Tag: Cause of a mass movement crossword clue

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Constructed by: Kyle Dolan

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 28m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Amateurs who are known to make waves : HAM OPERATORS

Amateur radio enthusiasts were first called “ham operators” by professional telegraph operators, and the term was intended to be insulting. It came from the similar term “ham actor”, describing a person who is less than effective on the stage. But amateur operators eventually embraced the moniker, and so it stuck.

13A Place where flights are astronomical : CAPE CANAVERAL

The famous headland in Florida called Cape Canaveral was named by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century. As the Cape acts as a launching station for many of NASA’s rockets, when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 the NASA facility on nearby Merritt Island was renamed the Kennedy Space Center, and President Johnson went as far as renaming the whole of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy. The name change for the cape didn’t go down well in Florida though, as the headland had been called Cape Canaveral for over 400 years. So, the name was restored in 1973, and Cape Kennedy is no more.

14A Meet-cute genre : ROMANTIC COMEDY

“Meet-cute” is a term used since the 1930s or 1940s for a scene in a film or TV show in which a future couple have an amusing first encounter.

15A Piglike herbivores : TAPIRS

All four species of tapir are endangered or vulnerable. Even though the tapir looks much like a pig, it is more closely related to the horse and the rhinoceros.

16A Female kangaroo : DOE

In Australia, male kangaroos are known by several names including bucks, boomers, jacks or old men. Females are called does, flyers, or jills. There seems to be just one name for young kangaroos, i.e. joeys. A group of kangaroos might be called a mob, troop or court.

17A Need for constructing some temporary buildings : PAIL

Those would be sandcastles.

18A Great Lakes fish : SMELT

“Smelt” is the name given to several types of small silvery fish, with examples being Great Lake smelts and whitebait smelts.

19A Cause of a mass movement? : FORCE

Newton’s second law of motion tells us that a body accelerates when a force is applied to it, and the greater the mass of the object, the greater the force required to cause that acceleration. Mathematically, the law can be written as Force = mass x acceleration (F=ma).

26A Award-winning Netflix series about conflict : BEEF

“Beef” is a dark comedy-drama series that follows two strangers whose lives become intertwined after a road rage incident. A feud develops between the characters Amy Lau and Danny Cho, played by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.

27A Seehorn of “Pluribus” : RHEA

Rhea Seehorn is an actress best known for playing lawyer Kim Wexler in the TV crime drama “Better Call Saul”. Seehorn’s birth name is Deborah Rhea, but she opted to use her middle name at a young age (which she pronounces as “Ray”).

“PLUR1BUS” is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi TV show that debuted in 2025. It is set in Albuquerque, and centers on an author who is one of the few people in the world immune to an extraterrestrial virus that joins the world’s population into a peaceful and content hive mind. The series was created by Vince Gilligan and stars Rhea Seehorn, who worked together on the hit TV series “Better Call Saul”. The show’s title comes from the Latin motto “E pluribus unum” (out of many, one).

31A Antique counter : ABACUS

The abacus (plural “abaci”) was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

33A Emigre from Kerala, say : DESI

People from the Indian subcontinent might refer to themselves as “desi”.

34A Bearing : MIEN

One’s mien is one’s bearing or manner. “Mien” shares the same etymological root as our word “demeanor”.

35A Trunk stabilizer : RIB

In the human rib cage, the top seven sets of bones are known as true ribs as they are attached directly to the sternum or breastbone. The five sets below the true ribs are called false ribs as they don’t have this direct connection. The bottom two of the false ribs are also called floating ribs as they don’t connect to the sternum at all.

39A Word with tester or blocker : BETA …

Beta blockers are drugs used primarily to manage cardiac arrhythmia and hypertension. Basically, beta blockers interfere with the fight-or-flight response.

40A Jamaican style : SKA

Ska originated in Jamaica in the late fifties and was the precursor to reggae music. No one has a really definitive etymology of the term “ska”, but it is likely to be imitative of a sound.

43A Classic Times Square lights : NEONS

Times Square in New York City isn’t a square at all, but rather a triangle. When the New York Times newspaper opened new headquarters in the area in 1904, the city agreed to the name “Times Square”, changing it from Longacre Square.

44A Two-time NBA Finals MVP Durant : KEVIN

Kevin Durant is a professional basketball player who started his career in the NBA with the Seattle SuperSonics, and relocated with the team to Oklahoma City where they became the Thunder. You might come across Durant on the big screen as well, as he starred in the children’s film “Thunderstruck” in 2012.

45A Student setting out for the bar? : ONE L

“One L” is a name used in general for first-year law students, especially those attending Harvard.

47A Reward for a sacrifice, at times : RBI

That would be baseball.

49A Solar-powered lighting? : AURORA BOREALIS

The adjective “boreal” means “northern”, as in “aurora borealis” (northern lights) for example. The term comes from “Boreas”, the Greek god of the north wind.

Down

1D Mark visible on many planets : HAMILL

Actor Mark Hamill is best known (by far) for playing Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” movies. That said, fans of “Batman: The Animated Series” will know him as the voice actor behind the Joker.

3D __ rea : MENS

“Mens rea” is Latin for “guilty mind” and is a central concept in criminal law. The concept is expanded to “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea” meaning “the act does not make a person guilty unless the mind be also guilty”. In other words, someone should not be deemed guilty of an act, unless he or she had a “guilty mind”, intended to do wrong.

4D Fall Classic mo. : OCT

“Fall Classic” is a name often used for the World Series of baseball.

6D Program extension : ENCORE

“Encore” is French for “again, one more time”, and is a shout that an audience member will make here in North America to request perhaps another song. But, the term is not used this way in France. Rather, the audience will shout “Bis!”, which is the Latin for “twice!”

8D Versatile fruit, for short : AVO

The wonderful avocado comes from a tree that is native to Mexico and Central America. The avocado fruit is sometimes called an avocado pear, because of its shape, even though it is not related to the pear at all. The fruit might also be referred to as an alligator pear, due to the roughness of the green skin of some avocado cultivars.

10D Water : naiad :: mountain : __ : OREAD

The Oreads were the mountain nymphs that accompanied the ancient Greek goddess Artemis on her hunting expeditions. Each Oread dwelled on a different mountain, for example:

• Daphnis (on Mount Parnassos)
• Echo (on Mount Cithaeron)
• Ida (on Mount Ida)

The Naiads of Greek mythology were water nymphs associated with fountains, wells, springs and streams. The saltwater equivalents of the freshwater Naiads were the Oceanids.

11D Spoke multiple times? : RADII

“Radius” (plural “radii”) is a Latin word, as one might expect, a word meaning “spoke of a wheel”. Makes sense, huh?

13D Ballet dancer Misty : COPELAND

In 2015, ballet dancer Misty Copeland became the American Ballet Theatre’s first African American principal dancer. Copeland started studying ballet at the age of 13, and just a year later won a national ballet contest.

14D New York/New Jersey’s __ Mountains : RAMAPO

The Ramapos are a chain of mountains that form part of the Appalachians in New Jersey and New York.

19D Doomscroller’s milieu : FEED

“Brain rot” was named the 2024 Word of the Year by Oxford University Press. It’s what can set in after spending hours of doomscrolling through digital content that is presented to one by those oh-so-helpful algorithms …

20D “__ Frome” : ETHAN

“Ethan Frome” is a novel by New York and Massachusetts author Edith Wharton, first published in 1911. Wharton started “Ethan Frome” as a composition in French that she wrote while studying the language in Paris. The novel was adapted into a 1993 film of the same name starring Liam Neeson in the title role, opposite Patricia Arquette.

23D Do some peer review, legally? : DELIBERATE

A jury is a group of people who have sworn to render a verdict. The term “jury” comes into English via French, ultimately from the Latin “iurare” meaning “to swear”.

24D Triple __ : SEC

Triple sec is liqueur made from the dried peels of bitter and sweet oranges. I tend to use it in cocktails calling for Grand Marnier or Cointreau, as it is a cheaper alternative and tastes very similar …

26D Mr. Smee in “Peter Pan,” e.g. : BOSUN

A boatswain works on the deck of a boat. He or she is unlicensed, and so is not involved in the navigation or handling of the vessel, and instead is in charge of the other unlicensed workers on the deck. “Boatswain” is pronounced “bosun” and this phonetic spelling is often used interchangeably with “boatswain”. The contraction “bo’s’n” is also very popular.

In J. M. Barrie’s play and novel about Peter Pan, Smee is one of Captain Hook’s pirates and is Hook’s bosun and right-hand man. Smee is described by Barrie as being “Irish” and “a man who stabbed without offence”. Nice guy! Captain Hook and Smee sail on a pirate ship called the Jolly Roger.

28D “Farewell” : AU REVOIR

“Au revoir” is a French phrase translating literally as “until seen again”, although the accepted usage is “goodbye”.

32D Counter protests? : SIT-INS

I guess one might “sit-in” at the counter in a diner, perhaps.

34D Plants whose roots are used to make tapioca : MANIOCS

The cassava (also “manioc” or “yuca”) plant is a woody shrub native to South America grown largely for its carbohydrate-rich tubers. In fact, cassava is the third largest food source of carbohydrates (for humans) in the world. Ordinarily, that carbohydrate is extracted from the plant and dried as flour, and is known as tapioca.

38D Fishing gadget : BOBBER

A bob or a bobber, also known as a float, is used in fishing. It really serves two purposes: it suspends the hook at a predetermined depth, and it also acts as an indicator of a bite.

39D __ lettres: literary genre : BELLES

The term “belles-lettres” is used today to describe elegant essays, poetry, and other written works that prioritize stylistic grace over informational substance. As such, the term can be used pejoratively. “Belles-lettres” translates from French as “beautiful letters”, and the term originally distinguished writings of high aesthetic value from works of a purely academic, scientific, or educational nature.

41D Metalworking ridge : KNURL

A knurl is a pattern of small ridges or bumps mechanically rolled into the surface of a metal object to improve grip, like on the thumb-wheel of a crescent wrench or the rotating dial on combination padlock. The term “knurl” emerged in the early 17th century, evolving from the Middle English word “knur”, which originally described a hard knot or localized swelling in a tree trunk.

42D American Eagle Outfitters subsidiary : AERIE

Aerie (stylized as “aerie”) is a retailer of lingerie and general undergarments that was founded in 2006. Aptly enough, Aerie was initially a sub-brand of American Eagle. The name “Aerie” comes from “American Eagle lingerie”.

44D Animal that sleeps 18 to 22 hours a day : KOALA

The koala bear really does look like a little bear, but it’s not even closely related. It is an arboreal marsupial and a herbivore, native to the east and south coasts of Australia. Koalas aren’t primates, and are one of the few mammals other than primates who have fingerprints. In fact, it can be very difficult to tell human fingerprints from koala fingerprints, even under an electron microscope. Male koalas are called “bucks”, females are “does”, and young koalas are “joeys”. I’m a little jealous of the koala, as it sleeps up to 20 hours a day …

46D Robert Indiana sculpture : LOVE

Robert Indiana is the working name used by artist Robert Clark, who was born and raised in Indiana. Indiana’s most famous work is his “LOVE” print, which first appeared in a series of poems written in 1958. The most famous version of the “LOVE” work was created for a 1964 Christmas card used by the Museum of Modern Art. Famously, the print was then used for an 8-cent US postage stamp in 1973.

51D Big name in pasta sauce : RAO

Rao’s Italian restaurant opened in East Harlem in New York City in 1896. Rao’s also sells a small line of Italian foodstuffs in supermarkets, such as pasta, sauces and olive oil.