LA Times Crossword 8 Mar 26, Sunday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Seth Weitberg

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: You Can Say That Again

Themed answers each include the singular of the final word hidden within the first word. Clever …

• 23A The land developer was __ : ATTRACTED TO TRACTS
• 39A The billboard installer was __ : ASSIGNED TO SIGNS
• 51A The tissue manufacturer was __ : APPLIED TO PLIES
• 65A The importer/exporter was __ : ACCUSTOMED TO CUSTOMS
• 79A The music producer was __ : ATTUNED TO TUNES
• 89A The safety inspector __ : ATTESTED TO TESTS
• 110A The scorekeeper was __ : APPOINTED TO POINTS

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

Bill’s time: 15m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A TD pass throwers, perhaps : QBS

In American football, one “goal” of a quarterback (QB) is to score touchdowns (TDs).

19A Diarist Nin : ANAIS

Anaïs Nin was a French author who was famous for the journals that she wrote for over sixty years from the age of 11 right up to her death. Nin also wrote highly regarded erotica and cited D. H. Lawrence as someone from whom she drew inspiration. Nin was married to banker and artist Hugh Parker Guiler in 1923. Decades later in 1955, Nin married former actor Rupert Pole, even though she was still married to Guiler. Nin and Pole had their marriage annulled in 1966, but just for legal reasons, and they continued to live together as husband and wife until Nin passed away in 1977.

20A __ 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.

21A Painter Matisse : HENRI

Henri Matisse was a French artist renowned for his contribution to modern art. In his early career, Matisse was classed as a “fauve”, one of the group of artists known as the “wild beasts” who emphasized strong color over realism in their works. He was a lifelong friend of Pablo Picasso, and the two were considered to be good-natured rivals so their works are often compared. One major difference between their individual portfolios is that Picasso tended to paint from his imagination, whereas Matisse tended to use nature as his inspiration.

22A Fed. that hosts F1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix : UAE

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula One motor racing event was first held in 2009. That race marked the first day-night race, as it started in daylight and finished under floodlights. Those lights were switched on at the start, even though not needed, so that the drivers had a seamless transition from natural to artificial light.

26A Barinholtz of “The Studio” : IKE

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

“The Studio” is a 2025 satirical comedy TV series created by Seth Rogen and others. The show delves into the inner workings of a floundering Hollywood movie studio, Continental Studios. Seth Rogen himself stars as Matt Remick, the newly appointed studio head. I haven’t seen the show, but it sounds interesting, with many actors making cameo appearances …

27A Baseball gripping aid : SEAM

A baseball is made by wrapping string around a rubber or cork center, and then covering the resulting sphere with leather. The string inside a baseball can measure up to a mile in length.

29A Actress Birch : THORA

Thora Birch is an actress from Los Angeles. Birch is probably best known for her breakthrough role in the 1999 movie “American Beauty” in which she was the insecure daughter of a married couple played by Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening.

32A Annual Kentucky event : DERBY

The first Kentucky Derby took place in 1875, and was a race modeled on the Epsom Derby in England. As such, the Kentucky Derby was run over 1½ miles, although in 1896 this was shortened to 1¼ miles. The winning horse is presented with a very elaborate blanket made of red roses, and so the Derby is nicknamed “Run for the Roses”. The race is held on the first Saturday in May each year, and is limited to 3-year-old horses.

35A Ice Follies venue : RINK

The Ice Follies is a touring ice-skating show that was founded in 1936. Famously, the show was central to the 1939 movie “The Ice Follies of 1939” starring James Stewart and Joan Crawford.

46A Send back : REMAND

To remand is to send back. In the law, the verb “to remand” can mean “to send back into custody” or “to send back a case to a lower court”.

49A Western treaty gp. : OAS

The Organization of American States (OAS) was founded in Bogotá, Colombia in 1948 to promote solidarity and cooperation among its member states. The charter was signed by 21 countries, including the United States.

50A Lummox : LOUT

The word “lummox” comes from Britain, from East Anglian slang, and describes an ungainly and often clueless person. The term is probably a contraction of “lumbering ox”.

57A Sleeveless top : VEST

Here’s another word that often catches me out. What we call a vest here in the US is a waistcoat back in Ireland. And, the Irish use the word “vest” for an undershirt.

59A Early 1990s pres., familiarly : BUSH SR

President George H. W. Bush served in the US Navy during WWII. Future President Bush postponed his entry into college after the attack on Pearl Harbor and enlisted in the navy instead. When he earned his wings, he was the youngest aviator in the US Navy at that time.

65A The importer/exporter was __ : ACCUSTOMED TO CUSTOMS

Historically, border taxes were considered “customary, commonly imposed” duties or fees paid to a sovereign for the right to trade. The “customary” payments led to our term “customs”, describing the agency responsible for collecting import and export taxes at a national border.

71A Pine secretion : RESIN

Resinous trees have evolved the ability to secrete resins in response to an injury. The resin serves as a barrier, protecting the tree from insects and pathogens that might otherwise exploit the site of the injury.

72A Crabby folks : CRANKS

We’ve been describing grouchy people as crabby since the 1700s, mainly in North America. The term “crabby” possibly arose from the perceived combative nature of “crabs”.

75A Seer’s gift : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

78A NFL team with a horseshoe logo : COLTS

The Indianapolis Colts professional football team has been in Indiana since 1984. The team traces its roots back to a 1953 expansion team that rose from the assets of the failed Dallas Texans. The Texan franchise moved to Baltimore in 1953, forming the Baltimore Colts. Famously, The Colts arrived in Indiana in 1984 following a stealthy midnight move from Baltimore in a fleet of Mayflower transit trucks. The departure from Baltimore was triggered by the Maryland legislature’s attempt to seize the team through eminent domain, prompting the owner to move the franchise under the cover of darkness. By the time the city’s residents woke up, Baltimore’s beloved football team was legally and physically gone, leaving behind a bitter legal battle.

84A Cambodian currency : RIEL

The Cambodian riel was introduced in 1953, and was taken out of circulation by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 when they completely abolished money on taking control of the country. After the Vietnamese invasion of 1978, money was reintroduced and the Cambodian people are still using the “second” riel. The original riel was divided into 100 centimes, but this was changed to 100 “sen” in 1959.

85A Cape __, Massachusetts : ANN

Cape Ann is located 30 miles north of Boston and is on the northernmost edge of Massachusetts Bay. The Cape was first mapped by the explorer John Smith. Early in his adventurous life Smith had been captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. His “owner” in his days of slavery was a woman called Tragabigzanda, and apparently the slave and owner fell in love. Smith originally called Cape Tragabigzanda in her memory, but King Charles I changed the name to Cape Ann in honor of his own mother, Anne of Denmark.

87A Part of Caesar’s boast : VENI

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

88A Bao Li, Qing Bao, et al. : PANDAS

Bao Li and Qing Bao are pandas, the former a male and the latter a female, that live at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. They arrived at the zoo in 2024, and are expected to reside there for ten years according to an agreement reached with the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA). Bao Li is the cub of Bao Bao, who was born in the National Zoo and lived there for four years, Bao Bao was shipped off in 2017 to the CWCA, where she gave birth to Bao Li.

95A Finishing __ : SALT

Finishing salt is a rough, crystalline salt added as a final touch just before serving a dish. The idea is to provide a textural “crunch” and a distinct flavor of salt that hasn’t dissolved during cooking.

96A Surface alternative : IPAD

Microsoft Surface is a line of computing products ranging from tablets to desktops.

99A Uninspired, as writing : PROSY

Something that is “prosy” resembles prose. Also, “prosy” can be used to mean “lacking impact or dry”, prosaic in fact.

104A Tierra en el océano : ISLA

In Spanish, an “isla” (island) is “tierra en el océano” (land in an ocean).

114A Java : JOE

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

Back in 1850, the name “java” was given to a type of coffee grown on the island of Java, and the more general usage of the term spread from then.

116A City in upstate New York : OLEAN

Olean is a city in New York State located on the Allegheny River. Its name comes from the Latin word “oleum”, meaning “oil”. This name was chosen by the city’s founder in the early 1800s due to the discovery of crude oil at a nearby spring, where crude oil bubbled to the surface.

Down

1D “A Court of Thorns and Roses” novelist Sarah J. __ : MAAS

Sarah J. Maas is a fantasy author known for both her young adult and adult novels. She gained widespread recognition with her debut series, “Throne of Glass”, which follows the journey of a young assassin named Celaena Sardothien. Maas further solidified her success with the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, a tale of faeries, romance, and adventure.

4D Decoration awarded in all branches of the military : AIR MEDAL

The Air Medal was established in 1942 by President Roosevelt to honor meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Unlike many other decorations, it can be awarded to any member of the US Armed Forces, provided they are performing flight duties. The extensive list of recipients includes President George H. W. Bush, actors James Stewart and Clark Gable, and astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

5D Bag-screening org. : TSA

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

6D Sister of Janet and Jermaine : LA TOYA

La Toya Jackson is the fifth child of the Jackson family. Despite her success as a singer and TV personality, it seems that she has led a troubled life and had to overcome many challenges.

8D Bona __ : FIDE

“Bona fide(s)” translates from the Latin as “in good faith”, and is used to indicate honest intentions. It can also mean that something is authentic, like a piece of art that is represented in good faith as being genuine.

11D Classic auto trim : CHROME

Chrome plating involves applying a thin layer of chromium onto a metal surface. This is done primarily for aesthetic purposes, as chromium provides a shiny, silver-colored finish. However, chrome plating also has functional benefits, as it increases the hardness and durability of the metal, and makes it more resistant to corrosion and wear.

12D Learn through the grapevine : HEAR

There are competing stories about the etymology of the phrase “heard it through the grapevine”, meaning “heard it by means of gossip or rumor”. One is that it is a reference to the Grapevine Tavern in Greenwich Village in New York City. The Grapevine was a popular meeting place for Union officers and Confederate spies during the Civil War, and so was a great spot for picking up and spreading vital gossip.

13D Pioneering digital encyclopedia : ENCARTA

Microsoft badly wanted to get into the online encyclopedia business in the eighties, and approached the biggest and the best, “Encyclopaedia Britannica”. “Britannica” declined, fearing that an online version would damage their print sales. “Britannica” had to sell eventually, but not to Microsoft, as the inevitable decline in print sales happened anyway. So Microsoft made a deal with “Funk & Wagnalls” and started publishing “Encarta” in disk form in the early nineties. Usage of Encarta grew until along came Wikipedia. Encarta was discontinued at the end of 2009.

14D Part of LACMA : ART

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) was founded in 1961, when it separated from the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art. LACMA is the largest art museum in the western US, and is located on LA’s Museum Row, right beside the La Brea Tar Pits. The museum is currently undergoing a massive $750 million transformation, featuring a new building that will span directly over Wilshire Boulevard.

15D Some Tuscans : PISANS

The Italian city of Pisa is home to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is actually the bell tower of the city’s cathedral. Pisa is also a university town, and is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe, the University of Pisa, which was founded in 1343. The university has produced many notable alumni, including the physicist Galileo Galilei.

16D Classic Nestlé drink : QUIK

Nestlé Quik was introduced in 1948, and is a flavored powdered milk drink. It was sold in Europe as “Nesquik”, and that brand name replaced “Quik” here in the US in 1999. The Nesquik mascot is the Quik Bunny. The Quik Bunny had a large “Q” on a collar around his neck, and with the brand name change this “Q” became an “N”, and he is now known as the Nesquik Bunny.

17D Make clafoutis, say : BAKE

Clafoutis is a classic French dessert consisting of black cherries baked in a thick, flan-like batter. Traditionally, the cherries are left unpitted because the kernels release a nut-like aroma into the batter as it bakes.

33D Baroque painter Guido : RENI

Guido Reni was an Italian painter from Bologna who was active in the first half of the 17th century. Reni’s most famous work is probably “Crucifixion of St. Peter”, an altarpiece commissioned in the early 1600s that is now on display in the Vatican.

36D Mobile platform since 2007 : IOS

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

37D Buggy for a bairn : PRAM

Another word used in Britain and Ireland that’s rarely used over here is “pram”, which in my day was the most common term for what is called a baby carriage in the US. “Pram” is short for “perambulator”.

“Bairn” is a Scots word meaning “child”.

45D Hall of Fame drummer from Liverpool : STARR

Ringo Starr is a musician, best known as the drummer for the Beatles. In addition to his music career, Ringo Starr has appeared in a number of films. In addition to his film work, Ringo Starr has also done voiceover work for several animated television shows and movies. He has lent his distinctive voice to characters in shows like “Thomas & Friends” and “The Simpsons,” as well as movies like “Yellow Submarine”.

47D Concocts : DEVISES

To decoct is to extract the flavor of a liquid by boiling down and increasing the concentration. A related term is “to concoct”, meaning “to boil together”. We use the verb “to concoct” in a figurative sense to mean to contrive, devise.

54D Currency symbolized by € : EURO

The euro sign (€) looks like a letter C, but with two horizontal lines drawn across the middle. Inspiration for the design comes from the Greek letter epsilon.

55D __-frutti : TUTTI

The adjective “tutti-frutti” describes a prepared confection that has a combination of fruit flavors. “Tutti frutti” is Italian for “all fruits”.

61D __ and Caicos : TURKS

The Turks and Caicos Islands are two groups of islands in the Bahamas that were claimed by Britain in 1799, and so now are a British Overseas Territory. Despite that, the islands use the US dollar as their official currency and several times have formally considered becoming a province of Canada.

65D Skillful : ADROIT

The French for “to the right” is “à droite”, from which we get our word “adroit”. The original meaning of “adroit” was “rightly, properly”, but it has come to mean dexterous and skillful. Someone described as “maladroit” is unskilled and awkward.

67D Charcuterie fare : MEAT

In French, a “charcutier” is a pork butcher, although the term “charcuterie” has come to describe a genre of cooking focused on prepared meats such as bacon, ham, sausage and pâté. Although these meats often feature pork, it is not exclusively so. The word “charcuterie” comes from the French “chair” meaning “flesh” and “cuit” meaning “cooked”.

69D Ghana’s capital : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

76D Neptune’s realm : SEAS

Neptune was a Roman god, of both the sea and of freshwater. He was sometimes known as “Neptunus Equester” as he was also the god of horses and patron of horse-racing.

80D Skin art only visible in black light : UV TATTOO

UV tattoos use fluorescent inks that remain nearly invisible in daylight but glow under ultraviolet light. Beyond body art, they are sometimes used in the medical field to create discreet markers for patients undergoing radiation therapy, allowing doctors to align equipment precisely without permanent, visible scarring.

85D Delta HQ : ATL

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

Delta was the world’s largest airline for a while (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta’s roots go back to 1924 before it started carrying passengers when it was Huff Daland Dusters, a crop-dusting company based in Macon, Georgia. The name “Delta Air Service” was introduced in 1928.

86D Nasal irrigation vessel : NETI POT

A neti pot is a spouted vessel that is used for nasal irrigation. “Neti” is a Sanskrit word meaning “nasal cleansing”.

91D Shin-related : TIBIAL

The tibia is the shinbone, and is the larger of the two bones right below the knee. It is the strongest weight-bearing bone in the human body. “Tibia” is the Roman name for a Greek flute and it is thought that the shinbone was given the same name because flutes were often fashioned out of the shinbones of animals.

92D “__ 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.

101D Toe the line : OBEY

The idiomatic expression “to toe the line” means “to obey”. The etymology of the phrase is disputed, although it is likely to come from the Royal Navy. Barefooted sailors were required to stand to attention for inspection lined up along the seams for the wooden deck, hence “toeing the line”.

103D Pantheon feature : DOME

The Pantheon in Rome was built as a temple to all the gods of ancient Rome. Even though the Pantheon was built almost two thousand years ago, the roof at its center remains the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome.

104D Inkling : IDEA

An inkling is a slight indication or vague notion. The term “inkling” apparently comes from the Middle English word “inclen” meaning “to hint”.

108D Form W-2 digits : SSNS

Form W-2 is provided by US employers to their employees by January 31 each year. The form reports wages paid to the employees, as well as taxes withheld.

112D Animal on the Michigan state seal : ELK

The Great Seal of the State of Michigan features the state’s coat of arms, and three Latin mottos:

1. “E Pluribus Unum” (Out of many, one): a motto found on the Great Seal of the US
2. “Tuebor” (I will defend).
3. “Si Quæris Peninsulam Amœnam Circumspice” (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you): the official motto of Michigan.