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THURSDAY, Jan. 3, 2008 - Henry Hook
Thursday, January 3, 2008
THEME: Famous folks who CARRY UMBRELLAS (56A: What 16- and 37-Across and 11- and 24-Down were all known to do)
A breath of fresh air. A truly original and entertaining production by a legendary constructor who rarely disappoints. As is typical when solving a Henry Hook puzzle, I began by scanning the clues 
Theme answers:
- 16A: Ad icon since 1914 (Morton Salt girl)
- 11D: Caretaker for the Banks household (Mary Poppins) - I'm not ashamed to admit that "Banks family" had me struggling to remember the butler's name from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." OK, I'm a little ashamed. The butler's name was Geoffrey. Geoffrey Butler. It's true.
37A: Oswald Cobblepot's nom de crime (Penguin) - I love this for so many reasons, only one of which is its Batman-tasticness. The French phrase makes for a wonderfully absurd combination with the already absurd name "Oswald Cobblepot." My first pass at this clue had me scanning quickly and thinking the answer had to do with some alias of Lee Harvey Oswald.
- 24D: Churchill predecessor (Chamberlain)
- 13A: Pleasure seeker (roué)
- 47D: Grimace (moue)
Now I know these are pronounced differently, but their similarity, quaintness, Frenchness, and insane final triple-vowelness make them an interrelated pair in my head. They are two of my favorite crossword words, and they go great together.
- 25A: Crow's nest? (teepee)
- 28A: Rebel yell (wahoo!)
First, the cluing on TEEPEE is great. Crow = native American tribe. Second, WAHOO is the name of the Cleveland Indians', er, mascot. So the fact that these follow one on the heels of the other makes them a thematically interrelated pair to me, even if the WAHOO part is less than, let's say, respectful. I had WHOOP! for [Rebel yell] at first. And now I have Billy Idol in my head. Plus, the PEE in TEEPEE intersects WEE (21D: Itty-bitty), to give you an intersecting PEE WEE. Bonus wordplay.- 37D: Untarnished (pure) - and what's the MORTON SALT slogan? "When it rains it pours" - damn, I was getting it confused with the Ivory Soap slogan: "99 44/100% PURE." Nevermind.
- 1D: Half a huge cost? (arm)
- 42D: Half a huge cost? (leg)
More thoughtful harmonizing of puzzle elements. I remember a rebus that had ARMs and LEGs in it not too long ago. Brilliant.
Some other stuff:
- 19A: Acupressure technique (shiatsu) - always looks good in the grid
- 20A: Tree sacred to the Druids (yew) - not sure I knew that. Druids always make me think of "Spinal Tap."
- 22A: Regular at Kelsey's Bar, on TV (Archie) - Bunker. I'd forgotten the name of the bar
- 43A: Backsplash component (tile) - "Backsplash" is the tiled part of the wall above a counter in a kitchen. An interesting way to clue ho-hum TILE.
48A: Recipient of a 1937 wooden Oscar (Bergen) - Snerd's handler
- 51A: _____ Paradise, protagonist of "On the Road" (Sal) - Actually didn't know this. I have studiously avoided all things Beat for my whole life. Not sure why.
- 63A: Roast setting (dais) - had SPIT, then thought "No - LUAU"
- 67A: First batter to hit a home run against every major League Baseball team (Sosa) - gimme. This guy is probably the most important player in the last 25 years, crossword wise. AROD is going to give him a run for his money, though. I'm leaving out the ALOUS, because no single one of them has the power of a SOSA or AROD (though as a family, they are indestructible)
- 17D: Allegheny + Monongahela (Ohio) - don't see the "+" sign in clues very often. NICE (14A: Respectable)
- 29D: Bottled spirit (jinni) - gave me a little trouble. Is this not a "Var." of GENIE?
- 30D: Element whose name roughly means "lazy" (argon) - from Wikipedia: "Greek αργόν meaning "the lazy one," in reference to its chemical inactivity"
- 44D: Literary monogram (GBS) - Shaw! Anything that's not TSE or RLS is welcome. I think Shaw's monogram typically comes in fourth behind Eliot, Stevenson, and Poe.
- 55D: Everglades denizen (ibis) - "Denizen!" The fact that this answer was not CROC pleases me.
- 59D: Seven-faced doctor of film (Lao) - stumped me. Thank god for crosses.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Today's other puzzles:
NYS 8:58 (C) - RECOMMENDED: Alan Arbesfeld, "Strange Signs from Above"
LAT 6:10 (C) - ["TV Spouses"]
CS 3:56 (C) - "Seeing Stars"
Jonesin' 9:07 (P) - "For the Bards"
Universal 5:36 (P) - "Contradictions"
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65 comments:
Aced this one. No wonder I thought this was a great crossword.
Got Shiatsu, Morton Salt Girl (was involved in the acquisition of Morton some years ago), Mary Poppins and Chamberlain, and the Carrys Umbrellas, practically without any of the crosses.
Got Teepee from the crosses, but took me some time to figure out why.
I think genie, jinni, djinn(i), etc. are alternatives, so it was probably fair not to clue 29D as "var." -- which is not to say that it didn't cose me about a minute. Oh well. Fun puzzle.
Not a fast puzzle, but wonderfully enjoyable. I loved the pairings as you pointed out, Rex. And the theme was very lively.
Really wonderful construction by Henry Hook. He even makes the crosswordese seem fresh.
One major quibble. Alee simply means out of the wind, on the lee side. That could be harmful; it's no way out of harm's way.
After all, it's an ill wind that blows no good.
What an awesome theme! Morton Salt Girl made me smile. ARM and LEG got a chuckle. I did not know that about Sammy Sosa. So the puzzle was educational as well. An all-around great puzzle.
What Rex and everybody said, on all comments. It took me quite some time, but it was all enjoyable. I especially enjoyed that roue and moue were my first thoughts at the clues (but I hesitated to fill them in).
Laughed at me for trying to find a sobriquet for Tyra's mother to fill in the Banks caretaker.
I did try to fit prong into four spaces for a bit, as I'd never heard an antler prong called a tine. I recieved several tins of canned wahoo for Xmas, so I was glad to see my favorite fish in the grid.
Perfect Thursday, for me. Not fast, but fun and challenging.
Certainly fun for me and again it went slowly as I worked from the SE and then got the bottom third. Having the CARRYUMBRELLAS cross made the MORTONSALTGIRL easy. I had another mistake today and I am still not sure that I am wrong. I thought the "blank slate" concept was Tabula Rosa, which gave me wohoo and that seemed ok too. Last piece for me was SCAT/NICE. I thought NICE was a stretch and it took awhile to remember SCAT asit was far back in the memory bank.
I didn't know MOUE or ROUE but they fit. I hope I can remember them.
Thought Jinni was spelled genie, but I just knew jar was right. Perhaps I need to google Jinni.
Now I know what Mary Poppins, The Morton Salt Girl, Neville Chamberlain and the Penguin all have in common: wohoo
Great puzzle and thank you again Emily Cureton
I entered CROC and then deleted it, thinking, "Wait a minute, Florida has alligators, not crocodiles." Turns out South Florida is the only place in the world that's home to both crocodiles (endangered) and gators.
phillysolver... the free dictionary gives the etymology of rasa (in tabula rAsa) as fem. latin rasus, erased,. Tabula RAsa is correct.
I found this one pretty easy for a Thursday, but after last week I am definitely not complaining. I am a fan of Mr. Hook (I do the Boston Globe every Sunday) and this did nothing to change that. Its an interesting mix of easy (APSE, STA, ALEE, ETA) and difficult (ARGON, JINNI, BERGEN) with a charming theme and clever clueing. I briefly stumbled by putting RLS for GBS (SAL was a gimmie, not because I've read the book but because of a Newsweek article) and by trying to fit in CROC, but overall a fast Thursday for me.
Agreed. Very enjoyable puzzle! I had never heard of Morton Salt or its girl, but very proud of myself for getting all the other theme answers without crosses. Easily pleased, that's me.
Lao? Does anyone know him? Thought the druids revered Oaks, not Yews. I don't hang out with druids enough. Love the Arm/Leg pair, and Emily's drawing(s). Thanks, Rex!
i did this grid in record time for me until i was forced to return to the NW corner, where those words just would not come. OUR should have been a gimme but i grew up in a secular household. and though i kept insisting "having surmounted" had to be ATOP, i couldn't make any of the crosses work. i still don't understand how TOO is "unduly." one thing i loved: JINRO is the leading brand of soju, a sort of korean sake, so it also worked with "bottled spirit." i have to think that ambiguation was intentional.
@ Emily Cureton
Another fun picture..Do I see the aged faces of Chita and Gwen in the Mushroom Cloud? I do have an active imagination...the SE certainly looks like eyes and nose and mouth to me.
@ anonymous
Thanks..."Rosa" is another word I thought I knew confined to the scrap heap. I recently quoted the opening lines to Caesar's Gaelic Wars to someone only be told that I had it wrong. Oh well, now it turns out that 10th Grade Latin II was a total waste.
Re Jinni: This is a case where knowing a lot about a topic makes it harder to get the answer. In Arabic, Jinni (Djini), or its plural Jin or Djin does not typically indicate a bottled spirit. It means any one of many types of spirits (good and evil) made up of "smokeless fire". Bottling the Jinni (Genie) in Aladdin was an aberration, going specifically against the very nature of the creature and restricting its total freedom to move and influence. The bottling also speaks to the desire to control the uncontrollable.
The Djin are an interesting concept that predated Islam and yet is incorporated in the Koran. Most educated modern Moslems would not believe in them in a literal way but typically see them as abstractions of good and bad forces in life. But some people still believe in the Djin and see this belief as totally consistent with their religion...
If you read Naguib Mahfouz (Egyptian Nobel Prize in Lit. 1988) you will find many descriptions of how the Djin play a role in the beliefs of regular people in the 20th century.
Rex, aren't you glad you asked?
So much fun today after last week's severe a$$ kicking. Did not know the Penquin's real name but after getting PEN and crime to click I got it. Thanks for the picture, Rex. Speaking of pictures...will we ever hear from the imaginative and enigmatic Ms. Cureton? Lori
Loved the cluing, especially 'roast setting' for 'dais.' Glutton that I sometimes am, my first thought for the roast was 'done.' In the anatomy category, along with arm and leg, don't forget 'spleen.' 50D was a neat bit of indirection; after 'argon' I was definitely thinking elements on the periodic table!
agree with all your points! esp. "tile" "GBS" "ibis" "Ohio" "sosa" comments
Probably one of the most enjoyable puzzles I've done in ages. Usually Thursday is so unbearably hard.
Jinni threw me, too and I wasn't familiar with "spleen" as "ill will" but got it in xwords.
Oops! Forget the above posting!!!
FYI, the film, "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao", starring Tony Randall, is based on the book, "The Circus of Dr. Lao". Both are wonderful! The story is a fantasy parable, with a nice moral. Won't tell you any more than that. Check either (or both!) out. (My favorite part, perversely enough, is the fortune teller's statememt to the old lady--powerful in the fim, but even more so in the book.)
Rex,
Great puzzle. I however have been pronouncing roue and moue as rhyming words (roo-ay, Moo-ay). Is this not acceptable?
Profphil, the dictionary says "mu" and "ru-a" (long vowels). Roué is defined as a "lecherous, dissipated man" or a "debauched man, usually elderly"—not quite the rakish meaning that usually pops up in crossword clues.
Foodie, thanks for the djin lesson! V. interesting.
Entertaining and just challenging enough. I know it has been mentioned before, but I do recommend Captain Hook's "Twisted" crosswords -- both volumes. Some ingenious crosswordish puzzles.
@hydromann -- was it a bear? or a man? The book was by Charles Finney.
FIRETRAP was the last to fall as I was having trouble with JINNI. I liked "Undo a lead" for TIE.
Like profphil, I have been mispronouncing "moue". Or I would have been had I ever used the word.
I liked the 'it holds the mayo' clue. That one took me too long to get. And I laughed at the idea of a little wooden Oscar award. Good puzzle!
This is my first puzzle after having been backcountry skiing for a couple weeks, so I was delighted to see Mr. Hook's byline. Another clue I loved was "It could easily go up" for FIRETRAP. Excellent!
Happy New Year fellow crossword fans.
Oh, if only every Thursday were like this one! (BUt then we'd complain about how easy they were.)
I got the very SE corner first, scratched my head over the "LAS" ending, got MARRYPOPPINS and immediately knew the theme was umbrellas. I was hoping against hope to see the PENGUIN as a answer, and I LOVE that his real name was used! (For the record, his middle name is "Chesterfield.")
There's little I can say that others have already said. Using both ARM and LEG was inspired.
GREAT fun! Now let's see what happens tomorrow.
Orange,
Thanks for the lesson. I am mooing right now. Your verbal skills are the best I've ever seen.
Sonic,
See if you can rent the Seven faces of Dr Lao. It will all become clear to you if you are able.
Rex,
You recommended the NYS puzzle? I thought you hated puns in general, and these were (with all apologies to the constructor) absolutely cringe-worthy. :)
Phillysolver,
You may be confusing tabula RASA with sub ROSA
From Joe Edley's book Everything Scrabble alternative spellings of genie(plurals included)are: genies,djin,djins,djinn,djinns, djinni,djinny, jin, jins, jinn, jinns, jinnee and jinni.
@Pete M-
Re: The Sun puzzle - The puns were So audacious that I loved them. If you're going to pun, go over the top. Also, there was at least one non-theme clue in that puzzle (involving a hypothetical response to a superior officer, I think) that was so loopy that it made me smile. Plus the answer for the Scale Sign theme answer (I'm trying not to give answers away in case someone wants to do it) made the whole puzzle worthwhile for me.
rp
Jack Kerouac was often described as having tousled hair.
The opening day and silver clues were my favorites. Add me to the Croc parade.
I, too, chime in with laudatory appreciation for this puzzle. Aside from disheveling the puzzle by misspelling Churchhill's predecessor, my only problem was sticking with BILE for the Backsplash component. Vile, I know, plus BOUSLES or BAUSLES were pretty weak guesses for the Disheveling.
I was wondering if XENON might be the lazy one among the Noble Gases, and whether Claude or Edouard was the colleague of Cezanne. I figured MANET since they seemed more alike in style and disposition, but got that one wrong as well.
The Morton Arboretum, outside Chicago, is a nice result of the salt pouring freely. Time to grab an umbrella and head out on a stormy day!
Rex,
Sorry to talk about the Sun puzzle here, but I agree entirely with you regarding over-the-top puns. Also, if we are thinking of the same clue, that "non-theme" clue you talked about actually fits in with the theme.
(P.S. I enjoy the inclusion of your times (and recommendations) on the other popular puzzles. Will you include your NYT time, as well?)
Generally, if I timed myself, I talk about that time in the write-up of the NYT. I just put my times on other puzzles up at the end for whoever might be interested. I hope more of my readers start doing NYT puzzles in the New Year. There are so many that are worth doing. I do still want to keep the Comments section here focused on the NYT, though.
RP
Rex, mm is right. There are eight theme entries, and 18-Across is opposite another themer at 62-Across. Easy to miss 'em when they're only six letters long!
Profphil, all I did was look up the dictionary defs/pronunciations via Google. Anyone can do it!
Orange - I hope you're talking about the Sun. Otherwise I'm lost.
Dictionary! I use my (new) Webster's Third New Int'l Dictionary every chance I get now.
rp
Orange,
I was complimenting you for all your prior insights and your superior cruciverbalist skills. You are amazing.
On literary monograms - having one not in the "top 3" WOULD have been refreshing, if it hadn't crossed with THREE names! Grrrr. Given even 1 non-name crossing I probably would have snagged it in the time I had.
Otherwise a great fun puzzle, but that kind of spoiled it for me.
Awesome puzzle, restored my faith in crosswords for the New Year.
And Rex, not only did I think to put in GEOFFREY--- for 11D, I actually put it in there, assuming the last three letters would be snagged by crosses. What those three letters would end up is anyone's guess.
But for that, I found myself finishing this one pretty quickly. It's great to see semi-standard fill clued in interesting new ways.
If the answer were "croc," wouldn't the cluer be morally obligated to abbreviate something in the clue?
"thy vacant brow and thy tousled hair
conceal thy good intent.
thou noble, upright, truthful, sincere,
and slightly dopey gent
"you're my funny valentine..."
hart -- a far cry from kerouac, but the one with whom i associate the word...
;-)
janie
A very enjoyable puzzle for me today. Plus, with the ARM and LEG fills it comes full circle for me. The reason I found Rex's blog months ago was that I couldn't figure out why RIGHT ARM was clued as (something like) [High price to pay] and somehow thru Google was led here. So, do I owe Rex and the other commenters my right arm or an arm and a leg?
Great cluing today overall although I do have one persnickety comment, that [Genetics abbr.] really points to DNA, not RNA, so that ruined my pristine puzzle. But, the judges will accept RNA so I'll just sit back and shut up now.
Also, two rollercoaster related clues: Rebel Yell is the name of a great coaster at Kings Dominion in Virginia (and featured prominently in the movie "Rollercoaster"). Monongahela makes me think of the Phantom's Revenge coaster at Kennywood in Pittsburgh, which has a brilliant 225 foot drop toward said river before pulling up in a screaming left hand turn.
Finally, add me to the list of people trying to remember (Fresh Prince butler) Geoffrey's last name!
Oh, and Emily- that pic was the best yet! I laughed my head off, thank you. :)
Pet shops are not good places to pick up puppies as those poor animals in general are products of heinous puppy mills. They are subject to severe health problems and buying them simply encourages the evil operators to continue to crank dogs out under cruel conditions.
Rex's comment about Webster's Third makes me wonder if there is a uniquely authoritative dictionary for the NYT puzzle, or whether there's a choice among several? I am partial to the Random House, but check with others when I'm losing petty arguments.
Henry Hook, you fiend, I love you.
Racked my brain trying to figure what these people had in common. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha *slaps knee* ha ha ha ha.
Reviewing these comments, I realize I had left FAREDROP (subway fare cards on the brain, obviously) for "it could go up", thinking (mistakenly) that "undo a lead" was DIE (as in "choke" or "he just died on the far curve"). I just figgered JANNI was a "reputable" variation for GENIE, having never heard of JINNI even though I have children (once small) and for a period there Disney's Aladdin was on in the background incessantly.
@ doc john, re persnickety desire for preferring DNA to RNA (abbr. in genetics) -- The RNA inside a cell but outside the cell's nucleus actually comes wholly from the mother, while the nuclear DNA is from both parents. Thus that extra-nuclear RNA is specific in tracing the matrilinear line through generations -- very helpful in many ways! Also, that type of RNA can help trace a mutation passed on from the mother but unrelated to DNA. Finally, it turns out that one's own RNA can be altered by disease states and detected in skin tests before any other symptoms of disease are manifested -- the holy grail in diagnostic techniques!
Can't prove it, but I think RNA shows up in puzzles more than DNA.
I usually leave the first letter blank when I run into these until I get a cross or am at a dead end.
@rick-
It's close, but you're correct. RNA beats DNA (according to cruciverb.com's database).
rp
Beautiful puzzle to be sure. My only missteps were having Owed for Have Coming instead of EARN, which made me put Toupee in for TEEPEE for a time (yeah, I know). And then in trying to guess the wooden Oscar recipient I had the Wizard of Oz' Ray Bolger (hey, he was made of hay, that's kind of like wood, right?) and Sue instead of SAL. But other than that, I was cooking with gas! This is the kind of payoff I truly admire. I was kind of perplexed at the XMAS answer because the clue didn't indicate an abbreviation or nickname, but I'm very OK with that. And always glad when there's one denizen or another to divine. An IBIS is as good as any in my book.
I've been doing these puzzles for a couple of months now (M-F), and this is the first Thursday one I've completed without a single google look-up. So it must have been easy. And gave plenty of chuckles, especially an arm and a leg. Comments that I find on this blog always inspire me toward improved performance.
Beautiful puzzle
As a PS, I tried to fit Clement Atlee in instead of Chamberlain for a while. Just as well he has one too few letters. The center section was the last to fall. On the Djinn(i) front, I totally recommend the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud for amusing yet intelligent childrens' books. http://www.bartimaeustrilogy.com/
A minor comment on Rex's 48A comment; yes, Mortimer Snerd was one of Bergen's dummies (lower left in the pictures), but Charlie McCarthy (upper right) was his original and primary guy.
Rex: Yeah, mm was talking about the Sun.
I mean, Sun? What Sun? I don't know nothin' 'bout no Sun.
Fergus, some crosswordy people hold up the "RHUD" (Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary) as the authority.
I own that one and the comparably huge New Oxford American Dictionary.
But dammit, Rex's Webster's Third New International (I think that's the one he's got) is even bigger! I think any giant dictionary is a good arbiter—but the best crossword words (i.e., not phrases, titles, or names) are found in more compact dictionaries. If it's obscure enough to be found only in an unabridged dictionary, solvers are less likely to know it and more likely to want to cry foul.
@ artlvr- I think you're thinking of mitochondrial DNA. That is what is passed from mother to child.
@ doc john -- you are partly right, but there is also RNA with so-called "surrogate DNA markers" which can be used in skin tests to pinpoint some cancers sooner and with more accuracy than biopsy, etc. Patents on the technique have already been obtained; next steps will be automation and field testing before applying for FDA approval...
O, do know how RH and W became entwined? F
Fergus, anyone can use the "Webster" name. You could put together your own dictionary and call it Webster's Very Best Dictionary.
... including contention with Webster's questionable entries,
such a claim might ring true
karmasartre, I think it was a Russian!
;-)
For Kelsey's Bar I immediately thought of Murphy Brown. Then it turns out it;s not her in the puzzle, but her father (48A)!
Any tips on how best to type in bed with a laptop on your chest??
Like Orange said re dictionaries: Merl said in "Wordplay" that he wanted a word to be in the "little dictionary" because if it was common enough to be in there then it was more desirable. This was REDTOP, which ended up being taken out of the final version of the puzzle.
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