Tag: Discord figs crossword clue

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Constructed by: Yijing Chen

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Westward Ho!

Themed answers are familiar phrases, but with “HO” added at the start (to the “WEST”):

• 62A Oregon Trail cry, or an apt title for this puzzle? : WESTWARD HO!

• 17A *Urn that self-returns? : HOMING VASE (ho + Ming vase)
• 24A *Spreading the gospel of continental breakfast, turndown service, and free Wi-Fi? : HOTEL EVANGELISM (ho + televangelism)
• 37A *Corny, sappy, or cheesy? : HOKEY WORD (ho + key word)
• 53A *Treating guests to some honey, perhaps? : HOSTING LIKE A BEE (ho + “sting like a bee”)

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

Bill’s time: 10m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13A Rink leap : AXEL

An axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. The maneuver was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 Vienna International Skating Tournament.

14A Geography buff’s compendium : ATLAS

The word “compendium” comes from the Latin verb “compendere”, meaning “to weigh together”. In ancient Rome, merchants would often weigh coins collectively to save time, rather than counting them individually. This practice gave rise to the noun “compendium”, originally meaning “shortcut, saving, profit”. By the late 16th century, “compendium” was being used in English to describe a concise but comprehensive summary of a larger subject, in effect condensing heavy material into a manageable package.

16A Milquetoast : BLAH

Someone described as a “milquetoast” is weak and timid. The term comes from a character called Caspar Milquetoast in the comic strip “The Timid Soul” drawn by H. T. Webster. Webster came up with Caspar’s name by deliberately misspelling “milk toast”, which is a bland food that is suitable for someone with a weak stomach.

17A *Urn that self-returns? : HOMING VASE (ho + Ming vase)

The Ming dynasty lasted in China from 1368 to 1644. It was a time of tremendous innovation in so many areas, including the manufacture of ceramics. In the late Ming period, a shift towards a market economy in China led to the export of porcelain on an unprecedented scale, perhaps explaining why we tend to hear more about Ming vases than we do about porcelain from any other Chinese dynasty.

19A “Purple Haze” rocker Hendrix : JIMI

Many of his contemporaries regarded Jimi Hendrix as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix was from Seattle and didn’t really have a really stellar start to his working life. He failed to finish high school and fell foul of the law by getting caught in stolen cars, twice. The courts gave him the option of the army or two years in prison. Hendrix chose the former and soon found himself in the famous 101st Airborne. In the army, his less-than-disciplined ways helped him (as he would have seen it) because his superiors successfully petitioned to get him discharged after serving only one year of his two-year requirement, just to get him out of their hair.

“Purple Haze” is a 1967 song written and recorded by Jimi Hendrix that has been described as a “psychedelic drug song of the sixties”. In fact, the term “purple haze” came to refer to LSD. Hendrix denied any relation of the lyrics to drugs at all.

20A __ Strauss & Co. : LEVI

Levi Strauss was the founder of the first company in the world to manufacture blue jeans. Levi Strauss & Co. opened in 1853 in San Francisco. Strauss and his business partner were awarded a patent in 1873 for the use of copper rivets to strengthen points of strain on working pants.

21A Discord figs. : MODS
40A Discord fig. : ADMIN

Moderator (mod)

Discord is a social media platform designed primarily for voice, video, and text communication. Originally popular among gamers, Discord has expanded to encompass a wide range of communities, including artists, musicians, study groups, and general interest groups.

23A Flat cap : TAM

A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap worn traditionally by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”) but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of the Robert Burns poem “Tam o’ Shanter”. A pom-pom adorning a tam is known as a toorie.

24A *Spreading the gospel of continental breakfast, turndown service, and free Wi-Fi? : HOTEL EVANGELISM (ho + televangelism)

In the Christian tradition, an Evangelist is one of the writers of the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Also in the Christian tradition, an evangelist is someone who spreads the gospel. More generally, an evangelist is an enthusiastic advocate of any cause.

Televangelism is the use of radio and television for the promotion of religious beliefs, most notably Christian beliefs. A portmanteau of “television” and “evangelism”, televangelism began in the US, in the 1920s on radio.

29A The Roaring Twenties, e.g. : ERA

The 1920s are often called the Roaring Twenties, and were a period of dynamic change across all aspects of life. Things were finally returning to normal after WWI, jazz became popular, some women “broke the mold” by becoming “flappers”, and Art Deco flourished. The whole decade came to a tragic end with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, followed by the Great Depression.

31A Some 35mm cameras : SLRS

At the beginning of the 20th century, 35mm was chosen as a standard size for film used in still cameras. 35mm was selected as it was already the standard film size used in motion pictures.

37A *Corny, sappy, or cheesy? : HOKEY WORD (ho + key word)

“To hoke” is a slang term meaning “to create a false impression”. The term derives from the noun “hokum”. “Hokum” was originally theater slang, meaning “melodramatic, exaggerated acting”. Now the term just means “empty talk”. It is also the root for our word “hokey” meaning “silly, old-fashioned”.

43A Seafaring wood : TEAK

Teak is a hardwood tree in the mint family that is commonly found in monsoon forests of Asia. Teak’s tight grain and high oil content make it very suitable for constructing outdoor furniture, where weather resistance is valued. For the same reason, teak is the wood of choice for wooden decks on boats.

48A Small diadems : TIARAS

A diadem is a type of crown that is worn as a sign of royalty. The original diadem wasn’t made of metal and was simply an embroidered silk ribbon that was worn by a king as a symbol of his authority.

53A *Treating guests to some honey, perhaps? : HOSTING LIKE A BEE (ho + “sting like a bee”)

Muhammad Ali first used his famous catchphrase “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” before his world title fight against Sonny Liston in 1964. Back then Ali still went by his birth name of Cassius Clay.

58A __-poly : ROLY

The term “roly-poly” applies to several things, including a game in which a ball is “rolled” into holes on a board or table. A roly-poly is also a cake-like dessert made from dough that has been spread out flat and then rolled up into the shape of a cylinder.

60A Screen type at many a science museum : IMAX

The IMAX Corporation, which is behind the IMAX film format, is a Canadian company. The impetus for developing the system came after Expo ’67 in Montreal. Back then large format screenings were accomplished using multiple projectors with multiple screens, with images basically stitched together. The team behind the IMAX technology set out to simplify things, and developed a single-camera, single-projector system.

62A Oregon Trail cry, or an apt title for this puzzle? : WESTWARD HO!

The Oregon Trail was established by fur trappers and traders as early as 1811. The first migrant wagon train traveled the route in 1836, starting off in Independence, Missouri and going as far as Fort Hall, Idaho. In the coming years, the trail was extended for wagons as far as the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

66A CarPlay companion : SIRI

CarPlay is an Apple feature that mirrors an iPhone’s familiar icons directly onto a vehicle’s dashboard display. This allows the use of favorite navigation and music apps safely via the car’s buttons or Siri voice commands.

69A Rapa Nui monoliths : MOAI

Moai are huge human figures carved out of stone by the native people on Easter Island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. There are 887 moai in total on the island, the tallest of which is almost 33 feet tall and weighs 82 tons.

“Rapa Nui” is the Polynesian name for what we are perhaps more likely to call “Easter Island”. The European name was coined by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who came across the island on Easter Sunday in the year 1722. Chilean-owned Easter Island is inhabited and is a location that is remarkably distant from neighboring civilization. The nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, which is almost 1300 miles away.

71A Journo’s hook : 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.

A “journo” is a “journalist”.

Down

1D Morse code unit : DAH

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements, e.g., E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

2D Mexican salamander found in mountain lakes : AXOLOTL

An axolotl is a salamander that is native to Central Mexico. The name “axolotl” translates as “water monster”. It’s an ugly little creature …

3D Greek goddess of the harvest : DEMETER

In Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of the harvest. She was the mother of Persephone, who was abducted by Hades and taken to the Underworld. Demeter was upset at the loss of Persephone, and so neglected her responsibilities as goddess of agriculture, causing famine on Earth. Persephone eventually divided her time each year, spending six months on Earth, and six months in the Underworld. As a result, Demeter’s attention to the harvest became a seasonal cycle.

6D Off-rd. rig : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

7D Vicuña kin : LLAMA

The vicuña is a South American camelid that lives in the Andes. It produces very little wool, and that wool can only be collected every three years. So, vicuña wool is very expensive due to the shortage of supply. And, the vicuña is the national animal of Peru.

8D George __ University : MASON

George Mason University was established in 1949 as a northern Virginia extension center of the University of Virginia before gaining its independence in 1972. The school takes its name from the American founding father who authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document that heavily influenced the US Bill of Rights. Today, George Mason University is the largest public research university in the state.

George Mason was a Virginia politician who served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Mason was one of only three delegates who refused to sign the resulting constitution, citing that the document did not establish a “wise and just government”. Mason was also the first delegate to propose that the nation’s seat of government not be located in a state capital.

11D Word often said over prayer hands : NAMASTE

In the Hindu tradition, “namaste” is a respectful greeting meaning “I bow to the divine in you”. The greeting usually includes a slight bow made with the palms of the hand pressed together, pointing upwards in front of the body.

12D Sequins effect : SHIMMER

Sequins are ornamental discs that glisten and are often used to decorate clothing. The term “sequin” was first recorded in the early 1800s. Prior to that date, “sequin” was the French name for a former Italian and Turkish coin. The ornamental discs were so called as they were deemed to resemble gold coins.

15D Grasslike plant : SEDGE

Sedges are a family of plants that resemble grasses and rushes. They are more properly called Cyperaceae.

18D Murchison Falls river : NILE

Murchison Falls (also “Kabalega Falls”) is a waterfall on the White Nile in Uganda. The first Europeans to sight the falls named it for Roderick Murchison, a Scottish geologist who was President of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1954, Ernest Hemingway and his wife Mary crash-landed in the heavy brush just downriver from Murchison Falls. The couple survived a night in the wilderness surrounded by wildlife before being picked up by a tourist boat the following day. The rescue plane they subsequently boarded for medical care also crashed and burned on takeoff, leaving the couple survivors of two consecutive plane crashes in two days.

22D Setting of the animated film “Flushed Away” : SEWER

2006’s “Flushed Away” was the first fully computer-animated feature film produced by Aardman Animations, the British studio known for the stop-motion claymation hit series “Wallace & Gromit”. The movie’s plot centers on a domesticated pet rat named Roddy St. James as he navigates London’s subterranean sewer system. Roddy is voiced by Hugh Jackman, and Kate Winslet voices a scavenger rat named Rita Malone who helps him make his way home.

25D “Black Panther” villain Killmonger : ERIK

Erik Killmonger, born N’Jadaka, is the antagonist in 2018’s blockbuster movie “Black Panther”. He was exiled from the African nation of Wakanda as a child, was raised in Oakland, California, and eventually became a U.S. Navy SEAL. Famously, Killmonger is portrayed by Michael B. Jordan. The actor reported that he had to sit in a sauna for a couple of hours each day after shooting, so that he could remove the 90 silicone molds on his torso that served as tribal markings.

26D Worker who gets around a lot : VALET

A varlet was an attendant or servant, and perhaps a knight’s page. The term “varlet” comes from the Old French “vaslet” meaning “squire, young man”. “Vaslet” also gave us our contemporary word “valet”. The term “varlet” came to be pejorative, describing an unprincipled person.

32D Henley, for one : SHIRT

A Henley shirt is a collarless pullover with short, vertical opening beneath a round neckline, typically fastened with two to five buttons. It takes its name from the English town of Henley-on-Thames, where it was part of the traditional uniform for rowing crews competing in the Royal Regatta.

34D Curing agent for century eggs : LYE

Century eggs (also “hundred-year eggs”) are a traditional Chinese delicacy made by preserving duck, quail, or chicken eggs in an alkaline mixture of clay, wood ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls. Despite the name, the curing process takes only a few weeks to several months. Sounds yummy …

35D Ashram leader, perhaps : SWAMI

A swami is a religious teacher in the Hindu tradition. The word “swami” can also mean “husband” in the Bengali and Malay languages.

“Ashram” is a term used in the Hindu tradition to describe a place of spiritual retreat, one that is typically located in a remote location conducive to spiritual instruction and meditation.

40D Pascal’s wager subject : ATHEISM

Pascal’s wager is a philosophical argument against atheism advanced by 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal. He suggested that a rational person should live as though God exists, because the potential gains of salvation far outweigh the sacrifices of earthly pleasures. In other words, Pacal concluded that choosing atheism is a mathematically illogical bet

41D Spanish expression of shock : DIOS MIO!

“Dios mío!” translates from Spanish as “My God!”

45D Lanyard attachment : ID BADGE

The term “lanyard” describes a rope or line used for securing items aboard a ship. More generally, a lanyard can hold an item like a whistle or knife, and often takes the form of a loop worn around the neck.

46D Freeloaded : LEECHED

The word “freeloading” is American slang that emerged during the late 1930s. It is a direct reference to someone taking the opportunity to “load” their plate at a complimentary buffet. Over time, the use of the term expanded to describe anyone who habitually takes advantage of another’s hospitality, resources, or generosity without offering compensation or effort in return.

55D Wipes brand : LYSOL

Lysol disinfectant gets its name from the Greek word “lysis” (meaning to dissolve or loosen) and the chemical suffix “-ol” (or Latin “oleum” for oil).