LA Times Crossword 2 Sep 26, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Guilherme Gilioli

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Two Points

Themed answers each include the word “COURT” hidden within, but with the letters in a different ORDER, scrambled:

• 59A Judge’s directive, or a feature of each set of circled letters? : COURT ORDER

• 17A 1990s grunge icon : KURT COBAIN
• 23A Some street food vendors : TACO TRUCKS
• 37A Going the faster way, hopefully : TAKING A SHORTCUT
• 48A Easy A’s : GUT COURSES

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

Bill’s time: 5m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A With 30-Across, FIFA women’s powerhouse : TEAM …
30A See 6-Across : … USA

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is a soccer tournament that has been held every four years since 1991. The US national team has won the tournament more times than any other nation.

14A Green growth in a pond : ALGAE

Algae are similar to terrestrial plants in that they use photosynthesis to create sugars from light and carbon dioxide, but they differ in that they have simpler anatomies, and for example lack roots.

16A Salt-N-Pepa, e.g. : TRIO

Salt-N-Pepa are an all-female hip-hop trio from New York made up of “Salt” (Cheryl James), “Pepa” (Sandra Denton) and “DJ Spinderella” (Deidra Roper). The group’s 1991 song “Let’s Talk About Sex” created quite a fuss as the lyrics explored the subject of sex, and safe sex in particular. A later version addressed the dangers of AIDS.

17A 1990s grunge icon : KURT COBAIN

Kurt Cobain was famous as the lead singer of the band Nirvana. Cobain was constantly in the spotlight for the last few years of his short life. The media was fascinated with his marriage to fellow rock star Courtney Love, and continually reported on Cobain’s heroin addiction. He finally succumbed to the pressure and committed suicide by inflicting a gunshot wound to his head in 1994, at only 27 years of age.

Grunge is a form of what is called “alternative rock” music. It originated in the state of Washington in the mid-eighties and is also known as the Seattle sound.

20A Manatee habitat : SEA

Manatees, types of “sea cows”, are very large marine mammals that can grow to 12 feet in length. The manatee is believed to have evolved from four-legged land mammals and probably shares a common ancestor with the elephant.

21A Ray of McDonald’s history : KROC

The original McDonald’s restaurant was opened in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald as a barbecue restaurant. The brothers then moved into fast food hamburgers, eventually selling out to one of their franchise agents, Ray Kroc. It was Ray Kroc who really led the company to its worldwide success. He was played by Michael Keaton in the movie about Ray Kroc’s business life called “The Founder”.

26A VEX creations : ROBOTS

VEX Robotics manufactures educational building kits designed to teach STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) principles through the construction and programming of both autonomous and remote-controlled robots. The company sponsors the VEX Robotics Competition, which holds the Guinness World Record for the largest robotics competition on Earth. It brings together tens of thousands of student-led teams annually, from over fifty countries, to have their mechanical creations battle with each other in arena challenges. Very, very cool …

33A Azerbaijan neighbor : IRAN

The Azerbaijan–Iran border runs for almost 430 miles, but is in two sections. That is because the western portion of the border separates Iran and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, an exclave of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

34A Right-hand page : RECTO

The left and right pages of a book or magazine are known in publishing circles as verso and recto. Recto comes from the Latin for “right”, and verso comes from the Latin word for “turned”. The idea is that the left side of the page is “turned” and is the reverse of the recto/right side.

36A Only word spoken in “Silent Movie” : NON

The 1976 Mel Brooks film “Silent Movie” is a parody of the films of the silent era. There is only one word spoken in the whole film, and that’s “non” (French for “no”), which is uttered by celebrated French mime artist Marcel Marceau.

41A Former quarterback Manning : ELI

Eli Manning is a retired footballer who played quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2016. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titled “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.

42A 1/16 of a pound : OUNCE

Our term “ounce” (abbreviated to “oz.”) comes from the Latin “uncia”. An “uncia” was 1/12 of a Roman “libra” (pound).

43A 2026 “Legally Blonde” prequel : ELLE

“Elle” is a TV series that serves as a prequel to the hit 2001 film “Legally Blonde”. The show is set in 1995 when the fashion-conscious Elle Woods was a 16-year-old navigating high school in Seattle. Lexi Minetree plays the younger version of the memorable character Elle Woods, famously originated by Reese Witherspoon (who also serves as an executive producer).

54A Colossal : VAST

A colossus (plural “colossi”) is an exceptionally large statue, the most famous of which was the Colossus of Rhodes. This was a statue of the god Helios that stood over 100 feet tall, on the Greek island of Rhodes. New York’s Statue of Liberty was designed to have similar dimensions. The Emma Lazarus poem that is inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty is in fact titled “The New Colossus”. We get our adjective “colossal”, meaning “of exceptional size”, from “colossus”.

55A Prefix with -tainment : EDU-

The word “edutainment” describes educational entertainment, a work that is designed to both educate and to entertain. The Walt Disney Company was the first to embrace the term, using it to describe the “True-Life Adventures” series of films produced from 1948 to 1960.

66A Scrabble board symbol covered in the first play of the game : STAR

The game of Scrabble has been around since 1938, and is the invention of an architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. Butts was born on April 13th, and we now celebrate National Scrabble Day on April 13th each year in his honor.

Down

1D Fifth Avenue retailer : SAKS

Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end specialty store that competes with the likes of Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. The original Saks & Company business was founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. The first Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1924. There are now Saks Fifth Avenue stores in many major cities in the US, as well as in several locations worldwide.

2D Game with secret passages : CLUE

Clue is a board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

3D Taj Mahal city : AGRA

Agra is a medieval city on the banks of the river Yamuna in India that was the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1658. The city is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• The Taj Mahal: the famous mausoleum built in memory of Mumtaz Mahal.
• Agra Fort: the site where the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was seized.
• Fatehpur Sikri: a historic city that’s home to well-preserved Mughal architecture.

6D Frowned upon : TABOO

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

8D Legend in the ring : ALI

Muhammad Ali won 56 professional fights, 37 of which were knockouts. He lost 5 fights, 4 being decisions and one being a technical knockout (TKO). The TKO-loss was Ali’s second-to-last fight, against Larry Holmes. By the time Ali took on Holmes, he was already showing signs of Parkinson’s Syndrome, although the diagnosis would not come until four years later.

11D Throws in the towel : CRIES UNCLE

To say uncle is to submit or yield. This peculiarly American use of “uncle” dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

12D Verdi opera : AIDA

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radamès is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

13D Green growth in a terrarium : MOSS

A terrarium (plural “terraria”) is a contained environment used to house land animals. The term “terrarium“ comes from the equivalent “aquarium”, a tank for holding mainly fish. In general, a contained environment for keeping live animals or plants is known as a “vivarium”.

18D Middle-earth monsters : ORCS

According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth. They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

22D Many a Hollywood Walk of Fame honoree : ACTOR

The first stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame were unveiled in 1958, although the permanent stars that we see today weren’t installed until 1960. There are now almost 3,000 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars taking up fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street. The Apollo 11 astronauts break from the standard terrazzo mold, and are honored at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine with unique circular bronze plaques designed to resemble the moon.

23D “Un-Break My Heart” singer Braxton : TONI

“Un-Break My Heart” is a Grammy-winning song released by Toni Braxton in 1996. It is a ballad about begging a former lover to return, to “un-break my heart”.

24D Swiss pharmaceutical giant : ROCHE

The giant pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics company Hoffmann-La Roche is based in Basel, Switzerland. The company was founded back in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, and initially produced various pharmaceuticals and syrups.

28D Science fair volcano ingredient : BAKING SODA

The classic science fair volcano erupts thanks to a rapid acid-base reaction between sodium bicarbonate (aka “baking soda”) and the acetic acid found in white vinegar. The chemical interaction produces carbonic acid, which rapidly decomposes into liquid water and gaseous carbon dioxide. The sudden expansion of trapped carbon dioxide bubbles forces the liquid mixture up and out of the model crater to simulate flowing lava.

39D Green dip, briefly : GUAC

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

40D Model/activist Holliday : TESS

Tess Holliday is a plus-size model and body-positive activist. She was born Ryann Hoven and changed her name to Tess Munster when she started modeling. That choice was purely because she was a fan of “The Munsters” TV show. In 2015, she adopted the family name of Nick Holliday, the father of her youngest child.

50D Throat dangler : UVULA

The uvula is a conical fleshy projection hanging down at the back of the soft palate that plays an important role in human speech, particularly in the making of “guttural” sounds. The Latin word for “grape” is “uva”, so “uvula” is a “little grape”.

55D “Giant” novelist Ferber : EDNA

Edna Ferber was a novelist and playwright from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman. Ferber also wrote “Show Boat”, “Cimarron” and “Giant”, which were adapted successfully for the stage and/or big screen.

“Giant” is a 1952 novel by author Edna Ferber. It was adapted into a successful Hollywood movie released in 1956. In the film, Bick Benedict (played by Rock Hudson) marries Leslie (played by Elizabeth Taylor) and takes his new wife home to the family ranch in Texas called Reata. The ranch’s handyman is Jett Rink, played by James Dean. Dean was killed in a car accident before the film was released. Some of Dean’s lines needed work before the film could be released and so another actor had to do that voice-over work.

59D “48 Hours” airer : CBS

“48 Hours” is a CBS news magazine show that has aired since 1988. The original concept was to drop news crews into a single, intense situation to record events continuously for 48 hours, hence the title of the program.

60D Breakfast bit that might soak overnight : OAT

Overnight oats are a convenient, no-cook breakfast made by soaking rolled or steel-cut oats in a liquid (perhaps milk, yogurt or simply water) to soften them into a creamy, chilled meal by morning. I go for a high-powered alternative called BROL, a high-fiber blend of Barley, Rye, Oats, and Lentils (hence the acronym). I prepare it, in batches that last a few days, in an Instant Pot.

61D Home of Sugarloaf Mountain : RIO

The Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was named for its shape, which resembled a conical mold of sugar that was the traditional form from concentrated refined loaf sugar. The Portuguese name for the peak is “Pão de Açúcar”, which translates to “Loaf of Sugar”.