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"COME FLY WITH ME" - SUNDAY, Aug. 24, 2008 - Kevin Der (Old actresses Claire and Balin / Blackthorn pickings / Galilee's locale)
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: "Come Fly With Me" - 30A, 48A, 67A, 97A, 138A explain what to do with the puzzle once you've finished:
- CUT ALONG THE DOTTED LINE
- FOLD THROUGH EACH
- PAIR OF NUMBERS
- IN THE GRID SEQUENTIALLY
- GO THROW THE PAPER AIRPLANE
AC/DC! (Another Clever Der Creation) - again, Kevin has gone the "High Level of Difficulty" route with his puzzle, but this time, the puzzle itself is actually enjoyable. In general, I Do Not Like puzzles with post-solution instructions. When I'm done, I'm done. Don't make me draw, cut, fold, etc. The post-solution phase had nothing to do with the content of the grid - I mean content on a substantive level, at the level of the answers. Nothing particularly plane-y about the puzzle. But that said, man, I don't know how he got the grid to work, got all the right numbers in the right places ... it's truly amazing. He should get some kind of award for 5 AGAINST 4 alone (127A: Common hockey power play) - that's the real stunner. Now, the SW corner could have used some, (d)er, help. POOR IDEA indeed (145A: Something you later might think better of). And SPREADER (148A: Machine used to maneuver manure)? It's like the corner is commenting on itself. Still, as a feat of construction, it's something.
Number-containing answers:
- 5A: U.K. counterespionage agcy. (MI-5)
- 7D: Costing a nickel (5-cent) - see, here's the trouble; there are a few of these number answers that feel way too straightforward / obvious, bordering on cheap (i.e. "5-CENT?")
- 8A: Belonging to (as 1 of) - ack
10D: Cyclops' feature (1 eye) - true enough
- 13A: July holiday, with "the" (4th) - this is where the theme started to come into view
- 13D: Structure of Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" (4 acts)
- 78A: Need for the winner of a Wimbledon men's match (3 sets)
- 66D: File on an iPod (MP3) - nice
- 73D: 1940s conflict: Abbr. (WW2)
- 83A: It follows the initial part of a procedure (step 2) - uh, er, ok
- 109A: Staples of early education (3 R's) - I had RRR, HA ha.
- 109D: N.Y.C. time when it's midnight in L.A. (3 a.m.) - uh ... hmm ... it's true, and yet ... why not a Hillary Clinton "3AM phone call" reference!? Something!
- 113A: How one must win in Ping-Pong (by 2) - again, factual enough ...
- 114D: Like a team that's ahead by a safety (2 up) - OK, no, I don't like intersecting clues that essentially mean the same thing. Ahead BY 2, 2 UP (though I have to say I can't see any good alternative clues)
- 127A: Common hockey power play (5 against 4)
- 127D: Highest-rated, as a hotel (5-star)
- 128D: Like the majority of Interstate highways (4-lane) - I don't think I knew this.
and so NOVELLAS took longer than it should have (147A: "Death in Venice" and "Of Mice and Men"). NOVELLA has always struck me as a stupid term. When does a story jump from NOVELLA to NOVEL. Seems arbitrary. Did NOT know INAS (137D: Old actresses Claire and Balin), and really really tripped on WIKI (135A: Collaborative Web document) - I had ZINE (!?). Argh. I would trot out a POE picture (129A: Author mentioned in the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus") , but you can just go back to Friday's write-up to see my "POE's grave" photo essay.El Resto:
- 34A: Galilee's locale (Israel) - sorry if this sounds blasphemous, but I can't see "Galilee" without thinking of Puff the Magic Dragon
- 43A: Something to go in ... or on (auto) - hmmm, don't you usually go on AUTO-pilot?
- 60A: Victim of Hercules' second labor (Hydra) - I have a very minor obsession with Hercules. I think his is about the most fascinating life story in all Greek/Roman mythology.
- 64A: Little squirt, maybe (oil) - see also 81A: Young 'un (tad); they are related in that I thought both answers would/should be TOT.
- 66A: "_____ et manus" (M.I.T.'s motto) ("mens") - Kevin likes to sneak the M.I.T. stuff into his puzzles. See his "golden beaver" puzzle of a while back ... oh, sorry, I mean BRASS RAT.
- 106A: Blackthorn pickings (sloes) - a very xwordy fruit; coincidentally, I did an old NY Sun puzzle just yesterday that had GIN FIZZ as an answer.
- 123A: Rock candy, essentially (sucrose) - well, it was some kind of -OSE, so why not SUCR-?
- 4D: QB Favre and others (Bretts) - I can't stand this guy anymore. I know I'm in the distinct minority when I say: Good for Green Bay for getting rid of him. You know who likes a retirement tease? No One. All the theater, and drama ... pitiful. I hope the Jets (an otherwise likeable team) get Pounded this year.
- 49D: Safari sight (okapi) - my favorite crossword animal, by far (non-avian category)
- 19D: Subgenre of punk rock (emo) - really the worst-named subgenre in history. Who would want to claim it?
- 26D: 1990s P.M. (Rao) - I enjoy the PEI / POE / PAO / RAO thing this puzzle has going on. Nice. You have to say PEI like the architect, though, not like the province, P.E.I. (142D: Eastern Canadian prov.).
- 31D: Commerce treaty starting 1947 (Gatt) - first of all, where's the "in" before "1947?" Second, I have only vaguely heard of this. NAFTA is more My Generation. I prefer the single-T GAT, preferably somewhere near GAM and/or MOLL.
- 36D: "Stupidest thing I ever heard!" ("Puh-lease!") - what I love is that I got this almost instantly, correct spelling and all. Fabulous answer.
- 41D: Assume the fetal position (curl up) - very nice clue/answer combo
- 80D: Punjabi believers (Sikhs) - I think I had HINDI here at first.
- 107D: "_____ Cried" (1962 hit) ("She") - had "SO I," Ha ha. Very EMO.
- 117D: Trick-taking game (euchre) - I don't play any of said games, but I had the EU- and so this was easy.
- 84D: Internet forum rabble-rouser (troll) - I'm familiar...
- 125D: Comic Charles Nelson (Reilly) - LOVE(d) him. "Match Game" is my favorite game show of all time (though I'm aware he had a musical theater career before that).
- 90D: Greeting to Gaius ("Ave!") - pronounced "Ah'-way"; I liked to use this greeting, and its close kin "Salve!", back when I was learning Latin. Pretentious, yes, but more ridiculous than anything.
- 42D: Ottoman big shot (Aga) - more Turkish poobah fun. I wonder if a week goes by without a Turkish poobah of some sort. I'm going to start keeping track.
- 132D: Bide-_____ (a-wee) - OK, what on god's green earth is this? Sounds like something that helps you hold it when you can't find a toilet. Just Googled it. NO HELP. Is it an animal shelter. A golf course? A motel? Half the hits don't have hyphens, half do. This must be ... regional?
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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86 comments:
I have to admit, the construction was pretty impressive. Otherwise, the puzzle was just OK for me. Quick for a Sunday with no real quibbles. My only question is whether anyone followed through with the instructions and created the paper airplane. With the flimsy pages in my NYT Magazine, I can't imagine that the plane would actually fly very well...
Fun puzzle, I did it on line but was able to do the folding anyway. It dawned on me that all I need to do after solving was take any piece of paper and write the numbers on it and fold.
Screwed up the NE corner had magi as I knew magus was the singular. Instead of atom had a tad and Gare instead of Gore; ido instead of emo. Assuming I did not know the Nobelist, I almost never do, I didn't look into it any further. Had my head been clearer I would have realized it was Al Gore and corrected the rest, although probably would have stuck with magi in the end anyway.
Profphil
Would someone what 41A "CAS in cat" means? or how 32D TISH means "Oh Pooh!"
41A == "C as in Cat"
Pretty much all of the numbered clues were immediately gettable once I knew numbers were in play (and MI5, 4TH, and 1EYE established that pretty quickly).
The big surprise of my daily crossword doing over the last two years has been learning that Sunday is not the hardest day of the week. I don't educate people though, preferring to bask in their awe that I generally complete Sunday puzzles. They never ask about Saturday.
The only crossing I have issue with is EROICA/COE. The school is a mystery and I was thinking it was EROIKA.
The only entire word I have issue with is TAD. The only explanation for the clue of Young 'un I can think of is TADPOLE. But I really don't like that so I'm going to insist it not be the connection and wait for someone to provide the great explanation I'm missing.
@alex
nope, that's it...go to any dictionary...tad means a young boy and they say etymologically it probably comes from tadpole.
wow does TADPOLE look freaky on its own. i think out of context i'd even wonder what it was!
@kevin
you so cool!
what next? what next?!!!
one note from yesterday for those who don't read late posts:
I called it early that that whole INA connecting to three different definitions was brilliant and probably Will had a hand in it...
Sure enough young Natan was classy enough to give the anti-christ mad props for exactly that!
This was very impressive and was a nice contrast to my "not so fond of" feeling about Fri.'s KD puzzle. This I liked a lot! That said, I also (like Profphil) screwed up the NE corner with MAGI (I need to reset my error free days to zero again). Where is "Comic Phillips" when you really need him?
Henry Hook has used numbers occasionally in his BG puzzles but this is the first time I've seen them in the NYT (although, I've only been doing these regularly for couple of years.) At first, I was looking for a roman numeral rebus but no...
Again, impressive construction and a delight to solve!
ps Interesting that Kevin asked about the word JAM in yesterday's puzzle (as in FIX) and now here it is as a bleedthru in today's!!!!!
OK, I'll stop pointing out that there is always a word in common everyday, point has been made. But this time it was the word that the constructor himself had just asked about!!!!!!!!
off to cure insomnia...
Thanks Kevin Der for the enjoyable puzzle.
This was was really fun, even though I had the exact same error as Prophil and jae, plus another problem at _pos/_cc... my ignorance of military crossing my ignorance of sports.
I have the same rule for solving as @jae, can't look anything up, but it is fine to ask someone conversationally if say, the Magi were involved in casting spells.
Too bad no one was awake to chat about that and the Atlantic Coast Conference (and not the Mid-atlantic/Military Post Office, whoops).
Still had a good time. :-)
Didn't know that (about tad and young boy). Still don't like it so I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears and pretend I didn't read what you said (and then went and looked at dictionaries).
Is tad as a young boy still in current usage at all or are we talking 19th century slang here?
If I weren't pretty sure that there were no appropriate words ending in -SL, I'd never have corrected it from LAD, though I did momentarily consider CAD.
@dg
D'oh! Thanks.
2 Up could be clued as a golf saying: _____ , with one to play, an insurmountable golf lead.
Well my Spider-sense I referred to on Wednesday is working, as an unusual puzzle did appear today.
No real hang-ups in solving. I used the PDF version as instructed. Cut, folded and tossed. It fell straight down, as has every paper airplane I have ever attempted to create. Maybe if I read books I could create one.
Loved 5 AGAINST 4, a Canadian gimmee.
Puff the Magic Dragon was from Honilee, right? Was Honilee at the Olympics? Oh, the flame.
MAGI/IMO only real snag.
Very very clever. I deduced a few things about sports-related numbers.
I am completely in awe of the construction. Once I saw it coming, and it didn't take too long, completing it was a joy.
What a great end to the summer as we roll into the election season, even if the strict constructionists found it, uhm, too liberal.
Sam.
Loved the puzzle - but it doesn't fly very well.
Bideawee is a pet adoption center and more. Their address is http://www.bideawee.org/
I tried to do this after coming home from a party. (Friends' 40th wedding anniversary.) Naturally, I was somewhat impaired and eventually fell asleep. I got the theme pretty quickly (I think it was on MI5, although I wasn't sure at that point whether it should be a 5 or a 6.)
I didn't try folding the airplane -- my laptop screen really doesn't fold very well.
Rex -- one typo I spotted -- EUCHRE, not EUCHER. Obviously, you got it right in the puzzle.
bide-a-wee is Scottish for stay awhile. It is the name of B&Bs, inns, and golf courses across the U.S.
What an amazing puzzle. I haven't actually cut and folded it, and given the quality of the newsprint, I have low expectations for the avionics. The long "theme" strings are amazing and the corresponding fill first-rate. Some great, unusual clues/answers: cilantro, spoonfed, tearful, bodegas, papayas, okapi, labrats, toyota, 4against5 (and the other numerics) novellas, spreader to list a few. Even the short fill was superb: pao, pei, aga. Even EST, the last entry, had an unusual clue. Super.
I'm also very impressed by the feat of construction.
Kevin Der: In case you didn't see it, I payed you a big compliment in a late post yesterday--clearly very prescient of me.
Re. novel vs. novella: We were told in school that a novella has a single story line, whereas a novel has several interlocking ones. Short stories didn't exist, at least not under that name, at the time when the great novellas were written (my favorite ones are those by Kleist and Mérimée)--those old guys knew how to do sex-and-violence. Mérimée BTW is the guy who wrote "Carmen"; it's much darker than the opera based on it. So, the clue could have been "Death in Venice" or "Carmen"--that would really have given everyone fits, me included.
I crashed this plane. I got stuck in the Wyoming section, who's looking for an OKAPI on a safari? OH,PUHLEEZE (my preferred spelling). I'm looking for the eland, myself. And I thought the football players were all RTS. Did you know that team handball (an Olympic sport!) has power plays as well? They play 5 AGAINST 6.
Rant done. The paper airplane concept is cute, but from my experimental evidence, it needs a bigger piece of paper than even a 23x23 grid to be aerodynamic.
Re novels vs. novellas, for the Hugo award categories, a novel is >40,000 words, a novella is a story of between 17,500-40,000 words. A novellette if 7,500-17,500 words, and a short story is...shorter.
I guess my comment is OH, 36D. Please, not this level of trickery and marginality on Sunday. Surely 38A, TAP, is the *opposite* of "soft shoe" and not an example ("e.g.") of it? ODIN, 52D, is surely the head of Aesir, the Norse hereafter, and not of the Pantheon, which is Greek? Kevin Der is bucking to replace BEQ on my inverse Pantheon of constructors (John Milton, where are you when I need you?). Grrr.
Congratulation Kevin - it's awesome! Fun to solve, good level of difficulty. Several head-scratching moments. And the Magi/IMO cross caught me too. Never liked punk so its sub-genres are completely unknown.
Thanks!
Zipped through this last night instead of waiting for the newspaper, it was so cute!
Checking for mistakes this morning, I found only one: the iPod thing was MP3 and my "sens" was MENS. I should have seen that...
Loved this romp, with all the cleverness -- though I had to guess at some of the sports stuff. For 71D [Let slip] I was thinking of something like "elided" and went from slurred to blurred and finallly BLURTED.
The mythological answers were great fun: KALI, ODIN, HYDRA, MAGE, IKON, (Broom-HILDA?) and especially the TROLL since Rex protects us from too much of that.
Kudos again to Kevin -- this was a blast!
∑;)
MIA alert: No "Mornin' Folks" in two days from ever-cheerful Barry. Should we send out an APB. Should we call MI5? Is he 1 who was DONEIN? Come on people, not 1EYE open--Don't COAST!
To show support for the cause I've changed my pic to my head floating in a sea of white and ask that all other concerned puzzle bloggers do the same.
Grid was tough for me and I hestitated on the Enter key to load Google, but I restrained myself and finished. Really like the rebus without a pattern. Makes it a real minefield and is more enigmatic.
One minor Canadian chide, which is "5AGAINST4" which I've only ever heard announced as "5ON4". I tried all kinds of combos in that one: FIVEONFOUR, FIVEONTHREE, FOURONTHREE, THREEONTHREE (that's a typical Detroit v Chicago game btw.) Reminds me of a Brit announcing a football game ("FAVRE throws a smashing pass down the pitch.") or an American calling a cricket match ("FLINTOFF was ALL OVER that one and smoked it into the stands.")
Just a guess, but I think Barry's feelings were hurt a few days ago by someone who commented on lengthy posts. Rex's subsequent comment seem to support this "criticism".
Barry- if you're lurking, come back. We miss you!
@bluestater:
each polytheistic religion has a pantheon. True it is from the Greek although used by the Romans (Latin speakers) it applies as well to other religions. Pantheon means "all the gods." Kali , for example, is a goddess in the Hindu pantheon and Odin is chief god in the Teutonic pantheon. It can also be a place in which al the gods are housed as in The Pantheon in Rome.
@sillygoose:
Magic, etymologically stems from Magi, the Medean priestly caste of Zoroatrianism. As a caste they had a lot of political power and also secrecy as the priesthood was not open to anybody from another caste. The language of ritual was also secretive as it was a form of ancient Persian, no longer used outside of religious ritual.They were also viewed by outsiders as fire-worshippers. All these combined, probably gave rise to a powerful mystique surrounding them, which they probably encouraged as it gave them more power. In ancient Greece and Rome (and others) religion and magic were realy inseperable. Religious formulaic prayers could be used to manipulate the gods into giving the votary what he/she wanted , even placing a curse on one's enemies.Religion and Ethics were not connected, even in theory. Although for Zoroastrians they were but foreigners probably did not understand this.
Profphil
I thought crossing POOP with SPREADER was pretty funny, but enough with APERS already--does anyone actually use that word?
Kevin Der Kluge:
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, chortling as things flew through my head. And, knowing nothing of sports, used the symmetry of your grid to guess the correct numbers. My loopers: COE, HARVEST, and, yes, SPREADER. Loved TROLL, as sh**t-disturber was too long. And HYDRA reminded me of my dysfunctional family!
deborahiniowa
I've never read PUH-LEASE. never.
It's always been PUH-LEEZE.
I wasn't thrilled with the puzzle.
Especially not with the apers who were looking over my shoulder all the time I was trying to solve it.
I broke my computer screen trying to make that plane. Can I sue Kevin?
Fun puzzle. Very clever idea. Liked that we had PDAS and MP3. Also POOP and SPREADER. And who can forget the comedy duo of HILDA and GLORIA! The relatively new i-terms WIKI and TROLL were nice as well.
Very easy puzzle but ridiculously juvenile theme. What next for Will Shortz:finger painting, follow the dots,fill in the numbers ,etc. FEH!!! How about an origami puzzle?
what a great puzzle!!! Knew there were numbers right away; and considering crossword people are not good with numbers.... but we won't go into that again.
Think maybe I'll make a cowpea salad with lots of cilantro
I agree with the comments about the construction-- very impressive, indeed. The only reason I didn't finish this one in Monday-ish time (not that I have ever timed myself on a crossword, only a sudoku) is that there were soooo many answers. 170 of 'em in a 23x23 grid with 104 black squares. That's 425 squares to fill in. Cripes! My writin' hand was sore!
While I was duly impressed with the construction, the theme was just "pretty good" to me. And a lot of the fill was... boring (as is likely to happen in a grid of this size). SHE, PAD, EST, TAP, etc. Zzzzzzzzz. And CAS in cat? C'mon! 5 yard penalty!
The 4th-grader who occasionally tries to pass himself off as me did chuckle when I mometarily thought KUM Ba Yah was spelled with a C. Reminded me of "the PENIS mightier than the sword."
Fun puzzle, but I have yet to make a paper airplane that flies! My biggest problem was in the SW corner because I insisted on sticking with GOOD IDEA (as in "it seemed like a good idea at the time")for far too long. Only real error was the EROICA/COE crossing because I spelled with a K. Enjoyed TOELOOPS, CILANTRO, OKAPI and PAPAYAS.
very clever. i liked it a lot. but it was pretty sports-heavy (especially the theme answers). that only helped me, but i could understand non-sportalohics being frustrated.
as usual, the people who criticize the worst fill entries in a large (or in today's case, overlarge) grid are missing the boat. not only was the theme highly creative, but there was some outstanding semi-long fill. i liked PRYOFF, OLDLADY, LABRATS, SPOONFED (my favorite), NOVELLAS sitting on ESSAYIST (just in case there is any overlap between puzzle solvers and readers), UNFURLED... all good stuff.
Solid puzzle, but I'm not big on these kinds of gimmicks--makes me feel like I'm in the dentist's office, at nine years old, dealing with old copies of Highlights. What were the two guys who taught lessons in being nice by contrast? Gallant and...the other one. Gerkface?
@km
I, too, had "good" for a long time thinking it was a play on the comparative: good, better, best.
While solving, I had two concurrent feelings, one was mild frustration by a number of spots that took a lot of doing to work through, and the other was great awe of what it must have taken to construct this puzzle-- the only thing that would have been harder is if the numbers had been intertwined with the instructions, or if the fill was more closely related to the theme- e.g. flying or origami.
As in the case of food, given a choice between a puzzle that's elaborate but not that tasty, or one that's simpler but delicious, I would choose the latter.
Hi everybody. Today is my first puzzle after six weeks on a dig in, of all places, the Galilee in Israel. My crossword skills have atrophied, so it helped to have a clever theme like this one. But I'm glad the plane that brought me home flew better than the one I made from this puzzle...
Question: What is TISH, 32 down?
@barry, don't make me beg. Your posts always cheer me up. And, it will really cheese people off if I start writing long posts
Can only bide a wee ("garlic" for short hang time): Today is kitchen painting day.
Got 138a early on followed by 30a and 97a so the rest of the puzzle was spent trying to guess the remaining clues for making the plane. In short the cute stunt took away fro solving the puzzle. So I am singing the Doom song for Gir.. err Der
Most fun errors talltree instead of CHEROKEE and jamfest instead of HARVEST.
Hey, I was in a BODAGA yesterday and here it is in the puzzle, my life is bleeding over into... At said BODAGA I had a Papaya sliced, covered with lime juice and cayenne pepper. I am just sayin art imitates or APES life
Rex thought of your tan when I filled in PALEST :)
@barry, I am hookin up the manure SPREADER. Getin ready for tomorrow
@TISH
It's an anagram of SxIT for the modest. First for me as well.
Welcome back archaeoprof, and I'm also very worried about Barry. I usually hate to be called "Folks", but early in the day, with his fresh face, I sort of like it. Let's send out the troops, doesn't he live close to Natick?
What a clever puzzle today from Kevin der Kluge. I haven't cut it out and folded it yet, but I will. Lots of great clues and answers, some problematic, but usually gettable through crosses. TG my son could help me out with "emo" or I would have had Magi. Loved spoonfed, tearful, unfurled and toeloops, all tied together. Isn't the term "old lady" usually used for someone's wife? The poop - spreader corner is also cute, and I got troll because of the discussion a couple of months ago.
@Karen: when on safari you will see lots of okapi, and not only that, there will be many attempts to feed you with them, barbecued, stewed and many other ways!
Got to go, prep a pasta/barbecued chicken dinner.
Re Tish: A better clue would have been "Folk singer Hinojosa." Tish is a diminutive of Letitia, or possibly, Morticia (another possible clue, but I think it was used recently.) Dah-dah-dah-DAH (snap, snap).
@dk, Unless you were in a BODEGA, you got one square wrong.
Mixed feelings about this puzzle. It's kinda like how I feel about opera; I know how technically difficult it is to do, but I still don't care much for it.
@Barry, You know what you do? you mark the boundary between the late night solvers and the day-of-the puzzle solvers, by announcing the morning and making it feel like a fresh start. So, without you, it feels like one of our clock genes is on hold...
Back in the day, there was an expression "tish tosh" much like fiddle-dee-dee or some such.
Loved everybody's comments. Wished I loved this puzzle. Got all excited when I saw the numbers and then ... TISH.
Mr. Der IMO you need to stop trying so hard to be brilliant because you already are.
How about a theme involving the enigmatic genius Bob Dylan?
We'll be waiting ....
@Green Mantis, how dare you forget my name. I made Gallant! He's nothing without me.
@Barry Please come back!!! I promise I'll make you a red vegetable - cooked any way you like. And you can share it will all us folks
Leave Barry alone, he's a grown man not a @#$!ing lost puppy.
And Mr. Burns says "Pish posh," not "TISH tosh."
rp
Oh yes, Goofus. Thanks, I think.
And, Barry's at least a quarter Black Lab, as far as I can tell. You can't see it so much in the face as in the...limitless joy.
My puzzle copy, on good paper stock, folded meticulously (even getting the little central overlap), sort of flew -- but more hovered and floated, rather like a helicopter. Made me wonder if this was some form of clever misdirection?
CILANTRO is a flavor that seems new to the puzzle.
Petruchio ends this marveloous speech with a variant of TISH. BTW, elsewhere in this scene (Act I, Scene II) he calls Katharina a SCOLD.
PETRUCHIO
Why came I hither but to that intent?
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea puff'd up with winds
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang?
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a farmer's fire?
Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.
I thought this was a very cleverly constructed puzzle. It took me the better part of a half hour and I got the theme when I got 3 sets & MP3.
I found the Match game a frustratng show.. It always bothered me when one or more of the contestants would come up with a really rediculous answer. For instance there would be a fill in FLYING ________ and one of the celebs would say Micky. Sure you could say Flying Saucer or Flying Walendas but then the celeb who said Micky would say "Oh yeah, I had this friend named Micky who loved to fly".
Of course I put that flying reference to go along with today's theme.
The new word I learned from today's puzzle was lachrymose; I got the answer contexturally. And I think my wife is lachrymose that I finished this puzzle before she finished the medium Brain Bashers Sudoku.
Goofus and Gallant - boy does that bring back memories. Then there were the pictures where you had to find the hidden items.
I wonder what percentage of solvers actually made the airplane. I didn't out of some sort of laziness. Great idea, though. I can't imagine how one manages to make such constructions...
Did this one in around 50 minutes, in ink, with no errors, which is pretty quick for me to do a Sunday puzzle.
"CAS in CAT" really annoyed me. Although I had that answer, I had to come here to see WHY it made any sense. Weak. Especially crossed with "Tish." Otherwise, fun and pretty easy.
In a just world, Appalachian singer Cas Wallin would be better known -- if that clue had been "Balladeer Wallin" I would have had Cas in mere seconds.
Oh "AT 1" and DO 1 IN" were pretty weak too.
Oh, and anyone else doing the dead tree edition in his lap find that his left hand was black upon completion? They really shouldn't put full-black ads opposite the puzzle.
No one is likely to be reading this anymore, but I have an insight into Bide-a-wee.
That was a name applied to cottages by people who thought they were far more clever than they really were, and I remember seeing it on signs by the lake when I was a TAD. I think of it as the equivalent of "Sit a spell" as in "come on over and Bide a Wee".
Don't fret. I'm still reading it, Jim. Why, exactly, I'm not sure, but just thought I'd let you know that your posting wasn't in vain.
However, now that I think of it, you probably won't see this, because as you said, no-one is reading this anymore...
Hi All ...
I use Across Lite to print my favorite Sunday crosswords each week. I prefer to do this so I can work on them at my leisure.
They used to print great with a nice large grid and the clues all on one page. Somehow I changed something in the program so now when I print, I get a tiny unusable grid in the upper left and the clues on the rest of the page. I can't figure out how to change it back ....
Can anyone help me?
Thanks .. ALAN
Bide-A-Wee is an animal shelter here in Westhampton Beach, NY. Professor Higgins and I enjoyed our weekly puzzle at the beach yesterday.
I enjoyed this puzzle, still not flying though.
I immediately got bide-a-wee, as it's one of my favorite quotes from J.D. Salinger, "that bide-a-wee home heart of yours" as Zooey accuses Franny, in the book of the same name. I found that particular clue as sentimental and lovely as Salinger's stories.
Love your blog, read it after I finish every Monday. (I work every Sunday)
Thanks,
Suzanne Allard
Portland, OR
If you spent any time on Cape Cod in the 50,s you would have seen that every other little cottage was named "Bide a Wee" most of the others were named "God's little Acre"
If you spent any time on Cape Cod in the 50,s you would have seen that every other little cottage was named "Bide a Wee" most of the others were named "God's little Acre"
If you spent any time on Cape Cod in the 50,s you would have seen that every other little cottage was named "Bide a Wee" most of the others were named "God's little Acre"
Fans of P G Wodehouse are familiar with Bide-A-Wee, so for me it was a gimme. Wodehouse referred to their animal shelters sometimes in his novels, and he was famed for giving largish sums of money to them in his later years.
This one was way beyond me, but I love trying and then reading your writeup. I saw the comment that Stay a while was the definition of the bide-----....but specifically -
English Collins dictionery (google)
Bide a little (Scot)
Thanks for your entertaining blog, Rex.
I grew up on Long Island near a Bide-A-Wee, which was a well-known shelter for cats and dogs.
Like "mac", I was puzzled over "oldlady" being clued as slang for "mother". Not from my 1960s! Old lady referred only to one's girlfriend (or wife, as mac said). I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this.
Yeah, "old lady" struck me as wrong too. "Old man" is father but "old lady" is girlfriend/wife.
Don't know if you publish comments one (or five) weeks later from those of us out here in the sticks (San Diego) but here goes:
I read the blog every day but this is the first time I've felt the need to comment. I just found today's puzzle tedious. I just started by writing down the answers in the NW and within a minute (at the intersection of 5 Across and 7 down) had figured out that numbers were part of the solution. Not as much of a challenge as I look forward to on Sunday morning.
I only seem to drop by here when I run into one of those "got it... now what does it mean?" answers.
Today's, of course, was "cas in cat." Obvious once someone else points it out, thanks.
But, the other thing to report, which y'all may have seen before: apparently the spammers are after us. There are now web sites padded with "cas in cat", "okapi", "sine qua non", "sequoyah"... . Coincidence? I think not.
If you go to one of the pages, enticingly named "[female]'s page", there's something that looks like a YouTube video for you to click on -- not that I was foolish enough to try. Play it safe and stick with Rex Parker, that's my motto.
One week later, my plane flew! If you knew me, you'd know that this is quite an accomplishment! I enjoyed the puzzle even if I had to come here to realize how to FOLD the *&%#ing thing!
Can't imagine how hard it is to make the numbers fall in the right places...something to do with aerodynamics, no doubt.
juliebee
Went online to figure out what the hell CAS meant, found the g*d*m spammers, also. Bouced here! Answers answers answers. Thx so much. Good discussion, too. Clever puns. My kinda place.
So glad I found you. Suzanne, I'm in Eugene. ICONic 2nd on the Dylan-puzzle request. Can we TILT Will's mind, ya think?
Went online to figure out what the hell CAS meant, found the g*d*m spammers, also. Bouced here! Answers answers answers. Thx so much. Good discussion, too. Clever puns. My kinda place.
So glad I found you. Suzanne, I'm in Eugene. ICONic 2nd on the Dylan-puzzle request. Can we TILT Will's mind, ya think?
17 minutes for Rex! It took me 6 hours off and on, but I enjoyed it.
@opus2 and @Jim in Chicago, don't forget about all of us in syndication. People who leave late comments always say "no one will read this." What are we, chopped beets? I read them every day. I'm fairly sure Rex has thousands of readers that are five (or one) week behind.
I wanted the seasonal activity to be hamfest.
59 down - Carrier of 62 down ...
62 down is Gridiron grp., answer is NFC for National Football Conference... what Rex had and what I ended up putting in is RBS, because otherwise 58A answer Cherokee would be Checokee... I thought the answer should be CBS, but, FOX carries the NFC anyway, not CBS... so what is RBS? Royal Bank of Scotland? don't get that one...can someone splain this one to me? I even looked it up in an Acronym finder, nothing there that makes any sense, although I did stumble across something called Random B*ner Syndrome, which made me chuckle...
DOH! Just dawned on me, Running backs - RBs ... ball carriers, not game carriers... please disregard previously posted stupidity ..
Believe it or not.....I got Bide-a-wee because I am right now reading a Jeffery Deaver novel (not a short novella) entitled Bloody River Blues and the hero has his Winnebago parked at the Bide-A-Wee!! I nearly fell off my chair laughing. I would probably never have gotten that one otherwise!
Can't believe anyone could do this puzzle in 17 minutes. Took my wife and I three days. Does it just take years of puzzle solving? And I must have folded it wrong, because there was no way it could fly without a giant tailwind.
I enjoyed the puzzle, lots of new clues and words for me. Much like "lubadoob" it takes me forever to get it totally solved, but as long as it's ready to be recycled by the time Sunday's answers come along I'm satisfied. I found this site while cheating on the Internet, (first time, honest,) I was having trouble with the SW corner as well so I looked up Latin for fame and eventulaly stumbled onto this site. Lots of interesting comments, I'll be back, but not until I've solved the next one or given up. Cheers
I'll second the "huh, 17 minutes?" sentiment. These puzzles usually take me a day or two, but I finished this one in about an hour. Thoroughly enjoyed it, didn't cheat a bit. I get the honour of being the last person to post...what can I say, I had a busy summer and just got around to this one. Had to look up the comments to see if anyone had clarified the bide-a-wee. Of course, they had! Thanks Rex, I always enjoy your posts.
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