carcarscc: January 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

#46

Tout d'abord, on note dans son petit agenda ! (aussi sur Facebook)

On appuie sur Play. (En boucle en ce moment)

Et on se laisse aller....

Monday, January 30, 2012

Chilean novelist Allende / TUE 1-31-12 / Victime of springtime hoax / MP3 player that weighs less than ounce / Newspaper puzzle with anagrams

Constructor: Doug Peterson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Olla podrida — theme answers are familiar phrases whose last words all mean "mishmash"

Word of the Day: Katherine HEIGL (30D: Katherine of "Knocked Up") —

Katherine Marie Heigl (... born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and producer. She is possibly best known for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on ABC's Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2010, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series in 2007. She has also starred in films such as Knocked Up, Zyzzyx Road, 27 Dresses, The Ugly Truth, Killers, Life As We Know It, New Year's Eve and One for the Money. (wikipedia)

• • •

Weird, I just added Katherine HEIGL to my database, like, a couple days ago.

The theme is hardly brilliant, but it hardly matters. This is what a Tuesday should be: easy, solid, well-filled, with bouncy theme answers and some interesting other answers thrown in for good measure. Fill seems a *tad* on the mundane side of Doug, but that's more the nature of the grid than anything else (lots of short stuff). I know it as simply the JUMBLE, but the "DAILY" part sounds at least familiar. I had LEMONADE and no idea what followed. So there was at least a few surprises and a mild amount of drama, despite the overall easiness. Stuff like YAKIMA, GO UP TO, and GIRLIE make me happy. Nice when your mid-range stuff is so snazzy. Not much else to say today—and Tuesday and Thursday write-ups could be a little brief for the foreseeable future, as I start back up at school tomorrow with a godawful early start time that makes early-morning write-ups impossible. So everything has to be done at night on the very night I need to be getting to sleep earliest. Anyway, this is just to say that if T and Th (or T and R, in my Univ's code) seem a bit thin, there's a reason.

Theme answers:

17A: Newspaper puzzle with anagrams (DAILY JUMBLE)
28A: MP3 player that weighs less than an ounce (IPOD SHUFFLE)
47A: Frenzied rush (MAD SCRAMBLE) — I had MAD STRUGGLE ... maybe I thought JUMBLE was RUMBLE and SHUFFLE was SCUFFLE and just invented a new theme in which STRUGGLE would be the logical answer; yes, I like that.
63A: Tart powdered drink preparation (LEMONADE MIX)

Screw-ups: DALE for VALE (DALE works too, right? Yes! "Synonym: VALE." We really should get rid of one of these words); that and MAD STRUGGLE may have been the only real stumbles.

Took me too long to get ADJS (5D: Sm., med. and lg., e.g.)—and that clue has far too many "." in it. Never have liked YOS as a plural answer (69A: Informal greetings), though I know I've been tempted to use it on more than one occasion. I wrote an entire puzzle around the answer APRIL FOOL'S! once, so 11D: Victim of a springtime hoax was a nice familiar face. I have read exactly one ISABEL Allende novel—in college (67A: Chilean novelist Allende). It was required. And it wasn't "House of the Spirits." I want to say it was "Of Love and Shadows." Anyway, clearly it didn't leave a lasting impression. She lingers in my mind primarily because her first and last names are very grid-friendly.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Rain falls, it don't touch the ground.

That day - Tokio Hotel  ♥.

Taguée par La revue de Valentine :

1. Depuis combien de temps blogues-tu ?

J'ai commencé à tenir des blogs depuis 2006, & j'ai commencé ce blogspot en 2009, mais je l'ai entièrement recommencé en 2010 !

2. Quel est ton musicien/groupe/auteur-compositeur-interprète préféré ?

Tokio Hotel, depuis début 2007.

3. Quel est le film que tu aimerais que tout le monde connaisse ?

Mon film préféré, The Last Song.

4. As-tu un projet pour 2012 que tu tiens absolument à réaliser ?

Réussir mon orientation post-Bac !

5. Si tu devais suivre un nouveau cours (cuisine, sport, atelier créatif,...), quel serait-il ?

Je dirais quelque chose du genre atelier créatif, des cours de guitare serait le top ! Ou de l'aérobic danse, je regrette d'avoir arrêter.

6. Si tu ne devais garder que deux livres, lesquels garderais-tu ?

(la question tellement peu difficile !) En ce moment je dirais The Last Song, de Nicholas Sparks, et LA Story de James Frey.

7. Quel est ton héros (livre, film, série, ...) préféré ?

Je suis fan de Batman ! & J'ai pleins d'autres héros mais rien de particulier ne me vient en tête tout de suite.

8. Dans quel livre, film, série, ... aurais-tu aimé vivre ?

Dans les livres de la Comtesse de Ségur (la trilogie des Malheurs de Sophie), dans la saga d'Anna Godbersen (Rebelles, Rumeurs, etc), dans la série Gossip Girl ou 90210 !

9. Quel autre prénom que le tien aurais-tu aimé porter ? Pourquoi ?

Je ne sais pas trop, j'aurais adoré un prénom à consonance anglais/américaine, & assez court, mais je n'ai pas d'idée précise en tête.

10. Si tu voyageais dans le temps, à quelle époque te rendrais-tu (passé ou futur) ?

Futur.

11. Que ferais-tu si tu avais plus de temps libre ?

J'écrirais plus souvent, je ferais plus de trucs style projet d'art plastiques, travaux créatifs manuels.

Taguée par Birdy song :

1 - Est ce que tu as un surnom ? Si oui, pourquoi on te surnom comme ça ?

Pas de surnom particulier, juste des petits trucs affectueux du genre "darling" ou "chérie".

2 - Quel est ton pêcher mignon ?

Tout ce qui a un rapport avec le chocolat.

3 - Quelque chose que tu fais au quotidien ou dont tu ne peux te passer ?

Question difficile :S. Je dirais, me regarder dans un miroir. J'ai besoin de le faire au moins une fois par jour, c'est vraiment un réflexe que je ne peux pas empêcher n_n'.

4 - Le dernier film que tu ais allé voir au cinéma ?

C'était pas un film mais un florilège de courts-métrages, je ne me souviens plus de tous les noms mais il y avait Fard et Pixels, entre autres.

5 - Quelque chose qui t’insupporte ?

Être fatiguée.

6 - As tu un projet, un rêve ?

Réussir mes études, partir à l'étranger, avoir la maison de mes rêves, pouvoir faire tous les concerts dont j'ai envie, aider les gens !

7 - As tu quelqu'un dans ta vie ? Si oui, depuis combien de temps ?

Non :).

8 - Quelle est ta couleur favorite & pourquoi ?

Rouge, parce que c'est une couleur superbe, qui se marie avec beaucoup d'autres tons, & qu'elle a une symbolique forte.

9 - Quelle est la fois où tu as eu le plus honte ?

Impossible de me rappeler réellement, je pense que le jour où j'ai chanté dans le CDI du lycée sans m'en rendre compte & que tout le monde m'a entendu était pas mal. Sinon je prends souvent des arbres ou des poteaux en public, ou alors je trébuche régulièrement, parce que je fais pas très attention ...

10 - Tu es plutôt "Tout au naturel", "Un peu de maquillage & Hoplaboum" ou "Vive les fanfreluches je m'en fiche de ce que pense les autres moi j'aime bien" :)

"Un peu de maquillage & hoplaboum"

11 - As tu une passion particulière ?

Les arts en général, la musique, les voyages.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Big Apple list / MON 1-30-12 / Ones not entirely gay or straight / Soothing juice / Food giant whose brands include Gerber and Goobers / Wrist elbow connectors

Constructor: Francesco Trogu

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: NEST (66A: Where 38-Across [BIRDS] lay 1-Across [EGGS] ... or a word hidden in 20-, 27-, 44- and 51-Across) — just what it says

Word of the Day: SETH Rogen (9D: Rogen of "Superbad") —

Seth Rogen (pronounced /ˈroʊɡɪn/; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and Geeks. Shortly after Rogen moved to Los Angeles for his role, Freaks and Geeks was canceled after one season due to poor ratings. He then got a part on the equally short-lived Undeclared, which also hired him as a staff writer. // After landing a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which Rogen and the other writers received an Emmy nomination, he was guided by film producer Judd Apatow toward a film career. Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After Rogen received critical praise for that performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow's directorial feature films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen and his comedy partner Evan Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet. Rogen has done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul. He became engaged to fellow screenwriter Lauren Miller, with whom he married in October 2011. (wikipedia)

• • •

Here's the thing about "hidden" word puzzles: the "hidden" word should touch every word in the theme answer. That's the ideal. If not, then your answers better sizzle, but the only one I really like here is BONE STRUCTURE (and that is the lone answer where NEST actually does touch every word in the answer). The puzzle has a somewhat bigger problem than banality of concept, however: ITUNES TOP TEN is a terrible, terrible answer. I have used iTunes for years. I have no idea what TOP TEN is being referred to here. One of many lists off to the side telling you what's selling well in a certain genre? That is hardly a thing. Google the phrase inside quotation marks and you get 200K+ (not great), with many of the hits being phrases inside sentences rather than references to a Specific List. By contrast, to choose a random example: if you Google "Sherman Alexie" you get 1.4 million+ hits.

Theme answers:

20A: Not-so-fancy places to stay (ONE-STAR HOTELS)
27A: Maryland's nickname (OLD LINE STATE)
44A: Big Apple list (iTUNES TOP TEN)
51A: Osteoporosis threatens it (BONE STRUCTURE) — very weird clue. BONE STRUCTURE is a phrase I've heard *only* in relation to someone's face. Osteoporosis threatens your bones, period. This is like saying that faulty wiring threatens my house structure.

Made a tremendous number of tiny errors for a puzzle this easy. FLUBS for SNUBS (not sure what I was thinking there) (5A: Social slights); ULNAE for ULNAS (understandable) (24D: Wrist/elbow connectors); AXIS for AXLE (semi-understandable) (63A: Wheel turner); SINCE for HENCE (not-so-understandable) (57A: Therefore). Love the long Downs on this one, particularly GAG ORDERS (3D: Judges' decrees to keep information from the public). The rest of the fill is average. Grid is so easy to fill that I'm not sure why there are cheater squares*, but there they are.

*black squares that do not add to word count—they exist solely to make grid easier to fill and are generally kept to a minimum and used on an As Needed basis. Here, the black square after ALSO / before FARM.

Bullets:

34A: Ones not entirely gay or straight (BIS) — bad fill redeemed by a very progressive clue.
42A: Soothing juice (ALOE) — I don't think those two clue words go together. "Juice" just isn't a soothing word.
12D: Rostropovich's instrument (CELLO) — I know very well what instrument he played, and yet still, looking at ---L-, my only thought, for several seconds, was VIOLA. Didn't write it in because my brain was like "Idiot. Who ever heard of a famous violist?"

6D: Food giant whose brands include Gerber and Goobers (NESTLE) — "Goobers" is a word I could happily never see again. It's just "boogers" with "b" and "g" swapping seats.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Moi, c'est les headbands.

Parfois, un rien suffit à donner un petit quelque chose en plus à une tenue.

Un joli vernis, une bague, un chapeau ou encore un headband...

Je fais partie de celles qui les collectionnent. Ou plutôt les accumulent.

J'en parlais avec une amie qui m'expliquait qu'elle aussi, avait sa petite manie.

Se procurer plein de petits bijoux et au final, ne pas les enfiler avant de sortir de chez elle.

Dommage, vous me direz.

On est toutes un peu les mêmes en fin de compte.

Et c'est en découvrant ces photos que je me suis dit "Je devrais accessoiriser ma tignasse plus souvent".

Bien évidemment, deux semaines après cette séance, à part un bonnet et mon casque (Solex oblige) rien ne s'est introduit sur le sommet de mon crâne...