LA Times Crossword 16 Feb 23, Thursday - LAXCrossword.com (2023)

Today's Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Over

1 striped pet: TABBY

Tabbies are not a breed of cat, but cats with specific markings, regardless of breed. Tabbies have coats with stripes, spots, and swirly patterns, and usually have an "M" mark on their foreheads.

6 „__ schick!“ : TRES

"Très chic" is a French term meaning "very stylish".

14 Bridge predecessors: WHIST

Whist is an English card game about taking tricks. Whist is a derivative of the earlier game Trump or Ruff played in the 16th century. In Ireland, where I'm from, whist tournaments are very popular and are known as whist drives.

18 Purchasing power, in short: CFO

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

19 "No Ordinary Love" Songs: SADE

"No Ordinary Love" is a 1992 song released by the English band Sade. The accompanying music video features the band's lead singer, Sade Adu, portraying a mermaid in a wedding dress looking for a sailor she kissed. This is no ordinary love...

23 *Czechoslovak Movement of 1968: Prague Spring

The Prague Spring was a period of reform and unrest in Czechoslovakia in 1968, following the election of reformist Alexander Dubček as the country's de facto leader. The freedoms granted by Dubček to Czech citizens were not well received by the Soviet Union, which ordered Warsaw Pact troops and tanks into Czechoslovakia. After eight months of popular resistance, the vast majority of the reforms were reversed and Dubček was replaced.

27 Christmas carol: NOEL

Christmas celebrations coincide with Christmas, and the words "Christmas" and "Yule" (often "Yuletide") have become synonymous in much of the world. However, Yule was originally a pagan festival celebrated by Germanic peoples. The name "Yule" comes from the Old Norse word "jol" which was used to describe the festival.

30 Father of the Muses: ZEUS

In Greek mythology, the muses are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and art. The number of muses is sometimes debated, but the most popular view is that there are nine:

• Calliope (Epic)
• Clio (story)
• Erato (lyric)
• Euterpe (Music)
• Melpomene (tragedy)
• Polyhymnia (Chordichtung)
• Terpsichore (dance)
• Thalia (comedy)
• Urania (Astronomy)

33 Half Score: TEN

Our verb "to score" means "to count" and comes from the Old Norse "skor" which means "to mark, to score". It is likely that items such as livestock were counted by putting a notch in a stick for each twenty substitute, so we use the noun 'score' for 'twenty'.

39 Noodle Nugget: IDEA

Slang terms for "head" are "bean," "coconut," "pumpkin," "noodle," and "noggin."

40 "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's __": Gewinner der Caldecott-Medaille von Verna Aardema: EARS

The plot of Verna Aardema's 1975 children's picture book Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears is based on an African legend. The mosquito at the center of the story sets off a chain of unfortunate events by lying to an iguana. By the end of the book, the mosquito is constantly buzzing in people's ears just to find out if everyone is still mad at her for what she did.

44 The Official Standard language: ERSE

"An Caighdeán Oifigiúil" ("The Official Standard" in English) is a version of the Irish language taught in schools in Ireland and used in official documents.

51 Turns into compost : putrefaction

Composting is the process of breaking down organic matter to produce the soil conditioner known as "compost." The term "compost" ultimately comes from the Latin "com" (together) and "ponere" (to place). Compost is best made by “compositing” nitrogen-rich green waste with carbon-rich brown waste in the presence of water and air.

59 Baseball-Ripken: CAL

Cal Ripken played his entire 20-year professional baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles. Ripken was known as "Iron Man" because he showed up to work every day, rain or shine. He played 2,632 straight games, beating the previous record of 2,130 games held by Lou Gehrig.

61 Isaac von „Mondritter“ : OSCAR

Oscar Isaac is a Guatemalan actor who grew up in Miami. Before acting, Isaac played lead guitar in his own band called the Blinking Underdogs. Isaac portrayed X-wing pilot Poe Dameron in several Star Wars films.

Moon Knight is a television miniseries starring the Marvel Comics character of the same name, played by Oscar Isaac.

63 Answer heard during a game of billiards: POLO

Marco Polo is a tag game played in a swimming pool. Mark! Polo!

down

1 cone: COCKS

In the 15th century, a spigot was specifically a plug to plug a hole in a barrel. Somewhere along the way a spigot had a valve to variably control the flow.

River with 2 flowers: WATER

In Spanish, “agua” (water) is found in a “río” (river) and around an “isla” (island).

3 __ of paradise: BIRD

Birds of paradise form a family of birds known for the ornate plumage of the males of most species. Most are found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia and usually in dense rainforest habitats.

6 organs. with 27 member states: THE EU

The European Union (EU) was formed in 1993 when twelve European nations enacted the Treaty on European Union, commonly referred to as the Maastricht Treaty. These original members of the EU were the UK, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

8 keys to going back? :ESC

The Escape (Esc) key was originally only used to control computer peripherals. It was a button that allowed the computer operator to stop the work of the peripheral (for example, cancel a print job). Nowadays, the escape key is used for all sorts of things, especially in gaming programs.

9 grassy area: STEPPE

A steppe is a meadow without trees, except for those that grow near rivers and lakes. The term "steppe" is of Russian origin and is used to describe the geographic feature that stretches across Eurasia. In South Africa the same feature is referred to as "veld" and in North America as "prairie".

10 word on an Italian menu that means "hunter": CACCIATORE

In Italian cuisine, a dish called "alla cacciatora" is prepared "hunter's style". The ingredients of a cacciatore dish usually include onions, herbs, tomatoes, peppers and wine.

12 Classic Pontiac muscle car: GTO

The Pontiac GTO was manufactured by GM from 1964 to 1974 and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The design of the original GTO is credited to then-Pontiac chief engineer John DeLorean, who later founded the DeLorean Motor Company.

17 anthracite or lignite : COAL

Anthracite is the type of coal with the highest carbon content. It is also the form of charcoal that produces the most heat when burned.

When dead plant matter accumulates in swampy areas, it may not fully decompose due to lack of oxygen or acidic conditions. We know that from Ireland, because what can then form is peat. When the peat bogs become covered with sediment, pressure and heat can dry out the peat over time, forming a soft brown material called lignite. With further heat, pressure and time, lignite converts to coal. Thus, lignite is a material with properties intermediate between peat and coal, and is often referred to as “brown coal”.

22 __ des Triumphs: BOGEN

L'Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile in Paris was built to honor those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. It is the second largest triumphal arch in the world after the triumphal arch in Pyongyang, North Korea. When you visit Paris, don't just snap a picture of the arch, be sure to go inside and see the wonderful chambers and carvings, and wander around the top of the arch to take in the gorgeous views.

24 Nevada city about 100 miles from Burning Man: 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 then the largest casino in the world.

Burning Man is an annual festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, although the first such gathering was in 1986 at Baker Beach near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The festival's name comes from the burning of a wooden effigy of the "man".

25 The Aztecs of the Mountain West Conf of the NCAA. : SDSU

The Aztecs are the athletic teams of San Diego State University. The team's mascot is the Aztec warrior.

26 Typ: GENT

"Bloke" is British slang for "companion". The etymology of "type" seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

27 Center of a 3-4 football defense: NOSE TACKLE

That would be (American) football.

29 Spanish dialect in the Big Apple: NUYORICAN

The word "Nuyorican" refers to the Puerto Rican diaspora and their descendants living in and around New York City. The term is a portmanteau of "New York" and "Puerto Rican".

30 character debuted by Zadie Smith? :ZED

The initial in the name "Zadie Smith" is a letter Z (zed).

Zadie Smith is a British author whose first novel, White Teeth, was an instant bestseller in 2000. Apparently, a partial manuscript of "White Teeth" was so well received by insiders that a bidding war ensued over the rights to publish the novel.

32 can. Neighbor: USA

The US-Canada border is the longest international border in the world. The total length is 5,525 miles. Canada's border with the lower 48 states is 3,987 miles long, and the border with Alaska stretches 1,538 miles.

36 Several Quechua Speakers: PERU

Quechua was the language of the American conquerors, named after the Inca Empire and other dialects were borrowed. Today Quechua next to Spanish is one of the official languages ​​in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

37 means to an end? : PASS RUSH

That would also be (American) football.

44 Conditional programming word: ELSE

In computer programming, a conditional ELSE IF statement is used to create a chain of IF statements. The chain begins with an IF statement. If this IF statement is false, the ELSE IF statement is evaluated. If this ELSE-IF statement is false, a second ELSE-IF statement can be used as an additional option; and so on in the chain.

46 removal company: U-HAUL

The company U-Haul was founded in 1945 by husband and wife Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington. The Shoens used $5,000 in seed money to build trailers in their garage and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees, with whom they worked to split rental income. There are now around 15,000 U-Haul dealers nationwide.

52 Largest member of the dolphin family: ORCA

The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. Using the name "orca" instead of "killer whale" is becoming more common. The Latin word "Orcinus" means "belonging to Orcus", where Orcus is the name for the kingdom of the dead.

53 leaders in the Bulgarian Empire: TSAR

Bulgaria was the center of two empires in the Middle Ages. The First Bulgarian Empire lasted from the seventh to the eleventh centuries, and the Second Bulgarian Empire lasted from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.

54 Feudal Laborer: Serf

A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone tied to land owned by a lord. "Servant" comes from the Latin "servus", which means "slave".

57 Last Week Tonight Network: HBO

Last Week Tonight is a late night satirical talk show hosted by British comedian John Oliver. The HBO show shares a look and feel with Comedy Central's The Daily Show, of which Oliver is a graduate student.