Tag: Dance around crossword clue

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Constructed by: Robin Stears
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): O, It’s the End

Themed answers are common phrases with a letter O added at the end:

• 17A Excellent rendition of a Belafonte hit? : ONE FINE “DAY-O” (“One Fine Day” + O)
• 27A Help a former first lady feel better? : NURSE JACKIE O (“Nurse Jackie” + O)
• 44A Gala for the cops? : PARTY OF FIVE-O (“party of five” + O)
• 59A Give a cool cat a thorough bath? : SCRUB DADDY-O (“Scrub Daddy” + O)

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 8m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Insect-preserving resin : AMBER

Amber’s technical name is “resinite”, reflecting its composition and formation. Amber starts out life as soft sticky tree resin but then under high temperature and pressure from overlying layers of soil, it fossilizes. The sticky resin can trap organisms or other plant matter, and this material can sometimes remain virtually intact inside the amber fossil giving us a unique gift from the past.

14 Coupe de __: classic Cadillac : VILLE

Cadillac’s de Ville series of cars were produced from 1959 to 2005. The model name comes from a French coach building term “coupé de ville”. This phrase described a shortened (coupé), four-wheel carriage used around town (ville).

15 Airport structure : TOWER

The concept of air traffic control (ATC) was introduced to the world in 1920, at Croydon Airport in South London, England.

16 Shot chaser? : … PUT

Shot put, or events like shot put, have been around for millennia, but the first events that truly resemble today’s track and field event had to come with the invention of the cannonball. Soldiers would “put” (throw) cannonballs as far as possible in attempts to outperform each other. Shot put has been in the modern Olympic Games since day-one, with American Robert Garrett winning the gold in the first games in 1896.

17 Excellent rendition of a Belafonte hit? : ONE FINE “DAY-O” (“One Fine Day” + O)

“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” is a traditional folk song from Jamaica. It is sung from the standpoint of dock workers unloading boats on the night shift, so daylight has come, and they want to go home. The most famous version of “Day-O” was recorded by Harry Belafonte, in 1956.

Singer and actor Harry Belafonte was of Caribbean descent, from Jamaica through his mother’s heritage and from Martinique through his father. Born in New York City, Belafonte came to be known as the “King of Calypso”. His most famous recording is 1956’s “The Banana Boat Song”, and I suspect that his most famous movie performance is in Otto Preminger’s “Carmen Jones”.

“One Fine Day” is a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin that was a 1963 hit for the Chiffons. The title of the song was inspired by the famous aria “Un bel di” (“One Fine Day”) from Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly”.

20 Oyster bed? : ICE

A group of oysters is commonly referred to as a “bed”, and oysters can be farmed in man-made beds. The largest body of water producing oysters in the US today is Chesapeake Bay, although the number of beds continues to dwindle due to pollution and overfishing. Back in the 1800s, most of the world’s oysters came from New York Harbor.

21 Shabby : SEEDY

We use the word “seedy” to mean “shabby”. The usage probably arose from the appearance of a flowering plant that has gone to seed.

22 Novelist Louise who created the fictional police inspector Armand Gamache : PENNY

Canadian author Louise Penny writes mystery novels, and is especially known for her series of crime fiction featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. Penny won the prestigious Agatha Award for the Best Novel for four years running, from 2007 through 2010.

26 Bearing : MIEN

One’s mien is one’s bearing or manner. “Mien” shares the same etymological root as our word “demeanor”.

27 Help a former first lady feel better? : NURSE JACKIE O (“Nurse Jackie” + O)

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was born into a privileged family, the daughter of Wall Street stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III. Ms. Bouvier moved in the same social circles as the Kennedy clan, and first met the then-US Representative John Kennedy at a dinner party hosted by mutual friends. Years later, after she saw her husband assassinated and then her brother-in-law (Bobby Kennedy) suffer the same fate, Jackie declared that she feared for the life of her children as they bore the Kennedy name. She left the country, eventually meeting and marrying Aristotle Onassis. Reportedly, she was very satisfied that the Greek shipping magnate was able to provide privacy and security for her children.

“Nurse Jackie” is a comedy-drama series centered on an emergency room nurse at a hospital in New York City. The lead character is played by Edie Falco, who also played Tony Soprano’s wife on “The Sopranos”. I binge-watched “Nurse Jackie” a while back and found it to be a very well-written show …

32 Red-hatted figure in Travelocity ads : GNOME

Travelocity is an online travel agency that started doing business in 1996. The company got a lot of exposure as the sponsor of the US version of the reality show “The Amazing Race”. Travelocity’s mascot, the Roaming Gnome, made quite a few appearances on the show.

In English folklore, the fairy’s anti-hero is the diminutive gnome, an evil ugly character. Although the charastics of gnomes vary in folklore, typically they are described as diminutive humanoids who live underground. Over the centuries, the gnome has become more lovable. We now have garden gnomes, and even the Travelocity Gnome.

35 Group before millennials : X-ERS

The term “Generation X” originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By one definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

38 Push (for) : LOBBY

The verb “to lobby” describes the action of seeking to influence toward a desired action. The term comes from the frequenting of the lobby of a legislature in order to solicit members.

44 Gala for the cops? : PARTY OF FIVE-O (“party of five” + O)

“Five-O” has become urban slang for a police officer, or the police force in general. The term is rooted in the 1970s TV Show “Hawaii Five-O”. Hawaii Five-O was a totally fictional police force created for the television show. The name recognizes that Hawaii was the 50th state to join the union. Steve McGarrett in the original show was played by Jack Lord, and “Danno” Williams was played by James MacArthur.

48 Crunch’s rank : CAP’N

The first Cap’n Crunch commercials aired in 1963, at the time the product line was launched. The Cap’n’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch, would you believe? Crunch’s voice was provided for many years by Daws Butler, the same voice actor who gave us Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Cap’n Crunch is commander of the S.S. Guppy.

49 Some UPS Store customers : SENDERS

The franchised UPS Stores make up the world’s largest network of retail shipping, printing and business service centers. The first such outlets were branded and owned by Mail Boxes Etc., starting in 1980. UPS acquired Mail Boxes Etc. in 2001, and introduced the UPS Store brand in 2003. I’m a big fan …

53 Japanese room divider : SHOJI

A shoji is a door, window or room divider in Japanese architecture. A shoji consists of translucent paper stretched over a wooden frame.

59 Give a cool cat a thorough bath? : SCRUB DADDY-O (“Scrub Daddy” + O)

Scrub Daddy is a company founded in 2012 that is known for its Scrub Daddy sponges that are shaped like a smiley face. The founder, Aaron Krause, appeared on the show “Shark Tank”, looking for funding. He made a deal with one of the sharks, Lori Greiner, to hand over a 20% equity stake for $200,000. Since then, Scrub Daddy has had sales of over $500 million!

64 Foot the bill : TREAT

To foot the bill is to pay it, to pay the total at the “foot” of the bill.

66 Weapon in a scabbard : SABER

A saber (sometimes “sabre”) is a sword with a curved blade and a relatively large hand guard. It is thought that the term originated with the Hungarian verb “szabni” meaning “to cut”.

Down

2 __ words : MINCE

The verb “to mince” can mean “to make light of”, and more specifically “to criticize using polite language”. William Shakespeare used the term in such a sense in a couple of his plays, although the derivative expression “mince words” was first used in print in Benjamin Disraeli’s first novel “Vivian Grey”, published in 1826:

Your Lordship’s heart is very warm in the cause of a party, which, for I will not mince my words, has betrayed you.

So, to mince words is to moderate one’s language while still giving criticism. The related phrase “minced oath” describes a euphemistic phrase used to replace a more profane phrase, e.g. “gosh” for “God”, “heck” for “hell”.

3 Censor : BLEEP

The original “censor” was an officer in ancient Rome who had responsibility for taking the “census”, as well as supervising public morality.

4 Rivendell resident : ELF

Rivendell is a location occupied by Elves in Middle-earth, the fictional realm created by novelist J. R. R. Tolkien.

7 Figure skating great Eldredge : TODD

Todd Eldredge is a retired figure skater who won the men’s singles in the Worlds in 1996.

9 Lightsaber-wielding heroine : REY

Rey is a central character in the “Star Wars” universe who first appeared in 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. She is trained as a Jedi by Luke Skywalker and his sister Princess Leia Organa. In honor of her mentors, she takes the name Rey Skywalker, and eventually becomes “The Last Jedi”. Rey is played by British actress Daisy Ridley.

The famous lightsaber weapons in the “Star Wars” series of films were updated for the seventh episode “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. The newer lightsabers have energy crossguards just above the grip.

10 Torrid Zone region : TROPICS

The Earth has five geographical zones defined by the major circles of latitude:

• The North Frigid Zone lies north of the Arctic Circle
• The North Temperate Zone lies between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer
• The Torrid Zone lies between the two Tropical Circles
• The South Temperate Zone lies between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle
• The South Frigid Zone lies south of the Antarctic Circle

11 Italian mountain range : APENNINES

The Apennines are the chain of mountains running the length of the Italian peninsula. The highest peak of the range is in the central Apennines and is the Corno Grande, which rises to over 9,500 feet.

26 “The Pink Sash” painter Cassatt : MARY

Mary Cassatt was an American painter from Pennsylvania who moved to France at the young age of 22 years, in 1866. By which time she was already studying to become a professional artist. Cassatt became friends with Edgar Degas, who invited her to exhibit with the group called “the Impressionists”, who were garnering a great deal of attention at the time. Cassatt’s reputation as a great artist is perhaps built on an extensive series of paintings of mothers with a child.

“The Pink Sash” is a pastel on paper drawn by Mary Cassatt in about 1898. It shows a young girl in a white dress with a pink sash sitting in a chair. It can be seen at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia.

29 Laura Bush’s brother-in-law : JEB

Jeb Bush is the son of President George H. W. Bush, and the brother of President George W. Bush. I always thought that Jeb was an American nickname for James or Joseph but I must be wrong, because George and Barbara’s son John Ellis Bush is called “Jeb”. A kind blog reader has suggested the name “Jeb” may have been chosen as JEB are the initials of John Ellis Bush.

32 Mushy bowlful : GLOP

Glop is food that’s deemed unappetizing. “Glop” is imitative of the sound of inferior food hitting the plate.

33 French Quarter city, familiarly : NOLA

The oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans is the French Quarter, which is also called the “Vieux Carré (French for “Old Square”). After being founded by the French in 1718 as “La Nouvelle-Orléans”, the city developed around this central square.

38 Sphinx, mostly : LION

The Great Sphinx of Giza is a huge limestone statue of a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. It is the largest monolithic statue in the world. Famously, the Great Sphinx is missing its nose and beard.

42 Keyboard pros : TYPISTS

There is an alternative to the annoying QWERTY keyboard layout. Dr. August Dvorak came up with a much simpler and more efficient layout in 1936. The Dvorak layout is supposed to allow faster typing rates and to reduce repetitive strain injuries.

45 __ Mahal : TAJ

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

46 Weather map line : ISOBAR

An isobar is a line on a weather map connecting points of equal barometric pressure.

47 Peddle : VEND

In its purest sense, a peddler is someone who sells his or her wares on the street or from door to door. The term probably comes from the Latin “pedarius” meaning “one who goes on foot”.

51 __ flush : ROYAL

The poker hand called a royal flush is the highest-ranking hand possible. It consists of a run of 10, jack, queen, king and ace, with all in the same suit.

60 Org. whose HQ is home to the unsolved puzzle sculpture Kryptos : CIA

“Kryptos” is a fascinating sculpture that sits on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The work contains four encrypted messages that were created by the sculptor Jim Sanborn and Ed Scheidt, then Chairman of the CIA Cryptographic Center. What’s interesting is that only three of the messages have been decoded to date.

61 Gru’s long-lost twin brother in “Despicable Me 3” : DRU

“Despicable Me 3” is a 2017 animated movie in the “Despicable Me” series. Despite the title, the film is really the fourth film of the franchise, as the spinoff prequel “Minions” came out in 2015.The main character in the movie is Felonious Gru, voiced by Steve Carell. Carell also plays Gru’s twin brother Dru Gru. Gru and Dru’s mother is voiced by the great Julie Andrews.