LA Times Crossword 6 Oct 26, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Tennessee Grimes

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Sign Language

Themed answers each start with a road SIGN:

• 53A Nonverbal communication, or what can be found at the starts of 20-, 28-, 38-, and 46-Across : SIGN LANGUAGE

• 20A Plan for ending a relationship : EXIT STRATEGY
• 28A Have a meeting of the minds? : BUMP HEADS
• 38A “Can it!” : STOP YOUR YAPPING!
• 46A One who’s not a fast-food fan? : SLOW EATER

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

Bill’s time: 6m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Ancient Aegean region : IONIA

The geographic region called Ionia is located in present-day Turkey. It was prominent in the days of ancient Greece, although it wasn’t a unified state and rather a collection of tribes. The tribal confederacy was more based on religious and cultural similarities than a political or military alliance. Nowadays we often refer to this arrangement as the Ionian League.

The Aegean Sea is that part of the Mediterranean that lies between Greece and Turkey. Within the Aegean Sea are found the Aegean Islands, a group that includes Crete and Rhodes. The body of water is named for Aegeus, a mythical king of Athens and the father of the hero Theseus. After Theseus departed to slay the Minotaur, Aegeus instructed him to replace his ship’s black sails with white ones upon his safe return. Theseus forgot to change the sails, and Aegeus believed his son had been killed. As a result, he threw himself into the sea in despair.

17A Like grapefruit juice : TANGY

The somewhat bitter fruit that we know as “grapefruit” originated in the island nation of Barbados in the Caribbean. It developed as a hybrid (possibly accidentally) of the Jamaican sweet orange and the Indonesian pomelo. Back in the mid-1700s, the new hybrid was referred to as “the forbidden fruit”, and later as the shaddock. Some believe that a “Captain Shaddock” brought Indonesian pomelo seeds to Barbados and was responsible for developing the hybrid. The contemporary name is perhaps an allusion to the fact that grapefruit grows in clusters like grapes.

19A Greek salad cheese : FETA

Feta is a Greek cheese made from sheep’s milk, or a mixture of sheep and goat’s milk. The cheese is salted and cured in a brine solution for several months before it is eaten.

24A World’s second-tallest bird : EMU

The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the “invading force”. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formations and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests for military help for the farmers were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …

25A Hooting bird of prey : OWL

Much of an owl’s diet consists of small mammals. As a result, humans have used owls for centuries to control rodent populations, usually by placing a nest box for owls on a property. Despite the fact that owls and humans live together in relative harmony, owls have been known to attack humans from time to time. Celebrated English bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye when attacked by a tawny owl that he was trying to photograph. Hosking wrote a 1970 autobiography with the wry title “An Eye for a Bird”.

35A Mil. mail drop : APO

Army post office (APO)

43A Pirate’s cry : YAR!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th every year, a “holiday” that was created in 1995. The event started out as an inside joke between John Baur and Mark Summers of Albany, Oregon, but when they shared the notion with columnist Dave Barry, he promoted the idea and it took off.

45A Swedish home furnishing stores : IKEAS

The IKEA furniture stores use the colors blue and yellow for brand recognition. Blue and yellow are the national colors of Sweden, where IKEA was founded.

49A Actor Beatty : NED

Ned Beatty was a very busy character actor who appeared in over 160 films and television shows during a career that lasted five decades. His first film appearance was a memorable one, in 1972’s “Deliverance”, after which he went on to earn an Oscar nomination for his role in 1976’s “Network”. One of his last roles was the voice of the villainous bear Lotso in “Toy Story 3”. Beatty retired in 2013, and passed away in 2021.

50A “Last Week Tonight” network : HBO

“Last Week Tonight” is a satirical late-night talk show hosted by British comedian John Oliver. The HBO show shares a look and feel with Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, of which Oliver is an alumnus.

65A __ Millions lottery : MEGA

The multi-state lottery known today as “Mega Millions” launched in 1996 as “The Big Game”.

66A Republic in the Himalayas : NEPAL

The nation of Nepal shares a border to the north with China. The remaining border to the south, east and west is shared with India.

67A Deep black : ONYX

Onyx is a form of quartz that comes in many different shades, but most often it’s the black version that’s used for jewelry. The name “onyx” comes from the Greek word for “fingernail”, as onyx in the flesh color is said to resemble a fingernail.

Down

9D Capital of Oregon : SALEM

Salem is the state capital of Oregon. It is thought that the city takes its name from the older city of Salem, Massachusetts.

25D Betting unwisely, in poker slang : ON TILT

In a game of pinball, some players get an irresistible urge to “nudge” the machine. Such a nudge, a movement of the machine designed to influence the path taken by the ball, is called a “tilt”. Most pinball machines have sensors designed to detect a tilt, and when activated a “tilt” warning light comes on and the player’s controls are temporarily disabled. Over time, the term moved beyond pinball and was adopted by poker players. A player described as being “on tilt” is in a state of frustration or confusion, often after experiencing bad luck or a significant loss. The agitated state leads them to abandon sound strategy and make reckless or irrational decisions, much like someone angrily shaking a pinball machine and losing control of the game.

26D Frankfurter : WIENIE

What we call a wiener in this country is known as a Vienna sausage in Germany. It was first produced by a butcher from Frankfurt who was living in Vienna, hence the name “Wiener”, which is German for “of Vienna”. Paradoxically, the same sausage is called a Frankfurter in Vienna, as it was created by someone from Frankfurt. It’s all very confusing …

31D __ Dhabi : ABU

Abu Dhabi is an island city in the Persian Gulf that is capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “Abu Dhabi” translates literally from Arabic as “Father of Gazelle”, a name honoring the animal that reportedly led the Bani Yas tribe to a fresh water source on the island in 1761. The Bani Yas then established a fort and some housing in the area. That fort is now the oldest stone building in the city today.

32D Hannah of “Splash” : DARYL

Daryl Hannah is an actress from Chicago who got her big break in movies playing a violent replicant called Pris in the 1982 sci-fi classic “Blade Runner”. A couple of years later she played the female lead opposite Tom Hanks in the hit film “Splash”.

“Splash” is a 1984 comedy movie directed by Ron Howard, and starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. Hanks plays a guy who falls for a mysterious woman (Hannah), who turns out to be a mermaid. One thing notable about “Splash” is that it was the first film to be released under Walt Disney’s “Touchstone Pictures” label.

37D Naturalist Charles with a theory of evolution : DARWIN

Englishman Charles Darwin studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland but neglected his studies largely due to his interest in nature and natural history. In the early 1830s, a friend put forward Darwin’s name as a candidate for the post of “collector” on the voyage of HMS Beagle. The Beagle was intending to spend two years at sea primarily charting the coast of South America. The voyage ended up taking five years, during which time Darwin sent back copious letters describing his findings. Back in Britain these letters were published as pamphlets by a friend and so when Darwin eventually returned home in 1836, he had already gained some celebrity in scientific circles. It was while on the Beagle that Darwin developed his initial ideas on the concept of natural selection. It wasn’t until over twenty years later that he formulated his theories into a scientific paper and in 1859 published his famous book “On the Origin of Species”. This original publication never even mentioned the word “evolution” which was controversial even back then. It was in 1871 that Darwin addressed head-on the concept that man was an animal species, in his book “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex”.

39D Org. for tenpins players : PBA

Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)

40D Mario Kart and Mario Party dinosaur : YOSHI

Yoshi is a dinosaur-like character in some Nintendo video games. Yoshi first appeared as a sidekick to Mario and Luigi in the 1991 game called “Super Mario World”.

41D Basketball Hall of Famer Ming : YAO

Yao Ming is a retired professional basketball player from Shanghai who played for the Houston Rockets. At 7’6″, Yao was the tallest man playing in the NBA. He has a cute nickname: “the Ming Dynasty”.

46D 14-line poem : SONNET

A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific structure and rhyming scheme. A popular rhyming scheme for what is known as the Italian sonnet is ABBA, ABBA, CDECDE. Compare this with the Shakespearean sonnet which rhymes as ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.

48D Shrewdness : ACUMEN

“Acumen” is such a lovely word, I think, one meaning “keenness of judgment or insight”. “Acumen” is Latin for “point, sting”, the idea being that someone with acumen has mental sharpness.

53D Mythical river of the underworld : STYX

The River Styx of Greek mythology was the river that formed the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld (or “Hades”). The souls of the newly dead had to cross the River Styx in a ferry boat piloted by Charon. Traditionally, a coin would be placed in the mouths of the dead “to pay the ferryman”.

58D Shortstop De La Cruz who led the majors in stolen bases in 2024 : ELLY

Elly De La Cruz is an MLB player from the Dominican Republic who signed with the Cincinnati Reds as an international free agent in 2018. He is known for having an all-or-nothing approach at the plate, which is perhaps why he became the very first player in Major League Baseball history to lead the league in both stolen bases and strikeouts in the same season.

59D Bioengineering letters : GMO

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is one with genetic material that has been altered by genetic engineering. One might argue that the oldest form of genetic engineering is selective breeding, the use of animals or plants with desired traits for the creation of the next generation.