LA Times Crossword 24 Apr 26, Friday

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Constructed by: James Mattina

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Sidesaddle

Themed answers are all in the across-direction, at either SIDE of the grid. Each SIDE answer requires us to ADD “LE” outside the grid:

• 54A Equestrian style, or, when parsed differently, a three-part instruction for making 19 clues in this puzzle match their answers : SIDESADDLE, or, SIDES ADD “LE”

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

Bill’s time: 10m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Not-so-hot wheels : LEMONS

Long before we associated the term “lemon” with a defective car, it was used to describe defective items in general.

10A Range that measures acidity and alkalinity : PH SCALE

As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

16A __ acid : AMINO

There are 20 different types of amino acids that make up proteins. However, only 11 of them can be synthesized by the human body, while the remaining nine essential amino acids must be obtained from food sources.

17A Like clean water : POTABLE

Something that is potable is fit to drink. The term “potable” derives from the Latin verb “potare” meaning “to drink”, which is also the root for our word “potion”.

21A Singer Halliwell : GERI

Geri Halliwell was nicknamed Ginger Spice when she was with the Spice Girls, because of her red hair. Halliwell was quite a bit older than the rest of the group and so sometimes she was less charitably referred to as “Old Spice”. After launching her solo career, Halliwell released a fabulous 2001 version of the song “It’s Raining Men”, which was originally recorded by the Weather Girls in 1982. Great song …

22A Baby foxes : KITS

Male foxes are usually called dogs, and sometimes tods or reynards. Females are vixens, and young foxes are cubs, pups or kits.

24A Round bump on a cactus : AREOLE

Areoles are bumps on the side of cacti from which grow clusters of spines. These areoles are one of the features of cacti that distinguish them from other succulent plants.

25A Heavy reptile with a flexible carapace : LEATHERBACK SEA TURTLE

The leatherback sea turtle is the turtle species. Its “leathery back” is a flexible carapace (dorsal “shell”), as opposed to a hard shell found on other turtles. It is believed that this flexible shell allows the body to compress safely during dives, as leatherbacks routinely dive to depths of about 4,000 feet.

29A Economist who co-wrote “Freakonomics” : LEVITT

The full name of the bestselling, non-fiction book by economist Steven Levitt is “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything”. It is a collection of articles in which Levitt applies economic theory to “non-economic” subjects. For example, the book provides a rationale for drug dealers living with their mothers, and the correlation between name choices and socioeconomic status. Freaky …

30A Mud : JOE

It seems that no one really knows why we refer to coffee as “joe”, but we’ve been doing so since at least 1930.

35A Snack topped with cotija : TACO

Cotija is a salty and milky cheese named for the Mexican town of Cotija from where it originated.

36A Antelope that can go without water for long stretches : ORYX

The oryx is a large antelope species, mainly found in Africa but also in the Arabian Peninsula. One species was introduced by man into the White Sands Missile Range. As a result, the oryx is now considered an invasive species in the neighboring White Sands National Monument.

42A __ velvet cupcake : RED

Today, red velvet cake is often colored using food dye. Traditional recipes use cocoa powder, which reacts with acidic ingredients (vinegar and buttermilk), giving the cake a reddish tint.

call for brown sugar or non-Dutched cocoa to impart color. Basically, red velvet cake and devil’s food cake are the same thing, with the former using cocoa and the latter using chocolate.

49A “I Hope You Dance” singer Womack : LEE ANN

“I Hope You Dance” is a country-pop song released by Lee Ann Womack with Sons of the Desert in 2000. It won the CMA award for Single of the Year at the 2001 ceremony. As an aside, brothers Drew and Tim Womack of Sons of the Desert are no relation to Lee Ann.

50A Heritage gp. celebrated in May : AAPI

Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)

51A Month during which the shofar is blown daily : ELUL

Elul is the month in the Hebrew calendar that occurs in August-September.

A shofar is a musical instrument used in Jewish rituals. It is a relatively simple instrument, made from an animal’s (usually a ram’s) horn.

52A Person represented by the sunset flag : LESBIAN

The orange-pink “sunset” flag was designed in 2018 by artist Emily Gwen as a visual identity for the lesbian community, replacing earlier versions like the controversial “lipstick” flag that included a kiss graphic. The sunset flag has horizontal stripes that transition through shades of orange and pink, with the top orange bars signifying gender non-conformity and the bottom pink bars representing serenity and love.

58A Wright who plays Shuri in the MCU : LETITIA

Letitia Wright is a British actress who was born in Guyana. She really hit the big times when she landed the title role In the 2022 superhero film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. Wright had played the original Black Panther’s sister, Shuri, in the 2018 film “Black Panther”. After actor Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) died, producers opted not to replace him in the role, and rewrote the planned sequel, promoting the character Shuri. Wright was recognized by her birth nation in 2023 when she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Guyana.

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)

61A One-pointers in horseshoes : LEANERS

In the game of horseshoes, a ringer is scored when the tossed shoe lands around the target stake. A leaner is almost as good as a ringer, and is scored when a horseshoe lands upright or leans against the stake.

Down

5D Hindi honorific : SAHIB

“Sahib” is most recognized as a term of address used in India, where it is used in much the same way as we use “mister” in English. The term was also used to address male Europeans in the days of the British Raj. The correct female form of address is “sahiba”, but in the colonial days the address used was “memsahib”, a melding of “ma’am” and “sahib”

6D Actress Thurman : UMA

Uma Thurman started her working career as a fashion model, at the age of 15. She appeared in her first movies at 17, with her most acclaimed early role being Cécile de Volanges in 1988’s “Dangerous Liaisons”. Thurman’s career really took off when she played the gangster’s moll Mia in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. My favorite of all Thurman’s movies is “The Truth About Cats & Dogs”, a less acclaimed romcom released in 1996.

7D Guernsey, for one : MILK COW

Guernsey cattle were bred originally on the island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. There were three Channel Island breeds of cattle, each named for one of the islands. The other two are Jersey, and Alderney (extinct since the 1940s).

10D Abbr. for a rained-out event : PPD

Postponed (PPD)

11D Fictional captain Hornblower : HORATIO

The “Horatio Hornblower” series of novels was written by English author C. S. Forester. Hornblower is an officer in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

13D Giant pole tossed in Highland games : CABER

The caber toss must be the most recognizable event in the Scottish Highland Games. The tall pole is 19’ 6” long and weighs a whopping 175 pounds. The event may have originated with the practice of tossing large logs across chasms in order to cross them.

23D Midsize ride : SEDAN

The American sedan car is the equivalent of the British and Irish saloon car. By definition, a sedan car has two rows of seating and a separate trunk (boot in Britain and Ireland), although in some models the engine can be at the rear of the car.

25D Director DuVernay : AVA

Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, a feat she achieved in 2012 for her feature film “Middle of Nowhere”. “Middle of Nowhere” tells the story of a woman who drops out of medical school to focus on her husband when he is sentenced to 8 years in prison. DuVernay also directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

26D Kesha’s “__ Tok” : TIK

“Tik Tok” is a 2009 song co-written and released by Kesha. The song includes the line “Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy,” but Kesha changes these lyrics during live performances, in response to the sexual misconduct allegations against Sean Combs (formerly “P. Diddy”) that have piled up.

27D Trojan War warrior : AJAX

Ajax was a figure in Greek mythology, and was the cousin of Achilles. Ajax is an important figure in Homer’s “Iliad”. According to Homer, Ajax was chosen by lot to meet Hector in an epic duel that lasted a whole day. The duel ended in a draw.

The ancient city of Troy was located on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. The Trojan War of Greek mythology was precipitated by the elopement of Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, with Paris of Troy. The war itself largely consisted of a nine-year siege of Troy by the Greeks. We know most about the final year of that siege, as it is described extensively in Homer’s “Iliad”. The city eventually fell when the Greeks hid soldiers inside the Trojan Horse, which the Trojans brought inside the city’s walls. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts …

28D Shuttlecock paths : ARCS

A shuttlecock (also “bird, birdie”) is the conical, feathered projectile used in the game of badminton. Previously referred to as a “shuttlecork”, the object is probably so named because it is “shuttled” back and forth over the net, and because the feathers resemble those on a cockerel.

34D Monster slain by Hercules : HYDRA

The Hydra of Lerna was a mythical sea snake that had multiple heads. Heracles had to slay the Lernaean Hydra as the second of his Twelve Labors. We now use the term “hydra” figuratively to describe a complex problem that presents new obstacles once one facet is resolved.

“The Twelve Labors of Hercules” is actually a Greek myth, although Hercules is the Roman name for the hero that the Greeks called “Heracles”. The first of these labors was to slay the Nemean lion, a monster that lived in a cave near Nemea. Hercules had a tough job as the lion’s golden fur was impenetrable to normal weapons. One version of the story is that Hercules killed the lion by shooting an arrow into its mouth. Another version says that Hercules stunned the monster with a club and then strangled him with his bare hands.

39D Fire on all cylinders : HUM

To be firing on all cylinders is to be operating to full potential. The etymology is perhaps obvious. An internal combustion engine with say a faulty distributor or spark plug might have a cylinder that is misfiring. An engine NOT firing on all cylinders is NOT operating to full potential.

40D PD dispatch : APB

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

42D “¡Ándale!” : RAPIDO!

In Spanish, one might be urged on with, “Ándale rápido!” (Come on, fast! Hurry up!).

43D Refinery inputs : CRUDES

Crude oil is a naturally occurring liquid mixture of hydrocarbons that is found in geological formations. Also known as “petroleum”, crude is usually accessed by drilling. Once collected, it is refined and separated into many, many chemicals, e.g. gasoline and asphalt as well chemicals used to make plastics, fertilizers and pharmaceuticals.

44D Seed covering : TESTA

A testa is the protective outer coat (shell) of a seed, named for the Latin “testum” meaning “clay pot, shell”. This same root produced the modern word “test”. A test was a specialized earthen vessel used to assay the purity of metals, subjecting them to intense heat to reveal their true value. The term that eventually shifted from the container to the examination itself.

45D Polio vaccine developer : SABIN

Albert Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine. His was a “live” controlled vaccine. The equally famous Salk vaccine was a “killed” vaccine.

47D Thompson of “Creed” : TESSA

Tessa Thompson is an actress from Los Angeles who is known for playing the supporting role of Jackie Cook on the TV show “Veronica Mars”, and for playing student leader Diane Nash in the 2014 film “Selma”. She also portrays superheroine Valkyrie in movies based on Marvel Comics characters.

48D Ipanema greeting : OLA

Ipanema is a beach community in the south of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The name Ipanema is a local word meaning “bad water”, signifying that the shore is bad for fishing. The beach became famous worldwide following the release of the song “The Girl from Ipanema” in 1962.

53D “Hip Hop Is Dead” rapper : NAS

“Hip Hop is Dead” is a 2006 recording by rap singer Nas. The song as recorded was highly censored, removing a lot of profanity and gun references.

56D Anaheim team, on scoreboards : LAA

The Anaheim Angels baseball team is today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels (LAA). The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels are also known as “the Halos”.