LA Times Crossword 27 Aug 26, Thursday

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Constructed by: Rebecca Goldstein & Matthew Stock

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: High Stakes

Themed answers are all in the down-direction. The start (HIGH part) of each is a kind of steak (sounds like “STAKE”):

• 31D With a lot on the line, or a phonetic hint to 3-, 8-, 15-, and 23-Down : HIGH STAKES

• 3D Card game that’s really taking off? : STRIP POKER
• 8D Namesake of Converse’s All Star sneaker : CHUCK TAYLOR
• 15D Dance around what’s really important : SKIRT THE ISSUE
• 23D Links activity : ROUND OF GOLF

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

Bill’s time: 6m 36s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” network : PBS

The “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” TV show starred Fred Rogers. It was the second-longest running series on PBS television, after that other iconic children’s show “Sesame Street”.

7A Hill partner, in textbook publishing and country music : MCGRAW

Rival publishers James H. McGraw and John A. Hill merged their book departments in 1909 to form the McGraw-Hill Book Company. The two companies merged completely in 1917, forming the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Country singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw first connected as tourmates on the Spontaneous Combustion Tour in 1996. A few months later, the couple pulled off a surprise wedding ceremony under a locust tree in Louisiana.

18A Skating jumps similar to toe loops : LUTZES

In figure skating, a Lutz is a toe-pick-assisted jump that one starts skating backwards and ends skating backwards (there’s more to it that I don’t really understand!). The maneuver is named after Alois Lutz, an Austrian skater who first performed it in competition way back in 1913. Lutz wowed the crowd with a single jump, and today both men and women are landing quadruple Lutz jumps.

30A Ski area near Reno : TAHOE

Lake Tahoe, on the border between California and Nevada, is home to many world-class ski resorts. The most famous is probably Palisades Tahoe. It hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, but under the old name “Squaw Valley”.

34A Gold at the Milano Cortina Olympics? : ORO

Italy has hosted four Olympic Games:

• The 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo
• The 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome
• The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin
• The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina

37A __ choy : BOK

Bok choy is a variety of Chinese cabbage. “Bok choy” translates as “white vegetable”.

40A Prefix with political : GEO-

Geopolitics is a discipline that analyzes how a nation’s geographic realities, such as defensible mountain borders, navigable rivers, or access to warm-water ports, directly dictate its foreign policy and international power. The term “geopolitics” was coined in 1899 by Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellén. He argued that sovereign states behave much like biological organisms constrained by their physical environments. Very interesting …

44A Boater or bowler : HAT

A boater is a straw hat often associated with boating, hence the name.

The bowler hat is so called because it was originally designed, in 1849, by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler. The Bowlers created it as an alternative for the top hats then worn by gamekeepers. The gamekeepers needed a tight-fitting hat with a low and rounded crown so that it would stay on their heads as they rode by horseback through woodland with low-hanging branches.

45A Greta of classic Hollywood : GARBO

Famously, Greta Garbo lived a life of seclusion in New York City after she retired from the entertainment business. Commentators often associated her need for privacy with a line she uttered in the great 1932 movie “Grand Hotel”. Her character Grusinskaya the Russian ballerina said, “I want to be alone (…) I just want to be alone”.

46A Hustle genre : DISCO

The hustle is a genre of disco dance that was popular in the seventies. The dance form really took off when Van McCoy released a song called “The Hustle”, to which an accompanying line dance became a big craze in 1975.

47A Texting tech : SMS

Short Message Service (SMS) is the name for the text messaging service that many of us still use on our cell phones to contact friends and family.

50A Part of QED : ERAT

The initialism “QED” is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. QED stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

52A Trench coat, wig, and big sunglasses, maybe : DISGUISE

The trench coat was developed primarily for the use of the military. It is a waterproof coat that extends to just below the knee, and generally has a removable lining. In the world of Hollywood we often encounter the trench coat. One is worn by Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”, and by Peter Sellers in the “Pink Panther” movies.

55A Sando spread : MAYO

Mayonnaise originated in the town of Mahon in Menorca, a Mediterranean island belonging to Spain. The Spanish called the sauce “salsa mahonesa” after the town, and this morphed into the French word “mayonnaise” that we use in English today.

58A Patchy-patterned horses : PINTOS

A pinto is a horse with patchy markings of white mixed with another color. “Pinto” means “painted” in American Spanish.

Down

4D “WonderWater” brand : BAI

Bai Brands is a beverage company that specializes in low-cal soft drinks that include antioxidants.

7D Half marathon’s 13.1 : MILES

The marathon commemorates the legendary messenger-run by Pheidippides from the site of the Battle of Marathon back to Athens, and is run over 26 miles and 385 yards. The first modern Olympic marathon races were run over a distance that approximated the length of the modern-day Marathon-Athens highway, although the actual length of the race varied from games to games. For the 1908 Olympics in London, a course starting at Windsor Castle and ending in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium was defined. That course was 26 miles and 385 yards, the standard length now used at all Olympic Games. Organizers of subsequent games continued to vary the length of the race, until a decision was made in 1921 to adopt the distance used in London in 1908.

8D Namesake of Converse’s All Star sneaker : CHUCK TAYLOR

The Converse shoe company was founded in Malden, Massachusetts in 1908 by one Marquis Mills Converse. The company grew steadily, and introduced its first athletic shoe in 1915, a shoe designed for playing tennis. The Converse brand really took off in 1917 with the launch of a shoe designed especially for basketball, which was called the “All Star”. Basketball player Chuck Taylor really liked the new design and was hired by Converse as a salesman and a spokesman. Taylor suggested a refinement to the design, including a patch on the side to protect the ankle. A star logo (representing the “All Star” brand) was added to the patch, with Chuck Taylor’s signature being added to the logo as an endorsement in 1923. The Chuck Taylor All Star became the best selling basketball shoe of all time, and the star became the logo for the Converse company.

10D Motorola phone : RAZR

The Razr is a series of smartphones introduced by Motorola in 2003. The “Razr” name was chosen in part because of the phone’s relatively thin form factor.

11D Combative Olympian? : ARES

Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece. In Greek mythology, it was home to the gods, and in particular home to the principal gods known as the Twelve Olympians.

14D Michael of “Juno” : CERA

Michael Cera is a Canadian actor who played great characters on the TV show “Arrested Development”, and in the 2007 comedy-drama “Juno”. Cera is also quite the musician. He released an indie folk album titled “True That” in 2014.

“Juno” is a great comedy-drama released in 2007 that tells the story of a spunky teenager who is faced with an unplanned pregnancy. The title character is played by Ellen (now Elliot) Page, with Michael Cera playing the father of her child. The film won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The relatively low-budget movie earned back its initial budget on the first day of its full release to the public. Low-budget blockbuster; my kind of movie …

21D Opposite of noite : DIA

In Portuguese, “noite” (night) is the opposite of “dia” (day).

24D North African capital : TUNIS

Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, and gives the country her name. The city is on the Mediterranean coast, and is located just a few miles from the site of ancient Carthage.

26D Emergency kit : GO BAG

A bug-out bag (also “go bag”) is a portable collection of items that one would grab when evacuating from a disaster. One well-accepted guideline is that a bug-out bag contains all that would be needed to survive for 72 hours. A related kit is a get-home bag that might be kept in one’s car or place of work. A get-home bag contains the items needed to get back home in the absence of public transportation. My wife and I put together bug-out bags a few years ago, after moving into an area that is at high risk for wildfires …

29D Comedian Notaro : TIG

Tig Notaro is a stand-up comedian known for her deadpan delivery. More recently, she has turned to acting and has a recurring role as Chief Engineer Jett Reno on “Star Trek: Discovery”.

33D Showbiz quartets : EGOTS

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar & Tony Awards (EGOT)

51D “Te quiero, __ mío” : AMOR

In Spanish, a term of endearment might be, “Te quiero, amor mío” (I love you, my love).

52D Singer Celine : DION

French-Canadian singer Céline Dion first came to international attention when she won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, in which she represented Switzerland in the competition that was hosted in Dublin, Ireland. She is now the best-selling Canadian artist of all time.

53D Empire also known as the “Realm of the Four Parts” : INCA

The Inca Empire was known as the Tawantinsuyu, which translates as “land of the four quarters”. It was a federal organization with a central government that sat above four “suyu” or “quarters”, four administrative regions.

54D New Age singer who speaks Irish : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1982, Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

60D Org. with LSU Tigers, Auburn Tigers, and Missouri Tigers : SEC

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an athletic conference composed mainly of schools in the southeastern US. It was founded back in 1932 with a roster of thirteen schools, ten of which are still members of the conference.

61D WFH devices : PCS

“WFH” is an initialism that stands for “Work From Home,” a term that became significantly more prevalent and common during the COVID-19 pandemic.