tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post2008296965381695215..comments2024-03-29T05:08:37.783-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: FRIDAY, Oct. 24, 2008 -Frederick J. Healy (Subject of the 1989 musical monologue "Bon Appetit" / Obi accessory / Supporter of the mascot Handsome Dan)Rex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-85537698608709313372008-10-25T15:30:00.000-04:002008-10-25T15:30:00.000-04:00Hudson Hawk, thanks for the SAKS explanation! I di...Hudson Hawk, thanks for the SAKS explanation! I didn't know that.thebubbreporthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261667323677777482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19364809744367435622008-10-25T14:23:00.000-04:002008-10-25T14:23:00.000-04:00First time poster. Thanks, Rex, for greatly incre...First time poster. Thanks, Rex, for greatly increasing my NYT puzzle pleasure. Happy to hear of the shared angst over this one. NE corner hammered me but good. Being a non-Google puzzler, I admitted defeat after a fun battle. Again, thanks, and Go, Phillies.Chip Hiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11944056030047563287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-15495457556905968792008-10-25T12:16:00.000-04:002008-10-25T12:16:00.000-04:00Kudos again, Sir Rex--this was a toughie, alright-...Kudos again, Sir Rex--this was a toughie, alright--especially for my merely adequite noggin. TINY TOTS & DNAS really got me. <BR/><BR/>Again, great work, Rex--and again, thanks--your blog is always appreciated.Bix2012https://www.blogger.com/profile/09040692549685015279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-36446087979848507482008-10-25T00:55:00.000-04:002008-10-25T00:55:00.000-04:00... and since my ride is late,here's the start of ...... and since my ride is late,<BR/>here's the start of a little gem <BR/>about prepositions that I dredged<BR/>up for the second graders today: <BR/><BR/>in on into over<BR/>above about around across<BR/>beneath between <BR/>before below beside ...<BR/><BR/>et cetera<BR/><BR/>If I recall correctly, there were 47 of them to both complete the jingle and cover that part of speech.fergushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17056002311944010536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-37820443273110729072008-10-25T00:24:00.000-04:002008-10-25T00:24:00.000-04:00While I am so tempted to launch into a comparative...While I am so tempted to launch into a comparative analysis of why the Economics 'fudge factor' is a standard deviation or two beyond those of the hard sciences, I only have ten minutes before I have to go out. Another time perhaps. And if you're interested, the Economics profession is getting a good psychological jolt these days from the behavioralists challenging the strict mathematicians. Somewhere in "The Nation" there was an incisive summary not too long ago.fergushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17056002311944010536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19063044653217885802008-10-24T23:40:00.000-04:002008-10-24T23:40:00.000-04:00@fergus, you're being hard on your field. Almost e...@fergus, you're being hard on your field. Almost every field, except may be the purest of math, throws in a fudge factor. In trying to understand the genetics of an illness, a trait or a behavior, we throw in "the environment" and it can be anything, from how much fish oil you ate to how much your mother hugged you, to how your brain is wired to perceive your mother's hugs. <BR/><BR/>I had heard the term, but like Mac thought it was somehow made up. I just looked it up. Thank you mac, and happy travels!<BR/><BR/>PS. You're right, the difference between the solvers and the non-solvers is whether challenge leads to a dismissive response.foodiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052189131129098616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-460741502947963862008-10-24T23:14:00.000-04:002008-10-24T23:14:00.000-04:00Mac,I am totally astounded (IATA) at your lack of ...Mac,<BR/><BR/>I am totally astounded (IATA) at your lack of familiarity with the term Externalities. (You know I don't say this derisively.) Externalities are what every economist uses to justify, despite the lapses and the incoherence, of his or her pet theory. It is also, within any context, completely legitimate, since there will never be a true measure of the cost or the benefit of anything. Can you see why I was drawn to this discipline despite knowing that as a science Economics is pretty much total bullshit?fergushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17056002311944010536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-17896428194651807462008-10-24T22:42:00.000-04:002008-10-24T22:42:00.000-04:00I liked this puzzle with it's squishy clues - i wa...I liked this puzzle with it's squishy clues - i was luck in that I reached for cantor before all the other possibilities - got stuck on Macy before thinking of Saks and was lost on Artist instead of Arrest for 52 until forcing it with Sleeper Car and seeing arrest jump off the page. Never heard of Tods and agree that Strike zone is a stretch. But all in all - a good Friday puzzle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-12286612073009870022008-10-24T22:41:00.000-04:002008-10-24T22:41:00.000-04:00O wow, it is a word. I think the speaker didn't us...O wow, it is a word. I think the speaker didn't use it in this context, though. I learned another word today.<BR/><BR/>Got to go to sleep, we're leaving at 5.45.machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-55340627370565693012008-10-24T22:34:00.000-04:002008-10-24T22:34:00.000-04:00@foodie: it has happened in my house also; I will ...@foodie: it has happened in my house also; I will leave a half-filled out puzzle on the table and go out to do errands, and when I come back there are a few extra answers filled in! I think the difference is that we get excited when the puzzle is tough, they call it nonsense when they get stuck....<BR/><BR/>I heard a new word, or what I think is a new word, on David Gregory's show this evening: externalities. I'm going to look it up right now.machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-24832173712724844102008-10-24T22:14:00.000-04:002008-10-24T22:14:00.000-04:00I got all but one letter, but I had to put the puz...I got all but one letter, but I had to put the puzzle down for several hours and then come back to it. I missed the p in oxlip/peales; this was a Natick for me.<BR/><BR/>The strike zone answer doesn't make much sense to me.<BR/><BR/>I don't think of Micronesia as a country; it seems more like an area of the Pacific -- e.g., Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia.<BR/><BR/>The only meaning of remit I know is to send money back home, but I see unsurprisingly that postpone and numerous other things are alternative meanings.Michael Chibnikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04700426644898924644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-75339062193399279132008-10-24T21:39:00.000-04:002008-10-24T21:39:00.000-04:00I came home after a very long and busy day and fou...I came home after a very long and busy day and found that husband had neatly folded the paper and left me some suggested answers near the various clues... which was was highly unusual. Except, bless him, almost every answer was wrong:<BR/><BR/>ABBOTT in lieu of SEARLE<BR/>MACY instead of SAKS<BR/>KATIE instead of KATEY<BR/>ESSO instead of HESS<BR/>He did give me ROBOT for ROBOT.<BR/><BR/>I got myself mostly sorted out without googling (or other "help") except in HESS, OXLIP area and was too tired to keep trying, so came here.<BR/><BR/>Husband will be pleased to know he did not mislead me much, as the pros made the same errors. But it was so weird to see a photo of Puzzle Husband in conversion: is this stuff catching?foodiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052189131129098616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-10917455627882572672008-10-24T21:26:00.000-04:002008-10-24T21:26:00.000-04:00I reluctantly put in LACS since I thought the prop...I reluctantly put in LACS since I thought the proper name was Lac Leman, and that Lake Geneva was kinda unofficial. With R_M_TS it had to be remits, which I did look up. After all the normal stuff, then the legal, it becomes Postpone due to the legal back and forth, which keeps delaying the proceedings.<BR/><BR/>I wonder whether the philosophy professor John SEARLE is eminent enough to get a Clue in the puzzle? He seemed so even when I took his courses in the late 70s and it seems his fame has only grown. Maybe I'm just being a little provincial. <BR/><BR/>Very reluctant to fill in the MICRO part of NESIA since I was pretty sure that that was just a designation, not a true country with a capital. I wonder when the nation came about? <BR/><BR/>And yeah, this was the tough one I was looking for after yesterday's pretend Thursday. All I had for a while was AMA_, ROBOT and WAFERS. The Boswash corridor was my most intractable region. Very satisfyingly tough, though, not goofball.fergushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17056002311944010536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-87582771128654155922008-10-24T20:59:00.000-04:002008-10-24T20:59:00.000-04:00I breezed through this puzzle except for getting s...I breezed through this puzzle except for getting stuck a bit on 45A "Applied, as paint" (I was sure the answer was daubed). The whole trick is not to be too well educated (Torquemada, doppelganger never came to mind). Streamline those overambitious brain cells and you too can be a crossword hot tamale!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-39002169205870711462008-10-24T20:49:00.000-04:002008-10-24T20:49:00.000-04:00I meant "elaborating" ...I meant "elaborating" ...ArtLvrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03869528391374878601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-83684063292130298542008-10-24T20:45:00.000-04:002008-10-24T20:45:00.000-04:00Re: The Brotherhood of SLEEPING CAR Porters who g...Re: The Brotherhood of SLEEPING CAR Porters who gained recognition in 1925 as a legitimate labor union, the first major one with predominately black members. Founded by A Philip Randolph (1889-1969) after a ten-year struggle against all-white unions, it went on to represent "red caps" not only in the U.S. but across Canada too. By 1959-1960, Randolf was a major figure in the civil rights struggle and was included as speaker in the Yale series "Challenge" I've mentioned before... Thank you, MiriamB, for bringing it all back!<BR/><BR/>Thanks to Zeitguy too for elabarating on the amazing Early American family of artists, the PEALES -- Maryland-born Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827) was the self-taught patriarch who had the 17 children over the course of three marriages, many of them artists, but his younger brother James was no slouch either, producing six children of whom five were also accomplished artists and four of those were women! Portraiture was in high demand, but Charles and James were versatile and did scenes of the Revolutionary War and other landscapes, plus still-life works, as did all the artistic offspring and even some wives who married into the clan... As mind-blowing a gifted kinship as ever was!<BR/><BR/>∑;)ArtLvrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03869528391374878601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59792145166933558672008-10-24T18:56:00.000-04:002008-10-24T18:56:00.000-04:00Finished with help of husband and looking up vitia...Finished with help of husband and looking up vitiate in the dictionary. I tried to go to the atlas for Bonin Islands and got distracted for a good twenty minutes and then discovered it didn't name the individual islands.<BR/><BR/>Similar struggles as everyone else, as well as for 28d. At one point I had the __HILA_ATE, new that philatelists collect stamps, and tried to make a verb out of it so that it would fit for send. <BR/><BR/>Aphilitate. Yep, I tried to justify it to myself in desperation. <BR/>Feel free to mock my insanity.<BR/><BR/>Feel like I went 10 rounds with Rocky on this one, but in a good way.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07926746419713451941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-39723533865904809482008-10-24T18:41:00.000-04:002008-10-24T18:41:00.000-04:00A variety of foreign words today, which I like to ...A variety of foreign words today, which I like to see: French, Spanish, Latin, Japanese, and whatever languages ODA and MENE come from. Movie titles sometimes bother me, but I got the ones in the puzzle via crosses. This was a toughie, but I saw it through though at times I thought I'd have to Google. <BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>I was a little unhappy about SLEEPERCARS; agree with ArtLvr (I think it was) that sleeping cars is the better designation. In fact, there once was a union called The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters which eventually merged with other transportation unions.<BR/><BR/><BR/>I have to finish preparing dinner now. Aferwards, we'll try to burn at least ONECALORIE. For the curious, it's tofu and green peas in a sauce composed of onions, garlic, pulverized walnuts, cumin, ginger, turmeric, and pomegranate molasses, garnished with fresh cilantro (if my alpha cat Iris hasn't chewed up my plant) and served over basmati rice.<BR/><BR/>If you care.miriam bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03506593846362044050noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-41594888918166640972008-10-24T17:38:00.000-04:002008-10-24T17:38:00.000-04:00A nicely challenging Friday, but happy to say it d...A nicely challenging Friday, but happy to say it didn't kill me, other than my personal little Natick moment at the intersection of MAEVE and VESTA. Agree completely with the complaints about the cluing for STRIKEZONE. Just horribly, horribly wrong. <BR/><BR/>@Bubb, SAKS was founded by Andrew Saks, so the clue is OK. I wanted MACY but didn't fill it in as the Y wouldn't likely work with either the S or T in 16A (figured it had to be AMAS or AMAT).HudsonHawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16119485923243014649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-11300706539058792362008-10-24T17:17:00.000-04:002008-10-24T17:17:00.000-04:00Still fuzzy on REMITS. Just finished reading the n...Still fuzzy on REMITS. Just finished reading the new John Le Carre, and on page 314, ran into "Their remit...was to stay inside their car until...".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-25405499994189063792008-10-24T17:00:00.000-04:002008-10-24T17:00:00.000-04:00Man, that anonymous dude at 3:42 is seriously angr...Man, that anonymous dude at 3:42 is seriously angry. Right on! From now on, when I'm mad, instead of cussing I'm going to just yell, "Asterisk caret symbol percentage sign! Pound funny foreign symbol!"RodeoToadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03374112725461339067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-91057774016853678222008-10-24T16:52:00.000-04:002008-10-24T16:52:00.000-04:00Orange, my wife is a nurse, and the last time this...Orange, my wife is a nurse, and the last time this came up, the first thing she said is exactly what you said. Then she recalled seeing something once about "omni nocte", and that is what led me to search for it. I called our local pharmacist, and she said she hadn't heard the term since med school, and that she was "old"! ;>}<BR/><BR/>Thanks to you and Mac for the explanation regarding IWGA. I like it!Mike the Winohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06130415184285936710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-33761714177479688562008-10-24T16:37:00.000-04:002008-10-24T16:37:00.000-04:00I'm a shoe freak, but I had CHOO in there until th...I'm a shoe freak, but I had CHOO in there until the bitter end; I thought about DIOR but they are more known for clothes than shoes and bags. Also, TOD'S used to be known as J.P. Tod's. Right now, Gwenyth Paltrow is doing a major campaign for Tod's, for those of you who don't looks at the ads in your NYTimes.<BR/><BR/>Why GIMBEL and SAKS? Isn't the store GIMBELS? Why wouldn't it be SAK or MACY (if those were actual people, I'm not sure). <BR/><BR/>I have a masters in landscape architecture and I have NEVER heard of OXLIP!<BR/>This puzzle kicked my butt. Especially after the rest of the puzzles this week were pretty easy.thebubbreporthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261667323677777482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-54849577085183499852008-10-24T16:23:00.000-04:002008-10-24T16:23:00.000-04:00Not a very enjoyable puzzle; still don't understan...Not a very enjoyable puzzle; still don't understand how REMITS = postpones and if the constructor thinks Tods is Upscale, he might venture into SAKS w/its own zipcode<BR/>for authentic upscale shoes!!!<BR/>RheaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-8846983817240137462008-10-24T16:13:00.000-04:002008-10-24T16:13:00.000-04:00@ orange, thank you for jumping in on the medical ...@ orange, thank you for jumping in on the medical abbrev's. I was in medicine over half of my life and Q was the standard for Every in all normal situations. That clue/answer has been really nagging at me.Two Ponieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06896743444873087885noreply@blogger.com