Get it out

Michael Shteyman gives us a running quip today. As a budding constructor, I'm beginning to see how difficult it is to come by quotes that break down exactly. The first one I came across was one by Woody Allen, that broke down into 4 beautiful sets of 15. Alas, it was a quip blue in nature, so it's quite useless. Another way is to paraphrase or make up your own quips.

Today's quip: You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead

There were some tough clues today:

Ampule - Glass vial, usually holding solutions for injections
Emigre - Political emigrant (here clued with Rachmaninoff)

Three pairs

Lee Glickstein and Nancy Salonmon gives us three pairs of puns today. Quite enjoyable.

Pair of socks? - onetwopunch
Pair of sneakers? - partnersincrime
Pair of pant? - huffandpuff

Cool words:
Electronic journals - blogs
Wise up - getsmart
It ended at 11:00 on 11/11 - wwi
Linen pulp product - ragpaper

So you may have noticed this blog has been subpar recently, and that's because I've been spending way too much time making crossword puzzles. I have foresaken work and alienated friends. I have a few ones that I'm quite proud of and will be sending to Will Shortz soon. Man, what a trip it would be to be published in the NYT. Sorry if I'm disappointing anyone for not keeping this blog up to date. I've been doing the daily puzzles, but don't have time to do intense research anymore. If you're interested in test driving an original puzzle from me, please email me!

Out for a stroll

A historical puzzle to take us down memory lane. Wait minute, I wasn't even born then. Sorry, but no memories whatsoever.

He was first - neilarmstrong
He was second - edwinaldrinjr
What the two did on July 20, 1969 - walkedonthemoon

So, let's look at the things I didn't know:

Erin Carle - Author and illustrator of chuldren's book - A very hungry caterpillar. Awww. good times.
George Brett - American baseball player, famous third baseman.
Pauline Betz - American female tennis player, winner of Wimbelton, American and French championships.
Joanne Dru - Actress of westerns such as, Red River, She wore a yellow ribbon, Wagon Master. All the king's men.
Sato - 60's Japanese prime minister, who won a Nobel peace prize for having Japan join the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty.

Imaginary undying flower - Amaranth. From Greek 'amarantos' meaning unwithering, and typified immortality. I quote John Milton in Paradise Lost:

"Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence

To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,

And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,

And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven

Rolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream:

With these that never fade the spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks."

Tuesday Trip

Trip Payne gives us four common sayings with the same theme, making it breezy and surprisingly consistent.

"Everything can't work out perfectly" - winsomelosesome
Tactic during police questioning - goodcopbadcop
It's one's word against the other - hesaidshesaid
Not continuous - onagainoffagain

Co-ed

What I found intriguing about Randy Sowell's puzzle, wasn't that the theme was complex, but rather how there were many intertwining other themes. Mini-themes if you will.

Main clues:
1976 Hoffman/ Olivier film - marathonman
Character who debuted in All Star Comics, December 1941 - wonderwoman
Title song os a 1966 hit movie - georgygirl
Brendan Behan book - borstalboy

Mini-themes:
Darn, as socks - sews
Darn, as socks - darns
WIth 62 across, first two names of Guy de Maupassant - Henri Rene
August 1 sign - Aries
April 1 sign - Leo
Dik Browne's "Hi and ___"
Dik Browne's "___ the Horrible"

Randy had a couple comic book references, and mainly movies and music stuff, so this makes for a pretty breezy yet fun crossword.

Within the elements

Janet Putney gives us a breezy puzzle to start the week off.

Long clues:
Greeting for Julius - 'hailcaesar'
Mel Torme's sobriquet - 'velvetfog'
Illict reserve - 'slushfund'
Title song of a Prince film - 'purplerain'
This puzzle's theme - 'weather'


This puzzle had the names of three authors, so let's do a
Writer Showcase:

Karel Capek - Czech writer who made the word Robot popular through his play R.H.R (Rossem's Universal Robots).
Edward Albee - American Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, with famous plays like the Zoo Story, the Sandbox, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf, Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, Seascape, Three Tall Women, and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia.
Willa Cather - eminent Pulitzer Prize winning female American author, with works such as O Pioneer!, My Antonia, One of Ours, and Death comes for the Archbishop.

So some of you may know that I've started to try my hand at constructing crossword puzzles. Man, what a long and arduously painful process. Anyways, it paid off today because I keep learning things as I construct. For example, I toyed with using 'etoile' in a puzzle, which is French for a six-pointed star. Lo and behold, it was used today.

I totally blanked out

Thursday' puzzle kicked my ass. David Quarfoot is one devious fellow, whom I shall curse with my fists waving in the air wildly. I just gave up in the middle of it, and waited till the next day and check my answers. And my friend, the theme is totally crazy out of this world. When it dawned on me, I was like totally swearing my mind out.

Main clues:
Moving aids, or a hint to this puzzle's theme -
Redeemable recyclables -
Like some glasses, in a phrase -
Statement not to worry about -
Pledge, but not really -
Loses ignominiously, on a game show -
Fail, as in a search -
Push ahead , despite exhaustion -
Older couple's home, often -
With 52-Across, how to take some medications -

Anyways, as you may know. I had problems with most of the clues. So brace yourself, this will be a long post.

In progress - afoot

Tricky Clues:
They often have four parts - Chorales
Its name is also its NYSE symbol - IBM
Big bang producer - TNT
One involved in a faceoff - linesman

Minutemen - Umass team name
Okemo - Vermont Ski resort
DSO - Distinguished Service Order, British honorary
Eczema - Dematitis, causes itchy, red, flaky skin.

Things to know:
Welsh Rarebit - A cheesy dish
Lee Grant - actress who won an Oscar for Shampoo, and also nominated for Voyage of the Damned, the Landlord and Detectove Story
Bremen - German port town
Rara avis - a unique or rare person or thing
Ent - Humanoid trees from Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Dante's Inferno's first line - 'Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita' which translates to 'in the middle of the journey of our lives'

Laudo manentem; si celeres quatit
Pennas, resigno quae dedit, et mea
Virtute me involvo, probamque
Pauperiem sine dote quaero.
- Carmina (III, 29), Horace

Which translates to:
I praise Fortune while she lasts;
if she shakes her quick wings,
I resign what she has given,
and take refuge in my own virtue,
and seek honest undowered Poverty.

Crossword work out

Raymond Hamel's Wednesday puzzle gave me a lot of false starts. It took me much longer than usual to get through it, but it was quite satisfying. In fact, I didn't think there was a clue because I was so engrossed in the small details of the puzzle.

The main clues:
Cereal box figure with a hat - capncrunch
Group forcing men into military service - pressgang
Emergency military operation - airlift
Enhancing undergarment - pushupbra
Orange snack item - cheesecurl

But there were a lot of clues I didn't know. I'm surprised I can immodestly admit I got all of them.

Next-to-last Italian queen - Elena
House feature - gable
Word on a biblical wall - mene
Igor Moiseyev - Russian choreographer
Assistance - succor
Don Shula - Longtime Dolphins coach
Trash bins - ashcans
Essay has an alternate definition of attempt, or endeavor

Interesting clues:
Product of dehydration - seasalt
Body of art - torso
Shooter - bbgun
Dairy case item - oleo
Where to put old newspapers, maybe - cage

A relatively closer look:
Gable - A triangular, usually ornamental architectural section, as one above an arched door or window.

Cleo the goldfish was featured in Disney's Pinnochio.

Ulysses was banned in America as it was classified as obscene until 1933.

Hells Canyon is in Lewiston, Idaho, crafted by Snake River.

Press gang - The organisation at the ports charged with obtaining seamen was known as the Impress Service. The Impress service was limited to seizing men who were seamen, a word given a broad interpretation. The age limits were set at 18 to 55 years of age, frequently these limits were ignored.They often dupe and kidnap people into the Navy.

John Brown's Body

This is Beth Hinshaw's first puzzle in the times, and it's an interesting debut. Not only are the main clues interesting, but a lot of interesting cross words too.

Noted actor's writing implements - seanpennspens
Noted actore's sons - alanladdslads
Noted actor's underarms - bradpittspits

The two interesting clues she go in were :
Workweek letters - mtwtf
'Wheel of fortune' purchases - aeiou
I love serial abbreviations like this. Another one I can think of was the lines on staff, the strings of a guitar.

Things to know:
Peter Yates - director of Breaking Away, Bullitt
Garman Spa - Ems (such as Bad Ems)
Clifford Odets - author of Golden Boy, Waiting for Lefty

Stand and Deliver

Nancy Salomon gives us a quaint 4th of July puzzle.

Main clues:
With 59-acress, lyric from 'America, the beautiful' - andcrownthygood withbrotherhood
Lyric from 'the Star-Spangled Banner' - homeofthebrave
Lyric from 'America' - letfreedomring

Words to know:
Ingmar Bergman - Swedish director, such as Wild Strawberries, Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, High Tension, Persona
Immie - shooting marble
Rhoda's TV Mom - Ida
Yorba Linda, CA - Orange County city

Google Adventure:

Anyways, so I've seen a lot of clues about marble shooting, so I wanted to get a list of common marble jargon. Shop talk, if you will.

Aggie - Marble made out of agate.
Immie - Immitation agate marble, like one made of glass.
Alley - Marble made of marble, as in alabaster.
Bombsies - Dropping you shooter on the target marble.
Histing - lifting you knckles from the ground while shooting.
Knuckle down - To put one knuckle of your shooting hand in contact with the ground.
Lagging - A way of choosing who shoots first. Players roll their marbles toward a line in the dirt (the lag line). Whoever gets closest without going over gets to shoot first.
Kimmies/ Mibs - The target marbles in a game.
Taw/ Shooter - The shooting marble.
Keepsies/ Playing for keeps - you keep all the marbles you win.
Playing for fair - All marbles are returned to owner after the game.
Plunking - Hitting the targets on the fly.

Finally, selected lyrics to the three songs quoted in the puzzle:

The Star Spangled Banner

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

America

My country,' tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!