The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

Aha--I've got the hemispheric advantage now and all I could think of is "octopus garden" but then I see you want a plant, so that's not my guess. My guess is: CORK, uh, CORK TREE (nickname: CORKY). Candidate Stephen Douglass because why not? But he may have been a lawyer not a war hero.

But perhaps there is another MIRACLE PLANT beyond the, um, cork tree. One with plenty of fibre, I would think (celery jumps to mind, but is NOT my guess, wouldn't really want to have a celery arm or leg, I think).

How about corn? You know lots of things can be made out of corn cobs and you would know this if you have ever been to Mitchell, SD, as I have.

Now, if I might take another swing, let me follow another train of thought. Is there a pine tree state? Because if there is then I will guess "pine tree"; the other states all have mottos like vacationland or the old dominion and such. This isn't going to work. (The candidate must also be from this pine tree state: Daniel Webster).

I have high hopes that it's a rubber tree plant.

An early start for Art... and I'm NOT talking about the Wombat! Only 6PM there in Oz and already so tipply? Ah, university politics...

On a similar note, I'd like to guess "hemp" but that's only because I'd really, really, really like to fire on up, or at least have had a Presidential campaign in our history who ran on a pot platform. Sadly, though, the scansion just doesn't play out, so I'll stop bobhoping beyond bobhope.

But Art's onto something, methinks: they are MERRY boys, so perhaps pine is sufficiently Christmasy. But I'd like to get granular on the glabra in question and say it's BLUE SPRUCE. And what the hell, the presidential war hero was GRANT.

No! That's not my story and I'm not sticking to it! What about HICKORY? Jackson?

(It would'a been nice to have had a President Corky on our roster, too.) Oh that reminds me, I have to buy some cork now!

and VP Tootie on rollerskates

At least Art didn't guess the Gum Tree.

Put that cork back in the bottle. And it's not a conifer of any kind, so pines, spruces and firs are all out of the running.

Oh, and while Hickory/Jackson is a damned fine guess, it's sadly wrong.

And James, let me dash your hopes. Whoops, there goes another Friday Quiz guess.

Well, if bootsy won't, I'll guess hemp. It's miracle fibers can apparently be made into trousers, so why not limbs? It was also cultivated (in supposedly non-psychoactive form) in colonial America.
With high hopes, I'll also guess William Henry Harrison.

Cotton/Polk

New from Nabisco:

Wheat 'n' Taylor

It WAS Harrison.

Knowledge of his biography will lead the seeker, inevitably, to the glorious plant.

potato

A clue -- the last word blanked out in the above-quoted verse is "State."

Alec, what is Hemlock?

Elm?

Oak?

Magnolia.

Buckeye.

Buckeye plant.

Nutmeg.

Makes good cabin wood.

I'm back. And I already knew the word was "state". Let's see, WHH; he doesn't have something to do with "Tippecanoe and Tyler too", does he? If so, maybe Birch (is there a birch tree state?).

Could be Tippi (as in Tippi Hedren) as a nickname but I'd be surprised if this reached 4% of your US pop. Where's Scott and his crazy name-popularity generator?

Boxjam gets it -- the Buckeye; Harrison's campaign song is credited (by the Ohio Forestry Department, at least) with inspiring the nick "Buckeyes" for Ohioans.

Credit for this week's quiz question goes to Dr. Claire, who absolutely and categorically refuses any nom de wombat. She is not in any personal way connected with Ohio State athletics, nor with any 19th century presidential campaigns.

Thanks for playing, everybody. Art, next week, we'll try to get in something about one of Japan's 47 prefectures...

Oh, and for more info:

http://www.ohiodnr.com/forestry/education/buckeyetrees2.htm

Congrats, Boxjam, on another victory.

All those guesses, and not a single mention of the majestic larch? The larch.

Yes, congrats boxjam. But the bonus? I get the bonus, right? Every week I crawl to the altar of knowledge and get quizzed on the cube root of Henry the Eighth or equally abstruse arcana, so when I hit the bonus I want it going in the gradebook.
That bonus is mine, dadgummit.

Consider yourself bonused, my friend. Everyone, Jonathan gets the bonus this week, and he doesn't have to share.

As for the larch: trying to introduce Theresa to the joys of Monty Python by showing her the episode of Flying Circus that began with that bit prompted about 2.5 minutes of stony silence, followed by the observation that she loved me anyway.

And we love her for it.
Should have opened with Mr. Neutron.

{My own bonus!}