LA Times Crossword 11 Apr 26, Saturday

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Constructed by: Samuel A. Donaldson & Doug Peterson

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 11m 42s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Orange belts found in some flutes : MIMOSAS

Where I come from, the cocktail known in North America as a mimosa is called a buck’s fizz, with the latter named for Buck’s Club in London where it was introduced in 1921. The mimosa came along a few years later, apparently first being served in the Paris Ritz. If you want to make a mimosa, it’s a 50-50 mix of champagne and orange juice, and it is very tasty …

The narrow bowl of a champagne flute is usually preferred over the wide bowl of a champagne coupe as the smaller surface area of the wine helps retain its carbonation.

14A Song usually accompanied by pantomime : I’M A LITTLE TEAPOT

The children’s song “I’m a Little Teapot” was written and published in 1939, composed by a married couple who ran a dance school for children. They needed a simple tune that young ones could use to learn a simple tap routine, and came up with this:

I’m a little teapot,
Short and stout,
Here is my handle,
Here is my spout,
When I get all steamed up,
Hear me shout,
Tip me over and pour me out!

Our word “pantomime” comes from the Greek word “pantomimos” meaning “actor”. The literal translation of the Greek is “imitator of all”, from “panto-” (all) and “mimos” (imitator). We use the term today to describe communication by means of facial expression and physical gestures. On the other side of the Atlantic, pantomimes (often “pantos”) are also very popular Christmas entertainments based on nursery tales like “Mother Goose”, “Aladdin” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Great, great stuff …

19A Some fans of The Cure : GOTHS

The Cure is an English rock band founded in 1976 that is still going strong today, although not with the original line up. The only top-ten hit the Cure had in the US was “Lovesong”, released in 1989.

20A Pi follower : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R. It is the 17th letter in the Greek alphabet.

22A Country named for Africa’s second-highest peak : KENYA

Kenya lies on the east coast of Africa, right on the equator. The country takes its name from Mount Kenya, the second-highest peak on the continent (after Kilimanjaro). The official languages of Kenya are English and Swahili.

23A One-quarter of UTEP : PASO

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was founded in 1914 as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. To this day, there is a mine shaft on the campus. The mascot of the school’s sports teams is Paydirt Pete, a prospector from the mining industry. The teams are also known as the UTEP Miners and Lady Miners.

28A “Your Friend & Jeweler” company : SHANE

Shane Company is a privately owned jewelry retailer that was founded in 1971 in Denver. Shane’s is known for using radio advertising, and the oft-quoted tagline “Now you have a friend in the jewelry business”, spoken by the company’s founder Tom Shane.

30A Biles with five eponymous gymnastics skills : SIMONE

Artistic gymnast Simone Biles holds many, many world and US records. In 2022, President Joe Biden presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the youngest person ever to receive the award.

32A Constant figure in quantum theory? : PLANCK

Max Planck was a theoretical physicist from Germany who developed quantum theory. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. He postulated the fundamental physical constant now known as Planck’s constant, denoted by the letter “h”.

36A Egg foo young, e.g. : OMELET

Egg foo yung is a dish served in Chinese restaurants. It is basically an omelet, and probably takes its name from a flower called the Fu Yung.

38A Davis canine : ODIE

In the “Garfield” comic strip, Odie is the less-than-smart beagle. The strip’s creator, Jim Davis, based Odie on a character he created for a local car dealership advertisement before he came up with “Garfield”.

39A Dennings of “WandaVision” : KAT

Kat Dennings is the stage name of actress Katherine Litwack, who is noted today for her co-starring role on CBS’s sitcom “2 Broke Girls”. On the big screen, she plays the somewhat humorous character Dr. Darcy Lewis in the “Thor” series of films. Dennings is an avid blogger, and you can check out her video blog on YouTube.

“WandaVision” is a TV miniseries featuring characters from Marvel Comics. The title characters are Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) played by Elizabeth Olsen and Vision played by Paul Bettany. I am by no means a fan of screen adaptations of comic characters, but I might take a look at “WandaVision”. Wanda and Vision are living in suburbia, trying to conceal their superhero identities. Each episode progresses the storyline through several decades, using situations encountered in TV shows of the day. Episodes use the format of shows such as:

• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• I Love Lucy
• Bewitched
• I Dream of Jeannie
• The Brady Bunch
• Good Times
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• Full House
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Modern Family
• Out of this World
• The Twilight Zone

Sounds very intriguing …

46A Durham sch. : UNH

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is the largest university in the state. UNH was founded as the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts in 1866 in Hanover. The college was moved to Durham in the early 1890s, which is where UNH’s main campus is located to this day. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Wildcats.

48A Folk legend Griffith : NANCI

Nanci Griffith is a country singer/songwriter from Austin, Texas. She had some tragic inspiration that she has used in a few of her songs, as an old boyfriend of hers was killed in a motorcycle accident right after taking her to the senior prom.

49A Yellowstone’s less predictable attraction : STEAMBOAT GEYSER

Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park is the world’s tallest active geyser. It is capable of propelling superheated water more than 300 feet into the air. Its more famous neighbor, Old Faithful, can only reach a height of 184 feet at most.

Old Faithful is a geyser in Yellowstone National Park. It erupts almost every 63 minutes on the nose, making it one of the most predictable geographic features on the planet. It was this predictability that led to the name “Old Faithful”. In the early days of Yellowstone’s existence as a park, the geyser was used as a laundry. Dirty linen clothing was placed in the geyser’s crater during the quiet period. The clothing was ejected during the eruption, thoroughly washed.

52A Black aces and black eights : THE DEAD MAN’S HAND

In 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was playing poker in a saloon in the town of Deadwood in the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory. For once, the gunfighting lawman was sitting with his back to the door, something he almost always avoided. He had twice tried to change seats to give him a view of the door, but his card-playing comrades weren’t obliging. An enemy of Wild Bill’s named Jack McCall then was able to enter the saloon without being noticed. He walked up to the table and shot Hickok in the back of the head, killing him instantly. The hand that Hickok was holding contained four black cards, two aces and two eights. Since the killing, black aces and eights in a poker hand have been referred to as the “dead man’s hand”.

54A Plucky Renaissance faire performers? : LUTISTS

Medieval lutes were routinely played using quills as plectrums. After the Middle Ages, it became more common for players to pluck the strings using their fingers.

A Renaissance faire (Ren faire) is an outdoor public event in which many participants recreate historical settings by dressing in costume. Usually held in North America, many such fairs are set during the English Renaissance, and more particularly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The definition of “Renaissance” is often stretched quite a bit, with fairs also set during the reign of Henry VIII, and maybe even during medieval times.

Down

1D “Doctor Who” actress Gibson : MILLIE

Actress Millie Gibson is perhaps best known on this side of the Atlantic for playing Ruby Sunday, the title character’s companion on the British sci-fi TV show “Doctor Who”. She had the role from 2023 to 2025, appearing alongside the fifteenth Doctor, portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa.

3D Seder servings : MATZOS

Matzo is an unleavened flatbread used in Jewish cuisine, and which plays a central role in the Seder ritual feast that marks the beginning of Passover.

4D Elizabeth of “WandaVision” : OLSEN

Elizabeth Olsen is the younger sister of famous actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who rose to fame as child stars on the TV show “Full House”. Elizabeth didn’t start acting until later in life, and has starred in several critically acclaimed films. She is also known for her role as Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“WandaVision” is a TV miniseries featuring characters from Marvel Comics. The title characters are Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) played by Elizabeth Olsen and Vision played by Paul Bettany. I am by no means a fan of screen adaptations of comic characters, but I might take a look at “WandaVision”. Wanda and Vision are living in suburbia, trying to conceal their superhero identities. Each episode progresses the storyline through several decades, using situations encountered in sitcoms of the day. Episodes use the format of shows such as:

• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• I Love Lucy
• Bewitched
• I Dream of Jeannie
• The Brady Bunch
• Good Times
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
• Full House
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Modern Family
• Out of this World
• The Twilight Zone

Sounds very intriguing …

6D City with more than 70 sts. named Peachtree : ATL

Peachtree Street is the primary thoroughfare running through the city of Atlanta.

9D To boot : AT THAT

The noun “boot” was once used to describe something of advantage in trying to accomplish a goal. This obsolete term really only exists in the adverb “to boot” meaning “in addition, over and above”, literally “to advantage”.

12D Like many Bolshoi performances : OPERATIC

The Bolshoi Theatre is a celebrated opera house in Moscow. It gets its name from the Russian word for “big”, reflecting its status as one of the world’s most massive stages. The Bolshoi’s ballet company is the largest in the world, having about 200 members. I had the pleasure of visiting the Bolshoi in Moscow many moons ago, and attending a ballet on that stage …

13D Seafaring retreat for couples? : NOAH’S ARK

Genesis 6:19-20 states that Noah was instructed to take two animals of every kind into the ark. Later, in Genesis 7:2-3 Noah was instructed to take on board “every clean animal by sevens … male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth”. Apparently, “extras” (7 rather than 2) were needed for ritual sacrifice.

15D “Poker Face” star Natasha : LYONNE

Actress Natasha Lyonne garnered considerable attention for her performances as convict Nicole Nichols in the show “Orange Is the New Black”. More recently, she led the cast in the show “Russian Doll”, playing Nadia Vulvokov.

“Poker Face” is a murder-mystery TV show created by Rian Johnson that premiered in 2023. Star of the show is actress Natasha Lyonne, who plays a casino worker with an uncanny ability to determine when someone is lying. I quite enjoyed this one …

22D Zen paradox : KOAN

The concept of koan appears in the Zen Buddhist tradition. A koan is a story, question or perhaps a statement that is used as an aid to meditation. It often takes the form of a problem or riddle that has no logical solution and is intended to help the meditator break free of reason and develop intuition.

23D Ends used for shaping : PEENS

The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer). More often than not, the peen is replaced with a claw, primarily for removing nails.

27D Midway alternative : O’HARE

Midway Airport (MDW) started off with just one cinder runway in 1923, and was called Chicago Air Park. By 1927 the airport had expanded and earned the name Chicago Municipal Airport. In 1932 Midway was the world’s busiest airport, a title it held for thirty years. In 1949, in honor of the WWII Battle of Midway, the airport was renamed again to Chicago Midway Airport. Then in 1955, along came Chicago International Airport and all the major airlines started moving their operations over to the newer facility. Today, Midway is a major hub for Southwest.

28D Extract metal using heat : SMELT

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and, a greenhouse gas).

30D “Sex and the City” role : SAMANTHA

Kim Cattrall is a Canadian-English actress best known for playing Samantha Jones on HBO’s “Sex and the City”. My favorite film in which Cattrall features is the excellent 2010 film “The Ghost Writer”, in which she does a great job playing an Englishwoman.

34D Plague pest : LOCUST

According to the biblical Book of Exodus, God inflicted ten plagues on Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the Israelites from bondage. For example, the first was the changing of water in the Nile to blood, the eighth was a plague of locusts that consumed all the Egyptian crops, and the tenth was the death of firstborn sons.

39D “Dust in the Wind” band : KANSAS

“Dust in the Wind” is a lovely 1977 song recorded by the prog rock band Kansas that was written by one of the group’s founding members, Kerry Livgren. It was to be the only top-ten hit for Kansas in the US.

47D Contacted on the ‘gram : DMED

Direct message (DM)

48D Location of a small kite : NEST

Kites are birds of prey that feed mainly on carrion.

50D Fuss of Shakespearean proportions? : ADO

The phrase “much ado about nothing” was coined by William Shakespeare when he used it as the title of his celebrated comedy. We use the phrase to describe a big fuss over a trifling issue.

51D Shaggy grazer : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch word meaning “wild beast”.