Day: September 7, 2025

Bill’s time: 18m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Where Gloria Estefan was born : HAVANA

Gloria Estefan is a Cuban-American singer who was born in Havana. Estefan fled Cuba along with her family after the Cuban Revolution, and ended up in Miami. Her father fought for the US military in Vietnam, and also took part in the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion. Years later, Estefan herself was approached by the CIA to work for the agency due to her skill with languages. She ended up doing quite well singing instead …

15A Strikebreaking sort : SCAB

We first started calling strikebreakers scabs in the early 1800s, and before that a scab was a person who refused to join a trade union (back as early 1777). The word “scab” probably comes from the use of “scab” as a symptom of a skin disease, and so is a term that is meant to insult.

20A Spring’s opposite, tidally : NEAP

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

21A Constant nuisance : BANE

Today, we tend to use the word “bane” to mean “anathema, a source of persistent annoyance”. A few centuries ago, a bane was a cause of harm or death, perhaps a deadly poison.

23A As the British pound rises in value, the dollar ___ : BILL WITHERS

Bill Withers was working as an assembly operator while he was trying to make a name for himself in the music industry. Even as he found success with his glorious 1971 single “Ain’t No Sunshine”, he held onto his day job, worried that the music industry was unpredictable.

34A After spending the afternoon at Epcot, we had dinner at a ___ bistro : TONY ORLANDO

Something described as tony is elegant or exclusive. “Tony” is derived from the word “tone”.

EPCOT Center (now just called “Epcot”) is the theme park beside Walt Disney World in Florida. EPCOT is an acronym standing for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and is a representation of the future as envisioned by Walt Disney. Walt Disney actually wanted to build a living community for 20,000 residents at EPCOT, but he passed away without that vision being realized.

“Bistro” was originally a Parisian slang term describing a little wine shop or restaurant.

Singer Tony Orlando’s birth name is Michael Cassavitis. He had two hits in 1970 while performing with studio backup singers in an act called Dawn, namely “Candida” and “Knock Three Times”. His greatest success came in 1973 with “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”, which was released by “Dawn featuring Tony Orlando”.

36A Ancestor of the tuba or sousaphone : BASS HORN

The sousaphone is a kind of tuba that was specifically designed to send the sound upward and over the rest of the orchestra, with a warm tone, achieved with a large bell that pointed upwards. The instrument was developed at the request of the composer John Philip Sousa, hence the name. The design proved to be more suitable than its predecessors for use in marching bands, and that is how it is used most frequently today.

38A Low-quality paper? : RAG

A low-quality newspaper is often referred to as a “rag”. There are lots of rags out there …

41A The “E” of Q.E.D. : ERAT

The initialism “QED” is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. QED stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

51A Did Joyce write courtesy of a ___? : “ULYSSES” GRANT

Regular readers will know that I am unashamedly supportive of my native Irish culture, but I have to tell you that I can’t stand many of the works of James Joyce. I have spent many a fine day traipsing around Ireland learning about him, but I find myself more absorbed by Joyce’s life than by his writing. Having said that, “Ulysses” is an interesting novel in that it chronicles just one ordinary day in the life of a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom. There’s a huge celebration of “Ulysses” in Dublin every year on June 16th, called Bloomsday. The festivities vary from readings and performances of the storyline, to good old pub crawls. “Ulysses” was made into a film of the same name in 1967 starring Milo O’Shea.

56A Philosopher who purportedly said “The best fighter is never angry” : LAO TSE

Lao Tse (also “Lao-Tzu”, “Laozi”) was a central figure in the development of the religion/philosophy of Taoism. Tradition holds that Lao-Tzu wrote the “Tao Te Ching”, a classical Chinese text that is fundamental to the philosophy of Taoism.

59A Son of Hanna-Barbera’s Doggie Daddy : AUGIE

Augie Doggie and his father, Doggie Daddy, appeared in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon classic series, “The Quick Draw McGraw Show”. Doggy Daddy was famous for his regular line referring to Augie, “Dat’s my boy who said dat”.

60A Reason to relocate a picnic blanket, maybe : ANTS

Our term “picnic” comes from the French word “pique-nique”, which now has the same meaning. The original “pique-nique” was a fashionable potluck affair, and not necessarily held outdoors.

61A Borneo neighbor : SUMATRA

Sumatra is a very large island in western Indonesia. It is the sixth largest island in the world and home to 22% of the country’s population.

Borneo is the third largest island on the planet (after Greenland and New Guinea), and is located north of Australia in Maritime Southeast Asia. Most of the island is part of Indonesia (taking up 73% of the island) with almost all of the remainder being part of Malaysia (26%). The final 1% is home to the sovereign state of Brunei.

63A Female moose or elephant : COW

The moose is the largest species in the deer family, and can stand almost at 7 feet at the shoulder. Moose are a little unusual in that they are solitary animals, unlike other deers who tend to move in herds. We use the term “moose” here in North America, but confusingly, the same animal is referred to as “elk” in British English.

65A Fish-eating raptors : ERNS

“Raptor” is a generic term for a bird of prey, one that has talons to grip its victims.

67A Subdivisions of some counties: Abbr. : TWPS

Township (twp.)

68A An increase in ham prices forced the deli to ___ sandwiches higher : MARK CUBAN

A Cuban sandwich (Spanish: Sándwich cubano) almost always includes Cuban bread filled with roast pork, glazed ham, Swiss cheese and sliced dill pickles. The Cuban was designated the city of Tampa’s signature sandwich in 2012.

Mark Cuban is a successful businessman, and the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. If you’ve seen the reality TV show “Shark Tank”, you’ll know Cuban as one of the investors putting up their money i.e. one of the “sharks”. If you’re a “Dancing with the Stars” fan, you might recall Cuban as a contestant on the 5th series of that show, partnered with Kym Johnson.

73A Andean stimulant : COCA

The coca plant is native to South America and is similar in appearance to a blackthorn bush. Coca leaves have been chewed by humans for centuries, perhaps even as far back as 3,000 years ago. Chewing the leaves apparently produces a pleasurable numb sensation in the mouth and a pleasant taste. The most famous alkaloid in the leaf is cocaine, but this wasn’t extracted in its pure form until the mid-1800s. The extracted cocaine was used in medicines and tonics and other beverages.

74A Source of the films “The Blues Brothers” and “Coneheads,” in brief : SNL

The Blues Brothers blues band was created in 1978 for a “Saturday Night Live” sketch. The original Blues Brothers were Dan Aykroyd (Elwood Blues) and John Belushi (“Joliet” Jake Blues). The band eventually made it to the big screen in a 1980 musical comedy called “The Blues Brothers”.

“The Coneheads” first appeared in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch in 1977. The three family members back then were played by Dan Ackroyd (father), Jane Curtin (mother) and Laraine Newman (daughter). The characters became so popular that they were featured in a “Coneheads” movie in 1993.

75A Gerald Ford or William Howard Taft, once : YALEMAN

Five US presidents attended Yale University:

• William Howard Taft
• Gerald Ford
• George H. W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• George W. Bush

78A Peter, Paul and Mary, e.g. : TRIO

Peter, Paul and Mary were a folk-singing trio who got together in 1961. The group’s members were Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers. Peter, Paul and Mary’s big hit was 1963’s “Puff, the Magic Dragon”.

81A Summer mo. : AUG

As the first Emperor of Rome, Octavian was given the name Caesar Augustus. The month of August, originally called “Sextilis” in Latin, was renamed in honor of Augustus.

83A Decks for reading : TAROTS

Tarot cards originated in 15th-century Italy, not as a mystical tool, but as playing cards for a game similar to bridge. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that they became widely associated with divination, particularly after French occultists began publishing treatises on their symbolic meanings.

85A To Washington ___, Germany, seemed far from Tarrytown, N.Y. : IRVING, BERLIN

Washington Irving was an author from New York City. Irving’s most famous works are the short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”.

Berlin is the capital of Germany. It is the nation’s largest city, and used to be the second-most populous city in the European Union, after London. Then, the UK left the EU …

Irving Berlin’s real name was “Israel Baline”. He was a Russian immigrant who came to New York with his family in 1893. In the words of composer Jerome Kern, “Irving Berlin has no place in American Music – he is American music”. That would seem to ring true looking at a selection of his hits: “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “White Christmas”, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and of course, “God Bless America”. Berlin was married twice. His first marriage was in 1912, to Dorothy Goetz. Sadly, Dorothy died just a few months later from typhoid fever that she contracted on their honeymoon in Havana. His second marriage was to a young heiress, Ellin Mackay. That marriage lasted a lot longer, until 1988 when Ellin passed away at the age of 85. Irving himself passed away in 1989, at the ripe old age of 101 years.

89A Toady : YES-MAN

A toady is someone who is very servile, and somewhat of a parasite. Derived from “toad-eater” the term originally applied to the assistant of a quack, a seller of useless potions that had no actual benefit to health. The toady would eat an apparently poisonous toad in front of an audience, so that the charlatan could “cure” him or her with one of the potions for sale.

92A Charles or Ray who lent their name to a kind of chair : EAMES

Charles and Ray Eames were a husband-wife team of furniture designers. One of the more famous of their designs is the Eames lounge chair that comes with an ottoman. This trendy piece of furniture featured in a late episode of the television show “Frasier”. In the show, Frasier’s Dad remarks that the Eames chair is so comfortable that he might have gotten rid of his tatty old recliner a long time ago.

97A Social gathering of a sort : BEE

Back in 18th-century America, when neighbors would gather to work for the benefit of one of their group, such a meeting was called a bee. The name “bee” was an allusion to the social nature of the insect. In modern parlance, a further element of entertainment and pleasure has been introduced, for example in a quilting bee, or even a spelling bee.

98A Certain canines : EYETEETH

The canine teeth of a mammal are also called the eyeteeth or cuspids. The name “canine” is used because these particular teeth are very prominent in dogs. The prefix “eye-” is used because in humans the eyeteeth are located in the upper jaw, directly below the eyes.

102A Some Californians consider Santa ___ on Earth : BARBARA EDEN

The city of Santa Barbara on the California coast was indirectly named by Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno in 1602. He named the channel between the mainland and the Channel Islands “Santa Barbara Channel”, while naming one of the islands “Santa Barbara”. Some time later, the Spanish established the Santa Barbara Mission on the Feast of Saint Barbara in 1786.

Actress Barbara Eden is best known for playing the title role in the sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie”. For many years, Eden was married to fellow actor Michael Ansara, who was perhaps best known for playing Apache Chief Cochise in the western series “Broken Arrow” in the 1950s.

109A Anesthetic first used on a patient in 1842 : ETHER

Ethers are a whole class of organic compounds, but in the vernacular “ether” is specifically diethyl ether. Diethyl ether was once very popular as a general anesthetic.

110A “Fine as is, actually” : STET

“Stet” is a Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

111A Canada’s first national park, founded in 1885 : BANFF

Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada is located high in the Canadian Rockies and is a popular tourist destination. The town of Banff and the surrounding park were given their name in 1884 by then president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, George Stephen. He named Banff for his birthplace of Banffshire in Scotland.

113A “___ Three Lives” (early TV drama) : I LED

“I Led Three Lives” is TV drama series that originally aired in the 1950s, loosely based on a book by Herbert Philbrick titled “I Led Three Lives: Citizen, ‘Communist’, Counterspy”. Philbrick was a Boston advertising executive who infiltrated the Communist Party USA with the encouragement of the FBI.

114A The shark-warning notes of “Jaws,” for example : LEITMOTIF

In the world of music, a leitmotif is a recurring musical phrase that is associated with a particular theme or perhaps a particular person. Common in classical works, leitmotifs are also frequently used in film music. A classic example would be the strident notes played every time Darth Vader appears on the screen in a “Star Wars” movie.

“Jaws” is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. “Jaws” was perhaps the first summer blockbuster and had the highest box office take in history up to that time, which was a record that stood until “Star Wars” was released two years later.

116A The supermodel was holding a copy of ___ herself on the beach : “ELLE”, FANNING

“Elle” magazine was founded in 1945 in France and today has the highest circulation of any fashion magazine in the world. “Elle” is the French word for “she”. “Elle” is published monthly worldwide, although you can pick up a weekly edition if you live in France.

Actress Elle Fanning first appeared on film in the 2001 movie “I Am Sam”, in which she played a younger version of her sister and fellow actor Dakota Fanning (a 2-year-old version of the character). One of her first major roles was Aurora/Sleeping Beauty alongside Angelina Jolie in the 2014 movie “Maleficent”. Fannin reprised the role in the 2019 sequel “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”.

120A Election Day is one: Abbr. : TUES

Election day was chosen by Congress back in 1845. The month of November was selected as it suited an agricultural society, following the fall harvest and yet not too far into winter, which could make travel difficult. Tuesday was chosen so that people had time to travel to polling stations. Monday elections might have meant that some would have to start out on Sunday, and that could interfere with Christian services.

122A Carbon compound : ENOL

An enol is an alkene with a hydroxyl group, and so is part-alkene and part-alcohol. The term “enol”, therefore, is a portmanteau of “alkene” and “alcohol”.

Down

1D Schmooze : HOBNOB

“To hobnob with” means “to rub elbows with, associate with”. The phrase dates back to the mid 1700s and is derived from “hob and nob”, an expression meaning to toast each other in turn, or to buy alternate rounds of drinks.

To schmooze is to chat intimately. “Schmooze” is a word that comes from the Yiddish “schmusen” meaning “to chat” .

2D ___ Afghan Airlines, carrier to the Mideast : ARIANA

Ariana Afghan Airlines is the national carrier of Afghanistan. The airline was founded back in 1955 and is owned 100% by the Afghan government.

3D Parts of a heart or trumpet : VALVES

We get our word “trumpet”, describing the brass instrument, from the Old French word “trompe”. A “trompe” was a long, tube-like instrument, and a “trompette” was a smaller version.

6D Media personalities Melber and Fleischer : ARIS

Ari Melber is a television journalist and the chief legal correspondent for MSNBC. He started hosting his own daily show called “The Beat with Ari Melber” in 2017.

Ari Fleischer was White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush. Fleischer now runs his own media consulting firm that specializes in representing sports players and organizations. Fleischer helped Mark McGwire handle the media when he had to admit to the use of steroids, and was briefly hired by Tiger Woods as he planned his return to the PGA after dropping out of the spotlight to handle the problems in his personal life.

11D Buddy who portrayed TV’s Jed Clampett : EBSEN

Actor Buddy Ebsen was best known for playing Jed Clampett in television’s “The Beverly Hillbillies”. Ebsen had been cast in the role of the Tin Man in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”, but he developed an allergy to the aluminum dust that was used in the makeup. He ended up in hospital and had to walk away from the part. Ebsen blamed “The Wizard of Oz” on persistent problems that he had with his lungs in subsequent years. But Ebsen lived 16 years longer than any of the other major cast members of the film, so maybe he got the last laugh!

12D Peninsula in southeast Asia : MALAYA

The Malay Peninsula is a long, thin land mass that forms the southernmost part of the Asian mainland. On the peninsula are the countries of Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Singapore (an island nation off the southern tip of the peninsula). People of the Malay ethnic group are mainly found on the Malay peninsula.

14D Somnial acronym : REM

“REM” is an acronym standing for “rapid eye movement”. REM sleep takes up 20-25% of the sleeping hours and is the period associated with one’s most vivid dreams.

15D Aquatic acronym : SCUBA

The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) was co-invented by celebrated French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

16D Collection of laws : CANON

Back in the 15th century, the word “canon” was used to describe the whole collection of the books of the Bible accepted by the Christian church, the so-called “Scriptures”. In the 1930s, the term was adopted by fans of the “Sherlock Holmes” stories to describe all such works by Arthur Conan Doyle. Since then, the usage of “canon” has extended to cover an accepted body of related works by a particular author.

18D Sarastro in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” e.g. : BASSO

Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” (“Die Zauberflöte” in German) premiered in 1791 in Vienna, just two months before the composer died. Mozart conducted the orchestra himself that night. His sister-in-law, soprano Josepha Weber, performed the role of the Queen of the Night.

24D Product of the first three primes : THIRTY

2 × 3 × 5 = 30

A prime number is a number greater than 1 that can only be divided evenly by 1 and itself. There are still some unanswered questions involving prime numbers, perhaps most notably Goldbach’s Conjecture. This conjecture dates back to the 1740s and is assumed to be true, but has never been proven. It states that every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers.

35D Directs, as cargo : ROUTES

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”.

37D Edmonton N.H.L. player : OILER

The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers are so called because they are located in Alberta, Canada … oil country.

38D International shoe brand originating in England : REEBOK

The brand name Reebok was adopted as the new company name for Foster Shoes of the UK in 1960. The name Reebok (more commonly “Rhebok”) is an Afrikaans word for an antelope, and comes from the term “roe buck”.

42D Extremely loyal : TRUE-BLUE

The use of “true blue” to mean loyal and constant has been around since the days of Chaucer, but no one seems to know its etymology.

45D Why do none of the Fruit of the Loom characters ___-colored clothing? : DON LEMON

Don Lemon is a TV journalist and news anchor based in New York who worked for CNN from 2014 until 2023. His time with CNN ended abruptly, as he was fired following repeated allegations of misogyny.

49D White wine named for a region in France : SAUTERNE

Sauternes is a sweet wine from the Sauternais region in Bordeaux. Production of Sauternes calls for the grapes used to become infected with a fungus known as noble rot. The infection can be somewhat unpredictable, resulting in high prices for the wine as supply can be limited and quality can vary. There is also a semi-generic wine produced in the US known as “Sauterne”, which has a deliberately misspelled name.

50D Peeping ___ for Lady Godiva to appear : TOM WAITS

In the legend of Lady Godiva, the noblewoman rode naked through the streets of Coventry in England, basically as a dare from her husband in return for relieving the taxes of his tenants. Lady Godiva issued instructions that all the town’s inhabitants should stay indoors while she made her journey. However, a tailor in the town named Tom disobeyed the instructions by boring holes in the shutters on his windows, and “peeped”. As a result, Peeping Tom was struck blind, and the term “peeping Tom” has been in our language ever since.

Tom Waits is a singer-songwriter from Pomona, California. He is noted for his growling, rasping voice.

52D Like some philosophical arguments : SOCRATIC

In ancient Greece, Socrates was a respected thinker of his day. One of Socrates’ most clever students was Plato, who spent much of life espousing the work and thinking of his mentor and teacher. In later life, Plato himself had a student who built on the work of both Socrates and Plato. That second-generation student was Aristotle. Socrates fell out of favor with the political leaders in Athens who put him on trial on trumped-up charges. He was found guilty of corrupting the youth of the city-state and of not believing in the gods of the state. The sentence levied was death by drinking hemlock.

53D Taj Mahal’s city : AGRA

Agra is a medieval city on the banks of the river Yamuna in India that was the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1658. The city is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• The Taj Mahal: the famous mausoleum built in memory of Mumtaz Mahal.
• Agra Fort: the site where the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was seized.
• Fatehpur Sikri: a historic city that’s home to well-preserved Mughal architecture.

62D Love, in Lyon : AMOUR

The city of Lyon in France is sometimes known as “Lyons” in English. It is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, after Paris, and is located just to the north of the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers.

64D Spots to go in the U.K. : WCS

When I was growing up in Ireland, a bathroom was a room that had a bath and no toilet. The separate room with the commode was called the toilet or sometimes the WC (the water closet). Apparently the term “closet” was used because in the 1800s when homeowners started installing toilets indoors they often displaced clothes and linens in a closet, as a closet was the right size to take the commode.

69D End of any Shakespeare play : ACT V

Shakespeare adopted the five-act structure for his plays, thereby using the same format that was used by Seneca for his Roman tragedies. Given five acts, the plays tend to unfold as follows:

• Act I is used as an introduction
• Act II is used to complicate things
• Act III contains the climax of the tale
• Act IV is used to add some suspense
• Act V is the conclusion

73D Shakespeare, vis-à-vis the expression “brave new world” : COINER

To coin a phrase is to invent a new phrase or expression. The greatest “coiner” of them all has to be William Shakespeare. Here are a few everyday expressions that were created by the Bard:

• The game is afoot (Henry IV, Part I)
• Brave new world (The Tempest)
• Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)
• Dead as a doornail (Henry VI, Part II)
• Eaten me out of house and home (Henry IV, Part II)
• Forever and a day (As You Like It)
• For goodness’ sake (Henry VIII)
• Knock knock! Who’s there? (Macbeth)
• Set my teeth on edge (Henry IV, Part I)
• Wild-goose chase (Romeo and Juliet)

77D Sydney’s state: Abbr. : NSW

New South Wales (NSW) is the most populous state in Australia and is home to Sydney, the most populous city in the country. New South Wales was founded in 1788. When the British took over New Zealand in 1840, New Zealand was actually governed for a while as part of New South Wales.

95D ___ Sunday : EASTER

In the Christian tradition, it is believed that three days after Jesus was put to death, he rose from the dead. Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday, and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, two days later.

96D Body part containing photoreceptors : RETINA

The retina is the tissue that lines the inside of the eye, and is the tissue that is light-sensitive. There are (mainly) two types of cells in the retina that are sensitive to light, namely rods and cones. Rods are cells that best function in very dim light and only provide black-and-white vision. Cones on the other hand function in brighter light and can perceive color.

99D Relating to the wind’s movement : EOLIAN

Aeolus was the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology, and he gave his name to the adjective “aeolian” (also “aeolic, eolic”) meaning “windblown”, something produced or carried by the wind. For example, an aeolian harp is a fascinating instrument; a box with a sounding board and strings that is “played” by the wind as it blows.

100D Vingt + dix : TRENTE

In French, “trente” (thirty) is “vingt + dix” (twenty + ten).

101D Equivocated : HEDGED

The verb “to equivocate” comes from the Latin “aequus” meaning “equal” and “vocare” meaning “to call”. So, to equivocate is “to call equally”, and is used in the sense of giving equal emphasis to two sides of an argument, to be non-committal, to hedge, to equivocate. So, something described as “unequivocal” is the opposite, is unambiguous and clear.

102D Ball girl? : BELLE

A beau (plural “beaux”) is the boyfriend of a belle, a young lady. “Beau” and “belle” are the masculine and feminine forms of the French word for “handsome, beautiful”.

104D Large safari sight : RHINO

There are five types of rhinoceros that survive today, with the smaller Javan Rhino being the most rare. The rhinoceros is probably the rarest large mammal on the planet, thanks to poaching. Hunters mainly prize the horn of the rhino as it is used in powdered form in traditional Chinese medicine.

105D Intoxicating Asian plant whose name sounds like an insect : BETEL

The areca palm is sometimes referred to as the betel palm, although I find this a bit confusing. The fruit of the areca palm is the areca nut. The nut is often chewed along with a “betel”, a leaf from a vine in the pepper family. The combined leaf plus nut is referred to as a “betel nut”, which gives rise to the somewhat misleading “betel palm” name.

106D Clear, in a way, as a windshield : DEFOG

What we know as a windshield here in North America, is referred to as a windscreen on the other side of the Atlantic. In America, we use the term “windscreen” for a mesh or foam device placed around a microphone to limit noise caused by wind.

107D Beaver State capital : SALEM

Salem is the state capital of Oregon. It is thought that the city takes its name from the older city of Salem, Massachusetts.

Oregon’s most widely-known nickname is the Beaver State. However, it is also called the Union State, the Pacific Wonderland, the Sunset State and the Webfoot State.