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THURSDAY, Jul. 24, 2008 -- Matt Ginsberg (Jacqueline Susann novel, and the problem with some of the answers in this puzzle /Roughly triangular racket)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Relative difficulty: Easy
Hey, everybody. You've got the whole damn second string here today. I'm PuzzleGirl, and I'm coming to you from beautiful, sunny Costa Rica today. SethG is, well, he's in his living room. And Wade would love to blog from his new office except he and his dad couldn't quite get the whole thing built in time. Lots of good stuff in this puzzle, which is what you'd expect from a Thursday. But it's not just me here. Let's hear from the rest of the team:
SethG here. Hey, look! It's a picture of what PuzzleGirl claims is Costa Rica, but yo hablo enough español to know that Costa means coast, and she's sitting by a pool. Or is that even her? How are we to know? Maybe PuzzleGirl is actually a lonely 65-year-old man from Hackensack! I tried to take a picture of my living room, which is actually my living room, but my hair doesn't look good, PuzzleMomToBe looks like she feels, and PuzzleDadToBe Pbo was sitting at an angle we'll call "unflattering." Today is PMTB's 30th birthday, PuzzleBaby's 0th will be any day now. Also, I'll stop using those awkward names now. Sorry bout that.
This whole thing reeks of one of those fake duets that were obviously recorded in different studios at different times, doesn't it? Well, it's not. The real story is that PuzzleGirl and I were married in a private ceremony in Enid, Oklahoma this past weekend, Oklahoma being the only state in the country where it's legal for a woman to marry a dog. Yes, that's the other bombshell: I'm a German Shepherd. On the internet nobody knows that, of course. Our first order of business after our marriage ceremony, which was presided over by Fergus, who has that authority by virtue of being a sea captain on his home planet, was to fulfill our lifelong dream of adopting SethG. So now all three of us live in a yurt in Swampscott, Mass., raising organic beets and stuffing trouts with sage. Some people may think it's funny, a woman marrying a dog and the two of them adopting a grown man against his will. Well, I bite those people. We're no different from you. We do puzzles. It's what we do. It's who we are. This is your Thursday puzzle team.
Help.
Theme Answers:
- 17A: Hollow-point projectiles (dum[-dum] bullets)
- 22A: Mutually beneficial interaction (win[-win] situation)
- 45A: Puerto Rican-born P.G.A. star (Chi [Chi] Rodriguez)
- 56A: Child's fair-weather wish (rain, [rain,] go away)
- 10A: Klingon on "Star Trek: T.N.G." (Worf). I do not like it when the Star Trek stuff turns up in the puzzle.
- 14A/46D: Writer of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (Alex Haley). Got this one with no crosses. Reminds be of Gertrude Stein's "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" in that it doesn't really make sense, does it?
- 15A: Originator of the equation e to the power (pi * i) + 1 = 0. If it’s Math, EULER's a good bet.
- 21A: Pixie-esque. ELFIN is a word. ELVIN is not.
- 25A: Roughly triangular racket (crosse). Looked this one up and then felt really stupid. Yes, boys and girls, it's the stick used to play lacrosse.
- 28A: Chemistry Nobelist Hahn, who co-discovered nuclear fission (Otto). Remember this one -- he's sure to be back. My least favorite Nobelists are chemistry Nobelists.
- 51A: Impoverished (dirt poor). Have you read The Glass Castle? This phrase will forever remind me of that book. It's an awesome memoir about a girl who grew up, you guessed it, dirt poor. Her parents (alcoholic dad and mentally ill mom) are eccentric and brilliant. While the book describes neglect that can only be categorized as appalling, it also forced me to think hard about privilege and today's common practice of "over-parenting." I tried to find the video of “We ate sand” from Raising Arizona. I failed. You ate sand?!?
- 58A: Usher's offer (seat). Almost seems too easy.
- 60A: "Your Majesty" ("Sire"). I think Rex prefers Your Majesty.
- 1D: Synthetic (made). Wanted FAKE at first.
- 3D: Dole’s 1996 running mate (Kemp). Remember the bumper stickers that changed it to Dope and Hemp?
- 4D: River bends (oxbows). That’s a dang fine word. Never seen it in a puzzle. Long overdue.
- 5D: Like a leopard (feline). I'm glad this wasn't my first thought: SPOTTY.
- 7D: Incense resin (elemi). Another one to take note of -- you'll see it again for sure.
- 11D: Norwegian king who converted the Vikings to Christianity is OLAF I. Not Olav. Is that the same SIRE with two allowable spellings or was it two different dudes?
- 12D: Portion of an advertising budget (radio). Does this clue/answer really work? This really works. I used to do stuff with stuff like that, but now I do this.
- 13D: One of the Mudville players on base when the mighty Casey struck out (Flynn). Beautiful. Just beautiful. From the original version of the poem:
But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And we know that a LULU (6D) is a beaut.
And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake; - 21D: Taken in (eaten). Could have gone down so many wrong paths: altered, scammed, there must be more. Arrested, perceived. Furled.
- 26D: Slots spot (Reno). Reno is The Biggest Little City in the World, you know. This answer reminds me of the time I shot a man in Reno. Why? Just to watch him die.
- 31D: Preschoolers? (roe). I get it. Fish. Everybody’s against me. Even Roe. Not anymore, Wade.
- 34D: What you used to be (thee). But it yoused to be THOU, too.
- 37D: "You ____!" (cry while hitting oneself on the head) (idiot). At our house we cry "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" (hitting ourselves on the forehead three times for emphasis). See also 48D, idiom.
- 42D: Mass dismissals (purges). You do not want the visual image this answer gave me.
- 43D: Duke Atreides in "Dune" (Leto). Whatever you say.
- 49D: _____ Weasley of Harry Potter books. Let's see Ron, Fred, George … what the heck is the little sister's name? Oh yeah, Ginny.
- 52D: Toddler's cry of pain ("Owie!"). I know some of you don't like this word. You mentioned it last time it was in the puzzle. And the time before that. I think maybe it's time to let it go. "Owie" is a noun, not an exclamation. You get an owie. You don't cry "owie." Sit, boy, sit!
Pura Vida! PuzzleGirl, Wade and SethG
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85 comments:
Once I got the theme, this puzzle did seem fairly easy for a Thursday. Though for a time I had PISS POOR instead of DIRT POOR (OK a very short time.)
How is 59a AT ONE? Shouldn't it be AS ONE? Everything else fit, so I left it there, but I don't like it.
I thought it odd that with the theme, they had some short answers that were doubled, like LULU and MYMY.
fine triple-play bloggin' here! the new tinker to evers to chance?? ;-)
re: "oxbows" and its appearance in the puzzles. once in the nyt in '03. "oxbow," however has made 8 appearances in the nyt and 14 cumulatively among the puzzles indexed in the cruciverb database.
fwiw.
cheers!
janie
What a fun morning - the write-up was every bit as entertaining as the puzzle. I found this one really easy - knew the theme before I got to that equatorial clue - and really had no problems at all.
@squashmom - you can be "at one" with the universe and be in perfect harmony, or some other zen-type feeling.
This would have made a great Wednesday, a bit too easy for Thursday, IMHO.
oxbow is a very special word for me but took a while as i think of them as former bends not current bends. Otherwise, was stymied by not having heard of ms susann and not having the foggiest what the mudville whotsit was talking about. Ah well, plus ca change... Crosses to the rescue!
awesome puzzle -- bravo. ... had just the right degree of difficulty for a thursday and the theme was amusing.
i liked the conjuntion of Mymy and Emmy along the bottom row ... and i felt as if i really have become a puzzle master because i got Euler and Otto without blinking.
Well done (as usual) to the great subtitutes. Sped through this one with one flaw - OLAV/ELVIN - is there a rule of thumb for OLAV v. OLAF? Maybe Sweden v. Norway?
I'm sure Philly will straighten that out for me.
WELLTODO and DIRTPOOR are a nice pairing.
Drowning in CT (at least it's not 90),
Dave
ho ho ho. Just got my own current joke.
Delighted to see our pinch-hitters step up to the plate in better than ever form--once is definitely not enough.
Ah yes, the puzzle: If I can do a Thursday w/o breaking a sweat, it is too easy--had to guess the worf/flynn crossing, but guessed right (couldn't think of any other name ending in "lynn").
"Ich bin EINE Berlinerin": that's what Jackie would have said, had she been in Jack's shoes. Continue to be delighted with the clueing of German words (and this one is even inflected!). It seems I'm delighted all around, the weather here in south-central CT being the exception.
A little too easy for a Thursday.
Do kids really scream "OWIE?" I thought they just said "I have an OWIE."
And ever since I saw it on WKRP, I can't help but think of Les Nessman's mispronunciation of Chi Chi Rodriguez.
Tony from Charm City,
We've been working on including it all along, it just took us 'til now to do so...
And by "us" I mean me--mom had to take dad for a walk.
Kudos to the Team of Three for their enjoyable commentary! I'd also recommend a visit to Jim H's blog for more on Euler the Math Man and an update on today's multi-talented constructor, Matt Ginsberg (www.xwordblog.com). Hope Rex won't mind...
ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH was a delightful theme, and seemed to me to be just right for a Thursday -- with RAIN, GO AWAY my personal mantra for the present week.
∑;)
Someone just handed me an Obama bumper sticker, but I'd much rather have DOPE AND HEMP. Now that's a ticket! :)
Seemed like a Wednesday. But we already knew the days are all messed up, didn't we?
- Yes, we did. Go on.
Who are you talking to?
- Can't I tag team comment to a tag team blog?
- But you are alone.
Oh.right.
At the 2007 ACPT I put CHASM where ABYSM belonged and got killed on that puzzle. Now I always put ABYSM wherever CHASM should go.
I thought this was a great puzzle, good theme, clever clues, nice fill.
Very regal - two Majesty clues, one Norwegian king, a Duke, a Lady and Worf, who was part of some Klingon royal family, wasn't he?
The bottom row only uses M, Y, E and S.
- My Eye!
@Dave: send the rain here to CO.
I just liked this puzzle. Even though I had DUMBULLETS, I'd thought the name of the novel was "One Time is Not Enough" so thought the theme involved missing letters. But then WINSITUATION showed up. The usual phrase with double word is one of my personal favorites. The rest fell easily.
Thanks for the commentary and videos.
By the way, I like OWIE. I say OWIE. Ok, I'm no toddler...but when it really hurts, a repetitive owie owie owie owie works.
Dave,
The rule on OLAV is pretty simple. It depends on what letter the crossword constructor needs to complete his puzzle. Here is what the constructors have in their hip pocket for emergency fill. King Olaf of Norway's given name was Óláfr.(Anu = forefather, Leifr - heir) Olav is the modern equivalent in Norway, but in the last century was Olaf. The name in Sweden is Oluf, in Iceland Ólafur, in Denmark Oluf. Some references have Oláfr and Olavus rex, and in English OLAF and OLAV are interchangeable.
I love the Marx Brothers routine in the write up today. I am thinking of getting a horn and joining the group. Beep Beep.
Very entertaining group effort, all. Love the Teletubby colors!
This was easy enough to have been run Wednesday. Hmm. If yesterday's puzzle had been run today, we might have been able to avoid the circles ....
Got the theme concept right away at 17A DUM BULLET. Cute idea! Went back after completing to review. Don't love DUM BULLET, which feels like the odd-bullet-out. Dumdum (the bullet) is a solid word, so it's a repeated syllable, not a repeated word as in the others. CHI-CHI, WIN-WIN, RAIN RAIN. DUM is not a stand-alone word, either, to compensate. Inconsistent, to me.
WORF/FLYNN, with FLYNN clued as a Mudville player, was a blind crossing.
OUT crossing OUTA on the O at 30A and 32D is unappealing. Two days in a row of such fill (YOU/YOU yesterday) ... another trendline developing?
Decent amount of spoor (UGHS) in the fill, but some especially good stuff, too. Liked WELL-TO-DO with DIRT-POOR, E-ZPASS, and OXBOWS.
--JD
I was able to finish a Thursday puzzle which is rare!
@philly - so much information and so little help - sounds like the bottom line is to know the crossing 'F' or 'V'. Thanks for the info though. With a gun shot high C on the piano in humble reverence to Chico.
Fun puzzle, especially for a Thursday. Not too challenging, but fun and interesting. I hope everyone enjoyed as I did.
Really liked this puzzle but loved the hilarious commentary more. Was LOL when I found out that Wade is a German Shepherd. Just too funny. Like others above, I found the puzzle to be easy. Once I saw WINSITUATION the solution was clear. But it was still a lot of fun.
the puzzle has an impressively low word count (72, enough to be a themeless) and some very nice long fill (WELLTODO/DIRTPOOR, IRONEDOUT, EZPASS, OXBOWS), but i agree that the short fill leaves a little to be desired. OUTA, ALLI, RAE/ROE, ELEMI, LULUS and UTNE all get UGHS from me. still, good theme, good puzzle.
tangent: i really can't get behind this SPOOR thing that rex is trying to spoorhead. the two biggest problems: SPOOR is already a word which means something else, and there is already a perfectly good word which means this. sure, crosswordese is an ugly word, but it's an ugly idea, too, so that fits. (kind of like, say, dysentery.) i make it a rule to only neologize out of necessity--otherwise we'd have mass chaos. here, there is no lexical gap, so i say leave it be. (i still want a word for answers like FSTOP and THREED, though. i have given up on quarfoot as a neologism, although i'd like to see one of his puzzles in the paper soon. it's been too long!)
when was the last time we saw a grid with no "singleton" black squares? was it the TLH monogram puzzle?
First answer was ALEX HALEY and completed the SE before anything else. Saw the theme - although didn't understand it at the time -at CHIRODRIGUEZ.
Went to work in the Midlands and got ONCEISNOTENOUGH to unlock the theme. In college, I used Jackie Susann to leaven the difficult reading I had to do. Also read Kyle Onstott for the same reason. Anybody ever heard of him? Susann and Onstott are perfect antidotes to Scnopenhauer.
I agree that the puzzle was Easy but it sure took me a long time to complete. I knew FLYNN but not the Klingon however easy enough from crosses. Like LULUS and MYMY for a mini-theme
For my part, let me say that WORF was a welcome addition.
Had a lot of trouble finding ALEX HALEY and getting MAKO to work -- all because of OXBOWS. Oof.
Also, I had PERCY Weasley before GINNY. Good theme, nice quick Thursday -- good stuff!
Got POSTDATES but have no idea what it has to do with "Follows temporarily".
miriamb: temporally.
Hey Miriam:
How odd; apparently you weren't alone in misreading [Follows temporaLly] as [Follows temporaRIly]
I'm glad that people seem to have liked the puzzle!
Matt Ginsberg
Bonus day for me as I got the puzzle I missed yesterday plus today's puzzle. Re: yesterday's puzzle - am I the only one that was amused by the crossing of Zappa and zirconia? Dynamo Hum? Zircon-encrusted tweezers? Loved it.
Today's puzzle felt fresh and the tag team write-up very funny and imaginative. Rex, you and all of us are so lucky to have such witty colleagues.
I'm an NYT subscriber in NYC, so got to do two puzzles today side by side (I'm like Evil Doug--prefer to solve in ink while posing in my local Frech bistro). Have to say they were both lots of fun, in spite of some of the complaints on the crosses.
Picked up the theme quickly, but wanted the bullet to be a dumb-dumb. Then realized it was a plural clue, corrected and cruised.
Only Naticky moment was Worf/Flynn, but realized that F was better than G, which was the only other letter that felt like it could work (been awhile since I'd read/heard Casey in its entiretly).
Funny write-up from the Trinity of the Mother, Dog and Holy Son. Great stuff.
@matt and joon: Thanks for clearing that up. I can't believe I misread that clue! FYI, I loved the puzzle. And now I'll know a CROSSE when I see one.
Whoa - Tag-Team crosswording! What a concept. Great work, Musketeers!
Lots of SF & Fantasy in this puzzle - WORF, ELFIN, ORCS, LETO, GINNY. Bad news: IDIOT & IDIOM, ...OUT crossing OUTA, TOOTS as a "Warning", OWIE is a noun (such as it is, is). Plus, as Squash's Mom said, LULUS and MY MY kind of subvert the theme.
Not a bad WEDNESDAY.
@Male Chicken - Senator Jack KEMP was also a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills NFL football team. Blake was the other guy who got on base before Casey struck out in poem.
Awesome Roe v. Wade reference in the write-up. For those who may not have caught its subtlety, I thought I'd point out that Roe (the actual woman from the Supreme Court case) no longer opposes Wade's view.
@Wade / Urlich - What do they call German Shepherds in Germany? Shepherds? Doesn't seem right.
Forgot to mention my delight at seeing WKRP in Cinci getting some play: It's one of my favorite TV shows of all time--I never understood the so-so treatment CBS gave it.
@anonymous: They're called Schäferhunde--"shepherd dogs".
Just saw Seth's new photo at the end of the blog. Wade, you old dog! So, the truth comes out. That is not an office being built. It is a new dog house.
Forgot to comment on the Eight is Enough photo. I think PG has a knack for misdirection and should be writing Friday clues.
I also forgot to ask if anyone knows the UTNE reader? I have never seen it.
UTNE Reader is like a reader's digest for people who recycle their own toilet paper and eat only plants that have died natural deaths. It's one of those magazines I subscribe to periodically (hey, a pun!) and seem to enjoy okay and then I let the subscription lapse. I do the same thing with Christian Science Monitor and Mother Earth News (which I like reading because it has articles about yurts and living off the land.)
Of course it wouldn't be elvin, the proper spelling is ELVEN. According to Tolkein. And my spellchecker.
I had problems with the WORF answer, it was too easy. I was expecting a more obscure Klingon. I guess I don't know the NYT zeitgeist well enough. Anyway, wasn't it nice to have a non-TROI ST:TNG answer?
I thought this was a very easy puzzle. Once I saw Chi Chi Rodriguez, I figured there was some play in this one. I got all the long ones right away and that opened everything else up. The clues were clever and this was a fun puzzle but it was very easy.
Great write up you three. Never watched wkrp but that clip was priceless
@miriamb I missread temporally also. Must be all the rain we had in connecticut last night and this morning.Sun is out now but I'm sure we will get more rain
Wade -- Okay, you're a dog. Cool. I think I may have seen you performing on Letterman. But, it does raise some issues around that picture of your father and the kids from the other day. They didn't look at all German.
Well, it COULD have been PERCY, not GINNY at 49D.
Actually UTNE Reader can be used *as* recycled toilet paper if need be. ;)
I too used to subscribe to it, but it's as dogmatic in its world view as anything opposing it, and it got too heavy-handed to bear, even when I agreed with it.
Do you three have any plans for your own blog? Remember Hines, Hines & Dad? (Probably not if you were born after the Johnson administration) How 'bout PuzzleG, PuzzleB & Dog?
@Ulrich Gotta love the Germans: It's a dog, it herds sheep. It's a Schäferhunde - no muss, no fuss, no abiguity.
Got caught up in the northeast - "rich" didn't ring a bell.
Although EULER may be a knee jerk reaction to a math clue for some, the statement that e "raised to the i*pi power" is -1, is one of the most remarkable results in complex arithmetic. Behold!!
Addendum: I should have mentioned that the singular is Schäferhund.
@humorlesstwit: You said it, man. Remember how birth-control pills are called in German: Anti-Baby-Pillen.
CLUE: WKRP city
ANSWER: CINNATI
@two ponies: No, you weren't the only one to be amused by the intersection of ZAPPA and ZIRCONIA!
Charles
On my planet, when a woman weds a dog it is a requirement that the happy couple adopt an expectant human father. I understood that was what was sealed the deal after an avid pursuit and impassioned courtship. The new grandchild must be named ANAIS, or ASTA if it happens magically to be a dog.
Rex, come back soon. The Rexperts are starting to act a little weird.
Mutt, the Cross-canine
@Matt-
I fell into the temporally/temporarily trap
only for a short time. I saw POSTDATES right away and worked backwards and eliminated temporarily from consideration
I was able to complete this puzzle with no Googles in less than 20 minutes, and its lack of gimmick clearly make it a Wednesday. Yesterday's puzzle, with interior circled letters, devilishly ingenious theme, and unsolvable NorCal region make it a clear Thursday. I wonder if the wrong puzzle was not only published on paper yesterday, but on the web too!
Which is not to say I didn't enjoy Mr. Ginsberg's puzzle very much - I did. Even if Frank Zappa does not appear. (I think we need a rule that at least one virtuoso guitarist must be present in every puzzle. Put Pat Metheny in tomorrow's....)
A little easy for a Thursday, but I enjoyed this one a lot. I think the theme was executed very well, based on the 35A line. Some of the "spoor" wasn't so bad because the clueing was good. My only mistake was this Worf/Flynn cross, I thought Glynn was much prettier.
With 58A my first thought was of a body part, like arm or elbow, but got it straight soon. Also wanted fake for made in 1D.
@sethg: what does Pbo and oth mean? I may not have paid enough attention, but were there three people in your livingroom, or did you have both bad hair and a bad angle? I.a.w., are you the baby daddy?
@wade: cought the little roe line.
@Puzzlegirl: good thing you are there to keep these guys in order.
All three, thanks for a delightful write-up, triples the pleasure of the NYT puzzle!
To Puzzle Girl, Wade and SethG (Down, Boy!)-
That picture of me that you opened the blog posting with was taken at the Super 8 South here in Hackensack and is not, as it purports to be, of Puzzle Girl. It resembles me in many superficial details but is definitly not me.
By the way, congrats on a great fill-in job for Rex
This was the perfect puzzle, in that it took me exactly the length of time I was waiting at the hospital for my appointment, no more, no less. There was a time last week when they were running so on-time that I didn't even have time to open the puzzle before they called me in, and a much more distressing time when I finished it all and sat around twiddling my thumbs for ages.
Easy puzzle -- about Tuesday level, I thought.
Isn't utne (as in utne reader) getting shopworn as an answer? I sure can't think of any other words starting "utn...' thought.
UTNAPISHTAM, the noah figure from the epic of gilgamesh, would be nice fill. but it's a little longer than UTNE.
This is a real example of "spoor" or crosswordese to me: I don't even know what it is about, but I immediately filled in "utne".....
By the way, Puzzlelady, I will let owie go.
DUDES,
I am stuck in a kids' museum in Central Otago. Literally, children and children's activities all around me. I'm quite sure I'm using this computer illegally. Anyway, this will give you an idea how desparate I am for internet access. I may need more blogging coverage (WADE, PG, SETH) is all I'm saying. In fact, I DEFINITELY need it for Friday. Dear god, I hope one of you is reading this. Must go before I'm reported to authorities.
rp
Great Puzzle Mr. Ginsberg.
Interesting write-up color coordinated Puzzle-team.
Today's print version had two puzzles due to yesterday's mix-up.Seeing two puzzles on the same page is exhilarating.
Since the NYT is raising rates, $1.50 in NYC as of Aug. 18,why not have a Two-fer Tuesday once a month. Give us some value for the added costs.
Rex is in trouble! Quick, call out the Crossword Bloggers Rescue Squad!
Oh man, the webbrowser on these computers (in the children's museum) won't even support my U's webmail. I can't contact anyone. It's like being stuck ... somewhere. A small island, maybe. S.O.S.
I will check in later, and if none of my go-to folks has chimed in with an offer of help, I'll manage to post Some kind of commentary for Friday's puzzle. I think.
I just emerged from a butterfly exhibit that was spectacular but also brutal. Watched several gorgeous butterflies die what looked like agonizing deaths on the concrete pathways of the exhibit. My wife was responsible for at least some of the carnage. On the upside, I got to see a butterfly the size of a small airplane. And a monarch alit on my daughter's head long enough to be photographed repeatedly.
This morning I toured the Cadbury chocolate factory, where my bro-in-law works. More on that later.
RP
I'm here Rex. Just follow the sound of my voice. We will find you.
Green Mantis, are we worried? Actually, I am a little. I want one or more of these characters to supply my daily dose of crossword fun.
P.S. Fergus was looking for you last night.
Wade Wade - here boy! Rex has fallen into the well. Go save him. Hurry boy!
I'm a little worried. It's sounding a little Silence of the Lambs up in that museum.
Everybody back up, give us some room. No need to worry. Everything's under control! Move along -- nothing to see here.
Gotcha covered, Rex. See y'all in a few hours.
And thanks for the heads-up Mac.
Fergus, yes, I've been burrowing. Or remaining very very still, whichever sounds more species-appropriate. I'm kind of blue mantis at the moment. Sometimes ripping lovers' heads off seems, I don't know, somewhat meaningless. What's it all about, really? I mean, you've devoured one brain, you've devoured them all...
Anyway, thanks for checking in. I'm sure I'll recover my thirst for blood soon. *pincers crossed*
I realize that the B-team have spoken among themselves, lending a extra dimension to this dispersed, yet closely connected crowd. When our darling insect spoke about care and concern, I recognized that this blogspace does have an emotional component.
Even if you're way over booked with friends that you wanted to see, checking in to see what one's take on the puzzle has become something I need to do.
Puzzlegirl to the rescue! Cancel my call into the Justice League.
Look at Rex's 8.32 post, sounding so desperate with the menacing face in the corner..... Or is it looking worried?
Puzzlegirl is in charge, I can go to sleep now.
Another fine writeup...thanks for laughs.
As for the puzzle? Felt like a Tuesday to me.
My electricity went out tonight for a couple of hours (with about fifteen minutes left to go in the last Sopranos episode.) I thought it had something to do with my dad's amateur electrician work, but so far nobody's come knocking on my door. Anyway, looks like PuzzleGirl's ESP was on its usual high alert, saving us all from a day without a reason to live.
... and I might be the one that won't have his head torn off ...
don't count on it...
Fergus, I adore you. I've tried to post a couple times now, and it's not working. Suffice it to say you are a special thing. Done.
green mantis, look at Fergus's avatar. He'll be the one tearing of heads!
Somebody please explain Order at a French restaurant? the
Anonymous @11:04
I agree; hoping someone will still respond and explain the Order at a French restaurant thing and also why OARS are found in banks.
The with an accent on the e is the french word for tea
I was puzzled by oars, also. Must
And, did not catch my mistake on mako, had fako as I had thought there is no such thing as a warm-blooded shark.
Boy, everybody has a story. Not sure I understand all fully, but very amusing and interesting stuff.
I was so pumped when I saw 22A before getting much else and immediately put in SYMBIOTICISM. I couldn't believe how smart that was, especially when ELEMI and OLAVI worked, but then the other crosses didn't work. About then I got 17A and saw the theme. DUH!
Ditto the comment about Euler's equation being one of the most elegant in math theory.
I know I'm way behind in doing the puzzles (had been away) but if you ever want to read a horrible story of a Nobel Prize winner screwing over their longtime collaborator, read the story of Otto Hahn. Lise Meitner, his longtime co-worker was a Jew in Germany and after being forced out by the Nazis, she was completely left behind by Hahn. He went on to take all credit for her work and never recognized her as an equal in the development of the fussion experiments.
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