS (Mama Bear)
• 24A Symbol on a difficult ski run : BLACK DIAMOND (black bear)
• 40A Daily paper in the Windy City : CHICAGO SUN-TIMES (Chicago Bear & sun bear)
• 52A Fast-casual Chinese restaurant chain : PANDA EXPRESS (panda bear)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11A __ Lock: PC key : NUM

The Num Lock key is a holdover from the original IBM PC keyboards, which did not have a separate block of dedicated arrow keys for cursor control. Instead, the numeric keypad did double duty. When Num Lock was off, the 8, 4, 6, and 2 keys functioned as the up, left, right, and down arrows, while other keys handled functions like Home, End, and Page Up/Down. The Num Lock key was created to toggle the keypad between this cursor mode and its primary function of number entry. Once keyboards with dedicated arrow keys became standard, this secondary function became obsolete, but the key itself remains. It just sits there, and I haven’t used it in years …

15A French peak : ALPE

There are eight Alpine countries:

• Austria
• Slovenia
• France
• Switzerland
• Liechtenstein
• Germany
• Monaco
• Italy

16A CBS forensic franchise : CSI

The “CSI” TV show franchise uses hits from the Who as theme music:

• “Who Are You” … “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
• “Baba O’Riley” … “CSI: New York”
• “Won’t Get Fooled Again” … “CSI: Miami”
• “I Can See for Miles” … “CSI: Cyber”

17A Hip-hop dance move : NAE NAE

The Nae Nae is a hip hop dance that is named for the 2013 song “Drop that NaeNae” recorded by We Are Toon. The main move in the dance involves swaying with one hand in the air and one hand down, with both feet firmly planted on the dancefloor. Go on, do it. You know you want to …

18A “Dream a Little Dream” singer : MAMA CASS (Mama Bear)

Cass Elliot (born “Ellen Cohen”) was one of the four singers in the Mamas and the Papas, a sensational group from the sixties. “Mama Cass” was performing sold-out concerts in London in 1974 when she was found dead one morning, having had a heart attack. She was only 32 years old. Eerily, Elliot died in the same flat (on loan from Harry Nilsson) in which the Who’s drummer Keith Moon would die just four years later.

I am pretty sure that most of us associate the song “Dream a Little Dream of Me” with Mama Cass. The Mamas & the Papas recorded their version in 1968, but the song’s first recording was in 1931, by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. And yes, that’s Ozzie from the radio and TV shows “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”.

21A Thumb drive ports : USBS

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and dealing with electrical power through those connections.

23A Asian grocery chain : H MART

H Mart is a chain of Asian supermarkets found mainly in North America. The company was founded in 1982 as a corner grocery store in New York City. That first store operated under the Korean name “Han Ah Reum”, which is the inspiration for the H in “H Mart”.

24A Symbol on a difficult ski run : BLACK DIAMOND (black bear)

In North America, ski runs are given a standardized rating in terms of skiing difficulty. The ratings are:

• Green circles: easy to ski, often termed “bunny slopes”.
• Blue squares: medium difficulty
• Black diamond: steep and challenging terrain
• Double black diamond: experts only (I’ve never braved one!)

The American black bear is the most common species of bear on the planet. My wife and I “ran across” one on a hiking trail a few years ago …

28A __ beer float : ROOT

Root beer is a beverage that is very North American, and is rarely found elsewhere in the world. It originated in the 1700s and was made from the root of the sassafras plant. The traditional root beer was a beverage with a very low alcohol content, and today there are many versions that contain no alcohol at all. The sassafras root was used as the primary flavor ingredient right up until 1960, when the FDA banned its use as tests determined that it was a carcinogen.

33A House of Lords title : BARON

The UK Parliament is divided into two houses, with the upper house known as the House of Lords and the lower house as the House of Commons. The members of the House of Commons (MPs) are elected, but most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Historically, a large proportion of the membership of the upper house were hereditary peers, but recent legislative changes are reducing the numbers who can sit in the House of Lords by virtue of birthright.

39A Soccer great Hamm : MIA

Mia Hamm is a retired American soccer player. She played as a forward on the US national team that won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. Hamm scored 158 international goals, which was more than any other player in the world, male or female, until the record was broken in 2013. Amazingly, Hamm was born with a clubfoot, and so had to wear corrective shoes when she was growing up.

40A Daily paper in the Windy City : CHICAGO SUN-TIMES (Chicago Bear & sun bear)

The “Chicago Sun-Times” has been the second-most popular daily newspaper in the Windy City for decades, second only to the “Chicago Tribune”. The paper was formed with the merger of the “Chicago Sun” and the “Chicago Daily Times” in 1948. Famously, it was the longtime home of film critic Roger Ebert. He wrote for the “Chicago Sun-Times” for 46 years, from 1967 until his death in 2013.

The Chicago Bears football team was founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1919 and moved to Chicago in 1921. The Bears are one of only two franchises in the NFL that were around at the time of the league’s founding (the other being the Arizona Cardinals, also based in Chicago in 1921).

The sun bear is native to Southeast Asia, but is endangered due to deforestation that destroys its habitat. The sun bear is sometimes called the honey bear as it loves honey and honeycombs.

44A Nashville awards org. : CMA

Country Music Association (CMA)

45A Clock toggle : AM/PM

The abbreviations “AM” and “PM” originate from Latin: “AM” stands for ante meridiem, meaning “before midday,” while “PM” stands for post meridiem, meaning “after midday.”

47A Dojo instructor : SENSEI

“Sensei” is a Japanese form of address used for figures of authority, from lawyers to martial arts instructors.

The Japanese word “dojo” translates literally as “place of the way”. Originally the term applied to training halls that were found in or beside temples. The teaching in a dojo was not limited to the martial arts, but in the Western world we use the dojo as the name for a training facility for judo, karate and the like.

50A Where to find “Campbell’s Soup Cans” in NYC : MOMA

Andy Warhol went through a period of painting iconic American products, including Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell’s tomato soup cans. In 1964 he participated in a gallery show called “The American Supermarket”. Along with other pop artists he contributed works including a painting of a can of Campbell’s tomato soup. He priced the painting at $1,500, and sold autographed cans of soup for $6 a piece.

52A Fast-casual Chinese restaurant chain : PANDA EXPRESS (panda bear)

Panda Express is a restaurant chain specializing in American-Chinese cuisine. The chain was founded in 1983 by husband and wife team Andrew and Peggy Cherng. Andrew opened his first restaurant in 1973 with his father, Master Chef Ming Tsai Cherng from the Yangzhou region of China. That full-service restaurant in Pasadena, California was named the Panda Inn. The Panda Express chain was introduced as a fast-food version of the Panda Inn.

The giant panda is a bear, and so has the digestive system of a carnivore. However, the panda lives exclusively on bamboo, even though its gut is relatively poorly adapted to extract nutrients from plants per se. The panda relies on microbes in its gut to digest cellulose, and consumes 20-30 pounds of bamboo each day to gain enough nourishment.

62A Genetic messenger molecule : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA. An added complication is that small changes in the sequence of amino acids specified by DNA sometimes takes place in a process known as RNA editing. This RNA editing occurs after the nucleotide sequence has been transcribed from DNA, but before it is translated into protein.

65A French cake : GATEAU

In French, a “gâteau” (plural “gâteaux”) is a “cake”.

68A Sports doc’s scan : MRI

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate images that can be used by medical professionals to diagnose injury and disease.

72A Skating commentator Lipinski : TARA

When American skater Tara Lipinski won the figure skating gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, she was only 15 years old. To this day, Lipinski is the youngest person to win an individual gold at the Winter Games.

73A Stinging weed : NETTLE

Most nettle species have stinging hairs that secrete formic acid. This formic acid is the same chemical that is found in the venom injected with a bee or ant sting. The Latin word for ant is “formica”, which gives its name to the acid.

Down

1D Mary J. Blige’s music genre : R AND B

Mary J. Blige is a singer-songwriter from the Bronx, New York. Her best known album is probably “My Life”, released in 1994. Blige is also making a name for herself as an actress, and was nominated for several awards for her performance in the 2017 film “Mudbound”.

2D Etsy business : E-TAIL

Etsy.com was founded in 2005 as a way for artists and craftspeople to sell their handmade goods online, and has since grown to include vintage items and crafting supplies as well. The company’s name is derived from the Italian word “etsi,” which means “oh, yes”? This was a nod to founder Rob Kalin’s love of Italy and his appreciation for the country’s history and artistry.

5D Actress Thurman : UMA

Uma Thurman started her working career as a fashion model, at the age of 15. She appeared in her first movies at 17, with her most acclaimed early role being Cécile de Volanges in 1988’s “Dangerous Liaisons”. Thurman’s career really took off when she played the gangster’s moll Mia in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. My favorite of all Thurman’s movies is “The Truth About Cats & Dogs”, a less acclaimed romcom released in 1996. She took a few years off from acting from 1998 until 2002 following the birth of her first child. It was Tarantino who relaunched her career, giving her the lead in the “Kill Bill” films.

6D Bogus : PSEUDO

Our word “bogus”, meaning “not genuine” was coined (pun!) in the 1830s, when it applied to counterfeit money.

7D Lively Afro-Brazilian dance : SAMBA

The samba is a Brazilian dance that is very much symbolic of the festival of Carnival. Like so much culture around the world, the samba has its roots in Africa, as the dance is derived from dances performed by former slaves who migrated into urban Rio de Janeiro in the late 1800s. The exact roots of the name “samba” seem to have been lost in the mists of time. However, my favorite explanation is that it comes from an African Kikongo word “semba” which means “a blow struck with the belly button”. We don’t seem to have a need for such a word in English …

8D Suffix with proto- : -PLASM

The word “protoplasm” comes from the Greek, meaning first (protos) thing formed (plasma). It is the name given to the cell contents, everything that is surrounded by the plasma membrane. The protoplasm in most cells is divided into two parts, the cytoplasm which surrounds the nucleus, and the nucleoplasm found within the nucleus.

9D Turntable letters : RPM

Revolutions per minute (rpm)

11D Org. covered by ESPNU : NCAA

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions, leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910. The NCAA has been headquartered in Indianapolis since 1999.

12D Cold War initials : USSR

There is some debate about the timing of the start and end of the Cold War, the period of geopolitical tension between the US and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. One significant factor at the start of the Cold War was the Truman Doctrine, the foreign policy adopted by President Harry S. Truman that firmly ended America’s pre-WWII isolationism in favor of support for nations threatened by Soviet influence. A clear sign of the end of the Cold War was the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

19D Nav. rank : CMDR

Commander (cmdr.)

22D “Friends” or “Girlfriends” : SITCOM

The producers of TV’s hit sitcom “Friends”, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, co-wrote the show’s theme song. The theme was originally just a minute long, and recorded by the Rembrandts. A Nashville radio announcer looped the one-minute song into a standard 3-minute pop song format and it became really popular over the airwaves. The Rembrandts found themselves “having to” come up with a re-write and recorded a full, 3-minute version of the song. They released it on an album in 1995, and made a music video. The video features all six of the “Friends” stars, and pieces of the video appear in the opening sequence of subsequent shows.

“Girlfriends” was a sitcom co-produced by Kelsey Grammer that first aired in 2000. The show’s run ended in 2008 mid-season, a result of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike.

25D Lightweight clog : CROC

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as shoes to be worn at health spas. I bought a pair of crocs, and then my kids said they would stop talking to me …

Clogs are shoes made from wood, at least in part. The clog originated as a protective item of footwear for use by farm, factory and mine workers.

26D Hawaiian coffee district : KONA

Kona coffee is cultivated on the Big Island of Hawaii, on the slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai, two of the five volcanoes on the island. Coffee plants were brought to Kona in 1828 and late in the 19th century, coffee became a viable and worthwhile crop. Today Kona is one of the most expensive and popular coffees in the world.

27D Harbinger : OMEN

A harbinger is a person or a thing that indicates what is to come. The word comes from the Middle English “herbenger” describing a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings.

35D “Glass Onion” director Johnson : RIAN

Filmmaker Rian Johnson wrote and directed quite a few major films, including “Looper” (2012), “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017) and “Knives Out” (2019).

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is a 2022 sequel to “Knives Out”, with both films written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daniel Craig as private investigator Benoit Blanc. Johnson wrote “Glass Onion” during the COVID-19 lockdown, and set the film against the backdrop of the pandemic. The score for both films was written by Nathan Johnson, Rian’s cousin.

37D Egyptian cobra : ASP

The Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) is also known as the asp. That said, the term “asp” can apply to several species of snake, including the Egyptian cobra. Legend has it that Cleopatra committed suicide by enticing an asp to bite her. If that’s true, then that asp was probably an Egyptian cobra.

42D Pack (down) : TAMP

To tamp is to pack down tightly by tapping. “Tamp” was originally used specifically to describe the action of packing down sand or dirt around an explosive prior to detonation.

51D Gas with the symbol O : OXYGEN

The element oxygen has an atomic number of 8, and has eight electrons within each atom. The name “oxygen” was coined (“oxygène” in French) by Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, from the Greek “oxys” meaning “acid” and the French “-gène” meaning “producer”. It was originally believed that oxygen was needed to make all acids.

56D Mollusk that’s a symbol of slowness : SNAIL

Snails and slugs are referred to collectively as gastropods. There are many, many species of gastropods, found both on land and in the sea. Gastropods with shells are generally described as snails, and those species without shells are referred to as slugs.

57D Pan-fry : SAUTE

“Sauté” is a French word. The literal translation from the French is “jumped” or “bounced”, a reference to the tossing of food while cooking it in a frying pan.

58D Some early PCs : IBMS

The IBM PC entered the personal computer market in 1981 and was by all accounts a surprising success, even to many IBM executives. The PC was directed at the business world, and in 1983 IBM made its first foray into the home computing world with the introduction of the PCjr. Codenamed “Peanut” during development, the PCjr has been described as one of the biggest commercial flops in computing history. Various reasons have been cited for the failure, including the poorly-designed keyboard, relatively high price and lack of compatibility with existing IBM products.

59D “Up in the Air” Oscar nominee Farmiga : VERA

My favorite performance by film actress Vera Farmiga was in the 2009 film “Up in the Air”. In the movie, she played the love interest for the character played by George Clooney, and ended up with a nomination for that season’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

“Up in the Air” is a comedy-drama film released in 2009, starring George Clooney and Anna Kendrick. I really enjoyed this movie, despite the fact that it dealt with corporate downsizing, and the pain of being called to an exit interview.

64D Actress Longoria : EVA

Eva Longoria is a fashion model and actress who had a regular role on TV’s “Desperate Housewives”, playing Gabrielle Solis. Her travel and food show “Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico” premiered on CNN in 2023.

66D Blonde brew : ALE

In today’s world, the usage of masculine and feminine forms of English words is largely frowned upon. The one word that seems to have retained its gender specificity is “blond”, the feminine version of which is “blonde”.

In French, the word for “beer” is “bière”, a feminine noun. When describing a pale-colored beer in French, the correct term is “une bière blonde”. This usage was adopted directly into English when naming the beer style “blonde ale”.