LA Times Crossword 24 Jul 26, Friday

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Constructed by: Kelsey Dixon & Sarah Sinclair

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Blush Blindness

Themed answers are all BLIND to the BLUSH equivalent that has been tacked onto the end. We must ignore the end, to match the corresponding clues:

• 53A Tendency to overuse a certain cosmetic, or what has caused a mismatch between the starred clues and their answers? : BLUSH BLINDNESS

16A *Lesser : SECONDARY COLOR

20A *Fit for a queen : ROYAL FLUSH

33A *Home of the Magic and the Magic Kingdom : ORLANDO BLOOM

46A *Relay rod : BATON ROUGE

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

Bill’s time: 9m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A 7-Eleven convenience : ATM

The first precursor to the 7-Eleven store opened in Dallas, Texas in 1927. The stores were so named (much later, in 1946) because they were open longer than other stores, from 7am to 11pm.

4A Bubble tea “bubbles” : BOBA

Bubble tea, sometimes called “boba tea”, is a tea-based drink from Taiwan. The “bubbles” are chewy tapioca balls that are usually added to the drink.

12A Olympic sprinter Richardson : SHA’CARRI

Sha’Carri Richardson is a world-champion sprinter who competes in the 100m and 200m events. She is often compared to the legendary Florence Griffith-Joyner (“Flo-Jo”), as both are famous not only for their world-class speed but also for their bold and glamorous fashion choices on the track.

14A ID on a map : IDAHO

Idaho was admitted as the 43rd state of the union in 1890. The passage to statehood was not without difficulty. There had been plans in Washington to split what is now Idaho between the new states of Washington and Nevada.

16A *Lesser : SECONDARY COLOR

A secondary color is created by mixing two primary colors in equal proportions. In the traditional RYB (red, yellow, blue) color wheel, these combinations yield orange, green, and purple. However, in the RGB (red, green, blue) additive color model used to illuminate digital screens, the secondary colors shift to cyan, magenta, and yellow.

18A Transcript fig. : GPA

Grade point average (GPA)

19A Beyoncé song about the joy of human existence : BE ALIVE

The 2021 song “Be Alive” was co-written and recorded by Beyoncé for the sports biopic “King Richard”, which is about the father and coach of the Williams sisters. It was nominated for that season’s Best Original Song Oscar, the first time that a Beyoncé release had been so honored. She performed “Be Alive” during the Academy Awards ceremony via satellite, directly from the exact public municipal tennis courts in Compton, California, where the Williams sisters originally learned to play tennis.

20A *Fit for a queen : ROYAL FLUSH

The poker hand called a royal flush is the highest-ranking hand possible. It consists of a run of 10, jack, queen, king and ace, with all in the same suit.

24A Corp. title for Jane Fraser of Citigroup : CEO

Jane Fraser is a British-American business executive who was appointed CEO of Citigroup in 2021, making her the first woman to head a major US bank. She was born in St. Andrews in Scotland, home of the historic golf course.

25A BBC competitor that airs “Love Island” : ITV

ITV is a British television network that has been around an awfully long time. It was launched in 1955 as “Independent Television”, and was a direct competitor to the BBC (which has been on the air since 1932!).

“Love Island” is a British dating reality TV franchise that originally aired in 2005 as a short-lived celebrity competition before taking off with a 2015 reboot featuring everyday single people. The revived format features a group of “Islanders” in a remote villa who must strategically couple up to survive public votes and avoid elimination. Now there are “Love Island” versions all over the globe. Sounds bizarre to me, but then I’m an old fuddy-duddy …

31A Fed. south of Iran : UAE

The maritime border separating Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wends its way down the Persian Gulf and into the Strait of Hormuz.

33A *Home of the Magic and the Magic Kingdom : ORLANDO BLOOM

Orlando in Central Florida is the largest inland city in the state. It was the most visited city in the US in 2009. That’s mainly because it is home to many theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld. Orlando has a few nicknames, including “O-Town” and “Theme Park Capital of the World”.

English actor Orlando Bloom’s breakthrough on the big screen came when he was chosen to play Legolas, a Sindarin Elf, in “The Lord of the Rings” series of films.

37A With 30-Down, Paul Rudd role : ANT-
[30D See 37-Across : -MAN]

In the Marvel universe, Ant-Man has been the superhero persona of three different fictional characters: Hank Pym, Scott Lang and Eric O’Grady. In the 2015 film “Ant-Man”, Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, and Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang.

38A Pride symbol : RAINBOW

The best-known rainbow flag is the one representing gay pride. Such usage of the rainbow flag was popularized in 1978 by artist Gilbert Baker. The varying colors of the flag represent the diversity of the gay community.

40A 1975 thriller with a two-note leitmotif : JAWS

“Jaws” is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. “Jaws” was perhaps the first summer blockbuster and had the highest box office take in history up to that time, which was a record that stood until “Star Wars” was released two years later.

In the world of music, a leitmotif is a recurring musical phrase that is associated with a particular theme or perhaps a particular person. Common in classical works, leitmotifs are also frequently used in film music. A classic example would be the strident notes played every time Darth Vader appears on the screen in a “Star Wars” movie.

45A Accessibility law, for short : ADA

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)

46A *Relay rod : BATON ROUGE

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the state of Louisiana. The name “Baton Rouge” is French for “red stick” or “red staff”. The city was named by a French explorer in 1699 after he observed a red cypress pole used as a boundary marker by local Native American tribes.

52A Apple platform : IOS

iOS is what Apple now calls its mobile operating system. Previously, it was known as iPhone OS.

61A Title derived from “caesar” : TSAR

The term “czar” (also “tsar”) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time. We tend to use the “czar” spelling, as opposed to “tsar”, when we describe a person today with great power or authority, e.g. “Drug Czar”.

62A Smallest prime number : TWO

A prime number is a number greater than 1 that can only be divided evenly by 1 and itself. There are still some unanswered questions involving prime numbers, perhaps most notably Goldbach’s Conjecture. This conjecture dates back to the 1740s and is assumed to be true, but has never been proven. It states that every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers.

Down

3D Jury-rig with what’s on hand, informally : MACGYVER

To “MacGyver” is to repair or jury-rig a device using only mundane, everyday items available to hand, maybe a paperclip, chewing gum, or a roll of duct tape. The verb originated as a reference to the 1985 action TV series “MacGyver”. The show starred Richard Dean Anderson as an extremely resourceful secret agent who applied practical science to escape life-or-death situations.

5D Chicago airport code : ORD

The IATA airport code for O’Hare International in Chicago is ORD, which comes from Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field (OR-D).

6D Bandeau, e.g. : BRA

A bandeau is like a narrow tube top, and is usually worn by women, perhaps as the top part of a bikini. “Bandeau” is diminutive of the French “bande” meaning “strip, band”.

7D “Ain’t no rule say a dog can’t play basketball” film : AIR BUD

“Air Bud” is a 1997 sports comedy film about a young boy and a golden retriever with the ability to play basketball. The film was inspired by Buddy, a dog who appeared on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and “Late Night with David Letterman” who had learned to dribble and shoot a basketball. It was the same Buddy who acted in the movie.

8D Parsons who was NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2021 : MICAH

NFL linebacker Micah Parsons was selected 12th overall in the 2021 draft, out of Penn State. He played for the Dallas Cowboys from 2021 to 2024, earning the title of Defensive Rookie of the Year in his first season.

10D Multicolored cat : CALICO

Domestic cats with a white coat and patches of brown and black are called calico cats in this country. Back in Ireland, and the rest of the world I think, such cats are called tortoiseshell-and-white. “Calico” is not a breed of cat, but rather a coloring.

13D Club in a Manilow hit : COPA

The Copacabana of the 1978 Barry Manilow song is the Copacabana nightclub in New York City (which is also the subject of the Frank Sinatra song “Meet Me at the Copa”). The Copa opened in 1940 and is still going today, although it is struggling. The club had to move due to impending construction and is now “sharing” a location with the Columbus 72 nightclub.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star
Tony always tended bar
Across the crowded floor, they worked from 8 ’til 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?

15D Cookies with a “design your own” option : OREOS

Nabisco offers customized packets of Oreo cookies through its OREOiD website. Users of the site can choose filling colors and decorations, and can add a photo or a message to the cookie itself.

17D Ouija board word : YES

The Ouija board was introduced to America as a harmless parlor game at the end of the 19th century, although variations of the board date back to 1100 AD in China, where it was apparently used to “contact” the spirit world. The name “Ouija” is relatively recent, and is probably just a combination of the French and German words for “yes” … “oui” and “ja”.

21D Bad Bunny’s “__ Atardecer” : OTRO

“Otro Atardecer” (“Another Sunset”) is a 2022 song recorded by Bad Bunny with the LA-based, alt-pop band the Marías. It is a track on “Un Verano Sin Ti”, the blockbuster album that became the first completely Spanish-language project to ever earn an Album of the Year nomination at the Grammy Awards.

27D Gas in an inner tube? : NEON

The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

29D “Welp!” : ALAS!

“Welp” is a slang term used at the beginning of a sentence to indicate disappointment. “Welp” is used in the same way that we use the interjection “well”.

Well, that worked out.

Welp, that didn’t work out.

31D German equivalent of the Tube : U-BAHN

“U-Bahn” is the name given to the underground train system in several cities around Germany including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Nuremberg.

The official name of the London “Underground” rail network is a little deceptive, as over half of the track system-wide is actually “over ground”, with the underground sections reserved for the central areas. It is the oldest subway system in the world, having opened in 1863. It was also the first system to use electric rolling stock, in 1890. “The Tube”, as it is known by Londoners, isn’t the longest subway system in the world though. That honor belongs to the Shanghai Metro. My personal favorite part of the Tube is the Tube map! It is a marvel of design …

32D Romance novelist Hazelwood : ALI

Ali Hazelwood is the pen name of an Italian-born neuroscience professor who inadvertently pioneered the modern “STEMinist” romance genre, which features women working in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). “The Love Hypothesis”, her first novel, started out as “Star Wars” fan fiction, but was destined to make the New York Times best seller list for 40 weeks.

36D Synthesizer pioneer : MOOG

In the sixties, Robert Moog invented the Moog Synthesizer, an electronic device that he used to produce music. I used to own a few of his albums, including a Moog version of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. What a great performance that is …

40D Brand that dropped “Juice” from its name in 2019 : JAMBA

The Jamba Juice chain of stores (now just “Jamba”) was founded in 1990 in San Luis Obispo, California and now has outlets across much of the US and as far as the Philippines and South Korea.

42D 1960s dance : WATUSI

The dance called the Watusi was almost as popular as the twist in the early sixties. The Watusi took its name from the Batutsi tribe in Rwanda.

46D Faith based in Haifa : BAHA’I

The Universal House of Justice is the ruling body of the Baha’i Faith. The body has nine members, and any adult male in the Baha’i Faith is eligible for election to the House. The Seat of the Universal House of Justice is a large building in Haifa, Israel, on the slope of Mount Carmel.

47D Clerical tunic : ALB

An alb is a white, neck-to-toe vestment worn by priests, usually with a rope cord around the waist. The term alb comes from “albus”, the Latin word for “white”.

49D Chaplin of the Netflix miniseries “Treason” : OONA

Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

“Treason” is a British espionage thriller miniseries that first aired in 2022. Charlie Cox plays a deputy head of MI6 who takes over the agency when his boss receives a non-lethal dose of poison. The Russians are involved! I enjoyed this one …

54D Geico’s bus. : INS

GEICO was founded in 1936 with a very specific mission, to provide auto insurance for employees of the federal government and their families, hence the name Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO). GEICO is a private company, despite the word “government” in its name. The founders’ idea was to focus on government employees as they believed such a group represented a lower risk profile than the rest of the population. Nowadays any qualifying person can take out a policy with GEICO.