LA Times Crossword 31 Jan 26, Saturday

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Constructed by: Mark Axel

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 14m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Orbit City mom : JANE JETSON

Jane Jetson is the matriarch of the Jetson family in the animated series “The Jetsons” that originally aired in the early 1960s. Jane was voiced by Penny Singleton, an actress who was well known to movie audiences. She played the title role in the “Blondie” series of twenty-eight (!) films made in the 1930s and 1940s, based on the long-running comic strip of the same name.

15A Home page? : AMAZON ECHO

Amazon Echo is a voice-controlled hardware device that can be used to provide several services including playing radio programs and music, recording of shopping lists, and managing a calendar. The device just sits in the home listening, until it hears a “wake up” command.

16A Crop from which the word “luau” originates : TARO

The anglicized name of the Hawaiian feast “luau” comes from the Hawaiian word “lu’au”, which translates literally as “young taro tops”. Taro leaves and corms are often served at luaus.

17A Budget rentals : MOVING VANS

The Budget Rent a Car company started out in 1958 with the intent of undercutting the existing price of renting a car at airports. Budget was founded by Morris Mirkin. Mirkin enlisted Julius Lederer as a co-founder the following year. Lederer was the husband of newspaper columnist “Ann Landers”.

18A Vegas team : ACES

The Las Vegas Aces women’s basketball team was formed in Salt Lake City in 1997 as the Utah Starzz. The team became the San Antonio (Silver) Stars in 2002, before moving to Las Vegas as the Aces in 2018.

20A Nautical adverb : ALEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing aweather. The sheltered side of an island, for example, might be referred to as the “lee” side.

21A Terrarium pet : NEWT

A terrarium (plural “terraria”) is a contained environment used to house land animals. The term “terrarium“ comes from the equivalent “aquarium”, a tank for holding mainly fish. In general, a contained environment for keeping live animals or plants is known as a “vivarium”

22A Tennis great who won three consecutive French Opens in the 1990s : SELES

Monica Seles has a Hungarian name as she was born to Hungarian parents in former Yugoslavia. Seles was the World No. 1 professional tennis player in 1991 and 1992 before being forced from the sport when she was stabbed by a spectator at a match in 1993. She did return to the game two years later, but never achieved the same level of success.

24A Boyos : LADS

“Boyo” is an informal term, used in places like Australia, Wales and Ireland, as an alternative for “laddie” or “lad”.

26A Sedge-friendly habitat : FEN

Sedges are a family of plants that resemble grasses and rushes. They are more properly called Cyperaceae.

30A 2024 LPGA Tour Player of the Year Nelly : KORDA

Nelly Korda is an LPGA golfer from Florida. She has professional sports in her blood. Her parents are retired professional tennis players from the Czech Republic Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtová.

35A Casual Japanese expression of thanks : DOMO

The Japanese “Domo” can be used as a casual way to say “Thanks”, even though it actually means “very” or “indeed”. It is shorthand for the more formal “Domo arigato”, in which “arigato” is the actual word meaning “thank you”.

40A Big name in boxed mac and cheese : ANNIE’S

Annie’s is the second-best selling boxed mac and cheese in the US, second only to the product made by Kraft.

41A Dish often prepared with Maui onions : POKE

Poke is a Native Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

43A Profile detail : HOBBY

Back in the 16th century, a hobbyhorse was a mock horse that was used as a prop in morris dancing. The figure was wrapped around the waist of a dancer, creating the impression that the horse was being ridden. By the 1580s, the term “hobbyhorse” began to describe toy riding horse used by a child. A century later, the word “hobby” was being used for a favorite pastime, an activity that doesn’t really go anywhere, just like a hobbyhorse.

44A “Les Misérables” role : JAVERT

Victor Hugo’s famous 1862 novel “Les Misérables” has been translated into English several times. However, the title is usually left in the original French as a successful translation of “les misérables” seems to be elusive. Some suggestions for an English title are “The Wretched”, “The Victims” and “The Dispossessed”. The novel follows the lives of several characters including an ex-convict Jean Valjean, a fanatic police inspector Javert, a beautiful prostitute Fantine, and Fantine’s illegitimate daughter Cosette.

46A Tony winner Hagen : UTA

Uta Hagen was a German-born American actress. Hagen married Jose Ferrer in 1938, but they were divorced ten years later after it was revealed that she was having a long-running affair with Paul Robeson. Her association with Robeson, a prominent civil rights activist, earned her a spot on the Hollywood Blacklist during the McCarthy Era. This forced her away from film, but towards a successful stage career in New York City.

47A Nobel Prize subj. : ECON

The Peace Prize is the most famous of the five prizes bequeathed by Alfred Nobel. The others are for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. There is also a Nobel Prize in Economics that is awarded along with the original five, but it is funded separately and is awarded “in memory of Alfred Nobel”. Four of the prizes are awarded by Swedish organizations (Alfred Nobel was a Swede) and so the award ceremonies take place in Stockholm. The Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and is presented in Oslo.

49A Satirist Baron Cohen : SACHA

Sacha Baron Cohen is a comedian and comic actor from England. He is perhaps most famous for playing the characters Borat and Ali G on the small and large screens. I wasn’t a fan, but I must admit that I really enjoyed 2020’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”.

57A Spiced tea : CHAI

Chai is a drink made from spiced black tea, honey and milk, with “chai” being the Hindi word for “tea”. We often called tea “a cup of char” growing up in Ireland, with “char” being our slang word for tea, derived from “chai”.

58A Home of NYC’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art : SOHO

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art is located in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. It is the only art museum in the world dedicated to exhibiting and preserving artwork created by LGBTQ+ artists.

62A Like many intramural leagues : COED

Intramural sports are conducted within a certain geographic area, as opposed to varsity sports which are played with teams outside that area. The term “intramural” comes from the Latin for “within walls” and first applied to events held between teams based within the walls of a city.

63A Streaming accessory with a purple tag : ROKU REMOTE

Roku is a manufacturer of digital media players and distributor of streaming services. The company was founded in Los Gatos, California in 2002 by Anthony Wood. He chose the name “Roku” as it is the Japanese word for “six”, and Roku was the sixth company that Wood founded.

64A “M*A*S*H” star : ALDA

Alan Alda spent 11 seasons playing Captain Hawkeye Pierce on the hit TV show “M*A*S*H”. He commuted from Los Angeles to New Jersey every weekend, for the whole of the show’s run, because he didn’t want to move his family.

Down

1D Vertical supports : JAMBS

A door jamb or window jamb is the vertical portion of the frame. The term “jamb” comes from the French word “jambe” meaning “leg”.

3D Part of NCIS : NAVAL

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was established in 1993, and is largely a civilian service charged with the investigation of criminal activities involving the US Navy and the Marine Corps.

5D “Garfield Minus Garfield” character : JON

“Garfield Minus Garfield” is a rather inventive webcomic based on the “Garfield” comic strip. The webcomics editor, Dan Walsh, takes existing “Garfield” strips, and strips away (pun!) Garfield the cat and all other characters bar Garfield’s owner Jon Arbuckle. The result is apparently less comedic, but still very entertaining. Notably, “Garfield” creator Jim Davis is a big fan of the project.

6D Lang. of Sierra Leone : ENG

The Republic of Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa that lies on the Atlantic Coast. The capital city of Freetown was originally set up as a colony to house the “Black Poor” of London, England. These people were mainly freed British slaves of Caribbean descent who were living a miserable life in the run-down parts of London. Perhaps to help the impoverished souls, perhaps to rid the streets of “a problem”, three ships were chartered in 1787 to transport a group of Blacks, with some Whites, to a piece of land purchased in Sierra Leone. Those who made the voyage were granted British citizenship and protection. The descendants of these immigrants, and others who made the journey over the next 60 years, make up the ethnic group that’s today called the Sierra Leone Creole.

7D Maker of Tirra Sport hiking sandals : TEVA

Teva is a brand of sandal marketed as a sport sandal. The first design was the creation of a river guide working the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The design was patented in 1987.

8D Pajeon or cong you bing : SCALLION PANCAKE

Scallion pancakes are savory pancakes made with scallions (duh!), and they sound delicious to me. A Korean version is known as “pajeon”, and a Chinese version is “cong you bing”.

11D Fervent supporter, informally : STAN

“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.

12D Like some natural wigs : LACE FRONT

A lace wig is made from human or synthetic hair hand-tied to a lace base.

25D Kebab need : SKEWERS

The term “kebab” (also “kabob”) covers a wide variety of meat dishes that originated in Persia. In the West, we usually use “kebab” when talking about shish kebab, which is meat (often lamb) served on a skewer. “Shish” comes from the Turkish word for “skewer”.

29D Del Monte’s Pinkglow pineapple, e.g., for short : GMO

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is one with genetic material that has been altered by genetic engineering. One might argue that the oldest form of genetic engineering is selective breeding, the use of animals or plants with desired traits for the creation of the next generation.

31D __ pro nobis : ORA

“Ora pro nobis” translates from Latin as “pray for us”. It is a common phrase used in the Roman Catholic tradition and is often shortened to “OPN”.

32D Brew in some healing ceremonies : AYAHUASCA

Ayahuasca is an ancient Amazonian brew used for centuries in spiritual and healing ceremonies. Its name translates from Quechua as “vine of the soul” or “spirit rope”. It is a psychoactive concoction, and contains the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

39D Native American Heritage Mo. : NOV

National Native American Heritage Month was first observed in 1990 after President George H. W. Bush declared that November would be set aside to honor America’s tribal peoples.

45D Toyota pickup : TACOMA

The Tacoma is a pickup truck introduced by Toyota in 1995. “Motor Trend” dubbed it Truck of the Year in 2005.

48D Capital north of Memphis : CAIRO

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It is nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” because of its impressive skyline replete with Islamic architecture. The name “Cairo” is a European corruption of the city’s original name in Arabic, “Al-Qahira”.

Memphis was an ancient city on the River Nile. The ruins of Memphis are located just south of Cairo, Egypt. It was a magnificent city that eventually failed due to the economic success of the city of Alexandria, which was located further down the river and right on the Mediterranean coast.

50D “We adore __ because we love to produce order”: M.C. Escher : CHAOS

M. C. Escher was a graphic artist from the Netherlands. Escher was noted for creating works inspired by mathematics, often works that were physical impossibilities. One such work is “Drawing Hands” (1948) in which a pair of hands emerge from a piece of paper and actually draw themselves. He also created a drawing in which a group of red ants are crawling around a Möbius strip, never reaching the end.

52D Singer whose fans are called Claymates : AIKEN

Clay Aiken is one of the singing stars discovered on “American Idol”. Aiken had filled out an application to appear on the show “Amazing Race”, but a friend persuaded him to try out for “American Idol” instead. Fans of Clay Aiken call themselves “Claymates”. Aiken ventured into politics in 2014, winning the Democratic primary in the race for House Representative in the second congressional district of North Carolina. Aiken ultimately lost the race to the Republican incumbent.

54D __ bread : SODA

Soda bread is a bread in which sodium bicarbonate is used as a raising agent instead of yeast. It is a bread common in Irish cuisine, and indeed we usually refer to sodium bicarbonate as “bread soda”.

61D “Fore!” site : TEE

No one seems to know for sure where the golfing term “fore!” comes from. It has been used at least as far back as 1881, and since then has been called out to warn other golfers that a wayward ball might be heading their way. My favorite possibility for its origin is that it is a contraction of the Gaelic warning cry “Faugh a Ballagh!” (clear the way!) which is still called out in the sport of road bowling. Road bowling is an Irish game where players bowl balls along roads between villages, trying to reach the end of the course in as few bowls as possible, just like in golf!