Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Three-masted sailing ship / TUE 2-7-12 / Funny Fields / Its Internet addresses end in .ee / Up on things in 40s / Hispaniola's western half
Constructor: Mike Buckley
Relative difficulty: Challenging
THEME: VANITY (50D: Unappealing personal trait ... or a word that can precede the start of 17-, 28-, 46- or 60-Across) — just what it says:
Theme answers:
Clearly misplaced, difficulty-wise, by a good day at least. I was somewhat over my average Wednesday time, and the times at the NYT site are much higher than average. For all that work, I was hoping for something more than a simple "words that can follow" puzzle, especially one where two of the expressions aren't well known to me (MIRROR OF THE MIND, FAIR-HAIRED CHILD), and one of the VANITY phrases is completely unknown to me (VANITY case? Never heard of it). Further, XEBEC? "Outlier" doesn't begin to capture that word (in this puzzle). NIM? TOTIE? (65A: Funny Fields) (words I know only from crosswords) -IAL? -ISH? Cheater squares? It's not terrible, by any means, but it hardly felt worth the (above normal) effort.
I get lots of hits when I google "MIRROR OF THE MIND," but in the first handful of results, I'm seeing that the face is the MIRROR OF THE MIND, or that language is the MIRROR OF THE MIND ... seems like it's just a phrase that sounds profound (perhaps through the force of alliteration) but doesn't mean much of anything at all. The Jackson 5 had a song called "Mirrors of My Mind," and of course Dusty Springfield had a hit with "Windmills of Your Mind," but I can't see using this phrase as a simple substitute for "imagination." I assume the FAIR-HAIRED CHILD thing is a metaphor (and should be clued as such), because a FAIR-HAIRED CHILD is just as likely to be demonic as not.
Difficulty all over—which spelling of AMON-RA today (the "O" one) (6D: King of gods, in Egyptian myth). ASIA, not URSA Minor, a Saturday clue for ESTONIA (19D: Its Internet addresses end in .ee), a tough/vague clue for REACH (18D: Be rude at the dinner table, in a way) ... uh ... XEBEC! And, ugh, ISLED. I've been asked before, if I could kill one bit of crosswordese, what would it be; now I think I know: anything that suggests ISLE is a verb (though IRED is another good candidate).
Bullets:
Relative difficulty: Challenging
THEME: VANITY (50D: Unappealing personal trait ... or a word that can precede the start of 17-, 28-, 46- or 60-Across) — just what it says:
Theme answers:
- MIRROR OF THE MIND (17A: Imagination, metaphorically)
- CASE WORKER (28A: Investigator of family problems, say)
- PLATE GLASS (46A: It's seen in shop windows)
- FAIR-HAIRED CHILD (60A: One who's favorably looked upon)
A xebec (/ˈziːbɛk/ or /zɨˈbɛk/), also spelled zebec, was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. It would have a long overhanging bowsprit and protruding mizzen mast. It also can refer to a small, fast vessel of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea. (wikipedia)
• • •
Clearly misplaced, difficulty-wise, by a good day at least. I was somewhat over my average Wednesday time, and the times at the NYT site are much higher than average. For all that work, I was hoping for something more than a simple "words that can follow" puzzle, especially one where two of the expressions aren't well known to me (MIRROR OF THE MIND, FAIR-HAIRED CHILD), and one of the VANITY phrases is completely unknown to me (VANITY case? Never heard of it). Further, XEBEC? "Outlier" doesn't begin to capture that word (in this puzzle). NIM? TOTIE? (65A: Funny Fields) (words I know only from crosswords) -IAL? -ISH? Cheater squares? It's not terrible, by any means, but it hardly felt worth the (above normal) effort.I get lots of hits when I google "MIRROR OF THE MIND," but in the first handful of results, I'm seeing that the face is the MIRROR OF THE MIND, or that language is the MIRROR OF THE MIND ... seems like it's just a phrase that sounds profound (perhaps through the force of alliteration) but doesn't mean much of anything at all. The Jackson 5 had a song called "Mirrors of My Mind," and of course Dusty Springfield had a hit with "Windmills of Your Mind," but I can't see using this phrase as a simple substitute for "imagination." I assume the FAIR-HAIRED CHILD thing is a metaphor (and should be clued as such), because a FAIR-HAIRED CHILD is just as likely to be demonic as not.
Difficulty all over—which spelling of AMON-RA today (the "O" one) (6D: King of gods, in Egyptian myth). ASIA, not URSA Minor, a Saturday clue for ESTONIA (19D: Its Internet addresses end in .ee), a tough/vague clue for REACH (18D: Be rude at the dinner table, in a way) ... uh ... XEBEC! And, ugh, ISLED. I've been asked before, if I could kill one bit of crosswordese, what would it be; now I think I know: anything that suggests ISLE is a verb (though IRED is another good candidate).
Bullets:
- 16A: Indiana's smallest county or the river it touches (OHIO) — again, I'd suggest this is very much a late-week clue
- 64A: Dullea of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (KEIR) — got destroyed by his name in a previous puzzle, and that helped me semi-recall it here. Really wish he did anything noteworthy besides this movie. Really hard to remember.
- 5D: There has been one with every Pixar film since 1998 (SHORT) — interesting trivia. I did not know that.
- 12D: High tone? (TING) — I don't get this. Is it high, like, on the scale? Higher than what? A gong? Yuck.
- 52D: City across the Delaware River from Philadelphia (CAMDEN) — no idea. I remember NJ being over there, but I didn't remember which part. I seem to remember Rutgers, or a Rutgers campus (?), being relatively close to Philadelphia (I'm right: there's a CAMDEN campus). It's been a while.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Old-fashioned music hall / MON 2-6-12 / Ruble Russia * Poland / Leave drawers in drawer say / Mannerly man briefly / Kind of day, grooming-wise
Constructor: Tom Pepper
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: GO ahead — five theme answers are two-word verb phrases that start with the word "GO"
Word of the Day: BAHA Men (1A: ___ Men ("Who Let the Dogs Out" group)) —
Things looked bad after 1-Across, but thankfully they picked up from there. 3/5 of the theme answers are fantastic, and the others are fine, and I don't know what more I can expect from a Monday. I haven't heard the phrase "GO COMMANDO" since a late-'90s episode of "Friends," but it still feels contemporary. Certainly more contemporary than most of the slang you're apt to see in the NYT ("Nerts!"). "GO BELLY-UP" and "GO HALFSIES" are likely somewhat older, but both have a kind of timeless, shiny, colloquial quality that I can't help but admire. The other longer theme answers are solid, though BAD HAIR (45D: Kind of day, grooming-wise) is pushing tolerance limits. It's barely more of an answer than HAIR DAY. I'm not quite sure what "GO OP!" and "GO LF!" mean. Maybe "Go, Hammett protagonist!" and "Go play left field!" respectively. At any rate, good show.
Theme answers:
I'm writing this during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. The Giants just intercepted Brady, if my Twitter feed isn't lying. As you can probably gather, I'm not terribly invested in the game, but people
in this area certainly are. The diner this morning featured the typical mass of churchgoers, but today they were festooned in Giants gear. Entire families. Didn't see much of said gear back when the Giants were 7-7, but nothing breeds fandom like winning. As for the puzzle—blew through it (well under 3 minutes), which is mildly surprising given the sassy unexpectedness of many of the theme answer. My only hesitation was an odd 5-second paralysis at 51A: Natural barriers between yards (HEDGES). Something about the coincidence of "yards" and Super Bowl Sunday threw me off at first, and then when I realized the type of yards in question, my mind patiently reconstructed the topography of a typical yard. HEDGES! I don't think MOS Def's name is MOS Def anymore. I think I remember that he gave that name to Stephen Colbert because he had taken some new name ... "In September 2011, Mos Def announced that he planned to use the name Yasiin instead of Mos Def beginning in 2012" (wikipedia). No idea what that's about, but YASIIN looks very promising, crosswordwise.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: GO ahead — five theme answers are two-word verb phrases that start with the word "GO"
Word of the Day: BAHA Men (1A: ___ Men ("Who Let the Dogs Out" group)) —
The Baha Men are the American singers in a Bahamian band. They play a modernised style of Bahamian music called Junkanoo. [...] "Who Let the Dogs Out?" also earned the band several awards: a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Dance Recording; Billboard Music Awards for World Music Artist of the Year and World Music Album of the Year; and a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favorite Song. In 2002, they won another Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Band. (wikipedia)
• • •
Things looked bad after 1-Across, but thankfully they picked up from there. 3/5 of the theme answers are fantastic, and the others are fine, and I don't know what more I can expect from a Monday. I haven't heard the phrase "GO COMMANDO" since a late-'90s episode of "Friends," but it still feels contemporary. Certainly more contemporary than most of the slang you're apt to see in the NYT ("Nerts!"). "GO BELLY-UP" and "GO HALFSIES" are likely somewhat older, but both have a kind of timeless, shiny, colloquial quality that I can't help but admire. The other longer theme answers are solid, though BAD HAIR (45D: Kind of day, grooming-wise) is pushing tolerance limits. It's barely more of an answer than HAIR DAY. I'm not quite sure what "GO OP!" and "GO LF!" mean. Maybe "Go, Hammett protagonist!" and "Go play left field!" respectively. At any rate, good show.Theme answers:
- 17A: Split a bill evenly with someone (GO HALFSIES)
- 11D: Malfunction (GO HAYWIRE)
- 39A: Flip out (GO CRAZY)
- 35D: Fail financially (GO BELLY-UP)
- 62A: Leave the drawers in the drawer, say (GO COMMANDO) — nice clue, too, btw
I'm writing this during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. The Giants just intercepted Brady, if my Twitter feed isn't lying. As you can probably gather, I'm not terribly invested in the game, but people
in this area certainly are. The diner this morning featured the typical mass of churchgoers, but today they were festooned in Giants gear. Entire families. Didn't see much of said gear back when the Giants were 7-7, but nothing breeds fandom like winning. As for the puzzle—blew through it (well under 3 minutes), which is mildly surprising given the sassy unexpectedness of many of the theme answer. My only hesitation was an odd 5-second paralysis at 51A: Natural barriers between yards (HEDGES). Something about the coincidence of "yards" and Super Bowl Sunday threw me off at first, and then when I realized the type of yards in question, my mind patiently reconstructed the topography of a typical yard. HEDGES! I don't think MOS Def's name is MOS Def anymore. I think I remember that he gave that name to Stephen Colbert because he had taken some new name ... "In September 2011, Mos Def announced that he planned to use the name Yasiin instead of Mos Def beginning in 2012" (wikipedia). No idea what that's about, but YASIIN looks very promising, crosswordwise. Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Always love, even when you want to fight.
Always love - Nada Surf.
Always love
Dans une petite semaine c'est les vacances ! En attendant, la dernière semaine pré-holiday est comme toujours remplie de devoirs en tout genre & il faut faire avec.
Autre chose avec laquelle il faut faire avec ... Le froid. Moi qui attendais avec impatience le printemps, ma foi, je ne peux que l'attendre avec encore plus d'envie. Sérieusement, comment sommes-nous censés survivre avec ces températures de fou ? No way. Oh, & il y a aussi le vent, le merveilleux, formidable, incommensurablement génial vent. (ironie, quand tu nous tiens). Je n'en peux plus de ne rien voir à cause de la mèche dans les yeux, qui te rend à la fois stupide (un peu quand même hein, voyons la vérité en face, on n'a pas l'air de ces filles terriblement sexy qu'on voit dans les pubs ou autre & qui manient à la perfection l'art d'avoir la mèche en plein devant les yeux ...) & qui t'handicape aussi encore plus que d'habitude ("encore plus que d'habitude" parce que si on ne maîtrise pas l'art de la mèche, on maîtrise clairement celui des aspérités dans le sol inopportunes) (Audrey, ou la fille qui trébuchait plus vite que son ombre ........). Brefouille, tout ça pour vous dire : bonne chance. Bonne chance avec le collège, le lycée, les classes prépa, l'Université & tout le reste. Bonne chance avec ce temps presque pas supportable, bonne chance avec vos projets, bonne chance pour shopper la dernière paire de chaussures que vous convoitez tant dans votre pointure & à -70% ; bonne chance !
Shirt : Lacoste, jeans : Pimkie, shoes : Converse All Star, watch : Casio.
Une robe sous la neige
Youhou, il neige à Paris !
Je ne suis pas une grande fanatique de cette saison, et j'aime la neige quand celle-ci ne fond pas pour devenir une espèce de flaque grise.
La neige à la montagne, avec grand plaisir.
Ou à la campagne pour son aspect romantique, qui me rappelle les comédies romantiques tournées en plein hiver.
Je ne savais pas quoi publier hier soir, j'hésitais entre la tenue ci-dessous et des images d'inspiration.
Ce matin, ça m'est apparu comme une évidence.
Quelques clichés pris à Marrakech, il y a deux mois.
Une robe (sans collants, j'insiste), juste pour se réchauffer le temps de quelques secondes et se remémorer qu'à trois heures de paris, on a la possibilité de lézarder au bord d'une piscine !
Robe - Kenzo
Perfecto - H&M
Escarpins - New Look
Sac - Chanel
Je ne suis pas une grande fanatique de cette saison, et j'aime la neige quand celle-ci ne fond pas pour devenir une espèce de flaque grise.
La neige à la montagne, avec grand plaisir.
Ou à la campagne pour son aspect romantique, qui me rappelle les comédies romantiques tournées en plein hiver.
Je ne savais pas quoi publier hier soir, j'hésitais entre la tenue ci-dessous et des images d'inspiration.
Ce matin, ça m'est apparu comme une évidence.
Quelques clichés pris à Marrakech, il y a deux mois.
Une robe (sans collants, j'insiste), juste pour se réchauffer le temps de quelques secondes et se remémorer qu'à trois heures de paris, on a la possibilité de lézarder au bord d'une piscine !
Robe - Kenzo
Perfecto - H&M
Escarpins - New Look
Sac - Chanel
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Stronger - Kelly Clarkson.
Stand a little taller.
De nouvelles chaussures shoppées chez Etam, des révisions pour le concours de mon École d'architecture d'intérieur que je vais passer très bientôt, des dossiers à rendre, des cours à apprendre, des sous à économiser, du temps à trouver, des projets d'Arts-Plastiques à avancer, des mails auxquels répondre & mille autres choses ; je vous embrasse bien fort
Saturday, February 4, 2012
New Jersey town bordering Rahway / SUN 2-5-12 / Critter whose name comes from Nahuatl / Site of Greek tragedy / Starch-yielding palm
Constructor: Charles M. Deber
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: "State Annexation" — Theme clues are all cross-referenced to other answers in the grid, and all phrased "[Cross-referenced clue] near [some US city]?"; you have to take the answer to the cross-referenced clue, add the state code of whatever state that [some US city] is in, and that will give you a word that functions as the clue for the theme answer. So, e.g., 25A: 124-Across near Dover? = 124-Across (SPA) + state code for Delaware (DE), which makes SPADE, which clues the answer to 25A: GARDEN TOOL
Word of the Day: ADL (17D: B'nai B'rith grp.) —
An easy enough theme to figure out, but a bear to describe clearly; sorry about that.
Lots of cross-references do not make for an especially enjoyable solve. The *idea* here is an imaginative one, but the execution is problematic. The phrase "near [whatever city]?" doesn't really work as a clue to add a state code to the end of the answer. I figured it out, so it wasn't utterly unclear, but it's highly inexact. A city is not a state. The cross-referenced answer has to be imagined as, literally, "near" (as in "right next to") a state code. A city is a poor substitute for a state code. Also, "annexation" doesn't feel quite right. If you "annex" a territory, you take it over, but here, you aren't taking over so much as supplying from your imagination. The whole set-up ended up feeling fiddly and imprecise. Also, as I've said many times before, I'm not big on the whole "answers are really clues"-type theme, and that's essentially what this was. My description has the cross-ref'd answer + state code as the "clue" for the theme answer, but really it's the answer for which the theme "answer" is really the clue. Ugh, the more I describe this puzzle, the more I dislike it, so I'll stop.
Fill was average, maybe slightly below. Lots and lots and lots of very short stuff, but oddly that wasn't where I had problems. It was stuff like AS TO COST (!?!?!) (5D: Regarding the price). This is as much a valid answer as REGARDING SALARY or CONCERNING BONUSES (i.e. not valid); or AS A MAN (54A: How Shakespeare's Rosalind dresses), an answer I've seen and disliked before; or ISELIN (30A: New Jersey own bordering Rahway), the kind of icky NE provincialism that makes most of America shrug (at best) or say "WTF?!" or something else (see also TRURO).
Theme answers:
Looking over these theme answers, I realize that I didn't even check the cross-references on ... let's see ... three of these (tenor, rapid, topaz). In fact, almost all the difficulty in
this puzzle lay in getting started, and then in having to wait (in some cases) for the cross-referenced answers to appear in the grid. The rest of the puzzle was easy. Had issues with ISELIN, and then got stuck on SOLARII / IDS vs. SOLARIA (70A: Sun spots) / ADS. Both IDS and ADS seemed valid for [Spots], and I wasn't thinking hard enough about my Latin neuter plurals. The "A" won out, eventually. I've never seen ODEUM except in crosswords (91D: Site of a Greek tragedy). I expect the singular of the Greek theater to be ODEON, perhaps because I've seen modern theaters called that. I wrote in STAGGER for STARTLE (88D: Shock). That's it for significant resistance.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: ADL (17D: B'nai B'rith grp.) —
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all" while it "[advocates] for Israel [...] with policymakers, the media and the public" and "defends the security of Israel and Jews worldwide". // Founded in October 1913 by The Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, a Jewish service organization in the United States, its original mission statement was "to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." The ADL has 29 offices in the United States and three offices in other countries, with its headquarters located in New York City. Since 1987, Abraham Foxman has been the national director in the United States. The national chairman in the United States is Robert Sugarman. (wikipedia)
• • •
An easy enough theme to figure out, but a bear to describe clearly; sorry about that.
Lots of cross-references do not make for an especially enjoyable solve. The *idea* here is an imaginative one, but the execution is problematic. The phrase "near [whatever city]?" doesn't really work as a clue to add a state code to the end of the answer. I figured it out, so it wasn't utterly unclear, but it's highly inexact. A city is not a state. The cross-referenced answer has to be imagined as, literally, "near" (as in "right next to") a state code. A city is a poor substitute for a state code. Also, "annexation" doesn't feel quite right. If you "annex" a territory, you take it over, but here, you aren't taking over so much as supplying from your imagination. The whole set-up ended up feeling fiddly and imprecise. Also, as I've said many times before, I'm not big on the whole "answers are really clues"-type theme, and that's essentially what this was. My description has the cross-ref'd answer + state code as the "clue" for the theme answer, but really it's the answer for which the theme "answer" is really the clue. Ugh, the more I describe this puzzle, the more I dislike it, so I'll stop.Fill was average, maybe slightly below. Lots and lots and lots of very short stuff, but oddly that wasn't where I had problems. It was stuff like AS TO COST (!?!?!) (5D: Regarding the price). This is as much a valid answer as REGARDING SALARY or CONCERNING BONUSES (i.e. not valid); or AS A MAN (54A: How Shakespeare's Rosalind dresses), an answer I've seen and disliked before; or ISELIN (30A: New Jersey own bordering Rahway), the kind of icky NE provincialism that makes most of America shrug (at best) or say "WTF?!" or something else (see also TRURO).
Theme answers:
22A: 45-Down near Baton Rouge? = "hoopla" = (EXCITEMENT) - 25A: 124-Across near Dover? = "spade" = (GARDEN TOOL)
- 38A: 117-Down near Salem? = "tenor" = (OPERA SINGER)
- 58A: 1-Across near Hartford? = "extract" = (CONCENTRATE)
- 78A: 114-Down near Boise? = "rapid" = (SPLIT-SECOND)
- 95A: 76-Down near Springfield? = "lentil" = (PODDED PLANT) — easily my least favorite theme "answer"; you can see POTTED looking on (69D: In one's cups), going, "man, that's my phrase."
- 111A: 61-Across near Phoenix? = "topaz" = (BIRTHSTONE)
- 113A: 9-Across near Boston? = "dogma" = (MORAL TENET)
- 33D: 6-Across near Indianapolis? = "satin" = (SMOOTH FABRIC)
- 43D: 119-Across near Albany? = "bunny" = (EASTER ANIMAL)
Looking over these theme answers, I realize that I didn't even check the cross-references on ... let's see ... three of these (tenor, rapid, topaz). In fact, almost all the difficulty in
this puzzle lay in getting started, and then in having to wait (in some cases) for the cross-referenced answers to appear in the grid. The rest of the puzzle was easy. Had issues with ISELIN, and then got stuck on SOLARII / IDS vs. SOLARIA (70A: Sun spots) / ADS. Both IDS and ADS seemed valid for [Spots], and I wasn't thinking hard enough about my Latin neuter plurals. The "A" won out, eventually. I've never seen ODEUM except in crosswords (91D: Site of a Greek tragedy). I expect the singular of the Greek theater to be ODEON, perhaps because I've seen modern theaters called that. I wrote in STAGGER for STARTLE (88D: Shock). That's it for significant resistance. Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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