NYT Crossword, 0914

This was the hardest puzzle I've done in some time, but I was excited to finally figure out the puzzle theme all on my own - it was one of those 'put multiple letters in one square' things (in this case it was month abbreviations). I missed four squares, though. But halfway through I thought I would never finish it.


Native tongue of R&B singer Rihanna = BAJAN (I had to guess 'Fijan' - I know, dumb, but I had no clue. You can probably guess how much I like R&B, and based on the photos in Wikipedia, she dresses like a slut. So, double whammy for her! And one for me on the crossword puzzle :( Oh, and Bajan is short for Barbadian Creole).

Ear part = COB (OK, duh, after seeing it. I had 'ceb' because I got the down wrong, and I just wasn't thinking corn here.)

Prefix with sphere = ATMO (Again, the bad down gave me ATTO. I figured it was some funky geometry or metric term. I remain unconvinced that atmo- is really a 'prefix'. It is really just the first half of a compound word comprised of one Greek word (atmos = vapor) and one Latin word (sphere = well, sphere).)

Proust title character = SWANN (I'm just not very enamoured of modern literature. Still, I should probably know the titles of modern literary works at least. I have heard of his most famous work, translated either as In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past.)

Sioux tribe member = OTO (How convenient, you can spell it with an -e or not. Crossworders have to love that! And they're related to the Winnebago - that's gotta be good for a clue sometime.)

State capital on the Colorado River = AUSTIN (Lame!!! I grew up in Arizona. I know where the Colorado River is. These Texans need to get their own name for a river that never even leaves Texas, and leave the name for the one which actually travels through Colorado. Sheesh! There are, in fact, Colorado Rivers in Colorado, Texas, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Chile.)

Langston Hughes poem = ITOO (As you can probably imagine, based on many of my other comments, I'm not into Langston Hughes poetry. I'm not really into any poetry besides Homer, but the older the poem, the more interested I may become. So, ol' Lanny H. here has a bit of time before getting on my interest list.)

___ Taylor, co-host of "Make Me a Supermodel" = NIKI (If I did watch TV, it certainly wouldn't be this kind of drivel! I actually guessed her name - how many names are there for your basic run-of-the-mill TV slut?)

Boils down = DECOCTS (You learn a new word everyday.)

Symptom of catarrh = HACK (OK, you learn a couple of new words every day.)

Samuel L. Jackson's character in "Pulp Fiction" = JULES (Clearly, this puzzle-maker and I have vastly different interests and tastes. No wonder it was so hard. I guess you can't always play a cool character like Mace Windu. Here's a tasty little titbit, though: 'According to the Guiness Book of World Records 2009 (released on 17th September 2008) he is the world's highest grossing actor, having earned $7.42 billion in 68 films.')

Wig = PERUKE (Boy, the new words just keep rolling in... and I'm only at the end of the acrosses.)

Basic travel path = ATOB (I kept asking, what the heck is a 'tob' or an 'atob'. Doh! A to B!! I often get stumped on the similar ABC in answer to a clue like 'Epitome of simplicity' or some such.)

First name in gossip = RONA (I'm not even interested in making a snide comment on this one. Moving on...)

Small African antelope = ORIBI (I don't think this guy is even in my National Geographic mammal books. But it's in Wikipedia!)

Polite disclaimer = NODEAR (How is this a 'disclaimer'? It's a stretch for the secondary definition on Webster's.)

White wine from Verona = SOAVE (I know where Verona is, does that count for anything?)

Design feature of many a viaduct = ARCH (I am happy to see that this word 'viaduct' is a modern derivation from the old 'aqueduct'. If they had just said 'aqueduct', I would have gotten it much more quickly.)