LAXCrossword.com

Advertisement

Constructed by: Tom Pepper & C.C. Burnikel
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: PCs

Themed answers each comprise two words starting with the letters “PC”:

• 63D Some laptops, and a hint to five long answers in this puzzle : PCS

• 17A Black-and-white cruisers : PATROL CARS
• 26A Former name of Ball Arena : PEPSI CENTER
• 39A Public space in London’s West End : PICCADILLY CIRCUS
• 53A Influential duo : POWER COUPLE
• 64A Snack Pack product : PUDDING CUP

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

Bill’s time: 6m 43s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Cobra’s warning : HISS

“Cobra” is the name given to a group of snakes, some of which are in different families. The term is reserved for those snakes that can expand their neck ribs to create a hood. The name “cobra” is an abbreviated form of “cobra de capello” which translates from Portuguese as “snake with hood”.

13 “Yes to Fresh” candy : MENTOS

Mentos are mints made by the Italian confectioner Perfetti Van Melle. You might have seen videos of Mentos mints being dropped into bottles containing a carbonated drink. The surface of the mint causes an explosive release of carbon dioxide resulting in a geyser of foam that can shoot many feet up into the air.

15 Bath bathroom : LOO

Bath is a beautiful city in South West England of which I have very fond memories. It is an old Roman spa town, and the city’s name comes from the Roman baths that have been excavated and restored.

17 Black-and-white cruisers : PATROL CARS

A police car is often referred to by the slang term “black-and-white”, a reference to the vehicle’s common paint scheme.

20 Fit to eat, to Muslims : HALAL

“Halal” is a term describing an action or object that is permissible under Islamic Law. In particular “halal” is used to describe food that can be consumed. Anything that is not allowed is described as “haram”.

21 Bygone Russian royal : TSAR

Imperial Russia was a period of Russian history that lasted from 1721 to 1917, when Russia was ruled by a series of Emperors known as tsars. The Russian Empire was officially claimed by Emperor Peter I, known as Peter the Great, after the defeat of the Swedish Empire and the end of the Great Northern War. The tsars lost their power when the Bolsheviks executed Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1918 during the Russian Civil War. When the war ended in 1923, the Bolsheviks established the Soviet Union, which covered most of the territory occupied by the Russian Empire.

23 First digit in a googol : ONE

A googol is 10 raised to the power of 100. The term “googol” was coined by the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. The uncle had asked the boy to come up with an interesting name for “a very large number”. Kasner then came up with the name “googleplex”, which he defined as 1 followed by as many zeros one could write before getting tired. He later refined the definition of a googolplex to be 10 to the power of a googol. And yes, the search engine called “Google” is a deliberate misspelling of “googol”, and Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California is called the Googleplex, a similar deliberate misspelling.

26 Former name of Ball Arena : PEPSI CENTER

Ball Arena, located in Denver, Colorado, is a multi-purpose indoor arena that serves as the home of the Denver Nuggets (NBA) and the Colorado Avalanche (NHL). The facility has the distinction of being the first sports venue in the United States to be awarded LEED certification, which recognizes environmentally sustainable building practices. The arena features numerous energy-efficient and eco-friendly features, such as solar panels, recycled materials, and a green roof.

29 Cargo weight : TON

Cargo is freight carried by some vehicle. The term “cargo” comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

30 Sunscreen nos. : SPFS

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

31 Indonesian island between Java and Lombok : BALI

Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is known as the “Island of the Gods” due to its rich and unique culture, which is steeped in religious and spiritual beliefs.

34 Knee injury initials : ACL

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

39 Public space in London’s West End : PICCADILLY CIRCUS

London’s Piccadilly Circus is a major road junction in the West End of London. The junction is at one end of the thoroughfare called Piccadilly, hence the first part of the name. The junction’s shape is roughly circular, hence the use of “circus”, a Latin word meaning “circle”. Famously, there is a statue of Anteros at the center of the junction (a subject often mistaken for Eros).

44 Oolong, e.g. : TEA

The name for the Chinese tea called “oolong” translates into English as “black dragon” or “dark dragon”.

45 Combat sport, briefly : MMA

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport in which competitors use a variety of techniques from a variety of traditional combat sports and martial arts.

47 __ year : LEAP

I wasn’t sure of the origin of the term “leap year”, and when I checked I found it to be fairly obvious. As a reference, let’s use March 25, 2007, a Sunday. The year before, in 2006, March 25th fell one weekday earlier on a Saturday. That follows the rule that any particular date moves forward in the week by one day, from one year to the next. However, the next year (2008) has an extra day, February 29th. So March 25, 2008 falls on a Tuesday, “leaping” two weekdays forward, not one, as 2008 is a “leap” year. I think I am more confused now than when I started this paragraph …

50 Blueprint detail, for short : SPEC

Blueprints are reproductions of technical or architectural drawings that are contact prints made on light-sensitive sheets. Blueprints were introduced in the 1800s and the technology available dictated that the drawings were reproduced with white lines on a blue background, hence the name “blue-print”.

52 Overhead trains : ELS

Elevated railroad (El)

57 Tuckered out : BEAT

The exact etymology of the verb “to tucker”, meaning “to tire”, seems to be uncertain. However, it seems to have originated in New England, and at least dates back to the 1830s.

59 Short “And yet … ” : OTOH …

On the other hand (OTOH)

60 Hunter in the night sky : ORION

According to Greek mythology, Orion was a giant hunter who was placed in the night sky by Zeus, the king of the gods. Orion is very recognizable as a constellation, especially with the three bright stars known as “Orion’s Belt”. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is said to be Orion’s hunting dog, and this star sits at Orion’s “foot”.

62 Said yes to an invite, say : RSVP’D

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

68 Jigsaw puzzle part : PIECE

Jigsaws are saws designed for the cutting of irregular curves by hand. The original jigsaw puzzles were created by painting a picture on a sheet of wood and then cutting the picture into small pieces using a jigsaw, hence the name. Today, almost all jigsaw puzzles are pictures glued onto cardboard. The puzzle pieces are now die-cut, and so there’s no jigsaw involved at all.

71 Beltway VIPs : SENS

The phrase “inside the Beltway” is used to refer to the infrastructure and politics of Washington, D.C. The Beltway in this case is Interstate 495, also known as the Capital Beltway.

72 Add sound to : DUB

If voices needed to be altered on the soundtrack of a film, that means double the work as there needs to be a re-recording. “Dub” is short for “double”, and is a term we’ve been using since the late 1920s. The term has been extended to describe the adding of sound to an otherwise silent film or tape.

Down

2 Actress DeLaria : LEA

Lea DeLaria is a comedian and actor who is perhaps best known for portraying Carrie “Big Boo” Black on the hit comedy-drama “Orange is the New Black”. Another of DeLaria’s claims to fame is that she became the first openly gay comic to appear on a late-night talk show, doing so in 1993 on “The Arsenio Hall Show”.

5 Home Depot purchase : TOOL

The Home Depot is the largest home improvement retail chain in the US, ahead of Lowe’s. Home Depot opened their first two stores in 1979. The average store size is just over 100,000 square feet. The largest Home Depot outlet is in Union, New Jersey, and it is 225,000 square feet in size. That’s a lot of nuts and bolts …

7 Some dessert wines : PORTS

Portugal’s city of Oporto (“Porto” in Portuguese) gave its name to port wine in the late 1600s. Oporto was the seaport through which most of the region’s fortified red wine was exported.

10 Gold bar : INGOT

Gold is a metallic chemical element with the symbol “Au”. It is extremely unreactive. Silver and other base metals dissolve in nitric acid, and so testing an unknown sample with nitric acid can confirm the presence of gold. This assaying practice gave rise to the figurative use of the term “acid test” to describe any definitive test.

16 Gourmet mushroom : MOREL

A morel is a mushroom with a honeycomb-like structure on the cap. They are highly prized, especially in French cuisine. Morels should never be eaten raw as they are toxic, with the toxins being removed by thorough cooking.

18 Score symbol : CLEF

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on a stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

22 Obamacare, initially : ACA

The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA).

27 Biblical song : PSALM

The Greek word “psalmoi” originally meant “songs sung to a harp”, and gave us the word “psalms”. In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, the Book of Psalms contains 150 individual psalms, divided into five sections.

28 Part of TNT : -NITRO-

“TNT” is an abbreviation for “trinitrotoluene”. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

30 Dead __ Scrolls : SEA

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered over a period of years, between 1947 and 1956, in eleven caves (the Qumran Caves) on the shores of the Dead Sea. The scrolls are believed to have been written by an ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although this has been called into question recently. Many of the texts are copies of writings from the Hebrew Bible.

38 __ Lumpur, Malaysia : KUALA

The capital city of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur, which is often abbreviated to “KL”. The name “Kuala Lumpur” translates into English as “muddy estuary”. Famously, KL is home to the spectacular Petronas Twin Towers, which are currently the tallest twin towers in the world and was the tallest of any building from 1998 to 2004.

42 Winter Games org. : IOC

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894, and has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924, in Chamonix, France. The Winter and Summer Games were held in the same year until 1992 after which they were staggered, so that we have an Olympic Games every two years.

53 Suspects, in police slang : PERPS

Perpetrator (perp)

54 Davis of “Do the Right Thing” : OSSIE

Ossie Davis was a very successful actor, and also a director, poet, playwright and social activist. One of Davis’s better known performances was in the 1993 movie “Grumpy Old Men”, in which he played the owner of the bait shop by the lake.

55 Like wicker baskets : WOVEN

The Wych elm is also known as the Scots elm. It is the most common species of elm found in Europe. The term “wych” comes from the Old English “wice” meaning “pliant, supple”. The word “wice” also gives rise to our word “wicker”.

56 Freedom, in Swahili : UHURU

The Uhuru Movement is an organization that works for the cause of all native Africans and their descendants around the world. While focused mainly on the welfare and development of native Africans on the continent itself, another goal is the release of all African-American prisoners in US prisons. “Uhuru” is the Swahili word for “freedom”.

57 One over par, in golf : BOGEY

The golfing term “bogey” originated at the Great Yarmouth Golf Club in England in 1890, and was used to indicate a total round that was one-over-par (and not one-over-par on a particular hole, as it is today). The name “bogey” came from a music hall song of the time “Here Comes the Bogeyman”. In the following years it became popular for players trying to stay at par to be “playing against Colonel Bogey”. Then, during WWI, the marching tune “Colonel Bogey” was written and named after the golfing term. If you don’t recognize the name of the tune, it’s the one that’s whistled by the soldiers marching in the great movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai”.

67 Ltr. add-ons : PS’S

One adds a PS (post scriptum, or simply “postscript”) at the end of a letter (ltr.). A second postscript is a post post scriptum, a PPS.