LA Times Crossword 23 Jun 26, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Adam Shapiro

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Game Within a Game

Themed answers are all GAMES. Hidden WITHIN each, spelled out in circled letter, is another GAME:

• 54A Nintendo player’s side quest, or what the circled letters of 16-, 23-, and 41-Across create : GAME WITHIN A GAME

• 16A Disc-tossing team sport : LIFE within ULTIMATE FRISBEE
• 23A Contest played on a star-shaped board : CHESS within CHINESE CHECKERS
• 41A Pool hall activity : POKER within POCKET BILLIARDS

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

Bill’s time: 7m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13A Like chocolate lava cake : RICH

Molten chocolate cake is chocolate cake with a warm and liquid chocolate center. A dessert often called “lava cake”, it was invented by French chef Michel Bras, and dates back to 1981. It was popularized in the US by French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, initially in his New York restaurant.

14A “Folklore” music artist Swift : TAYLOR

Taylor Swift’s 2020 album “Folklore” was a surprise release, preceded by none of the usual promotion, just a social media announcement 16 hours before it hit digital music platforms. That wasn’t the only unusual thing about the album. Swift recorded her tracks alone, in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was in her makeshift home studio in Los Angeles, and her two producers were in Hudson Valley and New York City on the East Coast.

16A Disc-tossing team sport : LIFE within ULTIMATE FRISBEE

The board game we call “The Game of Life” (also just “Life”) was created quite a few years ago, in 1860 by Milton Bradley. Back then it was called “The Checkered Game of Life” and was the first parlor game to become a popular hit. The modern version of the game was first released in 1960.

Ultimate is a team sport that is similar to football or rugby in that the goal is to get a flying disc into an endzone or goal area. The sport used to be called “Ultimate Frisbee”, but the “Frisbee” was dropped as it is a registered trademark.

21A Chicken __ king : A LA

A dish prepared “à la king” (usually chicken or turkey), is prepared in a cream sauce with mushrooms, pimentos, green peppers and sherry.

22A Actor Cariou : LEN

Len Cariou is a Canadian actor who is famous for his Broadway portrayal of “Sweeney Todd”. I most recognize Cariou from supporting roles in “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Thirteen Days”, two great movies.

23A Contest played on a star-shaped board : CHESS within CHINESE CHECKERS

It is believed that the game of chess originated in northwest India. It evolved from a 6th-century game called “chaturanga”, a Sanskrit word meaning “four divisions”. These four (military) divisions were represented in the game:

• Infantry (now “pawns”)
• Cavalry (now “knights”)
• Elephants (now “bishops”)
• Chariots (now “rooks”)

The board game known as Chinese Checkers has nothing to do with checkers, nor anything to do with China. It was invented in Germany in 1892, under the name “Stern-Halma”. The Chinese Checkers moniker was the creation of the Pressman Company which purchased the rights to the game in the US in 1928.

33A South African language with click consonants : XHOSA

The Xhosa are a Bantu people who live mainly in the southeast of South Africa. The Xhosa language is the second-most common in the country, after Zulu. Among the list of notable Xhosa people are former President Nelson Mandela and retired Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu.

35A Some hazy brews, for short : IPAS

Hazy IPAs tend to be unfiltered, and so retain some yeast sediment. These days, I am almost forced to drink IPAs (what else is available?!), and usually opt for a hazy IPA. Please, please, brewers, bring back hefeweizens …

38A 28-Down amenity, maybe : SPA

The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as “Spa” is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

40A Plump pet, slangily : CHONK

The internet slang term “chonk” describes a pet animal that is overweight, yet adorable.

41A Pool hall activity : POKER within POCKET BILLIARDS

The card game Poker originated in the US in the late 1700s, and was very much associated with riverboat gambling on the Mississippi River in those early days.

The more correct name for the game of pool is “pocket billiards”. The designation “pool” arose after pocket billiards became a common feature in “pool halls”, places where gamblers “pooled” their money to bet on horse races.

44A __ de la Cité: Notre-Dame home : ILE

There are two famous “îles” (islands) in the middle of the River Seine in Paris, one being the Île de la Cité, and the other Île Saint-Louis. Île de la Cité is the most renowned of the two, as it is home to the cathedral of Notre-Dame.

56A Cenozoic __ : ERA

The Cenozoic Era (with “Cenozoic” meaning “new life”) is the most recent geologic era, and covers the period from 65.5 million years ago to the present day. The start of the Cenozoic Era is defined as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, the cataclysm that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The mass extinction allowed mammals to diversify and dominate the planet, and so the Cenozoic is also known as the “Age of Mammals”.

57A Like alpacas : ANDEAN

Alpacas are like small llamas, but unlike llamas were never beasts of burden. They were bred specifically for the fleece. As such, there are no known wild alpacas these days, even in their native Peru.

59A Cold War operative : SPY

There is some debate about the timing of the start and end of the Cold War, the period of geopolitical tension between the US and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. One significant factor at the start of the Cold War was the Truman Doctrine, the foreign policy adopted by President Harry S. Truman that firmly ended America’s pre-WWII isolationism in favor of support for nations threatened by Soviet influence. A clear sign of the end of the Cold War was the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.

Down

1D Like dry champagne : BRUT

Sparkling wines can be classified according to sweetness. These classifications are, from driest to sweetest:

• Brut Nature
• Extra Brut
• Brut
• Extra Dry (Or Extra Sec)
• Dry (or Sec)
• Semi-Dry (or Demi-Sec)
• Sweet (or Doux)

2D Disney girl who teaches Stitch the meaning of ohana : LILO

“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.

The Hawaiian word “ʻohana” translates to “family” in a broad, extended sense. It was popularized by the 2002 Disney film “Lilo & Stitch”, which used it as a central theme:

“ʻOhana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind … or forgotten.”

4D Sequences of tight turns on racecourses : CHICANES

A chicane is a type of turn that is used in motorsports and on roads to slow down traffic. It is typically made up of a series of sharp turns that are close together. Chicanes are used to reduce the speed of vehicles and to make the course more challenging.

5D Frontier departure point? : GATE

Frontier Airlines is a passenger service based in Denver, Colorado that was founded in 1994 after Continental shut down its hub at Denver’s Stapleton Airport. The name “Frontier Airlines” had been associated with Denver since 1950. A separate company called Frontier Airlines operated out of Denver from 1950 until 1986.

7D Italian sports car, briefly : ALFA

The “Alfa” in “Alfa Romeo” is actually an acronym, one standing for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (“Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company”). ALFA was an enterprise founded in 1909 and which was taken over by Nicola Romeo in 1915. In 1920 the company name was changed to Alfa Romeo.

9D NYC nabe south of SoHo : TRIBECA

“TriBeCa” is a clever little acronym that expands into “TRI-angle BE-low CA-nal Street”. The name of the New York City neighborhood was developed by local residents who basically copied the naming technique used by residents of the adjacent area of SoHo, with “SoHo” being short for “SO-uth of HO-uston Street”.

17D Cocktails made with lime, vodka, and ginger beer : MULES

A Moscow mule is a cocktail made from vodka, ginger beer and lime. I like the occasional Moscow mule, mainly because ginger beer was my soda of choice as a kid. Vodka … not so much …

23D Like tempura : CRISP

Tempura is a style of Japanese cuisine that features seafood, meat and vegetables that have been deep-fried in batter. The use of batter in fried foods was introduced into Japan by the Portuguese in the late 1500s.

24D River-dwelling mammal that can’t swim : HIPPO

The name “hippopotamus” comes from the Greek for “river horse”. Hippos are the third-largest land mammals, after elephants and rhinos. The closest living relatives to hippos don’t even live on land. They are the whales and porpoises of the oceans.

25D Sci-fi writer Asimov : ISAAC

Isaac Asimov was a wonderful science fiction writer, and a professor of biochemistry. He was a favorite author as I was growing up and I must admit that some hero worship on my part led me to study and work as a biochemist for a short while early in my career. My favorite of his works is the collection of short stories called “I, Robot”, although Asimov’s most famous work is probably his “Foundation” trilogy of novels. Asimov wrote three autobiographies, the last of which was called “I, Asimov”, which was published in 1994, two years after his death.

26D Area far from downtown : EXURB

An extension to the term “suburb”, “exurb” describes an area beyond the suburbs at the very outskirts of a city. The related term “exurbia” is often used to denote an area inhabited by more wealthy people.

36D NBC news show since 1992 : DATELINE

Reportedly, “Dateline NBC” was the network’s 18th attempt at producing a successful news magazine show. This one stuck, having been on the air since 1992.

39D I-495 in Washington, D.C., e.g. : BELTWAY

The phrase “inside the Beltway” is used to refer to the infrastructure and politics of Washington, D.C. The Beltway in this case is Interstate 495, also known as the Capital Beltway.

43D Greg Evans comic strip : LUANN

“Luann” is a newspaper comic strip written and drawn by Greg Evans. The strip centers on the suburban adventures of teenager Luann DeGroot.

47D In-person fantasy event, casually : LARP

Live action role-playing (LARP)

49D LAX projections : ETDS

Los Angeles International Airport is the sixth busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and the busiest here on the West Coast of the US. The airport was opened in 1930 as Mines Field and was renamed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941. On the airport property is the iconic white structure that resembles a flying saucer, which is called the Theme Building. The airport used to be identified by the letters “LA”, but when the aviation industry went to a three-letter standard for airport identification, this was changed to “LAX”. Apparently, the “X” has no significant meaning.

55D “__ Haw” : HEE

The variety show “Hee Haw” aired on CBS from 1969-1971, and then had a 20-year run in syndication. The show was built around country music, although the format was inspired by “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In”.