LA Times Crossword 27 Mar 26, Friday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Yijing Chen

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Processed Foods

Themed answers are common phrases that include a raw food, but that food has been “PROCESSED”. Clever …

• 17A Marine animal with a cylindrical body, once processed? : SEA PICKLE (from “sea cucumber”)
• 23A Dearly beloved, once processed? : CIDER OF ONE’S EYE (from “apple of one’s eye”)
• 36A Dolls that come with adoption papers, once processed? : KIMCHI PATCH KIDS (from “Cabbage Patch Kids”)
• 46A Dust Bowl-era Steinbeck novel, once processed? : THE WINE OF WRATH (from “The Grapes of Wrath”)
• 56A Earth’s galaxy, once processed? : CHEESY WAY (from “Milky Way”)

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

Bill’s time: 8m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Aspiring atty.’s hurdle : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

10A Public health org. : CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

13A Sri Lankan language : TAMIL

Tamils are a large ethnic group of almost 80 million people who speak Tamil as their mother tongue. Despite the large Tamil population, there is no Tamil state. The highest concentration of Tamils is in Sri Lanka, where they make up about 25% of the population.

16A Stone with a “crazy lace” variety : AGATE

The rock-like, semi-precious stone called “agate” takes its name from the Achates River in Sicily. Greek naturalist Theophrastus first discovered the banded stones along the edge of the river (now called the Dirillo) around 300 BCE.

17A Marine animal with a cylindrical body, once processed? : SEA PICKLE (from “sea cucumber”)

Sea cucumbers are marine creatures that do resemble cucumbers, at least in shape, hence the name.

20A Mastercard alternative : VISA

VISA doesn’t actually issue any credit or debit cards. The company just sells the electronic systems and infrastructure to banks which then put the VISA logo on their own cards. Seeing the logo, both customer and merchant know to use the VISA system when making a transaction.

23A Dearly beloved, once processed? : CIDER OF ONE’S EYE (from “apple of one’s eye”)

Someone or something described as the apple of one’s eye is highly cherished and loved above all others. The original use of the phrase was to refer to the eye’s pupil, the aperture at the center of the eyeball.

The term “cider” is used in most English-speaking countries to describe the alcoholic drink made from fermented apple juice. Here in the US, we often use the term to describe sweetened, unfiltered apple juice, and use “hard cider” to describe the alcoholic beverage. So in Britain and Ireland, beware of what you order …

28A Check a final time? : MATE

In the game of chess, when the king is under immediate threat of capture it is said to be “in check”. If the king cannot escape from check, then the game ends in “checkmate” and the player in check loses. In the original Sanskrit game of chess, the king could actually be captured. Then a rule was introduced requiring that a warning be given if capture was imminent (today we announce “check!”) so that an accidental and early ending to the game doesn’t occur.

33A “I Think You Should Leave” star Robinson : TIM

Comedian Tim Robinson worked as a cast member and writer on “Saturday Night Live” for one season in 2012, but was fired from the show after only one year. Despite this setback, Robinson continued to pursue his passion for comedy and eventually found success with “I Think You Should Leave,” which has been praised for its absurdist humor and unconventional approach to sketch comedy.

36A Dolls that come with adoption papers, once processed? : KIMCHI PATCH KIDS (from “Cabbage Patch Kids”)

Kimchi is a traditional dish from Korea. It is made from fermented vegetables, and is pretty strong stuff …

The dolls known as the Cabbage Patch Kids were introduced in 1982, and were a huge fad through most of the eighties.

42A “__ Burr, Sir” : AARON

“Aaron Burr, Sir” is the second song in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2015 musical “Hamilton”. In the storyline, it marks the first meeting between Burr and his future rival, Alexander Hamilton, in a tavern in 1776.

46A Dust Bowl-era Steinbeck novel, once processed? : THE WINE OF WRATH (from “The Grapes of Wrath”)

John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. It tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

The Dust Bowl was a period in which severe dust storms ravaged the American and Canadian Prairies in the thirties. A major factor in the storms was the loss of the deep-rooted grasses native to the land that had been displaced by intensive farming. Without the grasses, the topsoil was blown away in a period of drought.

53A __ tube : BOOB

“Idiot box” and “boob tube” are nicknames for television.

56A Earth’s galaxy, once processed? : CHEESY WAY (from “Milky Way”)

According to Greek mythology, our galaxy (the Milky Way) is the breast milk of the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus. The term “Milky Way” is a translation of the Latin “via lactea”, used by the Romans. The Romans used the Latin name because the older Greek term for the same phenomenon was “galaxias kyklos” meaning “milky circle”.

59A The Eras Tour venue : ARENA

Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” made history by becoming the highest-grossing tour of all time, and the first concert tour to ever surpass $1 billion in revenue.

62A Capital on the Tiber : ROME

The Tiber is the principal river in Italy in that it runs through the capital, Rome. It is the third longest river in the country. It is from the name of the river that “Tiberius” evolved, which was the name of the second Roman Emperor.

63A Boots up, as a program : LOADS

The verb “to boot”, as used in the world of computers, comes from the phrase “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”. The idea is that the software that has to be loaded before a computer can do anything useful is called a “bootstrap load”.

2D Hocus-pocus : MAGIC

There appears to be a lot of speculation about the origin of the magician’s phrase “hocus-pocus”, but nothing stands out to me as being very definitive.

3D Condiment that adds strong, rich flavor, informally : UMAMI BOMB

The culinary term “umami bomb” describes a dish intensely packed with glutamates, the savory “fifth taste” first identified by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda in 1908.

“Umami” is a loanword from Japanese, literally meaning “pleasant savory taste”. It was first scientifically identified as a distinct taste in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who discovered that the amino acid glutamate was responsible for the unique taste (umami) of kombu seaweed.

5D Like Matt Smith’s Doctor, on “Doctor Who” : ELEVENTH

English actor Matt Smith is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the BBC sci-fi phenomenon “Doctor Who” from 2010 to 2013. He also played a young Prince Philip on the Netflix show “The Crown” opposite Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II. More recently, he took on the lead role of Daemon Targaryen in the medieval fantasy TV show “House of the Dragon”.

“Doctor Who” is an iconic sci-fi television series that is made in the UK by the BBC. First broadcast in 1963, the show is still running today, making it the longest running sci-fi television show in the world. Doctor Who is a time traveler, from the planet Gallifrey, who “regenerates” from time to time (pun!) so that a new actor fits seamlessly into the storyline. He travels in his famous TARDIS spacecraft. Outwardly, the TARDIS looks like a police call box from the 1950s, but inside it is an enormous, multi-roomed time machine. “TARDIS” is an acronym standing for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.

6D Sudeikis role : LASSO

“Ted Lasso” is a marvelous sports-comedy TV show about an American college football coach who moves to the UK to manage an English soccer team. The title character is played very admirably by Jason Sudeikis. Sudeikis first played Lasso in a series of TV commercials commissioned to promote NBC’s coverage of the British Premier League. The character became so popular that he inspired a whole TV series. Great stuff, and highly recommended …

8D MiLB level : AAA

Minor League Baseball (MiLB)

10D Journalist Roberts : COKIE

Cokie Roberts was a great journalist and author, and someone best known for her work with National Public Radio (NPR). She was known as one of NPR’s “Founding Mothers”, a group of women who established the network’s intellectual and journalistic rigor in the 1970s. She came from a politically active family. Her parents were Lindy and Hale Boggs from Louisiana, both of whom represented their state in the US House of Representatives. Cokie’s mother Lindy served as US Ambassador to the Holy See for several years.

12D Largest Greek island : CRETE

Crete is the largest of the Greek Islands, and figures heavily in Greek mythology. Zeus was born in a cave at Mount Ida, the highest peak on the island. Crete was also home to the Labyrinth where the Minotaur was slain by Theseus. Icarus and Daedalus, after having crafted the Labyrinth, escaped from the island using wings that they crafted.

21D April 15 org. : IRS

April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

29D Actor Barinholtz : IKE

Ike Barinholtz is an actor and comedian who appeared on MADtv from 2002 until 2007. More recently, he became a writer on the TV show “The Mindy Project”, and was then cast as Nurse Morgan Tookers. In 2023, Barinholtz appeared on “Celebrity Jeopardy!” and beat out 26 other contestants to win a million dollars for his chosen charity (Pacific Clinics).

31D Fashion designer Kate : SPADE

Kate Spade fashion design house was founded as a supplier of handbags in 1993. The brand is named for founder Kate Brosnahan Spade. The equivalent male brand is called Jack Spade.

32D Spigot : TAP

Back in the 15th century, a spigot was specifically a plug to stop a hole in a cask. Somewhere along the way, a spigot had a valve added for variable control of flow.

33D Michelin surface : TIRE TREAD

Michelin is a manufacturer of tires that is based in France. The company was founded by brothers Édouard and André Michelin in 1889. The brothers were running a rubber factory at the time, and invented the world’s first removable pneumatic tire, an invention that they used to launch their new company. Michelin is also noted for rating restaurants and accommodation in its famous Michelin Travel Guides, awarding coveted Michelin stars.

35D Bing portal : MSN

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft. “Bing” is the latest name for an engine that Microsoft used to call Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search.

39D __ Sutra : KAMA

The “Kama Sutra” is renowned for its descriptions of positions that can be used for sexual intercourse, but the sutra includes many other texts that deal with various matters of a sexual nature, including how to woo a woman, the conduct of a “chief wife”, the conduct of “other wives”, how to make money as a courtesan, and much more.

45D Number of prongs on a bident : TWO

A bident is a two-pronged spear very much associated with Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. It contrasts with the more recognizable three-pronged trident wielded by his brother Poseidon. The term “bident” comes from the Latin “bidens” meaning “two-toothed”.

46D Short nails : TACKS

What we know as a thumb tack or pushpin here in North America is called a drawing pin in British English. Thumb tacks made from brass might be referred to as “brass tacks”, giving us the expression “getting down to brass tacks” meaning “getting down to the finer details”.

47D Drum kit cymbals : HI-HAT

In a drum kit, a hi-hat is a pairing of cymbals that sits on a stand and is played by using a foot pedal. The top cymbal is raised and lowered by the foot, hence creating a crashing sound.

48D Nail file material : EMERY

Emery is a very hard type of rock that is crushed for use as an abrasive. Emery paper is made by gluing small particles of emery to paper. Emery boards are just emery paper with a cardboard backing. And emery boards are primarily used for filing nails.

49D Only U.S. president born after 1960 : OBAMA

Despite rumors to the contrary, Barack Hussein Obama II was indeed born in Hawaii. Future US President Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapi’olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu.

50D Place for a hat rack : FOYER

“Foyer”, meaning “lobby”, is a French word that we imported into English. In French, “foyer” is used for what we would call a “green room”, a place where actors can gather when not on stage or on set.

51D Holi celebrant : HINDU

Holi is a Hindu festival, one celebrated in spring, that is also known as the Festival of Colours.