LA Times Crossword 23 Nov 24, Saturday - LAXCrossword.com (2024)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Vittles : CHOW

“Chow” is a slang term for “food” that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

“Victuals” is a term for food that is fit for consumption. We tend to pronounce “victuals” as “vittles”, and we use the term “vittles” and “victuals” interchangeably.

5 Schools that don’t play in bowl games : IVIES

The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

15 Classic infomercial brand : GINSU

Ginsu knives are more famous for their hard-sell television ads than they are for their efficacy in the kitchen. The Ginsu phenomenon took off in the seventies when two brothers found a set of knives called “Eversharp” that were being manufactured in Ohio. The brothers changed the brand name to something more exotic, and Japanese in particular (Ginsu), and then produced ads that made references to Japanese martial arts. I think they made a fortune …

17 Team that went to the NBA Finals with Durant, Harden, and Westbrook, familiarly : OKC THUNDER

The Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team arrived in 2008 after relocating from Seattle, where they were named the SuperSonics. The “Thunder” name was chosen as a reference to Oklahoma City’s exposure to the storms of Tornado Alley, and to the 45th Infantry Division “Thunderbirds” who were headquartered there until 1968.

19 Part of some cleansing rituals : SAGE

The burning of sage is known as “smudging”. It is a ritual that originated with many Native-American peoples, although similar practices are found around the world in other cultures. The most common type of sage used in smudge sticks (sage bundles) is white sage, Salvia apiana.

20 Naval garb : PEACOATS

A peacoat (also “pea jacket”) is a heavy woolen outer jacket originally associated with sailors. Nowadays anyone wears them (they’re very comfortable and warm). The female equivalent of a peacoat is often called a Jackie O jacket, after Jackie Onassis.

23 Attraction north of Syracuse : ETNA

The historic city of Syracuse on the island of Sicily was founded by the ancient Greeks, and was once a powerful city-state. It was the birthplace and home of Archimedes, the celebrated Greek polymath.

25 Product with Ground Ball Grape and Wild Pitch Watermelon flavors : BIG LEAGUE CHEW

Big League Chew is a shredded bubble gum brand that was launched in 1977. It was invented by former minor league pitcher Rob Nelson, and former Portland Mavericks left-handed pitcher Jim Bouton helped with development and marketing. The gum is known for its shredded texture and its resemblance to chewing tobacco, which was popular among baseball players at the time.

29 Key chain? : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically, an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside inside the circling coral reef.

30 Hit makers? : EPEES

The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.

34 “¡__ mío!” : DIOS

“Dios mío!” translates from Spanish as “My God!”

36 Petrol choice : ESSO

“Petrol” is the chiefly British-English term used for gasoline. “Petrol” comes via French from the Latin “petroleum”, itself derived from “petra” meaning “rock” and “oleum” meaning “oil”.

37 Cap. of America : USD

The dollar sign ($) was first used for the Spanish-American peso, in the late 18th century. The peso was also called the “Spanish dollar” (and “piece of eight”). The Spanish dollar was to become a model for the US dollar that was adopted in 1785, along with the dollar sign.

39 Aromatic hydrocarbon : ESTER

Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.

40 Alternative to a rim shot : I’M HERE ALL WEEK!

A rim shot is a sound made when a drummer hits the head of a drum and the rim at the same time. It’s a sound often used by comics to help punctuate a gag.

43 Taxonomy rank : SPECIES

Taxonomy is the classification of organisms into groups or categories known as taxons (plural “taxa”). We are most familiar with the classification of organisms in the major taxonomic ranks (taxa):

• Life
• Domain
• Kingdom
• Phylum
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus (plural “genera”)
• Species

46 Source of pain for some runners, familiarly : IT BAND

The iliotibial (IT) band is a thick band of connective tissue that runs along the outside of the thigh from the hip to the knee. It is used during activities like walking and running, and overuse or repetitive strain can lead to pain on the outer side of the knee, often affecting runners and cyclists.

51 Athlete also known as “Fräulein Forehand” : GRAF

Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, which was more than any other man or woman until Serena Williams came along. Graf is married to another former World No. 1, namely Andre Agassi.

54 Wizard : MAGE

“Mage” is an archaic word meaning “magician, wizard”.

57 Architectural area whose name comes from the Greek for “vault” : APSE

An apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally, apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

59 Shiraz locale : IRAN

The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

Down

1 Baltimore __: infield hit with a high bounce : CHOP

In baseball, a Baltimore chop is a batted ball that hits the ground hard in front of home plate and takes a high bounce, often over the infielder’s head. The name comes from the 19th-century Baltimore Orioles, who were known for employing this tactic on the hard infields of their home park.

4 Electrochemistry devices : WET CELLS

A wet cell is a battery that uses a liquid electrolyte, whereas a dry cell uses a paste electrolyte. Car batteries are usually wet cells, and use sulfuric as the electrolyte.

5 Williams title reptile : IGUANA

“The Night of the Iguana” is a play by Tennessee Williams, based on a short story that he wrote in 1948. Famously, the play was adapted for the screen in a 1964 movie of the same name, with powerful performances by Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr.

6 Some collectibles from the Roaring Twenties : VINTAGE CARS

The 1920s are often called the Roaring Twenties, and were a period of dynamic change across all aspects of life. Things were finally returning to normal after WWI, jazz became popular, some women “broke the mold” by becoming “flappers”, and Art Deco flourished. The whole decade came to a tragic end with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, followed by the Great Depression.

7 Some voters, briefly : INDS

In the world of politics, an Independent (Ind.) is neither Republican (Rep.) nor Democrat (Dem.)

12 Georgia of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” : ENGEL

Georgia Engel was a very funny comedy actress who is best known for playing Georgette Baxter, wife of Ted Baxter, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. Engel’s father was a vice admiral in the Coast Guard, and her sister was Miss Hawaii for 1967.

22 Folk singer Phil : OCHS

Phil Ochs was an American protest singer who was active in the days of the Vietnam War. Sadly, the singer’s mental health declined at the very time the war was winding down. Saigon fell in 1975, and Ochs committed suicide in 1976.

25 Singer Erykah : BADU

“Erykah Badu” is the stage name of Erica Wright, an American “neo-soul” singer. Badu gained some notoriety in March of 2010 when she shot a scene for a music video in Dallas. In the scene, she walks to the spot where President Kennedy was assassinated, removing her clothes until she is nude, and then falls to the ground as if she has been shot in the head. For that stunt she was charged with disorderly conduct.

33 Diary writer in a Rachel Renée Russell series : DORK

The “Dork Diaries” series of children books, written by Rachel Renée Russell, follows the daily life of teenager Nikki Maxwell as she navigates middle school. Each book is written in diary format, with entries including doodles, and cartoons.

36 Africa’s last absolute monarchy : ESWATINI

The Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly “Swaziland”) is located in southern Africa and is a nation almost completely surrounded by South Africa. It is quite a small country, only 120 miles long from north to south, and 80 miles from east to west.

39 John with an EGOT : ELTON

Singer and musician Elton John joined the hallowed club of EGOT winners in 2024. He had already won five Grammy Awards, two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, and finally an Emmy (for the documentary “Elton John: Farewell from Dodger Stadium”).

41 Computer security brand : MCAFEE

McAfee is a security software company now known as Intel Security Group. Purchased by Intel in 2011, the company was founded by John McAfee in 1987. John McAfee might be described as a “bit of a character”. He lived in Belize for several years, before being forced out of the country. After returning to the US, McAfee went after the Libertarian Party nomination for US president in the 2016 election.

43 Scylla’s head? : SIGMA

Sigma (Σ) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is the one used for an “ess” sound, equivalent to our letter S. Sigma is used in mathematics to represent a summation, the adding together of a sequence of numbers.

In Greek mythology, Scylla was a beautiful nymph who was transformed into a monstrous creature with six heads, each with three rows of sharp teeth, and a lower body consisting of twelve tentacle-like legs and a ring of dog heads. She lived in a cave on one side of a narrow strait, opposite the whirlpool Charybdis.

44 Plumbing piece : P-TRAP

Most sinks in a home have a P-trap in the outlet pipe that empties into the sewer line. This P-trap has at its heart a U-bend that retains a small amount of water after the sink is emptied. This plug of water serves as a seal to prevent sewer gases entering into the home. By virtue of its design, the U-bend can also capture any heavy objects (like an item of jewelry) that might fall through the plughole. But the “trapping” of fallen objects is secondary to the P-trap’s main function of “trapping” sewer gases.

48 House of Fabergé patron : CZAR

Fabergé eggs are beautiful jeweled eggs made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. The tradition of fabricating the eggs started when Tsar Alexander III commissioned Fabergé to create a jeweled egg for his wife in 1885. After this, the House of Fabergé produced more and more elaborate designs, year after year.

49 __ filter : HEPA

Air filters can be specified as “HEPA”, with the acronym standing for “high-efficiency particulate absorption”. To be given the name “HEPA”, the filter must remove 99.7% of particles with a size of 0.3 microns or larger.

50 “Rectify” star Young : ADEN

Aden Young is Canadian-Australian actor who is best known for his starring role on the TV show “Rectify”. Young was born in Toronto, and moved with his family at the age of 10 years to Sydney.

“Rectify” is a TV drama series about a man who is released from prison based on DNA evidence after spending almost twenty years on death row. The series also has the honor of being the first original show created by SundanceTV.