NYT Crossword, 1012

This will probably be my last crossword post. If you've been reading my posts for a while this will probably come as no surprise. My regular complaints about the puzzle have crystallized into some conclusions: These puzzle makers live in a different world than I do, which is fine, except that I'm not so interested in joining their world. It is a world that ranges too widely - from high and classic culture to modern fringe and pop culture - whatever it takes to fill in the blanks. Then their cluing becomes annoying because their real audience needs a challenge. That's fine, too - I'm just not interested in their project it seems. It takes me too long to do these puzzles, time that could be better spent on my own project. I've done these puzzles because of the learning experience, but I'm finding that what I am learning is not what I most want to learn, and the inefficiency entailed in learning some of this drivel is clearly not in my best interest. So, after today... adieu NYT Crossword Puzzle. I won't say it hasn't had its moments...

Georges who wrote "Life: A User's Manual" = PEREC (Apparently, he once wrote a novel without using a single 'e' - that's cool!)

Conductor ____ -Pekka Salonen = ESA (See: this in the same puzzle with Dr. Dre and Lil' Kim)

Worked (up) = HET (Just what I thought: hokey slang words - het means heat as in heated up)

Study of natural animal behavior patterns = ETHOLOGY (I never would guess that there was a word for this)

Lepidopterous movie monster = MOTHRA (I kept racking my brain for a "butterfly beast")

Reagan adviser Nofziger = LYN (His name was Franklyn, and he chose to go by 'Lyn"? And he's a guy?? What a kook - the short form of Franklyn (notice the lack of orthographic awareness in his parents) is Frank!! Duh! (or Fran if you're feeling a little femmy.))

The award for lamest clue in the puzzle:
Numbers, at times = DENTISTS (get it - one who 'numbs' - *GROAN*)

Runner-up:
Ceylon's capital? = SOFT C (No - it's Colombo. I hate these little playful clues)

NYT Crossword, 1005

This one was a killer puzzle. There's too much I didn't know to list it all, so I'll just hit the highlights:

• Seafood dishes = PAELLAS (Doesn't look that appetizing to me.)
• Lid attachment = LASH (?? - it must be referring to the eyelid)
• What "matar" means on an Indian menu = PEAS (Not a big Indian food fan - I don't curry the favor of curry.)
• Great Trek trekker = BOER (This one rang a bell once I got it.)
• Bygone P.M. with a palindromic name = UNU (U Nu, Who knew?)
• "Ville d'Avray" painter = COROT (Nothing stellar, but his stuff looks nice.)
• Home of the Cadillac Ranch = AMARILLO (You never know what Route 66 will throw at you.)
• Thomas Gray and others = ELEGISTS (He even has his own website!)
• Sport for rikishi = SUMO (Fat guys, uncomfortable underwear... what else can you say?)
• "Killer" program = APP (Nerd lingo that even I don't know!)
• Small birds, in British lingo = TOMTITS (short for Tom titmouse)
• Forerunner of the KGB = OGPU (The USSR was so good with acronyms, almost rivaled the USA)

Like I said... tons of stuff could be here, but this is the best of the lot.

NYT Crossword, 0928

I was going along so well, that I was really upset with myself for not being able to finish. It was like when you're cruising down the highway making great time and then whammo! road construction not only eats up all your gained time but adds on another hour. Ugh! I did put lots of question marks next to the clues - so let's see what kind of stretch they really were.

The Question marks:

• X out = OMIT (Now, I understand omit to be a passive form of forgetting, whereas to X something out suggests actively excluding. I suppose the definition is broad enough to encompass general non-inclusion, but I still think of this as synonymous with forgetting not excluding).
• Altercation = SETTO (OK, there was actually an entry for 'set to' and it does fit altercation, so I guess I have to give this one to the puzzler.)
• Battery part = TEST (I guess this is referring to a 'battery of tests', whereas I kept looking for some word shorter than anode or cathode. A little hokey in my opinion.)
• A large number = RAFTS (OK, so I was right - no one uses this anymore. I found the appropriate definitinon at Online Etymology.)
• Score just before victory, maybe = ADIN (Presumably 'ad in' - but I've never heard of this. Ah . . . it's a tennis term, short for 'advantage in'. Not a big tennis guy.)

Regular stuff:

• City near tel Aviv = LOD
• Vinegar: prefix = ACETO (I'm not convinced this is actually a 'prefix', but it is used with vinegar)
• Orbital point = APSIS (I so wanted 'focus', but this is more correct for the clue, so the puzzler wins.)
• W.W. II gun = STEN (I guess right but now I know it is a submachine gun of British make.)
• A leveret is a young one = HARE (This is the kind of educational stuff I'm looking for in a crossword.)
• Like some eggs or cloth = SHIRRED (Rex Parker didn't like this one, but it seems good, if obscure, to me.)
• City near Milan = LODI
• St. Louis' ______ Bridge = EADS (I hate these localized clues, and I think I've even driven on this bridge.)
• Rusty on the diamond = STAUB (Sounded vaguely familiar once I figured it out, a hold over from my baseball crazy youth, I suppose.)
• Utah's lily = SEGO (I've lived in Utah, but this one got me - it's not sage, huh?)
• Wahine's dance = HULA (I found you a video for this one.)
• Hops kiln = OAST
• Whine = PULE (I hate whiners!)

P.S.
The best clue was: Kind of difference, oxymoronically = SAME

P.P.S.
Second week in row: Mormons, initially = LDS

NYT Crossword, 0921

This was a hard puzzle, made so in part because of a few quirks of the puzzle. It seemed that there was an inordinate amount of proper names in this puzzle and some really tricky, as in 'trick', clues. I'm also just not a fan of 'common phrasal' answers of which there were several (like 'on a tear', 'end it', 'cash in', 'CD rates', 'true to' etc. OK, I didn't even get close to finishing this on my own.

The thematic answers are particularly educational this time, so I'll got through them. The theme was 'It's a Mystery', and 109-Across provided a helpful clue: Ones in charge of a case . . . or a literal hint to the eight other longest answers in this puzzle = LEAD DETECTIVES:

• School in Madison, NJ = DREW UNIVERSITY (reference = Nancy Drew. Family inside joke: "...A horrible Gorilla face!")
• "The Divine Comedy." for Dante = MAGNUM OPUS (reference = Magnum PI. We used to watch this pretty faithfully when I was a kid.)
• Don't believe it = FISH STORY (reference = Detective Phil Fish. From Barney Miller, played by Abe Vigoda. Got his own spin-off show for a while.)
  
• Track-and-field event = HAMMER THROW (reference = Mike Hammer. Crime novels by Mickey Spillane - I think I saw a TV version once, with Stacey Keach.)
• Dropped off = FELL ASLEEP (reference = Dr. Gideon Fell. Crime novels by John Dickson Carr. The name 'Dr. Fell' sounds familiar, but it's not ringing any concrete bells.)
• Pantry array = MASON JARS (reference = Perry Mason. This may have started out as novels, but I'm sure what most people remember is the TV show. Raymond Burry goodness.)
• Beloved figure in England = QUEEN MOTHER (reference = Ellery Queen. Eveyone who likes mystery stories has heard of him, but have they read him?)
• Card game played to 61 = SPADE CASINO (reference = Sam Spade. I'm sure everyone who reads or hears this name thinks Humphrey Bogart, not Dashiell Hammett.)

Other goodies in the puzzle:

• Poet whose last words were "Of course [God] will forgive me; that's his business." = HEINE
• ____ rancheros = HUEVOS (I know Latin and French, but not Spanish. And I don't eat breakfast at Mexican restaurants.)
• Classic theater name = RIALTO (I'm assuming it is referring to the one in L.A. But there is also one in Tucson.)
• Turned right = GEED (Say what? I noticed that the dictionary says this is of uncertain origin. Comforting.)
• "On Language" columnist = SAFIRE (How appropriate for the NYT crossword. This looks pretty interesting. Maybe I'll have to start reading this column.)
• City with the world's first telehone directory (1878) = NEW HAVEN (Useful to know for trivia games I guess.)
• The shakes = DTS (Now I know why I didn't know this.)
• Novelist who wrote "The Gravedigger's Daughter" = OATES
• Italy's Reggia di ___ (royal palace) = CASERTA (Ok, my Italian's not so good either. And I kept wanting something like 'palacio'. But in the end was rather historical, so I should have known it.)
• Quaint letter opener = TOSIR (Get it? 'To Sir.' I didn't. What kind of idiot opens a letter this way? I was looking for something akin to a pen knife.)
• Extremely pleasing, in slang = FABU (Who actually says this? That is just dumb!)
• Yemeni money = RIAL (I suppose every country has to have theirs. And dollar or pound was already used. Of course, this is just a version of the old Spanish real, I believe. And it is also used in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Brazil, and Cambodia. The Brazil I can understand.)
• Loose overcoat = RAGLAN (The coat is described by the particular style of its sleeve. I found some pictures.)
• Letters on a brandy bottle = VSO (Means 'very superior old')
• Stewpots = OLLAS

Lastly, there is a fine line between clever and stupid. I'll let you be the judge (I have my own opinion about each - some clever, some stupid). Are these clever clues or stupid? Can you guess which one(s) I found stupid?

• Had work looming? = WOVE
• French subjects? = TENSES
• Cover many subjects? = REIGN

And a P.S. nod to:

The Mormons, initially = LDS

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.)

NYT, 0907

Once again, I messed up three squares, and two of them I really should have gotten.

The unknown:

Bass _____ = ALE (Not being a drinker myself....)

Indians play it = RAGA (Not an instrument, but to certain kinds of melodies. The clue seems meant to be overly obscure.)

Pollster Roper = ELMO (Apparently, annoying fuzzy puppets aren't the only place you'll find this name.)

Analyze = ASSAY (I always think of this word in terms of definitions 5 & 6, but there it is, def. #1)

"Who _____?" (song from Les Miz) = AMI (Wasn't that hard to figure out, since this is a common enough answer in crosswords, but what kind of idiot abbreviates Les Miserables to "Les Miz" - ugh! I thought it was some dumb band out there making a play on the name.)

Commentator Myers = DEEDEE (I thought DEEDEL didn't look right)

____ Thomas, the Soul Queen of New Orleans = IRMA (Catchy title, but soul music is definitely not my thing!)

Michael of "Caddyshack" = OKEEFE (I can just tell that this movie must be dumb, so I have never seen fit to waste the time to see it - watching paint dry might prove more worthwhile, frankly.)

Control surface on a plane's wing = ELEVON (Now there I feel like I have learned something useful.)

Lady of Brazil = SENHORA (I guess the Portuguese can't be the same as Spanish.)

Michigan College = ALMA (At least it's not the University of Michigan.)

Actor Jason of the Harry Potter films = ISAACS (Not having the slightest interst in seeing these... apparently he plays Lucius Malfoy)

"All _____" (Tomlin film) = OFME (80s comedy - enough said)

Musical matchmaker = YENTE (From Fiddler on the Roof - Great musical, but I couldn't remember her name.)


The questionable:

All: Prefix = OMN (Although technically the root of the Latin word omnis is 'omn', in English we use omni-, as in omnidirectional, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, omnibus, etc. So, 'omn' is not a prefix to anything.)

You might not be able to stand this = PAT (From the common phrase 'stand pat'. Sorry - you lose! This is just a bad clue.)

Isolate = ENISLE (Ok, it is a word (I had my doubts), but it is a dumb word!)

Tube lineup = SKED (Short for Schedule? No. The short form would be 'sched.' You can't just make stuff up in crosswords!!!)

NYT Crossword, 0824

This was a pretty doable puzzle, although in the end I did miss one square (the M):

24A Teensy bit = ATOM
19D Subgenre of punk rock = EMO

I think the across is a little iffy, and although I have listend to some punk rock in my day, I have never heard of emo, so I apparently never experienced the 'emotive hardcore' scene of punk rock (a 90s thing, whereas my punk exposure is more 80s).

Most of the puzzle was pretty straightforward, but there were a few other questionable clues, along with the regular stuff I have never heard of.

• Agent Gold of "Entourage" = ARI (HBO show. The guy playing this part was Cupid from the old, and odd, TV show of the same name. I saw a few episodes of that, but I've never even heard of this show - just as well from what I can tell from the YouTube clips.)
• _____ in cat" = CAS (You know, the old 'C as in Cat'. This is just plain dumb. The blank is too misleading in my opinion. Maybe if the blank encompassed the 'in', or better: 'C ____ cat' = ASIN. That I could agree with.)
• Sequoyah, for one = CHEROKEE (I kept trying to make this into a Redwood tree, but I guess that would be sequoia.)
• "____ et manus" (M.I.T.'s motto) = MENS (I knew this one, I just wanted to highlight it because it is so appropriate for that engineering school (you don't always see that in school mottos): 'mind and hand'. There were a couple of Latin clues in this puzzle, which I appreciated.)
• Some corner stores = BODEGAS (Ah, that's what you call those little Mexican shops you see. I think this is a bad clue, though. Unless you live in some area where these are prominent, how are you going to know this? Maybe if they added something to indicate the Hispanic origins of the word.)
• Author mentioned in the Beatles' "I am the Walrus" = POE (Common crossword answer, but I've never seen this clued this way. I am only vaguely familiar with this song, so I had no idea that it referenced Poe. After reading the lyrics and a little about the background to the song, I can surely say that I won't be becoming any more familiar with this tripe - once you're famous musicians you sure can get away with a lot of crap in your lyrics.)
• Trillionth: prefix = PICO (I can just never keep these small SI prefixes straight. This one lies between nano- and femto-)
• "Death in Venice" and "Of Mice and Men" = NOVELLAS (My wife got this one. I didn't realize that "Of Mice and Men" was a novella and not just a plain novel. Of course, I'm not a big fan of Steinbeck anyway.)
• Experimented too much? = ODED (You mean the clue for this wasn't 'Just wrote a poem'? The problem with crosswords sometimes is their lack of punctuation or capitalization. I didn't even realize this was the shortened form of 'overdosed' until I looked up ODed in the dictionary. It was there, so I guess this clue was legit.)
• Court figure = TRIER (Say what? I guess I would be more miffed if the clue was "one who attempts", but better would have been 'German name for Treves'. Still, his definition was in the dictionary.)
• "Broom-___" = HILDA (This is a comic strip with an obvious play on the name Brunhilde.)
• Commerce treaty starting in 1947 = GATT (I had heard of this before, and got it in the puzzle, but I wanted to read a little more about it. It stands for General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.)
• "Oh, pooh!" = TISH (This puzzle had a bunch of these lame expression words (AHH, PUHLEASE, ERS, etc.). I think a better cue would have been something about the Hasidic celebration. Not that I would have gotten that either.)
• "Stupidest thing I ever heard!" = PUHLEASE (see previous note).
• Ottoman bigshot = AGA (This one is a regular crossword word, but I can never seem to remember it. What I never see is this used as the acronym for American Gas Association, American Gastroenterological Association, Association of Government Accountants, American Go Association, Arizona Golf Association, etc. (those two A's can make any American ___ Association, or even any Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas or Arizona Assocation). But instead we always get the Turkish title clue.)
• Bygone TV control: Abbr. = HOR (As opposed to VERT. Don't new fangled TVs have this adjustment?)
• "A Little Princess" heroine and others = SARAS (Never read this one.)
• "____ Wedding," Alan Alda film = BETSYS (You know, that guy never did anything good outside of MASH - one hit wonder kind of actor. Maybe Hawkeye was just like him, so it was easy. Or maybe he just had better writers on that show. Ever seen Sweet Liberty? Horrible! But he's still going...)
• "___ cried" (1962 hit) = SHE (Who the heck are Jay and the Americans? This was a 'hit'???)
• Black-eyed legume = COWPEA (No comment.)
• Comic Charles Nelson ____ = REILLY (It probably says it all that the clue had to provide 2 of his 3 names for us to get it. This guy must not have been that funny, since I've never heard of him :) )
• Bide-____ = AWEE (OK, after some Internet searching, I still don't really know what this is referring to. Is it the pet adoption people? Is it the Curtis Strange designed municipal golf course? Is it the California motel? Who knows (who cares?)?)
• Many-armed Hindu goddess = KALI (There are so many, how to keep track of them? My favorite is the elephant-head one. Isn't this the same cult as in the Beatles HELP!?) )
• Old actresses Claire and Balin = INAS (Now there's a name no one uses any more. Maybe it will make a comeback, once we're done with all these McKenzies, Madisons, and Brittanies.)

NYT Crossword, 0817

I have to say that I could not have gotten as close as I did (7 wrong squares) without the help of my wife. I liked the puzzle theme (movie titles minus the last letter), but found some of the puzzle (especially the top right corner) quite difficult. I've noticed that some of the crossword bloggers out there really like clever pop culture clues. I can't stand them. Rappers, TV actors, etc. ought to be banned from good puzzles. Apparently, from what I can tell, I'm part of one faction in the crossword world, but there is an opposing group who love the pop culture crap. I was glad to see that many of the toughies were challenging for Rex Parker as well.

Issues:
Another crossword pet peeve of mine: clues that could never be gotten until you fill in the crosswords - I think a good clue should be gettable just from the clue itself. Hence, I'm always annoyed by clues like "Direction", which could be ENE, ESE, WSW, ESE, NNE, etc... Today's irksome clues: 51A English 8-Down; 8D Latin 51-Across. Ugh!

26A Many a Turk = ANATOLIAN (OK, sure Turkey is mainly based in Anatolia, although Istanbul is not, and there are Turkish peoples scattered across other Central Asian countries, but Anatolian really should be used only for the original inhabitants of Anatolia, like the Hittites; even though they have lived in Anatolia for more than a millennium, I still think of Turks as Central Asian peoples. OK, perhaps the ancient historian is over thinking this one...)

The unknown:

• It surrounds a lens = UVEA (I kept wanting something related to a camera.)
• Oscar and Tony winner Mercedes = RUEHL (I haven't really seen anything that she's done.)
• Movie Adaptation of "L.A. Law"? = CALIFORNIA SUIT (This was one of the theme clues, but I had never even heard of the movie California Suite. Based on the synopsis, it isn't one I'll be seeing either.)
• 2000 title role for Richard Gere = DRT (Dr. T and the Women - another winner it looks like.)
• Former Voice of America Org. = USIA (Apparently the Unites States Information Agency is now defunct. I'm amazed that any bureaucratic office ever gets axed in our government, frankly.)
• Der Blaue Reiter artist = ARP (Herr Arp was not one of the big names of this short-lived artistic group. But he was famous enough in his own right. More interesting to me is that since he was Alsatian, and lived during the time when this area went back and forth between France and Germany, he went by Jean Arp when he spoke French and Hans Arp when he spoke German.)
• ____-jazz (music style) = AVANT (I'm not all that interested in anything related to jazz, and especially not weird breakoff versions of jazz.)
• George who was nicknamed "the man who owned Broadway" = COHAN (Interesting, and probably useful for crossword makers, that his name is not the traditional cohen with an 'e'.)
• 1985 Peter Yates-directed film = ELENI
• Handle, in archaeology = ANSA (I'm embarrassed to not have known this, since I have a read a fair amount of ancient archeology stuff. But honestly, I have never seen this term in any of my reading. The authors probably just use 'handle'.)
• Young salmon = SMOLT (I just couldn't get past the traditional young fish crossword answer: ROE)
• Writer Buchanan and others = EDNAS (Ah, a purveyor of what I call "fluff fiction". That explains all.)
• Strong cart = DRAY
• "Deliver Us from ____" (2003 film) = EVA (LL Cool J. The hip-hop version of The Taming of the Shrew. Enough said.)
• Keats's "The Eve of St. _______" = AGNES (Now, this is the kind of high culture that should be in a crossword. Of course, I didn't know this one, but I knew the movie A Hard Days Night. What can I say? I'm woefully uneducated!)
• Schreiber of "The Manchurian Candidate" = LIEV (Essentially a pop culture question, especially since his version is the remake.)
• Potty = DAFT (Desperately trying to obscure this word, the author went for British colloquialism)

Dell Crosswords, October 2005

What's That Up A Head? (p. 40-41) ***

It ain't the NYT, but what the hey. Big puzzle, only missed one square.

• 23A Versatile Coppola = SOFIA (Daughter of Francis Ford Coppola)
• 37A French military hat = KEPI (Oh, that's what those are called!)
• 59A Cofounder of GE = TAE (i.e. Thomas Alva Edison; I think we should get a better hint that they want his initials)
• 63A Capital of Yemen = SANA (I should really know this)
• 73A Composer Satie = ERIK (From his Wikipedia page, he was an artist too - NOT!)
• 98A Connected to the ear = OTIC (I kept wanting a Latin derivate, but it was Greek)
• 126 A Journal end = ESE (In today's world, how do you know if someone is using journalese or just the common bad grammar our society so adores - or whether they even know the difference?)
• 168A Saw = ADAGE (I had no idea there was a definition #3 for 'saw' akin to adage)
• 7D M director = LANG (Ol' Fritz Lang... whatever!)
• 13D Red Bordeaux = MEDOC (The real question was, what is an AOC?)
• 30D Dark-green lettuce = COS (Since Romaine wouldn't fit. These three letters pack a lot of meaning.)
• 35D Journalist Alexander = SHANA (Born in 1925 - I guess she'd be famous to old geezers.)
• 38D Nevada State Tree = PINON (Some one needs to add this precious piece of information to the Wikipedia page. I never could get into this "state" thing - the state bird, the state tree, the state pancake, whatever...)
• 53D Sun helmet = TOPI (I like the sound of 'pith helmet' better)
• 68D Urchin = GAMIN (I've heard this word in French, but it didn't mean 'urchin')
• 105D It comes in yards = ALE (Looks like 'beer' would be a better answer, but my real question is, can I get a yard of Dr. Pepper?)
• 113D Like some skirts = GORED (My first thought was ALINE, a common crossword answer, since I'm thinking 'hole by horn' when I see 'gored', which brings a frightening image when connected to a skirt.)
• 118D Painter Dufy = RAOUL (I sure like the way that name rolls off your tongue, definitely more than I care for his painting style.)
• 154D Diamond of old TV = SELMA (It's sad that the only role of hers I recognize is the old grouchy lady on Night Court)
• 162D ___ Bayou (1997 Film) = EVES (Never heard of it)

NYT Crossword, 0810

Even I had to agree with some of the other crossword bloggers out there that this puzzle was relatively easy, and that the theme was a little weak. But, hey, for a 98-pound crossword weakling like me, a win is a win! And there were a few things to learn:

Gilberto's partner on "The Girl from Ipanema," 1964 = GETZ (As in Stan Getz. The guy's name sounds even more familiar than this vaguely familiar title, but I've never seen it - oh, it's not a movie or a show, but a song. Doh!)

"Vissi d'arte" singer = TOSCA (I've never seen this opera, but I got it when I got enough letters because I have heard of it. And now I've read about it too!)

"New York State of Mind" rapper = NAS (You know how much I love rap.)

Cut made by a saw = KERF (OK, whatever. On a related note, I used my chainsaw this weekend. It's almost as much work as the axe!)

Ringo's drummer son = ZAK (Interestingly, he goes by Zak Starkey, since Ringo Starr's name was Richard Starkey).

Woes, to a Yiddish speaker = TSURIS (Not being a Yiddish speaker myself...)

Brightly colored fish = OPAH (Do scientists make up animal names so that crossword makers will be able to finish making their puzzles?)

Issues:
Cicero or Publius = SENATOR (No! Cicero, both the famous guy and his brother, was a senator, and really only refers to a single individual, but Publius was a first name, and there were plenty of Publii who were not senators. This is like saying Clay or Harry: Sure, the only Clay (Henry Clay) that most people know was a senator, although maybe that's not a good one since Clay could be Cassius Clay, but just because Harry Reid is a senator does not mean his first name is synonymous with the office. I'd think of Dirty Harry before I'd think of Harry Reid. Sorry for the rant.)

Breakfast spot, briefly = HOJO (Umm, isn't HOJO short for Howard Johnson's, a hotel chain. Who thinks of this place when they say, let's go out for breakfast? I'm thinking IHOP, which would have been a much better answer to the clue, except that it wouldn't have fit in the puzzle.)

Pet cat, in British lingo = MOG (OK, sure, it is from a British book series, but do people in Britain really call their pet cats 'Mog'? We don't call our pet cats 'Garfield', do we? Some people might name their orange pet cat Garfield, but that is not the same thing as genericizing the name into a term for pet cats.)

TTFN!

NYT Crossword, 0803

I really enjoyed this week's puzzle, even though I was stymied in the end. I got the top two-thirds, whose clues were at what I felt was just the right level of difficulty. But, the bottom third had a couple of proper names crossing each other, which got me. Oh well.


Washington State airport: SEATAC. (or Sea-Tac (Seattle/Tacoma) - makes sense, but I've never flown there, so how could I know?)

Teacher: Var.: PEDAGOG. (Come on - you have to spell stuff right to give us a chance! The word is pedagogue!!)

Any ship: SHE (Huh? - The puzzle authors must have read this poem: "Why is a ship a 'she'?")

Mushroom variety: ENOKI. (Not a big fan of rubbery fungi.)

Potato pancake: LATKE (Why don't I know this?)

Al's is almost 27: ATWT (I like chemistry; I was a short-lived major, in fact, but all I could think of here was, who the heck is Al, and why does he have something that is 26.98154? Another thought was Al Gore = A twit?)

Japanese-born Hall of Fame golfer: ISAOAOKI. (This guy is a crossword puzzler's dream come true - all vowels, all the time. Sheesh!)

Fess Parker TV role: BOONE (As in Daniel Boone. 1960s TV show. Before my time. Frankly, I though Fess would be a girl's name.)

Related to on the mother's side: ENATE (OK, my dissertation was on medieval kinship, and I've never heard of this word! Agnate and cognate I know.)

Jazz cornetist Adderley: NAT (I don't like Jazz!)

NYT Crossword, 0727

As a relative newcomer to these NYT crosswords, this one totally threw me. The theme involved a whole word (in this case a direction word like up, down, right, or left) fitting into a single space. I had a couple of them, except I couldn't figure out why there seemed to be a extra space. That probably contributed (although I can't say it completely explains it) to my inability to even get close to solving this one. There were some very obscure words in there though, and I will mention them at least.

portrays = LIMNS ??? (It even comes from Latin, but sheesh!!)

genus of poisonous mushrooms = AMANITA

pasta used in soups = ORZO

sphagnous = MOSSY


And of course the infamous proper names that probably few have heard of outside of crossword-dom or locals to the name:

City that overlooks a bay of the same name = HILO

old musical high notes = ELAS (The fact that I could only find this on a crossword explanation web page tells you that it is hokey.)

Tasmania's highest peak = OSSA

Construction porject that gave rise to the Ted Williams Tunnel = BIGDIG


Some crossword bloggers seemed to like the little self-referential plays on words, but I don't think they belong in a crossword puzzle. So no more trickery like "Hollow center?" = DOUBLEL, or Building component = SILENTU. Ugh!!

NYT Crossword, 0720

Woah! So much that I do not know. Not only did I not finish the puzzle today, but I also had three wrong letters in the puzzle. Ouch. In my favor, however, is the observation that many in the puzzling community were stumped by the obscurity of some of these words.

The obscure:

• Mocks = JAPES?
• Trail to follow = SPOOR?
• Eurasian ducks = SMEWS?
• Natural bristle = AWN?
• Go rapidly = SKIRR?
• Bygone blades = SNEES? This appears to be a rather bogus clue.
• Open court hearing = OYER?

The proper names:

• "La Gioconda" mezzo-soprano = LAURA.
• Dr. Zhivago role = PASHA.
• Mrs. Woody Allen = SOONYI.
• Illinois city, site of the last Lincoln-Douglas debate = ALTON.
• Half-brother of Tom Sawyer = SID.
• Manhattan part = RYE. Doesn't actually appear to be a part of Manhattan, but rather 33 minutes away.

My mistakes:

• Across: November 5, in Britain/Down: "Venice Preserved" dramatist Thomas: GUYFAWKESNIGHT/OTWAY (not guyfaukesnight/otuay)
• Down: Bossman or bosswoman/Across: ____ state: PREZ/ZEN (not pres/sen)
• Across: La Scala cheer/Down: Capri, e.g., to a Capriote: BRAVA/ISOLA (not bravo/isolo). Clearly demonstrates my lack of Italian.
  

NYT XWord - 7/20/08

Success! Some of the clues seemed a bit too easy, and some a bit too obscure, but after completing the puzzle, I think most of the clues were pretty fair, even though there were still several clues or answers that I had never heard of before. I generally prefer the individual thematic answers to the kind of running quote found in this puzzle (since it takes a lot of cross-words to start to figure out the quote), but this quote was pretty funny. The puzzle was entitled 'Parting Thoughts', with the quote clue as 'Last request': "To die in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like the people in his car."

Proper names I have never heard of:

• John Ciardi ("Lives of X" poet)
• Erica Jong (author of a book entitled Fear of Flying, which would seem to about something I am uninterested in reading about)
• Lambert airport (the St. Louis airport, which I have actually passed through - didn't notice it was named 'Lambert' though)
• Inge (William Motte Inge to be more exact; "Picnic" playwright, which apparently won a Pulitzer; and not to be confused with William Ralph Inge, aka "the Gloomy Dean")

Other unfamiliar words:

• tercel (apparently, a male falcon (not a Toyota) - but this is the British spelling, the American being tiercel - that must explain why I didn't know it!)
• penne (a tasty tube? - Ok, this has other names that I have heard of: ziti or mostaccioli; besides, it's not the pasta that is tasty, it's the sauce!)
• spliff (slang for marijuana, comes from Jamaica, mon! - probably a good sign that I didn't know this one!)

NYT XWord - 7/13/08

I am forced to admit defeat on this week's crossword, but I wish to challenge some of the clues and answers. Some seemed really forced or quite obscure. The puzzle seemed to rely a lot upon answers which weren't actually words (such as lines on a musical staff = EGBDF, kisses on paper = XES, or certain guy, in personals shorthand = SWM). I'm not saying they're not legit, just that I'd like to see real words in the puzzle.

First, the legitimate (from which I learned a few things I didn't know before):
Castle Bravo = H-Test
Penn station inits = LIRR (Long Island Railroad)
Swimmer Diana Nyad
Cambodia's money is called the Riel

Useless modern pop culture references:
1978 album: Q:Are we not men? A: We are Devo!, produced by Brian Eno
The Helen Reddy hit "Delta Dawn"

The questionable:
Although 'ameer' is an acceptable alternate spelling of 'Emir', it feels like a crossword stretch.
"Calls ones own" = Has? (I guess, but sheesh!)
"Stir" = the can (huh? I'm guessing it's referring to prison, but, please: one colloquial word to describe another colloquial phrase that law abiding citizens are unlikely to know?)
"derisive" = sneery (is that really a word?)
"detailed, old style" = itemed (whatever...)
"fully or partially: abbr." = adv (OK, both are adverbs, but that is a lame clue!)


I found another crossword blogger, and he had some of the same issues as me.

NYT XWord - 7/6/08

I got all but 3 spaces in Sunday's NYTimes Crossword [apparently there are other weirdos out there like me who comment on their crossword experiences - and one of them is even named Ryan. I also learned from their site that I get the puzzle a week late (guess that's why I get the answers with it)]. Not being a pen connoisseur, I did not get the clue "Cross stock" which apparently refers to Cross brand pens; not being an inhabitant of Minnesota or Georgia, I did not know that Edina was a suburb of Minneapolis, nor that there is a town near Atlanta called Villa Rica. I've never heard of an orfe, a kir, or an aril. [What did I do before Google and Wikipedia?] I suppose a handheld device called a 'palmtop' makes sense, but I had never encountered such a thing before, but apparently they are common enough for those in the know. Also of interest, El Al is Israel's national airline based out of Ben Gurion Airport, and apparently El Al means 'skyward' in Hebrew - amazing the things you can learn in the crossword (whether you wanted to or not). I'm embarrassed to say that I was unfamiliar with the Verdi opera 'A Masked Ball', so I was unable to identify the aria Eri tu - ['You will be...'?] (full title: "Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima"). And finally, I have never seen the perfume brand Coty. Despite this wealth of ignorance, however, I remind my readers that I only missed three of the boxes. TTFN!

P.S. I have now gotten my Mesopotamian myths text, and as soon as I get caught up on my grading, I will embark on my odyssey. But do take a look at the lists I've added at the foot of my blog.

Robin Hood

I finished watching the first three episodes of the recent BBC Robin Hood series. I can't decide whether I like the series or not. Some of the casting, or at least the portrayals, for example, are a bit odd - especially the sheriff. The show has the general grittiness of modern Robin Hood films (which, being a great fan of the sanitized 1938 version, has never struck my fancy much), but tries to intermix a bit of humor into it (both Much and the Sheriff seem to want to play the comedian role), as well as including a black man playing a master-at-arms (whatever that is) and a strong, independent Marian (all slightly reminiscent of Costner's Prince of Thieves, which is something no work should want to be compared to). And yet, there is something likable and admirable about Robin that makes it difficult to completely dismiss this version.

I think my biggest issue with the series is their inclusion of certain anachronisms. Now, almost all Robin Hoods have this problem to some extent, especially any version which includes a friar during the reign of King Richard (that mendicant order was not even created until the reign of King John). But this series seems to treat the crusades as some sort of nationalistic war being waged in the Holy Land, and in one episode the sheriff portrays Robin as a terrorist. All this rhetoric is clearly meant to echo our own times, when we are sending troops off to the Middle East and worrying about terrorists at home. Of course, the Robin Hood legend is very malleable and has been reworked over and over again, always keeping Robin current and relevant, so this, in and of itself, shouldn't turn me off of the show. Is this Robin Hood for the 21st century? Perhaps I'll have to watch a few more episodes to decide.

On a more mundane note: Tonight I completed my first New York Times Crossword Puzzle. I've gotten close a couple of times, and this one took me three days, but I did it. And now I must ask, "What the heck is an eft, a sepal, a calyx, an amole, and a coho; and how does the word 'elate' fit the clue 'send' (since elate comes from the Latin ex-ferre meaning 'to bring or bear out of'), or why should I equate a 'mugful' with 'beer'? Perhaps I merely display my ignorance.

Salut!