LA Times Crossword 1 Aug 19, Thursday

Bill’s time: 12m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Digital unit : BIT

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.

9 Paintball attire, for short : CAMO

Our word “camouflage” (often abbreviated to “camo”) evolved directly from a Parisian slang term “camoufler” meaning “to disguise”. The term was first used in WWI, although the British navy at that time preferred the expression “dazzle-painting” as it applied to the pattern painted on the hulls of ships.

The “paint” in paintball isn’t actually paint, but rather a mix of gelatin and food coloring.

13 Cry from a card holder : UNO!

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. UNO falls into the “shedding” family of card games, in that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

16 Made man? : ADAM

According to the Bible, God created Adam from “the dust of the ground”. Eve was created as Adam’s companion, from Adam’s rib.

18 World’s largest lizard : KOMODO …
[23A – : … DRAGON (giving “dragon roll”)]

The large lizard called a Komodo dragon is so named because it is found on the island of Komodo (and others) in Indonesia. It can grow to a length of over 9 1/2 feet, so I guess that explains the dragon part of the name …

A dragon roll is a sushi dish made from eel, cucumber, seaweed, rice and avocado. I am sure it’s delicious … without the eel!

22 FDR job-creating program : WPA

The Work Progress Administration (WPA) was the largest of the New Deal agencies. The WPA employed millions of people during the Depression, putting them to work on various public works projects. The total spending through the WPA from 1936 to 1939 was nearly $7 billion. We have to give the federal government credit for taking an enlightened view of what types of project qualified for financial support, so artists who could not get commissions privately were hired by the government itself. The result is a collection of “New Deal Art”, including a series of murals that can be found in post offices around the country to this day.

28 Like the Avengers : HEROIC

The Avengers are a team of superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. The original lineup, which dates back to 1963, consisted of Ant-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and the Wasp. Soon after their formation, the Avengers rescued Captain America trapped in ice, and thereafter he joined the team. There is a 2012 movie called “The Avengers” that features Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor.

31 Twice DVI : MXII

In Roman numerals, 2 x DVI (506) is MXII (1012)

33 Pancake at a seder : LATKE

A latke is a delicious potato pancake (I’m Irish, so anything made with potato is delicious!).

36 Longtime Sweethearts maker : NECCO

The forerunner to Sweethearts candy was introduced in 1866, with the famous sayings written on the candy tailored for use at weddings. One of the original expressions was, “Married in pink, he will take a drink”. The original candy was a lot bigger, to fit all those words! The smaller, heart-shaped candy hit the shelves in 1901. We’ve been able to buy Sweethearts with the words “Text me” since 2010.

Necco Wafers were the best-known product line of the candy manufacturer called the New England Confectionery Company. The firm’s name was abbreviated to “NECCO”, an acronym that became synonymous with the wafers.

43 Marx forte : HUMOR

The five Marx Brothers were born to Minnie and Frenchy Marx in New York City. The more famous older boys were Chico, Harpo and Groucho. Zeppo was the youngest brother, and he appeared in the early Marx Brothers movies. The fifth son was called Gummo, and he decided to pursue a different career off the stage.

44 Kim and Kourtney’s sister : KHLOE

Khloé Kardashian, sister of Kim, managed to parlay her exposure on the reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” into spin-offs called “Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami” and “Khloé & Lamar”. Guess how many episodes of those three shows that I’ve seen …

50 Bassett of “American Horror Story” : ANGELA

Angela Bassett is an actress from New York who is perhaps best known for playing Tina Turner in the film about her life “What’s Love Got to Do with It”.

“American Horror Story” is a horror television show … I don’t do horror.

53 Percussion piece : SNARE …
[57A – : … DRUM (giving “drum roll”)]

Snare drums are so called because they have a set of wire strands (snares) stretching across the bottom surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the bottom drumhead producing a unique sound.

55 Shotgun type : DOUBLE …
[62A – : … BARREL (giving “barrel roll”)]

A barrel roll is an aerial stunt in which a plane makes a complete rotation around the longitudinal axis. The manoeuvre is so called as the corkscrew path that the aircraft executes makes it appear as though it is rotating through the inside of an enormous barrel.

61 Where Georgia is : ASIA

The former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of Georgia is now an independent country. Supposedly, the Georgian people were given their name because they especially revered St. George. The flag of Georgia does indeed feature five St. George’s crosses.

70 “Aida” setting : EGYPT

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radames is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

Down

3 Curds in cubes : TOFU

“Tofu” is a name for bean curd, and is a Japanese word meaning just that … bean that has curdled. Tofu is produced by coagulating soy milk, using either salt or something acidic. Once the protein has coagulated, the curds are pressed into the familiar blocks. Personally I love tofu, but my wife, she absolutely hates it …

8 Vicious on stage : SID

Sid Vicious was a famous English musician and the best-known member of the seventies punk rock group called the Sex Pistols. In 1978, Vicious woke up out of a drugged stupor in his hotel room in New York, to find his girlfriend stabbed to death in the bathroom. Vicious was charged with the murder, and ten days later sliced his wrist in a suicide attempt. Vicious made bail a few months later and at a celebratory party his own mother supplied him with heroin on which Vicious overdosed and died, at the age of 21.

9 High-and-mighty : CAVALIER

Back in the late-16th century, a cavalier was a horseman, with the name coming from the Italian “cavalliere”, which described the same thing. In Elizabethan England, the use of “cavalier” came to describe a courtly gentleman, but also a person who swagger, in an obnoxious way. It is the latter use of the term that gives us our modern adjective “cavalier” meaning “high-and-mighty”.

15 Book form that replaced the scroll : CODEX

A codex is an old book, one in the format of a modern book as opposed to its predecessor, which was a scroll. The word “codex” comes from the Latin “caudex” meaning “trunk of a tree”.

21 Pi follower : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R.

24 Team in a seasonal verse : REINDEER

We get the names for Santa’s reindeer from the famous 1823 poem called “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, although we’ve modified a couple of the names over the years. The full list is:

• Dasher
• Dancer
• Prancer
• Vixen
• Comet
• Cupid
• Donder (originally “Dunder”, and now often “Donner”)
• Blitzen (originally “Blixem”)

Rudolph was added to the list by retailer Montgomery Ward, would you believe? The store commissioned Robert L. May to create a booklet that could be handed out to children around Christmas in 1939, and May introduced us to a new friend for Santa, namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

28 Diner dish : HASH

Hash, beef and vegetables mashed together, is a very American dish and one that really surprised me when I first came across it. “Hash” just seems like such an unappetizing item, but I soon found out how delicious it was. The name “hash” in this context comes from the French “hacher” meaning “to chop”. Back in the early 1900s the dish called “hashed browned potatoes” was developed, which quickly morphed into “hash browns”. From there the likes of corned beef hash was introduced.

29 Words to a backstabber : ET TU?

It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (meaning “And you, Brutus?”). They appear in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life (if anything at all) as he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

30 Part of a Clue accusation : ROOM

Clue is board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

31 “Iron Chef America” creation : MEAL

“Iron Chef” is a Japanese cooking show that has been broadcast since 1993. The original Japanese show was dubbed for airing in English-speaking countries and became a surprising hit around the world. There are now spin-off shows around the world including “Iron Chef America” and “Iron Chef UK”.

34 Casino gratuity : TOKE

“Toke” is an informal term describing a tip given to a dealer or other employee at a casino.

35 Canadian road sign letters : KPH

Kilometres per hour (kph)

37 Monk’s hood : COWL

A cowl is a long garment with a hood that is primarily worn by monks in the Christian tradition.

38 Quahog or geoduck : CLAM

“Quahog” is another name for “hard clam”, the clam that is commonly harvested on the eastern shores of North America. The quahog may also be called the “chowder clam”. Hard clams are the largest of the clams commonly sold, with the cherrystone clams being a little smaller.

The geoduck is a very large clam found off the coast of North America. The geoduck’s shell can measure up to 6-8 inches, but the clam’s siphon can extend to over three feet. Geoduck clams live to a ripe old age, with the oldest recorded living for 168 years.

41 Sphere used to capture a Pikachu, say : POKE BALL

In the Pokémon universe, wild Pokémon can be captured using the Poké Ball. I don’t know what that means either …

47 Fitness portmanteau : TAE BO

Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, even though it perhaps sounds like one. The discipline was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of “taekwondo” and “boxing”.

50 Small recipe amount : A DASH

In cooking, the terms “dash”, “pinch” and “smidgen” can all be used for a very small measure, one that is often undefined. However, you can in fact buy some measuring spoons that define these amounts as follows:

• a dash is 1/8 teaspoon
• a pinch is 1/16 teaspoon
• a smidgen is 1/32 teaspoon

51 Long time follower? : … NO SEE

Long time no see.

53 Rosemary unit : SPRIG

The herb known as rosemary is reputed to improve the memory. As such, rosemary has been used as a symbol of remembrance, especially in Europe and Australia. For example, mourners might throw sprigs of rosemary into graves, symbolically remembering the dead. The character Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” utters the line “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance”. The name of the herb comes from the Latin “ros marinus” which means “dew of the sea”. The idea is that rosemary can in fact grow in some arid locations with only the moisture that is carried by a sea breeze.

54 Brazen : NERVY

Someone described as brazen might also be described as shameless. The term “brazen” comes from the Middle English “brasen” meaning “made of brass”. The suggestion is that a shameless person has a hardened, brass-like face. And so, the similar-meaning word “brassy” has the same etymology.

58 “Ice __ Truckers”: TV reality series : ROAD

“Ice Road Truckers” is a reality show that started airing in 2007. The show follows the perilous journeys of truckers who drive over frozen lakes and rivers in remote areas of Canada and Alaska during the winter.

63 Microbrewery output : ALE

Originally, the term “microbrewery” applied to smaller breweries. In contemporary usage, a microbrewery really describes a brewery that competes in the market on the basis of quality and diversity, rather than on the basis of price and advertising. The really small brewing operations are now referred to as “nanobreweries”.

64 WWII craft : LST

The initialism “LST” stands for Landing Ship, Tank. LSTs are the large vessels used mainly in WWII that have doors at either ends through which tanks and other vehicles can roll off and onto beaches. The design concept persists to this day in the huge fleet of commercial roll-on/roll-off car ferries, all inspired by the LST.