LA Times Crossword 30 Jan 23, Monday

Constructed by: Baylee Devereaux
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Upper Hand

Themed answers all comprise two words in the down-direction. The UPPER word of each is a kind of HAND:

32D Advantageous position, and what each answer to a starred clue literally has : UPPER HAND

3D *Performer’s pseudonym : STAGE NAME (giving “stagehand”)
8D *Flippable timekeeper : HOURGLASS (giving “hour hand”)
13D *Creamy dip for vegetables : RANCH DRESSING (giving “ranch hand”)
30D *Dog in a Disney tear-jerker : OLD YELLER (giving “old hand”)

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

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Bill’s time: 5m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Amble along : MOSEY

“Mosey” is American slang for “amble”, and is of unknown origin.

12 Wonderland cake invitation that Alice accepted : EAT ME

In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds a bottle labeled “DRINK ME”. When she drinks the contents, it causes her to shrink. She also sees a cake adorned with the words “EAT ME” written using currants, and when she eats the cake she grows so big she finds it hard to stand up. After eating the cake, she utters the words, “Curiouser and curiouser”.

13 Nevada gambling town near Carson City : RENO

The city of Reno’s economy took off when open gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931. Within a short time, a syndicate had built the Bank Club in Reno, which was the largest casino in the world at the time.

Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada, and was named for the Carson River. The river was named for Kit Carson, the scout who accompanied the team of European Americans who first arrived in the area in 1843. Carson City was designated state capital in 1864.

14 Pool stick : CUE

The more correct name for the game of pool is “pocket billiards”. The designation “pool” arose after pocket billiards became a common feature in “pool halls”, places where gamblers “pooled” their money to bet on horse races.

15 Emmy category : DRAMA

The Emmy Awards are the television equivalent of the Oscars from the world of film, the Grammy Awards in music and the Tony Awards for the stage. Emmy Awards are presented throughout the year, depending on the sector of television being honored. The most famous of these ceremonies are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. The distinctive name “Emmy” is a softened version of the word “immy”, the nickname given to the video camera tubes found in old television cameras. The Emmy statuette was designed by television engineer Louis McManus in 1948, and depicts a woman holding up an atom. McManus used his wife as a model for the woman.

16 Merry-go-rounds : CAROUSELS

The merry-go-round amusement park ride can be a little confusing as one travels the world. In North America, we tend to use the term “carousel” for the ride, whereas it’s a “roundabout” in Britain and Ireland, and a “hurdy-gurdy” in Australia. Yet another difference is the direction of rotation. Carousels typically rotate counterclockwise in North America, and roundabouts rotate clockwise in Britain and Ireland.

18 Floral wreath : GARLAND

“Lei” is a Hawaiian word meaning “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a lei is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

21 “Fee, __, foe, fum” : FIE

The line “fee-fi-fo-fum” (with various spellings) comes from the famous English fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Within the story, the giant at the top of the beanstalk utters a little poem when he detects the presence of Jack:

Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive, or be he dead
I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.

23 DEA agent : NARC

“Narc” and “narco” are slang terms describing a law enforcement officer who tracks down criminals associated with illegal drugs. Both words are short for “narcotics officer”. Narcs might work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

25 “Ella Enchanted” star Hathaway : ANNE

Actress Anne Hathaway is a favorite of mine, I must say. She starred in “The Devil Wears Prada” in 2006 and in 2007’s “Becoming Jane”, a film that I particularly enjoyed. And yes, baby Anne was named after Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare.

“Ella Enchanted” is a fantasy novel written by Gail Carson Levine, and published in 1997. It is a retelling of the story of Cinderella, with lots of mythical creatures added. A film adaptation was released in 2004 that features Anne Hathaway in the title role.

27 Car or truck : VEHICLE

A vehicle is a means of transportation, often a motor vehicle. The term “vehicle” comes from the Latin verb “vehere” meaning “to carry, convey”.

29 South American grasslands : LLANOS

Llano is a Spanish word meaning “plain, flat region”. The Llanos is a vast grassland in the northwest of South America.

31 Facts and figures : DATA

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

32 Thumb drive port : USB

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and dealing with electrical power through those connections.

A thumb drive is a USB flash drive.

35 Humped beast : CAMEL

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of a camel is the large deposit of fatty tissue on its back. The dromedary is the most common camel, and has one hump of fatty tissue on its back. The Bactrian camel has two humps, and makes up just 6% of the world’s camel population. Those fatty humps are useful if no food or water is available, as fat can be broken down into water and energy.

36 Buffet table coffee server : URN

Our word “buffet” comes from the French “bufet” meaning “bench, sideboard”. So, a buffet is a meal served from a “bufet”.

40 Prom partner : DATE

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

46 Girl who lost her sheep : BO PEEP

The lines that are most commonly quoted from the rhyme about “Little Bo Peep” are:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

But, there are actually four more verses, including this one:

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

49 Shoveler’s target : SNOW

A shovel is a manual tool used for lifting and throwing material such as earth and coal. Our words “shovel” and “shove” are related etymologically, as a “shovel” is used to “shove” things aside.

53 Language of Helsinki : FINNISH

Helsinki is the capital city of Finland, and is by far the country’s biggest urban area. In English we tend to stress the “-sink-” in “Helsinki”, whereas the Finns stress the “Hel-”.

55 Some horses on a stud farm : STALLIONS

The word “stud”, meaning “male horse kept for breeding”, is derived from the Old English word “stod”, which described a whole herd of horses. The term “stud” can be used figuratively for a “ladies’ man”.

60 One of 88 on a piano : KEY

“Eighty-eight” is a slang word for a piano, coming from the fact that a modern piano usually has 88 keys: 36 black and 52 white.

61 Vaping pen, informally : E-CIG

An electronic cigarette (also called an “e-cigarette”) is a battery-powered device that resembles a real cigarette. The e-cigarette vaporizes a solution that contains nicotine, forming a vapor that resembles smoke. The vapor is inhaled in a process called “vaping”, delivering nicotine into the body. The assumption is that an e-cigarette is healthier than a regular cigarette as the inhaled vapor is less harmful than inhaled smoke. But, that may not be so …

62 Orange Muppet in a striped shirt : ERNIE

For many years, I believed that the “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie were named after two roles played in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In the movie, the policeman’s name is Bert and his taxi-driving buddy is named Ernie. However, the “Sesame Street” folks have stated that the use of the same names is just a coincidence. Aww, I don’t wanna believe that’s a coincidence …

Down

4 Corrin who plays Diana in “The Crown” : EMMA

Actor Emma Corrin’s breakthrough role was portraying Diana, Princess of Wales in the hit drama “The Crown”. Corrin appeared on the cover of “Vogue” in 2022, and in so doing became the magazine’s first non-binary cover star.

6 Bunch of buffalo : HERD

There are two species of bison left (four species are extinct). We are most familiar with the American bison (commonly called the American buffalo), but there is also a European bison, which is sometimes called a “wisent”.

7 __, dos, tres : UNO

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

10 Heart rate : PULSE

One’s pulse is the rhythmic throbbing of arteries that is usually detected at the wrist or the neck. The contraction of the heart creates a pressure wave in the blood that moves the arterial walls, which is detected as the pulse.

13 *Creamy dip for vegetables : RANCH DRESSING (giving “ranch hand”)

Ranch dressing has been the best-selling salad dressing in the country since 1992. The recipe was developed by Steve Henson who introduced it in the fifties to guests on his dude ranch, the Hidden Valley Ranch in Northern California. His ranch dressing became so popular that he opened a factory to produce packets of ranch seasoning that could be mixed with mayonnaise and buttermilk. Henson sold the brand for $8 million in 1972.

19 Loos : LAVS

Our word “lavatory” (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s, “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.

21 Edie of “The Sopranos” : FALCO

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

28 “Atonement” novelist McEwan : IAN

Ian McEwan is an English novelist with a track record of writing well-received novels. His most famous work of recent years I would say is “Atonement” which has benefited from the success of a fabulous movie adaptation released in 2007.

30 *Dog in a Disney tear-jerker : OLD YELLER (giving “old hand”)

“Old Yeller” is a children’s novel by Fred Gipson that was first published in 1956. “Old Yeller” was to be the first in a series of three books, followed by “Savage Sam” in 1962 and “Little Arliss” in 1978. The original was made into a very famous Walt Disney film released in 1957. Disney also produced the “Savage Sam” sequel, in 1963. The title character in “Old Yeller” is a yellow-colored dog that is adopted by a teenage boy. Spoiler alert: in the end, the dog dies …

34 Memory units : BYTES

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

36 SLC athlete : UTE

The Utah Utes are the athletic teams of the University of Utah.

Salt Lake City (SLC) was founded by Brigham Young, in 1847. The city takes its name from the Great Salt Lake on which it sits, and indeed was known as “Great Salt Lake City” up until 1868.

41 Google Play download : APP

Google Play is Google’s distribution service for digital media content. The service was launched in 2008 as Android Market. Android Market was combined with Google Music, Google Movies and Google eBookstore in 2012 to form Google Play.

43 Bluish green : TEAL

The beautiful color teal takes its name from the duck called a teal, which has dark greenish-blue (teal) markings on its head and wings.

46 Savors the sun : BASKS

Our verb “to bask”, meaning “to expose one to pleasant warmth”, is derived from the gruesome, 14th-century term “basken”, meaning “to wallow in blood”. The contemporary usage apparently originated with Shakespeare, who employed “bask” with reference to sunshine in “As You Like It”.

53 Wrap for leftovers : FOIL

Before thin sheets of aluminum metal were available as aluminum foil, thin sheets of tin were used in various applications. Tin foil isn’t a great choice for wrapping food though, as it imparts a tinny taste. On the other side of the pond, aluminum foil has a different name. No, it’s not just the different spelling of aluminum (“aluminium”). We still call it “tin foil”. You see, we live in the past …

54 Apple’s digital assistant : SIRI

Siri is a software application that works with Apple’s iOS operating system. “Siri” is an acronym standing for Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. Voice-over artist Susan Bennett revealed herself as the female American voice of Siri a few years ago. The British version of Siri is called Daniel, and the Australian version is called Karen. Also, “Siri” is a Norwegian name meaning “beautiful woman who leads you to victory”, and was the name the developer had chosen for his first child.

58 “Eternal Atake” rapper __ Uzi Vert : LIL

“Lil Uzi Vert” is the stage name of rapper Symere Woods from Philadelphia.

59 “O say can you ___ … ” : SEE

“O say can you see by the dawn’s early light” is the opening line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key. The song was adopted as the US national anthem in 1931, although it had been used officially by the US Navy since 1889, played when raising the flag.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Amble along : MOSEY
6 “I don’t get it” : HUH?
9 Secret agent : SPY
12 Wonderland cake invitation that Alice accepted : EAT ME
13 Nevada gambling town near Carson City : RENO
14 Pool stick : CUE
15 Emmy category : DRAMA
16 Merry-go-rounds : CAROUSELS
18 Floral wreath : GARLAND
20 Washer cycle : RINSE
21 “Fee, __, foe, fum” : FIE
23 DEA agent : NARC
24 Feels the same : AGREES
25 “Ella Enchanted” star Hathaway : ANNE
27 Car or truck : VEHICLE
29 South American grasslands : LLANOS
31 Facts and figures : DATA
32 Thumb drive port : USB
35 Humped beast : CAMEL
36 Buffet table coffee server : URN
37 Overly sentimental : SAPPY
39 Be in debt : OWE
40 Prom partner : DATE
42 Fireplace receptacle : ASHPIT
43 Enters using a keyboard : TYPES IN
45 In this location : HERE
46 Girl who lost her sheep : BO PEEP
49 Shoveler’s target : SNOW
51 Hi-__ monitor : RES
52 Hearing-related : AURAL
53 Language of Helsinki : FINNISH
55 Some horses on a stud farm : STALLIONS
57 Lab containers : VIALS
60 One of 88 on a piano : KEY
61 Vaping pen, informally : E-CIG
62 Orange Muppet in a striped shirt : ERNIE
63 Fourth-yr. students : SRS
64 Part of the fam : REL
65 Move like a crab : SIDLE

Down

1 Pre-__: college major for a future doctor : MED
2 White-water rafting need : OAR
3 *Performer’s pseudonym : STAGE NAME (giving “stagehand”)
4 Corrin who plays Diana in “The Crown” : EMMA
5 Pine (for) : YEARN
6 Bunch of buffalo : HERD
7 __, dos, tres : UNO
8 *Flippable timekeeper : HOURGLASS (giving “hour hand”)
9 Public tantrum : SCENE
10 Heart rate : PULSE
11 Acceptances : YESES
13 *Creamy dip for vegetables : RANCH DRESSING (giving “ranch hand”)
16 __ package : CARE
17 Thoroughbred’s father : SIRE
19 Loos : LAVS
21 Edie of “The Sopranos” : FALCO
22 Kin by marriage : IN-LAW
24 Play a role : ACT
26 WSW opposite : ENE
28 “Atonement” novelist McEwan : IAN
30 *Dog in a Disney tear-jerker : OLD YELLER (giving “old hand”)
32 Advantageous position, and what each answer to a starred clue literally has : UPPER HAND
33 Steeple topper : SPIRE
34 Memory units : BYTES
36 SLC athlete : UTE
38 Contented sigh : AHH!
41 Google Play download : APP
42 Unknown author, for short : ANON
43 Bluish green : TEAL
44 Cozy stopovers : INNS
46 Savors the sun : BASKS
47 On the periphery : OUTER
48 Seeks divine guidance : PRAYS
50 Some ring bearers : WIVES
53 Wrap for leftovers : FOIL
54 Apple’s digital assistant : SIRI
56 Apply a bag of peas to, maybe : ICE
58 “Eternal Atake” rapper __ Uzi Vert : LIL
59 “O say can you ___ … ” : SEE

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