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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Swiss who pioneered in graph theory / WED 3-2-11 / Only patron on "Cheers" to appear in all 275 episodes / Bxe5 or 0-0-0 in chess

Constructor: David Poole

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: Movie "taglines" — plays on words make for alleged movie taglines ... [honestly, I don't get it]

Word of the Day: AARON Rodgers (21A: Super Bowl XLV M.V.P. Rodgers) —

Aaron Charles Rodgers (born December 2, 1983) is an American football quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). Rodgers was selected in the first round (24th overall) of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Packers. Rodgers played college football while attending the University of California, Berkeley, where he set several California Golden Bears records, including lowest interception rate at 1.43%. // Professionally, Rodgers is the NFL's all-time career leader in passer rating during both the regular season (98.4), and in the post-season (112.6) – among passers with at least 1,500 and 150 pass attempts respectively. He also owns the league's lowest career pass interception percentage for quarterbacks during the regular season (1.99%) (wikipedia)

• • •

I'm waiting on an email from a friend, hoping she'll be able to explain this theme to me. So ... theme answers are alleged movie taglines, which are actually puns made out of ... let's see, a movie title, a Shakespeare play, an actual tagline, and a play/movie title. How is this coherent? On an individual basis, any one of the theme answers might be deemed cute (ICY DEAD PEOPLE is particularly nice), but I'm just missing how this one holds together conceptually. Also, the non-theme fill is dry as a bone. Monday-easy, with just about zero answers of interest. Just didn't work for me, Dawg (sorry, just finished watching "American Idol," the first night of which was pretty damn terrible—with a couple of notable exceptions).

Theme answers:

17A: "Taxi Driver" tagline? (A FARE TO REMEMBER)
25A: "Back to the Future" tagline? (A COMEDY OF ERAS) [wince]
42A: "Titanic" tagline? (ICY DEAD PEOPLE) — morbid, but great
56A: "Return of the Jedi" tagline? (LUKE BACK IN ANGER)

I learned a couple of interesting bits of trivia today: that NORM was in every episode of "Cheers" (1A: Only patron on "Cheers" to appear in all 275 episodes) and that the HUMMER was discontinued (10D: G.M. brand discontinued in 2010). Beyond that, honestly, I don't have anything to say. Oh, I didn't see the clue til just now, but I'd never heard of the Aramco oil company (in clue for SAUDI). Maybe I'll remember that. Probably not. Oh, last thing: the clue on EULER is the most incoherent-sounding clue I've ever seen. [Swiss who pioneered in graph theory]??? First of all, though correct, "Swiss" for a Swiss person always sounds horribly wrong to me. Second, can you pioneer "in" something? Or is it "in graph" theory? I tripped on EULER once years ago, and I've had him in my back pocket ever since. Today was no different—brain saw "Swiss" and "[something math]" and I had the "EU-" so ... bam.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

What is your wish ?

Dans la série good news pour moi (oh et pour vous aussi !), je peux enfin vous révéler un petit secret !

Je viens de m'associer à une team de jeunes nanas qui montent leur site de vide-dressing en ligne.

Le concept ?

Chacune se crée un profil et balance les photos de fringues dont elles veulent se débarrasser. Je dis ça un peu grossièrement, mais vous comprenez l'esprit. Bien sûr, nous jetterons un oeil aux vêtements que vous posterez de façon à ce que les pièces soient toujours belles, en bon état et à un prix très raisonnable.

En plus, vous trouverez sur le site, un corner de jeunes créateurs, beaucoup d'accessoires surtout.

Si j'ai accepté de me lancer dans l'aventure avec elles, c'est déjà parce-que l'univers du site me plaît, il est frais, bien foutu et aussi parce-que beaucoup d'entre vous m'ont régulièrement réclamé de brader mes vêtements sur mon blog.

Jusqu'à présent, je le faisais chez moi, le week-end, et malheureusement les jeunes filles qui habitaient en Province ou à l'étranger ne pouvaient pas y accéder. Je me suis donc sentie bien concernée.

Régulièrement je m'occuperai de proposer des opérations un peu spéciales, bien girly, qui j'espère vous plairont !

Et pour inaugurer le lancement du site en beauté, j'ai eu l'idée d'un concours, qui n'engage à rien et qui peut-être l'occasion de passer un bon moment.

Le site s'appelle donc U GOT A WISH.

(Pour ceux qui ne comprennent pas, cela signifie : Vous avez un voeu).

Le lancement aura lieu le 8 mars, je vous en dirai plus d'ici là, je ne peux pas vous inviter à aller visiter le site, car celui-ci n'est pas encore prêt à vous accueillir !

Je vous propose de méditer sur la phrase "U Got A Wish"...

Je vous laisse imaginer la citation, l'idée, le mot le plus improbable et qui vous correspond le plus... En bref, que vous évoque cette phrase ?

A vos mails mes poulettes !

J'attends vos retours sur kenzasmg@gmail.com

La team se réunira et délibérera un peu avant le lancemement du site, aux environs du 7 mars.

La gagnante remportera le statut de l'Egerie du mois de U Got A Wish.

~~Euh, ok mais encore ?~~

Chère future gagnante, toi qui me lit, je te donne rendez-vous à Paris (on prend en charge l'aller -retour en train dans la journée si tu n'y habites pas), tu seras coiffée et maquillée par un professionnel, et je m'amuserai à te shooter dans ta plus jolie tenue !

On finira cette folle après-midi par un goûter entre filles, avec l'équipe, dans les locaux de U Got A Wish.

Ah et si tu tiens un blog, n'hésite pas à le mentionner dans ton mail !

Sympathique, non ?

Tu seras en suite en home page du site, et nous posterons les photos et le making-off.

A vos neurones, à vos claviers, on va bien se marrer !

Photos - Sisley Roche

Pantalon - Zara

Sweat - Vintage / découpé

Shoes - Converse

Bracelets - Nouvelle Sélection

Psss... Le nouveau clip de Lady Gaga !

Fred's dancing sister / TUE 3-1-11 / International writers org. appropriate initials / Old TV antenna / LEM maker

Constructor: C.W. Stewart

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:23)

THEME: SPOT OF TEA (35D: 4 p.m. British refreshment ... or what can be found in 18-, 25-, 47- and 58-Across and 3-Down) — two-word phrases in which "TEA" is embedded

Word of the Day: PEN (36D: International writers' org. with appropriate initials) —

International PEN, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. // PEN originally stood for "Poets, Essayists and Novelists", but now includes writers of any form of literature, such as journalists and historians. // Other goals included: to emphasise the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views. // It is the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. (wikipedia)

• • •

If this had run yesterday and yesterday's had run today, I don't think anyone would have blinked. As it was, yesterday came in as one of the more challenging Mondays ever and this one ... well, we'll see, but it's certainly no tougher than average, and felt a bit easy. Now, for me, we really are talking about matters of seconds when it comes to making difficulty distinctions. Yesterday's high-3s was way outside my normal Monday solving range, whereas today's was well within my normal Tuesday range, though somewhat on the low side, and a good half minute faster than yesterday's. But none of this has anything to do with how good the puzzle was, and it was good. Very good. C.W. Stewart is quickly becoming my favorite early-week puzzle constructor. Her grids are smooth and her themes are simple, clever, and coherent. She probably had a *bunch* of "TEA"-containing phrases on the table, but the ones she chose were all solid phrases, all with "TEA" touching each word of the theme phrase, and all the right length to allow for 4 Acrosses *and* 2 Downs, including the (great) revealer. This is a model early-week puzzle. Study it, aspiring constructors. You've got a stray bit of crosswordese here (AMAH), a slightly unappealing word there (IDEATE), but otherwise everything just hums. A+.

Theme answers:

18A: It measures less than 90° (ACUTE ANGLE)
25A: Say "nay" to (VOTE AGAINST)
47A: One who was detained, maybe (LATE ARRIVAL)
58A: Old TV antenna (RABBIT EARS)
3D: Shrivel to nothing (WASTE AWAY)

I realized that I get held up most (in easy puzzles) by long answers that my clue window can't contain (one of the perils of solving online and forgetting to expand your clue window to max width before starting). This gave me trouble toward the end, when I hit the clue for SPOT OF TEA and especially the clue for PEN (36D: International writers' org. with appropriate initials), which is a Thursday-type clue for PEN, frankly). Only other answers that slowed me down at all were NET SALES (8D: Income statement figure)—just didn't leap out at me for a while—and the PTS / QTS center, mainly because I held off on writing it in, deciding to wait for crosses, not realizing that one of the crosses was the identical clue ... so, not tough, just confusing at high speeds.

Bullets:

17A: LEM maker (NASA) — Lunar Excursion Module. I always forget what the "E" is supposed to stand for ("...Escape?")
28A: Fred's dancing sister (ADELE) — I really want this clue to die since this woman is already way more famous than Fred's dancing sister ever was (to most of America, if not to the bulk of constant crossword solvers):

66A: Garbage hauler (SCOW) — still having the "C" / "K" problem
11D: Most common inert gas in the atmosphere (ARGON) — is XENON inert? It's what I wanted, stupidly.
56A: Keepers of jewels (SAFES) — watched "Wait Until Dark" (1967) yesterday. Preposterous in many ways, but gripping nonetheless. Anyway, there's a safe that plays a minor role in the movie, even though it ends up being a bit of a red herring.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Monday, February 28, 2011

Brush express !

Hey !

Il faut que je vous parle d'un bon plan, qui concerne femmes et hommes.

Je suis allée déjeuner avec Farhinaz la semaine dernière. Nous ne nous connaissions pas et par chance nous nous sommes très bien entendues.

Ce qui devait être un dej pro a fini en dej de copines.

Farhinaz vient de créer son site de deals : Paris Ladies Dandies

Son but ? Faire découvrir Paris et ses bons plans à prix bradés.

Elle propose une prestation que j'ai testé : Hype & Hairy.

Brushing, manucures, massages, épilations, gommages... Tous les soins sont proposés, le plus, c'est la rapidité de la prestation.

Hype & Hairy s'adresse aux gens pressés, qui par exemple ont juste le temps de leur pause déjeuner pour se faire chouchouter.

J'ai donc essayé le brushing-express.

En vingt minutes, l'histoire était réglée !

Je vous propose d'aller jeter un oeil aux vidéos que j'ai réalisé pour Do it in Paris, si ce n'est pas suffisamment clair : Do it in Paris - Le Blog .

Et tant qu'à faire, je propose de faire gagner un pack Be Hype By yourself chez Hype & Hairy avec les 3 prestations suivantes:

- un brush ou une coupe express
- une manucure complète + pose de vernis
- Un modelage par zone (tête-nuque-épaule ou dos ou jambes ou pied ou main) ou soin visage complet.

(valeur du pack : 73,80 €)

Le concours sera en ligne pendant une semaine !

Sur le formulaire d'inscription ils ont mis une ligne "mon blog chouchou", n'hésitez pas à indiquer "La revue de revue Kenza" pour qu'on sache que vous participez de ma part.

Ca se passe là : Paris Ladies Dandies - le deal

Chouette, non ?

Photos - Sisley Roche

Short - Levi's

Tee-shirt - Axara

Ceinture - Asos

Escarpins - Primark

Un peu de bon son avec la nouvelle mixtape de Brodinski à télécharger ici :

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C9VMC4KG

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Five-time world champion figure skater Carol / MON 2-28-11 / One of four singing brothers of 1950s / Nonmusical Abba / Fashion style setter Wintour

Constructor: Mike Buckley

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging

THEME: *A*A — four theme answers begin with "xAxA" word (where x is a variable); also, four different xAxA words can be found in the Across answers in each of the four corners

Word of the Day: Carol HEISS (64A: Five-time world champion figure skater Carol) —

Carol Elizabeth Heiss Jenkins (born January 20, 1940 in New York City) is an American figure skater. She is the 1960 Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, 1956 Olympic silver medalist and five-time World Champion (1956-1960). [...] Following her retirement from figure skating in 1960, Heiss played the female lead in the 1961 film Snow White and the Three Stooges. (wikipedia)

• • •

I am trying to write this while watching — and tweeting non-stop about — the Oscars. Not easy. So this puzzle ... a kicky little number. More Tuesday (or easy Wednesday) for me (time in the high 3s). Very name-heavy, with somewhat toughish cluing throughout (e.g. MALTA clued 28D: Its coat of arms has a cross, but no falcon). There were also at least two answers I've *never* seen before: Cindy HEISS (???) and RATED A (!?!) (5D: First-class). Is that last one a bond thing? I now of nothing that is RATED A (certainly none of the papers I'm grading right now, zing!). Holy crud, Celine Dion is singing Happy Birthday at me. I don't care if it's for The American Cancer Society, it's torture. See this is what happens when I blog with the TV on. Argh. Between the unknown answers and TIES UP for TIE-UPS, I had issues (45D: Gridlocks). I also did a total face-plant while trying to spell ELLLLLIOTTTTT (how many Ls, how many Ts?). Theme density probably had something to do with the somewhat unMondayish fill. But whatever. So it belongs on a different day? So what? It's still good. I do miss RARA, WAWA, and PAPA. Also, NANA seems not to fit that well, as that first "A" is flat, like the vowel sound in "MA'AM," unlike the first "A" in all the other *A*A words.

Theme answers:

18A: "Till next time!" ("TATA FOR NOW!")
26A: "Heavyweight" of 1960s folk/pop (MAMA CASS ELLIOT)
43A: Group in a hit 2002 film with "divine secrets" (YAYA SISTERHOOD)
56A: Liquor-soaked cake (BABA AU RHUM)
also, GAGA, DADA, NANA, and HAHA

Catnip is a LURE (39A: What catnip is to a cat)? If I want to LURE my cat anywhere, I just open a can—any can. Catnip = DRUG. I'm not sure I ever knew "ANTZ" was set in Central Park (47A: Animated 1998 film set in Central Park)—maybe I'm confusing it with "A Bug's Life." Why did I think Wintour's first name was EDNA (11D: Fashion style-setter Wintour=>ANNA)? I needed a clue for ELI, and I think I may have found one (25D: Automaker Ransom Eli=>OLDS). Puzzle would have been much tougher if I hadn't had much crossword experience (against my will) with Mr. ED AMES (46D: One of four singing brothers of the 1950s). Crossing HEISS? Yipes. IDED = [Point at 46-Down]. So weird-looking... EBON EBAN! (51D: Nonmusical Abba) The end.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]