Spirit Fingers

Posted by R. Berg on December 20, 2002

In Reply to: Spirit Fingers posted by Woodchuck on December 20, 2002

: : : : : : : : Hi! It's me again with my translating problems:)

: : : : : : : : So here are some sentences which meanings I couldn't figure out:

: : : : : : : : 1) The guy(choreographer) says to cheerleaders: "Follow me or perish, sweater monkeys."
: : : : : : : : What are sweater monkeys?

: : : : : : : : 2)Same guy is watching cheerleaders practicing and says: "I want dangerous! I wanna feel like somebody's gonna snap their neck! Spirit fingers! Give me spirit fingers! Give me spirit!"
: : : : : : : : I can't understand what does "Spirit finger" mean? They are doing something with their fingers, it's like part of (or element of) their dance....

: : : : : : : : 3) A song:
: : : : : : : : I'd bring you flowers everyday
: : : : : : : : Just to roll you in the hay

: : : : : : : : Roll you in the hay???

: : : : : : : : 4)
: : : : : : : : Girl to father: It's so unfair. The first inner-city squad to get a bid, and they can't afford to go?

: : : : : : : : I can understand this, but the next sentence:?
: : : : : : : : Brother to mom: "Look, Mom. Her head is spinning off into another dimension."

: : : : : : : : So maybe you can help
: : : : : : : : thank you!
: : : : : : : : Apunkto

: : : : : : : This really is a difficult job you have.

: : : : : : : 1. "Sweater" is the ordinary word in American English for the knit garment called a "woolly" (woollie?) in England. Special sweaters may be given to cheerleaders to wear when they are off duty or, for instance, to wear over their uniforms while traveling to and from a ball game. These sweaters would be made in the school colors. "Monkey" can be used to insult someone, but it can also be used affectionately. An adult might call a small child who is cute and active "that little monkey." Cheerleaders are agile and athletic, like monkeys. So cheerleaders are "monkeys" who sometimes wear distinctive sweaters. I don't know whether cheerleaders are often called sweater monkeys. If they are not, then the choreographer made up that term.

: : : : : : : 2. Someone else who knows more about cheerleading than I will have to help with "spirit fingers."

: : : : : : : 3. "A roll in the hay" is a slang phrase for an episode of casual sexual activity. The man and woman involved are having sex for fun, not to make a baby or to express their deep and lasting regard for each other. The emphasis is on pleasure. I'm guessing that people in Estonia do this too, and Estonian might have a phrase for it. (The "hay" means a haystack in a barn--from the time when most people lived on farms.)

: : : : : : : 4. He means that his sister is so upset that her mind is going away from reality. To express this idea, he says that her head is becoming detached from her body and flying into another universe or into another form of space. The ordinary space that we live in has three dimensions: up and down, sideways, and near and far. Modern physics says that time is a fourth dimension, but understanding how time is like a dimension of space is difficult for most people; the idea is strange or uncanny. There are also advanced forms of geometry in which space has more than three dimensions. So the brother's words "another dimension" suggest something weird, something strange, something hard to understand.

: : : : : : I concur on nost of this, but a note or two:
: : : : : : "sweater monkey" seems to be an original term invented for this particular work of art ... but calling attention to the sweater is emphasizing the principal contribution cheerleaders make to American sporting events, i.e., providing spectators with breasts to watch.

: : : : : : As to "spirit fingers" ... cheerleading camps (yes, there are such things) use the word "spirit" to exhaustion. There are spirit competitions, a spirit stick as a trophy, etc., etc. This choreographer is taking this lunacy to its extreme by wanting to see enthusiastic fingers as a crucial area of choreography. He would, I am sure, ask for spirit toenails to go one step further.

: : : : : : Are you sure you want to do this to Estonia? First McDonald's, then this movie ... next thing you know, you'll be electing nincompoops and invading Iraq.

: : : : : Okay, if cheerleaders have "spirit" everything, then the relevant sense of the word "spirit" is the sense that means energy, drive, and enthusiasm.

: : : : : In my first set of answers, I forgot to say that "another dimension" is a term from science fiction. A good example occurs in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." After Dave leaves the spaceship, he goes to another dimension where he sees things he doesn't understand and the physical laws of our world don't apply. Time behaves oddly. Dave meets himself as an old man. Later he becomes a fetus. "Another dimension" means a realm that is very different from the regular world.

: : : : Nincompoop?
: : : : You are being so kind, bob--how about.....
: : : : "Hello, Mr. Kahl---this is Mr. Ashcroft--please come with us".
: : : : "But, but, there are the first, fourth, fifth and sixth amendments, no?"
: : : : "All gone, Mr.Kahl"
: : : : All gone!

: : : Ashcroft is evil and dangerous, but we did *not* elect him. We elected the nincompoop who appointed him.

: : That Second Ammendment on Bruce's link underlines Alistair Cooke's oft repeated reminder that there is no Constitutional Right to Bear Arms, only in the Service of a 'Well regulated Militia' - something which disappeared more than 100 years ago. The NRA ingore this bit in the quote they always rely on. As a Briton I know this, but many many Americans that I have spoken to don't seem aware of it.

: I imagine "spirit fingers" may indicate what we used to call "jazz hands". Here are some figure skaters in cheerleader-like blocking demonstrating their jazz hands.

I don't see the fingers, only an "Image hosted by Angelfire" logo.

And the current U.S. president wasn't elected. He was appointed by the Supreme Court.