LA Times Crossword 21 Jul 22, Thursday

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Constructed by: Erica Hsiung Wojcik & May Huang
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Turning Red

Themed answers each include something RED as a hidden word, but with the direction TURNED round:

  • 61A 2022 Pixar film about a girl who goes through unusual changes, and the change seen inside each set of circles : TURNING RED
  • 17A Some plant-based patties : SOY BURGERS (hiding “RUBY” turned)
  • 27A Little by little : SLOWLY BUT SURELY (hiding “RUST” turned)
  • 46A Opening for some nostalgic stories : WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE (hiding “WINE” turned)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Britcom starring Joanna Lumley, to fans : ABFAB

“Absolutely Fabulous” (sometimes shortened to “AbFab”) is a cult-classic sitcom produced by the BBC. The two stars of the show are Jennifer Saunders (Edina Monsoon) and Joanna Lumley (Patsy Stone). “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” hit the screens in 2016. I haven’t seen it yet, but my wife did and really enjoyed it. She said that there’s a veritable cavalcade of British stars that make an appearance …

Joanna Lumley is an actress and former model. She is most famous in North America for co-starring alongside Jennifer Saunders in the hit sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous. She also had a small role in 1969’s Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, playing one of Blofeld’s “Angels of Death”. Her big break came with a leading role in “The New Avengers”, a reboot of the British TV spy series “The Avengers”.

15 Cruz known as the “Queen of Salsa” : CELIA

Celia Cruz was born and grew up in Cuba, but spent most of her working life in the United States, playing out her salsa singing career in New Jersey. Around the world, Cruz was known as the “Queen of Salsa”.

17 Some plant-based patties : SOY BURGERS (hiding “RUBY” turned)

Ruby is a precious stone made from the mineral corundum, also called aluminum oxide. The corundum includes some of the element chromium, which results in the red or pink color.

19 “Star Trek” creator Roddenberry : GENE

Gene Roddenberry is best-remembered for creating the original “Star Trek” TV show. Such was the success of the series that Roddenberry became the first TV writer to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (in 1985). For a while, Roddenberry was in a relationship with actress Nichelle Nichols who was later to play Uhura on “Star Trek”. After he passed away in 1991, Roddenberry’s body was cremated. Some of his ashes went into space the following year, carried aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. In 1997, some more of his cremated remains were sent into space aboard a Celestis spacecraft, along with remains from twenty-three other people including the psychologist and writer Timothy Leary.

27 Little by little : SLOWLY BUT SURELY (hiding “RUST” turned)

Rust is iron oxide. Rust forms when iron oxidizes, reacts with oxygen.

34 Sea cow : MANATEE

Manatees, also known as “sea cows”, are very large marine mammals that can grow to 12 feet in length. The manatee is believed to have evolved from four-legged land mammals and probably shares a common ancestor with the elephant.

35 Grilled meat dish : ASADO

In much of South America, the event we know as a barbecue is referred to as an “asado”, with “asado” translating from Spanish as “roast”. The “asador” is the “roaster”, the person roasting the meat.

37 Legendary pro wrestler Flair : RIC

Wrestler Ric Flair’s real name is Richard Fliehr. Perhaps following the lead of his compatriot Jesse Ventura, Flair explored the possibility of running for governor of the state of North Carolina.

45 Oberlin’s state : OHIO

Oberlin, Ohio is a city southwest of Cleveland. The city is home to Oberlin College, the biggest employer in town. Oberlin was named after Jean-Frédéric Oberlin, a pastor from Alsace. Oberlin was the first college in the country to admit African-American students (in 1835), and the first to admit female students (in 1837).

50 Evil spell : HEX

“Hexen” is a German word meaning “to practice witchcraft”. The use of the word “hex” in English started with the Pennsylvania Dutch in the early 1800s.

51 Dragon boat race need : OAR

Dragon boats are traditional paddled longboats associated with the Pearl River Delta in South China. The locals have been engaged in the sport of dragon boat racing for over two millennia. The vessels are traditionally made from teak, but contemporary racing craft are built using carbon fiber and fiberglass. Traditionally, the boat has the head of a dragon at the prow and a dragon’s tail at the stern.

53 College donors, often : ALUMNI

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

55 Tea brand : TAZO

The Tazo Tea Company was founded in 1994 in Portland, Oregon. Tazo was purchased in 1999 by Starbucks, and then by Unilever in 2017.

57 Blue-__: pain relief brand : EMU

Blu-Emu is a line of topical pain relievers that was introduced in 2002. As suggested by the name, Blue-Emu products include emu oil as an ingredient. Emu oil is extracted from the fat of emu carcases that are processed for meat.

61 2022 Pixar film about a girl who goes through unusual changes, and the change seen inside each set of circles : TURNING RED

“Turning Red” is a 2022 Pixar animated feature about a 13-year-old girl who turns into a giant red panda when she is cursed. Rosalie Chiang voices the girl, and Sandra Oh voices her overprotective mother.

66 Breakfast brand : EGGO

Eggo is a line of frozen waffles and related products made by Kellogg’s. When they were introduced in the 1930s, the name “Eggo” was chosen to promote the “egginess” of the batter. “Eggo” replaced “Froffles”, the original name chosen by melding “frozen” and “waffles”.

68 Match.com matches : DATES

Match.com is an online dating service. The company was started in 1993 and claims to have over 20 million members worldwide, in the ratio of male to female of 49:51.

Down

2 Jicama, e.g. : ROOT

The plant called the jícama is also known as the Mexican yam and Mexican turnip. Jícama is grown for its tuberous root. The tuber’s interior is usually eaten raw.

3 New Age artist who often sings in Irish : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

4 NAACP co-founder Du Bois : WEB

W. E. B. Du Bois was a sociologist and civil rights activist from Massachusetts. Du Bois was the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard, and went on to become a professor at Atlanta University. In 1909, he was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

5 Radar or sonar : ACRONYM

Strictly speaking, words formed from the first letters or other words are known as “initialisms”. Examples would be FBI and NBC, where the initials are spoken by sounding out each letter. Certain initialisms are pronounced as words in their own right, such as NATO and AWOL, and are called “acronyms”. So, acronyms are a subset of initialisms. As I say, that’s “strictly speaking”, so please don’t write in …

Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Range and Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called “Radio Detection And Ranging”, which was shortened to the acronym “RADAR”.

The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defense demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the “IC” from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR, playing off the related application, RADAR. And so, the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

9 Guitar player such as Este Haim or Kim Deal, e.g. : BASSIST

Haim is a Los Angeles band consisting of three Haim sisters: Este, Danielle and Alana.

Singer-songwriter Kim Deal was the bass player for the alternative rock band Pixies. After the Pixies broke up in 1993, she devoted her time to the band the Breeders, which she co-founded in 1989.

10 Asana expert : YOGI

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word that translates literally as “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

18 Risk territory that borders Siberia : URAL

Risk is a fabulous board game that was introduced in France in 1957. It was invented by a very successful French director of short films called Albert Lamorisse. Lamorisse called his new game “La Conquête du Monde”, which translates into English as “The Conquest of the World”. A game of Risk is a must during the holidays in our house …

24 Bothnian Bay country : SWEDEN

The Gulf of Bothnia is the most northerly part of the Baltic Sea, and is located between Finland to the west and Sweden to the east. The gulf is divided geographically into the Bothnian Bay in the north and the Bothnian Sea to the south.

25 Voting rights activist Abrams : STACEY

Stacey Abrams is a politician and voting rights activist who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. In 2019, she delivered the Democratic Party’s response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and became the first African-American woman to do so.

29 __ pro nobis : ORA

“Ora pro nobis” translates from Latin as “pray for us”. It is a common phrase used in the Roman Catholic tradition and is often shortened to “OPN”.

36 Vidalia bulb : ONION

Vidalia onions are sweet onions that are grown most famously in and around Vidalia, Georgia, where they’ve been growing since the 1930s. That area has soil which is relatively low in sulfur, which leads to the unusually sweet taste. The Vidalia onion has been the official state vegetable of Georgia since 1990.

44 Ripsnorters : DOOZIES

A doozy is something extraordinary or bizarre. The exact origins of the word “doozy” aren’t clear, but it might be a derivative of the name Eleanora Duse, an Italian actress popular early in the 20th century. Some say that the term comes from the Duesenberg brand of automobile, which was indeed referred to as a “duesy”. However, the use of “doozy” in print occurs before the Duesenberg hit the market.

47 Capital near the Great Divide : HELENA

Helena is the capital of the state of Montana, and is known as the Queen City of the Rockies. Helena’s main street has a very colorful name, i.e. Last Chance Gulch.

By definition, a continental divide marks the line between two drainage basins. In the case of the Continental Divide of the Americas (aka “the Great Divide”), one side of the line drains into the Pacific, and the other into the Atlantic. Generally speaking, the Continental Divide of the Americas runs along the Rocky Mountains in North America and along the Andes in South America.

57 “By that logic … ” : ERGO …

“Ergo” is a Latin word meaning “hence, therefore”, and one that we absorbed directly into English.

58 Ginormous : MEGA

“Ginormous” is a melding of the words “gigantic” and “enormous” and, surprisingly to me, one that dates back to about 1948. I thought that the term was far more contemporary …

59 Shabu-shabu noodle, often : UDON

Udon noodles are made from wheat-flour and are very popular in Japanese cuisines such as tempura.

Shabu-shabu is a hotpot dish in Japanese cuisine. It comprises very thin slices of meat that are boiled in water and served with various dipping sauces. Diners cook the meat in the boiling water themselves. They submerge a slice into the water and stir it around using chopsticks, usually just for a few seconds. The name “shabu-shabu” is onomatopoeic, and comes from the swishing sound made by the meat being stirred in the water.

62 Actress Thurman : UMA

Uma Thurman started her working career as a fashion model, at the age of 15. She appeared in her first movies at 17, with her most acclaimed early role being Cécile de Volanges in 1988’s “Dangerous Liaisons”. Thurman’s career really took off when she played the gangster’s moll Mia in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. My favorite of all Thurman’s movies is “The Truth About Cats & Dogs”, a less acclaimed romcom released in 1996. She took a few years off from acting from 1998 until 2002 following the birth of her first child. It was Tarantino who relaunched her career, giving her the lead in the “Kill Bill” films.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Sprouted : GREW
5 Britcom starring Joanna Lumley, to fans : ABFAB
10 Swing set site : YARD
14 Five-star : A-ONE
15 Cruz known as the “Queen of Salsa” : CELIA
16 Completed : OVER
17 Some plant-based patties : SOY BURGERS (hiding “RUBY” turned)
19 “Star Trek” creator Roddenberry : GENE
20 After-school org. : PTA
21 “The Bachelor” flower : ROSE
22 Tours of duty : STINTS
24 Word in many California place names : SAN
25 Title of honor : SIR
26 Highway sign : GAS
27 Little by little : SLOWLY BUT SURELY (hiding “RUST” turned)
33 Tiny opening : PORE
34 Sea cow : MANATEE
35 Grilled meat dish : ASADO
37 Legendary pro wrestler Flair : RIC
38 Get going : START
42 Made into law : ENACTED
45 Oberlin’s state : OHIO
46 Opening for some nostalgic stories : WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE (hiding “WINE” turned)
50 Evil spell : HEX
51 Dragon boat race need : OAR
52 Choose (to) : OPT
53 College donors, often : ALUMNI
55 Tea brand : TAZO
57 Blue-__: pain relief brand : EMU
60 Relinquish : CEDE
61 2022 Pixar film about a girl who goes through unusual changes, and the change seen inside each set of circles : TURNING RED
64 Felt in one’s bones : KNEW
65 Project on stage : EMOTE
66 Breakfast brand : EGGO
67 Cheek : SASS
68 Match.com matches : DATES
69 Interlibrary __ : LOAN

Down

1 Have a sudden inspiration? : GASP
2 Jicama, e.g. : ROOT
3 New Age artist who often sings in Irish : ENYA
4 NAACP co-founder Du Bois : WEB
5 Radar or sonar : ACRONYM
6 Is a bad dog by the dinner table, say : BEGS
7 Run for the hills : FLEE
8 Broadcast : AIR
9 Guitar player such as Este Haim or Kim Deal, e.g. : BASSIST
10 Asana expert : YOGI
11 Get even for : AVENGE
12 Beach house, maybe : RENTAL
13 Not casual : DRESSY
18 Risk territory that borders Siberia : URAL
23 Squares up : TRUES
24 Bothnian Bay country : SWEDEN
25 Voting rights activist Abrams : STACEY
27 Facial venue : SPA
28 Word in many California place names : LOS
29 __ pro nobis : ORA
30 Place to unwind on a train : BAR CAR
31 Textbook divisions : UNITS
32 Comeback : RETORT
36 Vidalia bulb : ONION
39 “I’ve got it!” : AHA!
40 Contraption : RIG
41 Low digit : TOE
43 Expected : AWAITED
44 Ripsnorters : DOOZIES
46 Sharp blows : WHACKS
47 Capital near the Great Divide : HELENA
48 Oozes with : EXUDES
49 Atop : UPON
54 Kitten’s cries : MEWS
55 Jogging pace : TROT
56 Poker stake : ANTE
57 “By that logic … ” : ERGO …
58 Ginormous : MEGA
59 Shabu-shabu noodle, often : UDON
62 Actress Thurman : UMA
63 Come together : GEL