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Constructor: Mark Feldman
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: MAGAZINE READERS (39A: What 17-, 20-, 56- and 60-Across are?) — four theme answers are familiar phrases that might also describe readers of certain magazines; first word in every case is a magazine title.
Word of the Day: Fra Lippo LIPPI (7D: Florentine painter Fra Lippo _____) — Fra' Filippo Lippi (1406 – October 8, 1469), also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Italian Quattrocento (15th century) school. (wikipedia)Most people (I think) will know this guy's name because of the Robert Browning poem about him. It's a staple of college lit classes:
Fra Lippo Lippi is an 1855 dramatic monologue written by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. Throughout this poem, Browning depicts a 15th century real-life painter, Filippo Lippi, who faces the conflict of a religious life committed to the Church or a life of leisure. The poem asks the question whether art should be true to life or an idealized image of life. (wikipedia)
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Cute concept, but there are a few problems. The biggest is that MONEY LOVER just isn't a strong stand-alone phrase. At all. Google it and see. Really poor attestation. I was sitting here marking up the puzzle last night, wondering if I wasn't being a little too hard on MONEY LOVER, and then my wife's voice came from the next room: "Is MONEY LOVER a thing?" Well, yes and no. Mostly no. The other descriptions of magazine readers are all solid and snappy. I like that the whole phrase, not just the first word, is involved in the theme.Theme answers:
- 17A: Official with a stopwatch (TIME keeper)
- 20A: Bragging sort (SELF promoter)
- 56A: One good at forming connections with others (PEOPLE person)
- 60A: Miser, e.g. (MONEY lover)
The non-theme fill today is pretty rough, much rougher than Monday fill oughta be. It's laden with crosswordese, and then there are a handful of wincers that stand out starkly as desperate fill. LIPPI is not great, though I will say that the way the theme answers are arranged here, it's hard to make that top section come out much better.
There shouldn't have been as many issues with the far west, so I don't know whom or what you blame NORGE on (24D: Oslo's country, to natives), but someone needs blaming. God Awful. I didn't have a clue what [Cassiterite] was — I don't mind it terribly as a clue, but like LIPPI and NORGE, TINORE stands out strongly as an oddity that exists not for color and entertainment, but because nothing else would work. Everything I've complained about in this paragraph crosses a theme answer, which should give you some idea of how unexpectedly tyrannical theme answers can be when you're trying to build a grid.APORT is a real word (52D: Toward the left side of a ship) but felt wonky to me — again, a word you wouldn't use if you didn't have to — and for some reason "proofer" is a word that's making me laugh this morning (68A: "Leave in," to a proofer). Not in a bad way.
That is all.
See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]
Not being especially proficient in crosswordese, this puzzle was more on the Medium level for me. I would have tripped on LIPPI, but actually never saw the clue because all the crosses fit. NORGE was the real stumper for me and kept me from seeing MAGAZINE READERS for a bit. I might have gotten this a little more quickly, but I had somehow put an "S" in La PAZ and thought the Disney deer was EVA. All reconciled without too much difficulty, but I did have a few moments of panic when I thought I couldn't finish a Monday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteMONEY LOVER didn't bother me. I actually had MONEY SAVER there at first. I guess I have a benevolent view of misers.
@Greene ... I, too, had MONEYSAVER before MONEYLOVER.
ReplyDeleteI liked this theme as it's new to to me.
I so wanted this to be a pangram but it's J and a Q short.
A fine Monday effort I thought, one which I obviously appreciated more than @rex.
Thanks, Mark Feldman!
An easy-medium Monday for me. Had Norde before Norge, didn't know Lippi or tin ore either. Wanted MoneyMaker but knew it didn't work (but it's much more "in the language").
ReplyDeleteNice theme, mostly well executed.
Not a bad Monday opus. I had "moneysaver" which tied me up for a while. I agree with Rex that it was a bad entry in an otherwise nice puzzle.
ReplyDeleteA fine start to normal puzzle week. Fast for me (TIME KEEPER, SELF PROMOTER), as crossings took me around the unusual words. Don't know LIPPI; never read Browning and don't intend to (MAGAZINE READER). Hi to everyone out there
ReplyDelete(PEOPLE PERSON), off to my accounting job (MONEY LOVER).
Solid, enjoyable Monday puzzle...although a medium for me (cassiterite, Fra Filippo, Norge...)
ReplyDelete"Money Lover" = miser is fine by me.
I think my only write-overs were THUS for ERGO and AVOID for AVERT. Maybe you have to be Norwegian to get NORGE with no problems. Worked for me.
ReplyDeleteSo, we're in for a storm of defiance: Rex no Yeats, Crosscan no Browning. I won't comment on what you are or are not missing out on. Oh, hell. Cross, "My Last Duchess" by Browning is one of the most gripping pieces of verse ever written. Rex, "Sailing to Byzantium" is a masterpiece of tone and color, thoroughly musical in its modulations.
ReplyDeleteEnough of that. How about Google's logo today? Looks like a pool of vomit.
Okay puzzle.
I have no problem with MONEY LOVER whatsoever, and don't see what the issue is. The two words certainly work as a phrase, and this is the classic definition I learned. A miser isn't only someone who scrimps and scrapes, he/she does it because they LOVE the money itself, not what it can do. Scrooge is the classic example, the only thing he loved was his money.
ReplyDeleteDitto on NORGE, perfectly reasonable clue, even for a Monday. I learned the real country names at the same time we did geography in about 4th grade, maybe they don't teach that any more. Although taking a concept from last week, the clue could also have been "old time kitchen appliance brand". Anybody else remember NORGE appliances?
Now, TINORE was saved from being a Natick only as the crosses were all relatively easy. Never saw the word before, hope to never see it again.
Crosscan is slaying me this morning. "HOW DARE YOU SAY YOU'LL NEVER READ BROWNING??"
ReplyDeleteThere was a little smoodge on my dead-tree puzzle version that made me think "cassiterite's" last letter had an accent. So I thought maybe it was a food, and that TINORE was equally accented on the last "e" and was also a food, or maybe an ingredient. Which I thought was awfully unfair for a Monday.
"Fra-jee-lay. That must be Italian."
I don't know. I think a miser is equivalent to MONEYLOVER like maybe stalker is equivalent to lover. Heaven knows you can love money without being a miser.
ReplyDeleteI had moneysaver, too
Google is celebrating H.G. Wells' birthday by putting UFOs in the logo.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, three Time Inc. titles and one Conde Nast.
ReplyDeleteWould have finished this faster if not for large cat sitting directly on the puzzle. Does anyone else have this problem with cat jealousy?
I had money saver too, along with NORSE until the crosses set me straight. It took some staring to parse TIN ORE. Since I don't ever read Self or Money, the magazine theme would have been lost on me without 39 A spelling it out. I'm always happy to see Nero Wolfe. Fra Lippi rings a bell from a college art history class, although I did not remember he was a Filippo.
ReplyDeleteI'm so adept at proofreading, I'm a 151-proofer.
ReplyDeleteTypical Monday (not a bad thing)
ReplyDelete-Money Saver too kind a label for a miser, Lover better denotes the obsession
-Never ran across Lippa in ANY of my college classes
-Cat no problem with dead tree solving, "keyboarding" another issue. Sometimes I yearn for the good old days of the CRT monitors, big, WARM, cat magnets. Kept the fur off the keybord.
.../Glitch
I'm w the majority-this puzzle worked for me, and I'm happy to give Mr. Feldman a pass on MONEYLOVER...puzzle had a number of good tests and per RP atypical fill for a Monday, which suited me just fine. Liked GAM--don't see that old word too much! Still don't know what cassiterites and tinores are but fortunately got them by crossing..anyone else notice a sub-theme of earth, moon and stars?
ReplyDeleteAppreciated it much more than Rex did.
ReplyDeleteMediumish for me. Although I thought we'd see a Hefner/Playboy clue it is nice to see ASS and CARESS :)
ReplyDeleteHere, background came in handy: Norge and Lippi were gimmes, and everything else fell more or less easily from there--TIN ORE emerged out of the mist and was left there with an "if you say so". Had enough time left last night to do the Split Decisions in the NYT and then went to sleep with a sense of accomplishment, which was battered earlier in the day when I had to confess that Fichte is to me what Yeats or Browning is to others...
ReplyDelete@Glitch--whew, you had me questioning my vague memory of the art history class for a moment. Fortunately, my old Janson is still in my bookshelf. Yep, Fra Lippi's in there, with his 1437 work "Madonna Enthroned", right next to Fra Angelico.
ReplyDelete@Sara - just a little quibble. Misers love money for money's sake. Think of a guy with a chest of gold pieces fingering them one by one over and over and drooling over them. I also have a great fondness of money, but for the things I can buy and do with it, not for the sake of the money itself.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of cassiterite (48D), and since I had T_NORE, I put an E in thinking this might be the Italian word for tenor. But EBEX? so I switched to IBEX and caught on that it was TIN ORE.
ReplyDeleteI had the exact same experience as @Greene in terms of level and stumbles. But I really liked the theme.
ReplyDeleteHaving not been raised in an English/American system, I think I'd the Wade prize for what I haven't read. I always feel I need to prioritize what (not) to read. I can't decide whether or not you guys are helping (but Wade I did read and like Henry James).
Anyone read John Adams by David McCullough? It was the best biography I ever read and the HBO miniseries based on that book was riveting; it starred Paul Giamatti as Adams. Great stuff
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI seemed to remember NORGE from a brief interest in stamp collecting, back in the day. LIPPI was no prob, and Moliere's comedy "The Miser" perfectly ridicules the twisted love of money, so it was a very good Monday for me.
ReplyDelete∑;)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Crosscan, you are so clever! Thanks for the smiles.
ReplyDeleteWanted MONEY GRUBBER, but it was too long.
Came here fully expecting Rex to have illustrated NORGE with a clip of Lisa Loopner and Todd making fun of Dan Ackroyd's "plumber's butt."
@Ulrich, I was forced to read Fichte if I wanted to pass the course...and btw, tried my first Split Decision last night, too - Really intrigued me, I'm in search of more - God, I don't need another letch!!!
Really enjoyed this Monday puzzle, Mark Feldman.
Seems this blog is being driven by LIPPI suction today.
ReplyDeleteAn easy Monday puzzle. Little to complain about. I agree with the MONEY LOVER approvers - meh, but not gripeworthy.
I have not read Bambi in 60 plus years, but ENA (32D) was a gimme. I picture ERNIE ELS with ENA on an EL AL flight from ENID (OK) to ESSEN, reading an E-ZINE.
I suppose one could parse and clue 25A differently, the better to go along with GAM @ 29A.
Am I the only one who thought that SELFPROMOTER goes well beyond simply being a reader of the magazine?
ReplyDelete@XMAN and Denise - I believe if you look at an enlarged version of today's Google logo, it is a scene from The War of The Worlds.
With some of the reservations previously noted (Cassiterite??), a decent Monday. hASTA la vista!
btw, just did the very nice LA Times puzzle today, which I recommend-there are two identical answers Hint: not the dog in the Thin Man. Obviously I/we shan't speculate herein for those who haven't done LA
ReplyDeleteCoincidence?
I was right there with Greene and foodie in my hesitations. Norse? La Pas? Magazine was my last word to fall.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know the painter but he sure has a funny name.
Will I ever remember Bambi's damned aunt??
Never did parse tin ore as two words. Since I didn't know the clue I was reading it as a person from some place or religeon that I also didn't know so I just moved on.
As Rex said "Wonky." Great word that I use sometimes.
I'm glad the regular puzzles are back.
I think "money grubber" might be more in the language but, of course, would not fit.
Norge (slang), the condition known as "Plumber's Butt" - from a popular Saturday Night Live skit, where Dan Aykroyd played a refrigerator repair man with this condition prominently exposed, while referring to the "Norge" (refrigerator, but with double-entendre).
ReplyDeleteMore importantly I knew Cassiterite was TINORE from working on some mining patents.
Filing in ASTA always brings a smile.
Thus I am fine with this puzzle. Thank you Mark.
@BobK, yes, I thought PROMOTER went well beyond describing a READER also.
ReplyDeleteWas sailing along smugly until money saver gave me for 58D "osds" and 48D "tinare". Yikes. Had to check in with Rex and fellow bloggers. Darn! Monday is usually the day I use a pen.
ReplyDelete@two ponies, I have coupled ENA with "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I credited ENA with that quote, although I think it was Thumpers mom. It helps me remember ENA.
ReplyDeleteI also had that quote at the bottom of my emails, as I was sick of reading the Sun Tzu and Jack Welsh quotes that my co-workers used.
Same reaction/writeovers as everyone else here.
ReplyDeleteIBEX are remarkable animals. Talk about selection and adaptation!
What will I never read? Maybe the Sunday Styles section of the NY Times...
Interesting that ENA was once a Saturday clue.
ReplyDeletehttp://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2008/06/saturday-jun-7-2008-karen-m-tracey-1929.html
@stan, yes, kitty likes to climb across the keyboard while I'm doing the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI liked the puzzle. Thought it was a little more challenging than the usual Monday.
I didn't know Lippi from Browning; I knew him from, um, art.
@stan, yes, kitty likes to climb across the keyboard while I'm doing the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI liked the puzzle. Thought it was a little more challenging than the usual Monday.
I didn't know Lippi from Browning; I knew him from, um, art.
Easy. Didn't understand theme, probably because I don't read grocery aisle magazines (no poetry?).
ReplyDelete@Artlvr - I was going to say the stamp collecting thing.
60A MONEYLOVER may come easily from "The love of money is the root of all evil," but I don't equate it to a miser, who is probably OCD. A Madoff type, a predator, uncharitable or show-off, is more the MONEYLOVER the Bible speaks of.
@Foodie - It doesn't take long to read a poem. Grab a bests collection. Save the novels for later. Take a 3 credit course. Just sayin.'
@dk That was one of my mother's usual quotes. Also, "Pretty is as pretty does." "Comparisons are odious." "Those who would have friends,must show themselves friendly." "Politeness is to do and say the kindest thing in the kindest way." A Pollyanna, even in dementia.
@Also have my old Jansen Art History from the '60s. They actually cost a little $. As an obsessive (miserly) book collector, 3 areas hold their value: art, Philosophy with a big P, and cookbooks, as long as they aren't diet or microwave.
@Stan - I love your cat. A friend of mine has a desk lamp that throws a lot of heat. The cat sits under that.
I better shut up.
Ulrich, I would say that not reading Fichte puts you in good company. I bet even a lot of folks who had to for the test didn’t read him. (Fikink, you must have been a good student.) Fichte (I am told) used to begin his course by saying “Gentlemen [meine Herren], think the wall.” And then he would say, “Now think the one who thinks the wall.”
ReplyDeleteThis summer we hiked to the Gleckstein hut on the Wetterhorn (Switzerland), known for its colony of IBEX. We didn’t see them, however. The guardian of the hut told us that when it’s hot, as it was, they go further up where the ice keeps them cool. Once just above the Lac des Dix I had a close encounter with a male IBEX. Luckily he was in a very relaxed mood. It would not have taken much more that a thought for him to fling me off the mountain. (“Gentlemen, think the puny little human flying through the air.")
When my cats walk across my keyboard they often manage to do some serious mischief resetting something deep down in the operating system. This happens way more often than chance should allow, and it leads me to suspect that they are some kind of sleeper cell.
@MikeM, I have read many of McCulloughs American History books including 1776, Washington and Truman. The man has a certain style that makes you feel you are reading a novel rather than a history book. I did not see the HBO series but heard it was excellent and plan on ordering it from the local library. Regards, Bob
ReplyDeleteMy cat bumps my mouse hand trying to get attention. Then he flops on the floor, wanting his belly rubbed.
ReplyDeletePuzzle was OK. Parsing TINORE had me going cfor a bit.
@Clark, LOL!
ReplyDeleteNo, I just had a handful of really whacked professors who lectured cryptically and made us read Quine.
I had an assignment once to write a paper answering the question, "Can you love a brick?"
I "coaxed" Mr. Fikink to write it for me and he produced a very poetic piece which concluded that, in fact, one could NOT love a brick, but under the right circumstances, a brick could love you.
I received an "F" with a terse note questioning my commitment to Aristotelian logic.
Easy puzzle for me, but liked seeing Lippi. Reminds me of being a senior in college when I decided that I was a senior and didn't need prerequisites, so took an upper level art history class in Italian Renaissance Art. (Last art class was 9th grade drawing.) Day one was way over my head, but ended up with a B.
ReplyDeleteOf particular note was the day when we could all tell when a painting was done, who painted it, it's significance in art history and what all the symbolism in it meant. But none of us could say where it was currently hanging. The prof stomped her foot and said, "How are you going to find these when you go to Italy if you don't know where they are?"
It planted the seed that took me to Italy a year after I graduated...and I had the opportunity to view Lippi's works and many others. Bravo Lippi!
As for cassiterite...it puts me in mind of catamite...which just doesn't strike me as a very positive word for what it is...and may not pass some's breakfast test.
I loved this puzzle!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI thought the theme was GREAT bec BOTH pieces fit with someone who not only reads the magazine in question but loves, promotes it...
(@Fikink that's why MONEYGRUBBER wouldn't fit in two ways, one too long, and also it wouldn't fit the theme of loving the magazine. I oculdn't tell if that is what you meant by it doesn't fit, but just in case, forgive if this is repetitious)
There were two or three words that were definitely not Mondayish as pointed out, plus FIVE long theme entries, which screams Tuesday...but then again they ARE Mondayish bec Will accepted them!
Part of me bridles at that (Norse would be hard for most and I couldn't even parse TINORE for a while, I kept thinking of that little French comic TinTin) and part of me says "Yay! That means boundaries can be stretched and fewer rewrites in the future for me!")
Coincidentally, I temp at Time Inc. which does indeed represent all the mags in the puzzle except SELF.
(Insert usual rant about puzzle constructing not paying the bills!)
One of my jobs (it's sweet, the receptionist doesn't like to work Fridays and it's the only day I don't mind working) is to sort the mail...so I know all the 20 magazines quite well (they also do Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Sunset, etc. I've been watching some of them go out of business one by one...Teen People, Life)
I can't wait to show them this puzzle!
Anyway, I thought this was brilliantly constructed bec Mark had the names of very very well known magazines (except maybe less so with SELF) had them in normal phrases that also were positive about the magazine...it's fabulous!
(ie wish I had thought of it myself! And they have been sitting in front of me for the past 8 years!!!!!!)
SELFPROMOTION wouldn't have stood out so much if it were (enthusiastic) MAGAZINEREADERS or MAGAZINELOVERS...so in that context MONEYLOVER is perfect...it's not just about a MONEY phrase, it's about the title, plus loving that title.
I am a THISPUZZLELOVER.
Bravo, Mark Feldman whoever you are!
And, as Rex pointed out, but I'd like to reiterate, the semi-forced fill of less than a half-dozen words was VERY largely due in part to how difficult it is to do a swell theme and make all the crosses 100% on a certain level. No one would have blinked were this a Tuesday.
@John, Clark
Sleeper cell...ha!
I am teaching one of my cats to type! I have a cartoon of one going across my keyboard with the caption "Writer's Block"
@fikink - You and Messrs. Fikink, Quine and Aristotle and the brick had me laughing much louder than your typical LOL!
ReplyDelete@Clark and fikink: In defense of Fichte (the one I will not read); I guy who has the gumption to call Kant's das Ding an sich ("the thing as such") an Unding (a non-thing, used to the present day in the sense of "a no-no, something that isn't done" as in "it would be an unding to tear down Cologne Cathedral to make space for a parking lot") cannot be all bad...
ReplyDelete...and Lippi painted the prettiest Madonnas until Parmigianino came along and painted them as ravishing swan-necked, nipples-pushing-through-the-gown beauties.
My art history profs where pretty lax about the location of a painting but they were obsessive about the date. One year off = failure.
ReplyDeleteAlways curious about the English version of place-names. I can see Norway since the Norwegian would probably sound like Nor e yuh; like Sverige is pronounced Sfer e yuh, and yet how did that become Sweden? And Germany from Deutschland, I totally don't get.
As well as SAVER I also thought about MAVEN to go with MONEY.
Probably harder for me than most. I had the same trouble with cassiterite and some others already mentioned, but NORSE was a given, having spent time in Norway. Rex, I don't understand why it is awful. I would guess most have heard of Norsemen. (aside: snapped off at the gum two front teeth on a mountaintop in Norway, but that's another story).
ReplyDeleteRemembered Fra Lippo LIPPI from a college course where a wonderful teacher made poetry come alive.
And about the list of never-to-be-read authors, can I add one never to be read again, even if he is often No.1 on many lists? In an airport and wanting something to read, I was limited to what I could slip into a coat pocket because of both the space, weight, and size of what I was carrying. Mainly a reader of history and rarely fiction, I saw a Nicholas Sparks novel that fit perfectly into my coat, a name I recognized from NYT best seller lists. I don't remember the title, but never again. Is there some law about throwing books away?
@Mike M--Love the McCullough books.
Had wood delivered yesterday and the wood guy had a Dan Aykroyd "wardrobe malfunction" all the time we were stacking it. Had to tell him the tears running down my face were from an allergy.
@ArtLvr/sfingi-
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought my stamp-collecting would be an original thought. I underestimated (again!) the room.
And I felt so dumb at CASSITERITE. I said to myself, "Cassiterite is a Tin Ore. What is 6-letters for Tin ore?" Alcoa didn't fit.
Overall, though, I agree with Andrea.
@Ulrich...Shopenhauer "...thereafter often referred to Hegel and his colleagues Schelling and Fichte as charlatans and windbags, although he had been a student of Fichte..."...skip Fichte and read Schopenhauer
ReplyDeleteSomeday I'll clue ISLAND as the Icelandic word for Iceland.
ReplyDeleteI've never read an edda.
I count myself amongst those who had no problem with "MONEY LOVER."
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I had a problem with "TIMEKEEPER."
When you look at the four large answers, all of them are two words except "TIMEKEEPER!"
SELF PROMOTER
PEOPLE PERSON
MONEY LOVER
but not the "TIMEKEEPER!" :-)
That said, I agree with everyones' comments about the fill - some very irksome stuff today!
Greg
It's an odd concept, but I thought this was "hard for a Monday." Mostly because I had to think a bit about the theme answers and even some of the fill.
ReplyDelete"Money lover" seems a bit off to me. Do misers "love money" or are they just miserable people who don't much like anything? Ever hear of a "lovable miser"?
If the clue is a very weird looking word ending in -ite, then it's almost certainly an ore. As it was, I had the first three letters TIN--- from the crosses by the time I looked at the clue, so it was easy to guess which ORE.
ReplyDeleteI think I've seen ENA twice before in crossword puzzles this last week.
I only read the Harper's review of McCullough John Adams, and it was quite negative. It seems the book whitewashed all mention of Adams' fascist (closet royalist) leanings.
@ R_C -- On your quip, re LIPPI suction: LOL
ReplyDelete@ MikeM -- I'm reading McCullough's "John Adams" right now! "Mornings on Horseback" on Teddy Roosevelt was fab a month ago. I still have to catch up with some others, including "Truman". I not only love his writing, I'm thrilled when I hear his voice narrating Ken Burns' documentaries!
Pres. Obama was a hit here today, at the Hudson Valley Community College (invitation only, darn it). Well covered on local TV, though.
∑;)
Per Al Sanders' comment on Orange's blog, "Heads up, ACPT dates have been changed to February 19-21, 2010." It's still at the Brooklyn Bridge (hotel). Get your calendars out. Registration opens in January.
ReplyDelete@PIX: I've read quite a bit of Schopenhauer. He was one of the greatest German prose writers of the 19th c. and remains very readable, except when he explicates his own grand system. A life-long lack of recognition in comparison to those windbags you mention turned him into a curmudgeon, not a bad starting point if you want to cast a critical eye on everything happening around you, and he makes often a lot of sense, especially when he is at his sardonic best.
ReplyDeleteBut he was also an outspoken misogynist. His essay "On women" (Über die Weiber) is a misogynistic "classic"--quote: "Only the male intellect fogged over by the sex drive could call the low-grown, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged sex the fair one..." I've also been trying to find some choice quotes against, if not Jews, then Judaism, but couldn't--perhaps my memory is wrong there. Anyway, my enthusiasm for him has diminished over time, even if I myself have grown crankier with age:-)
@Ulrich...agree with much of what you said especially "very readable, except when he explicates his own grand system." Disagree with the idea that since he a misogynist (and yes, he said nasty things about many other groups...your memory is correct) that he is no longer worth reading.Even the sentence you quote is very interesting: he's saying a lot of our actions are based on the sex drive even though we usually don't realize it and pretend they are not...and of course he is writing this years before Freud made it conventional wisdom...Much of his writing anticipates people such as Freud and even Darwin and much of it is just fun to read...Sardonic but insightful...very underappreciated writer.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Freud, he might have liked this puzzle with it's caress, ass, dream, and depending how you parse it (someone else caught it too) 25A might be a tit.
ReplyDeleteSqueek
@michael
ReplyDeleteI would consider Jack Benny a "lovable miser" :D
.../Glitch
@glitch -- ok, I'll agree with you about Jack Benny. But how about a real person (as opposed to Jack Benny's stage personality, which may or may not have some resemblance to his off stage personality)?
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, aren't misers by definition miserable? Never noticed the cognate before...
ReplyDeleteThird and last comment of the day..
Every miser I know is indeed miserable. Too much is never enough for some.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@michael,
ReplyDeleteYour suspicions are correct:
MISER:
A miser is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts. The term derives from the Latin miser, meaning "poor" or "wretched," comparable to the modern word "miserable". [wiki]
Benny was the only "real life" miser I could come up with, others all come from literature, like Scrooge McDuck.
@Anon 6:57p
Can you name names? I'm stuck.
.../Glitch (3 and g'night)
.../Glitch
Andrew Carnegie was considerably miserly for the majority of his life, prior to making huge endowments and other charitable arrangements upon his death.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at Wikipedia, there is a small section of Famous Misers in history - Carnegie is one such.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miser#Famous_misers_in_history
I was particularly intrigued by the tale of Charles Huffman, of whom I had not heard.
Wikipedia didn't have an entry on him.
Greg
@Greg,
ReplyDelete[per wiki] Scrooge McDuck may have been named after Dickens' Scrooge, and was probably modeled after Carnegie.
Thanks for the ref. to others
.../Glitch -- sneaking an extra in on a slow night in an effort to keeping the literature thread going :)
Scrooge McDuck (Zio Paperone) has a strange fascination to the Italians. He's more important than the rest of the clan. Mickey Mouse is Topolino. Recently, Donald Duck is Paperinink the duck avenger.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember Hetty Green? A truly miserable miser.
@Glitch, @Sfingi, @Clark, @John, @andrea: Thanks for the cat comments! I could really relate to all.
ReplyDeleteHey Rex has finally posted on the Caleb Madison / Kevin Der puzzle -- get over there...
@Susan, don't you fLIPPI your pancakes when you are Browning them?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDid this puzzle on my iPhone app while standing around waiting for the (totally amazing) U2 show at Foxboro, MA to start.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle must have been easy because:
A. I did in in under 5 minutes and on the iPhone it's never very easy to do puzzles fast, and
B. I was on the floor being endlessly jostled and bumped into by rabid U2 fans.
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ReplyDeleteRex is such a snob
ReplyDeletewaaaaaah
From syndication land. Sorry that sanfranman is on vacation - it would have been interesting to see the statistics.
ReplyDeleteI got a bad start with 'any of' instead of ATALL. I put in 'cleave' for CLEFT and 'Opel' for OLDS. I tried 'Norse' and 'Eva', and had to stare at 39A for a while before MAGAZINE LOVER popped out at me. Don't know what my time was as I was interrupted several times, but I would put the puzzle as medium easy.
No quibbles with Money lover. I think that is a perfictly good phrase. I didn't even notice TIN ORE until I came here - forgot to look at the clue, and got it entirely by crosses. Wouldn't have known it if had had read the clue, though.
BTW, I knew LIPPI from a college art history course many moons ago.
Fergus,
ReplyDeleteYes. I like MONEY MAVEN.
jANN
Writing from syndication-land.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like this crossword. There were the awkward down crosses around the theme clues which you've already alluded to, which were unnecessarily difficult even for a Monday. I felt this way even when I knew what they were, like cassiterite. It still sounds like an obscure monastic sect.
I didn't know Lippi, having never been an art history or English major, and had no idea what Norway was called by Norwegians. Does anyone who doesn't speak Norwegian know that? What about what Austrians call Austria or Swedes call Sweden or some New Zealanders call New Zealand? I wouldn't expect Oesterreich, Sverige, or Aotearoa to be Monday puzzle material either.
I was able to complete it without looking anything up, but when I finally cracked it I felt as if it weren't worth the trouble. The theme answers were just too trivial to justify the effort I put into it.
I haven't even heard of Self magazine, I'm only vaguely aware of Money and People, and I disliked having Time thrust in my face, which is an exceptionally trivial piece of garbage even among the newsweeklies.
40 Down gangster aka scarface
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of the Al Pacino movie Scarface and his role as Tony Montana
RSD