Tag: Ones doing the bunny hop or Electric Slide crossword clue

Bill’s time: 11m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Soda sans syrup : SELTZER

The term “seltzer” comes from the village of Selters in Germany. Selters has natural springs of carbonated mineral water that is bottled and sold as Selters water. In English-speaking countries, the name has morphed into “Seltzer” water.

8 British singer/songwriter ___ Parks : ARLO

“Arlo Parks” is the stage name of British singer and poet Anaïs Marinho. Parks seems to have hit the big time early in her career, with her first studio album “Collapsed in Sunbeams” garnering a lot of positive attention.

17 Manhattan thoroughfare named for New York’s Dutch roots : AMSTERDAM AVENUE

Amsterdam Avenue in New York City is also known as Tenth Avenue between 59th and 193rd Streets. Tenth Avenue has existed from 1816, and in 1890 the name was changed by the landowners nearby in order to help give the Upper West Side an old-world feeling, and to help boost property prices.

30 Ones doing the bunny hop or Electric Slide : LINE DANCERS

The bunny hop is a dance similar to the conga, in that the dancers are in a line and holding the hips of the person in front of them. The cycle of steps is:

1. Tap the floor twice with the left foot
2. Tap the floor twice with the right foot
3. One hop forwards
4. One hop backwards
5. Three hops forwards

The Electric Slide is a line dance that purportedly dates back to 1976. It’s a dance often associated with the 1983 song “Electric Boogie” performed by Marcia Griffiths.

40 Mother of Horus : ISIS

Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children. She was the personification of the pharaoh’s power. The name “Isis” translates as “throne”, and she is usually depicted with a headdress shaped like a throne.

Horus was one of the oldest gods in ancient Egyptian religion. Usually, Horus was depicted as a falcon or a man with a falcon head. The Eye of Horus was a common symbol used in ancient Egypt, a symbol of protection and royal power.

53 Flat indication, perhaps : LOW TIRE PRESSURE

Here’s another example of terms that change as we cross the Atlantic Ocean. When talking about tires (“tyres” in Britain and Ireland), a defect can cause a “flat” (“puncture” in Britain and Ireland).

60 AND, OR or NOT, in logic : BOOLEAN OPERATOR

Boolean logic is a logic system used in computers. The system takes its name from the man who devised it in 1854, George Boole. Boolean logic is used by many Internet search engines. Using Boolean logic in a search you can combine words into one search term “like this” by using quotation marks. You can also search for pages that contain “term one” but not “term two” by searching for “term one” – “term two”.

62 Things that make hay? : MEADOWS

Hay is dried grass that is stored for use as animal fodder. Straw consists of the dried stalks of cereal plants, the residue left after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw can also be used as animal fodder, as well as fuel, bedding and thatch.

Down

1 Google, say : SEARCH

The Google search engine was originally called “BackRub” would you believe? The name was eventually changed to “Google”, an intentional misspelling of the word “googol”. A googol is a pretty big number, 10 to the power of 100. That would be the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros.

2 City whose welcome sign features Mark Twain : ELMIRA

Elmira is a city in the southern tier of New York State located close to the border with Pennsylvania. Elmira was also the family home of Olivia Langdon, wife of Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain). Mark Twain and family are buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

“Samuel Langhorne Clemens” was the real name of the author Mark Twain. Twain wasn’t the only pen name used by Clemens. Early in his career he signed some sketches as “Josh”, and signed some humorous letters that he wrote under the name “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass”. The name of Mark Twain came from the days when Clemens was working on riverboats on the Mississippi. A riverboatman would call out “by the mark twain” when measuring the depth of water. This meant that on the sounding line, according to the “mark” on the line, the depth was two (“twain”) fathoms, and so it was safe for the riverboat to proceed.

3 Needs for trick roping : LASSOS

Our English word “lasso” comes from the Spanish “lazo”, and ultimately from the Latin “laqueum” meaning “noose, snare”.

5 Actress Saldana : ZOE

American actress Zoë Saldana played the Na’vi princess in “Avatar”, and Uhura in the 2009 movie “Star Trek” (and sequels). Saldana seems to pick the right movies, as she is the only actress to have three different films in the top twenty at the box office for three consecutive weeks (“Avatar”, “The Losers” and “Death at a Funeral”).

6 “The cautious seldom ___”: Confucius : ERR

The sayings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (anglicized from “K’ung Fu-Tse”) are collected in a work called “The Analects” or “Linyu”. It wasn’t Confucius who wrote down his thoughts though, but rather his pupils, some 40 or so years after his death in 479 BC.

9 Kurosawa film based on “King Lear” : RAN

“Ran” is a 1985 Japanese-French film directed by Akira Kurosawa that is in part based on William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”. The movie tells of an aging warlord who steps down in favor of his three sons. The title translates from Japanese “Chaos” or “Rebellion”.

Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous drama “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.

10 Lucy of “Elementary” : LIU

Lucy Liu is an actress from Queens, New York. Liu’s big break came when she was chosen to play the Ling Woo character in “Ally McBeal”. I liked her in the 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels” but as I am no fan of Quentin Tarantino, I did not enjoy the movie “Kill Bill”. I do enjoy one of Liu’s more recent projects in which she plays Joan Watson, one of the two lead characters in the TV crime drama “Elementary”.

13 It follows the clap of a clapperboard : TAKE

Clapperboards are used in filmmaking as a device to help synchronize audio and video tracks, as well as to keep track of take and scene numbers.

14 Title for a prince : EMIR

An emir is a prince or chieftain, one most notably from the Middle East in Islamic countries. In English, “emir” can also be written variously as “emeer, amir, ameer” (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

21 Buildups in deltas : SILTS

A river delta is a triangular landform at the mouth of a river created by the deposition of sediment. The use of the term “delta” in this context comes from the triangular shape of the Greek letter delta. The Nile Delta in Northern Egypt is one of the world’s largest river deltas, and covers 150 miles of coastline on the Mediterranean. The most famous “delta” in the United States isn’t actually a delta at all. The Mississippi Delta is an alluvial plain that lies 300 miles north of the river’s actual delta, yet it is known as the “Mississippi River Delta”. Very confusing …

27 Thomas Hardy title character : TESS

The full name of Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel is “Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”. When it was originally published, “Tess …” received very mixed reviews, largely because it addressed some difficult sexual themes including rape, and sexual double standards (attitudes towards men vs women). I suppose the most celebrated screen adaptation is Roman Polanski’s “Tess” released in 1979. Polanski apparently made “Tess” because his wife, Sharon Tate, gave him Hardy’s novel as her last act before she was murdered by the Manson family. There is a dedication at the beginning of the movie that just says “To Sharon”.

Thomas Hardy was a novelist and poet from Dorset in England. Hardy thought of himself mainly as a poet, but he is best remembered for some very fine novels, such as “Far from the Madding Crowd”, “The Mayor of Casterbridge”, “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and “Jude the Obscure”.

31 What could represent you in a rebus puzzle? : EWE

A rebus is a puzzle that uses pictures to represent letters and groups of letters. For example, a picture of a “ewe” might represent the letter “U” or the pronoun “you”, a picture of an “oar” might represent the letter “R” or the conjunction “or”, and a picture of an “awl” might represent the word “all”.

32 Like the element osmium : DENSE

Osmium is a metallic element in the platinum family. It is the densest naturally occurring element, and is about twice as dense as lead.

33 Place for a relic : ALTAR

A relic is something that has survived from the past, reminding us of that past. In the world of religion, a relic is an object revered due to its association with a saint or martyr.

36 ___ buco : OSSO

Osso buco is a traditional Italian dish that is typically made with veal shanks that are braised with vegetables and herbs. The name “osso buco” means “bone with a hole” in Italian, which refers to the marrow-filled bone in the center of the veal shank. The marrow is considered a delicacy and is often scooped out and served with the dish.

38 Casual get-together : SESH

Session (abbreviated to “sess.” formally, and “sesh” informally)

44 It’s in your bones : MARROW

One of the main roles of bone marrow is the production of red blood cells, although this process is limited to the heads of the long bones in the body. Marrow also produces the lymphocytes that support the body’s immune system.

48 ___ Barnacle, on whom Molly Bloom of “Ulysses” was based : NORA

Nora Barnacle (what a name!) was the wife of Irish author James Joyce. Nora had her first romantic liaison with Joyce on 16 June 1904, a date that Joyce chose as the setting for his “one-day” novel “Ulysses”. June 16th is celebrated in Ireland, and indeed around the world, as Bloomsday.

49 Some gangbusters : G-MEN

The nickname “G-men” is short for “government men” and refers to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

50 Fuzz : PO-PO

“Po-po” is a slang term meaning “police”.

54 Alley-___ : OOP

An alley-oop is a play in basketball in which one player lobs the ball close to the basket for a teammate who usually scores with a slam dunk.

56 R&B trio whose name is an initialism : TLC

The girl band called TLC is from Atlanta, Georgia. The band’s name comes from the trio’s original members:

• Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins
• Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes
• Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas

57 Tach reading : RPM

The tachometer takes its name from the Greek word “tachos” meaning “speed”. A tachometer in a car measures engine revolutions per minute (rpm).

59 Spanish title: Abbr. : SRA

The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).