PLANT LORE
HOW MANY TIMES?
WORLD CITIES
A NICE SHORT STORY SPOILED
5-SYLLABLE WORDS
SHADES OF BLUE
400
You've heard of their fungal rings, but this supernatural being finds its name in front of flax & foxglove
fairy
400
Mercury:
Just over 4 times each Earth year
revolves around the Sun
400
A Novocastrian is a person from this city-upon-Tyne
Newcastle
400
After a long, unplanned but very restful nap away from the fam in an 1819 tale, he finds he just likes being single again
Rip Van Winkle
400
One who has a compulsive impulse to steal items they don't really need
a kleptomaniac
400
In shades of blue, it follows ultra & aqua
marine
800
Legend says a limb from one of these trees taken from Lebanon & now in Derbyshire fell at the death of Lord Carnarvon
cedar
800
Billy Bob Thornton:
6 times, most recently in October 2014
how many times he's been married
800
This Latvian capital is pretty much at the geographic center of the 3 Baltic states
Riga
800
Take the rest of the day off, Columbo--the murderer gives himself up in this Poe story by offering up a body part
"The Tell-Tale Heart"
800
In order to be one of these people who study the origin of words, you might want a degree in linguistics
an etymologist
800
A lovely shade of blue is named for these objects seen here
robin's eggs
1200
Legend says St. David, patron saint of Wales, had his countrymen wear this veggie in their hats in battle
a leek
1200
Sir John Gielgud:
More than 500 times, one seen here
perform as Hamlet
1200
We are marching to this city where the Peace of Vereeniging was signed in 1902, ending the Boer War
Pretoria 
1200
Why, this "Celebrated" amphibian "weigh five pound" & "belched out a double handful of shot"
the jumping frog of Calaveras County
1200
If you're using metaphors & similes to make a point, you're speaking this way
figuratively
1200
Some call it a bachelor's button, others call it this, also a shade of blue
a cornflower
1600
Kids in the day smashed the horse type of these to try to break them in the hard-hitting game called Conkers
chestnuts
1600
Jimmy Connors & Novak Djokovic just before serving a big point:
As many as 30 times or more
bounce the ball
1600
Fittingly, this capital is the Yukon headquarters of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Whitehorse
1600
In this John Cheever story, Neddy makes his way pool by pool to his own home but like his life, it's dark & empty
"The Swimmer"
1600
Frances Willard, founder of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, was one
a prohibitionist
1600
In his "Great Waves" print, Hokusai used this imported blue pigment first made in Germany
Prussian blue
2000
The wreath named for this 6-letter religious season has 4 candles that symbolize the 4 Sundays before Christmas
Advent
2000
Ohio's Sherrod Brown:
3 times, starting in 2006
be elected to the Senate
2000
About a third of this city's 15 million people live on the Asian side, while the rest live in Europe
Istanbul
2000
Turns out O. Henry's "Ransom of" him ends up costing the kidnappers $250 just to get the dad to take the kid off their hands
"The Ransom of Red Chief"
2000
From the Latin for "beauty", it's an adjective meaning having great beauty
pulchritudinous
2000
In 1999 Pantone named this peaceful 8-letter shade of sky blue its first color of the year & of the millennium