tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post7025338529098452529..comments2024-03-28T02:54:55.174-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Amerika novelist / WED 10-8-14 / Big 1975 boxing showdown / Beatle George's sitar teacher / Maker of Aibo robotic pets / Dr Pepper Snapple Group brandRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-33429001569088032902014-11-13T17:14:39.964-05:002014-11-13T17:14:39.964-05:00Syriously?
Have some baba ghanoush!Syriously?<br />Have some baba ghanoush!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-38983697222186846692014-11-12T18:27:51.564-05:002014-11-12T18:27:51.564-05:00I plunked down 2 of the grid-spanners with no cros...I plunked down 2 of the grid-spanners with no crosswords and managed the others before I had the grid half done, so the descending "man" was apparent. Loved it.<br /><br />@Rainy wins the comments, IMHO.<br /><br />@DMG - thanks.<br /><br />@Waxy - it's good to see you back!<br /><br />3025 - great "Limbo" score, as low as you can go.<br /><br /> Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-61004291719988993912014-11-12T16:08:37.558-05:002014-11-12T16:08:37.558-05:00@Steve J. This one solved left to right for me. ...@Steve J. This one solved left to right for me. Like when I was halh done, the left was full and the right empty. Anyone else?LongBeachLeenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-63283524177381088782014-11-12T14:39:54.244-05:002014-11-12T14:39:54.244-05:00@DMG, as soignée means elegant or well-dressed, gu...@DMG, as soignée means elegant or well-dressed, guessing that Captcha knows you better than you might think!<br /><br />Puzzle left me indifferent - lacked much excitement or any AHA moment.<br /><br />Minor quibbles with the clue for 18A (believe it's usually Ould, not Auld, Sod) and the answer at 41D (my preferred loan IDIOM would be HIT ON).<br /><br />@DMG, you win and I'm OUTA here. <br /><br />Waxy in Montrealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04395751487137805245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-76269836656005218662014-11-12T14:17:08.810-05:002014-11-12T14:17:08.810-05:00No idea what SOINGEE means? Must be Captcha speak...No idea what SOINGEE means? Must be Captcha speak!!DMGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-52227355313373395702014-11-12T14:14:44.292-05:002014-11-12T14:14:44.292-05:00Enjoyed this one, even if I didn't see "m...Enjoyed this one, even if I didn't see "man descending" until I came here. Worked out most of it, including those rapper names. But, the SW was a bear. No idea what they speak in Alba, some how mixed up my clues and thought "sociable" referred to 66A. Also sorta guessed an Indy service area was some kind of a cell phone thing. ACK! Somehow eventually worked it out. Rereading the clues helped transform my "mingle" into a(???) PANINI and I was done! Tomorrow I'll start with the coffee!<br /><br />@Diri: Nice catch on yesterday's "cookies".<br /><br />15108 All that and just a 6, but it seems good so far.<br /><br />Pays to edit my comments. While I was SOINGNEE that Captcha became 40986 or 9. Am I allowed to use this one?DMGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-53653469890474448252014-11-12T13:28:25.878-05:002014-11-12T13:28:25.878-05:00Didn't feel as much love for this puz as most ...Didn't feel as much love for this puz as most everyone else seems to have had. Possibly because of the 20-some 3s created by those good long downs. Here in MN it's Sauk not SAC, so that one was a bit strange to me. Cringed putting in NAFTA; can still see H. Ross making that "sucking sound", and he was pretty much right.OKRA isn't "necessary" for gumbo, one can use file' for thickening, if you can find it. ICET, ASHANTI, NAS: hoo boy, thanks for crosses. And back to Crete again. OK, but not all that.<br /><br />1229 - I'm OUTA hererondonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-88538200849741371712014-11-12T12:59:25.755-05:002014-11-12T12:59:25.755-05:00The appearance of the grid reeks of "descendi...The appearance of the grid reeks of "descending" and that goes well with the theme and the descent of MAN. Very elegant and clever. One completely overlooks any crosswordese with such a grid/theme/construction, or should.<br /><br />Delving into quantum physics is dicey, remembering that Einstein once said, "I don't believe in a dice-playing God". It seems that without atoms, there couldn't be any positrons, and maybe vice-versa. It's like the saying, "if your parents didn't have any kids, it's unlikely you will." In any case, I noticed that "nuclear reactor" wouldn't fit, and so, without even a shrug, wrote in ATOMS.<br /><br />PANINI, PANINo, argue all you want. There's an Italian section in Vancouver where I once ordered a panino, and the guy behind the counter, said, "nice try. I'll make you a panini". He's from Napoli, or is that Napolo? <br /><br />Excellent puzzle.<br /><br />5441. Not so excellent.rain forestnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-5098184531992578382014-11-12T11:24:24.381-05:002014-11-12T11:24:24.381-05:00Hey vampire: go suck some spellcaster blood! And b...Hey vampire: go suck some spellcaster blood! And both of you: LEAVE US THE HELL ALONE. PLEASE!!!<br /><br />Now. Silly me, I went right to the revealer clue--11d--and immediately counted out ORIGINOFSPECIES: bingo! 15! And quite naturally, it followed that the other long downs would contain the letter string SPE! Fortunately, before I committed 15 squares to ink, I "discount daah-ble-checked" in the NE.<br /><br />Oops.<br /><br />Looks like we're starting with THE...but my count was arrived at without said article. What was up? Then as I worked my way down the east coast it soon became apparent: OHTHAT Darwin work! So My aha! moment was different. After finishing, it was easy to notice the "descent," a sort of echo-aha. The Chen touch, for sure.<br /><br />Notes: ESSES: handy in crossword as well. Two rappers: Augh! But at least they were short, crossable--and even I manage to know who ICET is. Modern one-named singer between 'em: by the time I had ANTI crossing ANTIS (ugh!), I somehow came up with ASHANTI. Must be some subliminal thing. Finally, if we absolutely must have "eke," at least today it's in the clue. But OUTA is much better served by "I'm ____ here!" RIP, Harry.<br /><br />Those were my nits; like for many others, these did little to diminish a brilliant theme and execution for me. It's incredible the way the nitpickers "descend" on Italian number endings, or quibble about nuclear physics. So the cluers got a mite careless here and there. Their job is tough enough. Cut 'em a break.<br /><br />If I thought Charley Weaver might have been Cretan (with an "a," folks!), The peak could have been MTIDy, for all I knew 71a.<br /><br />5620: IDEMANDARECOUNT!<br /><br />spacecraftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-7623041232801693622014-10-22T18:35:43.754-04:002014-10-22T18:35:43.754-04:00Hello friend out there my name is Andrew Mark am a...Hello friend out there my name is Andrew Mark am a vampire i was bone in califonia am 50years old i love beeing a vampire becaose i alwayse get what i want i have initiate allote of friends family member young and old ,if you have interest you want to be a vampire you are free i can initiate you and you will be one of us fame money any thing you want will definatly be yours contact vampirestemple@yahoo.com to day and be initiated thanks Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-53696160997236989092014-10-10T17:27:43.857-04:002014-10-10T17:27:43.857-04:00Would you accept "Touchdown, e.g." as a ...Would you accept "Touchdown, e.g." as a clue for HOME RUN? No? But hey, I don't know anything about sports, and they're both sports-y words. When I think of words related to "Touchdown", HOME RUN is right up there. So hey, the clue is just fine, and I'll come to Rex's blog and argue with a bunch of sports aficionados that they're being way too picky for complaining about it!<br /><br />.....except, no, I wouldn't do that, because that would be silly. :) "Positron" and ATOM are both science-y things, and saying one might evoke the other in your mind. That doesn't make the clue correct.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17552123827575738114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-4003597070374186102014-10-10T17:13:31.573-04:002014-10-10T17:13:31.573-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17552123827575738114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-67874400631347931572014-10-09T16:44:41.690-04:002014-10-09T16:44:41.690-04:00@Unknown - Rather than "airplane" let...@Unknown - Rather than "airplane" let's use "airport." Where is Detroit Metropolitan Airport? Detroit. Even though it ain't there, it's in Romulus. As I was saying to @Casco Kid in a different forum, I wish we had a name for this type of clue that fools people who know "too much." Since I get my particle physics from Science News, the clue didn't irk me. Those more in the know about the specifics are troubled by the non-scientific cluing. I'd argue that clue is no more wrong than asserting that when you land at DTW you have arrived in Detroit. Besides, if something is created during the radioactive decay of an atom one has to cut a very difficult line to measure to assert that something is never <i>in</i> the atom. Maybe Schrodinger's cat has that answer.Zhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16181544219511150272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-78692574008494137342014-10-09T14:38:13.433-04:002014-10-09T14:38:13.433-04:00"I don't know what the experts will say b..."I don't know what the experts will say but this sure sounds like stuff that is happening inside an atom."<br /><br />Sigh. Ok, here's a closer-to-human-experience analogy. Suppose your clue was "Airplane's place", and the answer was CITY. Because airplanes come from cities, right? That's about the same thing. Positrons are created from radioactive decay of atoms, or energetic collisions of particles/photons, and there are even "virtual" positrons spontaneously appearing and being destroyed in the quantum "foam" surrounding us. But at no time are they in the stable arrangement of particles that forms an atom. That's reserved for electrons, protons, and neutrons.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17552123827575738114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-69231423719914544142014-10-09T07:25:38.850-04:002014-10-09T07:25:38.850-04:00@Z - It's not just you...
I always enjoy the ...@Z - It's not just you...<br /><br />I always enjoy the differing viewpoints here, whether I agree with them or not. C'est la vie...<br /><br />Great, great puzzle, with a refreshing theme.JenCThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18290169184354765840noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-5647158389164789672014-10-09T03:33:30.924-04:002014-10-09T03:33:30.924-04:00@Chris Rea and others...
In Italian, "spaghe...@Chris Rea and others...<br /><br />In Italian, "spaghetti" is plural too. But in English, it's a singular collective noun, like "lettuce".<br /><br />If you compliment a cook by saying "The spaghetti were very good today", you just look silly.<br /><br />By the same token, as an English word "panini" is singular, and the original Italian is not relevant to its English usage.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-27151395034082672362014-10-09T00:02:49.271-04:002014-10-09T00:02:49.271-04:00@Anon 7:54, had Evil-D been just 'cracking wis...@Anon 7:54, had Evil-D been just 'cracking wise' in his first two posts. it seems he would have mentioned that in his reply to Anna, rather than getting all A**-holier-than-thou about Kristalnacht and et ceterae. So no, I don't think so.<br /><br />Mind if I peek behind your Anon-mask, see if I see a pair of horns?I can be Anon, alsonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-76761171470192989612014-10-08T23:35:32.929-04:002014-10-08T23:35:32.929-04:00An overstuffed theme resulting in far too many 3-l...An overstuffed theme resulting in far too many 3-letter words.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-8371779515531676132014-10-08T22:12:28.415-04:002014-10-08T22:12:28.415-04:00This week's relative difficulty ratings. See m...This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation and my 10/15/2012 post for an explanation of a tweak I've made to my method. 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 5:51, 6:03, 0.97, 35%, Easy-Medium<br />Tue 6:59, 7:50, 0.89, 18%, Easy<br />Wed 7:59, 9:30, 0.84, 13%, Easy<br /><br />Top 100 solvers<br /><br />Mon 3:53, 3:57, 0.98, 36%, Easy-Medium<br />Tue 4:42, 5:21, 0.88, 10%, Easy<br />Wed 5:00, 6:12, 0.81, 4%, Easy (11th lowest ratio of 249 Wednesdays)sanfranman59https://www.blogger.com/profile/15118732156312301425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-87602370821740833322014-10-08T19:54:48.074-04:002014-10-08T19:54:48.074-04:00If everyone only realized @Evil is just cracking w...If everyone only realized @Evil is just cracking wise on the side debates of certain things in certain puzzles, you might have actually gotten a chuckle out of his first post. Lighten up, y'all. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-13603128321793024672014-10-08T18:19:43.749-04:002014-10-08T18:19:43.749-04:00Lovely puzzle, despite the legitimate nits that so...Lovely puzzle, despite the legitimate nits that some have picked. It played like a Monday for me, despite Ashanti, NAS, and IceT, one which is a semi-familiar name, one which I have never heard of, (although it may have been in the crossword before) and the third which has appeared many times, but I wouldn't know him from Snow-Cohn. Pop rock hip-hop, meaningless to me, but when as well placed as it was here certainly not objectionable. Happy Sukkoth.OISKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16808675378318214461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-85876452575014297302014-10-08T17:33:11.609-04:002014-10-08T17:33:11.609-04:00Hmmm:
Stable in a vacuum, positrons quickly react ...Hmmm:<br />Stable in a vacuum, positrons quickly react with the electrons of ordinary matter by annihilation to produce gamma radiation. Positrons are emitted in the positive beta decay of proton-rich (neutron-deficient) radioactive nuclei and are formed in pair production, in which the energy of a gamma ray in the field of a nucleus is converted into an electron-positron pair. They are also produced in the decays of certain short-lived particles, such as positive muons. Positrons emitted from man-made radioactive sources are used in medical diagnosis in the technique known as positron emission tomography (PET). (from the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/471904/positron" rel="nofollow">Encyclopedia Britannica</a><br /><br />I don't know what the experts will say but this sure sounds like stuff that is happening inside an atom.<br /><br />Is it just me or was anyone else bothered by the swearing (STFU) and the name calling (negative energy vampires)?Zhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16181544219511150272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-44349833735786062902014-10-08T17:26:32.505-04:002014-10-08T17:26:32.505-04:00Panini is not "a sandwich", I don't ...Panini is not "a sandwich", I don't care how many restaurant workers and customers incorrectly think it is. The heading "Panini" on a menu means "Sandwiches"; the clue should have been written "Italian sandwiches"<br />Joe Dipintonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-18775306226362705502014-10-08T17:04:43.499-04:002014-10-08T17:04:43.499-04:00@Ellen S, I always enjoy your comments. Do you by...@Ellen S, I always enjoy your comments. Do you by any chance have an advanced degree in French? And, yeah, maybe it is a descent in usage. Still, I'll stick up for the original, for sate, slake, and satisfy, etc. regards, <br /><br />Wordiewordiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18169510982915122171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-38193779924758813292014-10-08T16:30:44.940-04:002014-10-08T16:30:44.940-04:00All the atoms you will ever see in your life - and...<i>All the atoms you will ever see in your life - and you'll see a lot - don't have positrons in them.</i><br /><br />Similarly, all the positrons you'll ever encounter in your life won't be in atoms.<br /><br />Finding a couple of positrons in ATOMs does not make an ATOM a "Positron's place".Davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15336260911834780345noreply@blogger.com