tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post3449274150678482134..comments2024-03-29T08:45:20.722-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: WEDNESDAY, Aug. 13, 2008 - Victor Fleming (LIKE AN INSCRIBED PILLAR / Soup spherule / CORPORATE GADFLY'S PURCHASE, MAYBE / SPRING AIR RIVAL)Rex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-15819050828674756022008-09-19T13:37:00.000-04:002008-09-19T13:37:00.000-04:0039D: Corporate gadfly's purchase, maybe (one share...39D: Corporate gadfly's purchase, maybe (one share). Gadfly? What ... why? <BR/><BR/>Any person with one share of stock can speak and hold the floor at a stock holders meeting. They have no voting power, but they can disrupt the meeting.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-53613289314426991032008-08-13T21:59:00.000-04:002008-08-13T21:59:00.000-04:00@artlvr and @fpbear: Our Orange also posts the ans...@artlvr and @fpbear: Our Orange also posts the answers (to the NYT and other puzzles) on her blog:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://crosswordfiend.blogspot.com/" REL="nofollow">Diary of a Crossword Fiend</A><BR/><BR/>Having the answer grid is a new thing for Orange.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-80129605818021266132008-08-13T21:27:00.000-04:002008-08-13T21:27:00.000-04:00@ joon- that's exactly what they didn't want to se...@ joon- that's exactly what they didn't want to see: "xerox" in print without the capital X and without the ™ after it! (I don't think Google minds as much. As for whether Speedo does, that's a toss up.)<BR/><BR/>@ mr. emba- I never said anything about lawyers!Doc Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12540112168511893896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-54214471751918466372008-08-13T21:18:00.000-04:002008-08-13T21:18:00.000-04:00Glad to be back online, on the 16th floor of a hot...Glad to be back online, on the <BR/>16th floor of a hotel in Anchorage, although I already miss the ship.... We had a fantastic time and saw incredible things in Alaska, but a diet of USA Today puzzles (our diet otherwise was amazing, have to get back on the treadmill soon!) and missing Rex and all the blog and comments friends got to be too much!<BR/><BR/>I tore through this puzzle, with no real stops, because I think I was lucky with the order in which I solved it (don't have a copy in front of me, so I can't tell you exactly how I did it), sothat the "lemoney" issue never came up. I liked "dints", although it looks a little odd as a plural. Thought dupe/repro was pretty ugly. The answer involving the cat made me think, @mr. emba, of my brother-in-law's little Siamese cat called Rover....<BR/>About the change in the puzzles: I also have tried some old ones, tough and pretty boring, with probably some of that era's pop culture in it which I don't know. I feel that, as long as there isn't a real Natick in the puzzle, almost anything should be allowed. Every day I solve puzzles with clues/answers I wouldn't know on their own. <BR/><BR/>@noam d elkies: you are right, in Dutch sch is pronounced s-ch, a fairly hard g sound, depending on which dialect you speak. In old Dutch, and in more formal written Dutch of the beginning of the 20th century, sch, when not at the beginning of a word, but in the middle or at the end, would often be pronounced as a simple s. A good example happens to be Pasen, formerly Paaschen, the Dutch word for Easter! The pronunciation is identical.machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-49293003313162334542008-08-13T21:10:00.000-04:002008-08-13T21:10:00.000-04:00Rex: BEWARE THE OLYMPICS HIGHLIGHTS TONIGHT!!! The...Rex: BEWARE THE OLYMPICS HIGHLIGHTS TONIGHT!!! The clip you have dreaded has happened. I just saw a weight-lifter's elbow snap back in one of the most gruesome things I have seen since Joe Theisman's leg was broken. <BR/><BR/>Don't say you haven't been warned.jeff in chicagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10492964479021891094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-63402191857985034762008-08-13T19:17:00.000-04:002008-08-13T19:17:00.000-04:00also, somewhat to my surprise, so is google.also, somewhat to my surprise, so is <A HREF="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google" REL="nofollow">google</A>.Joonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07825085755390339668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-58908766790856618532008-08-13T19:16:00.000-04:002008-08-13T19:16:00.000-04:00re: xeroxed vs Xeroxedi still think there are no p...re: xeroxed vs Xeroxed<BR/><BR/>i still think there are no proper verbs in english. regardless of what xerox corp would like you to think (and say, and write), <A HREF="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/xerox" REL="nofollow">xerox</A> is a regular old lowercase-x transitive verb.Joonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07825085755390339668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-39213474189614499582008-08-13T19:10:00.000-04:002008-08-13T19:10:00.000-04:00I know it's already been pointed out, but Kitty Ca...I know it's already been pointed out, but Kitty Carlisle wasn't just in "a" Marx Brothers movie, she was in "A Night at the Opera," surely the most famous MB movie. (Some say it's the best; others say "Duck Soup" is tops. My vote goes to "The Cocoanuts," their first [released] and, IMHO, zaniest movie.)<BR/><BR/>In "Opera," it is really Carlisle singing part of "Il Trovatore." She was quite good. "Opera" is also famous for the "There ain't no Sanity Clause" joke and the oft-duplicated "Stateroom Scene."<BR/><BR/>More MB trivia (I'm a HUGE fan, and I actually wrote a senior-level college sociology paper on this movie): "Opera" gave the Marx Brothers their first hit song. "Alone," sung by Allan Jones led the Lucky Strike Hit Parade for 16 weeks.<BR/><BR/>Oh...the puzzle? Loved it. My kind of puzzle. Google-free, but it made me work for it. I kept getting a letter here and a letter there until I was done. Good job, Vic.jeff in chicagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10492964479021891094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-57709529277141153132008-08-13T18:11:00.000-04:002008-08-13T18:11:00.000-04:00I've been doing the puzzles since the mid 1960's a...I've been doing the puzzles since the mid 1960's and there are way more allusions to the media than there used to be. Also as time goes on there is just more things that occurred to write about. heck, when my mom was a kid there was no history -and the only concern was not to get eaten by carnivorous mammals. (The didnosaurs were recently extinct and not a concern).alanrichardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06395356843823270129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-10645016988163384902008-08-13T18:02:00.001-04:002008-08-13T18:02:00.001-04:00oops, it's in Rome and there's a better explanatio...oops, it's in Rome and there's a better explanation if you go to Moses (Michaelangelo WIkipediaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-12110901734785333282008-08-13T18:02:00.000-04:002008-08-13T18:02:00.000-04:00@Acme --Yes, surely Pasch/Pascua/Pâques is from He...@Acme --<BR/><BR/>Yes, surely Pasch/Pascua/Pâques is from Hebrew PESACH. But even if one of those words is used to mean "spring" or "lamb", as opposed to "Easter", that meaning must have been added later; it's not in the Hebrew.<BR/><BR/>I just looked up the Hebrew text in Exodus 12. The sacrificed animal is called SEH "lamb" several times, allowed to be either from either sheep (KVASIM) or goats ('IZIM). There are several verses of instructions on what to do with the animal, concluding with "ye shall eat it in haste -- it is PESACH to the Lord" (verse 11); two verses later, God says the blood will mark the houses so that "I see the blood and pass over [PASACHTI] you". Likewise for the second version of the story: verse 21, "take cattle(?) [TZON] according to your families, and slaughter the PESACH"; verse 23, "God will have seen the blood, and passed over [PASACH] the opening and won't let the destroyer enter and smite".<BR/><BR/>I suppose it *might* be that PESACH was a word independent from the "pass over" verb PASACH, with a meaning along the lines of "sacrificed animal", linked in this Exodus excerpt with "pass over" via the same kind of pun that related Adam with ADAMAH (earth) in Genesis. But I'm sure PESACH didn't mean "lamb", let along "Spring" -- as far as I can remember the word is never used except in connection with the Passover holiday.<BR/><BR/>NDE<BR/><BR/>(Sorry for diverging so far from the NYTimes crossword topic. Maybe one of these days MAROR will show up in the puzzle -- seems like a potentially useful letter combo.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-20552088011649937862008-08-13T18:00:00.000-04:002008-08-13T18:00:00.000-04:00@bill from njMy third post and out.First of all, I...@bill from nj<BR/>My third post and out.<BR/><BR/>First of all, I'm sorry you had that experience. I've been asked privately what I was alluding to...<BR/><BR/>Since the Torah doesn't have the vowel marks, there was a mistranslation of the word KR which, depending on the vowel means either "Horns" or "Rays of Light".<BR/><BR/>SO in some MiddleAges translations, it was written that Moses came down from the mount with "horns" coming from his head...which was mis-translated from the correct "Rays of Light".<BR/><BR/>When Michaelangelo did his famous sculpture of Moses holding the Ten Commandments, he actually gave him little horns!!!!! It's true, you can see it in Florence, I believe.<BR/><BR/>There are many fundamentalist churches from Minnesota to Maryland that still teach that Jews have horns! All based on a one letter mistranslation from hundreds of years ago!<BR/><BR/>And we, as little Jewish children either don't know about this, or are left with no recourse but to make lame jokes (like mine) about Jew-fros hiding the horns!<BR/><BR/>Altho I always try and use it as a linguistic fun-with-words teaching exercise! :)<BR/><BR/>As for the whole tail-thing, I'll have to leave that exegesis to Noam!<BR/>;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-17249693820216659912008-08-13T17:35:00.000-04:002008-08-13T17:35:00.000-04:00When I first started doing puzzles it was the Male...When I first started doing puzzles it was the Maleska era - they were practically impossible at first, unless you owned a xword puzzle dictionary. So much of the fill were words no one ever had any reason to know - minor gods and goddesses who weren't even bit players in any reasonably well-read plays; weights and measures or currency from barely recognizable countries. You could sit and stare at the grid all day and never suss out these answers. After lots of practice you could sometimes dredge up the name of the "Amerind" tribe of the day. I stopped doing the puzzles because they were never fun, too much work with very little reward. <BR/><BR/>Didn't start up with them again until the Shortz era - what a difference. While I often complain of the early-week puzzles being too easy, I can forgive a lot if the theme is clever, the clues are tricky, and the fill is fresh. The Friday & Saturday puzzles are hard - but they always seems doable. The answers are somewhere in my brain if I can parse the clues correctly. I never felt that way in the Maleska era.<BR/><BR/>I appreciate being "forced" to learn the names of rappers or car models - at least they are common knowledge in some part of our culture. Knowing what "aten" means, not so much!JannieBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18282015159638078416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-1355953184404439812008-08-13T17:23:00.000-04:002008-08-13T17:23:00.000-04:00@ fpbear -- you can usually find same-day NYT solu...@ fpbear -- you can usually find same-day NYT solution very early in the a.m. at www.xwordblog.com by Jim Horne...ArtLvrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03869528391374878601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-63084800133485936402008-08-13T17:08:00.000-04:002008-08-13T17:08:00.000-04:00Right On, joho! Mr. Fikink and I plan to be rickro...Right On, joho! Mr. Fikink and I plan to be rickrolling people from our nursing home beds!fikinkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06324570637549775751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59044284714114932352008-08-13T16:45:00.000-04:002008-08-13T16:45:00.000-04:00Very interesting discussion today.@rex: Regarding ...Very interesting discussion today.<BR/>@rex: Regarding Will Shortz having "moved the center of the puzzle's intellectual gravity in my direction (i.e.younger and popward, bless him)." Yes, he has indeed made a world of difference from his predecessors, Maleska and Weng, but I hope you know that we older puzzlers also appreciate that change in direction. I don't think it's a young or old thing, I think it's a matter of relevance and interests. When I'm very, very old I still hope to be interested, relevant and not an old fart.<BR/><BR/>Will Shortz, instead of being criticized, should be acclaimed and commended for all that he's done.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-65941468156963036802008-08-13T16:38:00.000-04:002008-08-13T16:38:00.000-04:00@seaspace i was able to get the puzzle using fire...@seaspace i was able to get the puzzle using firefox but it was not todays puzzle. I get my puzzle from the new york times digest delivered to me every day. I just print it out and voila... not violachefbeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15195945085405126511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-71539262791036925712008-08-13T16:32:00.000-04:002008-08-13T16:32:00.000-04:00Have to agree with Rex et.al. regarding pop cultur...Have to agree with Rex et.al. regarding pop culture in the puzzle. Many of us use the puzzle and this blog as a vehicle to pursue disparate interests and discover previously unknown concepts.<BR/> Jeff’s (Arizona) comments about “Don’t taze me, bro” on Monday’s puzzle had me reading about Internet “memes” all day long. (And I never got the mowing done, a downside to this blog for me.)<BR/> Has "meme" ever been a crossword puzzle answer or clue?<BR/>Anxiously awaiting the appearance of THOM Yorke!<BR/>deborahiniowafikinkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06324570637549775751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-20774837192155386512008-08-13T16:12:00.000-04:002008-08-13T16:12:00.000-04:00Hey puzzlers, I just discovered this new site that...Hey puzzlers, I just discovered this new site that has a free NYT Crossword every day:<BR/><BR/>http://www.abdpbt.com/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-49286877484361642752008-08-13T15:51:00.000-04:002008-08-13T15:51:00.000-04:00I thought todays puzzle was easy but I don't mind ...I thought todays puzzle was easy but I don't mind having an easy wednesday puzzle. I too had square one as the last fill - never heard of dints. Wanted bar maid for miss Kitty.<BR/><BR/>Went to the farmer's market this morning - bought lots of spherule shaped veggies - tomatoes, of course beets, but no peas<BR/><BR/>@joyh in ct - I agree what a beautiful august we are having here in ctchefbeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15195945085405126511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-69256064306686735332008-08-13T15:45:00.000-04:002008-08-13T15:45:00.000-04:00@andrea-I had roughly the same experience in the l...@andrea-<BR/><BR/>I had roughly the same experience in the late 50s at school in suburban Maryland.<BR/><BR/>I hoticed a couple of kids staring at me and, when I asked, they said they heard I was Jewish and that their parents told them that Jewish people had horns. <BR/><BR/>I was only eleven at the time and had never heard that. My parents said they never mentioned that to us because it had been awhile since they had heard people saying that but it certainly upset me.Bill from NJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10103923612595508277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-57488922404925776972008-08-13T15:37:00.000-04:002008-08-13T15:37:00.000-04:00I don't see how a Xerox lawyer could complain abou...I don't see how a Xerox lawyer could complain about 9D. The clue is "Reproduced, in a way". The "way" in this case is presumably using a Xerox photocopier. The answer is just as presumably "Xeroxed", not "xeroxed".<BR/><BR/>Would Speedo get upset if someone writes about Phelps Speedoing his way to Olympic gold? I would think not!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-88283213487920505792008-08-13T15:31:00.000-04:002008-08-13T15:31:00.000-04:00I thought "feed the kitty" was rather standard for...I thought "feed the kitty" was rather standard for tossing money into the pot.Two Ponieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06896743444873087885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-88517858390197248852008-08-13T15:05:00.000-04:002008-08-13T15:05:00.000-04:00Didn't anyone but me get stuck because nobody ever...Didn't anyone but me get stuck because nobody ever uses the term "kitty" for poker table money? It's not even antiquated. It just isn't accurate. I had ablemoney forever and thought about poker, but it is just plain wrong, wrong, wrong!Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11277536184701771210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-79070847123051635002008-08-13T14:49:00.000-04:002008-08-13T14:49:00.000-04:00@ndeOh! OK. I have zero formal training in Hebre...@nde<BR/>Oh! OK. I have zero formal training in Hebrew (with the exception of dating an angry Israeli these past couple of years) so I stand corrected.<BR/><BR/>Not convinced, however, that we actually disagree and that it's not all linguistically related. Without boring everyone to death, altho I know it's not connected to the MODERN Hebrew of AVIV/Spring, I don't understand how it can not be connected to the ancient Greek/Hebrew/Latin Paques/PASCH/Pasqua thing...<BR/><BR/>Clearly PASCH and PESACH are the same derivation/related? no?<BR/>Since it's only used in that one context ZEVACH PESACH, may I suggest that that is where the Modern Hebrew derived their word for passover from the paschal lamb marking the doorposts, etc. Not to get all talmudic, but this is not that different from what I was trying to explain in simple lay terms...<BR/><BR/>@Barry <BR/>it's true that Pesach came first...you should see how stunned Christians get when you point out that the Last Supper is a Passover Seder and how you can see the plate with the Passover symbols on the table.<BR/><BR/>Most do not want to think about or even make the connection that Jesus was a rabbi, so that makes Mary Jewish/eremite, whatever and if he's the son of g-d... <BR/>It's not the usual fare for Sunday school!<BR/><BR/>Again it brings back memories, in 1974, of a fundamentalist Christian church whose kids lived on farms in rural Minnesota and they were bussed in to the big city, Minneapolis, to meet with our temple youth group to see/meet an actual "jew".<BR/>One asked, and I kid you not, where were our horns!?!<BR/><BR/>(Again from that whole mistranslation from Hebrew with horns/rays of light and the statue of Moses by Michaelangelo)<BR/><BR/>That's why vowels are SO important! Maybe that's what triggered my interest in language!<BR/><BR/>(re: horns... we explained that's why we had curly hair, to hide them...but "to tell the truth" I'm still in a bit of shock 30 years later.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com