Tag: Herbal remedy in a cleanse crossword clue

Bill’s time: 6m 16s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Posts on a battleship, say : MASTS

In the days of sail, a naval fleet of ships often formed a “line of battle” in the vessels formed up end to end. The advantage of such a formation was that all vessels could fire a battery of cannon along the full length of the ship. Vessels deemed powerful enough to join the line of battle became known as “ships of the line”, or “line of battle ships”. The term “line of battle ship” shortened over time to become our modern word “battleship”. The main feature of a contemporary battleship is a battery of large caliber guns.

6A Comic Idle of Monty Python : ERIC

Eric Idle is one of the founding members of the Monty Python team. He was very much the musician of the bunch, and is an accomplished guitarist. If you’ve seen the Monty Python film “The Life of Brian”, you might remember the closing number “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. It was sung by Idle, and was also written by him. That song made it to number-3 in the UK charts in 1991.

10A Sport with striking and grappling, for short : 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.

14A Pro ___ (fairly divided) : RATA

“Pro rata” is a Latin phrase meaning “in proportion”.

17A Carpe ___ (seize the day: Lat.) : DIEM

“Carpe diem” is a quotation from Horace, one of ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets. “Carpe diem” translates from Latin as “seize the day” or “enjoy the day”. The satirical motto of a procrastinator is “carpe mañana”, “translating” as “seize tomorrow”.

18A Breakfast brand originally known as Froffles : EGGO

Eggo is a line of frozen waffles and related products made by Kellogg’s. When they were introduced in the 1930s, the name “Eggo” was chosen to promote the “egginess” of the batter. “Eggo” replaced “Froffles”, the original name chosen by melding “frozen” and “waffles”.

19A One of 14 in New York’s Liberty Island : ACRE

Visitors to New York City’s Liberty Island can enter the Statue of Liberty’s base and pedestal. At most, 240 visitors per day are allowed to climb two spiral staircases giving access to the observation point in the statue’s crown. There is also an observation platform surrounding the torch, but public access has been denied for safety reasons since 1916.

20A “Please help!” : S.O.S.!

The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots). That said, in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so “SOS” is really only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are back-formations that were introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.

21A Decadent dessert : ECLAIR

The name for the pastry known as an “éclair” is clearly French in origin. The French word for lightning is “éclair”, but no one seems to be too sure how it came to be used for the rather delicious bakery item.

23A Oscar-winning “GoodFellas” actor : JOE PESCI

Joe Pesci got his big break in movies with a supporting role in “Raging Bull” starring Robert De Niro, earning Pesci an Oscar nomination early in his career. There followed a string of gangster roles played alongside De Niro, namely “Once Upon a Time in America”, “GoodFellas” and “Casino”. But I like Pesci’s comedic acting best of all. He was marvelous in the “Home Alone” films, the “Lethal Weapon” series, and my personal favorite, “My Cousin Vinny”. Pesci gets a mention in the stage musical “Jersey Boys”, which isn’t too surprising as he is one of the show’s producers.

The Martin Scorsese classic “GoodFellas” is a 1990 adaptation of a nonfiction book by Nicholas Pileggi called “Wiseguy”. The film tells the story of a mob family that succumbs to the FBI after one of their own becomes an informant.

25A British “facilities” : LAV

Our word “lavatory” (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s, “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.

26A Number of U.S. states with a single-syllable name : ONE

There seems to be some uncertainty how the US state of Maine got its name. However, the state legislature has adopted the theory that it comes from the former French province of Maine. The legislature included language to that effect when adopting a resolution in 2001 to establish Franco-American Day.

27A The Hawks and the Pelicans, for two : NBA TEAMS

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

The New Orleans Hornets joined the NBA in 1988 as an expansion team, originally based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team was going to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but the name was changed following a “name the team” contest run in the local area. During the Revolutionary War, Lord General Cornwallis had referred to Charlotte as a “veritable nest of hornets” due the city’s resistance to British occupation, which explains the local fans’ fondness for the name “Hornets”. The franchise was moved to New Orleans for the 2002 season, as attendance wasn’t big enough to sustain the team in Charlotte. The team had to play two seasons in Oklahoma City due to damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, and played as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. After several years back in New Orleans, the franchise was renamed to the Pelicans, a nod to the Brown Pelican that is the Louisiana state bird.

32A Longtime home of Stephen Colbert : CBS TV

Stephen Colbert is a political satirist who hosted his own show on Comedy Central, “The Colbert Report”, before taking over the “Late Show” when David Letterman retired. Colbert’s first love was theater, and so he studied to become an actor. Fans of the “Lord of the Rings” films might know that Colbert makes a cameo appearance in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”. Don’t blink though, or you’ll miss it …

41A “That being said …,” to a texter : OTOH

On the other hand (OTOH)

44A “We have the meats” sloganeer : ARBY’S

The Arby’s chain of fast food restaurants was founded in 1964 by two brothers, Forrest and Leroy Raffel. The name “Arby’s” is a homonym of “RB’s”, standing for “Raffel Brothers”. There is a rumor out there that the initials “RB” were chosen for “roast beef”, but that’s not true.

47A Blue Moon, for one : ALE

Blue Moon is a beer that was introduced in 1995 as Bellyside Belgian White. It is sold in Canada as Belgian Moon.

54A The “O” of A.O.C. : OCASIO

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a politician who is often referred to by her initials “AOC”. A Democrat, she was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, representing part of the Bronx, Queens and Rikers Island in New York City. When she took office in 2019 at the age of 29, AOC became the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.

58A Scandinavian city that’s home to a bunch of Munch : OSLO

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian expressionist, and most famous for his painting “The Scream”, painted in 1893. What a wonderful work that is, a true representation of expressionism. The Munch Museum in Oslo is dedicated to his work and life. In 2004, two of Munch’s paintings, “The Scream” and “Madonna”, were stolen from the Munch Museum by armed robbers who subdued the museum guards. The paintings were missing for two years, but recovered in 2006.

62A Wing it onstage : AD-LIB

“Ad libitum” is a Latin phrase meaning “at one’s pleasure”. In common usage, the phrase is usually shortened to “ad-lib”. On the stage, the concept of an ad-lib is very familiar.

64A “Superfruit” whose name has two diacritics : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

A diacritic mark is added to a letter to indicate that it has a special phonetic sound. Examples of diacritic marks are the tilde above the letter N in Spanish words like “jalapeño” and “niño “, and the cedilla under the letter C in French words like “façade”.

65A Carhop’s article of footwear : SKATE

Carhops are servers who bring food to customers in their cars at drive-in restaurants. The first carhops were seen at the Pig Stand restaurant in Dallas, Texas in 1921. These male employees would “hop” onto the running boards of cars as they entered the restaurant’s parking lot in order to quickly take the customer’s order, hence the name “carhop”.

Down

1D Nicki ___, “Starships” rapper : MINAJ

Nicki Minaj is a rapper from the New York borough of Queens who was born in Trinidad.

2D Gas brand owned by BP : AMOCO

“Amoco” is an abbreviation for “American Oil Company”, an oil company that merged with BP in 1998. Amoco was the first oil company to introduce gasoline tanker trucks and drive-through filling stations. I wonder if they know what they were starting …?

3D Dessert item usually eaten moments after it’s made : S’MORE

S’mores are treats peculiar to North America that are usually eaten around a campfire. A s’more consists of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers. The earliest written reference to the recipe is in a 1927 publication called “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts”. Girl Scouts always did corner the market on cookies and the like!

4D Criticize unfairly : TAKE POTSHOTS AT (RAISING “TOPEKA”)

When firing a gun, a “potshot” is a “shot” taken purely to get the prey into the “pot” for cooking. The term “potshot” was coined in the 1830s, hence distinguishing between a shot taken for sport or marksmanship and a shot taken while hunting for game.

Topeka is the capital of Kansas, and is located on the Kansas River in the northeast of the state. The name “Topeka” was chosen in 1855 and translates from the Kansa and the Ioway languages as “to dig good potatoes”. The reference isn’t to the common potato but rather to the herb known as the prairie potato (also “prairie turnip”), which was an important food for many Native Americans.

5D 1960s antiwar grp. : SDS

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist group in the sixties. The SDS organized the largest student strike in the history of the United States on 26 April 1968, with about a million students staying away from class that day. The “Students for a Democratic Society” name was revived in 2006 with the foundation of a new US-based student organization with left wing beliefs. Today’s SDS was founded by a pair of high school students from Greenwich Village, New York.

9D Brought up the rear : CAME LAST (RAISING “SALEM”)

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

11D Bible figures invoked by O. Henry : MAGI

O. Henry’s short story called “The Gift of the Magi” was first published in 1905. It tells of a relatively poor, newly-married couple who want to buy each other a gift for Christmas. The wife’s pride and joy is her long blonde hair, while the husband’s most treasured possession is his grandfather’s gold pocket watch. The wife sells her hair to buy her gift, and the husband sells his watch to buy his gift for his spouse. The wife is given a set of combs, hair accessories that are useless now that her hair is short. The husband gets a platinum fob chain for the watch that he no longer owns.

15D Grey Goose competitor : BELVEDERE VODKA (RAISING “DOVER”)

The city of Dover is the capital of Delaware, and is the state’s second biggest city (after Wilmington). Dover is named after the town of Dover on the south coast of England, and was given that name by William Penn. The English Dover lies in the county of Kent, and the American Dover resides in Kent County.

24D Subject of the Tenth Commandment : ENVY

According to the Book of Exodus, the wording for the tenth commandment is:

… thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

30D 1970s sitcom title character who “can turn the world on with her smile” : MARY

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” originally aired from 1970 to 1977. It was a groundbreaking sitcom in that it featured a central female character who was not dependent on a man. Such was the success of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” that it launched no less than three spin-off shows: “Rhoda”, “Phyllis” and “Lou Grant”.

35D Clearasil target : ACNE

Clearasil acne medication was developed in 1940 by Ivan Combe and Kedzie Teller. Combe promoted the product by sponsoring the television show “American Bandstand” for many years.

38D “Huh, better than I expected” : NOT SO BAD (RAISING “BOSTON”)

Boston is the capital of the state of Massachusetts. The city was founded by Puritan colonists from England in 1630. The city takes its name from Boston, England from where several of the early Puritan settlers hailed.

50D Communication system for almost two billion people : GMAIL

Gmail is a free webmail service provided by Google, and my favorite of the free email services. Gmail made a big splash when it was introduced because it offered a whopping 1GB of storage whereas other services offered a measly 2-4MB on average.

51D Belief system for almost two billion people : ISLAM

Over 55% of the world’s population consider themselves to be adherents of the “big three” Abrahamic religions: Christianity (~2.6 billion), Islam (~2.0 billion), and Judaism (~15.8 million).

54D Dos cubed : OCHO

In Spanish, “ocho” (eight) is “dos” (two) raised to the power of three.

62D Communication syst. in which the letter Z is drawn with one’s index finger : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)