LA Times Crossword 22 Jul 26, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Shannon Rapp & Will Eisenberg

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Yoga Retreat

Themed answers each include a YOGA pose RETREATING, written backwards, hidden within:

• 63A Vacation for posers?, or what can be found in each set of circled letters : YOGA RETREAT

• 17A Singer known as the “Queen of Christmas” : MARIAH CAREY [hiding CHAIR (pose) in retreat]
• 24A Oscar won by Jessie Buckley for “Hamnet” : BEST ACTRESS [hiding CAT (pose) in retreat]
• 39A Device that gets the party poppin’? : BUBBLE MACHINE [hiding CAMEL (pose) in retreat]
• 54A Academic field for Judith Butler : QUEER THEORY [hiding TREE (pose) in retreat]

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

Bill’s time: 8m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Mission by the San Antonio River Walk : ALAMO

The San Antonio River Walk, officially known as the “Paseo del Rio”, is a 15.5-mile network of pedestrian walkways crossing downtown San Antonio, Texas. In effect, the walk along the San Antonio River is a city park, connecting several significant locations including five Spanish colonial missions, most notably the historic Alamo.

14A Steel rod : REBAR

A steel bar or mesh used to reinforce concrete is called “rebar”, which is short for “reinforcing bar”.

15A Target Center, e.g. : ARENA

The Target Center is an arena in Minneapolis that is home to the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx. It opened for business in 1990, with Target purchasing the naming rights from day one.

17A Singer known as the “Queen of Christmas” : MARIAH CAREY [hiding CHAIR (pose) in retreat]

Mariah Carey earned the nickname “Queen of Christmas” due to the success of her 1994 song “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. It is the best-selling holiday single by any female artist. We should have a drinking game right through December. Take a shot every time we hear “All I want for Christmas is You” …

In yoga, the chair pose is also known as the fierce pose, or utkatasana. The Sanskrit word “utkata” translates as “wild, frightening”. It is a standing asana, in which the knees are bent 90-degrees, the hips 90-degrees, and the arms are held above the head. The resulting pose is said to resemble a lightning bolt.

19A Like rubies and garnets : RED

Ruby is a precious stone made from the mineral corundum, also called aluminum oxide. The corundum includes some of the element chromium, which results in the red or pink color.

Garnets are silicate minerals that come in many colors. However, the color that we call “garnet” is a dark red.

20A “Anne of Green Gables” setting : AVONLEA

“Anne of Green Gables” is a 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery that she set in the fictional Prince Edward Island community of Avonlea. Montgomery wrote several sequels to “Anne”, with them all being set on Prince Edward Island (PEI), from where the author hailed.

21A Proactive Health pet food brand : IAMS

Iams dog food was introduced by animal nutritionist Paul Iams. He felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed dry dog food that he felt was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company in 1946.

23A Agcy. concerned with scheduling? : DEA

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regulates controlled substances using a five-tier “scheduling” system that classifies chemicals and medications based on their abuse potential and recognized medical use. The schedules were introduced under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and rank from Schedule I to Schedule V. Schedule I substances are defined as having the highest potential for severe dependence and have no accepted medical use, examples being drugs like heroin and LSD. Schedule V substances carry the lowest abuse potential and consist of standard medical preparations, such as cough syrups containing trace amounts of codeine.

24A Oscar won by Jessie Buckley for “Hamnet” : BEST ACTRESS [hiding CAT (pose) in retreat]

2025’s “Hamnet” is a historical drama film based on a 2020 novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, who also co-wrote the movie’s screenplay. The story follows William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes (also “Anne”) Hathaway, as they deal with the death of Hamnet, their 11-year-old son.

Actress Jessie Buckley made a little bit of history when she won the Best Actress Oscar for playing Agnes Shakespeare in the 2025 movie “Hamnet”. She was the first Irish person to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

The yoga pose called marjaryasana is also referred to as the cat pose. The practitioner usually kneels on all fours, and arches the back. The counterpose, with the back lowered, is the cow pose.

31A “Ambiguous Desire” singer Parks : ARLO

“Ambiguous Desire” is a 2026 album by English singer-songwriter Arlo Parks.

“Arlo Parks” is the stage name of British singer and poet Anaïs Marinho. Parks seems to have hit the big time early in her career, with her first studio album “Collapsed in Sunbeams” (2021) garnering a lot of positive attention.

32A Mina Kimes’s channel : ESPN

Sport journalist Mina Kimes began her career as an investigative journalist for “Fortune” and “Bloomberg”, later transitioning to sports journalism with ESPN in 2014. Kimes quickly became a regular contributor to various ESPN programs like “NFL Live”, “Around the Horn”, and “Highly Questionable”.

33A Doofus : OAF

“Doofus” (also “dufus”) is student slang that has been around since the sixties. Apparently the word is a variant of the equally unattractive term “doo-doo”.

39A Device that gets the party poppin’? : BUBBLE MACHINE [hiding CAMEL (pose) in retreat]

The camel pose, known also as “Ustrasana”, is a kneeling backbend that opens the chest and stretches the respiratory system. If you can do it, the full pose has the hands on the heels.

44A “Beyond the Gates,” for one : SOAP

“Beyond the Gates” is a daytime soap opera that lays claim to a few “firsts”. Firstly (pun!), aired by CBS, it was the “first” new daytime soap introduced on a major US broadcast network in over 25 years. Secondly, it is the first daytime soap to feature a primarily African American cast. The story centers on a wealthy and powerful Black family who live in a gated community (hence the show’s title).

48A Knee parts, for short : ACLS

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

50A Hertz rentals : CARS

The Hertz car rental company was started in 1918 by Walter L. Jacobs in Chicago. He began with just twelve model T Ford cars available for rent. In 1923, the car rental operation was bought out by John D. Hertz who incorporated it into his truck and coach manufacturing company.

54A Academic field for Judith Butler : QUEER THEORY [hiding TREE (pose) in retreat]

Queer theory is a framework that refuses to confine human identity to society’s rigid, black-and-white grid. It does not treat gender and sexuality as fixed, and instead fluid, defying standard definitions. A basic argument is that living as a human is simply too complex to be boxed in neatly.

The tree pose in yoga is more correctly known as “vrikshasana”. It involves standing on one leg, with the other leg bent and the foot placed on the inner thigh of the straight leg. The hands are placed together and raised directly over the head.

59A Pageant wear : SASH

The oldest beauty pageant still operating in the US is the Miss America contest. It started out as a marketing ploy in the early twenties to attract tourists to the Atlantic City boardwalk after Labor Day. Today, contestants must be between 17 and 24 years of age. Before those limits were introduced, Marian Bergeron won the 1933 title at only 15 years of age.

67A Luau strings, briefly : UKE

The ukulele (uke) originated in the 1800s and mimicked a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

68A Korean dumplings : MANDU

Mandu are Korean dumplings traditionally stuffed with a mixture of minced meat, crumbled tofu, glass noodles, and kimchi. The term “mandu” is a linguistic cousin to the Chinese “mantou” (an unfilled steamed bun) and the Japanese “manju” (a sweet confection), showing that a single ancient root word evolved to describe distinct food staples across East Asia, and indeed along the Silk Road.

69A Guitarist Steve : EARLE

Steve Earle is an American songwriter and performer, and someone with a reputation of having lived a hard life. Earle’s brushes with the law and drug addiction problems have earned him the nickname “the hardcore troubadour”.

70A Billie Eilish’s “__ Guy” : BAD

“bad guy” is a Grammy-winning song co-written by Billie Eilish that she released in March of 2019. She released another version of the song in collaboration with Justin Bieber in July, just a few months later.

71A Piano exercise : ETUDE

An étude is a short instrumental composition that is usually quite hard to play and is intended to help the performer master a particular technique. “Étude” is the French word for “study”. Études are commonly performed on the piano.

72A Like baklava : SWEET

Baklava is a very sweet and rich (and delicious) dessert pastry made from layers of filo dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey or syrup. The name “baklava” comes from the Ottoman Turkish name for the pastry.

Down

1D Fleet : ARMADA

“Armada” is a Spanish (and Portuguese) word meaning “naval fleet”.

2D Get a rise out of? : LEAVEN

Leaven is a substance that causes bread to rise, perhaps yeast or baking powder. The term “leaven” comes into English via French from the Latin “levare” meaning “to rise”.

5D Dental care brand : ORAL-B

The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

6D Airbnb competitor : VACASA

Vacasa is a vacation rental management company. It is a full-service property management company that employs local teams to clean, maintain, and manage specific vacation homes.

8D ’70s baby, e.g. : XER

The term “Generation X” originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By one definition, Gen Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

11D Oft-shaved cheese : PARMESAN

Genuine Parmesan cheese is made in and around the province of Parma in northern Italy, which province gives the cheese its name.

12D Simple Southern dessert : CHESS PIE

Chess pie is a classic dessert from the US South that has a filling made from eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla and some cornmeal. The original chess pie likely came from England (without the cornmeal, I’d guess). The pie’s name may be from “pie chest”, a piece of furniture used to store pies.

22D “Where the Wild Things __” : ARE

Maurice Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children’s books. Sendak’s best known work is “Where the Wild Things Are”, published in 1963. The “Wild Things” of the tale are beasts conjured up in the imagination of a young boy named Max, after he is sent to bed without supper.

25D Run roughshod over : TRAMPLE

Riding “roughshod” over someone means treating them with domineering, arrogant disregard. The idiom stems from a 17th-century blacksmithing technique used in winter in which horseshoes were deliberately fitted with protruding nails or metal spikes. These cleats gave the animal traction on icy roads, but turned a hoof into a nasty weapon for anyone unlucky enough to be trampled beneath it. Yikes!

26D “Jane the Virgin” grandmother : ALBA

“Jane the Virgin” is a satirical dramedy that pokes fun at the telenovela genre. The title character is a young Latina virgin who becomes pregnant after her gynecologist artificially inseminates her in error. Quite the storyline …

28D Longtime NBC sketch show, casually : SNL

NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.

37D Word that’s trademarked in Ohio State University’s official name : THE

Both Ohio State University and the fashion label Marc Jacobs successfully trademarked the solitary word “THE” in 2022. Anyone else can still legally print the English language’s most common word as long as it doesn’t function as a standalone brand logo. Crazy …

39D Headscarf : BABUSHKA

“Babushka” is the Russian word for “grandmother”, coming from the diminutive form of “baba” meaning “old woman.” The term migrated into English in the mid-20th century, describing a grandmother or elderly Russian woman. More commonly, however, “babushka” came to describe the triangular headscarf tied beneath the chin that was often worn by Eastern European matriarchs.

40D Gas station choice : UNLEADED

Tetraethyllead (TEL) is a fuel additive that was introduced into gasoline starting in the 1920s. The additive allowed for an increase in engine compression, which boosted engine performance and enhanced fuel economy. When TEL combusts, it produces carbon dioxide and water, but also lead and lead oxide. The resulting high levels of lead in the atmosphere caused health problems, especially in children. Countries started banning the use of “leaded” fuels in the 1970s, and auto manufacturers had to start building cars that could better handle “unleaded” gasoline.

42D Magazine with an annual “Female Founders” list : INC

“Inc.” magazine launched its annual “Female Founders” list in 2018 to highlight women entrepreneurs who built world-changing companies. One of the names to appear on the list is Rihanna, for her multi-billion-dollar cosmetic empire Fenty Beauty.

43D Web page that has all the answers : FAQ

Most websites have a page listing answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Even this blog has one!

53D Six-line poem : SESTET

A sestet is a group of six lines of poetry. It is similar to a quatrain, a group of four lines.

56D Food writer Drummond : REE

Ree Drummond is a food writer and blogger. Drummond’s blog “The Pioneer Woman” recounts her daily life on her family’s working ranch outside of Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

57D “Revolutionary Road” novelist Richard : YATES

Richard Yates was a novelist and short story writer from Yonkers, New York. The most famous of his works was his first novel, “Revolutionary Road”, published in 1962. The novel was adapted into a 2008 movie of the same name starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio.

61D Stick in one’s __ : CRAW

“Craw” is another name for “crop”, a portion of the alimentary tract of some animals, including birds. The crop is used for the storage of food prior to digestion. It allows the animal to eat large amounts and then digest that food with efficiency over an extended period. The expression “to stick in one’s craw” is used when one cannot accept something, cannot “swallow” it.

65D Serengeti antelope : GNU

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

The Serengeti is a region in Africa located in northern Tanzania and southwest Kenya. The name “Serengeti” comes from the Maasai language and means “Endless Plains”.