LA Times Crossword 13 Dec 25, Saturday

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Constructed by: Stella Zawistowski

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 32m 07s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Crunk kin : TRAP

Trap is a genre of hip hop music that originated in the early 21st century in the southern US. The name “trap” is a slang word used in Atlanta for a house used to sell drugs.

Crunk is a subgenre of hip hop that originated in the 1990s. It is primarily party music, with the name “crunk” itself being slang for getting “crazy” and “drunk”, “cranking up” the energy. I can at least relate to crazy and drunk …

11A Omaha prize : POT

Omaha is a poker card game similar to Texas hold ‘em. The two games differ in that there are four initial hole cards per player in Omaha, as opposed to just two in Texas hold ’em. And in Omaha, each player’s hand is made up of exactly three cards from the board and exactly two of the player’s own cards.

15A Target of some copyright infringement lawsuits : OPENAI

OpenAI is the American artificial intelligence company, now backed by Microsoft, that created the popular chatbot ChatGPT. OpenAI was originally founded as a non-profit in 2015, but has since transitioned to a “capped-profit” model, whatever that means …

16A Hard wood : ASH

The wood of the ash tree is hardwood, although it is relatively elastic. Famously, ash is the wood of choice for baseball bats. It is also the wood of choice for hurleys, the wooden sticks used in the Irish sport of hurling.

18A Jarring tonal shifts : DISSONANCE

In music, dissonance is a combination of notes that sound unstable, clashing or harsh, creating a sense of tension. It’s the opposite of consonance, which sounds stable, pleasing or harmonious. Composers can use dissonance to build suspense and emotion, usually before “resolving” to a more stable sound.

20A Two-part bet : PERFECTA

To win a bet called an exacta (also “perfecta”), the person betting must name the horses that finish first and second, and in the exact order. The related bet called the trifecta requires naming of the first, second and third-place finishers in the right order.

32A Year of the Four Emperors emperor : OTHO

AD 69 was a year of civil war in ancient Rome. The unrest started with the death of emperor Nero in AD 68, after which followed the brief rule of Galba, of Otho, of Vitellius, and of Vespasian all in the same year. As a result, AD 69 became known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

33A Miami-__ County : DADE

The residents of Florida’s Dade County voted to change its name to Miami-Dade County in 1997. The change was made in recognition of its most populous and famous city.

34A Only city in Samoa : APIA

Apia is the capital city, and the only city, of the Pacific island-nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven naval vessels from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of others. Six of the ships were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely. Apia is also known as the home of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, for the last four years of his life.

39A Self-awareness? : PROPRIOCEPTION

Proprioception is our body’s unconscious ability to know where its parts are without us having to look. It’s how we can close our eyes and still touch a finger to our nose, or walk up stairs without staring at our feet. “Proprioception” was coined in 1906 by neurophysiologist Charles Scott Sherrington, from the Latin words “proprius” (meaning “one’s own”) and “capere” (meaning “to grasp”), so “grasping one’s own” position.

41A Alison Bechdel’s “Fun __: A Family Tragicomic” : HOME

“Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” is a 2006 graphic memoir by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. It’s an exploration of her childhood, her relationship with her closeted father, and her own coming out, all centered around the family-run funeral home they nicknamed the “Fun Home”. Bechdel is also famous as the namesake of the “Bechdel Test”, a metric for evaluating the representation of women in fiction.

American cartoonist Alison Bechdel introduced what’s now known as the Bechdel test in 1985. The test is used to highlight gender inequality in works of fiction. To pass the test, a work must feature at least two female characters who talk to each other about something other than a boy or a man. Apparently, only half of all movies made meet this criterion.

42A Condiment made with pickled mango : AMBA

Amba is a tangy condiment made from pickled green mangoes. It’s a staple in Middle Eastern cuisine, though it has its origins in India. The name “amba” is derived from the Sanskrit word for mango.

43A “Lilo & Stitch” theme : OHANA

“‘Ohana” is a Hawaiian word meaning “extended family”.

“Lilo & Stitch” was released by Disney in 2002. Compared to other Disney feature-length cartoons, “Lilo & Stitch” was relatively cheaply produced, using the voices of lesser-known actors. One interesting change had to take place in the storyline during production, when Lilo was meant to fly a Jumbo Jet through downtown Honolulu in one sequence. This was replaced with a sequence using a spaceship instead, as the producers were sensitive to public sentiment after the September 11 attacks.

44A Shinto shrine gateway : TORII

A torii is a very traditional Japanese gate, one often seen at the entrance to a Shinto shrine.

It is perhaps best not to describe Shinto as a religion, but more as a “spirituality of the Japanese people”, a spirituality that encompasses folklore, history and mythology. Having said that, “Shinto” translates literally as “Way of the gods”. Most people in Japan who are described as practicing Shinto, also practice Buddhism.

46A “Day by Day” musical : GODSPELL

“Godspell” is stage musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak that opened off Broadway in 1971. The show started life as a college project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and simply took off. The show’s song “Day by Day” became a big hit in the popular charts.

50A Work hard : MOIL

To moil is to toil or to slave away. The verb “to moil” originally applied to laboring in the mire, the swamp. The term comes from the Old French “moillier” meaning “to wet”, as in getting wet in the mire.

52A Can. leaders : PMS

Prime Minister (PM)

53A Thin layer : LAMINA

A lamina is a layer, plate or scale. “Lamina” is Latin for “thin slice”.

54A “Black Beauty” novelist Sewell : ANNA

English novelist Anna Sewell only wrote one book in her life, which was the immensely popular “Black Beauty” first published in 1877. The book was written at the tail end of Sewell’s life, over a period of six years while her health was declining. “Black Beauty” was an immediate success, and is supposedly the sixth best selling title in the English language. Sewell died just five months after the book was published, at age 58, but she did get to see its immediate success.

Down

1D Name on a JFK hotel designed by Eero Saarinen : TWA

The TWA Hotel that opened in 2019 uses the main part of the TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport that serves New York City. The magnificent TWA Flight Center was designed by Eero Saarinen, opened in 1962, and closed in 2001. The building was repurposed as a hotel and opened for business in 2017. As of 2022, it is the only hotel operating on the grounds of JFK.

4D Reference in a doctor’s office : PHARMACOPOEIA

A pharmacopoeia is a reference book describing medicinal compounds and their use. The term “pharmacopoeia” often applies to such a book published by a government agency or pharmaceutical society. The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) is published annually by the nonprofit United States Pharmacopeial Convention, and sets quality standards for drugs made available for both human and animal consumption. Prescribed drugs must meet those standards, and be marked with the designation “USP”.

6D Literary figure who embodies the values of a civilization : EPIC HERO

An epic is a long narrative work, originally poetic in form, featuring heroic deeds and ventures. Classic examples are Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, and the Old English “Beowulf”. The epic hero often embodies the values of a civilization, like Odysseus and his Greek cunning, and like Beowulf and his Anglo-Saxon courage.

9D Language known as Isan in northeastern Thailand : LAO

Lao is the official language of Laos. It is also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, but there the language is known as Isan.

10D First Asian player inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame : LI NA

Li Na is a retired tennis professional from China who was ranked world no. 2 on the circuit in 2014. She was the first Asian player inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, being so honored in 2019.

11D Color of the Year company : PANTONE

Pantone is a company best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing. Pantone provides a universal language of color, making sure that the color you see on your screen or in a design file is the same color that gets printed. Essentially, Pantone helps ensure consistent and accurate color across different mediums and industries.

12D Accolades for “Flow” and “The Shape of Water” : OSCARS

The 2024 animated film “Flow” (“Straume” in Latvian) made history as it was the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award (Best Animated Feature). It is a survival story that follows a cat and other animals who team up on a boat after a catastrophic flood.

“The Shape of Water” is a 2017 movie that is described as a “romantic monster” film, and so is in a pretty unique genre, I’d say. It was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who also co-wrote the script. It’s all about a mute young lady working in a government laboratory and falling in love with a humanoid amphibian who is held captive there. Not my cup of tea …

13D “Et voilà!” : THERE!

The French word “voilà” means “there it is”, and “voici” means “here it is”. The terms come from “voi là” meaning “see there” and “voi ici” meaning “see here”.

28D Region whose name means “desert” : SAHARA

The name “Sahara” means “desert” in Arabic. The Sahara is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

29D Moxie, e.g. : SODA POP

Back as far as 1876, Moxie was a brand name of a “medicine” peddled with the claim that it “built up your nerve”. In 1924, “Moxie” was registered as a trademark for a bitter, non-alcoholic beverage (no more claims of nerve-building). We’ve used the term “moxie” to mean “nerve” ever since …

35D Without emotion : ROBOTIC

Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1921 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

37D Celeb news site : E! ONLINE

E! Entertainment Television started out in 1987 as Movietime, and hired on-air hosts such as Greg Kinnear and Paula Abdul. It was renamed in 1990 to E! Entertainment Television, underscoring the focus on Hollywood gossip and the like.

38D “The Double Helix” subject : DNA

“The Double Helix” is a 1968 autobiographical book about the discovery of the structure of DNA, penned by James D. Watson. Watson won the Nobel Prize for the word, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins. The book is highly controversial because it minimizes the critical contributions of chemist Rosalind Franklin. Watson’s own writing confirms that he and Crick used her essential X-ray diffraction data, namely the famous “Photo 51”, to build their double helix model without her knowledge or permission, and she was not given proper credit at the time.

41D Letters signifying encryption : HTTPS

“http” are the first letters in many Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. More secure and “safer” websites (like this one!) use links starting with “https”, which stands for “http secure”.

47D Sp. titles : SRAS

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

51D Spot for a toy : LAP

The toy group of dogs is made up of the smallest breeds. The smallest of the small breeds are sometimes called teacup breeds.