LA Times Crossword 30 Mar 26, Monday

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Constructed by: Michael B. Berg & Brian Callahan

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Copyright

Themed answers each include a phonetic equivalent of a letter at the end (RIGHT). Collectively, those letters spell out “COPY”:

• 50A Protection of intellectual property, or a phonetic hint to 16-, 23-, 30-, and 44-Across : COPYRIGHT

• 16A Adrift after a storm, perhaps : LOST AT SEA (C)
• 23A Jodie Comer’s “Killing Eve” co-star : SANDRA OH (O)
• 30A Stir-fry vegetable : SUGAR SNAP PEA (P)
• 44A “Let me explain … ” : HERE’S WHY… (Y)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Bird that went extinct in the 1660s : DODO

The dodo was a direct relative of the pigeon and the dove, although the fully-grown dodo was usually three feet tall. One of the reasons the dodo comes to mind when we think of extinction of a species, is that it disappeared not too long ago (last recorded alive in 1662) and humans were the reason for its demise. The dodo lived exclusively on the island of Mauritius and when humans arrived, we cut back the forests that were its home. We also introduced domestic animals, such as dogs and pigs, that ransacked the dodo’s nests. The dodo was deemed to be an awkward flightless bird and so the term “dodo” has come to mean a dull-witted person.

5A Auction site with a “newly listed” sort option : EBAY

There have been some notable things sold on eBay over the years. For example:

• Ad space on a guy’s forehead, in the form of a temporary tattoo – $37,375
• William Shatner’s kidney stone – $25,000
• A cornflake shaped like Illinois – $1,350
• A single corn flake – $1.63
• A box of 10 Twinkies – $59.99
• The original Hollywood sign – $450,400
• The meaning of life – $3.26

9A Carrier on rails : TRAM

A tram is a means of public transportation that runs on rails laid along the length of streets in cities and towns. Trams might also be referred to as trolleys or streetcars.

15A Purifying filter acronym : HEPA

Air filters can be specified as “HEPA”, with the acronym standing for “high-efficiency particulate air”. To be given the name “HEPA”, the filter must remove 99.7% of particles with a size of 0.3 microns or larger.

18A Happily __ after : EVER

The stock phrase “Once upon a time …” has been used in various forms as the start of a narrative at least since 1380. The stock phrase at the end of stories such as folktales is often “and they all lived happily ever after”. The earlier version of this ending was “happily until their deaths”.

20A Cheddar shredders : GRATERS

Cheddar cheese takes its name from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. Over 50% of the cheese sold in the UK is cheddar. Here in the US, cheddar is the second-most popular cheese sold, behind mozzarella.

23A Jodie Comer’s “Killing Eve” co-star : SANDRA OH

Canadian actress Sandra Oh is very much associated with the role of Dr. Cristina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy”, and more recently with the role of Eve Polastri on “Killing Eve” . However, my favorite of Oh’s performances are in the movies “Under the Tuscan Sun” and “Sideways”.

English actress Jodie Comer is perhaps best known to TV audiences for playing the assassin Villanelle in the spy thriller series “Killing Eve”. While playing Villanelle, she adopted several different accents, including the character’s native Russian. In real life, Comer has a very different, and very charming Liverpool accent.

“Killing Eve” is a spy thriller series about an MI5 agent on the trail of a female assassin. The agent is played by Canadian actress Sandra Oh, and the assassin by English actress Jodie Comer. The storyline comes from a series of novellas titled “Codename Villanelle” by British author Luke Jennings.

27A Triage pro : EMT

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

28A Detective Spade of “The Maltese Falcon” : SAM

The classic detective novel “The Maltese Falcon” was written by Dashiell Hammett and first published in 1930. The main character is Sam Spade, a character played by Humphrey Bogart in the third movie adaptation of the book, a film of the same name and released in 1941.

30A Stir-fry vegetable : SUGAR SNAP PEA

Sugar peas are also known as snap peas. These peas are eaten before the seeds mature, and the whole pod is consumed.

43A Maker of jet-powered pogo sticks, in cartoons : ACME

The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.

What we know today as a pogo stick was invented in Germany by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall. The name “pogo” comes from the first two letters in each of the inventors’ family names: Po-hlig and Go-ttschall. The highest jump on a pogo stick was achieved by Fred Grzybowski in 2010. He jumped over three cars and reached a height of 9 feet, 6 inches.

46A “Hadestown” writer Mitchell : ANAIS

Anaïs Mitchell is a Vermont-based singer-songwriter. One of Mitchell’s more famous works is a 2010 concept album titled “Hadestown” that is based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. She adapted the album into a stage musical that opened Off-Broadway in 2016 as “Hadestown: The Myth. The Musical”.

“Hadestown” is a 2006 musical based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Anaïs Mitchell wrote the music and lyrics, and in 2010 adapted the stage musical into a concept album, for which Mitchell herself took on the role of Eurydice. After a 9-year hiatus, Mitchell reworked the piece, and a new version of “Hadestown” opened off-Broadway in 2016. A few years later, the show made it to Broadway, and won eight Tony Awards.

50A Protection of intellectual property, or a phonetic hint to 16-, 23-, 30-, and 44-Across : COPYRIGHT

The term “copyright” really derives from the concept of giving another party the “right to copy”. Usually “copyright” gives the holder the power to financially benefit from any copies made. Copyright was invented in essence soon after the development of the printing press, with the first legal statutes put in place in Britain in the early 18th century.

53A Easy-Bake __ : OVEN

Kenner Products of Cincinnati, Ohio introduced the Easy-Bake Oven in 1963. They are still produced today, but now by Hasbro. The original design called for an incandescent light bulb as the oven’s heat source, but I just learned that current models actually include a real heating element.

54A Pilates target : CORE

Pilates is a physical exercise system developed by, and named for, German physical trainer Joseph Pilates. Pilates developed his system of exercises, which he called “Contrology”, while interned by the British during World War One.

57A “The Music of Tori and the Muses” singer-songwriter : AMOS

“The Music of Tori and the Muses” is a 2025 album released by singer and pianist Tori Amos. In an unusual twist, it serves as the soundtrack to “Tori and the Muses”, a children’s book penned by Amos and simultaneously released with the album

58A Texter’s “So long!” : TTYL!

Talk to you later (TTYL)

Down

1D Oscar winner Benicio __ Toro : DEL

Benicio Del Toro is an actor from Puerto Rico. He is an Academy Award winner, for the role he played in “Traffic”, released in 2000. He also played the title role in the 2008 movie “Che”.

2D American marsupials known for playing dead : OPOSSUMS

Although they are both marsupials, the opossum and the possum are two distinct animals. True possums are found in Australia and other places in the South Pacific. Opossums are found in North America.

3D “The Simpsons” character in a rhinestone suit : DISCO STU

On “The Simpsons”, the character Disco Stu is voiced by Hank Azaria, although the original intent was for him to be voiced by Phil Hartman.

A rhinestone is a colorless, artificial gem made from paste or glass. The original rhinestones were rock crystals that were gathered from the river Rhine in Germany.

4D Gas pump number : OCTANE

The difference between a premium and regular gasoline is its octane rating. This is a measure of the resistance of the gasoline to auto-ignition i.e. its resistance to ignition just by virtue of being compressed in the cylinder. This auto-ignition is undesirable as multiple-cylinder engines are designed so that ignition within each cylinder takes place precisely when the plug sparks, and not before. If ignition occurs before the spark is created, the resulting phenomenon is called “knocking”. We sometimes use the adjective “high-octane” to mean “intense, dynamic, high-powered”

9D Lady’s partner in an animated spaghetti scene : THE TRAMP

“Lady and the Tramp” is a classic animated feature from Walt Disney that was released in 1955. The title characters are a female American cocker spaniel and a male stray mutt. Who can forget the scene where the Tramp and Lady are “on a date”, and together eat that one strand of spaghetti? So cute! Disney made a 2019 live-action adaptation of the original using the same title.

11D Italian liqueur in a spritz : APEROL

Aperol is a bitter apéritif from Italy that has a bright orange color. It was formulated in 1919, and today is a popular ingredient in many cocktails. The name “Aperol” comes from the French slang word “apero” meaning “apéritif”.

A spritz is a squirt, a brief spray of liquid. The term “spritz” ultimately comes from German, possibly via Yiddish, in which language “spritzen” means “to squirt, spout”. A spritzer is a glass of wine with a spritz of carbonated water added.

22D “Where the Wild Things __” : ARE

Maurice Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children’s books. Sendak’s best known work is “Where the Wild Things Are”, published in 1963. The “Wild Things” of the tale are beasts conjured up in the imagination of a young boy named Max, after he is sent to bed without supper.

25D Goldfish, for one : CARP

Carp are freshwater fish that are used as food around the world, although they aren’t very popular in North American kitchens. The ornamental fish that we know as goldfish and koi are all types of carp.

28D Pastry that may be deep-fried in ghee : SAMOSA

A samosa is quite the tasty appetizer. It is usually a triangular-shaped savory that often has a vegetarian filling. The word “samosa” is primarily used on Indian menus, and the name comes from “sanbosag”, the name for the dish in Persia.

Ghee is clarified butter used in South Asian cuisines. “Ghee” comes from Sanskrit, and translates as “sprinkled”.

31D Cornish roasts : GAME HENS

The Cornish game hen is a broiler chicken, and not a game bird. And, despite the designation “hen”, a Cornish game hen can be either male or female.

33D Snail commonly cooked in butter : ESCARGOT

“Escargot” is the French word for “snail”. In order to eat snails, apparently they have to be “purged” before killing them. That means starving them or feeding them on something “wholesome” for several days before cooking them up. Ugh …

42D Trippy fungus, informally : SHROOM

“Shrooms” is shorthand for psilocybin-producing “mushrooms” that the Aztecs once revered as “teonanácatl”, or “flesh of the gods.” We tend to refer to the same fungi as “magic mushrooms”. They’re very trippy, man …

45D Neo-pagan religion : WICCA

Wicca is a relatively new phenomenon. It is a Neopagan religion that developed in the twentieth century. Typically, followers of Wicca worship one goddess and one god, namely the Moon Goddess and the Horned God. A follower of Wicca is called a Wiccan or a Witch.