tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post1417207934382317032..comments2024-03-29T07:38:33.064-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Noah's predecessor / SAT 5-6-17 / Play movie about noted 1977 series of interviews / Doktor Faust composer / Japanese import that debuted in 1982 / One asking for Ahmed Adoudi / Herb of PBSs ciao italia / Urban lab transporterRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-60605385910735462032017-06-21T19:08:35.173-04:002017-06-21T19:08:35.173-04:00I had no idea what bovarism is, but your comment m...I had no idea what bovarism is, but your comment made me chuckle!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-84220525075763604222017-06-17T05:20:39.551-04:002017-06-17T05:20:39.551-04:00The BUSONI piano transcription of the Bach violin ...The BUSONI piano transcription of the Bach violin Chaconne has a pivotal role in "Instrumental: A Memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music" by James Rhodes. I just read it. (you should too!) —if only for the listening recommendations. At least listen to Rhodes play the Bach-Busoni Chaconne on YouTube!Busoninoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-36548664323956752812017-06-10T20:51:52.580-04:002017-06-10T20:51:52.580-04:00@rondo,Diana,LIW,teedmn: I'll be at the Minnes...@rondo,Diana,LIW,teedmn: I'll be at the Minnesota Crossword Tournament tomorrow. I'd like to meet you all. I'll be wearing a white tee shirt and blue pants, I wear blue glasses. I'll be by the first pillar on the observer side with a sign, though I intend to <br />compete. Hope to see you there.kathy of the towernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-8235019024806566902017-06-10T20:50:57.955-04:002017-06-10T20:50:57.955-04:00I think this has it right:
https://english.stacke...I think this has it right:<br /><br />https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/117939/crank-call-vs-prank-call<br /><br />Maybe you can find an excuse to use crank call. But at bottom it's just wrong.sdcheezhdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05457420125517948430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-58531878410873157022017-06-10T18:20:16.461-04:002017-06-10T18:20:16.461-04:00I found this 3/4 easy, 1/4 impossible, to the poin...I found this 3/4 easy, 1/4 impossible, to the point I did the puzzle in two stages, leaving the SW virtually blank for a couple hours. Came back and eventually, painfully, letter by letter finished it. Talk about your triumph factor.<br /><br />Shoulda known the baseball manager right off, but was hung up on Larussa, not remembering which team won those Word Series. SCRAPES was my last entry, primarily because I've never heard of ENDOgenous. <br /><br />ON A KICK/IRA was also tough. Just amazing how difficult one section of the puzzle was for me compared to the 3 easy sections. Overall, I liked it but that SW was verging on sloggishness.<br />rain forestnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-49550090673132886752017-06-10T13:35:20.353-04:002017-06-10T13:35:20.353-04:00Puzzle so overloaded with pissers that only the po...Puzzle so overloaded with pissers that only the potheads could imagine it enjoyable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-73281497290972185162017-06-10T11:33:04.772-04:002017-06-10T11:33:04.772-04:00Easy-medium? Hardly. And I do mean HARDly. This on...Easy-medium? Hardly. And I do mean HARDly. This one is certainly day-appropriate, with a lot (DESTINY: har!) of convoluted clues that bend a brain fairly out of shape. It did not help to include a rapper--though in this case I've actually heard of LILKIM once it was filled in. BUSONI? No way. And had not the horrendous ANTIVAXXER appeared recently, I'm sure I would've DNF'ed this baby. BTW, y'all can take that weird word and retire it, for my money.<br /><br />Had to laugh at myself in the toughest-of-all SW when my "Herb" turned out to be lower case! All clues begin with a cap, and sometimes constructors take full advantage. Herb, indeed!<br /><br />Took me a while to make sense of the last clue across, what with "Mark" appearing just a couple of lines up, but then I recalled that iconic line from "The Sting:"<br /><br />"You can't treat your friends like marks."<br /><br />After all these cerebral ZAGS, I didn't want to RESOAK my brain trying to come up with a DOD; I'll let @rondo do the honors today. As Tommy Lee Jones once said to Harrison Ford, "Y'know, I'm glad it's over. I need the rest..." Birdie.spacecraftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-83821974797834687212017-06-10T11:14:44.605-04:002017-06-10T11:14:44.605-04:00Not exactly easy since my SENTRA was originally a ...Not exactly easy since my SENTRA was originally a SubaRu with a pRANKCALLER for good measure and Eon at first for ERA. Had to put on THE thinking cap in those areas. Tiger Woods has THE same number of letters as MARKOMEARA and they were best buds and neighbors; didn’t go with Tiger and MARKOMEARA showed up from THE famous Roberto Duran “No MAS” and the R from gimme ADHERES. Sports knowledge also saved me at RCADOME because Baltimore sure didn’t fit. Loved THE BIGS as an answer; Field of Dreams or Bull Durham type answer. LASORDA managed in THE BIGS for quite a while.<br /><br />Couldn’t remember who was first, FROST or NIXON. Crosser DOT came in handy there.<br /><br />BUSONI? If you say so. BEERKEG was easier for me.<br /><br />Seems we still have a bad case of ACNE. Do you suppose Will is stringing these together on purpose? Starting to feel awfully pimply.<br /><br />AGONY to my ears when she performs, but LILKIM can get a yeah baby nod, at least from what I recall from 20 or so years ago. Or you-know-who from DESTINY’s Child.<br /><br />Soon off to meet @Diana, LIW and friend and @teedmn for a day of pre-MN Xword Puz Tourney diversions. Good thing for all the sports connections in this puz, otherwise I mighta HADIT.<br />rondonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-65281052900699440902017-06-10T10:01:00.163-04:002017-06-10T10:01:00.163-04:00MAS EGO HADIT
THE FEM’S a CRANKCALLER, what DESTI...MAS EGO HADIT<br /><br />THE FEM’S a CRANKCALLER, what DESTINY’s next<br />if an INNOCENTMAN gets her ANGINAL SEXT?<br /><br />--- ALBERTA BUSONI<br />Burma Shavenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-80051359758978166142017-05-14T02:19:27.215-04:002017-05-14T02:19:27.215-04:00@Unknown 12:03, Think of letter as one who has roo...@Unknown 12:03, Think of letter as one who has rooms "to let".<br />@Anon 10:07, the Sox play their home game in Eastern Daylight Time.ShortShriftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-55502046006651640632017-05-11T22:07:37.646-04:002017-05-11T22:07:37.646-04:00Excuse typo. Red Sox setting. EDT?Excuse typo. Red Sox setting. EDT?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-81545412367060419732017-05-11T12:06:07.852-04:002017-05-11T12:06:07.852-04:00Could someone please explain EDT. Rex six setting...Could someone please explain EDT. Rex six setting. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-21168672279146525662017-05-11T12:03:56.053-04:002017-05-11T12:03:56.053-04:00Don't understand the INN clue, can anyone help...Don't understand the INN clue, can anyone help?Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08205482771193511218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-8397440931067330582017-05-08T09:58:10.306-04:002017-05-08T09:58:10.306-04:00Sometimes when Me lissa, I think it only appropria...Sometimes when Me lissa, I think it only appropriate that U lysses also.<br /><br />'I'm not suggesting...'? I'd say YesYouAre. Lighten Up, dear heart.Concerned Bystandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-61300309321904922492017-05-07T13:02:55.731-04:002017-05-07T13:02:55.731-04:00I was also put off by FEM. As someone who identifi...I was also put off by FEM. As someone who identifies as femme in a butch/femme relationship, the clue and answer were both pretty confounding. I was so baffled by what the answer could be that when I got F_ _ _ I actually for a millisecond wondered if the answer was the gay slur the begins with the same letter, so impossible did it seem that the answer could possibly be FEM. In all my decades identifying as and pondering the identify of what it means to be femme, I've never seen it spelled that way.<br /><br />Much more galling is the use of "many" in the clue. Historically, butch/femme couples were marginalized within lesbian communities for being too derivative of traditional heterosexual gender roles, not sufficiently lesbian. There's a very real sense also that butches (and therefore femmes) in the age of trans are vanishing--some--notice, I'm not going to say "many" even though I think that might be correct--of those who would have identified as butch twenty years ago are now transitioning. The casual, tossed-off "many" in the clue therefore seems ignorant.<br /><br /> I'm not suggesting Will Shortz/crossword puzzle contstructors should be versed in the cultural conversations around gender queerness, but I do expect that as a New York Times joint the puzzle would be more nuanced. It's not a matter of being "offended" as the commenter above sniped. The NYT puzzle is where we expect each clue to hold up to the most surgical of dissections. We praise modern constructors for cleverly referencing the current cultural conversation, for not falling back on crappy fill for short answers. The clue and answer here seem outmoded, almost embarrassing. I agree with the commenter above that the racist clue for crank caller was also disappointing--in the same puzzle with FEMS this one makes me wish there were a public editor for the crossword.<br /><br />Melissanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-37441661671121800332017-05-07T07:25:00.250-04:002017-05-07T07:25:00.250-04:00My predictive text on "doms and fe____" ...My predictive text on "doms and fe____" turns up "fems" before "femmes". That they are similar graphically is possibly an underpinning for the spelling. And while some (many?) in the lesbian community would probably prefer there be no labels at all, these are not disagreeable any more than "butch" or "femmes", it seems.Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-42211652221336737662017-05-07T05:42:32.964-04:002017-05-07T05:42:32.964-04:00Waaaay late to this party bec it took me two night...Waaaay late to this party bec it took me two nights to finish this! Hung up on West side<br />Till LASORDA seeped thru<br />(I had SOng for things picked up in bars!)<br /><br />I'm impressed how few black squares and had fun parsing things out, but MAN this puzzle is one of those hyper masculine overly sports crosswords that feel just this side of alienating.<br /><br />SO much space given to RCADOME, MARKOMEARA, LASORDA, THE BIGS and unnecessarily giving ALBERTA yet another sports clue but the most final straw was making EDT about the Red Sox! Really?<br /><br />Throw in BEERKEGS and an INNOCENT MAN and I felt like I walked into a noisy sports bar on a Friday night with a couple of KAPPAS sorority girls on the side.<br /><br />And tho I agree it should be FEMME I guess there weren't too many other ways to define FEM (other than the opp of MASC) but gosh this was unwelcoming.<br /><br />Even pRANKCALL had a puerile boy vibe to it. I like Joe and I think I generally like his puzzles and I love the challenge but this one felt (to me) like one of those boy tree house clubs with a scrawled sign that says "girlz keep out!"<br /><br /> @pauer <br />hmmmm about STEW/STEWART... I'd have to go with not ideal... Except it helped me unconsciously finally get the Jon Stewart connection...<br /> I went all biblical and was trying some variation of ShEm??? whom I think was one of Noah's sons.<br />(The GAZA STRIP/SHIMON Peres pairing <br />could be a starting point for huge discussion so I'm glad no one went there.)<br /><br />The ACNE five days out of 7 is just plain weird. <br /><br /> And too bad the nice ANTIVAXXER entry was pre-empted by that fabulous DOSEQUIS puzzle last week with all those double XXs. <br />Outside the grid, re:ANTIVAXXERS...Apparently, there is a serious outbreak of measles among Somalians in Minneapolis as a result :(<br /><br />@Loren Muse Smith<br />MR.T comment made me laugh... kvelling over your puzzle with Tracy Gray Thursday! Hope you are still celebrating!andrea carla michaelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08091986128593034022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-56379228848958919722017-05-07T04:19:07.911-04:002017-05-07T04:19:07.911-04:00STEWART and STEW is fine, imo.STEWART and STEW is fine, imo.pauerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04459037089749874180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-43967300167900586892017-05-07T04:03:25.221-04:002017-05-07T04:03:25.221-04:00Yeah, made more sense to campaign up there instead...Yeah, made more sense to campaign up there instead of Wisconsin, I guess....evil doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17593231055589228837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-84090782633165342872017-05-07T02:30:53.142-04:002017-05-07T02:30:53.142-04:00Agree about having a run of excellent puzzles, and...Agree about having a run of excellent puzzles, and how nice to have an upbeat review!<br /><br />@mac & @teedmn, you're right, Huns aren't Vandals, but could be considered vandals. Turns out it's a capital clue. Heh heh.<br /><br />I was pretty busy in '98, so had aucune idee who won the Open and the Masters. It may have been Ben Stiller's Mom playing with my mind, but I tried every MEARA I could think of: MARJO, MARLO, MARNO. Finally remembered LI'L KIM... <br />Then, just to balance the score, I did the same as @Glimmerglass, regarding Herb O'REGANO... Dang names; have to go RESOAK my head.<br /><br />Am I right that a PET_TAXI is an L.A. SORDA thing? Haven't come across those on the East Coast.<br /><br />Got a kick out of the pair of 'sticks in the water' clues, way better than 'sticks in the mud'. Also had to laugh at @Malsdemare's 'eat my shorts', not sure why. <br /><br />Hillary scaled Everest? What a dame!Leapfingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14243620614139990887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-86552297171045337222017-05-07T02:00:11.864-04:002017-05-07T02:00:11.864-04:00Picked this up and down today and I'm finally ...Picked this up and down today and I'm finally defeated by the SW. I can't go on. This was a bear for me. There were too many stumpers for me to handle..a baseball manager, an unknown composer, Master's winner from the distant past, an Olympic venue before the last few, Noah Schmoah, a flipping HEXAPOD, and an old Colt home. I think that last one is football but who can be sure, and I've never heard of the PBS program. I fell for the tricky Herb clue and thought he must be a tv chef.<br /><br />There was some nice misdirection going on but the longer answers were just too far out of my general knowledge base. My bad. Congrats to all who found this a breeze!<br /><br />Thanks for the pity party, @Nancy. You know me too well.Hartley70https://www.blogger.com/profile/07096198020691584652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-60959981769159867502017-05-06T22:36:16.082-04:002017-05-06T22:36:16.082-04:00ACNE, it needs to stop. ACNE, it needs to stop. Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05980511260482048263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-45995368146931455282017-05-06T22:04:39.228-04:002017-05-06T22:04:39.228-04:00I also was very bothered by FEMS. I put in MOMS (w...I also was very bothered by FEMS. I put in MOMS (which would have been a nice answer I think) and then refused ti change it when it became obvious where the puzzle was going. So I ended up wit WAFMLES and ACROAGE and stubbornly left it that way. Having been a proplific crank caller once, I could have used one that didn't hinge on making fun of a "foreign" sounding name. YMMV. Rabbi Michael Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04626604884670337890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-73392313995918062482017-05-06T19:28:17.490-04:002017-05-06T19:28:17.490-04:00@Nancy, it's EX-SIL2 and he can eat my shorts,...@Nancy, it's EX-SIL2 and he can eat my shorts, as the phrase goes. Malsdemarehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05375476737540476148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-45477278655486119662017-05-06T19:28:03.226-04:002017-05-06T19:28:03.226-04:00Had ADAMANT for 1D, DESTROY for 3D and TOYOTA for ...Had ADAMANT for 1D, DESTROY for 3D and TOYOTA for 29A and it just totally threw off my game today. NW corner was hard has heck because of that.<br /><br />Agree with Rex that it was a good puzzle overall.Jarednoreply@blogger.com