TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2006 - Bruce P. Douglas
Monday, November 6, 2006
Solving time: 8:39 (details below)
THEME: Red State / Blue State - 6 theme answers, 3 clued "Red state," 3 clued "Blue state"
Before I begin my response to today's election-day, election-themed puzzle, I'd like to take some time to answer Viewer Mail. Our first letter comes from "Catherine" at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. After lavishing much-deserved praise on yours truly, she writes:
As both a crossword nerd and a plant nerd, I feel that I have to point out an error [in the Sunday, Nov. 5 puzzle commentary]. The picture of a “pawpaw” you have on your Sunday entry is actually a papaya. Although people in other countries call papayas pawpaws, the American use of the word applies to the native tree species Asimina triloba. The clue in the puzzle refers to an old children’s song believed to be written in Kentucky.I am grateful for the correction, and I want to apologize to the many readers I quite unintentionally misled. But I mean, come on. Can you blame me? Believe me, if you were doing a Google Image search of "pawpaw" and you were lucky enough to get THIS picture as a hit:
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PS, I am happy to be corrected, but only by professionals. As many of you know, I don't take correction easy, and often enjoy persisting in my wrongness; but when the Brooklyn Botanic Garden says you're wrong about a plant, you'd probably better listen.
PPS seriously, though, if you see an obvious typo, help me out ASAP with a gentle private email nudge. Thanks.
Solved this puzzle on the Applet (is that what you call it? when you play against the clock at the NYT site and then your time is posted against everyone else's?) for the first time last night, and it was a bit ugly. There's only one answer on the entire grid that was unknown to me, and yet I was still slow. I type very fast, but this is actually a drawback for someone like me whose mouse-keyboard dexterity is not yet refined, because if my cursor is in the wrong place, or I'm oriented Across instead of Down or vice versa, I can $#@$ up a lot of grid in a split second. Blog-wise, doing the puzzle on the Applet is not convenient, as I can't print the puzzle out in its scanner-friendly completeness (and I can't see where I had wrong answers - those are usually half the fodder for my commentary!). Today, after I'd finished the puzzle on-line, I just printed out a clean grid and filled it in, which is a joyless experience, let me tell you...
...Unlike the puzzle itself, which is actually quite nice, if a bit theme-crazy ("election" language is all over the grid and clues, more like an occupying army than a theme). In addition to the six Red state / Blue state clues, there are, let me count, six clues that directly reference elections, and then a handful of others that are explicitly or implicitly political.
[Taking a break to walk down the street to the local middle school, where I vote].
I'm back. I just voted for a Republican for office for what I believe is the first time in my life. So did my wife. Of course we voted for a Socialist and a Green Party candidate too. We like to mix it up.
22A: Intentionally vague statement (hedge)
45A: Nasty vipers (asps)
Jeez, the ASPS are like Norm on Cheers. They practically live here. "Ssss, don't tread on us! Hey, you guys seen ASTA anywhere?"
43A: Former Saudi king (Faisal)
On March 25, 1975, Faisal was shot point blank and killed by his half brother's son Faisal bin Musad, who had just come back from the United States. The murder occurred at a Majlis, an event where the king or leader opens up his residence to the citizens to enter and ask him questions.Mmm, you can almost taste the Justice. Just whetting your appetite for the coming Saddam execution.
Prince Faisal Bin Musad was captured directly after the attack and declared officially insane. He was later found guilty of regicide and in June 1975 he was beheaded in the public square in Riyadh.
61A: "Metamorphoses" author (Ovid)
If I had to be any author, this is who I'd be. He's like my best friend (uh, when regular people and my dog aren't around). I learned Latin largely by immersing myself in his Amores and Ars amatoria, which are beautiful, hilarious, tongue-in-cheek (mostly) treatises on how to score with women.
6D: Rob Roy and kin (Scotsmen)
I have nothing to say here. I just wanted occasion to put up a picture of my favorite Scotsman:
44D: Chicago-based food giant (Sara Lee)
Growing up, I always thought that the jingle went "Nobody does it like Sara Lee!" But apparently it's the more grammatically tortured "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee!" Which makes me (guess what) NOT LIKE SARA LEE. Their prepackaged treats are too sweet and full of preservatives anyway (he said, fresh off an excursion to Dunkin' Donuts). Apparently I'm not the only one to mishear the jingle. Sara Lee even addresses this ... controversy? ... in its website's FAQ (who is checking that!? I mean, besides me).
62D: "_____ Doubtfire" (Mrs.)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
9 comments:
Remember when we climbed up to the Rob Roy Glacier?
That's good, honey. Give everyone the impression that I'm the rugged, mountaineering type. I like that.
The Rob Roy Glacier is on the south island of NZ, near Lake Wanaka, and I'd say we climbed towards it more than we climbed "up to" it. It is called "Rob Roy" because everything down there is named after something Scottish. It's like Scotland upside-down down there. For instance, my wife is from Dunedin, which is just a slightly uglier way of saying "EDINburgh." Not that Dunedin's ugly. Cloudy, but hardly ugly.
"You have selected ... REGICIDE."
Sheesh, you write a lot. Yes, that's the applet. The dexterity gets much better with practice. Excellent liberal conspiracy-theorizin'. I voted for one Republican for the second time in 20+ years. The Curious George movie also has great songs by Jack Johnson, but I haven't bought the soundtrack.
Holy senates!
I do the crossword via The Vancouver Sun, which leaves me about six weeks behind, so this is a bit belated - but is the "infamous" 1996 puzzle that announced Clinton the winners not the same puzzle that also announced Bob Dole the winner? It was my understanding that certain clues had two possible answers, so that the answer could be either "CLINTONWINS" or "BOBDOLEWINS", depending on the approach you took. But now I'm confused. I suspect I picked this bit off information up by watching Wordplay, and I can't imagine you wouldn't have seen that. So either I'm mistaken, or you left that out in order to increase the funniness of this blog. Which there is no shame in doing, of course.
I think you figured out my intent in the process of writing your comment, Anonymous. I was ranting in the voice of an ignorant jackass, thus one who would not understand that the puzzle didn't pick Clinton at all. The two possible answers for the puzzle clue in question were CLINTON and BOBDOLE.
Hello, Vancouver! I went to Expo '86 in Vancouver when I was a teenager. Good times. I believe that was at the exact moment that Prince Andrew married Fergie. The Duchess, not the Black-Eyed Peas "singer."
RP
Sometimes I'm a little slow but, as you say, by the time I hit "send" your intention was fairly obvious. My first kiss, if you can call it that, was in the Space Drop, so Expo 86 holds a special spot in my heart.
In any event, please (PLEASE) keep writing this blog. I happened upon it one afternoon while using google to fill in the SE corner of a particularly tricky puzzle (for me, at least), and the blog has since become a favourite part of my day. I think this, or something like it, might be what the internet idealists were imagining.
You, Sir Anonymous, are my new best friend, and I am going to use your positive review in all my promotional material.
Thanks for reading,
RP
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