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Monday, October 31, 2011

Vega's constellation / TUE 11-1-11 / Nutlike Chinese fruit / Suffix with Kafka or Zola / Weathercaster's pressure line /

Constructor: Kristian House

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: SPLIT / HAIRS (23A: With 51-Across, nitpick ... or a hint to 17-, 37- and 60-Across) — three theme answers whose first and last letters spell out HAIR

Word of the Day: CAVA (19A: Spanish sparkling wine) —
Cava [...] is a Spanish sparkling wine of Denominación de Origen (DO) status, most of which is produced in Catalonia. It may be white or rosé. The macabeu, parellada and xarel·lo are the most popular and traditional grape varieties for producing cava. Only wines produced in the traditional method (méthode champenoise) may be labelled cavas, those produced by other processes may only be called vinos espumosos (sparkling wines). About 95% of all cava is produced in the Penedès area in Catalonia, with the village of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia being home to many of Spain's largest production houses. The two major producers are Codorníu and Freixenet. [...] The word cava means "cave, cellar" in both Catalan and Spanish. Caves were used in the early days of cava production for the preservation or aging of wine. Catalan winemakers officially adopted the term in 1970 to distinguish their product from French champagne. (wikipedia)
• • •

I was sluggish on this one, for reasons I don't quite understand, though I do recall staring at S-L-T and thinking "that can't be part of the theme ... what the hell word is that, SALUT!?" Maybe one too many Halloween candies... Didn't care much for the theme. The only interesting theme answer is HARLEM BOYS CHOIR. If you want to know why pangrams suck, check out the SW corner of this puzzle. That "Q" is awkwardly shoehorned in there, with resulting ugliness (e.g. both "Q" "words," ECRUS). ARGUE beats ESQUE (48A: Suffix with Kafka or Zola). By a million country miles. And if that doesn't work, pull out SULTAN. Whatever. There's just no reason for that "Q" to be there. Makes puzzle uglier than it could've been otherwise.



Theme answers:
  • 17A: Do-it-yourselfer's activity (HOME REPAIR)
  • 37A: New York singing group that last performed in 2007 (HARLEM BOYS CHOIR)
  • 60A: Forum cheer ("HAIL, CAESAR!")
The one somewhat interesting feature of this theme is that HAIR gets SPLIT in a different place in each theme answer: after the H, then after the HA, then after the HAI.



Bullets:
  • 31A: Altogether it's worth the most bonus troops in Risk (ASIA) — blah blah blah Risk, four letters, done. 
  • 46D: Nutlike Chinese fruit (LITCHEE) — I think there are several acceptable spellings of LITCHEE, which is one reason I'm never too thrilled to see it in crosswords. 
  • 9D: Vega's constellation (LYRA) — Think I've seen it once before. Most of what I know about constellations, I know from crosswords. LYRICA is a prescription treatment for fibromyalgia. Haven't seen that in the grid yet.
  • 35D: Charlie Brown toy that's often "eaten" by a tree (KITE) — Wish ROCK were in the puzzle—would make for a more timely crossword clue, i.e. "I got a ___!" (repeated trick-or-treating exclamation from Charlie Brown)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Un tour en Chameau à Paris


Une des personnes avec qui j'adore collaborer, Lucie Sassiat ou l'artiste qui arrive à rendre n'importe quelle situation banale très forte...

Rendez-vous pris avec elle et Elise parce-que le Monde (ou Paris ?) est tout petit est que c'est une amie que nous avons en commun.

Ce jour-là, dilemme.

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Il fait chaud, très chaud, mais nous ne sommes pas à l'abri d'une averse.

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Dans ces conditions là, je préfère anticiper et enfiler ma nouvelle paire de bottes de pluie.

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Jusqu'à maintenant, je n'avais jamais cédé à la tentation... Toutes les filles s'étaient affolées sur ce genre de modèle à la vue du cliché de Kate Moss pendant le festival de Glastonbury, il y a quelques années.

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Mais après avoir vu plusieurs modèles de la marque de celles que je porte, je me suis étonnée à hésiter entre plusieurs longueurs et couleurs.

Pour une première, je trouvais plus prudent de commencer avec des noires, basses... Le temps de m'y habituer !


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Robe - Topshop
Ceinture - Vintage
Veste - Levi's (manches découpées)
Collier - The-V
Bracelets - Constance L
Bottes - Le Chameau

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Big name in Bosox history / MON 10-31-11 / Passe TV hookup / Classic 1982 movie line spoken with outstretched finger

Constructor: Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: VAMPIRE (38A: Creature who might disagree with the saying at the ends of 17-, 22-, 48- and 56-Across) — ends of the theme answers, taken in order, make up the phrase "ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY"



Word of the Day: YAZ (59D: Big name in Bosox history) —
Carl Michael Yastrzemski (born August 22, 1939) is a former American Major League Baseball left fielder and first baseman. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989. Yastrzemski played his entire 23-year baseball career with the Boston Red Sox (1961–1983). He was primarily a left fielder, with part of his later career played at first base and as a designated hitter. Yastrzemski is an 18-time All-Star, the possessor of seven Gold Gloves, a member of the 3000 hit club, and the first American League player in that club to also accumulate over 400 home runs. He is second on the all-time list for games played, and third for total at-bats. He is the Red Sox' all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles, total bases, and games played, and is second on the team's list for home runs behind another Red Sox great, Ted Williams, his predecessor in left field. In 1967, Yastrzemski achieved a peak in his career, leading the Red Sox to the American League pennant for the first time in over two decades, in that season being voted the American League MVP, and being the last winner of the triple crown for batters in the major leagues. (wikipedia)
• • •

I like the grid, but I'm not sure about the theme. Why would a VAMPIRE have an opinion about this saying? What is he disagreeing with, exactly? He's the biter, not the bitten, so ... there's nothing for him to disagree with here. Or is it that he has already been bitten (which caused the vampirism in the first place)? OK, so ... disagreeing with this phrase means ... that he'd like to be bitten again? That's not how vampires work? They don't bite other vampires (do they?). Further, given that "ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY" is an idiom that has nothing to do with actual biting, let alone vampires, shouldn't the VAMPIRE clue have a "?" on it. This is kind of a clunky attempt to be cutesy. But, as I said, the grid is pretty sweet, and I enjoyed solving it, so no big complaints here.

Theme answers:
  • 17A: Simultaneously (ALL AT ONCE) — I think of this as meaning "suddenly," not "simultaneously."
  • 22A: Like many itchy mutts (FLEA-BITTEN)
  • 48A: Be deliberative (THINK TWICE)
  • 56A: Not wanting to be shot? (CAMERA SHY) — that little twist on "shot" caused one of the only slow-downs I had during this solve. The other was at EVADE (I went ELUDE, of course—I hate having those words in my grid for this very reason). Oh, and at CARNEY / CARAT, where I seriously had to think (twice) about whether to go with the "K" Or the "C" spellings on those words.


Ended up breaking the 3-minute mark on this one by exactly one second—pretty normal for me when I solve using software (I prefer Puzzle Solver over AcrossLite), but fast for me when I solve on the NYT applet (as I did today). Something about the way the cursor moves in the applet feels counterintuitive. No big deal. Got my speed today when I slingshotted from COWHAND to DITZ to YAZ without a hitch (59D: Big name in Bosox history). Bam bam bam. LOUPE is a good Halloween word (16A: Jeweler's magnifying tool), as it's (nearly) French for wolf. Loup-garou = werewolf. Also Halloweenish: "E.T. PHONE HOME" (24D: Classic 1982 movie line spoken with an outstretched finger). Was surprised to see the puzzle also includes the lesser known line from that movie, from when E.T. gets drunk: "E.T. HICS."




Bullets:

  • 5D: Indigenous New Zealanders (MAORI) — other good crossword words from N.Z. include MOA, the criminally underused KEA, and, of course, HAAST'S EAGLE (never been in the xword — it's just my favorite bird of all time and I like to mention it every chance I get; if I were dressing up for Halloween, I'd go as a HAAST'S EAGLE. Like the MOA, these eagles are extinct. Unlike the MOA, they were giant flying predators who ate MOA for breakfast)
  • 11D: "It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am" speaker (MUHAMMAD ALI) —I love that guy.


  • 26A: Oscar : film :: ___ : TV (EMMY) — because I'd already seen ERNIE by this point (25D: Bert's pal on "Sesame Street"), I assumed "Oscar" was the Grouch.
  • 38D: Passé TV hookup (VCR) — I found myself wishing I still had one the other day when I got a movie from interlibrary loan and the only format it came in was VHS. How is "Fatso" not readily available on DVD? Anne Bancroft directed!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Untouchables villain / SUN 10-30-11 / William Morris workers / Subject of Magritte painting / Classical Italian typeface / Cousin of ampule

Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels and Patrick Blindauer

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: "Hollywood from Right to Left" — Movie titles have an "R" changed to an "L," creating wacky titles, clued "?"-style

Word of the Day: HEL (5D: Daughter of Loki) —
In Norse mythology, Hel is a being who presides over a realm of the same name, where she receives a portion of the dead. Hel is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In addition, she is mentioned in poems recorded in Heimskringla and Egils saga that date from the 9th and 10th century respectively. An episode in the Latin work Gesta Danorum, written in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus, is generally considered to refer to Hel, and Hel may appear on various Migration Period bracteates. // In the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, Hel is referred to as a daughter of Loki, and to "go to Hel" is to die. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Hel is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of a realm of the same name, located in Niflheim. In the same source, her appearance is described as half-black and half-flesh colored, and as further having a gloomy, down-cast appearance. The Prose Edda details that Hel rules over vast mansions, her servants in her underworld realm, and as playing a key role in the attempted resurrection of the god Baldr. (wikipedia)




• • •

Very cute, though the fact that there are Rs that don't got to L in the theme answers undermines the whole concept just a little. ANGEL MANAGEMENT is and FANTASTIC FOUL didn't work well for me because the movie involved in the former is not that famous and the movie involved in the latter is much, much better known as a comic. The funniest answer by a longshot was PILATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (though, unlike all the others, that one involves a massive pronunciation change in the affected word). Fill is lively an interesting throughout. Only things I really balked at were HEL (barely heard of her) and TINLIKE (which feels pretty rickety—about as solid as [any element]LIKE) (60A: Cheap and flimsy, as metal). Stunned to see "IL TROVATORE" again (the odds of an 11-letter word appearing in back-to-back puzzles must be pretty damned long) (17D: Opera whose second act is called "The Gypsy"). Really disliked the clue on TWO, mainly because the clue made no sense to me (86A: Number of X's in this puzzle's answer). There are multiple "answer"s in the puzzle. The puzzle does not have one "answer." My first instinct was to write in "OOO," thinking the clue was somehow playing around with the crossword convention of cluing a tic-tac-toe line; thus "OOO" would be zero. It made sense at the time. In my head. It did. I have no idea what ENDICOTT College is (32D: College in Beverly, Mass.), but ENDICOTT, NY is just down the street from me. It has a couple of claims to fame, most notably for being the "birthplace of IBM" (true fact), the birthplace of Johnny Hart (of "B.C." comic strip fame), and the childhood home of David Sedaris (who was born in Binghamton).

Theme answers:
  • 23A: One of St. Peter's heavenly duties? (ANGEL MANAGEMENT)
  • 42A: "Snakes on a Plane," e.g.? (SCALY MOVIE)
  • 52A: What a lazy mover prefers to carry? (THE LIGHT STUFF) — good clue
  • 67A: Workout class on a pleasure cruise? (PILATES OF THE CARIBBEAN)
  • 88A: Unbelievable court infraction? (FANTASTIC FOUL)
  • 96A: Cabby's nonstop patter? (TAXI DRIVEL)
  • 119A: Guests at a Hatfield/McCoy marriage ceremony? (WEDDING CLASHERS)
The NE corner is like a crosswordese convention—Miss ELLIE rubbing elbows with LITA Ford, Frank NITTI (25A: "The Untouchables" villain) crossing paths with Joseph ALIOTO (16D: 1960s-'70s San Francisco mayor). IMEDLA Marcos and Sheena EASTON wanted to get in (45D: "Morning Train" singer, 1981), but as you can see, they were kept waiting just outside—not enough grid cred. Sorry ladies.




Bullets:
  • 50A: Subject of a Magritte painting (PIPE) — no, "Ceci n'est PAS une pipe," so there's nothing to see here. Move along.
  • 74A: William Morris workers (AGENTS) — not a good time to confuse William Morris and Philip Morris.
  • 75A: Cousin of an ampule (VIAL) — I had FEUF for FIEF (71D: Feudal estate) and so had VEAL here at first. "What the hell kind of meat is ampule!?"
  • 81A: Film special effects, briefly (CGI) — Me: "EFX?"



  • 2D: Classical Italian typeface (ARNO) — I did not know this. ARNO is a river to me. A crosswordesey river.
  • 12D: City that was the site of three battles in the Seven Years' War (QUÉBEC) — Damn. All those [This Many] Years' Wars had me thinking Europe.
  • 47D: Ancient May birthstones (AGATES) — ??? AGATES are ancient? Or ... these used to be May birthstones in ancient times? I'm confused.
  • 61D: Automaker since 1974 (KIA) — Sportage is on my list of potential cars (down the list, but on it). We are, as of now, a one-car family.
  • 101D: Co-star of Kate and Farrah, in 1970s TV (JACLYN) — that's a nice, economical spelling. None of this Frenchified "QU" business. Just brass tacks.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Cousin of kvass / SAT 10-29-11 / Part of Buchanan High faculty / Wang Lung's wife / Attachable bulletin / Mottke Thief novelist 1935 / Title character is Manrico / Mushroom supporter

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: xerostomia (20A: Aid in relieving xerostomia => GUM) —
Xerostomia [..] is the medical term for the subjective complaint of dry mouth due to a lack of saliva. Xerostomia is sometimes colloquially called pasties, cottonmouth, drooth, or doughmouth. Several diseases, treatments, and medications can cause xerostomia. It can also be exacerbated by smoking or drinking alcohol. (wikipedia)
• • •

Sometimes a guy just has to sleep (he says, as he begins typing his write-up at a much-later-than-usual 8:15 a.m.).

In terms of both quality of grid and cleverness of cluing, this is one of my favorite Barry Silk puzzles. I especially love the opening and closing Acrosses — thematically related and symmetrical. It's easy to love a puzzle when you get 1A: Coffee shop, often (WIFI HOT SPOT) instantly, and with no crosses in place. All those Downs (11 of 'em!) had their first letters in place right from the very beginning, which is like being jet-propelled into the grid (always helpful on a Saturday). And OK, so there were absurd obscure pop culture things like TEENA (11D: Mrs. Mulder on "The X-Files") and HONG (5D: "Wayne's World 2" actor James) and The NEW BEATS (24D: Pop trio with the 1964 hit "Bread and Butter," with "the") (none of which I'd heard of). In my mind, they were all made up for by MR. KOTTER, who is mainstream pop culture of the highest order and looks fantastic in the grid (36A: Part of the Buchanan High faculty). Also, he is culturally significant for popularizing the JEWFRO (a word that was in the NYT crossword puzzle once, so please, no offended letters).




[Dear lord, his voice ... I thought this was sung by a woman]


I have very little time left before this needs to be posted, so I'm going straight to Bullets—

Bullets:
  • 16A: Pianist Stein (IRA) — I'm surprised by how many things in this puzzle I just didn't know, given that I was able to finish it quickly, happily, with little struggle, in better-than-average time. Probably helps that my crossword literature muscle is pretty strong. ASCH and OLAN didn't even slow me down (53A: "Mottke the Thief" novelist, 1935 + 57D: Wang Lung's wife, in literature).
  • 60A: British big shot (NOB) — is this short of NABOB? They seem to mean the same thing.
  • 62A: Its title character is Manrico ("IL TROVATORE") — speaking of crossword muscle—I know very little about opera, but somehow this Verdi opera has come before my eyes enough times that I was able to piece it together from crosses without much trouble at all. 



  • 3D: Base in Anne Arundel County: Abbr. (FT. MEADE) — "FT" part was easy. After that, I just used crosses. Considered MEYER ... MEIER? ... MYERS?
  • 8D: Subj. of the Privacy Act of 1974 (SSN) — No idea, but SSN shows up in puzzles a lot, so why not?
  • 26D: Aircraft propellers without moving parts (RAMJETS) — yet another word I learned from crosswords.
  • 30D: Cake makeup for a feeder (SUET) — if it's in cake form or part of a feeder, it's probably SUET, a common crossword word.
  • 52D: Mushroom supporter (STIPE) — I weirdly struggle to come up with this. "It's not STEM but it kinda sounds like STEM ... STINT ... STAVE ...."
  • 63D: Italian TV channel (TRE) — a recycled clue, and a bad one. It's Italian for "three"—just clue it that way. Very few people in the U.S. watch *$&%ing Italian TV.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Stuck inside these walls, tell me there is hope for me.


Hebergeur d'image
I'm in here - Sia.



       There's a light that never goes out.       




      Il y a des choses qui rendent heureux sans qu'on s'en aperçoive vraiment. Se lever le matin & avoir envie de faire quelque chose, ouvrir le placard & trouver nos céréales préférés, allumer la TV pile au moment de l'émission qu'on adore, regarder dehors & voir un rayon de soleil, recevoir un message d'une personne qu'on aime, envoyer des messages aux personnes qu'on aime. Avoir le dernier gâteau de la boite, se souvenir de quelque chose de drôle, terminer un truc, être ému par une photo, voir que la batterie de notre portable tient plus longtemps que d'habitude, penser à ces projets géniaux qu'on a en tête, acheter un nouveau livre, regarder un film qu'on connaît par cœur mais qui nous faire toujours rire ou pleurer, trouver un moyen de porter ce tee-shirt qui soit cool, avoir une bonne idée, faire rigoler quelqu'un, voir un enfant être heureux, porter des vêtements dans lesquels on se sent bien, sentir l'odeur d'un bon repas, se blottir sous la couette avec un chocolat chaud, se faire des films en pensant à Noël, avoir le cœur qui bat .
(& Recevoir d'adorable commentaires sur son blog ; merci à tout le monde ! J'espère que vous aimerez cette tenue, je crois que ça y est, il est définitivement l'heure de sortir les fringues d'Automne/Hiver ...).



Not enough time to translate this article in English (soooo much to do for school !) but you can check a Google Translation HERE ! I'm sorry, maybe I'll find time to translate later :S. Hope you'll enjoy the pictures anyway ♥. It's definitely time for Autumn/Winter outfits !




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 Shirt & boots : New Look, jeans : Pimkie, sweater : vintage, necklace : New Yorker.



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Love ♥. 
 

Friday, October 28, 2011

Brooklyn, Chigaco, London and... Paris !



La mixtape qui m'accompagne dans tous mes déplacements en ce moment....

Trois monstres de la musique (Dont Jay-Z, vous savez.) réunis grâce à Urban Noize qui s'est chargé de ce mashup parfait.

"Brooklyn, Chigaco, London", les villes d'où sont originaires les trois artistes... En espérant qu'ils parviennent à se croiser un jour pour une réelle rencontre musicale !

Faites-vous plaisir, lancez les tracks en parcourant ce billet !




On la pousse encore un peu sur les tenues d'été... C'était pourtant il y a moins d'un mois !

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Photos : Caly

Jupe & ceinture - Asos
Débardeur - American Apparel
Perfecto (manches découpées) - H&M
Sac - Vintage / Acheté en Inde
Escarpins - Marc by Marc Jacobs



Ps : une vente privée de la marque Ella Luna aura lieu les Mercredi 2 et Jeudi 3 novembre.
- De 18h à 22h au 108 rue Réaumur 75002 Paris.
(Top/jupe : 35 €, robe/pantalon : 50 €, veste/grosse pièce : 80 €)
-Chèques et espèces acceptés.

Voilà quelques modèles de la nouvelle collection que j'ai aimé, afin que vous vous fassiez une idée de l'univers :


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J'ai eu la news grâce à la plateforme média Carré Créateur qui référence quelques créateurs à découvrir.
Cliquez donc et likez pour suivre leur actualité !

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Discobolus sculptor / FRI 10-28-11 / People Its Leaders muralist / Filling yarn / Fictional maker earthquake pills elephant bullets

Constructor: Tim Croce

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: none


Word of the Day: José Clemente OROZCO (2D: "The People and Its Leaders" muralist) —
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican social realist painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others. Orozco was the most complex of the Mexican muralists, fond of the theme of human suffering, but less realistic and more fascinated by machines than Rivera. Mostly influenced by Symbolism, he was also a genre painter and lithographer. Between 1922 and 1948, Orozco painted murals in Mexico City, Orizaba, Claremont, California, New York City, Hanover, New Hampshire, Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Jiquilpan, Michoacán. His drawings and paintings are exhibited by the Carrillo Gil Museum in Mexico City, and the Orozco Workshop-Museum in Guadalajara. Orozco was known for being a politically committed artist. He promoted the political causes of peasants and workers. (wikipedia)
• • •

I just like the way this grid looks—like some kind of angry monster from a "Space Invaders"-era video game. I'm never as impressed as I probably should be with stacks of very long answers, but as low word-count puzzles go, this one seemed pretty solid. I mean, yeah, lots of -ERs (BEARERS and RANGERS and TEASERs and GENDERs, for example just to name stuff in the middle), but all as part of interesting answers; plus, the short stuff is really not terrible, which is all I ask from these Big White Space puzzles.


I actually found this puzzle very easy (it's not often I can do a Friday under 6). After the obvious -ER to RCAS opening gambit (which went nowhere), I went after those short Downs in the north. After A FIT and DREA and the "S" at the end of 8D, I had TEA SETS, then guessed RHEE, and that gave me more than enough for A RUN FOR THE MONEY (not a phrase that sounds right ... A RUN FOR ONE'S MONEY, or MY MONEY, or YOUR MONEY ... THE MONEY seems strange). And, as is typical with stacked 15s, one is all you need to make short work of the whole lot. Made a good guess at ENO (20A: Composer of "1/1," "1/2," "2/1" and "2/2") and then followed Ginger Rogers IN HEELS straight down the east coast of the grid. Thought BERSERK (23D: Crazy way to go?) was BANANAS, but I knew K-TEL had to be right (39A: "Hooked on Classics" company), so ... yes, BERSERK. Got LANES. Every good solver has ACA and DECOCT in his bag somewhere, so those were no problem, and bam, there I was, clear on the other side of the grid.



Hacked my way from the NW down after that. Just guessed OROZCO (having most of the crosses in place), and then started closing in on those long central answers from the west side of the grid (turns out I ate most of my meals junior and senior year directly in front of a giant OROZCO fresco, "Prometheus"). I once considered putting "GO RANGERS" in a fruit rebus puzzle I made (33A: Winter cry in New York), so that answer didn't seem strange to me at all. Guessed SEAGRAM (which I know better as a wine cooler), and then worked my way into the SW corner. BRAM was a gimme, and I got BAALS from there. Once I finally remembered TRACEY Ullman (how could I forget?—her show is where "The Simpsons" got its start back in the late '80s), then down went SYSTEMS ANALYSTS (which always makes me think of Martin Prince on "The Simpsons"—that's his dream job). And ... poof. Done. I just had to trust that BRAHMAS (34D: Some rodeo bulls) was right (I'm not quite up to speed on my rodeo terminology). Last word in was ANTI-GUN (42A: Pacific, perhaps).





Bullets:
  • 50A: Fictional maker of earthquake pills and elephant bullets (ACME CORPORATION) — from whom Wile E. Coyote purchases ... everything, I guess. 
  • 53A: Feature of the ideal path (LEAST RESISTANCE) — spent several long seconds trying to make LEAST DISTANCE work.
  • 4D: Amsterdam-based financial giant (ING) — had AIG at first, which was right enough to help me get FORGIVE ME FATHER... (17A: Part of many confessions).
  • 10D: Filling yarn (WEFT) — Not a word I have occasion to use or see ... ever. I was surprised to see it in my grid when I was done.
  • 15D: "Discobolus" sculptor (MYRON) — thought I'd never heard of him, but then remembered saying that before. Pretty sure he's been Word of the Day before.
  • 25D: Jerry in the Basketball Hall of Fame (SLOAN) — another former Word of the Day (I think). Longtime coach of the Utah Jazz.
  • 43D: Abram of "This Old House" (NORM) — I know lots of NORMs. This isn't one of them. NORM is the new WEFT.
  • 51D: Wilfred Owen poem "Dulce et Decorum ___" (EST) — "It is sweet and fitting (to die for one's country)"—as you can see, Owen's not quoting Horace approvingly:
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum estPro patria mori.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Classic 1921 play set partly in factory / THU 10-27-11 / 1957-91 King of Norway / Helps for autobiographers / Citiy near Ben Gurion airport / Glace after thawing


Constructor: Kurt Mueller

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: GHOST in the Machine — a GHOST rebus, with four "GHOST" squares and a central Across answer that reads "HAUNTED" (38A: Having spirit?)

Word of the Day: RADDLE (32D: Make by interlacing) —
v. t. (răd"d'l)
To interweave or twist together.
• • •
Despite some rough fill around the edges, I quite enjoyed this one. Thus ends a four-puzzle slide the likes of which I hadn't seen in the NYT in a while. I was getting a little worried. This one has a nice central idea, with entertaining, lively theme answers. Those giant corners mean that some of the shorter crossing material is a bit ugly (e.g. HAEC, OOO, EERY, AUT (!?!?!), and virtually every Across answer in the NE). But the long answers are splendid, and uncovering the GHOSTs was actually fun. Rebus actually made things easier than normal today—there are only so many GHOST phrases, so once you have one GHOST answer in place, the cross comes almost instantly. Took me a little while to pick up the theme—I actually traversed the entire grid from NW to SE before uncovering my first GHOST at "[GHOST]BUSTERS"—but once I had it, I tore through the puzzle from there on out. Would've been under 5 if I could have remembered how to spell LHASA (61A: Tibetan terrier=>LHASA APSO). I always want to go with LLASA, which is some kind of conflation of LLAMA and LLANO, I think. Wrong continent on both counts. Anyway, fixed my mistake and still came in with a very speedy time, just over 5.





Theme answers:
  • PALE AS A [GHOST] / [GHOST] TOWN (8D: Result of a boom and bust, maybe)
  • GIVE UP THE [GHOST] / MARLEY'S [GHOST] (47A: Fictional character who says "I wear the chain I forged in life")
  • [GHOST] WRITERS (27A: Helps for autobiographers) / [GHOST] OF A CHANCE
  • HOLY [GHOST] / "[GHOST]BUSTERS" (69A: 1984 film whose soundtrack had a #1 hit with the same title)
There were two words I can't remember ever seeing before today: RADDLE and LIPARI (3D: Italy's ___ Islands). Other than that, everything else was fairly familiar. Kind of magical how nicely WOODY ALLEN (the filmmaker) fits alongside ROGER EBERT (the film critic) (28D: Who wrote "It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens" + 29D: "Life Itself: A Memoir" autobiographer, 2011). I love BEANIE BABY for its fantastic datedness (11D: Toy collectible of the late '90s). Grown people lost their damned minds collecting and selling and trying to make fortunes on the BEANIE BABY craze. "The craze lasted through 1999 and slowly declined after the Ty company's announcement that they would no longer be making Beanie Babies and made a bear called "The End"" (wikipedia). "The End" came in two models—noose-around-neck or gun-to-head.






No GHOSTs in "R.U.R." (Classic 1921 play set partly in a factory). Just robots.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

E.A.T et Noémie à New-York


Et voilà mon blog x New York touche à sa fin.

Ce jour là, j'ai retrouvé mon amie Noémie qui habite à Londres et était de passage pour voir sa soeur qui vit (elle aussi) dans la métropole !

Malheureusement, nous n'avons pu nous voir que deux fois, le temps de deux repas... Le premier chez E.A.T , une épicerie où l'on mange de bons produits frais dans une ambiance conviviale.

D'ailleurs, les connaisseurs reconnaîtront que c'est l'un des lieux où notre chère Blair de Gossip Girl se rend dans un épisode...

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