LA Times Crossword 1 Feb 26, Sunday

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Constructed by: Katie Hale

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Extra Padding

Themed answers are common phrases to which we are ADDING a P:

• 23A Jaunty coast-to-coast race? : CROSS-COUNTRY SKIP (cross-county ski + P)
• 39A Arizona running back’s evasive maneuver? : CARDINAL SPIN (cardinal sin + P)
• 58A Incomprehensible peace treaty? : A HARD PACT TO FOLLOW (a hard act to follow + P)
• 80A “Sesame Street: Sing the Alphabet,” perhaps? : BEST SPELLING ALBUM (best-selling album + P)
• 99A Painters who specialize in portraits of imps? : SCAMP ARTISTS (scam artists + P)
• 120A “Better not throw a changeup”? : SCRATCH THAT PITCH (scratch that itch + P)

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

Bill’s time: 17m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Home of the NWSL’s Royals : UTAH

The Utah Royals was founded as an expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in 2017. Things didn’t go well, though, and the team was forced to dissolve in 2020 following reports of racist and sexist behavior by the owner and staff. The players, and assets, were transferred to a new expansion team that became the Kansas City Current. The team eventually returned to Salt Lake City, taking the pitch in the 2024 season.

10A La __: Italian opera venue : SCALA

La Scala Opera House opened in 1778. It was built on the site of the church of Santa Maria della Scala, which gave the theater its Italian name “Teatro alla Scala”. Because of bomb damage in WWII, La Scala had to be rebuilt, and reopened in 1946.

19A Red __: playground game : ROVER

Red Rover is a playground game played by two teams of children. Each team forms a chain, holding hands. The idea is for individuals to try to break through the chain of the opposing team.

20A Bond villain with an underwater lair : DR NO

“Dr. No” may have been the first film in the wildly successful James Bond franchise, but it was the sixth novel in the series of books penned by Ian Fleming. Fleming was inspired to write the story after reading the Fu Manchu tales by Sax Rohmer. If you’ve read the Rohmer books or seen the films, you’ll recognize the similarities between the characters Dr. Julius No and Fu Manchu. By the way, the author Ian Fleming tells us that Julius No attended medical school in Milwaukee.

21A Islamic dietary standard : HALAL

“Halal” is a term describing an action or object that is permissible under Islamic Law. In particular “halal” is used to describe food that can be consumed. Anything that is not allowed is described as “haram”.

22A Video game franchise set on ring-shaped worlds : HALO

Halo is a series of video games that was introduced in 2001. Apparently, there’s a lot of shooting, and a lot of aliens …

23A Jaunty coast-to-coast race? : CROSS-COUNTRY SKIP (cross-county ski + P)

Our words “jaunty” and “genteel” are related in that they both derive from the French “gentil” meaning “nice, pleasing”. In modern usage, someone described as jaunty has a buoyant air. Someone described as genteel is refined in manner.

26A Shiraz’s land : IRAN

The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

28A Cassowary relative : EMU

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.

31A Tic-__-toe : TAC

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

39A Arizona running back’s evasive maneuver? : CARDINAL SPIN (cardinal sin + P)

The Arizona Cardinals were founded in 1898 as the Chicago Cardinals. That makes the Cardinals the oldest, continuously-run, professional football team in the whole country.

The cardinal sins of Christian ethics are also known as the seven deadly sins. The seven sins are:

• Wrath
• Greed
• Sloth
• Pride
• Lust
• Envy
• Gluttony

45A American short story writer Bret : HARTE

Bret Harte was a storyteller noted for his tales of the American West, even though he himself was from back East, born in Albany, New York. One work attributed to him is “Ah Sin”, a disastrously unsuccessful play written by Harte with Mark Twain. The two writers didn’t get on at all well during the writing process, and when the play was produced for the stage it was very poorly received. Nevertheless, Twain suggested a further collaboration with Harte, and Harte downright refused!

47A Padre’s hermana : TIA

In Spanish, a “tia” (aunt) is the “hermana del padre o de la madre” (sister of the father or the mother).

48A Shot administrator : NURSE

An injection using a hypodermic needle might be termed a “shot” in North America, and a “jab” in Britain and Ireland.

53A “Licorice Pizza” setting : ENCINO

Encino is a district in the City of Los Angeles on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains. The area takes its name from a historic parcel of land called Rancho Los Encinos (Ranch of the Oak Trees).

2021’s “Licorice Pizza” sounds like an interesting film. It stars two actors in their debut performances, Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. Haim is a very successful musician, and Cooper is the son of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. The inexperienced leads are supported by heavyweights Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Maya Rudolph and Bradley Cooper. “Licorice Pizza” bombed at the box office, but the critics loved it.

63A Beijing money : YUAN

Even though we generally refer to the currency of China as the “yuan”, the yuan is actually the basic unit of the “renminbi”. This is analogous to “sterling” being the official currency of the UK, with the “pound” being the basic unit of sterling.

The city of Beijing in China was given its name in 1403, with “Beijing” chosen as it translates as “Northern Capital”. The name distinguishes it from the city of Nanjing, whose name translates as “Southern Capital”. “Beijing” was written in English as “Peking” for centuries.

65A Midflight info : ALT

Altitude (alt.)

74A “__ she blows!” : THAR

“Thar she blows!” is a phrase that originated on whaling ships. A lookout spotting a whale surfacing to breathe might see the spray from the blowhole caused by the expulsion of carbon dioxide. Thar (there) she blows!

77A Vegan milk choice : OAT

Oat milk is one of the alternatives to cow’s milk, and is lactose free. I’m a huge fan …

87A “Midsommar” director Aster : ARI

Ari Aster is a film director from New York City. He is into horror films, and I am not …

“Midsommar” … it’s a horror film.

88A Photoshop tool : ERASER

Photoshop is an amazing piece of software used for editing graphics. When I first bought a copy of Photoshop, it was really expensive (about $300 in 1995), but now there are cost-effective, stripped-down versions available. Also, the full version of Photoshop is now only available as a monthly subscription service.

90A Time long past : YORE

We use the word “yore” to mean “time long past” as in “the days of yore”. “Yore” comes from the Old English words for “of years”.

93A Year divs. : MOS

Understanding months and years might have been a lot easier if we had settled on 13 “months” in a year, with a “month” comprising the four weeks that it takes to go through a complete lunar cycle (full moon to full moon). Every month would have been 4 weeks long, and it would be easy to understand why there are 52 weeks in a year (13 months x 4 weeks). Instead, we “mess” around with 12 “messy” months …

95A Maldon and Himalayan pink : SALTS

Maldon is a producer of sea salt. The company is located on the estuary of the River Blackwater in Essex, England from which Maldon sources its high-salinity water. The brine is evaporated over gas-powered flues, leaving behind the magnesium-rich salt.

Himalayan salt is harvested from the Khewra Salt Mine in Pakistan, which is actually about 200 miles away from the Himalayan peaks. Impurities, mainly iron oxide, give the salt a pink hue.

104A Beef stroganoff, e.g. : MEAT STEW

Beef Stroganoff is a dish from Russian cuisine, a stew comprising sauteed strips of beef in a mustard and cream sauce. It is named for a member of the House of Stroganov, the richest family of noblemen in Russia from the days of Ivan the Terrible.

106A Romantasy novelist __ J. Maas : SARAH

Sarah J. Maas is a fantasy author known for both her young adult and adult novels. She gained widespread recognition with her debut series, “Throne of Glass”, which follows the journey of a young assassin named Celaena Sardothien. Maas further solidified her success with the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, a tale of faeries, romance, and adventure.

109A Co. founder’s second title, often : CEO

Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

115A Tubes : TEEVEES

Television (TV, teevee, the tube, the boob tube)

119A Actor Liu : SIMU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”. He also played one of the Ken dolls in 2023’s “Barbie”.

120A “Better not throw a changeup”? : SCRATCH THAT PITCH (scratch that itch + P)

A changeup is a baseball pitch that is thrown so that it looks like a fastball, but actually arrives at the plate more slowly.

123A Blueprint detail : SPEC

Blueprints are reproductions of technical or architectural drawings that are contact prints made on light-sensitive sheets. They were introduced in the 1800s and the technology available dictated that the drawings were reproduced with white lines on a blue background, hence the name “blue-print”.

124A Rock opera by The Who : TOMMY

“Tommy” is the fourth album recorded by the British band called the Who. “Tommy” was the original rock opera and was adapted for both the stage and screen, with both adaptations becoming huge successes. The title character has an uncanny ability to play pinball, giving rise to the hit song “Pinball Wizard”.

126A __ de tigre: ceviche marinade : LECHE

Leche de tigre (or”tiger’s milk”) is the citrus-based marinade used to cure raw fish in Peruvian ceviche. The liquid leftover after curing is often served in a small glass alongside the meal. In Peru, the drink is touted as both a potent hangover cure and a powerful aphrodisiac, hence the name.

127A Totally flop : TANK

Apparently, the first use of the verb “to tank” to mean “to lose or fail” can be pinpointed quite precisely. Tennis great Billie Jean King used the verb in that sense in an interview with “Life” magazine in 1967, with reference to male players. A more specific use of “tanking” in recent years is “deliberately losing” a contest.

Down

5D Low-sodium seasoning brand : MRS DASH

Mrs. Dash was a brand name of seasoning mixes. Just before the product first went to market in 1981, brand owner B&G Foods also considered the name “Mrs. Pinch”. Finally getting with the times, the brand owners changed the product name in 2020 to just “Dash”.

9D Source of some political gaffes : HOT MIC

One of my favorite hot-mic moments took place in 2005, when Paris and London were vying to host the 2012 Olympics. French President Jacques Chirac compared Paris and London in that context while chatting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Chirac said, over a hot mic:

The only thing that they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease … You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine.

12D Basic compound : ALKALI

The “opposite” of an acid is a base. Acids turn litmus paper red, and bases turn it blue. Acids and bases react with each other to form salts. An important subset of the chemicals called bases are alkalis, hydroxides of the alkali metals and of ammonium. The term “alkali” is sometimes used interchangeably with “base”, especially if that base is readily soluble in water.

14D Fleecy camelid : ALPACA

Alpacas are like small llamas, but unlike llamas were never beasts of burden. They were bred specifically for the fleece. As such, there are no known wild alpacas these days, even in their native Peru.

15D Acupressure massage : SHIATSU

“Shiatsu” is a Japanese word meaning “finger pressure”, and is the name given to a style of massage.

Acupressure and acupuncture are related alternative medical techniques. Both aim to clear blockages in the flow of life energy through the body’s meridians. The treatment is given by stimulating “acupoints” in the body, by applying pressure in the case of acupressure, and by applying needles in the case of acupuncture.

35D Iron Bowl team, familiarly : BAMA

The Iron Bowl is an annual football game played between the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide and Auburn University’s Tigers. The game was played in Birmingham, Alabama for most of the 20th century (as was the 1893 inaugural game). It was Birmingham’s traditional association with the steel industry that led to the name “Iron Bowl”.

36D Highlands water : LOCH

The Scottish Highlands are that part of the country not classified as the Lowlands(!). The Highlands make up the north and west of Scotland.

37D Malm bed seller : IKEA

IKEA’s Malm bed frame is named for a small village in central Norway. The bed is a popular item, with 17 million units being sold worldwide by 2016.

38D __ Outfitters : URBAN

Urban Outfitters is a retail outlet that started out as a single store called Free People, which operated in West Philadelphia in the 1970s. When the owners opened a second store, they rebranded as Urban Outfitters. They have been opening stores ever since, all around the world.

40D “Pantheon” voice actor Paul : DANO

Paul Dano is an actor and musician from New York City. I best know him for playing Brian Wilson in “Love & Mercy”, a fascinating film about the Beach Boys.

“Pantheon” is an animated, sci-fi TV series that is based on a series of short stories by Ken Liu, the Chinese-born American author who also translated the hit novel “The Three-Body Problem” into English. Central to the TV show is the concept of “uploaded intelligence”, the storage of human consciousness in a cloud-based afterlife. Crazy …

46D Words on a Wonderland cake : EAT ME

In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds a bottle labeled “DRINK ME”. When she drinks the contents, it causes her to shrink. She also sees a cake adorned with the words “EAT ME” written using currants, and when she eats the cake she grows so big she finds it hard to stand up. After eating the cake, she utters the words, “Curiouser and curiouser”.

52D Superfan : STAN

“Stan” is a song by rapper Eminem (featuring Dido) that was recorded in 2000. The title refers to a fictional Eminem fan named “Stan” who becomes obsessed with the rapper, and who grows irate when his letters to his idol go unanswered. Stan’s final act is to make a voice recording as he drives into a river, with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk. One of the legacies of the song is that “stan” is now used as a slang term for an obsessed and maniacal fan.

59D With 111-Down, “Illusion” singer : DUA …
111D See 59-Down : … LIPA

“Illusion” is a 2024 song co-written and released by English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa. It is described as a dance number, and comes from her studio album “Radical Optimism”.

60D Insincerely aim to please : PANDER

To pander is to cater to the lower desires of someone, perhaps to exploit a weakness. The verb comes from the noun “pander”, which was basically a pimp, someone who arranged sexual liaisons. The term ultimately derives from a Trojan aristocrat named Pandarus who appears in Homer’s “Iliad”. In medieval literature, Pandarus was portrayed as a bawdy figure who helped Prince Troilus have an affair with young Cressida.

61D Using pointe shoes : ON TOE

“En pointe” is ballet dancing on the tips of the toes, and is a French term. A ballerina wears pointe shoes (sometimes “toe shoes”) to perform this delightful-looking, albeit unhealthy, feat (pun!).

66D Fancy mat : DOILY

There was a draper in London in the seventeenth century named Doiley, and he gave his name to the lace fabric that he sold. The fabric in turn gave its name to the ornamental mat that we call a “doily”. I can’t abide doilies …

67D French president before Sarkozy : CHIRAC

Jacques Chirac served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He also served twice as Prime Minister of France, and as the Mayor of Paris.

Nicolas Sarkozy was President of France from 2007 to 2012. Sarkozy’s wife is perhaps as famous as the President himself. He married the singer-songwriter Carla Bruni at the Élysée Palace in 2008.

69D Preps, as a Slip ‘N Slide : WETS

The Slip ‘N Slide children’s toy was introduced to the market in 1961 by Wham-O. It is basically a length of plastic sheeting with a wet surface on which children can “slip” and “slide”. It is recommended for use by children only, as the weight of adults can result in serious neck and back injuries.

71D Mercator projection book : ATLAS

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas” that is used for a book of maps.

73D Vaccine molecule : RNA

Traditional vaccines typically use weakened or inactivated viruses, or pieces of the virus, to stimulate an immune response. mRNA vaccines use a small piece of genetic material from the virus, called messenger RNA (mRNA), to instruct cells in the body to produce a harmless piece of the virus to trigger the immune response. mRNA vaccines are developed more quickly than traditional vaccines. This was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, where mRNA vaccines were developed and authorized for emergency use within months of the emergence of the novel coronavirus.

76D Winners of the first FIFA Women’s World Cup : 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.

82D Like tedious text : PROSY

Something that is “prosy” resembles prose. Also, “prosy” can be used to mean “lacking impact or dry”, prosaic in fact.

83D Start of a classic boast : I CAME

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

94D Showing no feelings : STOIC

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

96D “Don’t play,” in music : TACET

“Tacet” is a musical direction meaning “be silent”. It is typically written on a score to instruct a particular voice or instrument to remain silent for a whole movement. “Tacet” is Latin for “it is silent”.

100D Record label launched by Clive Davis : ARISTA

Arista Records was set up as part of Columbia Pictures by Clive Davis. Davis chose “Arista” as it was the name of the New York City Honor Society to which he belonged.

102D Dynamics prefix : THERMO-

Thermodynamics is the study of how heat moves and transforms into different types of energy. Among other things, it explains why heat always flows from hot to cold, and why it’s physically impossible to create a perpetual motion machine that runs forever without fuel.

105D Part of USSR : SOVIET

The former Soviet Union (officially “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” or “USSR”) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and comprised fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

108D Chevy sports car, for short : ’VETTE

The Chevrolet Corvette was introduced to the world in 1953, and was named after the small maneuverable warship called a corvette. The “Vette” has legs. It is the only American sports car that has been around for over 50 years.

113D __ Club : SAM’S

Sam’s Club is a warehouse club that is owned and operated by Walmart. It is named after the company’s founder Sam Walton. Walton opened the first Sam’s Club in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma.

115D Scots’ bonnets : TAMS

A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap worn traditionally by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”) but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of the Robert Burns poem “Tam o’ Shanter”. A pom-pom adorning a tam is known as a toorie.

118D Patrick Swayze’s “__ Like the Wind” : SHE’S

“She’s Like the Wind” is a power ballad that was co-written by actor Patrick Swayze for the 1984 movie “Grandview, U.S.A.”, in which Swayze appeared. The song wasn’t used, but when Swayze played it for the producers of the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing”, they opted to use it. Swayze performed the song himself, and it reached number-three on the Billboard Hot 100.

121D Sheridan of “Mud” : TYE

Actor Tye Sheridan had one of the lead roles in the 2012 coming-of-age film “Mud”, which starred Matthew McConaughey. More recently, he played the lead in the sci-fi action film “Ready Player One”, which came out in 2018.