LA Times Crossword 26 Feb 24, Monday

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Constructed by: Chris Gross
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Horse Trailer

Themed answers each end with a word that often TRAILS (follows) “HORSE”:

  • 51A Equestrian transport vehicles, and what the last words of 20-, 25-, and 45-Across can be : HORSE TRAILERS
  • 20A “Focus on the future now” : NO LOOKING BACK (giving “horseback”)
  • 25A “Never in a million years!” : WHEN PIGS FLY! (giving “horse-fly”)
  • 45A Easy to set up, as a computer : PLUG-AND-PLAY (giving “horseplay”)

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

Bill’s time: 4m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Light on one’s feet : SPRY

The term “spry”, meaning “active, nimble” may possibly be a shortened form of “sprightly”.

15 Justice Kagan of the Supreme Court : ELENA

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

17 “Jeopardy!” creator Griffin : MERV

Merv Griffin was quite the entertainer, and truly a mogul in the business. He started his career as a singer on the radio during the big band era. In the sixties he hosted his own talk show, and then famously developed such great game shows as “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune”.

18 Piccata ingredient : LEMON

The dish named “piccata” originated in Italy, with the traditional meat used being veal. Whatever meat used is sliced and flattened with a tenderizer, seasoned, dredged in flour and browned in a pan. The juices from the pan are the base for the sauce, to which are added lemon juice, white wine, shallots, capers and butter.

19 Christmas song : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

25 “Never in a million years!” : WHEN PIGS FLY! (giving “flyback”)

Horse-flies are a family of flies that is noted for biting animals to obtain blood. It is only the females that seek out blood, doing so to get enough protein to produce eggs. When not feeding on blood, horse-flies live on nectar and other suspensions produced by plants.

34 Makes cursed : HEXES

“Hexen” is a German word meaning “to practice witchcraft”. The use of the word “hex” in English started with the Pennsylvania Dutch in the early 1800s.

36 Game with Skip and Reverse cards : UNO

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. It falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

37 “Need You Tonight” band : INXS

“Need You Tonight” is a 1987 recording by the Australian rock band INXS that was their only song to make it to the top of the charts here in the US. The song’s music video was also a hit, and it won that season’s MTV Video of the Year Award.

38 Cover story : ALIBI

“Alibi” is the Latin word for “elsewhere” as in, “I claim that I was ‘elsewhere’ when the crime was committed, I have an ‘alibi’”.

40 Pakistani language : URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

41 Theater sign on a busy night : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

43 “Delta of Venus” author Nin : ANAIS

“Delta of Venus” is a collection of short stories by Anais Nin that was published in 1977, not long after the author’s passing. The stories were originally written on commission for a private collector in the 1940s.

57 Desert in southern Mongolia : GOBI

The Gobi, the large desert in Asia, lies in northern China and southern Mongolia. It is growing at an alarming rate, particularly towards the south. This “desertification” is caused by increased human activity. The Chinese government is trying to halt the desert’s forward progress by planting great swaths of new forest, the so-called “Green Wall of China”. The name “Gobi” is Mongolian for “waterless place, semidesert”.

64 Brazilian soccer legend : PELE

“Pelé” was the nickname of Edson de Nascimento, a soccer player who used the name “Pelé” for most of his life. For my money, Pelé was the world’s greatest ever player of the game. He was the only person to have been a member of three World Cup winning squads (1958, 1962 and 1970), and was a national treasure in his native Brazil. One of Pele’s nicknames was “O Rei do Futebol” (the King of Football).

65 Book of maps : ATLAS

The first modern atlas was published in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius, a Flemish cartographer. It was called “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” (Theater of the World).

Down

1 Bubble blower’s mouthful : GUM

Chewing gum has been around for thousands of years, but bubblegum only dates back to 1928. The latter was developed by Walter Diemer of the Fleer Chewing Gum Company. Diemer was a Fleer accountant, and apparently an accountant who liked to mess around with gum recipes in his spare time.

3 Houston MLBer : ‘STRO

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

4 Rush-hour traffic conveniences : HOV LANES

In some parts of the country, one sees high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Out here in California we refer to them as carpool lanes.

5 Christopher of “Law & Order: SVU” : MELONI

Actor Christopher Meloni is perhaps best known for portraying Elliot Stabler, a detective in the TV shows “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order”: Organized Crime”. There’s a connection between Meloni and the old TV sitcom “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”: the house lived in by Ozzie and Harriett, on and off the screen, was purchased by Meloni in 2014.

7 “Cool for the Summer” singer Lovato : DEMI

“Cool for the Summer” is a 2015 song co-written and recorded by Demi Lovato. It was the lead single from her studio album “Confident”.

9 Cranberry juice quality : TANG

When early European settlers came across red berries growing in the bogs of the northern part of America, they felt that the plant’s flower and stem resembled the head and bill of a crane. As such, they called the plant “craneberry”, which evolved into “cranberry”.

10 Sunken ship finder : SONAR

The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defense demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the “IC” from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR, playing off the related application, RADAR. And so, the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

13 Fashion monogram : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) was an Algerian-born French fashion designer. Saint Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from hospital, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

26 “Three Bathers” painter Matisse : HENRI

“Three Bathers” is a 1907 oil painting by Henri Matisse that is now part of the collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Matisse admired and owned an even more famous “Three Bathers” painting, an 1839 work by Paul Cézanne. Matisse donated the Cézanne to the Petit Palais art museum in Paris in 1936.

27 S&P 100 company that’s a descendant of Standard Oil : EXXONMOBIL

The Esso brand has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

Mobil was founded as part of the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911. The company was originally called Socony (Standard Oil Company of New York). Socony merged with Magnolia Petroleum Company in the thirties and adopted Magnolia’s Pegasus emblem, and it has been used ever since. Mobil merged with Exxon in 1999 but the Mobil brand and Pegasus are alive and well.

28 On-the-job risk for a beekeeper : STING

A queen bee has a stinger, just like worker bees. When a worker bee stings, it leaves its stinger in its victim. The worker bee dies after losing its stinger as the loss rips out part of its insides. However, a queen bee can sting with impunity as her stinger’s anatomy is different.

32 Nepal neighbor : INDIA

The nation of Nepal shares a border to the north with China. The remaining border to the south, east and west is shared with India.

39 Baseball Hall of Famer Gehrig : LOU

Baseball legend Lou Gehrig was known as a powerhouse. He was a big hitter and just kept on playing. Gehrig broke the record for the most consecutive number of games played, and he still holds the record for the most career grand slams. His durability earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse”. Sadly, he died in 1941 at 37-years-old suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an illness we now call “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. The New York Yankees retired the number four on 4th of July 1939 in his honor, making Lou Gehrig the first baseball player to have his number retired.

46 Saudi __ : ARABIA

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country in the Middle East and is the world’s largest oil producer, home to the world’s largest oil reserves. The Saudi dynasty started in central Arabia in 1744 when the secular leader Muhammad ibn Saud joined forces with the Islamic scholar and Imam, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. At the time, Saud was a ruler of a town near Riyadh and he was determined to bring “true” Islam to the Arabian peninsula. Since 1744 the fortunes of the Saudi family have risen and fallen, but it is that same family who rules what we know today as Saudi Arabia.

49 Wedding bouquet tosser : BRIDE

“Bouquet” comes from the French word for “bunch” in the sense of “bunch of flowers”. In French, the term is derived from an older word describing a little wood or small grove of trees. We started using “bouquet” to mean “perfume from a wine” in the early 1800s.

51 Base runner’s goal : HOME

That would be baseball.

52 Irish New Age singer : 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 1980 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!

54 Tootsie __ : ROLL

Tootsie Rolls were developed by an Austrian candy maker called Leo Hirschfeld in New York City in 1896. Hirschfeld named the candy after his daughter, who had the nickname “Tootsie”. A couple of derivative products have become quite popular, namely Tootsie Pops and Tootsie Roll Midgees.

56 Cyber Monday event : SALE

Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving, when retailers offer incentives to online shoppers in the hope of boosting sales. The term “Cyber Monday” was coined in 2005 in a press release issued by the website Shop.org. In recent years, consumers have been spending more money online on Cyber Monday than any other day in the year.

57 Generation __ : GAP

The phrase “generation gap” was first used in the sixties to describe the gap between the values and customs of the baby boomers and those of the prior generations.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 “Golly!” : GOSH!
5 Infuriated with : MAD AT
10 Light on one’s feet : SPRY
14 “It’s __ you”: “You decide” : UP TO
15 Justice Kagan of the Supreme Court : ELENA
16 Metals from a mine : ORES
17 “Jeopardy!” creator Griffin : MERV
18 Piccata ingredient : LEMON
19 Christmas song : NOEL
20 “Focus on the future now” : NO LOOKING BACK (giving “horseback”)
23 Top-notch : A-ONE
24 “__ you listening?” : ARE
25 “Never in a million years!” : WHEN PIGS FLY! (giving “horse-fly”)
31 Barely lit : DIM
34 Makes cursed : HEXES
35 Some clip-on accessories : TIES
36 Game with Skip and Reverse cards : UNO
37 “Need You Tonight” band : INXS
38 Cover story : ALIBI
40 Pakistani language : URDU
41 Theater sign on a busy night : SRO
42 Shortly : SOON
43 “Delta of Venus” author Nin : ANAIS
44 Family : KIN
45 Easy to set up, as a computer : PLUG-AND-PLAY (giving “horseplay”)
48 Deg. for an exec : MBA
50 Went by bike : RODE
51 Equestrian transport vehicles, and what the last words of 20-, 25-, and 45-Across can be : HORSE TRAILERS
57 Desert in southern Mongolia : GOBI
58 Clueless gamers : NOOBS
59 Go first : LEAD
61 Surrounded by : AMID
62 Connecticut Ivy Leaguer : YALIE
63 Spanish “she” : ELLA
64 Brazilian soccer legend : PELE
65 Book of maps : ATLAS
66 Like purple hair : DYED

Down

1 Bubble blower’s mouthful : GUM
2 Go first : OPEN
3 Houston MLBer : ‘STRO
4 Rush-hour traffic conveniences : HOV LANES
5 Christopher of “Law & Order: SVU” : MELONI
6 Pub barrel : ALE KEG
7 “Cool for the Summer” singer Lovato : DEMI
8 “We don’t know who wrote this” abbreviation : ANON
9 Cranberry juice quality : TANG
10 Sunken ship finder : SONAR
11 Many a TV crime drama : PROCEDURAL
12 Assault the nose : REEK
13 Fashion monogram : YSL
21 Unwelcome word from a barber : OOPS!
22 Large coastal inlets : BAYS
25 Batter blender : WHISK
26 “Three Bathers” painter Matisse : HENRI
27 S&P 100 company that’s a descendant of Standard Oil : EXXONMOBIL
28 On-the-job risk for a beekeeper : STING
29 White lie : FIB
30 Sweet-smelling garland : LEI
32 Nepal neighbor : INDIA
33 Hardly assertive : MOUSY
38 Email pioneer : AOL
39 Baseball Hall of Famer Gehrig : LOU
40 Still having a rind : UNPEELED
42 Health resorts : SPAS
43 Not incl. : ADDL
46 Saudi __ : ARABIA
47 Beeps and peeps : NOISES
49 Wedding bouquet tosser : BRIDE
51 Base runner’s goal : HOME
52 Irish New Age singer : ENYA
53 Precisely : TO A T
54 Tootsie __ : ROLL
55 Depend (on) : RELY
56 Cyber Monday event : SALE
57 Generation __ : GAP
60 Family guy : DAD