tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post2921134617770342482..comments2024-03-29T00:28:40.417-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Turner's 1986 rock autobiography / MON 12-13-10 / Othello's rival Desdemona's affection / Grapefruit-like fruit / Former Egyptian leader lakeRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-21385113691787563502011-01-17T15:54:25.606-05:002011-01-17T15:54:25.606-05:00SCUBA (36d)is an acronym for Self-Contained Underw...SCUBA (36d)is an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Brerathing Apparatus - I have never seen it used as a verb (an adjective, maybe, as in, "Let's go SCUBA-diving.") I just thought those of you who loved DEFINITEARTICLE (as do I)would care about such things.<br /><br />Yesterday's (1/15) Jets/Pats matchup had a decidedly different outcome than the one the day before this puzzle originally appeared. The top seeds in both divisions are now gone - I guess that's why they insist on playing all of the games.Dirigonzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03903353503511480168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-83362062199421597062011-01-17T15:04:55.280-05:002011-01-17T15:04:55.280-05:00From Syndication Land:
Hi Rex. In deciding how m...From Syndication Land:<br /><br />Hi Rex. In deciding how much to donate to your great blog, I am wondering how much it costs you per year.<br />I have no idea what a blog costs and I'm sure other readers would be interested too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-64719016175166533682011-01-17T14:17:22.940-05:002011-01-17T14:17:22.940-05:00Fun puzzle LOVED the cat pictureFun puzzle LOVED the cat pictureAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74515838466291297292010-12-13T22:51:26.559-05:002010-12-13T22:51:26.559-05:00Didn't try puzzle, but just before looking at ...Didn't try puzzle, but just before looking at this addictive blog was shopping at Berkeley Bowl, and was considering buying a pomelo. Decided against. (Berkeley Bowl's original site was previously a bowling alley, and pomelos looked usable in one.)I skip M-Wnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-91879493474022644032010-12-13T22:12:45.931-05:002010-12-13T22:12:45.931-05:00What's all this double posting? :-), or :), ju...What's all this double posting? :-), or :), just means a joke or a wink. An apology, more often. <br /><br />@Rex: it does feel as if there are fewer hours in the day lately... I'm sure the faithful will keep checking in. I couldn't do without, althoug these days often much later.machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-41436728438152329042010-12-13T22:10:14.071-05:002010-12-13T22:10:14.071-05:00This week's relative difficulty ratings. See m...This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.<br /><br />All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)<br /><br />Mon 6:04, 6:55, 0.88, 8%, Easy<br /><br />Top 100 solvers<br /><br />Mon 3:19, 3:41, 0.90, 10%, Easy<br /><br />These are virtually identical metrics to last week's Easy Monday puzzle.sanfranman59https://www.blogger.com/profile/15118732156312301425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-90808057666769011682010-12-13T21:59:31.189-05:002010-12-13T21:59:31.189-05:00sfingi,
Only do the NYT because I love Will Short...sfingi,<br /><br />Only do the NYT because I love Will Shortz's clues; otherwise I don't do puzzles. He will likely outlive me so I don't need others (and in the past I have done others and get bored stiff), but thx for the suggestion....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-7056793963678655932010-12-13T21:58:31.633-05:002010-12-13T21:58:31.633-05:00sfingi,
Only do the NYT because I love Will Short...sfingi,<br /><br />Only do the NYT because I love Will Shortz's clues; otherwise I don't do puzzles. He will likely outlive me so I don't need others (and in the past I have done others and get bored stiff), but thx for the suggestion....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-37880309500138058032010-12-13T21:48:06.819-05:002010-12-13T21:48:06.819-05:00acme,
LOL. So I get the hillBILLies and that you...acme,<br /><br />LOL. So I get the hillBILLies and that you know I am allegedly one (aka troll) but I don't know what the ":)" means tho I see it all the time (I suspect it's the sign-off sign or tao).... How about a puzzle with the ASH tree as a rebus and you can imagine the theme answers....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-57737489378360584402010-12-13T21:47:46.893-05:002010-12-13T21:47:46.893-05:00acme,
LOL. So I get the hillBILLies and that you...acme,<br /><br />LOL. So I get the hillBILLies and that you know I am allegedly one (aka troll) but I don't know what the ":)" means tho I see it all the time (I suspect it's the sign-off sign or tao).... How about a puzzle with the ASH tree as a rebus and you can imagine the theme answers....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-90449835162910543472010-12-13T21:32:53.063-05:002010-12-13T21:32:53.063-05:00@DBlackwell - now, what is YSP? (Yves St. Plaurent...@DBlackwell - now, what is YSP? (Yves St. Plaurent?) Guess I need a newer chat-room dictionary.<br />And, maybe the speedsters are working on world peace.<br /><br />Anyway, ADO and EARP were on LATimes.<br /><br />Happy Anniversary to me - 41yrs.<br /><br />@Foodie - there are NASSaRs of the Arabic persuasion in Utica.<br /><br />@Anon317 - Try the much-aligned USA Today for an all-Wed. week.<br /><br />@Matthew - I'm a Sr. citizen and know who Coolio is. What I have to get used to is "owie" (yuck) of the same Wed. puzzle.<br /><br />@2Ponies - I remember the comb would flow through the Breck hair by itself.<br /><br />@Vans - just call it a death-pest, and say that fast 6 times.<br /><br />Everyone else has said everything else about the actual puzzle.Sfingihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06903616949048940858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-12570427316955880852010-12-13T21:16:50.072-05:002010-12-13T21:16:50.072-05:00DEFINITELY SIGN UP FOR Patrick's puzzlefest!!!...DEFINITELY SIGN UP FOR Patrick's puzzlefest!!! It's only $9.99 and makes a great gift!<br /><br />@anon 8:22pm<br />I lived next door to Hilles. :)acmenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-72649166054504383752010-12-13T20:37:22.269-05:002010-12-13T20:37:22.269-05:00Thanks for all of the nice comments about my lates...Thanks for all of the nice comments about my latest word baby (and even for the not-so-nice ones). Most of the Monday puzzles I make are for the CrosSynergy syndicate, but this one had an embedded tetragram (instead of the usual trigram) and a lower word count than usual, so I thought I'd try it on Will first. Happily, he liked it and accepted it back on 3/28/09. It's no get-rich-quick scheme, this constructing biz.<br /><br />For some trickier, Thursday-like stuff, check out the 5 free puzzles on my website at http://patrickblindauer.com/play.html (new one every month). Oh, and my current Puzzlefest (a crossword contest with prizes and a final answer) is still going if you haven't signed up yet.pauerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04459037089749874180noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-21175761202945456962010-12-13T20:22:49.228-05:002010-12-13T20:22:49.228-05:00acme,
Thx for the compliment but I recall seeing ...acme,<br /><br />Thx for the compliment but I recall seeing puzzles with letters omitted and the answers made no sense without them or unless they were added. I gave the puzzle a solid and a quintessential Monday but, while it might have stirred you, it did little for me. <br /><br />PS. I liked your last puzzle and almost always enjoy reading your comments here, but if you never went to Lamont Library in four years at Harvard, then I am reminded of what Joe E. Brown at the ending of Some Like It Hot....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-44902388535297205422010-12-13T20:06:35.863-05:002010-12-13T20:06:35.863-05:00Well, maybe some things are better left at 33...
b...Well, maybe some things are better left at 33...<br />but I feel a need to respond to @anon 7:56...<br />Shedding the TEAR literally by leaving it out is an excellent idea for a puzzle, but you cannot have an entry like PLANETH as that's not a word. SO it wouldn't be more like a Thursday, it would be more like a no day.<br />You could make TEAR a rebus, but that wouldn't be shedding it.<br />And usually if you leave out letters, depending on how many, that makes the entry too short, in general.<br />But I think having six solid entries on a Monday and a nice TEAR in the middle deserves a heckuvalot more than a so what?<br />Tho people might have liked it more if it was the TEAR as in rip than in crying...who knows, I'm sure Patrick is not shedding one over it!<br /><br />@foodie<br />Thank you for the continued vote of confidence and work referral! I can use it! ;)acmenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-67743727523834804512010-12-13T20:00:30.199-05:002010-12-13T20:00:30.199-05:00Thanks for the history of blog traffic Rex. I was ...Thanks for the history of blog traffic Rex. I was wondering where everyone was. <br />I liked the theme mostly because of the Aha moment when I realized that I was looking for a tear and not a tool! That was fun. <br />I think the pomelo looks like football helmet on that cat.<br /><br />Comments today remind me of a sweater unraveling.Moonchildnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-25428127627001961742010-12-13T19:59:16.243-05:002010-12-13T19:59:16.243-05:00Very light and breezy Monday. Looking back, the cl...Very light and breezy Monday. Looking back, the clues are the most fun. I have to agree with both of Foodie's comments!<br /><br />Mellow Yellow always makes me think of our son, 2 years old, calling it Mejjow Yejjow and practising his ls in his carseat....<br /><br />The waste area and "all in" were new phrases for me.<br /><br />@Two Ponies: I think Ulrich would tell you German Hermann is not rhyming!machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23713309975276843792010-12-13T19:56:40.112-05:002010-12-13T19:56:40.112-05:00Nate,
I am pleased that you read my comments and ...Nate,<br /><br />I am pleased that you read my comments and have no problemn when you ask me to explain them. Sadly, I am forever being too cryptic, I suppose, such as my comment yesterday about replacing W (number 43) with H (number 44). I am not sure which part of the 7:12 posting needs or is worth explaining, but I will try. <br /><br />I believe the first paragraph is clear enough: I was going to post something and changed my mind because what I was going to post originally was no longer true, so I posted something else.<br /><br />As for the second paragraph (what I was going to post originally), I was only trying to say that the puzzle was not interesting. In fact, I did not think about the theme until TEAR showed up and when it did, I undestood what shed a tear meant and found the 4 letters in each theme answer, but as another person who commented inferred, so what? But it is the kind of thing that is found in a Monday puzzle and otherwise the puzzle was a very solid Monday kind of puzzle. I think if theme answers had been constucted so TEAR was missing, then "shedding a tear" would have been more interesting and relative as a theme clue. For example, PLANET EARTH would be PLANETH (because the TEAR was "shed"). But that would have made the puzzle more difficult, probably more like a Thursday puzzle in degree of difficulty.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-18756618449029933012010-12-13T19:46:53.696-05:002010-12-13T19:46:53.696-05:00NATE, I don't understand the nit you're pi...NATE, I don't understand the nit you're picking. You...did research so now you understand what Rex was saying? That IS picky.<br /><br />My nitpick would be: Double-spacing?<br /><br />It's <br /><br />not<br /><br />a<br /><br />typewriter.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-54281145988619330052010-12-13T19:39:16.320-05:002010-12-13T19:39:16.320-05:00REX:
I don't understand your comment
about ...REX:<br /><br /> I don't understand your comment<br /><br />about Cassio being the supposed <br /><br />rival of Othello. I don't know<br /><br />Shakespeare so I GOOGLED it. <br /><br /> My understanding is that Iago<br /><br />spread rumors about it. If some<br /><br />of the populace believed it that<br /><br />would seem to correspond to<br /><br />"supposed". Of course it was a lie.<br /><br /> There I go, nitpicking again.NATEnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-1074539573967438722010-12-13T19:36:39.755-05:002010-12-13T19:36:39.755-05:00This is pomelo season at the Asian supermarkets. E...This is pomelo season at the Asian supermarkets. Every time a Chinese lady puts one in her cart now I will wonder if she's secretly going to dress her pet up as Cleocatra.<br /><br />Damn you.Martinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-58136923319839993812010-12-13T19:26:33.100-05:002010-12-13T19:26:33.100-05:00@ANONYMOUS at7:12 PM
HUH?
Can you tr...@ANONYMOUS at7:12 PM<br /><br /> HUH?<br />Can you translate that into English?NATEnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-72075758149594204792010-12-13T19:12:08.669-05:002010-12-13T19:12:08.669-05:00@retired_chenist,
Originally I was going to post ...@retired_chenist,<br /><br />Originally I was going to post the comment below but posted the one at 8:45 a.m. instead. I did not post the following because (a) I read Rex's comment first and (b) it was no more interesting than the puzzle:<br /><br />I did not read Rex before posting this but I am sure it is more interesting than today’s puzzle. Not because it is lacking something for a Monday but because it is a quintessential Monday. It might have been more interesting if there were no TEARs in the theme answers, but then that might not be a Monday.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-19749735208141743032010-12-13T19:07:40.397-05:002010-12-13T19:07:40.397-05:00Not sure the dearth of comments is the puzzle'...Not sure the dearth of comments is the puzzle's fault. Today begins a slow, steady drop in blog traffic that will last through New Year. Then traffic will spike up again, if the past few years are any indication.Rex Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-89621621450921517352010-12-13T18:38:45.379-05:002010-12-13T18:38:45.379-05:00In case you're missing foreign languages since...In case you're missing foreign languages since Saturday's excursion: <br /><br />re NASSER: in Arabic, the ER at the end has the same meaning as the ER at the end of English words, someone who makes something happen. So NASR is victory- NASSER is the one who makes victory happen- leads you into it. A good name for a president I suppose. At least a lot better than SADDAM which means something like obstreperous or confrontational. Who names their kid that? And why would such kid feel compelled to live up to that name? <br /><br />If you're naming your child and think s/he will be a world leader, please call Andrea first.foodiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052189131129098616noreply@blogger.com