tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post1837735372081122223..comments2024-03-19T04:46:24.598-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Shape-shifting Greek sea god / SAT 8-11-12 / Kid-lit title character I am ruler of all that I see / Largest living rodent / Noted dark film star of 1930s / Moon in Chinese / Annual holiday airing of grievances / Former GM compact / Epithet for many rapper / Apiphobe's baneRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-75719839917628082402012-10-20T01:24:47.607-04:002012-10-20T01:24:47.607-04:00I saw Sigur Ros in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery ...I saw Sigur Ros in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery recently. Toto is the name on the dog's headstone there. I still don't get the "dark" part of clue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-39411428706738314272012-09-17T12:14:52.691-04:002012-09-17T12:14:52.691-04:00This may be the first Saturday ever where I though...This may be the first Saturday ever where I thought it was easier than Rex's rating - usually I'm thinking "well, that one's at least Medium," and Rex has an Easy on it.<br /><br />It was a bit difficult to get my first toehold, but once I got started, the only things that slowed me down were putting in DIREWOLF for WEREWOLF, and the "MAZE" part of HEDGEMAZE simply wouldn't come until I went through the alphabet for the third time ... sometimes when the letter I'm looking for is a Z, I get lazy and peter out around V as I'm going through the alphabet.bananafishienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-32164681970035103662012-09-16T05:05:34.803-04:002012-09-16T05:05:34.803-04:00This is a great example of how a puzzle should be ...This is a great example of how a puzzle should be constructed. I hope Messrs. Krozel and Collins are taking notes.<br />@RP 1:07 PM - I can't believe YOU didn't know CAPYBARA. That was a total gimme and my first entry in the grid. Since you seem to like songs/videos related to puzzle clues/answers, I recommend you check out "Rats" by Rasputina. I think you'd like it.Anonyratnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-82088199727221268032012-09-15T19:54:03.932-04:002012-09-15T19:54:03.932-04:00@Ginger. Sadly we don't get the Davis Cup or ...@Ginger. Sadly we don't get the Davis Cup or much else. Our cable provider is really tight-fisted about what we can and can't get, and, of course, has a monopoly! They just took away four more channels, including CSPAN which is really a downer, particularly since it hasn't been that long since they took away my favorite channel. CSPAN2 which has all those great book programs on the weekend. Sorry to vent. <br />Hope you are enjoying the matches!<br />DMGrandmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-22597938467370827992012-09-15T19:13:44.774-04:002012-09-15T19:13:44.774-04:00@Ginger - thanks for the clarification! So many of...@Ginger - thanks for the clarification! So many of his stories take place in Maine locales, anyone who has never visited here might think it is a spooky place indeed.Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-60144276882674837082012-09-15T18:28:30.263-04:002012-09-15T18:28:30.263-04:00@Diri - That is the writer, not the work! Nothing...@Diri - That is the writer, not the work! Nothing creepy about beautiful Maine. Totally enjoyed my visit there.Gingernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-8138316363866997532012-09-15T18:25:02.152-04:002012-09-15T18:25:02.152-04:00Boy did I ever struggle with this. 'DNF' d...Boy did I ever struggle with this. 'DNF' does not begin to explain the trouble I had with it. Uncle Google helped me get a toehold, but even then I was left marooned, with no where to go. Okay, so I knew OZAWA, NEFERTITI (yes, really needs a PH) and CAPYBARA, but the list of those I didn't know, and couldn't parse is much longer.<br /><br />@DMGraandma - are you watching the Davis Cup?<br /><br />@SIS - yes, the Pacific Northwest has been heavenly. However, Here in the south of WA we did get about 15 min. of lovely rain yesterday. And now ...the dawgs are barking. <br /><br />@Diri - Shout out to Maine at 1-AGingernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-26986603141228448052012-09-15T17:33:04.311-04:002012-09-15T17:33:04.311-04:00I'm with those who found this puzzle over the ...I'm with those who found this puzzle over the top. Didn't finish and didn't care to. There was way too much out of my sphere. Even my year of Shakespeare didn't help-we didn't read King Lear! So came here to see if I was the only one, and relieved to see some others also struggled. It soothes the troubled psyche.DMGrandmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-39142992343590335272012-09-15T15:21:38.662-04:002012-09-15T15:21:38.662-04:00Great puzzle....and I finished with one error (cap...Great puzzle....and I finished with one error (capabara)... BUT, I don't at all care for a made up word like Festivus which turns out to be a singularly modern myth. Do they teach this holiday in schools? Has Noah Webster ever been acquainted with the word? IT DID NOT BELONG IN THIS PUZZLE. <br />Ron DiegoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-124687518345899412012-09-15T14:29:54.846-04:002012-09-15T14:29:54.846-04:00PHONEME if you solved this puzzle without googling...PHONEME if you solved this puzzle without googling. I did learn a lot doing it, like that James K. Polk was one hell of a president (wanted democrat) and that PROTEUS was a shape shifter. SW was tough for me. Lots of writeovers until ACHIEVED became apparent. <br /><br />Josh Knapp was pretty current with this offering: LIL, FLY, SMOKING (hot), EMAG, and NODICE (ala, Letterman).<br /><br />The Pacific Northwest has had 56 straight days of no rain and BONITA sunshine. Pure heaven. No FESTIVUS here. Solving in Seattlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04249420848844874936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-26847664628196982562012-09-15T13:03:11.403-04:002012-09-15T13:03:11.403-04:00Amazing the diversity of perceived ease/difficulty...Amazing the diversity of perceived ease/difficulty. For me? South medium, north & NE: impossible without Google.<br /><br />CAPYBARA was my first gimme entry; I love to watch those nature shows on Discovery and PBS. Took a bit to "realize" that 35d was ACHIEVED; the clue's not wrong, but boy does it ever use a narrow sense of the word. Yeah, well, it IS Saturday.<br /><br />Having been primed by STONEAGE, and with the ____GE in place for 1d, I naturally thought the political challenger's promise was a NEWAGE. This, with HAVEN already in, meant WESCRAVEN was a perfect fit (no, I've never heard of ALMODOVAR). All kinds of trouble ensued. This Number 1 King fan couldn't get 1a; Needful Things was too long. Google straightened it all out.<br /><br />Then the NE. I TOTO-ally agree that SCIFI should have been clued "abbr." And what is "dark" film? Same as film noir? If this refers to the dog, does he mean that Toto first appeared in the B/W portion of Oz? Or if it's that Itralian guy, I object to the term "noted." Noted by whom? Five foreign film students? Out of almost 7 billion? Bah.<br /><br />Why are we looking at food deal ads? Is anybody screening the blogs?Spacecraftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23935347497597121492012-08-15T20:47:52.454-04:002012-08-15T20:47:52.454-04:006D really gummed up the NW for me. i entered and m...6D really gummed up the NW for me. i entered and maintained "searing" knowing it must be wrong and could not get "hedge maze" (yuck) or almodavar (i should get out more) as a result. of secondary frustration was the complete misread of 8D where i put "opera." Go "figure." This also "skewed" my result.david kulkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10766364431023246813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-45149222645457543202012-08-12T17:45:52.051-04:002012-08-12T17:45:52.051-04:00alas, long gone are the days when we saw the likes...alas, long gone are the days when we saw the likes of giants like William Safire whose delight in language shone through in every column he ever wrote. Mr. Blogger, how about choosing some great words like "dryad", "aeronaut", "stint" or "emo" to teach and amuse the public at large?JK Lipeshttp://janlipes.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-83748980065995699332012-08-12T13:16:36.147-04:002012-08-12T13:16:36.147-04:00I finally finished on Sunday morning and came here...I finally finished on Sunday morning and came here to learn that I am in the OWS club with the same wrong letter as ACM and ED; for reasons that nobody but me would understand, I find that slightly ironic yet strangely satisfying.<br /><br />Now on to the (syndicated) Sunday puzzle.Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-79635517469514307922012-08-12T10:01:41.459-04:002012-08-12T10:01:41.459-04:00Medium? Are you kidding? This one was so easy I fe...Medium? Are you kidding? This one was so easy I fell asleep and never finished it. Boy, talk about easy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-18242799471605970442012-08-11T19:32:13.183-04:002012-08-11T19:32:13.183-04:00The puzzle is currently kicking my butt - top half...The puzzle is currently kicking my butt - top half is complete but not much going on in the southern states yet, but I'm not ready to give up. I just stopped by to remind everybody that the Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight/tomorrow morning, with up to 60 "shooting stars" per hour expected, so if the sky is clear where you are I hope you can get out to enjoy this spectacular display of nature. More on the puzzle later (maybe).Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-28042319725397776992012-08-11T18:02:04.333-04:002012-08-11T18:02:04.333-04:00This week's relative difficulty ratings. See m...This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.<br /><br />All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)<br /><br />Mon 6:20, 6:49, 0.96, 22%, Easy-Medium<br />Tue 9:49, 8:57, 1.10, 76%, Medium-Challenging<br />Wed 10:42, 11:47, 0.91, 30%, Easy-Medium<br />Thu 12:05, 18:52, 0.64, 3%, Easy (5th lowest median solve time of 162 Thursdays)<br />Fri 17:47, 24:38, 0.72, 10%, Easy<br />Sat 27:11, 29:20, 0.93, 33%, Easy-Medium<br /><br />Top 100 solvers<br /><br />Mon 3:38, 3:41, 0.99, 46%, Medium<br />Tue 5:38, 4:38, 1.21, 95%, Challenging (9th highest median solve time of 163 Tuesdays)<br />Wed 5:34, 5:54, 0.94, 37%, Easy-Medium<br />Thu 6:14, 9:21, 0.67, 4%, Easy (6th lowest median solve time of 162 Thursdays)<br />Fri 10:05, 12:13, 0.82, 25%, Easy-Medium<br />Sat 14:21, 16:38, 0.86, 22%, Easy-Mediumsanfranman59https://www.blogger.com/profile/15118732156312301425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-71606520730156531972012-08-11T17:27:49.324-04:002012-08-11T17:27:49.324-04:00@Rex, like @Neville I had never heard of either BC...@Rex, like @Neville I had never heard of either BC (before crosswords). I learned Ozawa from a previous puzzle, in fact I think I've used him in a puzzle in the interim. Needed every damn crossing for ALMODOVAR! In fact, half way through, I wanted him to be an Arab gentleman called Ahmed Ovar (and was trying to figure out a way for the V to become an M). I nearly never surprised any longer at what a) some people don't know, b) some people expect that everyone knows.Gareth Bainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17770425154034935768noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-38184989864198120362012-08-11T16:43:12.262-04:002012-08-11T16:43:12.262-04:00All my little squares are filled in but technicall...All my little squares are filled in but technically a DNF as I ACTIVELY had to consult Uncle Google just to get started. Once I got my foot in the door it turned into a fun solve.chefwenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03999206352243329280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-18416208642935511902012-08-11T16:41:19.854-04:002012-08-11T16:41:19.854-04:00Meh . . .Meh . . .Sycophantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-73550319011563257532012-08-11T16:35:29.751-04:002012-08-11T16:35:29.751-04:00Ok. So I suggested above that the dark film star ...Ok. So I suggested above that the dark film star of the 1930s was TOTO, the great Italian film star. But why call him 'dark'? And why the 1930s? (Imdb only lists two movies made by him in the 1930s.) Not being able to let it go, I started looking into whether TOTO was the name of the character or the "actor" in the Wizard of OZ. It seems that the dog's actual name was Terry before and during the making of the many movies that made her famous during the 30's. Her name was subsequently "officially" (whatever that means) changed to Toto. So for a Saturday, it looks like the clue is legit. Now, can I please get back to work?Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17459992224851404501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19037000974953918052012-08-11T16:14:54.074-04:002012-08-11T16:14:54.074-04:00Put me in the Medium-Challenging, or even Challeng...Put me in the Medium-Challenging, or even Challenging camp. This puzzle beat me up real good. I got it all, but not after struggling for a long time, especially in that northeast corner. I had some of the same mistakes listed earlier (petuLENT, which is of course spelled incorrectly anyway), and some new ones: mOTO, as in Mr. Moto, instead of TOTO, and pedagOGY instead of IDEOLOGY. In the southwest corner, I had ACtIonED instead of ACHIEVED -- and am very glad to have been wrong there, because "actioned" would have been a horrible answer (and probably not a real word either).<br /><br />@Milford:<br /><br />I am very, very impressed that you know of Proteus from X-Men. I remember watching an episode from the 90s TV cartoon with him as the bad guy, and that's exactly what came to mind when I got the answer.<br /><br />@acme:<br /><br />I couldn't tell you Josh's exact age, but I met him last week at Lollapuzzoola, and he's a fairly young gun like myself.Evanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15440942981870183719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-64111693735918088362012-08-11T15:59:04.776-04:002012-08-11T15:59:04.776-04:00After a few Googles, it was a great solve -- it fe...After a few Googles, it was a great solve -- it felt fresh, with many aha's. But I wouldn't have gotten enough of a foothold without Google.<br /><br />I wanted chop/chop over SNAP/SNAP.<br /><br />A smart puzzle and my feeling is it was made with the solver in mind rather than the constructor.Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09709142959535977331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-68694392802912709732012-08-11T15:58:13.749-04:002012-08-11T15:58:13.749-04:00@ANON B — Let me google that for you: film star to...@ANON B — Let me google that for you: <a href="http://lmgtfy.com/?q=film+star+toto" rel="nofollow">film star toto</a>. Not that I knew that, but that is what crosses are for.Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17459992224851404501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-47590256507622746292012-08-11T15:33:51.136-04:002012-08-11T15:33:51.136-04:00All pity is self-pity.
W. H. Auden - "Int...All pity is self-pity.<br /> W. H. Auden - "Interlude: West's Disease" in <i>The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays</i>(1962)Wystan Hugh Audennoreply@blogger.com