LA Times Crossword 29 Oct 25, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Sheri Steinmetz & Katie Hale

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Herbal Essences

Themed answers are all famous names, and the “ESSENCE” of each is a HERB:

• 58A Shampoo brand that claims to be “plant obsessed,” and what 20-, 34-, and 43-Across all have : HERBAL ESSENCES

• 20A Winner of the first Olympic gold medal in men’s snowboard slopestyle : SAGE KOTSENBURG
• 34A “White Christmas” co-star : ROSEMARY CLOONEY
• 43A “Peanuts” character with a tendency to sleep through class : PEPPERMINT PATTY

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

Bill’s time: 5m 56s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Currency in 20 countries : EURO

The euro is the official currency of most of the states in the European Union, but not all. The list of EU states not using the euro includes Denmark and Sweden. Under the EU treaties, all member states are technically required to adopt the euro once they meet certain economic criteria. However, Denmark negotiated a special “opt-out” and is legally exempt from this requirement. Sweden, on the other hand, has not adopted the euro because it deliberately avoids meeting one of the criteria (related to exchange rate mechanisms) after a 2003 referendum in which Swedes voted against adoption. Politics …

18A Cornhusker st. : NEBR.

The state of Nebraska got its “Cornhusker State” nickname from the University of Nebraska athletic teams (and not the other way round). In turn, the university teams’ name comes from the prevalence of corn as a crop, and the harvesting process known as “cornhusking”, removal of the outer husk from the ear of corn.

19A McDonald of “The Gilded Age” : AUDRA

Audra McDonald is an actress and singer best known for her work on the stage. She has won six competitive Tony Awards, which is more than any other actor. McDonald is also the only person to have won Tony Awards in all four categories: featured actress in a play, leading actress in a play, featured actress in a musical, and leading actress in a musical.

“The Gilded Age” is a period drama created and written by Julian Fellowes, who also created the hit drama “Downton Abbey”. “The Gilded Age” is set in New York City in the 1880s, when the nation was enjoying an economic boom.

20A Winner of the first Olympic gold medal in men’s snowboard slopestyle : SAGE KOTSENBURG

American snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg took home the first-ever Olympic gold medal in men’s snowboard slopestyle, doing so at the 2014 Sochi Games. To win the event, he landed a trick he had never even attempted before: a backside 1620 Japan air. Apparently, he has not attempted the trick since.

29A Problem in one’s pants or pantry : ANTS

The word “pantry” dates back to 1300, when it came into English from the Old French “panetrie” meaning a “bread room”. Bread is “pain” in French, and “panis” in Latin.

34A “White Christmas” co-star : ROSEMARY CLOONEY

Rosemary Clooney was a singer who enjoyed most of her success in the 1950s, but who had sustained public exposure right up until her death in 2002. Clooney was married three times, with her first two marriages being to Hollywood actor José Ferrer. Actor George Clooney is Rosemary’s nephew, being the son of her brother Nick Clooney.

“White Christmas” is a classic 1954 musical film starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, with songs by Irving Berlin. Rosemary Clooney was signed with Columbia Records, and was not allowed to appear on the official film soundtrack album, released by Decca Records. For the album, her parts were sung by Peggy Lee. Clooney later released her own album of songs from the film on Columbia.

40A Where to see the big picture? : IMAX

The IMAX Corporation, which is behind the IMAX film format, is a Canadian company. The impetus for developing the system came after Expo ’67 in Montreal. Back then large format screenings were accomplished using multiple projectors with multiple screens, with images basically stitched together. The team behind the IMAX technology set out to simplify things, and developed a single-camera, single-projector system.

41A “Rudy” coach Parseghian : ARA

Ara Parseghian coached the Notre Dame football team from 1964 to 1974, a period known alliteratively as “The Era of Ara”.

“Rudy” is a 1993 sports biopic about the life of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who played college football at Notre Dame. The movie is all about the title character’s desire to play football despite countless obstacles. And play he did, albeit very briefly. After that appearance, Rudy became the first player in Notre Dame history to be carried off the field by his teammates.

42A Erté’s style : DECO

“Erté” was the pseudonym of French (Russian-born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. “Erté” is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”, as well as the 1925 epic movie “Ben-Hur”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.

43A “Peanuts” character with a tendency to sleep through class : PEPPERMINT PATTY

Peppermint Patty is a character in the long-running comic strip “Peanuts”, by Charles M. Schulz. Peppermint Patty has a friend named Marcie who famously refers to Peppermint Patty as “Sir”, which is perhaps a reference to her reputation as a tomboy. Tomboy or not, it is revealed in the strip that Peppermint Patty has quite a crush on Charlie Brown.

49A Tennis great Arthur : ASHE

The Arthur Ashe Courage Award has been presented annually since 1993 as part of the ESPY Awards. Named for tennis great Arthur Ashe, the Courage Award is presented to individuals whose contributions “transcend sports”. The list of recipients includes Howard Cosell (1995), Muhammad Ali (1997), Billie Jean King (1999), Nelson Mandela (2009), Caitlyn Jenner (2015) and Eunice Kennedy Shriver (2017).

50A Michigan’s __ Locks : SOO

In the summer of 2010, I spent a very interesting afternoon watching ships make their way through the Soo Locks and Soo Canals between Lake Superior and the lower Great lakes. The name “Soo” comes from the US and Canadian cities on either side of the locks, both called Sault Ste. Marie.

51A Wee : SMA’

The Scots dialect word sma’ means “small”. The word famously appears in the Robert Burns poem, “To a Mouse”. The pertinent lines read:

A daimen icker in a thrave
’S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t!

which “translates” to:

An occasional ear of corn out of twenty-four sheaves
Is a small request;
I’ll be blest with the rest of the corn,
And never miss the ear you took!

56A Speed Wagon automaker : REO

The REO Speed Wagon was a light truck introduced in 1915, and a precursor to the modern pickup truck. The rock band REO Speedwagon is named for the truck, but note the difference between the spelling of Speedwagon (the band) and Speed Wagon (the truck).

58A Shampoo brand that claims to be “plant obsessed,” and what 20-, 34-, and 43-Across all have : HERBAL ESSENCES

Herbal Essences is a line of shampoo products introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1971. The brand had a memorable and controversial ad campaign in the 1990s that featured women vocalizing over-the-top moans of pleasure while using the product. In 1998, the campaign even featured a cameo from celebrity sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

64A Like sun bears and pandas : ASIAN

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.

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.

65A __-Seltzer : ALKA

Alka-Seltzer is a brand of fizzy antacid that has been marketed since 1931. In terms of ingredients, it is a mix of sodium bicarbonate, aspirin and anhydrous citric acid.

66A California roll ingredient : CRAB

A California roll is a kind of sushi roll that is made inside-out, with the seaweed inside and the rice on the outside. A California roll often includes rice, seaweed, cucumber and avocado. The dish originated in Los Angeles where a chef at the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant substituted avocado for fatty tuna (“toro”) in a traditional sushi recipe. The chef also put the seaweed on the inside, as his American customers preferred not to look directly at seaweed while they were eating it!

68A Italian soccer great Maldini : PAOLO

Paolo Maldini is a former soccer player from Italy who played his whole career with Serie A in Milan. He was captain of the national team of Italy for many years, earning him the nickname “Il Capitano”.

70A Like a fairy tale duckling : UGLY

Hans Christian Andersen’s tale “The Ugly Duckling” has to be one of the most endearing ever written. Unlike so many fairy tales, “The Ugly Duckling” isn’t based on any folklore and is simply a product of Andersen’s imagination. It is speculated that Andersen was the illegitimate son of the Crown Prince of Denmark, and that he wrote the story of the ugly duckling that turned into a beautiful swan as a metaphor for the secret royal lineage that was within Andersen himself.

71A Fragrant compound : ESTER

Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.

Down

1D Food blogger Perelman : DEB

“Smitten Kitchen” is a cooking blog that Deb Perelman has been publishing since 2006. She parlayed her successful blog into a cookbook, also called “Smitten Kitchen”, which was published in 2012. The fourth person to comment on Deb’s blog was a gentleman named Alex Perelman. After that first meeting, Alex and Deb became friends, and years later got married.

4D Salsa hand drum : BONGO

Bongo drums are Cuban percussion instruments consisting of a pair of drums, one larger than the other. The smaller drum is called the “hembra” (female) and the larger the “macho” (male).

5D Outdated term for noncoding genetic material : JUNK DNA

DNA provides the code necessary for sequencing amino acids into protein molecules. There is some DNA however that isn’t used in sequencing amino acids, and this is known as noncoding DNA. This noncoding DNA picked up the moniker “junk DNA” as the initial perception was that it had no purpose at all. It turns out that at least some noncoding DNA does indeed have biological function, so the “junk DNA” name is probably undeserved.

6D Cookie with many specialty flavors : OREO

Oreo cookies actually come in a few flavors, but it takes some work to find them. For example, Green Tea Oreos are only available in China and Japan. Many flavors are only available for a limited time. For example, Watermelon Oreos were only sold in the summer of 2013, and Cookie Dough Oreos were only available in March 2014.

7D Pride Month letters : LGBT

The police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn on June 29th, 1969. That raid triggered a spate of violent demonstrations led by the LGBT community. Now known as the Stonewall riots, those demonstrations are viewed by many as a significant event leading to the modern-day fight for LGBT rights in the US. Since then, June has been chosen as LGBT Pride Month in recognition of the Stonewall riots.

11D Tally : ADD UP

Back in the mid-1600s, a tally was a stick marked with notches that tracked how much one owed or paid. The term “tally” came from the Latin “talea” meaning “stick, rod”. The act of “scoring” the stick with notches gave rise to our word “score” for the number in a tally.

12D __ firma : TERRA

“Terra firma” is Latin for “solid ground”.

13D Glitches : SNAGS

“Glitch” comes into English from German via Yiddish. The original German word is “glitschen” meaning “to slip”. It is a relatively new term, and generally applied to computer software bugs.

26D Klutz’s move, perhaps : TRIP

A klutz is an awkward individual, with the term “klutz” coming from Yiddish. The Yiddish word for a clumsy person is “klots”.

27D “Ben-Hur” setting : ROME

In Lew Wallace’s novel “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ”, Messala is a childhood friend of Judah Ben-Hur. The friendship ends when Massala condemns Judah to imprisonment and life below decks on the galleys. Massala was played by Irish actor Stephen Boyd in the 1959 movie version of the novel.

31D Lebanon neighbor : SYRIA

The Lebanon–Syria border runs almost 250 miles from the Mediterranean coast in the north, down to a point shared with Israel in the south.

33D Bubbly beverage : SODA

The name of the beverage called “soda” comes directly from chemistry. Early carbonated water was made by adding sodium bicarbonate to water, and because the key ingredient was a sodium compound, the drink became known as “soda water”, later shortened to just “soda”.

35D Convention center event : EXPO

The first World’s Fair was held in 1851, known back then as the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. The fair was the idea of Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria. It was held in a magnificent glass and cast-iron structure called the Crystal Palace that was purpose-built for the occasion. The Great Exhibition spawned a tradition of what became known as World’s Fairs, expositions that feature national pavilions created by participating countries. The term “Expo” was coined for Expo 67, a 1967 World’s Fair held in Montreal. Since then, we’ve been using “expo” to describe any large exposition or trade show.

37D Brooklyn B-ballers : NETS

The NBA’s Brooklyn Nets were the New Jersey Nets until 2012, and were based in Newark. Prior to 1977, the team was known as the New York Nets and played in various locations on Long Island. Ten years earlier, the Nets were called the New Jersey Americans and were headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey.

38D Start for -derm or -plasm : ECTO-

The ectoderm is the outermost of the three primary layers of cells in an early embryo, and it’s responsible for forming a wide range of tissues. It develops into the skin, hair, and nails, as one might expect, but it also gives rise to the entire nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and all the nerves connecting them.

The endoplasm is the inner part of a cell’s cytoplasm, and the ectoplasm is the outer part.

39D Toy on a string : YO-YO

Yo-yo enthusiasts can visit the National Yo-Yo Museum in Chico, California. The museum’s centerpiece exhibit is a 256-pound yo-yo that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1982 as the World’s Biggest Working Wooden Yo-Yo. “Working” the yo-yo requires a large crame and a skilled operator.

44D “__ Rigby” : ELEANOR

When Paul McCartney was writing “Eleanor Rigby”, he started out with the title “Daisy Hawkins”. He also had a “Father McCartney” in the lyrics, but was afraid that folks would assume that was a reference to his Dad. So, he looked through the phone book and changed McCartney to McKenzie. The name Eleanor was borrowed from actress Eleanor Bron (a fine English actress who had a role in the movie “Help!”). The name Rigby came from Rigby & Evans Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers. Whatever it takes, I guess!

46D Duds : THREADS

“Duds” is an informal word meaning “clothing”. The term comes from the word “dudde” that was used around 1300 as the name for a cloak.

47D Hammer head : PEEN

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).

51D Rhombus, e.g. : SHAPE

“Rhomb” is an alternative name for a rhombus (plural “rhombi”), a 4-sided figure with sides of equal length and angles at the corners that aren’t right angles (unless in the special case that the rhombus is a square). So usually, that would make a rhombus a “diamond” shape.

60D Many an Eastern European : SLAV

The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

• the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
• the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
• the South Slavic (including Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs)

61D YouTube ad option : SKIP

YouTube is a video-sharing website where users can watch, upload, and share videos. It was founded in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. The first video on YouTube was uploaded by Karim and shows him feeding elephants at the San Diego Zoo. It is the second most popular website in the world. Google is the most popular …