tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post8942232187981010457..comments2024-03-29T08:45:20.722-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Filmmaker Allen / SUN 6-26-11 / Locale for cattail / Game whose name derived Swahili / It landed Pacific Ocean 3/23/01 / Bygone hand weaponRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-25119354640373800852012-02-05T22:07:43.397-05:002012-02-05T22:07:43.397-05:00This is a late post, since I save up the Sunday NY...This is a late post, since I save up the Sunday NYT crosswords to keep me amused during my winter sojourns in Mexico, however, wish to point out that the phrase in the U.K. is "half a mo" as in "wait a sec"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-31466662643923149402011-08-27T20:45:59.564-04:002011-08-27T20:45:59.564-04:00This puzzle was the dullest Sunday grind in a long...This puzzle was the dullest Sunday grind in a long time. Bleh.Sidnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-17488154832389054832011-07-19T12:51:16.570-04:002011-07-19T12:51:16.570-04:00Look on Google Images for photos of the Namib Dese...Look on Google Images for photos of the Namib Desert. Pretty amazing. The animals that live in the desert are interesting too, especially the elephants. Elephants??? Yes!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-45087884156959160892011-07-04T22:22:11.787-04:002011-07-04T22:22:11.787-04:00Just to mess with the syndi (and general on-line) ...Just to mess with the syndi (and general on-line) time warp, I'm back to yesterday after saying today that I'd return in about three weeks. Insert scare-quotes as you'd like.<br /><br />@Anon9:20pm: ditto to everything @Dirigonzo said. Except, um, donuts are evil. Seriously, congrats on your first post. And, see?, people read it!! I'm a very newbie myself; I can remember the rush of realizing I'd actually succeeded in posting. Then, one of the regulars here suggested that I get an avatar, etc., and that was super easy. Just google 'google blog,' is what I think she said and I did. Anyhow, it weren't hard! And then people will recognize you (oh, that's the person with that great donut story ;-)<br /><br />@Dirigonzo and @Deb: you’re probably right that I won’t remember any spoilers in the weeks hence. BUT, I also wonder very much about just how memory works. Sure, I might not <i>consciously</i> think that I’m remembering, but mightn’t I be anyhow? I mean, how is it that I usually go back to a page in a book and start reading at just the right spot, but don’t know how I do that?<br /><br />On the other hand, maybe I'll take any potential spoiler effect as proof positive that I'm getting better at crosswords :-)<br /><br />As to a problem with the link, I don't know. I always google key bits. (Don't want to see "today's" puzzle early! ;-) <br /><br />captcha=pongkvag... Korean/Scandinavian video game?Red Valerianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04638265039015470938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-7216932168873474812011-07-04T21:40:25.426-04:002011-07-04T21:40:25.426-04:00@anony 9:20pm - Congratulations on your first post...@anony 9:20pm - Congratulations on your first post ever! And it was a good one - loved the story of the policeman's wedding with the stacked donuts - priceless!<br /><br />Your son has given you a terrific gift, I hope you find lots of new ways to enjoy it.<br /><br />Sorry you lost your Dunkin' Donuts - maybe some hew entrepreneur will reopen one when the time is right (they really are much better than Krispy Kreme.)Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-70487994562452935332011-07-04T21:20:28.255-04:002011-07-04T21:20:28.255-04:00This is my first blog post, EVER! Have been doing ...This is my first blog post, EVER! Have been doing xwords for a looong time. Found this site whilst googling for an answer. RP was off and Treedweller was doing the writeup. It was the one that started with a mostly blank grid. I have been a faithful lurker in syndi ever since.<br /><br />Adorable son gave me his IPad and NYT xword app two months ago. So here I am..trying to post a blog!<br /><br />So far only do M-W in realtime. Can't do Sunday on iPad at all. Too much moving around. So, did this one on paper and really like it, except for scarf/snarf and had no idea 18D was spelled that way. <br /><br />Now about donuts. We had two Dunkin Donuts in our neighborhood,run by families from India. Those lovely people worked tirelessly 24 hrs a day to bring us those delights. When the LARams moved to town they preferred Krispy Kreme. One Dunkin is now a Pasta Express and the other was torn down for a strip mall. Sadly we now have to get our donuts at the local grocery, and who knows when they were made. Never hot, fresh, ever.<br /><br />Adorable son's best friend is a policeman and he had stacked donuts at his wedding instead of a cake.<br /><br />Dang, this has taken over an hour to write. Think I'm finding out why I haven't done much blogging. This little devil keeps fiddling with me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-47785624344663086412011-07-04T19:53:20.569-04:002011-07-04T19:53:20.569-04:00Okay, I know who Tina FEy is. And I know what a K...Okay, I know who Tina FEy is. And I know what a KEy is. So why you gotta mess me up with KENken (?) and FEN(??)?<br /><br />Some of you puzzle people probably had no trouble with 24d but I was so ticked that that last letter wasn't a Y that I went ahead and left it blank. And N wasn't even on the radar in my head. <br /><br />Other than that a complete Sunday for me, and a good workout, though I found myself shaking my head at a number of clues/answers (hang on a mo???)<br /><br />@ CoolPapaD 11:24 AM<br />Garner's knee was down and Ford's lateral was an illegal forward pass. And now that the Axe is back where it belongs the score of that game has no doubt been correctly changed on the trophy itself to read Stanford 20 Cal 19.<br /><br />captcha: pecedusl - supplement taken to keep one's pecs regular.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-39006397298978642482011-07-03T22:35:59.318-04:002011-07-03T22:35:59.318-04:00I liked 59 across, Scarlett O'Hara's real ...I liked 59 across, Scarlett O'Hara's real name. "Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that the land means nothing to you?" It's actually just her first name. And her original name chosen by Margaret Mitchell was "Pansy" which would also fit, but not work. LOVE this blog!Cristinicanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-56629128371167907842011-07-03T22:10:05.921-04:002011-07-03T22:10:05.921-04:00Difficulty for me was off-the-charts hard; in fact...Difficulty for me was off-the-charts hard; in fact, DNF, thanks to an early mistake that I simply could not dislodge: Filmmaker Allen will for me always and inevitably be WOODY. Now that you mention IRWIN, I acknowledge his membership in that fraternity, but to refer to a filmmaker named Allen and NOT mean Woody is to my mind an unforgivable travesty. Shame on you, David!<br /> Leaving the inscrutable NE, I turned to the SE, where I knew KARRAS, and that seven- was either HEPTA or SEPTA, which together with MIR, ANO and ORGS gave me PR_MAR________ for love before war (?). Naturally, I filled in PRIMARY and got lost down there.<br /> Also bothering was SLILY--shouldn't it be SLYLY? I know I have never seen the word "SLILY" in print before, ever. RUNTIER crossing ETRES was like fingernails on a blackboard...I finally realized: I don't want to do this one any more.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-79252121710783855502011-07-03T16:49:54.767-04:002011-07-03T16:49:54.767-04:00@Deb @ - It's not just you, the syndicated puz...@Deb @ - It's not just you, the syndicated puzzle took me to Friday 5/27 too (but isn't that FIVE weeks plus two days ago?) Maybe that's why the "anonymous" comments are so few today? <br /><br />And I suspect @RP is always keeping an eye on things here long after the original party-goers have cleared out, although I have no idea how he finds enough time in the day to tend to this blog plus his new FB page and still have a real life - it's incredible!Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-5477881292166530842011-07-03T15:50:59.649-04:002011-07-03T15:50:59.649-04:00Oops - one more thing... Is the syndicated link b...Oops - one more thing... Is the syndicated link broken for everyone else, or is it just me? Both yesterday and today it took me to the Friday puzzle from six weeks (plus two days) ago.Debhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16675331024091722316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-34884719465492886092011-07-03T15:34:47.947-04:002011-07-03T15:34:47.947-04:00Like cfxc, I was really surprised Rex was unfamili...Like cfxc, I was really surprised Rex was unfamiliar with the word "fen." Perhaps he's not a baseball fan? Neither am I, for that matter, but my son's first apartment when he went to school in Boston sat right in between Fenway Park to the rear and The Fens to the front, so "fen" is now the first word I think of when a clue is asking for something swampy.<br /><br />Another annoyed hand up at A MO, SLILY, PENNER and SNARF. My dead-tree puzzle's NE corner is a mess of inky write-overs. I'm also always annoyed at the word "ensnare." I understand it's a legitimate word, but it just feels very redundant to me in the same way as "irregardless."<br /><br />FETE OF CLAY was definitely my favorite theme answer - it's simple but somehow elegant. <br /><br />@Red - Ditto what Dirigonzo said! I could sit and read through, say, yesterday's entire puzzle and six weeks from now I'd still be stumped (particularly since it would be a Saturday puzzle). BTW, I'm a little more than halfway through "Day of Honey," and the main feeling I'm taking away from it is an even more entrenched belief that religion is the bane of civilization. <br /><br />One final comment/query for Rex, himself. I first found your blog in December of 2004, which I recall because I was visiting my son for the holidays and since his local paper, unlike mine, didn't have the solved puzzle to peek at when you got stumped, I ended up googling which landed me here. Your blog was fairly new at the time, and you only had a handful of comments generally, and you actually responded to me in my six-weeks-back hinterlands a couple of times. Now that your readership has exploded, I assume you don't have the time to read every comment even in real time, so when I comment here as though you "aren't in the room," it's because I suspect you aren't - not because I'm lacking in manners. (Though I sometimes am.)<br /><br />Captcha=scrich: an onomatopoeia of nails on a chalkboardDebhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16675331024091722316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-32653662983097291842011-07-03T12:10:28.282-04:002011-07-03T12:10:28.282-04:00I wrote in "bog" for the cattail's l...I wrote in "bog" for the cattail's locale very early on and never went back to correct it after I finished down in the SW corner, so I had some pretty bizarre results up there.<br /><br />A comic-strip I read regularly (Big Nate, maybe?) uses SNARF occasionally, so the term was familiar to me.<br /><br />I went to college in ORONO, as does my younger son, so I smile every time that particular college town appears in the puzzle.<br /><br />@Red Valerian - I too noticed the "spoilers" in the prime-time discussion but I wasn't troubled by them as I will have long since forgotten the remarks by the time we see the puzzle.Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-90518682553517197832011-07-02T17:27:31.591-04:002011-07-02T17:27:31.591-04:00Sorry--try this (or just google it yourself, plus ...Sorry--try this (or just google it yourself, plus it's not really all that fascinating ;-)<br /><br /><a rel="nofollow">Tim Horton</a>Red Valerianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04638265039015470938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-10412393808022092262011-07-02T17:16:54.863-04:002011-07-02T17:16:54.863-04:00Syndi-solver here. Greetings from last week, or s...Syndi-solver here. Greetings from last week, or something.<br /><br />Enjoyed the solve a lot, with some fun “aha!” moments. (I never time myself—that’d be too depressing.) Was bogged down for ages in the CAST PAJAMAS area, but I finally got it.<br /><br />Hand up for considering SCARF as good as SNARF, but I had heard of both.<br /><br />@retired_chemist: I didn’t mind “sodium AMIDE” given the crosses, despite how long it took me to get that section.<br /><br />Like @CoolPapaD and others, I did not like SLILY. That’s just gotta be a variant (or so say we).<br /><br />@Lewis: please do not talk about puzzles from other days—the one you are talking about is, I can only surmise, just under four weeks in the future for syndicated solvers (people who solve the puzzle when it appears in their local papers, which is later than when it appears in the NYT). Thanks!<br /><br />@mac: Tim Horton’s is named after (wait for it…) Tim Horton, a hockey player. This might make a link: <a rel="nofollow">Tim Horton</a>. The food would be okay if it weren’t mainly donuts. (ugh)<br /><br />Like @Alton and others, I had no idea what or who Bob Evans is/was, but at least I didn't think it/he a supermarket. I am learning a lot about the US from doing the NYT crossword!<br /><br />Like PREMARTIALSEX. ahem… Oh, and also all the other ? answers. Never heard of JENGA, but it looks like fun.Red Valerianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04638265039015470938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-5745518670906596402011-06-29T21:54:59.755-04:002011-06-29T21:54:59.755-04:00I had no clue what Bob Evans was-I for some reason...I had no clue what Bob Evans was-I for some reason was thinking it was a supermarket despite filling in Denny's and then wondering why a supermarket would be competing with a chain restaurant. <br /><br />And go KD! Playing the Anderson Center at Binghamton? Good for you. Enjoyed the first show ever held there.Altonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09291867697202868416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-28158415779611139572011-06-27T22:58:50.252-04:002011-06-27T22:58:50.252-04:002nd on judo vs Tae Bo: Tae Bo was an aerobic kic...2nd on judo vs Tae Bo: Tae Bo was an aerobic kickboxing fad a few years ago and is not similar to Judo. Judo is more like wrestling, centered around throws and is done on the mat, not standing. Tae Kwon Do, on the other hand, involves standing and kicking and punching.<br /><br />Also the obscure northeastern cities (Altoona, Ft. Lee, and Orono) were very difficult for this Tennessean.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-75110613597839107122011-06-27T02:05:05.826-04:002011-06-27T02:05:05.826-04:00@Rube - I believe Penn State is in University Park...@Rube - I believe Penn State is in University Park. Texas A&M is in College Station, unless WIki is lying to me, which is entirely possible. <br /><br />@Z - Elmore Leonard is also the inspiration for the excellent FX series Justified.jaehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03385568014046336373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-76767748887590467752011-06-27T01:31:59.848-04:002011-06-27T01:31:59.848-04:00Nailed NAMIB because I recently saw the June issue...Nailed NAMIB because I recently saw the June issue of National Geographic. It has some great pictures of the NAMIB Desert.<br />I confidently entered GONIF. <br />Liked FETE OF CLAY and PRE-MARTIAL SEXDon Byasnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-48542215655356259732011-06-26T23:46:48.611-04:002011-06-26T23:46:48.611-04:00@ mac - Tim Hortons.@ mac - <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-07-09/local/17929466_1_dunkin-donuts-tim-hortons" rel="nofollow">Tim Hortons</a>.retired_chemisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13181126754941899228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-52582843832294154612011-06-26T23:27:58.780-04:002011-06-26T23:27:58.780-04:00Bob Evans restaurants are totally unknown in CT. I...Bob Evans restaurants are totally unknown in CT. I thought the clue was referring to this Canadian outfit that seems to try to take over the Dunkin' Donuts of this are (including NY), but I just can't think of their name. Donuts.<br /><br />Got snarf because it was in a puzzle just a few days ago.machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-46219678764569865902011-06-26T20:52:07.402-04:002011-06-26T20:52:07.402-04:00after 8 hours of driving through Massachusetts, Co...after 8 hours of driving through Massachusetts, Connecticut and back home to Pennsylvania I was near-comatose as I began the puzzle, so I was surprised and thrilled that I blew this in about 20 or so minutes....<br /><br />only slow spots were the extreme NW and NE, both of which have some cool answers (KDLANG, OROMEO, TOPDOGS). Theme was easy to discern with MINUET, and like others, the funnest answers for me were NOGRETASHAKES and PREMARTIALSEX. Two very quick writeovers in SLYLY/SLILY (yuk) and SEPTA/HEPTA.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15061040532903767385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-68277632506824842992011-06-26T20:27:59.973-04:002011-06-26T20:27:59.973-04:00@ Rube - Bob Evans Restaurants comprise nearly 570...@ Rube - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Evans_Restaurants" rel="nofollow">Bob Evans Restaurants</a> comprise nearly 570 locations in 23 states, primarily in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, and upper Southern states. All locations are corporately owned, not franchised. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />Owens Restaurants in TX were identical. Bob Evans owned them, but they are gone now.retired_chemisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13181126754941899228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-66438055589835037432011-06-26T20:03:30.644-04:002011-06-26T20:03:30.644-04:00It would have been fun to be a starling near the h...It would have been fun to be a starling near the hors d'oevres table at this gathering ...fergushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17056002311944010536noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-36078294955833139972011-06-26T20:03:02.145-04:002011-06-26T20:03:02.145-04:00Judo and tae bo have nothing whatsoever in common,...Judo and tae bo have nothing whatsoever in common, at all, nothing. That's right, nothing. Judo is essentially wrestling in pajamas, with no blows or boxing-like maneuvers of any kind.Horace S. Patoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14264460908182147981noreply@blogger.com