tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post8074373863703942557..comments2024-03-28T20:26:11.908-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Breakfast aisle option for wheat allergy / THU 5-14-20 / Indian tourist mecca / Indian honorific / Pulitzer winning playwright Vogel / Low-maintenance fishRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-12943170864030554622023-07-02T18:43:08.707-04:002023-07-02T18:43:08.707-04:00Spot on write up today. Also, terrible was CAR. Is...Spot on write up today. Also, terrible was CAR. Is it a paint coat, I'm still not sure. Weird hardness thrown in to short stuff on a relatively easy Thu (20:23, but only giving half attention most of the time). I need to figure out a catchy chant. Gimme my tricky Thursdays back! :)maverickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09140742773507184371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-27387987263771182342020-06-18T16:38:55.806-04:002020-06-18T16:38:55.806-04:00Got the Bingo gimmick early because the clues shou...Got the Bingo gimmick early because the clues shouted it out, and the FREE square in the middle was a gimme. (The Scrabble clue was a bit of a diversion.)<br /><br />Overall, I liked the puzzle.<br /><br />But one word was a kick in the butt: NAY clued as an "Assembly line". Guessed NAs(?) instead, and didn't pick up on the Y in the SRSLY cross. Not really tuned into texty abbreviations.<br /><br />ALAS! (not seriously)leftcoasternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-37780624213451728092020-06-18T16:08:33.537-04:002020-06-18T16:08:33.537-04:00I wrote over YAkS to get YAPS and entry into the p...I wrote over YAkS to get YAPS and entry into the pesky NE. Didn't consider UH-OH as only one word. And SRSLY, SRSLY? IHEAR that from A to Z either PAULA Abdul or PAULA Zahn would make a great YEAH baby. One rebus square too many but it fit the bingo theme, I guess.rondonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-87705616207267896322020-06-18T15:36:43.538-04:002020-06-18T15:36:43.538-04:00YORE CHANCE
IHEAR AND I see that HANNAH ain’t so ...YORE CHANCE<br /><br />IHEAR AND I see that HANNAH ain’t so PORE;<br />no LYES, it ain’t FREE for a MANNA see a HOAR.<br /><br />--- PAULA LEA ROSS<br />Burma Shavenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-46813134607003997982020-06-18T14:42:49.878-04:002020-06-18T14:42:49.878-04:00Not a BINGO fan, but when I was younger I tried to...Not a BINGO fan, but when I was younger I tried to win a plush bear for my girlfriend throwing softballs at baskets, trying to swing the hammer and ring the bell, etc., and eventually playing BINGO and winning a game...and a plush bear. That might have been my last gakme of BINGO.<br /><br />I kind of liked this puzzle. Theme was just dandy and tight, nice grid and some tricky off-beat clues. SRSLY was my last entry, SRSLY.<br /><br />rainforestnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-83709374207581036022020-06-18T14:36:48.015-04:002020-06-18T14:36:48.015-04:00and I forgot to say, ARF nay be one of my favorite...and I forgot to say, ARF nay be one of my favorite answers ever (to such a clue)<br /><br />Lady DiDiana, LIWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-67826177620012914672020-06-18T14:32:15.801-04:002020-06-18T14:32:15.801-04:00Yes, I got the one and only rebus - w/o any themer...Yes, I got the one and only rebus - w/o any themer clues in the puz, too.<br /><br />I was quite stumped by the NE, but eventually prevailed. Triumph points abound.<br /><br />Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for BONUS POINTSDiana, LIWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-63811976520476051672020-06-18T13:02:43.608-04:002020-06-18T13:02:43.608-04:00As an avid player of both bingo and Scrabble, I mu...As an avid player of both bingo and Scrabble, I must take virulent exception to OFC's comment: "If you are of the bingo-playing age, here is your puzzle." Talk about stereotypes! Although my 80th is only a week away, I can tell you that people of all (21+) ages play bingo. Where else in a casino can you make a one-time payment for a whole hour? It's definitely NOT for "little old ladies" any more!<br /><br />This puzzle triply hit home, as we eat GLUTEN-FREE. Not for Celiac; that stuff is bad for your overall health. Read Dr. William Davis' "Wheat Belly" sometime. Thus, I enjoyed this solve threefold. YEAH, there are an awful lot of threes, a result of making way for long across themers. But I still dug it. Ramped-up clues helped place this in its proper Thursday slot, and Grace SLICK is a fresh face on the DOD roster. Birdie. spacecrafthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09125304293611865503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59330017315311317192020-05-14T23:07:04.815-04:002020-05-14T23:07:04.815-04:00@Anon 8:10. The BINGO in Scrabble always was a he...@Anon 8:10. The BINGO in Scrabble always was a head scratcher for me too. I remember playing with the family on a camping trip to the U.P. asking why using all 7 letters wasn’t called a “Scrabble”. CDilly52https://www.blogger.com/profile/07727001753847073030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-21908326809260188892020-05-14T23:04:06.698-04:002020-05-14T23:04:06.698-04:00@Anon 8:40 am: loved your deep dive into grammar....@Anon 8:40 am: loved your deep dive into grammar. Raised by my Grandmother who spoke German first, English second, but taught Latin and English in Germany, I thank her for my first grammar lessons. My brother and I jokingly called her “Grammar.” In school, we still diagrammed sentences starting in third grade. Later, Mrs Roenker and Mrs. DeWiesse who taught English and Latin drilled and drilled. So hand up for happy to see a post dedicated to such a wonderful deep dive analysis of the 2nd Amendment clause!CDilly52https://www.blogger.com/profile/07727001753847073030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-83923004037779017322020-05-14T21:06:11.705-04:002020-05-14T21:06:11.705-04:00@OffTheGrid 3:10 - Do you think we disagree?
@Bir...@OffTheGrid 3:10 - Do you think we disagree?<br /><br />@Birchbark - Yah. It’s almost as if they knew they couldn’t solve every problem, or even know what tomorrow’s problems would be. <br /><br />@webwinger - Yah. Although far more, uh, “interesting” than they’re usually given credit for. Zhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16181544219511150272noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-29907356496553185022020-05-14T20:30:45.148-04:002020-05-14T20:30:45.148-04:00@Anon 6:40: One thing about eye disorders, even ve...@Anon 6:40: One thing about eye disorders, even very serious ones: They can often be diagnosed accurately in an instant based simply on appearance by a knowledgeable clinician. It sometimes takes considerable restraint to avoid alarming the patient/family and to avoid giving the impression of having done only a superficial assessment. Glad your experience had a happy ending!<br /><br />Poggius, @Z, and @birchbark: Feel brushed up on the Constitution like I haven’t in years! One thing’s for sure—our founding fathers were quite a bunch of guys. (I’m sure the founding mothers were also terrific, but they didn’t get to leave much of a paper trail.) Makes it all the sadder to look at the federal government today.<br /><br />For you many Roger Angell fans, here’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/old-man-3" rel="nofollow">a non-baseball essay</a> from the New Yorker a few years ago, in which he takes a hard-focused look at what it’s like to be 90+ years old. It’s both harrowing and comforting to have an unflinchingly honest writer who feels like an old friend act as a guide to what—hopefully!?—lies ahead.<br />webwingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06094652109001902873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-11242047157537361772020-05-14T20:29:34.108-04:002020-05-14T20:29:34.108-04:00@whatsername – I'm pretty sure the Cryptogram ...@whatsername – I'm pretty sure the Cryptogram is only in the paper edition. It alternates every other day with some kind of anagram or word gimmick thing. Finally cracked today's after taking a late afternoon nap, so, while @Nancy's email suggestions were on the money, I didn't need them as it turned out. (thanks again, Nancy) Joe Dipintohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07922691457886440325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-60505773340287144342020-05-14T19:53:51.764-04:002020-05-14T19:53:51.764-04:00@Anon 6:41-What can top that is Roger Angell quoti...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />@Anon 6:41-What can top that is Roger Angell quoting A. E. Housman as he begins his piece on th '75 World Series--"Tarry delight, so seldom met...", and more or less any sentence in his incomparable description of that whole event, complete with his understanding of what happened all over NE when Fisk hit his home run and why caring about sports is frivolous and tremendously important. <br /><br />Nothing against Red Smith, but Mr. Angell is in a class of his own.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />2pabloinnhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04967477079504866917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-16120275136356638942020-05-14T19:42:11.471-04:002020-05-14T19:42:11.471-04:00@Z (2:43) -- Never hurts to dust off the Fœderali...@Z (2:43) -- Never hurts to dust off the Fœderalist, as Madison would have it. In number 46, the context for the context, if you will, being the primacy of the Federal or State governments. I underlined this passage at some ancient phase in my past, for reasons long forgotten but curious to read: <br /><br />"The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasonings on this subject: and to have viewed these different establishments [State and Federal governments], not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each other. These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone ..."<br /><br />Choosing the interpretive starting point here can drive very different endgames. Both of @Poggius's posts suggest that if we start with Latin and Greek grammar that informed the authors, for specific grammatical reasons, the "militia" context isn't a prerequisite to finding the meaning (because it is couched in an "ablative of attendant circumstance"). If we were to answer that such granularity is too fine and instead start with context to guide us, we might land in a different place. You could look at the latter passages of Federalist 46 and see what was on Madison's mind when he drafted the Bill of Rights. Or not, as the battle might easily shift to the question of which or whose competing context governs among the many that voted to ratify. If one thing is true of the Founders, it is that they disagreed deeply amongst themselves yet still plowed ahead.<br />I now realize that the reason I don't have a bumper sticker is that I can't find a big enough bumper for all of this.Birchbarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09292725119040462686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-25267407220041879312020-05-14T19:41:27.892-04:002020-05-14T19:41:27.892-04:00My wife and I regularly attempt and usually do OK ...My wife and I regularly attempt and usually do OK (solve in 20-30 minutes) and never comment. This is my first comment. This puzzle seemed relatively easier for us than most of you and I think it was because we are late 70s age. A rare situation!gdaddywinzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14797686204156171347noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-43206425296472672782020-05-14T18:41:45.408-04:002020-05-14T18:41:45.408-04:00Some folks vote for Red Smith.
"Writing is ea...Some folks vote for Red Smith.<br />"Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed."<br /><br />Who can top that?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-12317113598218038142020-05-14T18:40:43.744-04:002020-05-14T18:40:43.744-04:00I had an eye doctor look into my eye for the first...I had an eye doctor look into my eye for the first time that he had ever seen me and say "Uh oh" almost right away.<br /><br />I needed retina surgery but the good news is that 45 years later my eyesight is still fine.<br /><br />I would definitely asset that he uttered two words and not one.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-17739099545694449452020-05-14T18:20:03.194-04:002020-05-14T18:20:03.194-04:00Webwinger, Pablo & Crimson Devil. Couldn’t ag...Webwinger, Pablo & Crimson Devil. Couldn’t agree more about Roger Angell. Best baseball writer ever. I hope everyone also remembers his page-long Christmas poems in the New Yorker. Always a lively rhyming tour of the personalities that shaped that year’s news, culture, sports and arts scenes.egsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17439054465313994020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-18920704976837765782020-05-14T18:02:52.185-04:002020-05-14T18:02:52.185-04:00TJS and BobL ask me to put a lid on it, and they w...TJS and BobL ask me to put a lid on it, and they will probably get what they ask for. My thanks to Birchbark, Webwinger, and Smith for their kind words (sp.?? for all). <br /><br />I was trying to point out that the second amendment was not written in English--it was written in Latin, even if every word is in English. I think that if the "militia" clause reinforces the guns-rights argument--it is an "ablative of attendant circumstance"--perhaps if we give the right this, they will be able to give something back, perhaps in terms of the definition of "arms." But perhaps, as I said, this is Quixotic.<br /><br />My *A New Introduction to Greek* 3rd ed., is written by Alston Hurd Chase of Andover and Henry Phillips Jr. of Exeter. I wrote earlier that neither would have permitted an "absolute" expression in English. I knew Chase at Andover, though I did not know him well. He was truly, truly, truly reactionary. If you have too much time on your hands, read his autobiographical memoirs, *Time Remembered*, where you will learn that what would today be called "liberals" have completely taken over academia in 1964!<br /><br />Anon. i.e. Poggius<br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-34393899814418251782020-05-14T17:52:01.439-04:002020-05-14T17:52:01.439-04:00Amen to Webwinger & Pabloinnhr re Roger Angell...Amen to Webwinger & Pabloinnhr re Roger Angell.<br />I’ve found Tim Kirkjean to be very knowledgeable and entertaining baseball author: Is This a Great Game or What, and Why I Love Sacrifice Flies.Crimson Devilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03665174292516725433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-79530113227413049262020-05-14T17:45:01.248-04:002020-05-14T17:45:01.248-04:00@webwinger, Ask @Nancy "Could a sequel to The...@webwinger, Ask @Nancy "Could a sequel to The Green Paint Mystery be gestating?" to Hungry Mother's "I was a BINGO caller for several years in south Jersey at a smoke-filled parish hall."<br /><br />Also, @webwinger, everything I read of Roger Angell in the New Yorker on baseball was pure gold. I almost wish I had resubscribed because I'd run over there right now and look up some of those pieces. I could use that comfort these days.Lorelei Leenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-6122718720050513572020-05-14T17:42:07.804-04:002020-05-14T17:42:07.804-04:00@Joe D (3:59) I agree re the SB, very frustrating....@Joe D (3:59) I agree re the SB, very frustrating. Do you - or @Nancy, you - or anyone else know whether the cryptogram is available on line? I had no luck finding it. Whatsernamehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15450876821189472213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59750537195610928622020-05-14T17:29:18.873-04:002020-05-14T17:29:18.873-04:00@Joe D (3:59) -- I just solved the Cryptogram. Th...@Joe D (3:59) -- I just solved the Cryptogram. Thanks for drawing it to my attention: I fold the paper lengthwise when I do the puzzle, and have missed seeing some of these new daily variety puzzles because my fold blocks them from view. They're fun and it's a shame to miss them. <br /><br />I did this one in about ten minutes. I see you've listed an email address, Joe, so I'm going to send you a couple of hints off-blog. I think they'll help -- but don't read them unless you're ready for hints. <br /><br />In a different email, I'll send you the answer. I'll label it. Don't open until/unless, after utilizing the hints, you've given up.<br /><br />(After which I'll be in a hot tub for the next 30-40 minutes.)Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16737377749030219974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-3309315251375761122020-05-14T17:28:20.981-04:002020-05-14T17:28:20.981-04:00@Beepeople-
Finally got to Genius today and I'...@Beepeople-<br /><br />Finally got to Genius today and I'm giving up. For some reason it feels like I was trying to make words out of these same letters yesterday. Deja vu all over again, sayeth the Yogi.<br /><br />@webwinger-Totally agree on Roger Angell. Just the best baseball writer ever. I have several of his books and revisit them frequently, just for the writing. As graceful and elegant as the game I love can be.pabloinnhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04967477079504866917noreply@blogger.com