tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post8850754412413448389..comments2024-03-29T09:48:31.305-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Central Honshu volcano / SAT 9-19-15 / Lepore of women's fashion / Movie plotter / Tongue with six phonetic tones / dromedaries carob trees / Longtime maker of model rockets / satay sauerbraten / Vulture lookalikes of falcon familyRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74188538858431042542016-02-04T22:56:37.729-05:002016-02-04T22:56:37.729-05:00A very hard puzzle indeed.
Even a newish birder w...A very hard puzzle indeed.<br /><br />Even a newish birder will know about Caracaras. However, as someone else said, they don't really look like vultures. Also, you don't have to go to Texas or Florida to see them -- we had one in New York (rather amazingly) last spring. I think it was April, upstate on the way to Albany. Dozens of people got to see it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-50676530039453639652015-10-26T18:45:24.406-04:002015-10-26T18:45:24.406-04:00I am way late, and nobody will read this, but I go...I am way late, and nobody will read this, but I gotta say it. The most distinctive feature of the vultures is their bare head, which a caracara does NOT have, and therefore cannot be a "vulture lookalike." So yet one more example of a horrible clue in this puzzle.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-30960518141959345192015-10-24T20:41:05.937-04:002015-10-24T20:41:05.937-04:00Can we make it official? That was a shit puzzle.Can we make it official? That was a shit puzzle.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08670129669313146252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-20133117280992216232015-10-24T19:52:27.594-04:002015-10-24T19:52:27.594-04:00By no authority but common sense I give dispensati...By no authority but common sense I give dispensation to all caraceras/men at work humans. No Hail Marys, etc. Give yourselves an A and get on wth your lives.Longbeachleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10945278798020339134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-86101942826798770402015-10-24T15:37:36.394-04:002015-10-24T15:37:36.394-04:00FASTEST,EASIEST TIME EVER!!!???
Well, no. The tru...FASTEST,EASIEST TIME EVER!!!???<br /><br />Well, no. The truth is that this puzzle was erroneously published in my local paper a month ago. I clearly remember that it was an all-time frustrating DNF.<br /><br />So I worked through it again today just to see how fast I could dredge up, and wonder of wonders, I finished it in record time! leftcoastTAMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-85983550761893326882015-10-24T12:25:23.731-04:002015-10-24T12:25:23.731-04:00INANE TOYERS TATAS
SNEAKIN a girl, then I’ll ENTE...INANE TOYERS TATAS<br /><br />SNEAKIN a girl, then I’ll ENTERTAIN and ANALYZER,<br />It’s EASIER than this puzzle, if one BONESUP to be wiser.<br /><br />--- ASAMA UCLAN MANAT<br />Burma Shavenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-86004214427088272922015-10-24T12:08:25.180-04:002015-10-24T12:08:25.180-04:00Nearly impossible. Had almost all the same mistake...Nearly impossible. Had almost all the same mistakes as OFL (for better or worse?) plus the “seven” and “eight” as mentioned above. What else could they have been? The SE is the only area that doesn’t look like an ink blot. But it carried me up and over as much as it could before guesses (like KAZAN) kicked in. And by dumb luck, I’ve been through SANTAROSA (furthest north in CA that I’ve been). This took forever. RIRE??? <br /><br />SPENSER (for Hire) and SNEAKIN took care of my language problem. Absolute mess in the NW. Glad I knew sauerbraten was MARINATED, I’ve made it several times.<br /><br />No chance for a yeah baby in grid like this. Time for brunch, then INEEDANAP.<br />rondonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-91025141737353768812015-10-24T10:56:04.532-04:002015-10-24T10:56:04.532-04:00I did half of it (NW and SE) and thought I won! I ...I did half of it (NW and SE) and thought I won! I started with ALABASTER and curB--what a marvelous clue "Baby step?" would be for CURB!--and finally, after I BASTED my fatTED birds and BONEd UP for this test, made the change to (grrr!) ATOB.<br /><br />But even with endings like -DES, -IST, -ATE, -TED and -ER, plus TETRA thrown in, I could not make the NE work. Did I try to squeeze MOTORCADES intp nine spaces? You bet. Almost became convinced we were on a rebus. AUTOCADES?? Nah. Flag that baby. No one says "AUTOCADES." And do they really call them "UCLANs?" The "Ball go-with" was very clever, but it sailed over my head. The volcano was of course a WOE, as was the NBC newsguy; I tune to CBS and just leave it on for Jeopardy!<br /><br />As to the SW...forget it. I thought about CARTON, but the "lightweight" clue part made no sense. Cartons are made in varying strengths, including heavy-duty. They all have a seal on the bottom stating the "edge crush test" in PSI. It can range from 25 to 200--and those puppies are ANYTHING but "lightweight." Never heard of the CARACARA or the AMAZONANT.<br /><br />I quit on this because I got tired, ran out of time, and my brain started to hurt. With more time I might have gotten the NE, but that SW was just never going to come. DNF.spacecraftnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-91688547983500814052015-09-23T13:42:36.697-04:002015-09-23T13:42:36.697-04:00Just putrid. (1) Eyemasks not eyeshades, I use th...Just putrid. (1) Eyemasks not eyeshades, I use them regularly and buy them at Brookstore (as another commentator said). (2) UCLAN no such word. (3) Toyers - no such word, and wouldn't be accurate even if it existed since it is perfectly possible to flirt and have serious hopes of landing the fish. (4) 26D is wrong because there a plenty of ants in the Amazon jungle that DON'T do these things, and it doesn't appear that a species that does do so is actually called "Amazon Ant". Can we please have words that actually exist and accurate definitions? Then, lots of proper nouns and extremely obscure information. Also don't understand one commentators lavish praise of 44D as an "instant classic" -- it's a standard crossword definition (usually phrased as recto instead of verso, i.e., the right side) -- it was an utter no-brainer for me. However, in defense of 32A, "Lester" isn't obscure to any baseball fan (despite the complaints), he's been an ace ever since he came up; that was actually the first clue that I answered. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74454823122078015872015-09-21T19:22:39.203-04:002015-09-21T19:22:39.203-04:00@KMS: "Boxing" as in "putting thin...@KMS: "Boxing" as in "putting things into boxes."Ellenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15985015565466937085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-64889139434653031732015-09-21T00:53:52.979-04:002015-09-21T00:53:52.979-04:00This one truly sucked. UCLAN will ever be acceptab...This one truly sucked. UCLAN will ever be acceptableterryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18320170883706242103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-41458304225507592132015-09-20T12:52:06.726-04:002015-09-20T12:52:06.726-04:00I guess I have very different tastes from Rex'...I guess I have very different tastes from Rex's. This one was fiendishly hard -- there were no gimmes for me, anywhere at all -- but in the end I found it mostly fair, and mostly satisfying. I got through it without looking up anything, and DNF only because of one square: the MANAT/CARACARAS crossing. Without knowing CARACARAS, I had no way to choose between "man-at-arms" or "men-at-arms". That's not cricket.<br /><br />Although Rex is right on the nose about ASAMA, UCLAN, and AUTOCADES, even those I was able to deduce (painstakingly) from guessing roots, suffixes and crossings, one letter at a time.<br /><br />I can do without ever seeing RIRE or NANETTE in any puzzle, ever again. But EYESHADES, AMAZONANT, TAKEMINE and even TESTATORS filled me with admiration. And some of the cluing was first-rate: "Lightweight boxing option", "It's left in a manuscript", "Byes at Wimbledon", are instant classics.Tim Piercehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08186514375951991677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-54944515620335402972015-09-20T12:35:30.812-04:002015-09-20T12:35:30.812-04:00You don't have to go to S. America to see a ca...You don't have to go to S. America to see a caracara. They're uncommon but always seen when driving across south Florida from Sarasota to Palm Beach. Big black birds with hooked beaks. I thought this puzzle was hard and had to cheat on the NE corner in order to finish. Uclan? That's UCLA to me. Poor cluing in spots.pdplothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18445279770600961565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-7533364210623018602015-09-20T12:33:52.344-04:002015-09-20T12:33:52.344-04:00The worst was the cross of caracaras and manat. S...The worst was the cross of caracaras and manat. Since men-at-arms is as legitimate an answer as man-at-arms, and no one can reasonably be expected to know "caracaras," one has no choice but to guess whether the vulture-like falcon is a caracara or a caracera. So I did something I desperately try to avoid--I googled it.<br /><br />I stupidly pluralized aorta as aortas and then spent some time trying to figure out who HSF could be (Harry S Fruman???)<br /><br />bswein99https://www.blogger.com/profile/17695650849084225055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-41256421483383910162015-09-20T10:37:34.910-04:002015-09-20T10:37:34.910-04:00Let me add about SCENARIST: it is the old-time Hol...Let me add about SCENARIST: it is the old-time Hollywood word for a scriptwriter. Like, 1910s-1920s, before we had talkies, and when movies were much shorter. If you're an aspiring screenwriter who's read a history of the craft (raises hand) it's a relatively easy answer for the clue, but if you're not in that realm then, yeah, I can see how made-up-looking it might appear. I toyed (flirted ;)) with the idea of writing screenplay software called "SCENARIST" for a few years, and then I got Scrivener and saw that all my cool ideas had already been done, and done well. KevinDenelsbeckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15352119482423851245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-44432894679746772702015-09-20T10:29:25.973-04:002015-09-20T10:29:25.973-04:00Help - CARTON a lightweight boxing option?Help - CARTON a lightweight boxing option?KMSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-28991121619814125732015-09-19T23:58:09.055-04:002015-09-19T23:58:09.055-04:00@Mr. Grumpypants, thanks for your illuminating exp...@Mr. Grumpypants, thanks for your illuminating explanation that the UC system-wide motto applies to the UCLA campus as well as to the UC Berkeley flagship.George Baranyhttp://www.chem.umn.edu/groups/baranygp/puzzles/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-61256457739559994792015-09-19T23:52:33.544-04:002015-09-19T23:52:33.544-04:00I only took the ebola wrong turn, and I got everyt...I only took the ebola wrong turn, and I got everything else with one wrong letter (men at vs. man at). But it was tough. I love tough. I live for tough, stylistic comments aside.dm3000https://www.blogger.com/profile/12053238727094376741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-70497143737732482692015-09-19T22:35:14.744-04:002015-09-19T22:35:14.744-04:00UCLAN used in a headline about UCLA in 1960. https...UCLAN used in a headline about UCLA in 1960. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19601122&id=_TQxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a0kDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7047,4928640&hl=enAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-88894725779322900802015-09-19T22:29:38.154-04:002015-09-19T22:29:38.154-04:00Norm: every healthy person has a large ecoli popul...Norm: every healthy person has a large ecoli population inside. It is the bad variants that you read in the paper, hence lead to the conclusion that all ecoli are bad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-75237195542213455662015-09-19T20:06:10.892-04:002015-09-19T20:06:10.892-04:00I was reading M&A's newfound fear of the p...I was reading M&A's newfound fear of the plus sign-centered grid and was contemplating (by my count) the 4 'cheater squares'. <br /><br />To eliminate them, ANALYZER could easily become a POC, leaving the cross BASTEDS, clued as "East Coast no-goodniks, var.". Other side of the puzzle, replacing cheater square with an 'S', you get sCARTON clued as "Anglicized village peopled by the injured" crossing sTAKEMINE, clued as "Offer to let someone else kill the vampire."<br /><br />Or maybe not.Teedmnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12832353448839187816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-65376296521878215742015-09-19T18:54:25.531-04:002015-09-19T18:54:25.531-04:00There is a nice sense of accomplishment when Rex s...There is a nice sense of accomplishment when Rex says "Challenging" and I finish it with no errors. I am a birder, and have seen the crested caracara in Texas. I join many others in really disliking the ASAMA, UCLAN, Scenarist section, and I don't get the "Carny" clue at all. Autocades?? <br /><br />Agree with all those who objected! But after two consecutive Saturday DNF, it was nice to succeed...<br /><br />OISKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16808675378318214461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23044489237054078682015-09-19T17:52:36.421-04:002015-09-19T17:52:36.421-04:00@John V - I agree that BEQ's 58 word puz on Mo...@John V - I agree that BEQ's 58 word puz on Mon. was more fun, but I also missed that one by one square. Oddly enough another bird I'd never heard of crossing an airline I'd never heard of. jaehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03385568014046336373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-12882210838548089302015-09-19T17:34:29.265-04:002015-09-19T17:34:29.265-04:00@gzodik - If you had ONEaL you had a DNF.@gzodik - If you had ONEaL you had a DNF.Pefhaps not that easynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-47405079144741551872015-09-19T17:34:19.397-04:002015-09-19T17:34:19.397-04:00I finally gave it up.
What a Sea Snake of a SatPu...I finally gave it up.<br /><br />What a Sea Snake of a SatPuz! har. This puppy was flat-out designed to be harder than snot:<br />1. Three fill-in the blanks, two of em names almost as obscure as republican candidates. <br />2. Zero weejects. Two Tetra-lettered. One of em RIRE, the other clued with the dreaded "?"<br />3. Grid had the corner-to-corner connectivity of a traffic circle in the middle of a total evacuation of NYC.<br />4. The usual gang of Sat-level clues, that are inclined to pull the wings off the most angelic of solvers.<br />5. Due to items 1-4, very little fighting chance to land on the beach and start marchin.<br />6. As far as I got, only saw one U. It was at the California crash site of UCLAN/AUTOCADES.<br /><br />Hey, it didn't (literally) kill me, so it made me stronger. And made me scared of grids with a "+" in the middle.<br /><br />M&A<br /><br />**gruntz without + sign**Masked and Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16027736429645378004noreply@blogger.com