LA Times Crossword 14 Feb 26, Saturday

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Constructed by: Amanda Cook

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

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

Bill’s time: 10m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Grazing spots? : TAPAS BARS

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”. There is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

10A Classic Milwaukee brewer : PABST

Frederick Pabst was a brewer from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area who had immigrated to the US from Prussia with his parents. Pabst bought himself into his father-in-law’s small brewery and over the years grew the enterprise into a public company. The most famous beer from Pabst is Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Milwaukee sits on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin. Milwaukee has a long tradition of brewing, a tradition that dates back to the 1850s that is associated with the large number of German immigrants that started to arrive in the area during the 1840s. Even though the city was once home to four of the world’s largest breweries, namely Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst and Miller, only the latter is a major employer in Milwaukee today.

16A Cornmeal cake : AREPA

An arepa is a cornmeal cake or bread that is popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines in particular. Each arepa has a flat, round shape and is often split to make a sandwich.

17A Final act for a big star : SUPERNOVA

A nova (plural “novae”) is basically a star that suddenly gets much brighter, gradually returning to its original state weeks or even years later. The increased brightness of a nova is due to increased nuclear activity as the star picks up extra hydrogen from a neighboring celestial body. A supernova is very different from a nova. A supernova is a very bright burst of light and energy created when most of the material in a star explodes. The bright burst of a supernova is very short-lived compared to the sustained brightness of a nova.

19A Phillies All-Star shortstop Turner : TREA

Trea Turner is a MLB shortstop. In 2023, he became the first player in Major League history to steal at least 30 bases in a single season without being caught a single time

23A Hermana de la madre : TIA

In Spanish, a “tia” (aunt) is the “hermana del padre o de la madre” (sister of the father or the mother).

25A Scoped out : CASED

The phrase “to case the joint” is American slang meaning “to examine a location with the intent of robbing it”. The origins of the phrase are apparently unknown, although it dates back at least to 1915.

32A Alan Ladd Western : SHANE

The classic 1953 western movie “Shane” is based on the novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer published in 1949. Heading the cast is Alan Ladd in the title role, alongside Jean Arthur and Van Heflin. “Shane” was shot in the beautiful Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

The last few years of actor Alan Ladd’s life were pretty rough. In 1962, he was found unconscious in a pool of blood with a bullet wound in his chest, an abortive suicide attempt. Two years later he was found dead, apparently having succumbed to an accidental overdose of drugs and sedatives. He was 50 years old.

36A 1990s fad item : POG

The game of pogs was originally played with bottle caps from POG fruit juice. The juice was named for its constituents, passion fruit, orange and guava.

37A State gemstone of Minnesota : AGATE

Agate is a micro-crystalline form of quartz (and so is related to sand/silica). Some agate samples have deposited layers that give a striped appearance, and these are called “banded agate”.

41A Alabama and Kansas : BANDS

Alabama is a band from Fort Payne, Alabama that performs a blend of country music and southern rock.

Kansas is a rock band that formed in the 1970s in Topeka, Kansas. The group’s biggest hits were “Carry on Wayward Son” and “Dust in the Wind”, both of which charted in the mid-seventies.

47A “__ complicated” : IT’S

Of course it is. It’s a crossword …

48A Big D cagers : MAVS

The Mavericks (also “Mavs”) are an NBA franchise in Dallas, Texas. The team was founded in 1980, and the Mavericks name was chosen by fan votes. The choice of “Mavericks” was prompted by the fact that the actor James Garner was a part-owner of the team, and Garner of course played the title role in the “Maverick” television series.

49A David Oyelowo film set in Alabama : SELMA

“Selma” is a 2014 film about the Selma-to-Montgomery marches of 1965. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson.

British actor David Oyelowo really hit the big time when he landed the role of Martin Luther King in the 2014 film “Selma”. Oyelowo was born to Nigerian parents, and he spent much of his youth living in Lagos. He comes from royalty, and is an “omoba” (prince) of the Yoruba people from West Africa.

62A Nonbillable work? : MINOR ROLE

I get quite a kick out of reading the bios in “Playbill” as some of them can be really goofy and entertaining. “Playbill” started off in 1884 in New York as an in-house publication for just one theater on 21st St. You can’t see any decent-sized production these days anywhere in the United States without being handed a copy of “Playbill”.

63A Goomba, to Mario : ENEMY

In Nintendo’s “Mario” series of video games, the Goombas are mushroom-like creatures who act as enemies of the main characters.

Down

2D River between Russia and China : AMUR

The Amur is a river that serves as the border between Russia and China in Manchuria. On one side of the border is Outer Manchuria (in Russia) and on the other is Inner Manchuria (in China).

3D Vatican City resident : POPE

The Pope, as the Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church, also serves as the sovereign of the Vatican City State, which is the world’s smallest independent nation. Vatican City is less than half a square kilometer (about 110 acres), making it smaller than many golf courses!

4D Carbo-loaded, say : ATE A TON

Only relatively small amounts of carbohydrate can be stored by the human body, but those stores are important. The actual storage molecule is a starch-like polysaccharide called glycogen, which is found mainly in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is a quick source of energy when required by the body. Most of the body’s energy is stored in the form of fat, a more compact substance that is mobilized less rapidly. Endurance athletes often eat meals high in carbohydrates (carbo-loading) a few hours before an event, so that their body’s glycogen is at optimum levels.

6D Art with a moyogi style : BONSAI

Bonsai is the Japanese art of training trees in containers to look like miniature versions of their full-sized counterparts. One of the most popular forms of the art is “moyogi”, or the “informal upright” style, where the trunk and branches follow a curved, natural path rather than growing straight up and out.

8D Sitarist Shankar : RAVI

Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the pop singer Norah Jones.

10D Campaign gp. : PAC

A political action committee (PAC) is a private group that works to influence the outcome of a particular election or group of elections. Any group becomes a PAC by law when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election. In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that PACS that did not make direct contributions to candidates or parties could accept unlimited contributions. These “independent, expenditure-only committees” are commonly referred to as “super PACs”.

11D Mesmerize : ARREST

Franz Mesmer was a German physician, and the person who coined the phrase “animal magnetism”. Back then the term described a purported magnetic field that resided in the bodies of animate beings. Mesmer also lent his name to our term “mesmerize”.

12D Sting operation? : BEEKEEPING

Some apiarists (beekeepers) can be seen wearing thousands of bees on the face, forming a bee beard as a form of entertainment for an audience.

14D Dances like Savion Glover : TAPS

Savion Glover is a professional tap dancer and actor from Newark, New Jersey. He was taught tap over the years by several celebrity dancers, including, especially Gregory Hines, and even Sammy Davis Jr.

26D Texter’s “Currently” : ATM

At the moment (ATM)

28D Engage in forensics : ARGUE

Something described as forensic is connected with a court of law, or with public discussion or debate. The term comes from the Latin “forensis” meaning “of a forum, of a place of assembly”. We mainly use the word today to mean “pertaining to legal trials” as in “forensic medicine” and “forensic science”.

30D “Matlock” star : BATES

Actress Kathy Bates started her on-screen career in the early seventies, but it wasn’t until 1990 that she landed her breakthrough role, playing Annie Wilkes in the psychological thriller “Misery”. Her performance in “Misery” won her that season’s Best Actress Oscar.

“Matlock” is a 2024 reboot of the original Andy Griffith show from the 1980s and 1990s. The new series stars Kathy Bates as a brilliant septuagenarian lawyer named Madeline “Matty” Matlock. Matty rejoins the workforce at a prestigious law firm, using her unassuming manner to win cases. However, Matty is secretly on a mission to find the person who wronged her daughter. The 2024 version regularly pays homage to its predecessor, with other characters frequently asking Matty if she is related to the famous TV lawyer.

31D Staple of Nigerian cuisine : YAMS

Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of yams. That said, these aren’t the soft, orange-fleshed “sweet potatoes” often mislabeled as “yams” in the US. True African yams are starchy, have a bark-like skin, and can grow up to five feet long.

37D “Les Alyscamps” city : ARLES

Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin spent four days in 1888 painting side-by-side at the ancient Roman necropolis “Les Alyscamps”, near Arles in the South of France. Van Gogh created four paintings during the session, Including one later titled “L’Allée des Alyscamps”, which fetched $66.3 million at auction in 2015.

40D Burpee target : PEC

Burpees are strength-training exercises. Each burpee involves a squat thrust followed by a straight stand. The exercise is named for its inventor, physiologist Royal Huddleston Burpee, Sr.

42D Puritanical : AUSTERE

“Puritan” was a pejorative term used in the 1560s to describe a Protestant extremist who was not satisfied with the extent of the reformation of the Church of England. The Puritans advocated further reforms, believing that the Church of England still harbored a lot of corruption. Facing staunch resistance to their ideals in Britain, many of the Puritans emigrated, the first wave to the Netherlands, with later emigrants moving to New England.

44D Institution that may have a repatriation policy : MUSEUM

A museum’s repatriation policy governs the return of cultural objects and ancestral remains to their home communities, a process that has gained significant momentum in the 21st century. Perhaps the most famous example of refusal to repatriate is the dispute between Greece and the UK over repatriation of the Elgin Marbles, the decorative frieze removed from the Parthenon in Athens and taken to London in the early 1800s by the Earl of Elgin, where they remain on display in the British Museum.

45D Moving challenges : PIANOS

What was remarkable about the piano when it was invented, compared to other keyboard instruments, was that notes could be played with varying degrees of loudness. This is accomplished by pressing the keys lightly or firmly. Because of this quality, the new instrument was called a “pianoforte”, with “piano” and “forte” meaning “soft” and “loud” in Italian. We tend to shorten the name these days to just “piano”.

50D Gospel singer Franklin : ERMA

Erma Franklin was an R&B and gospel singer. She was the elder sister of Aretha Franklin. Erma toured with Aretha for a while, and even recorded backup vocals on her sister’s big hit “Respect”.

52D Bread maker : MINT

The nation’s first mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792, as back then Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. That first mint was located in a building that previously housed a whiskey distillery.

54D North Carolina college town : ELON

Elon is a town in the Piedmont region of North Carolina located close to the city of Burlington. Elon University is a private liberal arts school founded in 1889.

56D Emoji reaction to a hot take : EYES

The term “hot take” is from the world of journalism, and was coined relatively recently. It describes the shabby technique of making a provocative comment about a news event, usually with the intent of encouraging angry responses from readers or listeners.

60D Kinshasa’s country, briefly : DRC

The African nation once called Zaire is a neighbor of Rwanda. The genocide and war in Rwanda spilled over into Zaire in 1996, with the conflict escalating into what is now called the First Congo War. As part of the war’s fallout there was a regime change, and in 1997 Zaire became the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).