LA Times Crossword 5 Oct 26, Monday

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Constructed by: Amanda Cook

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Winter Break

The word “WINTER” is BROKEN in two, forming the start and end of each themed answer:

• 59A Time off that may coincide with a new calendar year, or what can be found in 16-, 26-, and 44-Across : WINTER BREAK

• 16A Playful back-and-forth : WITTY BANTER
• 126A Workstation option since the 1980s : WINDOWS COMPUTER
• 44A Ticket pickup location : WILL CALL COUNTER

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

Bill’s time: 5m 32s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A “Tár” Oscar nominee Blanchett : CATE

Cate Blanchett is a great actress from Australia, and a winner of an Academy Award for playing Katharine Hepburn in “The Aviator”. Winning for that role made Blanchett the first person to win an Academy Award for playing an actor (Hepburn) who had also won an Oscar. Now that is trivial information …

“Tár” is a 2022 film starring Cate Blanchett in the title role, a conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic who is accused of sexual misconduct. A concept album titled “Tár (Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture)” was released at the same time as the film. A week or so after release, the album topped “Billboard” magazine’s list of Traditional Classical Albums, beating out albums produced by the real Berlin Philharmonic.

14A Chocolate-flavored latte : MOCHA

A caffè mocha is a caffè latte that has been flavored with chocolate. One might also regard a caffè mocha as hot chocolate with the addition of a shot of espresso.

20A Word with ocean or eye : … LINER

The use of the word “line” with reference to transportation started in the 1780s, in the context of stagecoaches. Such transportation operated a string of stagecoaches between towns and cities along regular “lines”. The concept shifted to shipping “lines” operating ocean-going “liners” between ports. And then came “airliners”.

26A Workstation option since the 1980s : WINDOWS COMPUTER

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. Microsoft introduced the Windows operating environment in 1985 to sit above MS-DOS as a graphical user interface (GUI). That move was made in response to the success of Apple’s GUI released with the Lisa and Macintosh platforms. A court case ensued, one that was eventually settled in court in favor of Microsoft.

30A Rainbow maker : PRISM

When light passes through a prism, it splits up (disperses) into differing wavelengths. It then becomes clear that white light is actually a mixture of different colors, which show up as a beautiful spectrum.

33A Old hoops org. : ABA

The American Basketball Association (ABA) merged with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1976. The ABA used a ball with the colors red, white and blue. The NBA uses a more traditional orange ball.

49A Battery terminals : ANODES

The anode and cathode are the two electrodes in an electrical device, like a battery. Anodes “give away” electrons, and cathodes “accept” electrons. In a typical battery powering a device, the anode gives away electrons that travel through the device (like a lightbulb, making it light up). Those electrons then flow to the cathode, which accepts them, completing the circuit.

58A With 51-Across, dance accessory for Fred Astaire : TAP …
51A See 58-Across : … SHOE

Dancer, actor and singer Fred Astaire never won a competitive Academy Award, and received just one nomination: for Best Supporting Actor in 1974’s “The Towering Inferno”. However, he was presented with an honorary Academy Award in the 1949 season “for his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures”. That honorary Oscar was presented by his longtime film and dance partner Ginger Rogers.

61A Connecticut Ivy Leaguer : ELI

Elihu Yale was a Boston-born British merchant who served as the President of the East India Company settlement in Madras, India, making a massive fortune through ruthless and illicit trade. In 1718, he was asked to give financial support for a struggling Connecticut institution known as the Collegiate School. Yale responded by shipping 417 books, a portrait of King George I, and nine bales of goods that were later sold for £562. Hoping to flatter the merchant into leaving the school his entire estate, administrators promptly renamed it Yale College, though he ultimately died without leaving the institution another penny. To this day, students of Yale are nicknamed “Elis”, honoring Elihu.

65A Composer Stravinsky : IGOR

Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky is said to have altered the course of 20th-century music with his rhythmically brutal and avant-garde ballets. The 1913 Paris premiere of his most infamous work, “The Rite of Spring”, sparked a near-riot due to its aggressively dissonant score and unconventional choreography. Stravinsky spent his final decades as a naturalized US citizen living in West Hollywood, where he wrote neoclassical music and dined with Hollywood celebrities.

Down

7D Entr’__ : ACTE

The term “entr’acte” comes to us from French, and is the interval “entre deux actes” (between two acts) of a theatrical performance. The term often describes some entertainment provided during that interval.

8D Eerie electronic instrument : THEREMIN

The theremin was invented in 1920 by Russian physicist Léon Theremin, and was one of the very first electronic musical instruments. It is unique in that it’s played entirely without physical contact. The musician simply moves their hands in the air near two metal antennas: one vertical to control the pitch and one horizontal loop to control the volume. This produces an eerie, gliding “wooo-ing” sound, which is why it’s often used in sci-fi film soundtracks, like 1951’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.

9D Musical proclivity : EAR

A proclivity is a predisposition toward something, an inclination.

12D Wet blanket : DOWNER

A wet blanket might be used to extinguish a fire. We use the phrase “wet blanket” figuratively to describe someone who tends to dampen enthusiasm or enjoyment.

26D Typing speed: Abbr. : WPM

Words per minute (wpm)

29D Chicago airport code : ORD

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport uses the IATA code ORD, a throwback to its original name, Orchard Field. The site began as an airfield serving a World War II manufacturing plant producing Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft. It was located near the small farming community of Orchard Place, hence the name Orchard Field.

35D Old gridiron org. : AFL

The American Football League (AFL) was founded in 1959 as a competitor to the already-established National Football League (NFL). The AFL eventually merged with the NFL, in 1970. It was the competition between the AFL and NFL that gave us the Super Bowl. The first-ever World Championship Game between the champions of the two leagues was held in 1967, a game that we now refer to as Super Bowl I.

37D Feature of many a Wile E. Coyote trap, for short : TNT

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner are two much-loved cartoon characters from Warner Bros. Road Runner was created first, and Wile E. Coyote was invented as the necessary pursuer. I love this cartoon; it’s definitely one of the best …

38D “__ to Joy”: highlight of Beethoven’s Ninth : ODE

Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9” has to be one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the classical repertoire. “Ode to Joy”, based on the final movement of the work, is now the anthem of the European Union. If you’d like to see a fictional tale that explores Beethoven’s life at the time he was writing the “Ninth Symphony”, I highly recommend you take a look at the 2006 movie “Copying Beethoven”. Ed Harris plays Beethoven, and the soundtrack is superb.

40D Ye __ Shoppe : OLDE

The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint antique feel to brand names, shop names etc. as in “Ye Olde Shoppe”.

48D Minnesota representative Ilhan : OMAR

Ilhan Omar has been representing Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in the US House since 2019. At that time, she became one of the first two Muslim women, as well as the first Somali American, to serve in the US Congress.

57D Icelandic dairy product similar to yogurt : SKYR

Skyr is a traditional Icelandic cultured dairy product that has a thick, creamy texture. Although it’s consumed like yogurt, skyr is technically classified as a soft cheese.