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Friday, October 7, 2011

Constructor: Kevin G. Der

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: STEVE JOBS (57A: This puzzle's subject) — products and companies and concepts associated with the recently deceased APPLE co-founder


Word of the Day: NeXT (64A: Company founded by 57-Across) —
Next, Inc. (later Next Computer, Inc. and Next Software, Inc. and stylized as NeXT) was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets. NeXT was founded in 1985 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs after he was fired from Apple. NeXT introduced the first NeXT Computer in 1988, and the smaller NeXTstation in 1990. Sales of the NeXT computers were relatively limited, with estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. Nevertheless, its innovative object-oriented Nextstep operating system and development environment were highly influential. (wikipedia)
• • •
Good thing I went to sleep before doing the puzzle last night—looks like there was a big snafu. This puzzle was a last-second replacement for the regularly scheduled puzzle, but the replacement order didn't go through for the NYT applet (NYT's online solving venue), so everyone there merrily chomped their way through something else. At least one other blogger did her whole write-up before learning of the mix-up. Not the first time online stuff has gone horribly awry at the NYT. But this is likely not truly annoying to anyone but said blogger. So you did the "wrong" puzzle — now you can do two puzzles, if you want, or wait for the canceled puzzle to appear at a later date. Seems reasonable to rush a tribute puzzle to press, and as tribute puzzles go, this is a fine one. As usual, it's simply crammed with answers related to the deceased—no bells or whistles. But with a gajillion theme answers and (with a very small number of exceptions) generally interesting fill, for all its sttraightforwardness the puzzle is still pretty impressive.

Theme answers:
  • 1A: Brainchild of 57-Across (IPOD)
  • 16A: Film studio spearheaded by 57-Across (PIXAR)
  • 17A: Brainchild of 57-Across (MACINTOSH)
  • 26A: Slogan associated with 57-Across ("THINK DIFFERENT")
  • 42A: Frequent description of 57-Across (CREATIVE GENIUS)
  • 57A: This puzzle's subject (STEVE JOBS)
  • 60A: Company co-founded by 57-Across (APPLE)
  • 24D: One of many from 57-Across (BIG IDEA)    
This puzzle comes with a special IPOD "Crossword" playlist. I love that the top line goes IPOD, then "ADIA," then "USE ME"—if ever there was a time to trot out the classic crossword songs, this was it. Other things to put on your IPOD: some NINA Simone ("I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free" is one of my favorite songs ever ever ever—seriously, if you're ever feeling down, just play it. Trust me); something called "Have a Little Faith IN ME" (1D: "Have a Little Faith ___ (1930 hit)); a pianist I've never heard of (59D: Pianist Nakamatsu => JON). I admit that my first thought for 13D: "Symphony in Black" artist (ERTE) was ARNE, as my brain registered only "symphony." Also, I thought the Mitchum in 38D: Mitchum's genre (NOIR) was writer James MICHENER (!?). But no, it's the amazing actor Robert Mitchum of "Night of the Hunter" and "Out of the Past" fame.




There was virtually nothing tough about this puzzle. I guess tributes are really designed to be completed successfully by as many people as possible. I have NEXT to no memory of NEXT, so that was a puzzler, but I got SHIVA (36D: Hindu god often depicted meditating) and I pieced together "GO WEST" (44D: Film in which the Marx Brothers join the gold rush) ... loopiest thing in the grid is UDE (25A: Ulan-___ (Siberian capital)), which I needed every cross to get, but which is probably some old-school crosswordese that I should've just known.




The response to JOBS's death surprised me. I'd never really thought about his place in American culture much. He was just the APPLE guy with the turtlenecks. But he clearly had a massive impact on the way many of us live our lives (he said, as he typed on his MacBook Pro). It was kind of entertaining to read a lot of my friends' Apple/Mac memories on Facebook yesterday. Here's what I wrote:
My dad was an early adopter before the term was in use: Betamax, anyone? Laser Disc players ... in 1982? Yeah, that was us. We owned the first model Apple Macintosh (ca. 1984). One of my fondest early Mac memories is of me and my sister using MacPaint (mind-blowing, to us) to draw mocking pictures of John and Yoko, based on / inspired by the ubiquitous ads for "John and Yoko: A Love Story" (TV, 1985). Also, I wrote my college application essays on that thing. Good times.
My sister, in response.
Yeah, Dad has always been on the forefront of gadgetry. I am cracking up about John & Yoko...do you remember what John said in his caption bubble? "Yoko, you're numero ono." I also remember thinking MacPaint was the best thing ever, because it had all of those crazy patterns. I think we gave John plaid pants w/ a checked shirt. That Mac went w/ me to college BTW, and caused me no end of grief. MacWord sucked pretty bad by the time 1990 rolled around.
And my best friend. 
I've never forgotten how in August 1998, after the announcement and just prior to the release of the original iMac, when I was at math grad student camp at UC Berkeley, the head of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, a research mathematician, turned to his equally nerdy colleague and declared, "The iMac is going to be the death of Apple." The degree to which that asshole was incorrect is a large cardinal number that would require googolplexes and quattuordecillions to quantify.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

84 comments:

ahecht 7:53 AM  

I liked all the non-theme answers that were also somewhat STEVEJOBS (or at least gadget and computer) related: DOODAD, GIFS, AOLER, and ZIP drive. Plus we had the pair of "unveiling" clues, with EXPO and OOHED, which are a fitting tribute to the man who redefined product unveilings. Too bad they couldn't fit "one more thing" in as well.

Very impressive puzzle with nice fill given the short notice, even if it was only about Tue-Wed in difficulty.

r.alphbunker 8:14 AM  

In my experience, not a typical Kevin Der puzzle. He had to think different to do this one.

BEQ published this masterpiece the day after Steve Jobs announced the iPad: http://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/2010/01/puzzle-180.html

joho 8:18 AM  

@ahect ... I'd add post-PC ERA and VIDS to your list. Very impressive how Kevin managed to expand upon the theme in clues and other answers. This tribute puzzle is extremely well thought out.

It was easy but because of it's appropriateness I think we should let that slide.

Great writeup, @Rex, especially your Facebook comments.

I learned how to compute on a Mac laptop and have so many fond memories of my journey of aha moments. STEVEJOBS made magic happen at my fingertips.

Fantastic man honored in a marvelous puzzle. Thank you, Kevin and, Will, for placing this to run today.

(Only a Q short of a pangram, too.)

foodie 8:20 AM  

I agree it's a very ggod tribute puzzle. I'm thinking that this was readied earlier as Steve Jobs's death had been anticipated, especially this summer.

Rex, I love your memories of Apple. I remember the early models as well and how magical it all seemed, and my son at one point playing a logic game on Apple called Rockie's Boot. And as someone who loves design, I appreciate Jobs' sense of it at every level, function and form.

I just re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintnenance, and what Jobs did instantiates the idea of Quality as a value that humans resonate to, and that unites technology and more abstract endeavors.

dk 8:46 AM  

Another day where we talk about something other than the puzzle. Tough week for constructors.

I imagine Mr. Jobs will become the new Woodstock, everyone knew him and if it were true....

Me. He was one of my few idols. Beside adapting his technology hook line and sinker I copied his wardrobe as well... sigh I am a dork.

Two stories:

I took my son (now 30) with me to look at computers when he was about 4. I sat him in front of a PC and a Lisa. He could do nothing on the PC. Within about a minute he was drawing and laughing with Lisa. I purchased the Mac and have not looked back since.

One attribute that is negatively correlated with serial criminals is being a Mac user. Loosely it has to do with a desire for control that is gained by projecting an image of sameness to the world. Looking to all the world like an ordinary Jane/joe yet you have everyone fooled as you are a master of the universe. Think of an evil Clark Kent.

So, I did not know Mr. Jobs. I did not secretly help him design anything... But I am sure glad he was here. Perhaps a round of Angry Birds on my IPad as tribute.

Puzzle:

** (2 Stars) If Lisa or any of the names of the new operating systems had made it to the grid...

Tobias Duncan 9:07 AM  

Tuesday puzzle with some of the clues toughened up to Thursday level.I think its fine for Will to sub this in, its just odd to have it this week when the days all seem mixed up anyway.
I dont know why I was so surprised by his passing, we were all pretty clearly warned.Its just that he seemed to cheat death before when his survival seemed so unlikely.


In happier news, Joon was victorious once agian!After seeing the Cliff Clavin snippit someone posted yesterday, I giggled when they revealed yesterdays categories including Octoberfest and Science Fiction.Just seemed to perfect for a 30 something nerdy physics proff.

quilter1 9:08 AM  

Good easy puzzle. Am I the only one who thinks it is a little creepy that this puzzle was maybe in the drawer until Jobs died? I say send me flowers while I'm alive to enjoy them.

Scott 9:10 AM  

If you saw the picture of how Steve looked a couple months ago making this puzzle early would make perfect sense.

jberg 9:11 AM  

One measure of Steve Jobs's impact is that the clue for 1A was all it took to know that this puzzle was about him. The answer could have been IPaD too, but that didn't matter. I got my first Apple product, an IPhone, about a month ago, and there are many ways in which I miss my old Palm (though to be fair, there may be apps out there which would replace those missing Palm functionalities); at the same time, I can see why people love them. It's the whole feel of the thing.

One quibble - and I could be wrong - is with 33A. It was my impression that a bitmap image had the extension .bmp, while a .gif was a different format. But I'm not a techie, so what do I know.

Anonymous 9:18 AM  

Where is "The Bard" haven't heard from him in a long time? Flowerlady9

Lindsay 9:22 AM  

So why is it that the company that came up with the "1984" commercial includes webcams in all their gadgets?

I need a new laptop, but won't even consider APPLE because of the Big Brother factor. Not to mention last year's locational tracking scandal.

Slight Natick at the joN/Next intersection, but guessed correctly.

I will add that I find picture on page one of today's Times creepy. An iPad showing a picture of a candle is not a candle. Live in the real world.

mitchs 9:24 AM  

Joon Pahk has a link over at "Fiend" (posted in comments) he probably hired someone to do it for him) that explains that this was very much a last minute effort.

PuzzleNut 9:27 AM  

Nice puzzle with an amazing amount of references to Steve Jobs and his life creations.
I occasionally read comments to Yahoo "news" articles and am always disgusted by the amount of divisivness and animosity on the web. Steve's passing was the first time I have seen unanimous praise for anyone. Wonderful to see, but a shame that it took his death to unite people.
@Scott is correct about Steve's recent appearance, but it still shocked me when I heard he died. What a loss.

evil doug 9:29 AM  

Newspapers keep tons of obits-in-waiting on file, so I guess if we have to have tribute puzzles there are probably lots of them gathering dust in Will's in-basket. Who's next? Dick Cheney? Mick Jagger? Don Imus? Get 'em ready, puzzle-heads.

Would it have hurt to run it Monday? Did Will worry that he'd get scooped by the L.A. Times? It's a damn crossword puzzle, not a stop-the-presses moment. Does anybody else see the arrogance associated with thinking a crossword is an important eulogy? Is a candy bar next?

Steve Jobs deserves every legitimate expression of praise associated with his brilliant, creative life. A crossword puzzle doesn't qualify.

Evil

MountainManZach 9:35 AM  

I know I've asked this before, but does anyone else solve using the iPhone app? Comically, I didn't get the Steve Jobs puzzle today, I got instead a previously unpublished Patrick Berry themeless. Anyone else?

Jim 9:36 AM  

Quilter1:

While I would have had no problem were that true (we do that with obits), evidently Kevin constructed this and submitted it to Will late Wednesday night (see the Wordplay blog).

I, For one, will have a small hollow in my day today as the 'real' puzzle was a fine effort and I woukd have liked to see a write-up today, given the mistake on the site.

Anonymous 9:39 AM  

FYI,

This puzzle was created immediately after Steve Jobs's death was known, and rushed into print with the help of several NYTimes staffers and puzzle people. It was not held in storage for a minute.
Don't be so cynical, people.

hazel 9:39 AM  

I did this last night when I couldn't sleep and checked Wordplay site for their writeup - and am glad I did. Not only do they have a link to the Stanford speech Foodie mentioned yesterday, but also the backstory on how this puzzle got written and rushed through the system in less than 24 hours - and all I can say is I found the whole effort very touching. I loved every aspect of this puzzle experience including that Nina Simone song.

Fantastic job, Kevin and Will.

Anonymous 9:42 AM  

@MountainManZach:

I do the puzzle on my iPad and got the same puzzle you did. Imagine my surprise to see a completely different puzzle solved on here.

chefbea 9:47 AM  

I too knew the theme at 1 across

Thank you Steve Jobs for my Mac. Had a pretty aqua one years ago and then an I Mac. Now an I phone to add to the collection.

Easy Friday puzzle because of the theme but had trouble with puffs!!

Will miss Jeopardy tonight but will hear about it when we get home

another ipad user 9:51 AM  

i did the puzzle on my iPad last night and did the "right" puzzle. - it must be the APP you're using to do puzzles with?

jesser 10:04 AM  

R.I.P., Steve Jobs.

I loved this puzzle, and its timing, and to learn it was constructed Wednesday night and made it into print today is just mind-boggling. My hat is off to Mr. Der.

Toughest section by far for me was the NE, but EPITOME gave me enough of a toe hold to navigate it.

My writeover was Ayyiyi before ANDELE at 43D. If you ever visit Las Cruces, go to Mesilla and eat at either ANDELE or La Posta. You won't be disappointed either way. Double Eagle is good, too, but far pricier.

Joon came from behind for the win last night. It was a nail-biter!

archaeoprof 10:07 AM  

Very impressive that this fine tribute puzzle was put together so quickly.

Never a Mac user, but I love my iPod, especially what it can do with Nike shoes. My power songs are "Stay with Me" and "Simply Irresistible."

foodie 10:27 AM  

@Anonymous 9:39 my thought that it might be an earlier construction was a reflection of admiration rather than cynicism...
I agree that it's even more impressive that this was put together so quickly! Hats off to Kevin Der!

Campesite 10:29 AM  

Leave it to The Onion to break things down:

Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies

Kevin raced against the clock to get this puzzle published. Here's his story: Steve Jobs Tribute

RIP Steve Jobs

Anonymous 10:36 AM  

I want to know, in what universe is an AOLER an "early computer user"? I was thinking of something along the lines of an ENIAC programmer or something. AOLERs still exist, you know.

Anyway, overall this felt like an easier than average Wednesday -- I mean, the theme is pretty obvious right from the get-go, with Jobs being on everyone's mind lately. But I guess they decided they needed to get this out fast rather than wait a week for it.

Tobias Duncan 10:50 AM  

@Campsite , thanks so much for that Kevin Der link,I found it riveting.

Anon 10:36 AOLER is America On Line and I felt like it was an inside joke poking fun at the horrible ALER.

What a fascinating day in the puzzle world.

stix2metunesmiffin 10:50 AM  

Ha! Thank you Steve Jobs for giving me the fastest Friday time ever! I don't care if it's a tribute or easier than a Monday, I'm taking it!

I suppose I should also be thankful for all the tools he's given me to keep sticking to my tune-smithing.

I don't get ELIHU. Anyone?

Two Ponies 11:10 AM  

Very nice tribute and cool back story. One has to wonder what the future would have been like if Mr. Jobs had stayed with us longer.
When I first made the switch from PC to Mac it was a bit of a steep learning curve. It's tough to "unlearn" doing things the hard way.
Joon had me sweating last night.
Some of the categories were just not his cuppa. The same thing happened to me when I took the Jeopardy test. The choice of categories felt like a cruel joke.

Matthew G. 11:13 AM  

I agree with Anonymous @10:36 am. Either Kevin or Will has a very different definition of "early computer user" than I do. And by "very different" I mean "wrong." "Early" would be someone using a computer in the 1970s. Especially in the context of a puzzle about Apple, which was founded in the 70s, it's just hilariously off-base to describe AOL as "early."

Other than that, really liked this puzzle, which is much better than most if not all tribute puzzles I can remember. I was a bit stunned at the outpouring of emotion over Jobs's death, but then I looked around my apartment and saw how many things I owned that he invented, and I thought ... maybe it really is appropriate.

Greg Charles 11:24 AM  

Another iPad user who got the non-Jobs puzzle. How could it be the app? It's the Times crossword app ... What else would you use? Maybe it depends when you loaded the puzzle.

Chip Hilton 11:39 AM  

I read the clue to 1-across, went to 57-across, saw the number of letters and the suspense was over. A very impressive effort by Mr. Der under the circumstances. I, too, got lucky at the JON/NEXT intersection.

Way to go, Joon! Scary to see you trailing going to Final Jep. I'm sure Joe DiMaggio had a game during his streak where a broken bat single kept it going. Survive and advance.

evil doug 11:41 AM  

Kevin Der's explanation could run in the The Onion as is, no editing necessary. It's a satire of itself.

The "frenzied excitement"! The ticking clock! The racing through airports! The breathless thanks to Will and all the people behind the scenes! Oh, the gravity of it all! Thank God they got there in time to save the baby's life! (Ooops, I mean: In time to get a rather adequate crossword puzzle in the Times....)

At least he admitted that it was worthy of no more than a Monday or Tuesday....

Evil

JaxInL.A. 11:46 AM  

I loaded the puzzle on my iPad last evening about 8pm Pacific time and did the tough but fair Patrick Berry themeless.

Real shock to see a completely different grid here, and hard to avoid reading the write-up and comments as I'd still like to do that puzzle. How can I get it, though? I usually solve using the proprietary Magmic software, but have Crux and Crosswords too. Suggestions?

David 11:55 AM  

I guess I am another of the privileged few who got the Patrick Berry puzzle first, from the NYT Daily Digest. Fun themeless, not real difficult, sounds like it will run in the near future.

Kevin's fine tribute puzzle was a Tuesday-Wednesday level of difficulty, with the NE the toughest (I couldn't remember DIFFERENT from THINKDIFFERENT for a long time).

ADIA and USEME have both been in recent puzzles, thank goodness, as I never heard of either song. One other almost trip-up was wanting to write VOCAL for VOCAB.

Watched Joon last night on youtube, thanks so much to the one responsible for uploading the show every night! Can't wait to see him go for FIVE!

hazel 12:08 PM  

@jax. - i use Crosswords on iPad, did the puzzle last night at maybe around 11 p.m. and it loaded K. Der's puzzle....

jbsnadb 12:20 PM  

@Jax I also use Magmic on my iPhone and got the Berry puzzle. Probably my best time ever on a Berry puzzle too, so that was nice.

@David There is no longer a 5 game win limit on Jeopardy! They did away with that back in 2004. He can win as much as he wants to now.

jbsnadb 12:21 PM  

Oh, and I didn't load the puzzle until 10 AM and still got the originally scheduled Patrick Berry.

Masked and Anonymous 12:29 PM  

Still got my original Apple II computer. Good little machine. Really got a charge out of writin' programs for that thing, back in the late 70's to early 80's. Super-OK by me that Mr. Jobs got his own NYT crossword out of the deal. Heck of a quickie construction, Kevin Der.

Fave fill word: UDE. Woulda clued it as "Dude with no leader?", or somesuch.

Fave clue: "Mitchum's genre". Nice shout out to a classy film actor. Liked him in Both versions of "Cape Fear".

afrogran 12:32 PM  

Thanks for this puzzle. It seems fitting. Now I understand why the level was more suited to a Tuesday/Wedneday perhaps.
BTW, Jon Nakamatsu won the Van Cliburn competition in 1997, despite not having studied at a conservatory. He's from San Jose, California and, in the Bay Area, we were so proud of his accomplishment.
AND _ way to go Joon!

Stan 12:37 PM  

High-quality puzzle for a tribute. Thanks for the quick work, Kevin.

I'm peeved that TNT reran the 1999 made-for-TV 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' last night and I missed it. Noah Wylie as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates -- great casting.

efrex 1:00 PM  

Impressive puzzle by Mr. Der, although I hope that Patrick Berry's themeless (which was sent to me this morning as part of my Times Digest subscription) gets its day in the sun, too.

I actually remember when Jobs left Apple and founded NeXT. We never had an original mac, but we did have a 512e (with a second disk drive) and a Mac Plus (with a 40MB hard drive). When I read "Early computer user" I think "punch card manipulator" or "DOS user"... AOLER? That's your definition of "early?" I'm getting old quickly, ain't I?

Anonymous 1:02 PM  

The Magmic App apparently missed the memo on the Jobs tribute. I got the Berry puzzle too. Which was probably originally scheduled for today. And is still up on the app.

Anonymous 1:13 PM  

Tobias Duncan - I'm the same Anonymous who posted at 10:36 - I'm aware what an AOLER is, but the point is that it's not an "early" computer user. Steve Jobs had been doing his thing for like two decades before AOL even existed.

Martin 1:58 PM  

Two decades? Apple was incorporated in 1977 and AOL in 1983.

Sure, there were computer users in the '40s. By 1983 there were about 10 million computers in use worldwide. Today there are about 1.5 billion. Early AOLers thus represented less than 1% of the number of people who use computers today. That makes them early adopters of the technology, no?

Anonymous 2:19 PM  

what an incredible genius who truly rocked the world. his story is fascinating and i am looking forward to read biographies. all his money couldn't save him from disease which reminds us to live each day with zest. i hope more money will go into cancer research so that some young genius somewhere will provide new cures.

on a happier note, way to go joon!

rex, i too love nina's song and used to play it daily. the puzzle was a fun and fine tribute to jobs.

this week was screwy re difficulty of puzzles.

Anonymous 2:26 PM  

and night of the hunter, rex, is a favorite film of mine. classic mitchem.

Matthew G. 2:30 PM  

@Greg Charles: You asked "It's the Times crossword app ... What else would you use?"

Either the Crosswords app from Stand Alone (which I used) or the Crux app. Those are the apps you use if you have a subscription to the NYT, because they can download the puzzle without having to buy a second, unnecessary subscription through the Magmic app.

The Crosswords app and Crux app download the puzzle from the NYT website link, whereas Magmic, as a proprietary app, presumably downloads in some other way. So I downloaded onto my iPad via Crosswords and got the Der puzzle, while Magmic users got the Berry puzzle.

mac 2:43 PM  

Really nice tribute to Steve Jobs. I also knew by 1A who 57A was going to be, but I had plenty of trouble with GIFS, ZIP, NEXT, JON, UDE and VOCAB! A little reasoning and a little luck helped me get the whole together, though.
What a unifying day yesterday was, with memorials all over the world!

Have to tape Jeopardy tonight, have people coming for dinner. Mushrooms, pasta and beets!

Anonymous 2:49 PM  

Figured this one when I glanced at 1-across, looked at 57-across, and quickly got three down clues confirming STEVEJOBS. After that, the puzzle solved itself; I doubt if I have ever finished an NYT Friday puzzle so quickly. Nice of them to have a tribute so quickly after his passing.

andrea carla iMichaels 2:56 PM  

They might as well have waited till NEXT Tuesday, as very few folks do the Friday puzzle and a lot more folks would have seen this.

And it's not cynical to make one in advance, he would have earned a tribute puzzle even had he not died. Could have been for the 25th anniversary of Apple iMac, eg (which is what I put into 1A.)

And as someone mentioned, the NYT writes obits of famous people years in advance.
I just don't think there is a reason to run a Tuesday puzzle on a Friday (or a Friday on a Tuesday)
but this week seemed to have started on a Thursday this week, so maybe the NYT is on the Hebrew calendar in honor of the High Holidays...
and an easy puzzle was a way to help solvers "fast".

(I was amused to watch 3 clearly non-Jewish folks struggle thru a High Holidays category on "Jeopardy!" Wed...
"Scapegoat" was one of the few answers I knew, along with recognizing the photo of Truman Capote...
Sometimes it pays to be an old Jewish lady, but increasingly less frequently).

Until I read @Foodie on Wed, I didn't know Steve Jobs was 1/2 Syrian! He was such a doppelganger of my old beau Tom, I always assumed he was Jewish.
Met him once at a party here in 1993, (at an Xmas party of Susan Kare who was responsible for all the Apple graphics, etc) and Jobs perhaps ranked up there with Dennis Miller as the unfriendliest man you could encounter socially, but he had the sweetest wife.

So sad, so young...and a huge loss to the world. I try to imagine what the world would have been/or will be like without him. (And I say that even as a total "late adapter" writing on a PC, never having owned an iAnything.)

chefwen 3:23 PM  

Joon didn't have me sweating at all yesterday because some nimrod over at Puzzle Girls site ruined it for me. Time zones people, time zones! But I watched it anyway, way to go joon.

Loved the puzzle, a very nice tribute to a remarkable man.

Maxwell 3:24 PM  

Elihu Root was a statesman and winner of the 1912 Novel Peace Prize

Maxwell 3:26 PM  

Please forgive my typo in Nobel.

chefbea 3:37 PM  

@ Mac - have a great dinner!!!

ArtO 3:54 PM  

Wishing all the Jewish cruciverbalists an easy fast.

Anonymous 4:41 PM  

I got the tribute puzzle; does anyone have a link to the original Patrick Berry anywhere?

Erik 5:05 PM  

Thank you Kevin :-)

jackj 5:06 PM  

Lots of logistical nightmares to produce this one.

Seems like the "Let's put on a play!" attitude of The Little Rascals took hold and drove it to its same day publication, for better or worse.

Kevin's work still made for a respectful tribute but, as others have noted, it might have been a better fit on a Tuesday or Wednesday. A delay to early next week held no penalty.

As a related aside, in current practice newspapers pre-write obits for many famous (and infamous) people, called "advancers", and the NY Times claims to have 1200 advancers in its vault.

If the Times wants to fund advancer crossword puzzles to get some perceived timing edge on the competition that seems fine, if totally unnecessary and bordering on the sophomoric (as was this exercise).

Arby 5:26 PM  

I still have my Mac SE, PowerMac, and NeXTStation sitting on a shelf in my basement. I can't bear to throw them away. I remember the day we installed the 16k(!) memory expansion card in our Apple II so we could run the Pascal compiler.

RIP Steve. Thanks for bringing the world your vision.

And thanks to Kevin Der for this tribute.

Sparky 5:31 PM  

I, too, got the theme at 1A and when I counted the boxes in 57A. VOCAl thus missed BI-IDEA. Bought my PC Sept. 2009; never MAC savy. Very nice tribute.

I belive on Jeopardy! you still need the five to be in on the Champions and then after that you can go on for more games. I hope Joon does both.

Have a good fast to those who do. On to the weekend.

acme 5:35 PM  

Actually, now I'm not sure if it mattered what day it was bec really these tributes have been a bit list-y without a lot of wordplay.
I would love to see another one for Steve Jobs that would have answers like JOBSFAIR or some puns somehow or something.
Nothing to take away from Kevin's extraordinary feat...just think it would quiet some of the naysayers to have a bit more playfulness in there, but perhaps that would be perceived of making light of his death? Just a thought.

guidry49 6:27 PM  

Like the man's visionary products, a tribute puzzle to Steve Jobs needed to be user-friendly and elegantly designed. Well done, Mr. Der.

quilter1 6:40 PM  

I wasn't feeling cynical and after reading how this puzzle was put together I am mighty impressed.

Re: Jeopardy, this little old Lutheran lady knew all of the high holidays answers. Comes of having a pretty good education and working for years with a very diverse staff.

JenCT 7:14 PM  

Loved the puzzle, and don't care if it's not "Friday-difficult."

I was really struck by how Jobs, a billionaire with access to the best doctors, medicine, hospitals, etc., still succumbed to cancer.

Cancer doesn't discriminate...

jae 7:40 PM  

@campsite - Thanks for the Der link. Now I'm even more impressed with the quality of this one. And, I love my IPad!

I bought my daughter a IIC for her journey through UCSB and she just got her middle school daughter an IMac. Jobs made the world a better place for students.

chefbea 8:01 PM  

Just finished watching jeopardy. will discuss it tomorrow

Martin 8:40 PM  

@jberg,

Most of the image formats you're familiar with are bitmaps. Jpg, gif, png and bmp are all examples of formats that convey an image as a map of colored dots. They differ in compression, color and resolution limitations and how they display on various devices with different color and resolution capabilities.

The opposite of these raster or bitmap formats are vector formats, which capture mathematical representations of the shapes that comprise an image. These formats are used in CAD applications, for instance, but not for general imaging.

Anonymous 8:51 PM  

All of us can, if we choose, have a private rememberence of Steve Jobs. We can say a prayer for him and his family if so inclined, raise a glass to him, or have a few moments of silence in his honor. Kevin Der had a chance to pay Jobs a tribute that he could also share with the world. He took that chance, worked hard at it, and produced a wonderful puzzle, and I thought it was terrific. So thanks, Kevin!

Cheerio 11:07 PM  

Is it possible to get the Patrick Berry puzzle?

I'm not complaining at all - just curious.

Rookie 11:27 PM  

Rex,

Thank you so much for introducing me to the Nina Simone song. The lyrics were perfect for this day when we are celebrating the life of Steve Jobs:

"I wish I could live
Like I'm longin' to live
I wish I could do
All the things that I can do"

Steve did those things. If you have not seen his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005, please, please do yourself a great favor and watch it. What a great man!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc)

And now, I will download the Nina Simone song from Itunes to my IMac and from there it will go to my IPod, my IPad, and my IPhone. I've owned just about every Apple product that's been out since about 1981. I love them and so deeply appreciate the man who brought this elegance and simplicity into my life.

Rube 11:37 PM  

Obviously late getting here, but just arrived on Kauai yesterday. First things first... @Chefwen, we have "Road Runner" and I cannot find Jeopardy! In your post you said you watched it... where/how? Will catch up with you tomorrow, offline.

Can't say this was a particularly easy puzzle, but Wed/Thur doable for me. Must say I own nothing from Apple, (or Next), nevertheless, I admired Jobs and his innovative thinking.

Re the puzzle, didn't particularly like all the three, (unknown to me), song titles in the first row. I could go on, but I see that Saturday's puzzle is already out, so I won't.

+wordphan 2:51 AM  

I'm walking into the movie-plex. I hear someone yell out, "Hey, Linda! What's your phone's name?" I look around, think for a second, and yell, "The Precious!" All my friends know I'm IN love with my iPhone! Always have been and thank YOU, Mr. Jobs.

chefwen 3:37 AM  

@Rube - Welcome back. You can catch our brilliant Joon on You Tube. Joon Pahk on Jeopardy Oct 7th 2011.

The whales are early this year, hope you spot some.

Call me if you have some free time.

etrav - has it come down to this?

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Anonymous 11:01 AM  

Is there an AL DAVIS puzzle coming up?

I was so proud of myself for reasoning that NEVada was more likely to be home to a peak than NEBraska. Then I found out that "Huffs" had nothing to do with knitting.

Anonymous 12:51 PM  

Jon Nakamatsu is a Van Cliburn Competition Gold Medal winner - check out his concise Wiki page.

There is a Wheeler Peak just outside Taos, NM (which, of course, didn't fit).

rain forest 2:18 PM  

Nice puzzle, and a fitting tribute to Steve Jobs. As usual, Evil Doug doesn't get it. What other sort of tribute would a crossword constructor/blog offer?

Anonymous 3:30 PM  

Spacecraft here. Scanning the cluelist, I saw 57a mentioned in 1a, counted the letters in STEVEJOBS and immediately filled it in, as well as APPLE. This promised to be the gimme-est puzzle I'd ever done, and I was even tempted to time myself (ugh!). Fortunately resisted that one, because it turned out not to be so fast. Trouble came at the very end, in the center of the grid. I had VOCAL, which makes more sense to me than VOCAB for "focus of some prep work." I don't quite get that one--other than the shortened form of the answer word mirroring the "prep."
At the other end of 24d was _oler. AOLER never occurred to me, and that needs to be thrown in the garbage right along with ALER and NLER. A pox on any puzzle that has those abominations in it!
So then we move to the middle of the 24d word, at 40a, "like some Arabians." Well, I had SHOW at first; I'm sure there are show horses of that strain. But that made LIGIWE_ and I couldn't let that IW stay, so I tried SHOT. No doubt lots of Arabians have been shot lately. Still left me with LIGITE_. Tried SHOD but still had LIGIDE_. Man, I came that close to finishing, but the B and the A eluded me, and I had to settle for an ABF (all-but-finished). Oh well, I'd had to Google 31a anyway. If anyone outside of the Geek Squad knows that one, I'm surprised.

Dirigonzo 8:41 PM  

@Spacecraft - your grid had a 31a?

For a puzzle that was hastily constructed to beat a publishing deadline, I'd call this a pretty remnarkable feat - nice JOB(S), Kevin G. Der.

And from Veterans Day 2006, these excerpts from RPDTNYTCP:
- "Solving time: 42:21 (applet)" (this was a BEQ Saturday puzzle)
- "The puzzle was a bit heavy on the esoterica, but overall: tough but fair. Very Saturday. My on-line puzzle-solving skills still need honing, although I can't blame my time on the computer today. My brain was a bit slow on the uptake, and the puzzle was just hard for me."
- "Where was I? Oh, the puzzle. Sorry, Tina Turner gets me so excited. PS Tina Turner shares a birthday with me, now just 15 days away! See also Charles Schulz and former basketball star Sean Kemp (born on exactly the same Day as I was). Seriously, where was I?"
- "Whatever that's worth. The only EPHRAIM I know is the ancient actor Ephraim Zimbalist, Jr., and well, it turns out he spells it EFREM, and, according to the Trinity Broadcasting Network, he has brought "untold multitudes" to Jesus Christ through his witness. Not as Jewish as I'd hoped."
- "GAY Talese, like Gabby Hayes, is a great-sounding man's name that no red-blooded North American man will ever have again unless he enjoys merciless taunting. NAN is a sweet little name, despite reminding me of a goat."
- "Oh. Yes. Bear rug. Being very much against the slaughter of animals for the purposes of home decoration, these kinds of answers tend not to come to me quickly."
- " BAD MAN makes me think of the "Simpsons" episode entitled "Homer Bad Man," in which he steals the Gummi Venus De Milo and then, when he finds it stuck to the ass of a young co-ed (!), he pulls it off, only to find himself accused of sexual harassment. Good stuff."
- "Here's what I love about this puzzle, and about Shortz-era puzzles generally - very democratic. These pop culture answers share space with technical jargon like ACEROSE and BELAYED, and the effect is beautifully harmonious. The effect is also that dorks like me who spent their Wonder Years in front of the (M)TV can feel super smart on Saturdays."
- There were 8 comments, including this reply form Rex to @Orange: "I don't know which I like better, your dirty-minded take on "belayed" or the fact that you apparently know something about "One Tree Hill" - the target audience of which, as we know from a late Sep. puzzle this year, is TEENs."

To all veterans and members of the Armed Forces: Thank you for your service. Dirigonzo.

Anonymous 12:56 AM  

my bad. It was 33a, and somehow I didn't catch it on the proofread.
SC

Esperanza Travel 8:55 AM  

Nina Simone is one of the great who has ever existed.

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