LA Times Crossword 12 Dec 25, Friday

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Constructed by: Harit Raghunathan & Joah Macosko

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Tom Tom Club

Themed answers in the down-direction are written back-to-front. Themed answers in the across-direction use those backward down-answers. Complicated, but clever …

• 20A Lift system that offers a mechanical advantage : ROPE AND PULLEY
• 7D Lats-working exercise, literally : LLUP (PULL-UP)

• 27A Puts everything on the line : RISKS IT ALL
• 22D Abs-working exercise, literally : TIS (SIT-UP)

• 46A Challenging HS class that covers Reconstruction and Prohibition : AP US HISTORY
• 31D Pecs-working exercise, literally : HSUP (PUSH-UP)

• 57A Summer forecast in the Southwest : SCORCHING HEAT
• 44D Biceps-working exercise, literally : NIHC (CHIN-UP)

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

Bill’s time: 10m 57s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Concocts : BREWS

To decoct is to extract the flavor of a liquid by boiling down and increasing the concentration. A related term is “to concoct”, meaning “to boil together”. We use the verb “to concoct” in a figurative sense to mean to contrive, devise.

6A “O Captain! My Captain!,” for one : ELEGY

“O Captain! My Captain!” is an 1865 poem by Walt Whitman, an elegy written about President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

11A Org. with Falcons and Ravens : NFL

The Atlanta Falcons joined the NFL in 1965. The team name was suggested by a schoolteacher called Miss Julia Elliott. Elliot suggested that “the Falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.”

The name of the Baltimore Ravens football team has a literary derivation. Baltimore was the home of the writer Edgar Allan Poe, and so the team took its moniker from his most famous poem, “The Raven”. The name was selected in a fan contest. Baltimore’s mascot is a raven named Poe. Prior to the 2008 season, the Ravens had a trio of avian mascots: Edgar, Allan and Poe.

14A Navel type : OUTIE

The navel is essentially the scar left behind when the umbilical cord is removed from a newborn baby. One interesting use of the umbilicus (navel, belly button) is to differentiate between identical twins, especially when they are very young.

16A Part of IPA : ALE

India pale ale (IPA)

18A Busiest port in South Korea : BUSAN

The busiest port in South Korea is Busan, located on the southeastern coast of the country. It is the nation’s second-most populous city, and one of the busiest container ports in the world. Busan also played a crucial role during the Korean War as one of only two cities never captured by North Korean forces, which led to it serving as the temporary capital of South Korea, from 1950 to 1953.

20A Lift system that offers a mechanical advantage : ROPE AND PULLEY

A rope and pulley system is a simple machine used to lift objects. A related, but more complex, setup uses multiple pulleys, and is known as a block and tackle. The latter provides a significant mechanical advantage”, as the rope supports the load in multiple places.

26A Cartoon frame : CEL

Animation cels are transparent sheets made of celluloid acetate that were used in traditional hand-drawn animation to create animated films. They were first introduced in the 1930s and were widely used in animation production until the late 1990s, when digital animation techniques began to dominate the industry.

30A The “Thunder” of Marvel’s “Love and Thunder” : THOR

“Thor: Love and Thunder” is a 2022 sequel to the superhero film “Thor: Ragnarok” from 2017. Chris Hemsworth plays the title character. A younger version of Thor is played by Hemsworth’s twin sons Sasha and Tristan.

33A “Thank you,” in Swahili : ASANTE

Swahili is one of the many Bantu languages spoken in Africa. There are hundreds of Bantu languages, with most being spoken in central, east and southern Africa. The most commonly spoken Bantu language is Swahili, with Zulu coming in second.

35A “Excusez-__” : MOI

“Excusez-moi” is French for “excuse me”.

36A Clambake leftovers : ASHES

A traditional, New England clambake features seafood cooked by steaming. A pit is dug and lined with rocks, which are heated for hours by a large wood fire. Once the fire burns down, the food (clams, lobsters, corn, etc.) is layered directly onto the hot rocks, which are covered with wet seaweed. The entire pit is then covered, allowing the steam from the seaweed to cook everything through. Cool, huh (not!)?

45A Future atty.’s exam : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

46A Challenging HS class that covers Reconstruction and Prohibition : AP US HISTORY

The Reconstruction Era followed the American Civil War, which ended in 1865. The period ended in 1877 when President Rutherford B. Hayes removed the last federal troops from the capitals of the Reconstruction states soon after taking office.

The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was a great victory for the temperance movement (the “dry” movement), and in 1919 ushered in the Prohibition era. Highly unpopular (with the “wet” movement), Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.

48A __ Jima : IWO

Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. The name is Japanese for “Sulfur Island”, referring to the sulfur mining on which Iwo Jima’s economy once depended. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since. Control of the island was wrested from the Japanese in the five-week Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Said battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific theater in WWII.

55A Plant inspection org. : OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970 during the Nixon administration. It is a direct successor to the Bureau of Labor Standards that dealt with some work safety issues since its founding in 1934. OSHA regulates workplaces in the private sector and regulates just one government agency, namely the US Postal Service.

59A Lobster eggs : ROE

A male lobster is called a cock, and a female a hen. A lobster weighing less than a pound is called a chicken.

61A __ Dakota : NORTH

The Dakota Territory was formed in 1861 and ceased to exist with the admission to the Union of the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The territory was split into two states in 1889 largely due to lobbying by the Republican Party, which enjoyed a lot of support in the Dakota Territory. The admission of two states added to the political power of the party in the US Senate, by adding four safe Republican seats.

63A Tea option : PEKOE

A pekoe (or more commonly “orange pekoe”) is a medium-grade black tea. There is no orange flavor in an orange pekoe tea. The “orange” name most likely derived from the name of the trading company that brought the tea to Europe from Asia.

Down

3D Tour de France stage : ETAPE

“Étape” is the French word for stage, as in a “stage” in the Tour de France. The term is used in English military circles to describe where troops halt overnight, but can also describe the section of the march itself. So, a march can be divided into stages, into étapes.

Back in the late 1800s, long-distance cycle races were used as promotional events, traditionally to help boost sales of newspapers. These races usually took place around tracks, but in 1902 the backers of the struggling sports publication “L’Auto” decided to stage a race that would take the competitors all around France. That first Tour de France took place in 1903, starting in Paris and passing through Lyon, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes and then back to Paris.

4D Smart aleck : WISEACRE

The word “wiseacre” dates back to the late 1500s, when it was a botched translation of the Middle Dutch word “wijsegger” meaning “soothsayer”. Originally, there was no derogatory connotation to the word, but over time a wiseacre had become a know-it-all.

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

5D Halvah flavor : SESAME

Halvah (also “halva, halwa”) is a sweet confection. It is common across Asia and best known in North America as part of Jewish cuisine.

6D Staff lines with a notable mnemonic : EGBDF

In the world of music, EGBDF are the notes on the lines of the treble clef. The notes are often remembered with a mnemonic such as “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge”.

10D Japanese money : YEN

The Japanese yen (JPY) is the third-most traded currency in the world, after the US dollar and the euro.

13D Period after Ash Wednesday : LENT

In the Christian tradition, the first day in the season of Lent is called Ash Wednesday. On Ash Wednesday, Palm Crosses from the prior year’s Palm Sunday are burned. The resulting ashes are mixed with sacred oil and then used to anoint worshipers on the forehead with the shape of a cross.

21D Po’boy city : NOLA

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), Louisiana (LA).

A po’boy is a submarine sandwich from Louisiana. The name of the sandwich apparently dates back to 1929. It was a sandwich given away free to streetcar workers in New Orleans during a strike, i.e. to “poor boys” not earning a wage. A po’boy differs from a regular submarine sandwich in that it uses Louisiana French bread, which is soft in the middle and crusty on the outside.

28D “Copacabana” showgirl : LOLA

The Copacabana of the 1978 Barry Manilow song is the Copacabana nightclub in New York City (which is also the subject of the Frank Sinatra song “Meet Me at the Copa”). The Copa opened in 1940 and is still going today, although it is struggling. The club had to move due to impending construction and is now “sharing” a location with the Columbus 72 nightclub.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star
Tony always tended bar
Across the crowded floor, they worked from 8 ’til 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?

34D Dessert with a sconelike texture : SHORTCAKE

Shortening is a fat used in baking. It is the term “shortening” that gives us the words “shortbread” and “shortcake”.

47D Sp. honorific : SRA

The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).

49D Honus whose baseball card is one of the rarest and most expensive in the world : WAGNER

Honus Wagner was a professional shortstop who played mainly for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wagner was one of the first five players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He actually received the second-highest number of votes, tying with Babe Ruth and just behind Ty Cobb.

T206 is a series of tobacco cards that was issued by the American Tobacco Company from 1909 to 1911. The series is famous among collectors of baseball cards due to its extreme rarity. The T206 Honus Wagner card is the most valuable baseball card in existence, with examples routinely fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions.

52D Font flourish : SERIF

Serifs are details on the ends of characters in some typefaces. Typefaces without serifs are known as sans-serif, using the French word “sans” meaning “without” and “serif” from the Dutch “schreef” meaning “line”. Some people say that serif fonts are easier to read on paper, whereas sans-serif fonts work better on a computer screen. I’m not so sure though …

54D Upper regions of space : ETHER

The Greek philosopher Empedocles proposed that there are four elements that made up the universe, namely earth, water, air and fire. Aristotle later proposed a fifth element which he called aether (also “ether”). Aether was the divine substance that made up the stars and planets. We’re still using the term “ether” with a similar meaning, and the extended term “ethereal” to mean “lacking material substance” and “marked by unusual delicacy”.

58D __-Missouria Tribe : OTOE

The Otoe and Missouria Native-American tribes, once part of a larger group in the Great Lakes region, migrated west and became distinct peoples with related languages and customs. They inhabited areas of present-day Nebraska and Missouri, giving those states and the Missouri River their names. European contact brought trade but also devastating diseases, leading the diminished Missouria to merge with the Otoe. Today, the Otoe-Missouria tribe is headquartered in Red Rock, Oklahoma.

60D Beach bottle no. : SPF

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …