  A level-ancestor or LA query about a rooted tree $T$ takes as arguments a
node $v$ in $T$, of depth $d_v$, say, and an integer $d$ with $0\le d\le d_v$
and returns the ancestor of $v$ in $T$ of depth $d$. The static LA problem is
to process a given rooted tree $T$ so as to support efficient subsequent
processing of LA queries about $T$. All previous efficient solutions to the
static LA problem work by reducing a given instance of the problem to a smaller
instance of the same or a related problem, solved with a less efficient data
structure, and a collection of small micro-instances for which a different
solution is provided. We indicate the first efficient solution to the static LA
problem that works directly, without resorting to reductions or
micro-instances.
