LA Times Crossword 8 Dec 25, Monday

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Constructed by: Brian Gubin

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: That Tracks

Themed answers each TRACK something:

• 62A “Sounds about right,” and what can be said about 18-, 28-, and 49-Across : THAT TRACKS

• 18A Sleuth for hire : PRIVATE EYE
• 28A Important tool in weather prediction : DOPPLER RADAR
• 49A Tour guide off the coast of Washington or Maine, e.g. : WHALE WATCHER

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

Bill’s time: 5m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Advertising award named for a Greek goddess : CLIO

The Clio Awards are the Oscars of the advertising world and are named after Clio, the Greek Muse of History. Clio was also the recorder of great deeds, the proclaimer and celebrator of great accomplishments and a source of inspiration and genius. The Clio Awards were first presented in 1959.

10A Apex : ACME

The acme is the highest point. The term “acme” comes from the Greek word “akme” that has the same meaning.

17A Reddit Q&As : AMAS

Ask me anything (AMA)

18A Sleuth for hire : PRIVATE EYE

A private eye is a private investigator, a PI, a private “I”.

The word “sleuth” came into English from Old Norse as far back as 1200 when it meant the “track or trail of a person”. In the mid-1800s, a sleuthhound described a keen investigator, a hound close on the trail of the suspect. Sleuthhound was shortened to “sleuth” and was used for a detective in general.

20A Heaven-sent food : MANNA

According to the Book of Exodus, manna was a food eaten by the Israelites as they traveled out of Egypt. The manna “fell” to Earth during the night, six days a week, and was gathered in the morning before it had time to melt.

23A Cargo weight : TON

Cargo is freight carried by some vehicle. The term “cargo” comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

26A Michael C. Hall crime drama with a “Resurrection” sequel series : DEXTER

“Dexter” is a crime show that airs on Showtime. The title character works for the Miami Police Department as an expert in blood spatter patterns by day, but is a serial killer by night. The original series was based on the “Dexter” novels written by Jeff Lindsay. I haven’t seen this show myself, but my eldest son really enjoys it …

American actor Michael C. Hall is perhaps best known for his TV roles, playing the title character in the TV show “Dexter” as well as funeral director David Fisher in “Six Feet Under”. In 2010, when “Dexter” was at the height of its popularity, Hall was diagnosed and successfully treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

28A Important tool in weather prediction : DOPPLER RADAR

The Doppler effect is the change in frequency of a sound experienced by an observer when the source of the sound is moving nearer or further away. The effect was proposed by Austrian physicist Christian Doppler in 1842.

Doppler radar is mainly used to track weather patterns. Standard radar bounces radio waves off precipitation to see where it is. Doppler radar sees where the rain or snow is, and also measures the pitch-like change in the returning radio waves due to movement. This allows forecasters to see the speed and direction of the wind inside a storm.

32A Tech sch. in upstate New York : RPI

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a private school in Troy, New York. The university is named after its founder Stephen Van Rensselaer who set up the school in 1824. The goal of RPI has always been the “application of science to the common purposes of life”, an objective set by the founder. Given that, the name for the school’s sports teams is quite apt: the Engineers.

33A Sicilian volcano : ETNA

According to Greek mythology, Mount Etna was the prison of a monster. After Zeus defeated the 100-headed giant Typhon, he trapped him under the volcano. The eruptions, smoke, and tremors were believed to be the giant’s fiery breath as he struggled to break free.

44A Youngsters : TYKES

“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902 For centuries before that, a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

46A “Pop! __ the Weasel” : GOES

“Pop! Goes the Weasel” is an English nursery rhyme, and a relatively young one that probably dates back only to the mid-1800s. No one really knows for certain the significance of the “pop” or the “weasel”.

53A Upload a new version to the cloud, say : RESAVE

In the world of computing, when one operates “in the cloud”, one’s files and key applications are not stored on one’s own computer, but rather are residing “in the cloud”, on a computer somewhere out on the Internet. I do 90% of my computing in the cloud. That way I don’t have to worry about backing up files, and I can operate from any computer if I have to …

55A __ Lee desserts : SARA

In 1935, businessman Charles Lubin bought a chain of three bakeries in Chicago called Community Bake Shops, and soon expanded the operation into seven stores. Lubin introduced a cream cheesecake that he named after his daughter who was only 8-years-old at the time, Sara Lee Lubin. The cheesecake was a hit and he renamed the bakeries to Kitchen of Sara Lee. The business was bought out by Consolidated Foods in 1956, but the brand name Sara Lee persists to this day, as does Ms. Sara Lee herself who now goes by the name Sara Lee Schupf.

57A Storm relief org. : FEMA

Federal emergency management has been structured for over 200 years, but what we know today as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1979 in an Executive Order issued by President Jimmy Carter.

72A Graceful long-necked bird : SWAN

An adult male swan is a cob and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

Down

2D Peruvian city founded as Ciudad de los Reyes : LIMA

Lima is the capital city of Peru. It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). He chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem. Lima is home to the oldest university in all of the Americas, as San Marco University was founded in 1551 during the days of Spanish colonial rule.

5D Bygone handheld game console, for short : PSP

PlayStation Portable (PSP)

7D Early spring flower : IRIS

Iris is a genus of flowering plants that come in a wide variety of flower colors. The term “iris” is a Greek word meaning “rainbow”. Many species of irises are called “flags”. One suggestion is that the alternate name comes from the Middle English “flagge” meaning “reed”. This term was used because iris leaves look like reeds.

8D The Silver State : NEVADA

The official nickname of Nevada is the Silver State, a reference to the importance of silver ore in the state’s growth and economy. An unofficial nickname is the Battle Born State. “Battle Born” is a reference to Nevada being awarded statehood during the American Civil War.

11D Most populous 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.

19D Houston resident, for one : TEXAN

The city of Houston (sometimes “H-Town”) was named for General Sam Houston, who served as President of the Republic of Texas and then as Governor after Texas was annexed as a US state in 1845. As the city is home to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston was officially given the nickname “Space City” in 1967.

27D Uno, dos, __ : TRES

In Spanish, “Uno, dos, tres” (one, two, three) starts off a count.

28D “Fiddlesticks!” : DRAT!

We’ve been using “fiddlesticks” to mean “nonsense” since the early 17th century. Prior to that time, “fiddlestick” just referred to the bow of a fiddle.

29D The Grand Ole __ : OPRY

The Grand Ole Opry started out as a radio show in 1925 originally called the WSM “Barn Dance”. In 1927, the “Barn Dance” radio show was broadcast in a slot after an NBC production called “Musical Appreciation Hour”, a collection of classical works including Grand Opera. In a December show, the host of “Barn Dance” announced, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry'”. That name was used for the radio show from then on.

30D Molecule in some vaccines : RNA

Traditional vaccines typically use weakened or inactivated viruses, or pieces of the virus, to stimulate an immune response. mRNA vaccines use a small piece of genetic material from the virus, called messenger RNA (mRNA), to instruct cells in the body to produce a harmless piece of the virus to trigger the immune response. mRNA vaccines are developed more quickly than traditional vaccines. This was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, where mRNA vaccines were developed and authorized for emergency use within months of the emergence of the novel coronavirus.

36D __ frog : TREE

The name “tree frog” (also “treefrog”) applies to a number of frog species. As the name implies, these are frogs that spend very little time on the ground, and rather live in trees and high-growing vegetation. Tree frogs are usually very small in size, so that their weight can be borne by twigs and branches.

41D The “D” of DJIA : DOW

Dow Jones & Company was founded as a publishing house in 1882 by three newspaper reporters, Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Today, the company’s most famous publication has to be “The Wall Street Journal”. In 1884, Charles Dow started reporting the average dollar value of the stock of eleven companies, an index which spawned a whole host of metrics that carry the Dow Jones name to this day. The most famous of these metrics is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), also known as “the Dow 30” or simply “the Dow”.

51D French city known for a 24-hour car race : LE MANS

Le Mans is a city in northwestern France. It is famous for the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race that has been held annually since 1923. The 24-hour race uses the city’s race track, but closed city streets are also used for part of the circuit.

52D Sandwich leftovers on many a kid’s plate : CRUSTS

Meats placed between slices of bread was first called a sandwich in the 18th century, named after the Fourth Earl of Sandwich. The earl was fond of eating “sandwiches” while playing cards at his club.

58D Las Vegas WNBA team : ACES

The Las Vegas Aces women’s basketball team was formed in Salt Lake City in 1997 as the Utah Starzz. The team became the San Antonio (Silver) Stars in 2002, before moving to Las Vegas as the Aces in 2018.

60D Singer Simone : NINA

“Nina Simone” was the stage name of Eunice Waymon. Simone was very much associated with jazz music, although she really wanted to be a classical musician early in her career. She was inspired by a love for the music of Bach.

61D “__ sesame!” : OPEN

In the folk tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, the title character is a poor woodcutter who discovers the magic phrase “Open sesame!” that opens the thieves’ den.

64D Hawaii’s Mauna __ : KEA

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, the peak of which is the highest point in the whole state. Mauna Kea is in effect the tip of a gigantic volcano rising up from the seabed.

65D Texter’s “My bad” : SRY

Sorry (SRY)