tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post5351740249232848998..comments2024-03-29T08:33:53.797-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: SUNDAY, Apr. 22, 2007 - Vic FlemingRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-57558133072449035132007-05-11T19:28:00.000-04:002007-05-11T19:28:00.000-04:00Anonymous, 79D was clued "Arrived quietly." 91 D w...Anonymous, 79D was clued "Arrived quietly." 91 D was "Kind of check." Why didn't you have the clues?<BR/><BR/>Gyros are distinctly different than heroes. A gyro (pronounced "YEAR-o") is a Greek sandwich commonly made with lamb or chicken that, yes, wwpierre, cooks rotisserie-style on a spit. They come in a pita with onions, tomatoes and a white yogurt-based sauce whose name escapes me. <BR/><BR/>A hero is an Italian-American sandwich with salami, provolone and lettuce and such, served on Italian bread. <BR/><BR/>So the issue is not that GYRO is an odd spelling of HERO. It's that delis (at least the ones in the New York I grew up in) don't serve gyros. Because gyros necessitate one of those vertical spindle doo-dads (around which meat of dubious quality/origin can circulate under the heat of a red lamp for days on end), you usually have to buy gyros from a street vendor, or a specifically Greek deli/café/diner. A deli, on the other hand, is good bet if you're looking for a hero.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-46864971190813987052007-04-30T22:48:00.000-04:002007-04-30T22:48:00.000-04:00Help!Had no down clues for 79D and 91D. "Stolein" ...Help!<BR/>Had no down clues for 79D and 91D. "Stolein" and "Claim" respectively. What am I missing?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-16744363041317243752007-04-29T21:31:00.000-04:002007-04-29T21:31:00.000-04:00A week later here if anyone is left. Liked the pu...A week later here if anyone is left. Liked the puzzle. Got hung up in a few places but managed to do it. Peete is notable because he was one of the (if not the)first black quarter backs. I always felt Sandburg was trying to convice people that he really was a poet. Listening to Sgt. Pepper's in a darkened compartment aboard ship in 1967 helped me survive the US Navy. "A day in the Life" can almost get you high.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-36771340302957750732007-04-29T20:39:00.000-04:002007-04-29T20:39:00.000-04:00Seems I was wrong in my sandwich speculation. Trad...Seems I was wrong in my sandwich speculation. Traditionally GYROs are filled with meat cooked on a skewer, or spit. GYRATED, I suppose. The only ones I have had were essentially HEROs in PITA bread.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-7876767050257912202007-04-29T20:28:00.000-04:002007-04-29T20:28:00.000-04:00I found this puzzle as entertaining as any today; ...I found this puzzle as entertaining as any today; a three or four cupper, about my average for a big weekend puzzle. Once I got over my traditional initial panic and got a few wedges started, I was able to capture the north and advance steadily south, going back occasionally to mop up stubborn pockets of resistance. No help from Google. <BR/><BR/>I suspect that HERO Is an americanization of GYRO. The ingredients of each sandwich are similar, but the breads are different. <BR/><BR/>The appearance of EPINAL gives me the excuse to explain my Handle. <BR/><BR/>I am a combat flight simmer, and the Europe of 1914-1918, and 1939-1945 is where I play war. I have flown over EPINAL many times, in both SPAD and SPITFIRE. <BR/><BR/>I belong to an organized virtual squadron, the WingWalkers,(hence the WW) which turned 15 this spring, and is the oldest continuously active squad in Cyberspace. We are the Knights-Templar if the Internet.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-42077061481157982632007-04-24T20:12:00.000-04:002007-04-24T20:12:00.000-04:00Well, Ms. North Carolina geography... if you want ...Well, Ms. North Carolina geography... if you want to go there, then there are also UNC campuses in Ashville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Pembroke & Wilmington!<BR/>So pardon me for thinking that maybe there was one in Durham too when I had "UN_" to go with!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19005867125452782392007-04-24T17:31:00.000-04:002007-04-24T17:31:00.000-04:00Of course, nothing Sandburg wrote is worth a damn....Of course, nothing Sandburg wrote is worth a damn. "Hog butcher to the world" indeed! Growing up in Chicago I learned to detest his work. He even made Lincoln boring.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-47561082462068991102007-04-23T17:44:00.000-04:002007-04-23T17:44:00.000-04:00UNC should not be a trap, since it is not in Durha...UNC should not be a trap, since it is not in Durham. Here's the North Carolina geography: Duke is in Durham, and UNC is in Chapel Hill.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-60702822158095212592007-04-23T16:39:00.000-04:002007-04-23T16:39:00.000-04:00Wait! I have suddenly discovered that Sandburg's l...Wait! I have suddenly discovered that Sandburg's line is true genius. Know why? Because you begin to muse: What does it look like when an echo dances, or when a shadow dances? And then you realize you're dreaming of Andy Gibb and his song, "Shadow Dancing," and you're transported to age 12 again.<BR/><BR/>I don't love poetry, but I don't hate it. However, I cannot abide broccoli, for I am a bit of a supertaster.Orangehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12433254398377357737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-79461504777151396782007-04-23T01:16:00.000-04:002007-04-23T01:16:00.000-04:00Sorry profphil, but Shaun is right: the Sandburg q...Sorry profphil, but Shaun is right: the Sandburg quote blows. There is a reason Shaun is my best friend: we think Very Much Alike. Ditto my wife - actually, she doesn't think just like me, but she sure as hell knows how I think. She surveyed the options, and then said "You didn't like 'an echo asking a shadow to dance'..." I had this huge smile the whole time she was deliberating because I just knew that she was going to be right and somehow that exceedingly minor detail was very touching to me.<BR/><BR/>The Sandburg quotation should be followed by "..., man" and then the sound of someone inhaling deeply on a very fat joint. Fake and forced and meaningless. Plus, if poetry were that insubstantial, I'd want nothing to do with it - in fact, that's why I want nothing to do with it a lot of the time; 'cause when it's bad, it's Bad, and it's often bad.<BR/><BR/>But I don't get the poetry-haters. Sounds more like ignorance, or like a 6-yr-old who claims to "hate" broccoli or classical music or whatever. The idea that science is more valuable / practical than poetry is absurd. It's a false opposition.Rex Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74344623754353955282007-04-23T00:55:00.000-04:002007-04-23T00:55:00.000-04:00My favorite hymn has always been the beloved Angli...My favorite hymn has always been the beloved Anglican hymn "Jerusalem," well covered by David Bowie in "The Man Who Fell To Earth" and by Emerson, Lake and Palmer on their album "Brain Salad Surgery."<BR/><BR/><BR/>I find "... the deification of reality..." to be a mortification on the trashy side of absurd.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-79236945687522686332007-04-22T23:54:00.000-04:002007-04-22T23:54:00.000-04:00I've heard "ven aqui" heard as well as "ven acá", ...I've heard "ven aqui" heard as well as "ven acá", though the latter seems more commonly used to me... at least in the Dominican Republic...<BR/><BR/>Not only was José Martí a "Cuban patriot", he was a poet as well...which of course fits in nicely w/ the Poetry Month theme... some of his verse was<BR/>grafted onto an old folk song and we know it today as "Guantanamera"...<BR/><BR/>By the way I totally fell into the UNC trap too...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-88840675319504553742007-04-22T23:49:00.000-04:002007-04-22T23:49:00.000-04:00Orange - utterly wicked humor!!Thanks for the coll...Orange - utterly wicked humor!!<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the college tips; I may speak w/you after the SLC visit tomorrow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23179115883900296702007-04-22T23:36:00.000-04:002007-04-22T23:36:00.000-04:00Shaun, I liked the Sandburg one. An echo and a sha...Shaun,<BR/><BR/> I liked the Sandburg one. An echo and a shadow are reflections of an object, one of sound the other of light. Two ethereal phenomena of different media imagined to request a dance which requires the tangible and tactile: face to face, cheek to cheek, hand to hand in order to connect and move as one. Poetry can express the impossible but it can only whisper a hint of it. It can only be imagined, never grasped.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-34895313529467161832007-04-22T23:29:00.000-04:002007-04-22T23:29:00.000-04:00Shaun, I don't know any hymns, but I do like that ...Shaun, I don't know any hymns, but I do like that version of "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" from the Nirvana <I>Unplugged</I> album. Does that count?<BR/><BR/>I know Rodney Peete via Holly Robinson Peete, too. They have twins. She was on a cute married-couple-with-nutty-married-neighbors sitcom for a season.<BR/><BR/>So long as the crossword isn't cluing CAME with [Pulled <I>out</I>], I think we're in the clear.<BR/><BR/>Vi, hilarious that Barilla Pasta is solidly in the heartland! Their ads when the brand first launched made them seem authentically Italian, not Iowan. (I have friends who went to Grinnell and Macalester—e-mail me if...well, I guess I haven't got anything useful to say other than that they're both excellent colleges, and I do love the smallprivateliberalartscollege shtick.)<BR/><BR/>Those damn Durham clues always, always trick me. I enter UNC, but it's always UNH. Shouldn't I have learned this by now?Orangehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12433254398377357737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19987726896965564422007-04-22T19:24:00.000-04:002007-04-22T19:24:00.000-04:00I don't think Rex's age has much to do with not li...I don't think Rex's age has much to do with not listening to Sgt. Pepper. At least, it seems to me that all children of Boomers normally grow up thoroughly versed in such things -- I'd think you'd have to be about 15 for age to apply as an adequate excuse.<BR/><BR/>To grow up bereft of such gems as "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" or "Gladly the cross I'd bear" is a bit sad, to grow up without listening to Sgt. Pepper is sadder, but to grow up without both makes me wonder what the hell you were doing all those years?<BR/><BR/>Least favorite poetry quote -- surely 81A, Carl Sandburg. What is that supposed to mean? That's the kind of stuff that makes people hate an entire, massive, endlessly diverse mode of communication.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-26453670076407579892007-04-22T19:10:00.000-04:002007-04-22T19:10:00.000-04:00Spellbreaker, it was also funny if you're over 50....Spellbreaker, it was also funny if you're over 50. <BR/><BR/>Sorry, Ellen, but we are old :-[ <BR/>At least you're a crossword champ.<BR/><BR/>I think I'll play Sgt. Pepper while I work the Monday puzzle. <BR/><BR/>It was twenty years ago today...Linda Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15816794362786044423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-42959537300111817422007-04-22T18:39:00.000-04:002007-04-22T18:39:00.000-04:00In spanish, "aca" is a more direct version of "aqu...In spanish, "aca" is a more direct version of "aqui." You would say "ven aca" as in "come here" but, more specifically, as in "come right next to me." On the other hand, "aqui" can refer to a whole room or the general direction in which the person saying it is.<BR/><BR/>Thought "on in years" was colloquial cool, but i guess it's just amusing when you're under 20. <BR/><BR/>Loved "The USA" being clued via The Boss. Good music clues = good crossword, any day.<BR/><BR/>"Amount past due?" was a great way to clue tre, and I just love the way these guys clue foreign numbers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74929196048682854302007-04-22T18:27:00.000-04:002007-04-22T18:27:00.000-04:00You've never listened to Sgt. Pepper? Now I feel ...You've never listened to Sgt. Pepper? Now I feel really old.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-22903376207402744702007-04-22T16:24:00.000-04:002007-04-22T16:24:00.000-04:00Is "deli" a food place of a specifically ethnic va...Is "deli" a food place of a specifically ethnic variety? Maybe it is more of a reserved term on the East Coast but at least where I grew up "Greek deli," "Russian deli," "Italian deli," etc. (Vancouver, Washington) were perfectly fine phrases.<BR/><BR/>So I wouldn't have complained if the the answer had been piroshky. Better than the recent Polish Hams which I had never heard of.<BR/><BR/>I'm not a fan of poetry and the only quotee I recognized by name was Sandburg. But the quotes were made up for reasonably discrete deducible words so I have no complaints.<BR/><BR/>Did not like CAME. Had no idea that IAMS pet foods were named after a person. I was so proud of myself for remembering the Phantom Lady comic book character that I forgot the movie. Was pleased that PRAM was a gimme without crosses. Loved seeing NEWBIE in the puzzle even though I still don't know what the clue means (besides NEWBIE, of course). <BR/><BR/>Got PEETE through the Holly Robinson Peete connection and only got that because I once worked a red carpet where they were there as a couple.<BR/><BR/>Considering I did this one is spurts from 10p.m to 3a.m. while pulling a 20 hours work shift I'm very pleased with how well I did.Alex S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07543077687426776863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-42481518470629071552007-04-22T16:11:00.000-04:002007-04-22T16:11:00.000-04:00As there are only 24 letters in the Greek alphabet...As there are only 24 letters in the Greek alphabet, omega is the 24th...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-83498245799496282912007-04-22T16:04:00.000-04:002007-04-22T16:04:00.000-04:00No one here on Long Island would go into a deli an...No one here on Long Island would go into a deli and order a gyro. (a hot pastrami on rye, definitely.) There are too many great Greek cafes/diners for that!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-6327001422391337672007-04-22T15:33:00.000-04:002007-04-22T15:33:00.000-04:00I've heard the expression: When did you pull in? W...I've heard the expression: When did you pull in? With the reply I pulled in about 11:00 or so. I guess it's based on pulling into a driveway.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-32701702428822794042007-04-22T14:35:00.000-04:002007-04-22T14:35:00.000-04:00Ditto on the Sunday clothes quote (gack), but I di...Ditto on the Sunday clothes quote (gack), but I didn't feel it was quite as pretentious as the "deification" rot! I had to google the garbled, cross-eyed bear phrase, and had fun perusing the Wikipedia "mondegreen" entry.... reminded me of an old AC/DC song that I used to sing along to as a kid, "Dirty jeans, laundered cheap"....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-76450211751468735292007-04-22T13:38:00.000-04:002007-04-22T13:38:00.000-04:00Today, the puzzle was fun, your blog entertaining ...Today, the puzzle was fun, your blog entertaining & informative, and the comments terrific.<BR/><BR/>BTW, after a lot of musing I think 114D (pulled in=came) might come from "she pulled in to the driveway." That's a stretch, but I can't come up with anything else. Anyone?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com