LA Times Crossword 15 Aug 26, Saturday

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Constructed by: Barbara Lin & Jess Rucks

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 13m 27s

Bill’s errors: 3

• RANGED (ragged)
• DATA (Dana)
• PLEASE NOTE (please, gone?!)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Teddy bear : SOFTY

The stuffed toy known as a teddy bear was introduced in the early 1900s and was named for President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. The toy was inspired by a political cartoon that was drawn in 1902 showing President Roosevelt on a bear hunt and refusing to kill a black bear cub. That event is celebrated annually on September 9th as National Teddy Bear Day.

6A Carousel rider? : BAG

Apparently, the baggage carousel was developed by a French company. The first installation was in Paris Orly Airport in the 1950s.

9A Basaltic plain on the moon : MARE

A lunar mare is a large basaltic plain formed by ancient volcanic eruptions that flooded the Moon’s basins with lava billions of years ago. Early astronomers mistook the iron-rich “maria” (plural of “mare”) for bodies of water, naming them using the Latin word for “sea”.

16A Driver on a movie set : ADAM

Adam Driver is an actor perhaps best known to TV audiences for playing Adam Sackler on the show “Girls” that airs on HBO. Driver’s movie career got a huge boost in 2015 when he played villain Kylo Ren in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

18A Spam musubi wrapper : NORI

Spam musubi is a snack food comprising a slice of grilled Spam and a block of rice, both wrapped in nori (dried edible seaweed from traditional Japanese cuisine). Spam musubi are particularly popular in Hawaii and Guam.

23A Useful spot : PSA

Public service announcement (PSA)

25A Multipurpose tool : SPORK

“Spork” is the more common name for the utensil that is a hybrid between a spoon and a fork. The same utensil is less commonly referred to as a “foon”.

27A Verb coined in “Stranger in a Strange Land” : GROK

To grok is to understand. “Grok” is a slang term that’s really only used in “techie” circles. It is the creation of science fiction author Robert Heinlein, who coined it in his 1961 novel “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

29A Berry grown in Ohio? : HALLE

Actress Halle Berry was the first African American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, which she received for her performance in the 2001 movie “Monster’s Ball”. Berry also won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in 2005 for playing the title role in “Catwoman”, and she very graciously accepted that award in person. Good for her!

30A Jordan who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay : PEELE

Jordan Peele is a former cast member of the sketch comedy show “Mad TV”. Peele created his own sketch comedy show “Key & Peele” with fellow “Mad TV” alum Keegan-Michael Key. Peele started hosting and producing the revival of “The Twilight Zone” in 2019.

35A “J to __ L-O!”: 2002 remix album : THA

“J to tha L–O! The Remixes” is a 2002 album released by Jennifer Lopez. As the title indicates, the tracks are remixes, remixes of songs from her earlier albums “On the 6” (1999) and “J.Lo” (2001).

36A Replacements after leaving marks? : EUROS

One of the currencies replaced by the euro was Germany’s Deutsche Mark (known as “deutschmark” in English).

38A __ de deux : PAS

In the world of ballet, a pas de deux is a duet in which the dancers dance together. A classic pas de deux has a particular structure. It starts with a short entree followed by an adagio and two variations, one for each dancer, and ends with a short coda. The term “pas de deux” is French for “step for two”, or I suppose “dance for two”.

39A Mass agreement : AMEN

The word “amen” translates as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is also likely to be influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

50A Mil. no-show : AWOL

AWOL (absent without leave)

53A “The Goonies” role for Ke Huy Quan : DATA

Ke Huy Quan is an actor who returned to our screens in 2021 after a 19-year hiatus that followed two notable appearances in movies. He played the young orphan named Short Round in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, and then the James Bond fanatic named Data in 1985’s “The Goonies”.

“The Goonies” is a 1985 movie based on a story written by Steven Spielberg. It is an adventure film, with the title characters being a group of young treasure hunters from the fictional Goon Docks neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon (hence the movie’s title). I haven’t seen this one …

56A Fashion letters : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

Down

2D Della Warrior’s heritage : OTOE

Della Warrior served as the chairperson and chief executive officer of the Otoe-Missouria tribe from 1989 to 1992, and was the first female to hold those offices. In 2007, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame.

7D Stanford’s gp. : ACC

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams of Stanford University. From 1930 to 1972, the teams were named the “Indians”. The racially insensitive moniker was changed to “Cardinals” from 1972 to 1981, a reference to the team colors (cardinal red and white). The name was modified in 1981, changing “Cardinals” to “Cardinal”, the singular form.

10D Juvenile : ADOLESCENT

In contemporary usage, the word “juvenile” describes a young individual, often someone who is under a legal age (such as 18). The term comes from the Latin “juvenis”, which originally described a man in the prime of his life (roughly ages 20 to 40) rather than a child.

14D Bridge unit : TRICK

The version of the card game bridge that is played mostly today is contract bridge. Auction bridge is a similar game, and is a precursor to contract bridge.

15D Choke : 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.

25D “Shantay, you stay” opposite : SASHAY AWAY

In the TV reality competition show “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, RuPaul announces the fate of the bottom two competitors with the terms “shantay” and “sashay away”. The former, a play on the French greeting “enchanté”, is used in place of “you stay”. The latter is a dismissal.

34D 1982 Hall & Oates song : MANEATER

Ostensibly, the 1982 Hall & Oates megahit “Maneater” is about a woman, and that’s how the final lyrics were written. However, John Oates tells us that the song was originally penned with New York City in mind, and how the city could “chew you up”.

43D Chappell Roan’s “__ Pony Club” : PINK

“Pink Pony Club” is a 2020 song, co-written and recorded by Chappell Roan, that celebrates queer identity and self-expression. Roan drew inspiration from her experiences growing up in a conservative environment, where she felt a sense of otherness. The “Pink Pony Club” represents a metaphorical space of liberation, a haven where individuals can escape societal constraints and embrace their true selves.

46D Edina, Minnesota is home to the first U.S. indoor one : MALL

Edina, Minnesota is an affluent suburb of Minneapolis that lies just to the southwest of the city. The town takes its name from Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The name was suggested by a Scottish mill owner at the time the new village was founded in 1888.

47D Lucci role : KANE

Susan Lucci is perhaps the most famous actor associated with daytime soap operas, and was the highest paid actor in daytime television. Lucci was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series an incredible 21 times for her portrayal of Erica Kane, the vixen in “All My Children”.

48D Conditional word in Python : ELSE

Python is a computer language, apparently one that my computing son uses quite often. The developers of the language tried hard to make it fun to use, and even chose its name from the comedy show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”.

49D Blair Braverman vehicle : SLED

Blair Braverman is an adventurer, sled dog racer and advice columnist. She finished the celebrated Iditarod race in 2019. She also writes a regular advice column for “Outside Magazine”. Titled “Tough Love”, the column deals with relationships and the outdoors.