tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post536899605861935580..comments2024-03-28T22:09:11.213-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: SUNDAY, Mar. 23, 2008 - Robert W. Harris (ALLY MAKERS)Rex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-17944251972462188882018-10-29T18:48:08.784-04:002018-10-29T18:48:08.784-04:00Agreed, the N/W corner was a bitch. Ally makers = ...Agreed, the N/W corner was a bitch. Ally makers = uniters???? I got the puzzle, but a real bitch. Ally is a bank now.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18038002669098155804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-37916539108072574872008-03-24T18:41:00.000-04:002008-03-24T18:41:00.000-04:00does 'eked' mean 'scraped'? I thought it meant mor...does 'eked' mean 'scraped'? I thought it meant more like 'made do' or 'stretched'. I'm just grumbling, because I guessed dreidel but spelled it dreidl and since it didn't fit thought it must be something else. to give someone a basting is to give them a beating, or 'wallop'. Since Safire had a grammatical mistake in his column perhaps there were sluggish spirits haunting the magazine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19860135181440410342008-03-24T02:32:00.000-04:002008-03-24T02:32:00.000-04:00This puzzle gave me a hard time, but in a good way...This puzzle gave me a hard time, but in a good way -- I liked it a lot and look forward to more by the new constructor.<BR/><BR/>Was one of those puzzles which for the first five minutes I could only get two or three answers. Then they started coming faster, until an hour later I was done. My favorite kind.<BR/><BR/>Most clever: Mantra, exotic ports, gold records, spring breaks.<BR/><BR/>All in all, fun and challenging. Very relaxing after a busy weekend.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-10627171570615101012008-03-24T00:17:00.000-04:002008-03-24T00:17:00.000-04:00Rex, you said that you always think of "tint" or "...Rex, you said that you always think of "tint" or "perm" as standard four-letter words for "Salon option". Funny, I didn't think of either of those words; the two that always come first to my mind are "afro" and "updo". Sad to say, I've had all four done to me at one time or another...Shanti11https://www.blogger.com/profile/03397942491057116387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-11500891903623970012008-03-24T00:13:00.000-04:002008-03-24T00:13:00.000-04:00I guess I'm the only one who actually had "Baltic ...I guess I'm the only one who actually had "Baltic ports" for a while, though I know perfectly well Portugal is not on the Baltic...I agree that this puzzle was pretty pedestrian. Like some others, I was able to guess the theme answers (other than exotic ports) right off the bat, without needing the intersecting letters, and then filling in the rest was just a bore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59583230044565358062008-03-23T19:27:00.000-04:002008-03-23T19:27:00.000-04:00You may not have liked it because it was fairly ea...You may not have liked it because it was fairly easy. All but NW was obvious I thought and the combinations were humdrum.<BR/>But, oh, that nasty NW corner. That had me hopping, too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74980548476829596432008-03-23T19:10:00.000-04:002008-03-23T19:10:00.000-04:00I started with TELAVIV immediately, and then guess...I started with TELAVIV immediately, and then guessed TEVIS on the cross, as the only writer I knew that fit. (He's probably more famous for his science fiction, like "The Man Who Fell to Earth". His short story "Far From Home" is one of the all time greats.)<BR/><BR/>After that, the puzzle was mostly dull. I wanted to put "AUTO" in for Zone prefix, but I knew it couldn't be right.<BR/><BR/>Robert HOOKE should be well-known to every educated adult. Isaac Newton's famous quip "If I have seen farther than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" is considered by some to be a backhand insult to Hooke, who was quite short.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-53682654827452404802008-03-23T17:44:00.000-04:002008-03-23T17:44:00.000-04:00CF at 2:34, what's omitted from each clue is "Comm...CF at 2:34, what's omitted from each clue is "Common Interests"—the electrician and news anchor both <I>like</I> CURRENT EVENTS rather than <I>being</I> CURRENT EVENTS. Does that make sense?<BR/><BR/>John at 3:20, <A HREF="http://www.answers.com/hadj&r=67" REL="nofollow">this dictionary</A> lists haj, hajj, and hadj as accepted spellings. And you know the rules—if it's in the dictionary, the crossword constructor can generally get away with it.Orangehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12433254398377357737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-88109321532699397272008-03-23T17:16:00.000-04:002008-03-23T17:16:00.000-04:00Good concept, easy to crack, but here are my nits:...Good concept, easy to crack, but here are my nits:<BR/><BR/>- All theme entries were plurals, which by itself is not a problem given the theme.<BR/>- But, there were additional clunky plurals: uniters, basalts, staters, honers.<BR/>- Add falser to the above, and that completes my list of things that detracted from a fine debut.<BR/><BR/>npAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-6425402427831338712008-03-23T17:06:00.000-04:002008-03-23T17:06:00.000-04:0040-D Factory shipments = goods, abbr. GDS40-D Factory shipments = goods, abbr. GDSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-78726552378654535192008-03-23T16:23:00.000-04:002008-03-23T16:23:00.000-04:00I don't understand "GDS."I don't understand "GDS."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-1915794357957917302008-03-23T15:34:00.000-04:002008-03-23T15:34:00.000-04:00I thought this was easy, but perhaps this was just...I thought this was easy, but perhaps this was just the contrast with Saturday's harder-than-usual puzzle (even for a Saturday). Perhaps I'm being overcritical (actually I'm sure these examples are unobjectionable) but I didn't much like the following clue-answer combinations:<BR/><BR/>less accurate -- falser (how many people have ever said "falser"?)<BR/><BR/>huge in poetry -- enorm (no doubt a zillion citations, but this just seems silly to me)<BR/><BR/>wallop - baste (both paste and waste seem better, maybe I need this explained)<BR/><BR/>like some grievances -- unaired (or a whole lot of other adjectives)Michael Chibnikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04700426644898924644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-84809504627758525332008-03-23T15:20:00.000-04:002008-03-23T15:20:00.000-04:00"Hadj" drives me crazy because even given the diff..."Hadj" drives me crazy because even given the difficulty transliterating Arabic into English it isn't right. It's HAJJ. The last two letters are not some strange Arabic letter that can be transliterated multiple ways. They're Js, pure and simple. It's no different than the answer to "Gospel author" being "DJOHN." It's just absolutely wrong. Perhaps easy to figure out, but fundamentally erroneous.<BR/><BR/>\nitpickingJohnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09007173193428377238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59716361991995363402008-03-23T15:00:00.000-04:002008-03-23T15:00:00.000-04:00RexHaaretz is the name of a daily paper published ...Rex<BR/><BR/>Haaretz is the name of a daily paper published in Israel, the name essentially means the land. Many Jews refer to Israel as Eretz (slight spelling variation), a term of endearment.Ladelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00822660581698301611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-73849348911220315142008-03-23T14:37:00.000-04:002008-03-23T14:37:00.000-04:00Oh and thanks Rex for the "R" currency list, hope ...Oh and thanks Rex for the "R" currency list, hope I can remember most of it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-1474392846257133922008-03-23T14:34:00.000-04:002008-03-23T14:34:00.000-04:00What seemed to make the puzzle clunky to me was th...What seemed to make the puzzle clunky to me was that the theme clues referred to people, but the answers mostly refer to things. "Engineers, news anchors" are not events. "Students, mattress testers" are breakers maybe, but not breaks.<BR/>CFAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-51470565334984712812008-03-23T14:17:00.000-04:002008-03-23T14:17:00.000-04:00For those who can access the other puzzles today I...For those who can access the other puzzles today I recommend the Philly Inquirer -- talk about high Scrabble values! Whew..<BR/><BR/>Rex, I had to chortle at the desex/alter because it reminded me of your recent play on words geld/gelt etc., and all the discussion that entailed.<BR/><BR/>Also enjoyed the comments above on Hooke (with book recommendation), and Coolidge. Thanks again for this blog!<BR/><BR/>∑;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-28164972493215060232008-03-23T13:46:00.000-04:002008-03-23T13:46:00.000-04:00Looking back at the clues and answers, it seems li...Looking back at the clues and answers, it seems like a perfectly solid puzzle with just a few screwy fills (HADJ, OTOS, GDS, ORT, ONEACTER) but there were some combos that I really didn't like: Boffo-HIT, <BR/>Desex-ALTER, <BR/>Crumb-ORT, <BR/>Factory-GDS, <BR/>Floods-SPATES, <BR/>Bleach-DINGY, <BR/>Dog-SHEDDER, <BR/>Less accurate-FALSER, <BR/>With...-ONEACTER.<BR/><BR/>I thought the theme was quite inventive and once I figured it out (at long last with GOLDRECORDS) they fell in order. I like to do Sunday puzzles on Saturday night and treat them like an uphill climb with welcome discoveries along the way that keep me going. When I made the discovery in this one it was more like "Ugh, finally" instead of "Wow, now that's clever!" The Rat-NAMESNAMES clue from yesterday? is a lovely combo, for example. Let me put it this way, if the mechanical clueing of this one is a "Coolidge" then I'll opt for a "Bill Clinton."Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10389790318218161090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-64546160715921497362008-03-23T13:36:00.000-04:002008-03-23T13:36:00.000-04:00Lavish showed up in a clue (for dotes, as lavishes...Lavish showed up in a clue (for dotes, as lavishes) and as an answer. Kind of annoying when that happens, since I'm always tentative to fill in that answer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-62587715125940572832008-03-23T13:35:00.000-04:002008-03-23T13:35:00.000-04:00I liked this puzzle (being blessed with a much hig...I liked this puzzle (being blessed with a much higher affinity/tolerance for puns than Rex's), though many of the entries/crossings/clues felt tough for a Sunday puzzle, including many common entries where the clue seemed deliberately obscure. Some of these were pointed out already (e.g. the fact that 110D:GNUS are striped was gnus -- er, news -- to me); other examples are 81A:RAD (could also be BAD), 96A:MAINE, 104A:BAN, 40D:GDS (ick), 41D:LSAT (could also be MCAT -- I was working up), 50D:TRISTE (familiar in French, rare in English), and the clue for 115D:IOU. Oh, and the clue "Desex" is a long way to go for 105A:ALTER, especially at breakfast time...<BR/><BR/>For 52A I had the ending ...REAKS and extended it to STREAKS (which is of interest to at least *some* college students) before the crossings pointed me in the right direction.<BR/><BR/>Nice to use "eked" for once as clue (to 66D:SCRAPED), not fill; to put 85A:KNEEPAD near (albeit not below) 89A:HIPJOINTS; and to clue 96D:MANTRA "You can say that again" (though I may have seen that clue before). Not sure what's so terrible about 38D:HONKS -- think about car horns either in jammed traffic or following a big sports victory.<BR/><BR/>Can somebody tell the folks at BBC radio that the paper's name is Ha-AR-etz, not haa-RETZ? It means "the land/country" and is used idiomatically to mean "Israel".<BR/><BR/>NDEAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-14308583892144728182008-03-23T13:34:00.000-04:002008-03-23T13:34:00.000-04:00Recused is a word I remember from the 2000 preside...Recused is a word I remember from the 2000 presidential election. In Iowa, court justices would have had to RECUSE themseleves if their relatives worked for interested parties in a case to be tried. Apparently that did not apply to the SCOTUS justices who had many relatives working for candidates.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-86494505683188448372008-03-23T13:04:00.000-04:002008-03-23T13:04:00.000-04:00Recused refers (I think exclusively) to a judge wh...Recused refers (I think exclusively) to a judge who withdraws from a case because of an actual or apparent conflict of interest. I knew a judge who always pronounced it "re-scused," apparently getting it jumbled up with excused.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-27894013963270416622008-03-23T12:59:00.000-04:002008-03-23T12:59:00.000-04:00Rex almost exactly described my solving experience...Rex almost exactly described my solving experience (including missteps) and feelings about the puzzle. NW opened up for me when I finally got tired of staring and called my 9 year old granddaughter (who has recently started doing puzzles) for the Little Mermaid prince. She knew it of course and NW fell with some misgivings about TUTELAR.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-87262411387362521392008-03-23T12:55:00.000-04:002008-03-23T12:55:00.000-04:00I liked the puzzle - not flashy but clever.NW kill...I liked the puzzle - not flashy but clever.<BR/><BR/>NW killed me too - literally half my solving time was spent there and in the SE (where fixing TELEVISE worked things out pretty quickly). I had TELAVIV, REDSHOES, even TEVIS and ERIC, but I stared at that empty block for a long while. Guess I'll chalk it up to crappy cluing...Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11209543514266918480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23680489355063703682008-03-23T12:27:00.000-04:002008-03-23T12:27:00.000-04:00Had everything but the NW filled in quickly, but a...Had everything but the NW filled in quickly, but also got a little stuck at the front of EXOTICPORTS. Even after I finally guessed INEXILE. I stared at the X for a bit and finally the light went off.<BR/><BR/>I got most of the theme answers by just guessing the answer, rather than discovering them from the crosses. It's more fun to have to work for the joke.katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10329419110989173609noreply@blogger.com