Friday, September 25, 2009

Queue & A
by Daniel Rowe
edited by Mike Shenk
September 18, 2009


Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page (currently mistitled with a repeat of September 11's title but the answers are for September 18) or with the following week's puzzle on WSJ's online Lifestyle page.


Theme: words and phrases converted into terms of venery
Linedance -> LINE OF DANCES
(22A [River, barn, belly])
Thread Count -> THREAD OF COUNTS
(26A [Chocula, Basie, Dooku])
Stringbean -> STRING OF BEANS
(56A [Kidney, jelly, coffee])
Group Policies -> GROUP OF POLICIES
(69A [Energy, economic, foreign])
Listserver -> LIST OF SERVERS
(82A [Acolyte, tennis player, waiter])
Blockbuster -> BLOCK OF BUSTERS
(109A [Brown, Crabbe, Keaton])
Chain Gang -> CHAIN OF GANGS
(119A [Bloods, Hells Angels, Crips])
Apologizes to Mssrs. Rowe & Shenk. Initially, I had THREes OF COUNTS for 26A. I figured it was close enough to three-count and that we must accept occasional imperfections to make the grid work. I should never have doubted.


Cool Crosses: 5
La TETE de mon AMIE. (25A Chapeau supporter) crossing (2D Gallic girlfriend). What is it with all the French? Is the language of Voltaire perceived to be more suitably high-brow for pursuits such as crosswords? Would we feel that way if the latest wave of immigrants spoke French instead of the language of Cervantes? Or if we lived in Quebec? Or is it just all the vowels?

NASTY slamdances NSYNC. (90A 1986 Janet Jackson hit) crossing (79D 'I Want You Back” band). Maleska is titubating in his tomb. For those not in the know, read any book on crossword puzzle history.

ART TEACHER reflected by REACHER. (99A Life class leader) crossing (92D Rude fellow at the dinner table). I hear a new a nursery school song, “The ART TEACHER says 'Don't be a REACHER.' ”? Or is my Sesame Street youth showing?

ASSORTS abutting ASKANT. (125A Puts into piles) crossing (100D With suspicion). I have to admit to a pet peeve against crossword words that tack on an A: AROAR, ATREMBLE, Aso on. Correct but do we really use them? These two are not exactly but close enough to get on my peeve nerve. Before a package of assorted buttons leaves the factory, someone in charge ASSORTS them? I look ASKANT at the need for a variation on askance.

NEMESES encountering a FOE. (127A Archrivals) crossing (120D Challenger). Does this put them on the same side? According to Yahoo! Answers, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” has origins in Arabic, Chinese and the Book of Exodus.


Nomination for Word of the Week & News To Me: 0
Too caught up in my near victory to notice any. As I type, Count Dooku rears his ugly head. I do not know Dooku. I take great pride in not knowing Dooku. I have no desire to ever know Dooku. I must stop. We are close to descending into a fan rant about the original Star Wars trilogy vs. the first Star Wars trilogy. In A New Hope, I find nothing but despair. I ...... need to go lie down. Link from Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki. Don't ya love the Internet?


Opportunities To Learn New Things & Admissions of Defeat: 1, with multiple arms.
So close. So annoyingly close. Most of grid fell into place in a few hours Friday evening. Was I actually going to solve this on my own? Two more days to figure out or make reasonable guesses for 7 of the 8 remaining boxes. The last box? Two further days & I finally give up. R_D LAV_R was never going to become ROD LAVER (51A & 73D two-time winner of tennis's Grand Slam). The last name crossed with CESAR (91A French film award). Given C_SAR, it was pretty much pick-a-vowel. The real problem came with DO_ (45A Average name). What could be more average than a John/Jane DOe? Which left e_E (47D Heartache) crossing the first name. You ain't kidding WOE. Particularly in a financial paper dealing with the DOW Jones Average.

Final total, two green boxes, one red. On my puzzle paper, theme answer boxes are underlined in orange. “Researched” answers appear in green. Errors discovered by consulting the solution are marked in the traditional red. (These are my pre-blog and non-WSJ puzzle rules. Yes, anal-retentive has a hyphen. I've checked.) So, which scores lower on the self-congratulation scale, one look up & one error or wild guessing & three errors? I have yet to decide.


Commentary:
If you love obscure but valid words – look to whom I'm talking - check out An Exaltation of Larks or, The Venereal Game by James Lipton [Grossman 1968].

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan

Friday, September 18, 2009

Hear, Hear!
by Elizabeth C. Gorski
edited by Mike Shenk
Sept. 11, 2009

Full answers available on WSJ's crossword puzzle page or with the following week's puzzle on WSJ's online Lifestyle page.
Link
Theme: words and phrases that begin and end with parts of the word sound.
SURROUNDSOUND (121A TV feature, and a clue to six other answers in this puzzle)
SHOPPED AROUND (23A Compared prices)
SECOND ROUND (35A First-week Wimbledon hurdle for Serena)
SOUPBRAND (52A Progresso, for one)
SOUTHERN COMMAND (69A Miami-based Department of Defense group)
SNOWBOUND (89A Stranded at Sugarloaf)
SLEUTHHOUND (103A Detective with a nose for fighting crime)
The middle two came last. Misleads after all the -OUND endings


Cool Crosses: at least 3

The POSSES pulling off a HOLDUP. (129A Spaghetti western outfits?) crossing (104D Sundance activity)

The ARIA from TOSCA. (101A Operatic selection) crossing (73D 1900 Puccini opera)

The ACELA pulling into the STATION. (97A Speedy Amtrak train) crossing (87D Pennsylvania, for one)
BTW, how do people who never lived in NYC know about such things as Penn Station?


Nomination for Word of the Week: Bloviates. (clue for 51D)
If I drew a cartoon of a person who SPOUTSOFF, he or she would have bovine overtones and then disappear in a B.L.E.V.E. [Fire service speak for boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.]


News To Me (I got 'em but I didn't get 'em): 4

EPOS (47A Long narrative poem) - According to Merriam Webster, it is "1: epic or 2: a number of poems that treat an epic theme but are not formally united," Another fine mislead. You can't help but assume EPic.

Speaking of misleads, kudos for USED CARS (29A They include lemons). I spent way too much time pondering a scientific name for the citrus family that started with U- and end with -ARS.

ISTLE (50A Basketry fiber) - According to the BLM, “small palms such as istle or hemp have been used for blankets”. "Appendix D – Native American and Alaskan Native Resource Uses".(search the above & view as HTML) Umm, do the Alaskan Separatist know that the US Department of the Interior/Bureau of Land Management does not consider Alaskan Natives to be Native Americans?

ARA (67A Faint constellation next to Scorpius) - According to the American Association of Amateur Astronomers, the constellation Ara is know as The Altar.

OSIERS (125A Some willows) – According to the Britannica online, “The shrubby common, or silky, osier (S. viminalis) supplies twigs used for basketmaking in Europe.” Osier and istle baskets anyone?


Opportunities To Learn New Things: 2
For me, most proper nouns arrive as either lucky crosses or as an OTLNT. Opera, baseball, politics, it doesn't matter, I never know them. With the exception this week of IMOGENE (9D Classic comic Coca). No idea that she had her own variety show nor that she inspired Lily Tomlin. [Obit] The syllables just resonated. Therefore, if the crosses refuse to behave, one is forced to look up Choreographer Lubovitch (8D LAR) and the Cheever novel set in a prison (16D FALCONER).


Admissions of Defeat: 3
HONAN/RAMROD - error on the O, (21A Hard taskmaster) crossing (11D Chinese province).I suspected the O but did not commit to it. I couldn't give up HuNAN.

DON/ALDEN – error on the N, (68A Granada Gentleman) crossing (44D Plymouth name). John tried to speak for himself but I went to school with someone named Adler and the synaptic collision came out as ALDEr which I never revisited.

ARROW/WES – error on the W, (85A “Rushmore” director Anderson) crossing (57D Feathered flier). One of my Rs in SOUTHERN COMMAND (69A) looked suspiciously like a P, possibly influenced by the overly large P written into SPREAD (64A Elaborate meal). Therefore I was seeing ARpO_ which my internal autospell rendered as ApRO therefore ApROn. nES Anderson? WES Anderson? (85A) It's all Google to me.

I thought crosswords were supposed to help my brain, not make it into spaghetti.


Commentary:
Recently began reading From Square One: A Mediation, with Digression, on Crosswords by Dean Olsher [Scribner 2009]. His pondering led me to ask why I do crossword puzzles. The author enjoys filling in little black & white boxes because, “I am convinced that we solve crosswords to become unstuck in time.” [p3] Although I can't say I've experienced any temporal distraction, I do get a jolt of intellectual endorphins when the right word fits into its designated space. That's why the correct difficulty level is so important. Too easy, no satisfaction. Too hard, no word. Either way, no additive jolt.


Finally, I leave you with earworms from Guys and Dolls:
(1D Detroit on Broadway)
“That's good old reliable NATHAN!
Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, Detroit!”
host of the
“oldest established, permanent floating
Crap game in New York”
[lyrics]

(109A Markers:IOUS)
Brando, “I will give you my marker.” before breaking into,
“They call you lady luck
But there is room for doubt
At times you have a very un-lady-like way
Of running out.....”
[transcript] & [lyrics]


Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan

Friday, September 11, 2009

Solving (I hope) & blogging on the weekly WSJ Crossword Puzzle

Inaugural blog
With gratitude to Rex Parker for getting me hooked on blogs in addition to the puzzles themselves. Thank you, I think.

Right Here, Right Now
September 04, 2009
by Colin Gale, edited by Mike Shenk

The completed puzzle grid awaits an increase in my blogging ability.

Theme: ASAP embedded in seven phrases across plus ASAP as a stand-alone answer down.
HAS A PENCHANT FOR [22A Likes]
MONTANA SAPPHIRES [31A Output of Yogo Gulch's mines]
NASA PATHFINDER [46A Unmanned solar-powered aircraft tested in the 1980s and 1990s]
WAS APPARENT [68A Couldn't be missed]
LA CASA PACFICIA [80A Nixon's “Western White House”]
MONICA'S APPARTMENT [100A Setting of many “Friends” scenes]
PROUD AS A PEACOCK [112A Oozing hubris]
ASAP [81D Right now, as hidden in this puzzle's longest answers]

Cool crosses:
SATE/I ATE [44A “Must've been something __”/34D Quench]
ROAN/HORSE [58A Chestnut with white mixed in, e.g./50D Groom's Charge]
CANA/DANA [92A “Two Years Before the Mast” writer/82D Water-to-wine miracle site]

Number of words: 238
Number of words requiring The Opportunity to Learn New Things: 3

1)IOWAN [36D Tom Harkin, for one]. Tom Harkin is from Iowa and therefore is an IOWAN. I had MONTANA'SAPPle REd [31A Output of Yogo Gulch's mines]. Who knows, I was happy it had ASAP in it. ENCodE made some sense although ENCASE is correct [18D Protect, in a way]. eO was not leading me toward Iowa nor was lE leading me toward HEAVEN [35D Kingdom come].

2)LA CASA PACFICIA [80A Nixon's “Western White House”]. mA CASA works as long as one's knowledge of rap [80D “Stand Up” rapper LUDACRIS] is even less than one's knowledge of politics.

3)PACHISI [54D Sorry! inspiration]. This a personal record for the saddest use of Google. I work from the printed version of the puzzle. The exclamation point was beyond the event horizon of my current reading glasses. I read the clue as Sorryl (final L rather than !) and assumed a poet unknown to me (one of multitudes) who was inspired by a particular person or place. The worst part is that my grandmother and I played endless games of Parcheesi.


Commentary: On starting a blog on the WSJ puzzle

Yes, the New York Times puzzle is the gold standard. Yes, it comes out daily. However, the weekly WSJ puzzle has a snarkiness that calls to my soul. I do both and read Rex Parker religiously. Sometimes I even finish the puzzle first.

In describing his creation of Discworld, Terry Pratchett says, "The world rides through space on the back of a turtle. This is one of the great ancient world myths, found wherever men and turtles are gathered together; the four elephants were an Indo-European sophistication. The idea has been lying in the lumber room of legend for centuries. All I had to do was grab it and run away before the alarms went off." That's what I did. Grabbed the WSJ blog and ran away before anyone could stop me.

Katherine Walcott
Puzzle Fan