Tag: What flowers eventually do crossword clue

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Children’s character who sings “I Love Trash” : OSCAR

Oscar the Grouch is the Muppet who lives in a garbage can. Oscar’s persona comes from various sources. He is named after Oscar Brand who was one of the board members of the Children’s Television Workshop, the backers for “Sesame Street” as the Muppets were being developed in the sixties. Oscar’s personality was inspired by an angry waiter that once served Jim Henson (father of the Muppets). The voice was modeled on a grumpy New York cab driver encountered one day by Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who brings Oscar to life.

14 Issa of “The Lovebirds” : RAE

Issa Rae is a Stanford University graduate who created a YouTube web series called “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl”. Rae also plays the title role in the series, a young lady named “J”. “Awkward Black Girl” was adapted into an HBO comedy-drama called “Insecure”, in which Issa Rae stars.

“The Lovebirds” is a 2020 romantic comedy movie starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani as a couple on the run after witnessing a murder. The film’s release schedule was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Netflix stepped in and bought it for online release. As a result, “The Lovebirds” was the top-streamed title on Netflix on the weekend it became available.

19 Gross-sounding plant? : YUCCA

Yuccas are a genus of shrubs and trees that live in hot and dry areas of North and South America. One of the more famous species of Yucca is the Joshua tree. Yuccas has a unique pollination system, with moths transferring pollen from plant to plant. New Mexico adopted the yucca as its state flower in 1927. By the way, the yucca is in the asparagus family.

22 Overhead lights? : HALOS

The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo” that is used for a radiant light depicted above the head of a saintly person.

25 One might help with a connection : MODEM

A modem is a device that is used to facilitate the transmission of a digital signal over an analog line. At one end of the line, a modem is used to “modulate” an analog carrier signal to encode digital information. At the other end of the line, a modem is used to “demodulate” the analog carrier signal and so reproduce the original digital information. This modulation-demodulation gives the device its name: a MOdulator-DEModulator, or “modem”.

32 Rumrunner, e.g. : BOOTLEGGER

To bootleg is to make or smuggle alcoholic drinks illegally. The term arose in the late 1800s as slang for the practice of concealing a flask of liquor down the leg of a high boot. The term has been extended to mean the illegal production and sale of just about anything.

34 Daughter of Polonius, in Shakespeare : OPHELIA

In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Ophelia is courted by Hamlet. In Act III, Hamlet is pretty depressed and upset, and addresses Ophelia with the famous line “Get thee to a nunn’ry, why woulds’t thou be a breeder of sinners?” In this scene, Hamlet is denying that he ever loved Ophelia, and exhorts her to “become a nun”, so that she may never have to give birth to someone as pitiful and sinful as himself.

38 ¥ : YEN

The Korean won, Chinese yuan, and Japanese yen (all of which are Asian currencies) take their names from the Chinese written character that represents “round shape”.

39 Bob Marley and the Wailers, for one : REGGAE BAND

The Wailers were a band, formed in Jamaica in 1963, whose most famous member was Bob Marley. The band’s name went through a few iterations, starting out as the Teenagers, then the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers, and finally the Wailers.

47 China makes up much of it : TEA SET

The ceramic known as “porcelain” can be referred to as “china” or “fine china”, as porcelain was developed in China.

50 Big brass : BASS TUBA

The tuba is the lowest-pitched of all brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”. Oom-pah-pah …

51 Like almost all prime numbers : ODD

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.

54 Word before shot and after hot : POT

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.

55 Spiritual object : TOTEM

“Totem” is a word used to describe any entity that watches over a group of people. As such, totems are usually the subjects of worship. Totem poles are really misnamed, as they are not intended to represent figures to be worshiped, but rather are heraldic in nature, and often celebrating the legends or notable events in the history of a tribe.

57 It “lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar,” per Percy Bysshe Shelley : POETRY

Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English Romantic poet. Shelley had strong views on vegetarianism. He was dedicated to the cause of all sentient beings, believing that the slaughter of animals by humans for the use of food was a barbaric practice. He wrote a famous essay on the subject called “A Vindication of Natural Diet” in 1813.

60 Bea Arthur was one before her acting career : MARINE

Actress Bea Arthur’s most famous roles were on television, as the lead in the “All in the Family” spin-off “Maude” and as Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls”. Arthur also won a Tony for playing Vera Charles on stage in the original cast of “Mame” in 1966, two years after she played Yente the matchmaker in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”.

64 Breakfast brand tagline : LEGGO MY 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”.

65 Taking Rx drugs : ON MEDS

There seems to be some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

68 Jupiter and Mars : GODS

Jupiter, also known as Jove, was the king of the gods in the Roman tradition, as well as the god of sky and thunder. Jupiter was the Roman equivalent to the Greek god Zeus.

Mars was the god of war in ancient Rome. He was also viewed as the father of the Roman people and the father of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who founded Rome according to Roman mythology.

70 Private aid grp. : NGO

Non-governmental organization (NGO)

73 Stock paper, for short? : WSJ

“The Wall Street Journal” (WSJ) is a daily newspaper with a business bent that is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company. The WSJ has a larger US circulation than any other newspaper, with “USA Today” coming in a close second place.

78 Fairy tale sibling : HANSEL

“Hansel and Gretel” is a Germanic fairy tale found in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. It tells of two siblings, Hansel and Gretel, the children of a woodcutter. The youngsters are abandoned in a forest at the behest of an evil stepmother. Clever Hansel hears of the plan and leaves a trail of pebbles so that he and his sister can find their way home, which they do. But the children are abandoned again and this time leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, the crumbs are eaten by birds and so the children do indeed become lost. But eventually they do all live happily ever after …

82 Apt name for a landscaper? : LON

“Lon” sounds like “lawn”, well, sort of …

86 Crony : PAL

A crony is a friend or companion. The term originated as slang in Cambridge University in England in the 1600s. “Crony” is probably derived from the Greek “khronios” meaning “long-lasting”.

87 One of a pair of kitchen tools : PESTLE

I’ve loved the sound of the words “mortar” and “pestle”, ever since I was first introduced to them in the chemistry lab. The Romans called a receptacle for pounding or grinding things a “mortarium”, giving us “mortar”. Mortarium was also the word for the product of pounding and grinding, which gives us our “mortar” that’s used with bricks to build a wall. And further, short stubby cannons used in the 16th century resembled a grinding bowl and so were called “mortars”, which evolved into our contemporary weapon of the same name. As far as the pestle is concerned, it is also derived from its Latin name “pistillum”, which comes from the word for “crush”.

91 Chrysler offering of the 1980s : K-CAR

Chrysler introduced K-cars in the early 1980s at a time when demand for large cars with V8 engines was plummeting. Post-oil crisis consumers were seeking low-cost, fuel-efficient vehicles, which brought Chrysler to the brink of bankruptcy. It was the economical 4-cylinder, front-wheel drive platform that singlehandedly delivered the company into profitability within a couple of years. K-cars were designed to carry 6 passengers, on two bench seats. Remember taking a corner a little too fast on those seats, in the days when no one wore seat belts?

95 Over-the-counter seller : DELI

The word “delicatessen” (or “deli” for short) came into English from the German “Delikatessen”. The Germans borrowed the word from French, in which language “délicatesse” means “delicious things (to eat)”. The term’s ultimate root is “delicatus”, the Latin for “giving pleasure, delightful”.

102 First line in a news story : LEDE

The opening paragraph in any work of literature is often just called “the lead”. In the world of journalism, this is usually referred to as “the lede”. The derivative phrase “bury the lede” means to fail to stress the most important aspect of a story.

103 Congas and bongos : DRUMS

The type of drum called a conga is more properly known as a tumbadora. The conga is regarded as a Cuban instrument today, but it probably evolved from older African drums made from hollowed logs.

Bongo drums are Cuban percussion instruments consisting of a pair of drums, one larger than the other. The smaller drum is called the “hembra” (female) and the larger the “macho” (male).

109 Attack tactic : SIEGE

Our word “siege” comes from a 13th-century word for a “seat”. The military usage derives from the concept of a besieging force “sitting down” outside a fortress until it falls.

110 Dragon roll ingredients : EELS

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

111 Foreign exchange abbr. : USD

The dollar sign ($) was first used for the Spanish-American peso, in the late 18th century. The peso was also called the “Spanish dollar” (and “piece of eight”). The Spanish dollar was to become a model for the US dollar that was adopted in 1785, along with the dollar sign.

113 Cartomancy medium : TAROT

Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

Cartomancy is fortune-telling using a deck of cards. “Carto” is a combining form meaning “card”, and “-mancy” is a suffix meaning “divination by means of”. Other “-mancies” are hydromancy (divination using water), aeromancy (divination using weather) and arithmancy (divination using numbers).

Down

2 Golfer Aoki : ISAO

Isao Aoki is one of Japan’s greatest golfers. Aoki’s best finish in a major tournament was runner-up to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open.

9 The “R” of Edward R. Murrow : ROSCOE

“Good night, and good luck” was a tagline used by journalist Edward R. Murrow. The tagline was used as the title of an excellent 2005 film that tells of Murrow’s conflict with US Senator Joseph McCarthy.

11 What Beatles music did at Abbey Road, famously : ECHOED

Abbey Road in London was named for Kilburn Priory and the Abbey Farm in the priory’s grounds. The road is famous for the Abbey Road recording studios used most famously by the Beatles. The band’s last studio album is called “Abbey Road”, and the famous cover photo depicts John, Paul, George and Ringo walking across the zebra crossing located just outside the studio.

15 A Greek letter? : ALPHA

“Alpha” is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and gave rise to our Latin letter “A”. In turn, alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter “aleph”.

20 Things that might get written down on sticky notes : BRAINSTORMS

The Post-it note was invented at 3M following the accidental discovery of a low-tack, reusable adhesive. The actual intent of the development program was the discovery of a super-strong adhesive.

26 “Scary” Spice Girl : MEL B

“Mel B” is the stage name of Melanie Brown, who came to fame as a member of the Spice Girls musical group. She took the name Mel B to distinguish herself from fellow band member Melanie Chisholm (Melanie C). Mel B was also known as “Scary Spice”, a nickname given to her by the media. American viewers saw Mel B on the TV show “America’s Got Talent” from 2013 through 2019, on which show she served as a judge.

29 Some purchases for Christmas displays : TREE STANDS

The custom of decorating trees at Christmas seems to have originated in Renaissance Germany. Those first trees were placed in guildhalls and were decorated with sweets and candy for the apprentices and children. After the Protestant Reformation, the Christmas tree became an alternative in Protestant homes for the Roman Catholic Christmas cribs. The Christmas tree tradition was imported into Britain by the royal family because of its German heritage. That tradition spread from Britain into North America.

31 Unaccounted for, for short : MIA

Missing in action (MIA)

36 On edge : ANTSY

The word “antsy” embodies the concept of “having ants in one’s pants”, meaning being nervous and fidgety. However, “antsy” has been used in English since the 1830s, whereas “ants in the pants” originated a century later.

38 Safecrackers, in old-fashioned slang : YEGGS

“Yegg” is a slang word for a burglar and often for a safe-cracker. The origin of the term appears to be unknown.

40 Rapper Kool Moe ___ : DEE

“Kool Moe Dee” is the stage name of rap artist Mohandas Dewese. Kool Moe Dee had the honor of being the first rap artist to perform at the Grammys, and was one of the first rappers to actually win a Grammy Award.

43 Body feature that approximately 10% of people have : OUTIE

The navel is basically the scar left behind when the umbilical cord is removed from a newborn baby. One interesting use of the umbilicus (navel, belly button) is to differentiate between identical twins, especially when they are very young.

44 Plumbing pipe known as a trap : U-BEND

Most sinks in a home have a P-trap in the outlet pipe that empties into the sewer line. This P-trap has at its heart a U-bend that retains a small amount of water after the sink is emptied. This plug of water serves as a seal to prevent sewer gases entering into the home. By virtue of its design, the U-bend can also capture any heavy objects (like an item of jewelry) that might fall through the plughole. But the “trapping” of fallen objects is secondary to the P-trap’s main function of “trapping” sewer gases.

48 Chord whose notes are played in succession : ARPEGGIO

An arpeggio is a technique in which the notes of a chord are played in sequence, one after the other. “Arpeggio” can be translated from Italian as “broken chord”

50 Welsh guy : BOYO

“Boyo” is an informal term used in places like Australia, Wales and Ireland as an alternative for “laddie” or “lad”.

54 Expecting, in slang : PREGGERS

The normal gestation period for humans is 280 days, a little over 9 months. The gestation period can be a little shorter, or longer. Back in 1945, a pregnancy was confirmed at 375 days, which is just over 12 months.

59 Big name in chicken : TYSON

Tyson Foods is the largest producer of meat in the world. Even though we tend to associate Tyson with chicken here in North America, the company is also the largest exporter of beef out of the US.

62 Jazz pianist Blake who composed “Shuffle Along” : EUBIE

James Hubert “Eubie” Blake was a composer and pianist from Baltimore, Maryland. Blake was a noted composer and performer of ragtime music. The 1978 musical revue “Eubie!” features his music. Apparently Blake claimed to have started smoking cigarettes at the age of 10 years, and died 85 years later in 1983. Blake’s celebrity status and long life as a smoker was often cited by politicians who opposed anti-tobacco legislation.

64 The Evian Championship is one of its majors: Abbr. : LPGA

The Evian Championship is an LPGA event held annually in Évian-les-Bains, France, home to Évian mineral water. The Evian Championship is one of two major championships on the Ladies European Tour and just about ties with the US Women’s Open as the richest event in women’s golf.

73 Resident of the capital of Manitoba : WINNIPEGGER

The Manitoba city of Winnipeg is the largest city in the province, and its capital. The city is named for the nearby Lake Winnipeg, which in turn is an anglicization of a Cree word meaning “muddy waters”.

75 Ballet jump : JETE

A jeté is a leap in ballet, with the term “jeté” coming from the French word “jeter” meaning “to throw”. A “jeté en avant” is a “leap to the front”, towards the audience. A “grand jeté” is a long horizontal jump, a split in the air, leaping from one foot to the other.

77 Zilch : NIL

We use the term “zilch” to mean “nothing”. Our current usage evolved in the sixties, before which the term was used to describe “meaningless speech”. There was a comic character called Mr. Zilch in the 1930s in “Ballyhoo” magazine. Mr. Zilch’s name probably came from the American college slang “Joe Zilch” that was used in the early 1900s for “an insignificant person”.

78 Maker of Ding Dongs and Twinkies : HOSTESS

A Ding Dong is a chocolate cake made by Hostess Brands. The Ding Dong was introduced in 1967.

82 Chickpeas and peanuts, for two : LEGUMES

Plants called legumes are notable in that they work symbiotically with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, microorganisms found in the root nodules that convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonium ions. As nitrogen is an essential component of proteins, legumes are exceptionally rich sources of plant protein. Examples of legumes are peas, beans, lentils and peanuts.

The garbanzo, or chickpea, is absolutely my favorite legume to eat.

I have to say it, but it drives me crazy. Peanuts aren’t nuts. They’re legumes, a plant in the bean and pea family. The flowers of the peanut plant last only one day and then wither. The fertilized ovary develops an elongated “peg” that grows downwards, pushing the ovary down into the soil. The ovary develops underground into a mature peanut pod containing between one and four seeds, which we call “nuts”. But they aren’t nuts. Did I say that already …?

84 1/1 ’til present: Abbr. : YTD

Year-to-date (YTD)

85 “La” place in L.A. : BREA

The La Brea Tar Pits are located right in the heart of the city of Los Angeles. At the site there is a constant flow of tar that seeps up to the surface from underground, a phenomenon that has been around for tens of thousands of years. What is significant is that much of the seeping tar is covered by water. Over many, many centuries animals came to the water to drink and became trapped in the tar as they entered the water to quench their thirst. The tar then preserved the bones of the dead animals. Today a museum is located right by the Tar Pits, recovering bones and displaying specimens of the animals found there. It’s well worth a visit if you are in town …

87 Actress Anna of “True Bloods” : PAQUIN

Anna Paquin is an actress from New Zealand who won an Oscar as an 11-year-old for her role in “The Piano”. In the HBO series “True Blood” she plays Sookie Stackhouse, a role for which she won a Golden Globe.

89 “Othello” character who quips “They are all but stomachs, and we all but food” : EMILIA

Emilia and Iago are characters in William Shakespeare’s play “Othello”. They are a married couple, although Iago kills Emilia late in the play.

96 ___ cheese : BLEU

Being a bit of a French speaker (admittedly, a very poor one), the term “bleu cheese” has always kind of irritated me. I would prefer that we use either “blue cheese” or “fromage bleu” and not mix the languages, but then I can be annoyingly picky! It’s said that blue cheese was probably discovered accidentally, as molds tend to develop in the same conditions that are best for storing cheese. The blue mold in the cheese is introduced by adding Penicillium spores before the cheese is allowed to set. And yes, it’s the same mold that is used to produce penicillin, the antibiotic.

100 Title Disney character from Hawaii : LILO

“Lilo & Stitch” was released by Disney in 2002. Compared to other Disney feature-length cartoons, “Lilo & Stitch” was relatively cheaply produced, using the voices of lesser-known actors. One interesting change had to take place in the storyline during production, when Lilo was meant to fly a Jumbo Jet through downtown Honolulu in one sequence. This was replaced with a sequence using a spaceship instead, as the producers were sensitive to public sentiment after the September 11 attacks.

105 What you might get on a log flume ride : WET

A flume is a water-filled, man-made channel that sits above ground and is used for transportation. The water flows due to the flume’s downward slope. Most commonly, flumes are built to transport logs and lumber. Traditional log flumes were operated by flume herders, people stationed along the course of the flume to ensure that water and lumber moved freely. The more daring flume herders would ride along the flume in small boats, a practice that led to our contemporary log flume rides in theme parks.