Tag: Hip-hop subgenre pioneered by Gucci Mane crossword clue

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Hip-hop subgenre pioneered by Gucci Mane : TRAP

Trap is a genre of hip hop music that originated in the early 21st century in the southern US. The name “trap” is a slang word used in Atlanta for a house used to sell drugs.

14 Like the deities Vishnu and Brahma : HINDU

Vishnu is one of the main deities in the Hindu tradition, and is one of the Trimurti (trinity) along with Brahma and Shiva. Vishnu is usually depicted as having four arms and pale blue skin.

17 Face-off in a 2004 science fiction film : ALIEN VS PREDATOR

“Alien vs. Predator” is a whole franchise of movies and video games built around a 2004 film. The movie itself had its roots in the earlier features “Alien” (excellent!) and “Predator” (awful!).

21 Dah’s counterpart, in Morse code : DIT

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”.

24 Some office plants : FERNS

Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

26 Face-off in a 2021 monster film : GODZILLA VS KONG

In the 2021 monster film “Godzilla vs. Kong”, [spoiler alert!] the combatants declare a truce and go their separate ways. Well, that’s what I just read …

32 Sky-blue : AZURE

The term “azure” came into English from Persian via Old French. The French word “l’azur” was taken from the Persian name for a place in northeastern Afghanistan called “Lazhward” which was the main source of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. The stone has a vivid blue color, and “azure” has been describing this color since the 14th century.

38 Inner circle : COTERIE

A coterie is a small group of friends who hang out together, and often share a common interest. The term comes to us from French, in which language a coterie was an organization of peasants all of whom held land owned by the same feudal lord.

44 With 23-Across, period that began in January 2009 : OBAMA … 23 See [44-Across : … ERA]

When Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the US in January 2009, the ceremony was attended by more people than had ever attended any event in the nation’s capital. Famously, President-Elect Obama strayed slightly from the required wording of the oath of office, and so he had to be sworn in again the next day.

45 Face-off in a 1979 courtroom drama film : KRAMER VS KRAMER

“Kramer vs. Kramer” is a 1979 film based on a Avery Corman novel. The movie stars Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman as a couple getting a divorce, and the impact that the breakup has on their young son.

49 Chekhov’s “Uncle ___” : VANYA

Anton Chekhov’s play “Uncle Vanya” was published in 1897. It is not really an “original” work, in the sense that it is a reworking of a play he wrote and published a decade earlier called “The Wood Demon”.

54 Benchmark: Abbr. : STD

A benchmark is something that serves as a standard used to measure others. The original benchmark was a point of reference used by surveyors. Literally, a benchmark was an angle-iron driven into the ground as a support (or “bench”) for a leveling instrument.

62 Like Iran vis-à-vis Iraq : EAST

The Iran-Iraq border extends for just under 1,000 miles. The northern end of the boundary is the tripoint where the borders of Iran, Iraq and Turkey meet. The southern end is the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab river that empties into the Persian Gulf.

63 What grows on Pinocchio : NOSE

“The Adventures of Pinocchio” is an 1883 children’s novel by Carlo Collodi. It is all about an animated puppet named Pinocchio and Geppetto, his poor woodcarver father. Pinocchio is prone to telling lies, the stress of which causes his short nose to become longer.

65 Renaissance instrument : LUTE

The Renaissance is the period in European history that bridges the Dark Ages and the Modern Era. “Renaissance” is French for “rebirth”, and is a term reflecting the rebirth of interest in the learnings from ancient Greece and ancient Rome.

66 Contacted on Twitter or Instagram, informally : DM’ED

Direct message (DM)

Down

1 Spiced tea : CHAI

Chai is a drink made from spiced black tea, honey and milk, with “chai” being the Hindi word for “tea”. We often called tea “a cup of char” growing up in Ireland, with “char” being our slang word for tea, derived from “chai”.

2 Locale for Jack and Jill : HILL

The “Jack and Jill” nursery rhyme dates back at least to the 1700s:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

3 Indigo plant : ANIL

“Anil” is another name for the indigo plant, as well as the name of the blue indigo dye that is obtained from it. The color of anil is relatively close to navy blue. The main coloring agent in indigo dye is a crystalline powder called indigotin.

The name of the color “indigo” ultimately comes from the Greek “indikon” meaning “blue dye from India”.

4 Keats specialty : ODE

English poet John Keats died in Rome in 1821, and is buried there in the Protestant Cemetery. His last wish was that his grave be marked with a tombstone bearing just the words “”Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water”, and no name nor a date. Keats’ friends honored his request to some extent, as the words were included on the stone and no name is given. The full epitaph reads:

This Grave
contains all that was Mortal
of a
Young English Poet
Who
on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart
at the Malicious Power of his Enemies
Desired
these Words to be
engraven on his Tomb Stone:
Here lies One
Whose Name was writ in Water.
24 February 1821

5 Like some shriveled tomatoes : SUN-DRIED

Tomatoes can be placed in the sun for 4-10 days in order to dry out. They lose about 90% of their weight to become “sun-dried” tomatoes.

11 Flatbread from India : ROTI

In an Indian restaurant, naan bread is very popular. Roti is an unleavened cousin of naan.

12 Singer Tori : AMOS

Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer. She started playing the piano at two years old, and was composing piano pieces by age five. Amos was playing in piano bars (chaperoned by her father) when she was 14. I’m going to have to find some of her music …

13 Wavy do : PERM

“Perm” is the common name given to a permanent wave, a chemical or thermal treatment of hair to produce waves or curls.

19 Showy basket : DUNK

In basketball, a player makes a slam dunk by jumping up and powering the ball downward into the basket with his or her hands over the rim. The term “slam dunk” was coined by Chick Hearn, an announcer for the L.A. Lakers. The NBA even holds an annual Slam Dunk Contest.

23 Poet Pound : EZRA

Ezra Pound was an American poet who spent much of his life wandering the world, and spending years in London, Paris, and Italy. In Italy, Pound’s work and sympathies for Mussolini’s regime led to his arrest at the end of the war. His major work was the epic, albeit incomplete, “The Cantos”. This epic poem is divided into 120 sections, each known as a canto.

27 Missouri’s ___ Mountains : OZARK

The Ozark Mountains aren’t really mountains geographically speaking, and so the Ozarks are better described by the alternate name, the Ozark Plateau. It’s not really certain how the Ozarks got their name, but my favorite theory is that “Ozarks” is the phonetic spelling of “aux Arks”, short for “of Arkansas” in French.

28 Artist Albrecht of the German Renaissance : DURER

Albrecht (also “Albert”) Dürer was a German artist who was noted for his etchings and engravings as well as for his paintings.

30 Google ___ Viewer (tool for charting word frequency over time) : NGRAM

Google’s Ngram Viewer searches for words or phrases and charts the frequency of their usage in print media. The database used for the search comprises sources printed between the years 1500 and 2008.

35 Caboose : REAR

The word “caboose” originally came from Middle Dutch and was the word for a ship’s galley. When the last car in a train in North America was given a stove for the comfort of the crew, it took on the name “caboose”. The term has also become slang for a person’s backside.

39 Razed : TORN DOWN

To raze (“rase”, in UK English) is to level to the ground. I’ve always thought it a little quirky that “raise”, a homophone of “raze”, means “build up”.

40 Website that says “Shop by category” : EBAY

eBay was founded in 1995 as AuctionWeb. One of the first items purchased was a broken laser pointer, for $14.83. The buyer was a collector of broken laser pointers …

43 Utility org. created in F.D.R.’s New Deal : TVA

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has to be one of America’s great success stories when it comes to economic development. Created in 1933, the TVA spearheaded economic development in the Tennessee Valley at the height of the Great Depression. Central to the success was the federally-funded construction of flood-control and electricity-generation facilities.

48 Singer Perry : KATY

Katy Perry is an American singer who grew up listening to and singing gospel music, as she was the daughter of two Christian pastors. In fact, her first musical release was a gospel album in 2001. She has branched out since then. Her first successful single was “Ur so Gay”, followed by “I Kissed A Girl”. She was married (only for a year) to the British comedian Russell Brand, until 2012.

51 One of Adam’s sons : ABEL

In the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis, Cain murders his brother Abel. Subsequently, God asks Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain replies, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

52 German woman’s title : FRAU

In German, a “Herr” (Mr.) is married to a “Frau” (Mrs.), and they live together in a “Haus” (house).

53 Suffix with Oktober : -FEST

Oktoberfest is a 16-day beer festival in Munich that actually starts in September. About six million people attend every year, making it the largest fair in the world. I’ve attended twice, and it really is a remarkable party …

55 Crockpot dish : STEW

We often use the term “crockpot” as an alternative for “slow cooker”. The generic term comes from the trademark “Crock-Pot”, which is now owned by Sunbeam products.

56 Birds that symbolize wisdom : OWLS

The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations. Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.

59 “Ground control to Major ___ …” : TOM

In early 1969, the struggling David Bowie recorded a promotional film in an attempt to reach a wider audience. The film called “Love You Till Tuesday” featured seven of Bowie’s songs in what amounted to an extended music video, with one of the tracks being “Space Oddity”. Somebody smart put two and two together later in the year and decided that a fresh version of “Space Oddity” should be released, to coincide with the Apollo moon landings. Sure enough, the BBC snagged the track for their coverage of the landings and gave Bowie huge audiences. And the song still gets an awful lot of air time on the small screen. Famously, Bowie turned down the honor of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000. The British government tried again in 2003, offering a knighthood, but Bowie stuck to his guns and refused that honor too. Bowie did however accept the French title of Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1999.