LA Times Crossword 24 Feb 26, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Matthew Luter

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: What’s Shakin’?

Themed answers might be seen SHAKIN’:

• 62A “How goes it?,” or a question that could be answered by 17-, 25-, 36-, and 53-Across : WHAT’S SHAKIN’?

• 17A Performer who might play finger cymbals : BELLY DANCER
• 25A Easily frightened sort : SCAREDY-CAT
• 36A Furry red “Sesame Street” toy : TICKLE ME ELMO
• 53A Hardware store device that makes custom colors : PAINT MIXER

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

Bill’s time: 5m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Direction in the name of only one U.S. state : WEST

Here is a list of the US state names that contain a cardinal direction:

• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• West Virginia

5A News network that changed its name in 2025 : MSNBC

MSNBC underwent a significant rebranding in 2025 to become MS NOW. The “MS” is a hangover from the network’s 1996 roots as a joint venture with Microsoft. I believe the “NOW” reflects an intent to move towards real-time, digital-first journalism.

14A Writer Wiesel : ELIE

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor, and is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

16A Large primates : APES

The tailless primates known as apes (also “hominoids”) are divided into two main branches: gibbons (lesser apes) and hominids (great apes). The hominids are the great apes, and belong to the family of primates called Hominidae. Extant genera that make up the family Hominidae are:

• chimpanzees
• gorillas
• humans
• orangutans

17A Performer who might play finger cymbals : BELLY DANCER

The Middle Eastern dance referred to in Arabic as “Raqs Sharqi” was known in French as “danse du ventre” meaning “belly dance”. The English and French name is a reference to the abdominal movements used, and the tradition of performing with a bare midriff.

21A Cassette : TAPE

The French for “box” is “caisse”. So, a “cassette” is a “little box”.

23A Australian bird with secondary eyelids : EMU

Some animals, like the emu, have a third (also “secondary”) eyelid in each eye. The primary eyelids, upper and lower, move up and down and are primarily used when sleeping. The third eyelid moves horizontally, acting like a windshield wiper, clearing away dust and moisture without the bird having to lose sight of its surroundings.

24A Fennel flavor : ANISE

Fennel is a hardy perennial plant species in the celery family that is used as a herb. It also goes by the name “sweet anise”. Personally, I can’t stand the stuff …

28A “The Simpsons” tavern owner : MOE

Moe Szyslak is the surly bartender and owner of Moe’s Tavern in “The Simpsons” animated TV show. I don’t really care for “The Simpsons”, but Hank Azaria who supplies the voice for the Moe character … him I like …

31A Leather with a fuzzy finish : SUEDE

Suede is leather made from the underside of an animal’s skin, usually the skin from a lamb. As such it is very soft, although not as durable as leather made from the exterior skin. The soft leather was, and is still used for making gloves. Back in 1859 these gloves were called “gants de Suede” in France, or “gloves of Sweden”. So, the name “suede” comes from the French word for Sweden.

32A Blog feed initials : RSS

Many websites and blogs publish content in a format known as Rich Site Summary (RSS). The “feed” can be read using an RSS reader. The advantage of using an RSS reader is that the user doesn’t have to check the website for new content. That new material is fed to the RSS reader as soon as it is published.

35A “Shiny Happy People” band : REM

R.E.M.’s 1991 song “Shiny Happy People” featuring guest vocals by Kate Pierson of the B-52’s, was a surprise pop hit for the band, reaching the top 10 in both the US and UK. It might have become a lot more familiar to global audiences after it was used as the theme song for the pilot of the hit sitcom “Friends”. When the show aired, “Shiny Happy People” was replaced with “I’ll Be There for You” by the Rembrandts.

36A Furry red “Sesame Street” toy : TICKLE ME ELMO

The Tickle Me Elmo toy was a sensational fad in the late nineties, with stores raising prices dramatically above the recommended retail price to take advantage of demand. Reportedly, prices as high as $1500 were paid at the height of the craze. The toy’s manufacturer, Tyco, originally planned to market the “tickle” toy as Tickle Me Tasmanian Devil (after the “Looney Tunes” character), but then went with “Elmo” after they bought the rights to use “Sesame Street” names.

43A Guffaw : YUK

“Guffaw”, meaning “boisterous laugh”, is an imitative word that is Scottish in origin.

45A __ hair pasta : ANGEL

Capellini is a pasta that is like thin spaghetti. An even thinner version of the pasta is known as “capelli d’angelo”, which translates as “angel hair”.

48A Echoing guitar effect : REVERB

When audio mixing in the process of sound recording, the sound engineer might add some reverb, a slight reverberation.

55A Led Zeppelin’s “Whole __ Love” : LOTTA

“Whole Lotta Love” was a 1969 song that became Led Zeppelin’s first hit in the US. Some of the song’s lyrics were adapted from the Muddy Waters 1962 hit “You Need Love”, which was written by blues musician Willie Dixon. Led Zeppelin didn’t credit Dixon on their recording. A lawsuit ensued, which was settled in 1985.

59A Actress/inventor Hedy : LAMARR

Hedy Lamarr was an American actress who was actually born in Vienna in modern-day Austria. Not only was Lamarr a successful Hollywood performer, during WWII she was the co-inventor of a frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals that is still used in wireless communication. Impressive …

60A Sheet music symbol : CLEF

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on a stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

67A Hawaii’s state bird : NENE

The nene is a bird that is native to Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is an imitation of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful. The nene was named State Bird of Hawaii in 1957.

69A __ Hall: New Jersey university : SETON

Seton Hall University is a private, Roman Catholic college in South Orange, New Jersey. The most famous of the school’s sports programs is men’s basketball, played by the Seton Hall Pirates.

Down

2D Roosevelt who was first lady for 12 years : ELEANOR

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt continued to lead a very active public life after her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away. For example, President Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman appointed her as delegate to the UN General Assembly in 1945. In 1946, she became the chairperson of the UN Commission on Human Rights. The UN awarded Eleanor Roosevelt its Prize in the Field of Human Rights in the prize’s inaugural year of 1968, although this was six years after her death. President Truman called her the “First Lady of the World”, in recognition of her human rights achievements.

5D Exec’s degree, often : MBA

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

6D __-dried tomatoes : SUN

Tomatoes can be placed in the sun for 4-10 days in order to dry out. They lose about 90% of their weight to become “sun-dried” tomatoes.

7D Hummingbird food : NECTAR

Hummingbirds are the smallest of all the birds. The bee hummingbird is native to Cuba and weighs less than a tenth of an ounce and is about two inches in length!

8D Like sleep-deprived eyes : BLEARY

To blear is to dim the vision, usually with watery eyes.

9D “__ diem!” : CARPE

“Carpe diem” is a quotation from Horace, one of ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets. “Carpe diem” translates from Latin as “seize the day” or “enjoy the day”. The satirical motto of a procrastinator is “carpe mañana”, “translating” as “seize tomorrow”.

10D Actor Waterston : SAM

Actor Sam Waterston is perhaps best known for his roles on television. He played District Attorney Jack McCoy on “Law & Order” for several years, and more recently was cast alongside Martin Sheen, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the Netflix original “Grace and Frankie”.

18D Toss aside forcefully, in slang : YEET

In contemporary slang, to yeet is to throw away, discard. “To yeet” usually implies the use of force and a general disregard for what is being discarded. As in, “I really want to yeet the word ‘yeet’ …”

22D Ford that flopped : EDSEL

The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced. When the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel on 4 September 1957, Ford proclaimed the day to be “E Day”.

25D Peddle : SELL

In its purest sense, a peddler is someone who sells his or her wares on the street or from door to door. The term probably comes from the Latin “pedarius” meaning “one who goes on foot”.

33D Warning wail : SIREN

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were seductive bird-women who lured men to their deaths with their song. When Odysseus sailed close to the island home of the Sirens he wanted to hear their voices, but in safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not to free him until they were safe. On hearing their song Odysseus begged to be let loose, but the sailors just tightened his bonds and the whole crew sailed away unharmed. We sometimes use the term “siren” today to describe a seductively charming woman, and “siren song” to describe an utterance that is particularly appealing.

37D Young male horses : COLTS

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

• Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
• Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
• Filly: female horse under the age of four
• Colt: male horse under the age of four
• Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
• Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
• Mare: female horse four years or older

38D Checkers turn : MOVE

“Checkers” is yet another word that I had to learn moving across the Atlantic. In Ireland, the game is called “draughts”.

44D Hurricane in Jesmyn Ward’s novel “Salvage the Bones” : KATRINA

Novelist Jesmyn Ward is the only woman to have won the National Book Award for fiction twice, doing so in 2011 for her novel “Salvage the Bones”, and again in 2017 for her novel “Sing, Unburied, Sing”.

45D Navajo neighbors : APACHE

The Apache are a group of Native American peoples originally from the Southwest US. The Navajo are a separate but related people, through culture and language, and are often described as “Apachean”.

47D “The Handmaid’s Tale” setting : GILEAD

“The Handmaid’s Tale” is a 1985 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It is set in a dystopian New England of the near future, in a patriarchal state known as the Republic of Gilead, after the overthrow of the US government. The central character is named Offred, a “handmaid” forced to bear children for the male ruling class. The novel was adapted into a highly successful TV series of the same name, starring Elisabeth Moss as Offred.

48D Lionel of the Commodores : RICHIE

Singer-songwriter Lionel Richie got his big break as a singer and saxophonist with the Commodores starting in 1968. Richie then launched a very successful solo career in 1982. Richie is the father of socialite Nicole Richie, childhood friend of Paris Hilton and co-star on the Fox show “The Simple Life”.

52D Fred’s friend in Bedrock : BARNEY

Barney Rubble is the giggling sidekick of Fred Flintstone in “The Flintstones” animated TV show. Many of us probably remember the show as a Saturday morning treat for children. However, it started out in 1960 as a primetime broadcast, serving a much older audience. In fact, Barney and Fred were pitchmen for Winston cigarettes, appearing in commercials where they’d kick back and smoke at the end of a hard day at the quarry.

56D Muscat citizen : OMANI

Muscat is the capital city of Oman. It lies on the northeast coast of the state on the Gulf of Oman, a branch of the Persian Gulf.

59D Acid rock’s acid : LSD

The musical genre known as acid rock is a subset of psychedelic rock. The term “acid rock” comes from the influence of the drug LSD (acid) on some compositions in the early days.

63D Boxing ring ruling, for short : TKO

Technical knockout (TKO)

64D One of a D.C. 100 : SEN

The US Senate comprises 100 senators, with each of the fifty states being represented by two popularly elected senators. US senators were appointed by their state legislators from 1789 through 1913, until the Seventeenth Amendment called for popular elections.