LA Times Crossword 26 Feb 26, Thursday

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Constructed by: Patti Varol

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Hold Hands

Themed answers are all things that HOLD HANDS:

• 33A Walk with one’s sweetie, and what 16-, 23-, 49-, and 58-Across do? : HOLD HANDS

• 16A See 33-Across : CLOCK FACES
• 23A See 33-Across : CARD PLAYERS
• 49A See 33-Across : RANCH HOUSES
• 58A See 33-Across : WOOL GLOVES

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

Bill’s time: 7m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Former “Top Chef” host Lakshmi : PADMA

Padma Lakshmi is a model from India. She is very much into cooking and has published an award-winning cookbook. Lakshmi hosted the American TV show “Top Chef” from 2006 until 2023.

10A Tennis champion Swiatek : IGA

Iga Swiatek is a professional tennis player, and the first from Poland to win a major singles title (the French Open in 2020).

18A “Educated” memoirist Westover : TARA

Tara Westover is a writer and historian whose 2018 memoir “Educated” topped “The New York Times” bestseller list. Westover has a PhD in intellectual history from Cambridge University in England, a pretty remarkable achievement given her upbringing. She was born into a family of Mormon survivalists, was homeschooled, taught to read by an older brother, and didn’t even have a birth certificate until she was 9 years old.

19A Creative inspiration : MUSE

In Greek mythology, the muses are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. The number of muses is a subject of debate at times, but the most popular view is that there are nine:

• Calliope (epic poetry)
• Clio (history)
• Erato (lyric poetry)
• Euterpe (music)
• Melpomene (tragedy)
• Polyhymnia (choral poetry)
• Terpsichore (dance)
• Thalia (comedy)
• Urania (astronomy)

21A Coffees, casually : JAVAS

Back in 1850, the name “java” was given to a type of coffee grown on the island of Java, and the more general usage of the term spread from then.

25A Marcus partner : NEIMAN

Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband A. L. Neiman, were partners with a tidy profit of $25,000 from a business they had founded. This was 1907 Atlanta, and they were offered the chance to invest in a new company that was just starting to make “sugary soda drinks”, a company called Coca-Cola. The partners declined, instead returning to their home of Dallas and founding a department store they called “Neiman-Marcus”.

27A __ baseball: esoteric knowledge : INSIDE

Something described as esoteric is meant only for a select few with special knowledge. The term “esoteric” comes from the Greek “esoterikos” meaning “belonging to an inner circle”.

28A Dove bar : SOAP

Dove is a line of personal care products made by Unilever. The brand originated in the UK, back in 1955.

29A Pacific resort, casually : CABO

Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

37A General on a takeout menu : TSO

General Tso’s chicken is an American creation, and a dish often found on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The name General Tso may be a reference to General Zuo Zongtang of the Qing Dynasty, but there is no clear link.

40A Financial services co. for mil. families : USAA

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is an insurance company that was founded in 1922 by officers in the US Army. The group was prompted to form the enterprise as main street insurance companies viewed members of the military as a high-risk group and so refused coverage or charged excessive rates. The USAA continues to focus on its niche market, members and immediate family members of the US military, and has extended services offered to banking products.

47A Margaret who was the first editor of the New York Times crossword : FARRAR

Margaret Farrar was the first editor of “The New York Times” crossword puzzle, from 1942 to 1968. Earlier in 1920, Farrar had worked for the “New York World” as an assistant to the inventor of the crossword Arthur Wynne, proofreading his puzzles.

53A Molecule in some vaccines : RNA

Traditional vaccines typically use weakened or inactivated viruses, or pieces of the virus, to stimulate an immune response. mRNA vaccines use a small piece of genetic material from the virus, called messenger RNA (mRNA), to instruct cells in the body to produce a harmless piece of the virus to trigger the immune response. mRNA vaccines are developed more quickly than traditional vaccines. This was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, where mRNA vaccines were developed and authorized for emergency use within months of the emergence of the novel coronavirus.

55A Mousetrap brand : D-CON

d-CON is a line of rodent control products that has been around for over 50 years. The name is an abbreviation for “decontamination”. The d-CON Company was founded in 1950 by Chicago businessman Lee Ratner, yes, “Ratner” …

56A Supermodel Hadid : GIGI

Gigi Hadid is a model from Los Angeles who started her career as a child model for the brand Baby Guess. Hadid has had an on-again, off-again relationship with British singer Zayn Malik since 2015, and they had a child together in 2020.

61A Ponte Vecchio river : ARNO

The Ponte Vecchio is the oldest bridge that spans the Arno river in Florence, Italy. The bridge dates back to medieval times, and indeed the name “Ponte Vecchio” translates as “Old Bridge”. Famously, there are two rows of shops built on either side of the roadway crossing the bridge.

62A “25” and “30” singer : ADELE

“Adele” is the stage name of English singer Adele Adkins. Adele’s debut album is “19”, named after the age she was during the album’s production. Her second album was even more successful than the first. Called “21”, the second album was released three years after the first, when Adele was three years older. Her third studio album “25”, released in 2015, broke the first-week sales records in both the UK and the US. “30” followed in 2021.

64A 403(b) IDs : SSNS

A 403(b) is a retirement savings plan that is available to specific groups, e.g. public education organizations and self-employed ministers.

65A Early PC platform : MS-DOS

MS-DOS (short for “Microsoft Disk Operating System”) was the main operating system used by IBM-compatible PCs in the eighties and for much of the nineties.

Down

1D Arcade classic with ghosts : PAC-MAN

The Pac-Man arcade game was released first in Japan in 1980, and is as popular today as it ever was. The game features characters that are maneuvered around the screen to eat up dots and earn points, while being pursued by ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The name of the game comes from the onomatopoeic phrase “paku-paku,” which describes the sound of a mouth opening and closing (similar to “munch-munch”). The spin-off game called Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1981.

3D “¡Ay, caramba!” : DIOS MIO!

“Dios mío!” translates from Spanish as “My God!”

“Caramba” is an oath uttered in Spanish. Apparently, it’s a softer version of a more vulgar word.

4D Spice cookie spice : MACE

The fruit of the nutmeg tree yields two very different spices. What we call “nutmeg” comes from the seed of the tree. “Mace” is the dried covering of the seed.

6D 14-time WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte : FLAIR

Charlotte Flair is a professional wrestler who made her first appearance in the ring alongside her father, Ric Flair.

7D Like most sneakers : LACED

The term “sneaker” for a type of athletic shoe emerged in the late 19th century. It referred to the fact that the rubber soles made the shoes quiet, allowing the wearer to “sneak up” on someone without being heard, unlike the louder hard-soled leather shoes of the time.

9D Bentley of “Yellowstone” : WES

Wes Bentley is an actor who is perhaps best known for playing Ricky Fitts, the voyeuristic son of the homophobic Colonel Frank Fitts in the 1999 blockbuster film “American Beauty”. A 2009 documentary called “My Big Break” tells of Bentley’s career taking off after “American Beauty” was released, and his subsequent struggles with addiction to drugs and alcohol that led to financial ruin. Bentley is well on the road to recovery, and has been appearing regularly on the small and large screens since 2010.

11D Yankees manager after Torre : GIRARDI

Joe Girardi was the manager of the New York Yankees baseball team from 2008 through 2017, having taken over from Joe Torre. Girardi opted to wear the number 27 on his uniform, a visible reminder of his plan to lead the Yankees to their 27th World Series win, a feat that was achieved in 2009.

17D Custard dessert similar to crème caramel : FLAN

Flan (also “crème caramel”) is a delicious dessert comprising a molded custard topped with a clear caramel sauce. The related crème brûlée is a dessert made from molded custard with a hard, burnt caramel layer on top.

21D First mo. : JAN

January is the first month of our Gregorian calendar. It is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions.

23D Guitar accessory : CAPO

A capo is a clamp-like device that is placed around the neck of a guitar or other stringed instrument to shorten the strings, and hence raise the pitch. The full name, rarely used these days, is “capo tasto”, which is Italian for “head tie”.

24D Animal in the Premier League logo : LION

The best soccer teams in England and Wales play in the Premier League. It was founded in 1992 as the FA Premier League to take advantage of a generous television deal. Today, the Premier League is the most-watched soccer league in the world.

26D __-jongg : MAH

Mahjong (also “mahjongg” and “mah-jongg”) is the Chinese word for “sparrow”. Mahjong is a game that originated in China, and is usually played by four players. There is a myth that the game was developed by the Chinese philosopher, Confucius. The myth also suggests that Confucius was fond of birds, and hence chose the name “sparrow”.

31D Response to Bo Peep : BAA!

The lines that are most commonly quoted from the rhyme about “Little Bo Peep” are:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

But, there are actually four more verses, including this one:

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

35D Semana parts : DIAS

In Spanish, an “año” (year) comprises 52 “semanas” (weeks), and a week comprises 7 “días” (days).

36D Beautiful time of yr. at a botanical garden : SPR

Apparently, we call the season “spring” because it is associated with the period when most plants and flowers “spring up” out of the ground.

37D Raw preparation : TARTARE

Steak tartare was first served in French restaurants in the early 1900s. Back then, the dish went by the name “steak à l’Americaine”, would you believe? It was basically raw, seasoned beef mixed with egg yolk. A later version of l’Americaine, without the egg yolk and with tartar sauce served on the side, was dubbed “steak tartare”. Over time the two versions became one, and the steak tartare moniker won out. By the way, if you order steak tartare in Switzerland, I believe you are served horse meat. There are now similar “tartare” dishes made with raw salmon, or raw tuna.

43D Beverly of the “Vacation” films : D’ANGELO

Actress Beverly D’Angelo is perhaps best known for playing Ellen Griswold, wife of the character played by Chevy Chase, in the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series of films. Before turning to acting, she worked as a singer, as well as an animator for Hanna-Barbera. Off screen, her partner of several years was fellow actor Al Pacino, and the couple have twins who were born in 2001.

47D __ shui : FENG

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese tradition of arranging objects, buildings and other structures in a manner that is said to improve the lives of the individuals living in or using the space. “Feng shui” translates as “wind-water”, a reference to the belief that positive and negative life forces ride the wind and scatter, but are retained when they encounter water.

50D Baking soda targets : ODORS

“Baking soda” is a common name for the compound sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3).

51D NCAA school with the most first-round WNBA draft picks : UCONN

The UConn Huskies are the sports teams of the University of Connecticut. I wasn’t able to uncover the derivation of the “Huskies” moniker. Although it is true that “UConn” sounds like “Yukon”, that isn’t the derivation of the “Huskies” nickname. The school didn’t become the University of Connecticut (UConn) until 1939, and the Huskies name has been used since 1933.

56D Mercury and Neptune : GODS

Mercury was a Roman god called “the messenger”, and the god of trade. Mercury’s name comes from the Latin word “merx” meaning merchandise (and therefore has the same roots as “merchant” and “commerce”).

Neptune was a Roman god, of both the sea and of freshwater. He was sometimes known as “Neptunus Equester” as he was also the god of horses and patron of horse-racing.

59D Go on the __ : LAM

To be on the lam is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, scram”.