LA Times Crossword 10 Dec 25, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Peggy Sue Marlin

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): UK-US

Themed answers each come in two parts. The first part is UK-English and the second US-English, for the same thing:

• 20A Rental unit with zero personality? : FLAT APARTMENT
• 28A One who forgot insect repellent for a walk in the park? : BUGGY STROLLER
• 45A Five-star frank? : BANGER SAUSAGE
• 52A Salad special at a Cape Canaveral cafe? : ROCKET ARUGULA

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

Bill’s time: 6m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A “Star Wars” villain : VADER

Darth Vader is (to me) the most colorful antagonist in the “Star Wars” universe. Born as Anakin “Ani” Skywalker, he was corrupted by the Emperor Palpatine and turned to “the Dark Side”. In the original films, Darth Vader was portrayed by English bodybuilder David Prowse, and voiced by actor James Earl Jones. Jones asked that he go uncredited for the first two “Star Wars” films, feeling that his contributions were insufficient to warrant recognition. I disagree …

6A Cartoon supplier of explosive tennis balls : ACME

The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.

14A BP merger partner : AMOCO

“Amoco” is an abbreviation for “American Oil Company”, an oil company that merged with BP in 1998. Amoco was the first oil company to introduce gasoline tanker trucks and drive-through filling stations. I wonder if they know what they were starting …?

BP is an oil and gas company headquartered in London, UK. BP started out as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909 with the remit of exploiting oil discovered in Iran. The company name was changed to British Petroleum in 1954, and today the name used is simply “BP”.

15A Glitzy rock genre : GLAM

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.

20A Rental unit with zero personality? : FLAT APARTMENT

“Flat”, describing an apartment or condominium, is a word more commonly used in Britain and Ireland than on this side of the pond. The term “flat” is Scottish in origin, in which language it used to mean “floor in a house”.

23A Mai __: rum drink : TAI

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

25A Día de __ Muertos : LOS

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.

26A “Lost” actor Daniel __ Kim : DAE

Daniel Dae Kim is an American actor who is famous for playing Jin-Soo Kwon on “Lost”. Kim moved on to play one of the leads on the CBS remake of “Hawaii Five-O”, portraying the character Chin Ho Kelly.

“Lost” is a science fiction drama that originally aired from 2004 to 2010. The show kicks off with a passenger airliner crashing a tropical island as it flies from Sydney bound for Los Angeles. I haven’t seen the show myself and I hear that the intriguing plot didn’t really come to a satisfying conclusion. Others may disagree …

28A One who forgot insect repellent for a walk in the park? : BUGGY STROLLER

In the US, the term “ stroller” describes a wheeled chair used to push a baby or small child. In the UK, the most common equivalent for this item is “pushchair”. The term “buggy” is also widely used in the UK, often interchangeably with pushchair, though it often refers to a lighter, more collapsible model.

32A Host of the 2004 Olympics : ATHENS

When Athens hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2004, it marked the second time the city hosted the Modern Games. Athens had hosted the inaugural Modern Olympiad in 1896. New medals were designed for the 2004 games. From 1928 onwards, the obverse of Olympic medals featured the Colosseum in Rome. Medals used from 2004 onwards feature the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, which had been refurbished and used for the inaugural Games in 1896.

35A Craft beer letters : IPA

India pale ale (IPA)

36A “Aladdin” parrot named for a Shakespeare villain : IAGO

In the 1992 Disney feature “Aladdin”, there is a parrot called Iago. Iago is voiced by the comic Gilbert Gottfried.

In William Shakespeare’s “Othello”, Iago is the villain of the piece. At one point he readily admits this, saying “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse”. Here he is claiming to make money out of making fools of others. In this case, he takes money from Roderigo, who believes that Iago will help him bed Othello’s wife Desdemona.

45A Five-star frank? : BANGER SAUSAGE

Sausages are often referred to as bangers on the other side of the pond. The term “banger” is a reference to the tendency of the sausage to burst open with a bang while cooking. The rather tasty dish called bangers and mash is traditional British fare and comprises sausages with mashed potatoes, and smothered in brown gravy. Yum …

47A Washington airport code : DCA

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) is located in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the two main airports serving the nation’s capital, along with Washington Dulles. Washington National opened for business in 1941, and was dedicated to President Ronald Reagan in 1998.

49A Bible book before 1 Cor. : ROM

Saint Paul’s “Epistle to the Romans” a book in the Christian Bible’s New Testament, and the longest of St. Paul’s epistles. Martin Luther’s re-reading of Romans, particularly its passages on grace and faith, was a key spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.

50A “Star Trek” series, for short : TNG

When Gene Roddenberry first proposed the science fiction series that became “Star Trek”, he marketed it as “Wagon Train to the Stars”, a pioneer-style Western in outer space. In fact, his idea was to produce something more like “Gulliver’s Travels”, as he intended to write episodes that were adventure stories on one level, but morality tales on another. Personally, I think that he best achieved this model with the spin-off series “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG). If you watch individual episodes you will see thinly disguised treatments of moral issues such as racism, homosexuality, genocide etc. For my money, “The Next Generation” is the best of the whole franchise …

52A Salad special at a Cape Canaveral cafe? : ROCKET ARUGULA

The famous headland in Florida called Cape Canaveral was named by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century. As the Cape acts as a launching station for many of NASA’s rockets, when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 the NASA facility on nearby Merritt Island was renamed the Kennedy Space Center, and President Johnson went as far as renaming the whole of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy. The name change for the cape didn’t go down well in Florida though, as the headland had been called Cape Canaveral for over 400 years. So, the name was restored in 1973, and Cape Kennedy is no more.

Eruca sativa is an edible plant that is known as “arugula” in the US, and “rocket” in Britain and Ireland and in Canada. The Italian name for the plant is “rucola”, from the Latin name. It is “rucula” that evolved into the American term “arugula”.

57A Club choice : IRON

Most of the irons in a golf bag had non-numerical names in days gone by:

• 2 Iron … Cleek
• 3 Iron … Mid Mashie
• 4 Iron … Mashie Iron
• 5 Iron … Mashie
• 6 Iron … Spade Mashie
• 7 Iron … Mashie Niblick
• 8 Iron … Pitching Niblick
• 9 Iron … Niblick

58A Big name in plastic wrap : SARAN

What’s known as plastic wrap in America, we call cling-film in Ireland. The brand name “Saran” is often used generically in the US, while “Glad” wrap is common down under. Plastic wrap was one of those unintended inventions, a byproduct of a development program to create a hard plastic cover for cars.

62A Sandy sediment : SILT

Today, we mostly think of silt as a deposit of sediment in a river. Back in the mid-1400s, silt was sediment deposited by seawater. It is thought that the word “silt” is related to “salt”, as found in seawater.

63A Entry on a Spotify playlist : TITLE

Spotify is a popular music-streaming service that was launched in Sweden in 2008.

Down

1D Actor Kilmer : VAL

Val Kilmer’s first big leading role in a movie was playing Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic “The Doors”. A few years later, Kilmer was chosen for the lead in another big production, “Batman Forever”. Off the screen, he flirted with the idea of running for Governor of New Mexico in 2010. A Hollywood actor as a governor? Would never happen …

2D Ti __: Italian “I love you” : AMO

In Italian, one usually says “ti amo” (I love you) with “grande affetto” (much affection).

3D Ace-versus-ace sky battle : DOGFIGHT

A flying ace (also “air ace”) is an aviator who has shot down a number of enemy planes during combat. The qualifying number of kills seems to vary, but five is common. The first use of “ace” was during WWI, when the French newspapers dubbed pilot Adolphe Pegoud “l’as” (French for “the ace”) when he shot down his fifth German plane.

5D Historian Terborg-Penn : ROSALYN

Dr. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn was a pioneering historian who specialized in African American history, and the history of black women in particular. Her most influential book was 1998’s “African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920”. It has been lauded for uncovering and restoring the stories of black suffragists whose contributions had been largely erased from the mainstream narrative.

8D Argentine soccer legend Diego : MARADONA

Diego Maradona had to have been the most famous of Argentina’s soccer players. He was also one of the country’s most controversial sportsmen and was noted for his outspoken manner with journalists, as well as his cocaine addiction. He was often referred to by his nickname “El Pibe de Oro” (The Golden Boy).

9D May birthstone : EMERALD

Here is the “official” list of birthstones, by month, that we tend to use today:

• January: Garnet
• February: Amethyst
• March: Bloodstone or Aquamarine
• April: Diamond
• May: Emerald
• June: Pearl or Moonstone
• July: Ruby
• August: Sardonyx or Peridot
• September: Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli
• October: Opal or Pink Tourmaline
• November: Topaz or Citrine
• December: Turquoise or Zircon (also now, Tanzanite)

11D One-dimensional : LINEAR

The dimension of an object is defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify each point in the object. Therefore, a line is one-dimensional, as you only need an x-coordinate to specify a particular point on the line. A surface is two-dimensional, as you need both an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate to locate a point on the surface. The inside of a solid object is then three-dimensional, needing an x-, y- and z-coordinate to specify a point, say within a cube.

13D Al __: pasta specification : DENTE

The Italian expression “al dente” literally means “to the tooth” or “to the bite” and is used to describe not only pasta, but also vegetables that are cooked so that they are tender and yet still crisp.

22D Lead-in to prompter : TELE-

The world’s first teleprompter was built in 1950, and sold under the trademarked name “TelePromTer”.

23D Ski lift : T-BAR

A T-bar is a ski lift on which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of a T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers as they remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, which is a similar device but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

24D Mustang or Pinto : AUTO

The Ford Mustang car was introduced in 1964. Back then the Mustang wasn’t a brand new design, but was based on the Ford Falcon. The Mustang was the first of the “pony cars”, American models that are compact and affordable, as well as sporty in image and performance.

The Pinto is a small car that was made by the Ford company from 1971 to 1980. The Pinto was named for the type of horse. Allegations were made in 1997 that the neck of the car’s fuel tank could easily break off in a collision leading to a deadly fire. However, the allegations were never really shown to be valid.

29D Davis of “A League of Their Own” : GEENA

As well as being a successful Hollywood actress, Geena Davis is an accomplished archer and came close to qualifying for the US archery team for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Davis is also a member of American Mensa. She is quite the lady …

“A League of Their Own” is a 1992 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall, starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, and Rosie O’Donnell, among others. The movie is based on the true story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which was created during World War II when many of the male baseball players were serving in the military. The Baseball Hall of Fame has recognized the contributions of the AAGPBL, and in 1988, former players from the league were invited to Cooperstown to participate in a ceremony honoring their legacy. Many of the actresses from “A League of Their Own” also attended the ceremony to pay tribute to the pioneering female athletes who inspired the film.

35D Video game plumber who freezes enemies : ICE MARIO

Ice Mario is a special form of Mario, the video game plumber. He becomes Ice Mario after collecting a power-up called an Ice Flower, and can then throw ice balls that freeze enemies into solid blocks of ice.

37D Menu phrase : A LA CARTE

On a restaurant menu, items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately. A menu marked “table d’hôte” (also called “prix fixe”) is a fixed-price menu with limited choice. “Table d’hôte” translates from French as “table of the host”.

38D More than mega- : GIGA-

The prefix “giga-” implies 10 to the power of 9, as in a “billion”. The prefix “nano-” implies 10 to the power of -9, as in a “billionth”.

42D Self-centered sort : EGOTIST

An egoist (also “egotist”) is a selfish and conceited person. The opposite would be an altruist.

43D Vampire tooth : FANG

Legends about vampires were particularly common in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans in particular. The superstition was that vampires could be killed using a wooden stake, with the preferred type of wood varying from place to place. Superstition also defines where the body should be pierced. Most often, the stake was driven through the heart, but Russians and northern Germans went for the mouth, and northeastern Serbs for the stomach.

44D Masters Tournament host city : AUGUSTA

The Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia was founded in 1933 by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts. Famously, Augusta hosts the Masters Tournament each year. Augusta is very much a private club, and some of its policies have drawn criticism over the years. Prior to 1959, the club had a bylaw requiring that all caddies be African American. There were no African-American club members admitted until 1990, and no women until 2012.

Golf’s Masters Tournament is the first of the four major championships in the annual calendar, taking place in the first week of April each year. It is played at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, and has a number of traditions. One is that the winner is awarded the famous “green jacket”, but he only gets to keep it for a year and must return it to the club after twelve months.

48D __ powder : COCOA

Cocoa powder is the unsweetened, solid component of cacao beans that remains after most of the fat (the cocoa butter) has been pressed out. To make cocoa powder, cacao beans are fermented, roasted, and ground into a paste called chocolate liquor. This paste is then put under pressure to squeeze out the cocoa butter, leaving behind a dry “press cake” that is pulverized to yield cocoa powder.

53D Schwarber who led the National League in home runs in 2022 and 2025 : KYLE

Professional baseball player Kyle Schwarber is known as a power hitter.Playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, he led the National League in home runs in 2022, hitting 46 homers. He hit even more home runs in 2023 (47), and finished second in the league. He upped his home run number to 56 in 2025, to once again top the National League.

59D Swiss peak : ALP

The Swiss Alps are home to over 4,000 glaciers, which cover an area of about 1,000 square miles. These glaciers are a crucial source of freshwater for much of Europe. In fact, 6% of the continent’s freshwater is found within the borders of Switzerland, giving it the nickname “Water Tower of Europe”.

60D March Madness souvenir : NET

“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”.