LA Times Crossword 25 Jul 26, Saturday

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Constructed by: Mike Graczyk

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 8m 28s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10A Saw : ADAGE

A saw is an old saying, one that is often repeated and is very familiar. The term “old saw” is actually a tautology, as by definition a “saw” is old.

16A Historic site in Jordan known as the Rose City : PETRA

The archaeological city of Petra in Jordan sounds like a fabulous sight, and is known for its beautiful buildings that have been carved out of the natural rock. Because of the color of the sandstone used, Petra is known as “Rose City”. It is Jordan’s most visited tourist attraction.

23A Hardly pusillanimous : BOLD

Someone described as pusillanimous lacks courage and resolution. The term comes into English via Middle French from the Latin “pusillus” meaning “very weak” and “animus” meaning “spirit”.

24A Bears named for an Alaskan archipelago : KODIAKS

Brown bears are found over much of northern Europe, Asia, and North America. They are sometimes referred to as bruins, which is a term that persists from Middle English. The biggest subspecies of brown bear is the Kodiak bear, which is the largest land-based predator in the world. Named for the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska, the Kodiak bear grows to about the same size as the enormous polar bear.

The Kodiak Archipelago is a group of islands in Alaska. The archipelago is named for Kodiak Island, the largest in the group, and the second largest island in the US (after the Big Island of Hawaii).

29A People who pay flat rates? : TENANTS

A tenant is a person or entity “holding” property by virtue of lease or rental agreement. The term “tenant” comes from the Latin “tenere” meaning “to hold”.

31A Went to court? : WOOED

To court someone is to woo them, to offer homage. One might do something similar at a royal court, hence the use of the term.

34A Migrators in the Maasai Mara’s Great Migration : GNUS

The Maasai Mara (sometimes “Masai Mara”) National Reserve in Kenya sits right beside the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

35A Brook swimmer : TROUT

Trout are freshwater fish that are closely related to char and salmon. Most trout live exclusively in freshwater lakes and rivers, but a few species live at sea and return to freshwater to spawn.

36A Brand of shapewear : BALI

The Bali brand of lingerie started out as Fay-Miss in 1927, before becoming the Bali Brassiere Company in 1939.

37A Brief alarm : SOS

The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots). That said, in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so “SOS” is really only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are back-formations that were introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.

46A Connecticut governor Ned : LAMONT

Ned Lamont became Governor of Connecticut in 2019. Back in 2006, Lamont defeated incumbent US Senator Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary for the senate seat. Lieberman didn’t give up though, and ran in the election as an independent. Despite defeating Lieberman in the primary, Lamont lost to him in the election.

48A Rugby ball prop : TEE

Rugby is a town in Warwickshire, England. It is a market town, and is also home to the famous Rugby School, one of the oldest private schools in the country. The school gave its name to the sport of rugby, as the laws of the game were first published by three boys at Rugby School in 1845.

53A Places to break some records? : RAGE ROOMS

A rage room is a facility where customers pay to safely destroy everyday objects as a form of stress relief and entertainment. The first commercial rage room opened in Tokyo in 2008 under the name “The Venting Place”, initially offering frustrated workers a chance to hurl dishware against concrete slabs. Today, these spaces outfit participants in full protective gear and provide sledgehammers and baseball bats as “weapons”, and obsolete office equipment as “targets”.

55A Hammer and anvil, for two : BONES

The middle ear is the portion of the ear immediately behind the eardrum. It contains three small bones called the ossicles, the three smallest bones in the human body. The ossicles’ job is to transmit sound from the outer ear to the inner ear. The shape of the bones gives rise to their names: the hammer (malleus), anvil (incus) and stirrup (stapes).

56A “I wish wearing flat-irons on our heads would keep us from __”: “Little Women” : GROWING UP

“Little Women” is a novel written by American author Louisa May Alcott. The quartet of “little women” comprises Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March. Jo is a tomboy, the main character in the story, and is based on Alcott herself.

57A IV part : INTRA-

Intravenous (IV) drip

Down

1D “Hello, sailor!” : AHOY!

“Ahoy!” is a nautical term used to signal a vessel. When the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, he suggested that “ahoy” be used as a standard greeting when answering a call. However, Thomas Edison came up with “hello”, and we’ve been using that ever since.

3D __ Rocher cosmetics : YVES

Yves Rocher is a cosmetics company that was founded in 1959 by Yves Rocher in La Gacilly, France.

7D War zone journalist : EMBED

Although journalists have been directly reporting from the front lines in military conflicts for some time, the term “embedded journalism” only came into fashion during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. A formal arrangement was made between the US Military and hundreds of reporters allowing journalists to travel with military units and, under pre-ordained conditions, report directly from those units. Some say that the arrangement was mutually beneficial. On the one hand the journalists had relatively little to worry about in terms of transportation and travel through combat zones. On the other hand, the military had better control over what did and did not get reported.

11D Tooth component : DENTIN

Dentin is a calcified tissue found directly under, and supporting, the enamel layer of a tooth. Unlike enamel, new dentin can be produced throughout our lives.

13D Dish with feta and Kalamatas : GREEK SALAD

What we know as a Greek salad here in North America evolved from the horiatiki salad from Greek cuisine. The name “horiatiki” translates as “peasant, village salad”. A typical horiatiki salad consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, olives with a slice of feta cheese on top. It also includes a dressing made from Greek oregano and salt in olive oil. Notably, the original dish does not include lettuce.

The kalamata olive is a large, dark purple, almond-shaped olive that is perhaps the most common table olive from Greece. It is named for the city of Kalamata in the southern Peloponnese, which is at the center of the region where the olive variety is grown. Even though the EU reserves the name “kalamata” for only those olives grown in the region, we can buy kalamata olives grown elsewhere, from California for example.

21D Largish combo : NONET

A nonet is a piece of music requiring nine musicians for a performance. The term is also used for the group itself.

29D Pluto and others : TOONS

Pluto is Mickey Mouse’s pet dog, as well as a star in his own right. Pluto is an unusual Disney character in that he is portrayed basically as a dog as opposed to a “humanized” version of a dog, as are the other Disney characters.

31D Plain to see : WRIT LARGE

Something writ large is expressed in a more obvious way, “written in large letters”, as it were.

33D Soup often served with gyoza : MISO

“Gyoza” are pan-fried Japanese dumplings that evolved from Chinese dumplings known as “jiaozi”. Following World War II, Japanese soldiers returning home from Manchuria brought back the recipe for the dumplings they had eaten while stationed abroad. The version that developed in those days of post-war wheat shortages had a much thinner wrapper than the Chinese original, a difference that persists to this day.

35D Like some languages : TONAL

In tonal languages, words that are spelled the same can be imparted with different meanings by use of inflection. The most widely spoken tonal language is Mandarin Chinese.

36D Muppet who loves pigeons : BERT

The muppet character named Bert usually plays the straight man to his partner character Ernie. Bert has a unibrow, while Ernie has no brows at all.

38D Faux finish? : PAS

The term “faux pas” is French in origin, and translates literally as “false step” (or “false steps”, as the plural has the same spelling in French).

43D Abu __ : DHABI

Abu Dhabi is an island city in the Persian Gulf that is capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “Abu Dhabi” translates literally from Arabic as “Father of Gazelle”, a name honoring the animal that reportedly led the Bani Yas tribe to a fresh water source on the island in 1761. The Bani Yas then established a fort and some housing in the area. That fort is now the oldest stone building in the city today.

47D “Matilda” star Wilson : MARA

Mara Wilson started her acting career as a child actress, appearing in “Mrs. Doubtfire”, the 1994 version of “Miracle on 34th Street”, and as the title character in “Matilda”. Despite her success as a child star, Mara Wilson decided to step away from acting (for 12 years) and pursue other interests. She became an accomplished author, publishing a memoir called “Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame” in 2016.

“Matilda” is a 1996 film directed by Danny DeVito that is based on the children’s novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. Mara Wilson plays the title role, and DeVito himself serves as the story’s narrator as well portraying Matilda’s father. DeVito’s wife, Rhea Perlman, plays Matilda’s mother.

48D Caesar wrap? : TOGA

In ancient Rome, the toga was a highly symbolic garment, typically a semi-circular woolen cloth draped over the body. Different types of togas indicated a citizen’s status or role: the pure white “toga virilis” was worn by adult male citizens, the “toga praetexta” with a purple border was for magistrates and freeborn boys, and the “toga pulla” (dark-colored) was for mourning.

49D Cassowary kin : EMUS

The cassowary is a large, flightless bird found mainly in New Guinea. One species of cassowary is the third tallest bird on the planet, second only to the ostrich and the emu.

50D Award for top plays? : ESPY

The ESPY Awards, also known as the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, were first presented in a ceremony in 1993. They were created by ESPN as a response to the lack of sports coverage during the summer months. ESPN decided to create an awards show to help fill that gap.

52D Butterfield of “Sex Education” : ASA

Asa Butterfield is an actor from London whose breakthrough came with the lead role in the 2008 Holocaust movie “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. More recently, he starred in the excellent Netflix comedy-drama series “Sex Education”, alongside Gillian Anderson.

“Sex Education” is a marvelous Netflix comedy-drama show made for Netflix that stars Gillian Anderson as a single-mother and sex therapist, and Asa Butterfield as her insecure teenage son. Highly recommended …

54D Number worn by Oscar Robertson : ONE

Oscar Robertson is a former professional basketball player who had the nickname “The Big O”. He was named Player of the Century by the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 2000.