Birch

 

We are all familiar with the noun birch, meaning birch tree, but birch can also be a verb. That was news to me. It's a historical term that refers to a type of ancient Italian punishment where a bundle of birch branches were used to beat or whip someone. In other words, birch refers to being beaten with a fasces. I neglected to mention earlier that a fasces was typically made from birch branches. I left that bit out to mirror my own experience. The initial reference I found didn’t include that detail. 

Amazingly, the verb birch refers to being beaten with the very item from which the term fascism was derived. Birch isn’t just another clue. It strikes to the very heart of what fascism means, government by force, government by violence, government that is invasive, controlling of freedom of speech and thought; and it confirms the secret of The Secret for Cleveland. 

For your information, there is a quirky and entertaining 2022 film titled Amsterdam that uses this foiled fascist coup as the basis of the movie plot.

All of the unused clues are now accounted for and align with the secret of The Secret—our foiled American coup, our couplet. If you doubt my interpretations, I’ll be the first to admit that I could be wrong. (I’m not!) After all, I did begin this Cleveland adventure expecting a boring and simple puzzle. I was wrong about that! Regardless, it’s been quite a journey, ranging from ancient Greeks, to fence post errors, to foil Fascist plots. Next we get to analyze a puzzle that was “solved” by an excavator.