When Yma Sumac died I felt that the NYT should have run just a blank square in place of the puzzle as a lifetime tribute.
Ha, my first thought when she died (after "Yma Sumac was still alive?") was "I bet the crossword community will be all over this news" -- and they were.
Even personal names might get pluralized, like "OBAMAS."
This makes sense, because it can be clued as "Barack and Michelle." If you pluralize personal names, it's preferable that there are at least two recognizable people that share that name. But if that's not the case, you can still sometimes get away with a clue like "Pres. Barack and others" or "Barack's family."
And yes, Brian ENO gets clued all the damn time in the NYT puzzle.
Sometimes his brother Roger gets clued instead (or alongside: "Ambient composers Brian and Roger"). I'm waiting for a reference to Spoon drummer Jim Eno, however.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 17:46 (fifteen years ago) link
the slaws of yesterday
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
why is no one loling at my joke
― :) Mrs Edward Cullen XD (max), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:30 (fifteen years ago) link
20-across otm lolololololol
― the dan glickman from the hilarious motion picture association of america (max), Tuesday, November 18, 2008 7:47 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
just looking for a satisfied chuckle as a subtle way of indicating u did the nyt xword today
― :) Mrs Edward Cullen XD (max), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Jaymc, do a brother a favor and send me the .puz file, unless it's floating about the internets.
me too?
― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh, I thought you were referring to Sunday, and I was like, I don't get it.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Haha, I get it now.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Where can I see this solved Simpsons puzzle?
― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:59 (fifteen years ago) link
I believe my 'simp' status precludes me from soling it.
(I tried to solve Friday's before therapy and my therapist and I had like an seven-minute talk about crosswords. Yes I have useful therapy.)
― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Abbott, here is the solved puzzle. (No clues, though, just the completed grid.)
― jaymc, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Discussion of same:http://crosswordfiend.blogspot.com/2008/11/sunday-1116.html
― jaymc, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:07 (fifteen years ago) link
More discussion:http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2008/11/sunday-nov-16-2008-merl-reagle-meshed.html
― jaymc, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:08 (fifteen years ago) link
thx duder :D!
― Abbott of the Trapezoid Monks (Abbott), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:10 (fifteen years ago) link
so what's the second hidden message in the sunday puzzle?
― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:53 (fifteen years ago) link
But then in the end Homer apologizes through the NYT crossword puzzle, the one I'm sitting there working on, which turns out to have not only a diagonal message (something like "DADDY SORRY FOR DUMB BET") but also the first letters of all the clues spell out a long message from Homer to Lisa!
― jaymc, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 20:02 (fifteen years ago) link
oh right
― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 20:12 (fifteen years ago) link
i got your joke max
67 Across fucked me up today
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 18 November 2008 21:08 (fifteen years ago) link
whatd you put, fdr?
― :) Mrs Edward Cullen XD (max), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 21:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, "OBAMAS" was not a good example of what I mean. If I could try to explain it better, the NYT loves to indulge in creating what one might call metaplurals. This amounts to sticking an s on the end of any word and thus making a plural of the word itself rather than the thing the word represents. For example, take the following questions:
a. How many words are in my post?b. How many coulds are in my post?
In question (a) "words" is a normal plural. In question (b) "coulds" is a metaplural; it refers to nothing except the word "could" & is a plural that would almost never be used in common discourse. The NYT puzzle constructors use (in fact, often invent) these metaplurals all the time, which admittedly gets annoying.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 00:14 (fifteen years ago) link
yah--i wasn't thinking too clearly this a.m.
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 00:19 (fifteen years ago) link
Josefa, what are you even talking about? I'm not going to say they never do that, but I don't think they're all that frequent, at least not under Shortz's editorship.
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 01:57 (fifteen years ago) link
with such a tightly regimented puzzle any frequency at all adds a new variable to consider
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 02:00 (fifteen years ago) link
new puzzle!
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:09 (fifteen years ago) link
"kenken"
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:10 (fifteen years ago) link
semi-hilarious article from will shortz explaining the new puzzle where he seems barely able to hide his disdain for sudoku--or looked at from another direction where he seems to be desperately trying to justify why the ny times never introduced sudoku
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
"unlike sudoku, kenken requires arithmetic, you see, which makes it far superior, and more appropriate for the new york times reader"
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:22 (fifteen years ago) link
lol. i havent done it but it looks like that puzzle where you have to get each row and column as well as the diagonals to add a given sum i.e. like boring math work
― it amuses and intrigues throughout (Lamp), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:25 (fifteen years ago) link
hasnt will shortz made serious $$$ out of sudoku? or am i thinking of someone else
― t_g, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Never got into sudoku, but did the new example puzzles today and enjoyed them.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:26 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah he has made dough off sudoku--really im just writing shortz fanfic in my head
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:29 (fifteen years ago) link
i think the new puzzle is more interesting than sudoku but i guess its just geared a little more toward the way i think & process logic puzzles. still doesnt touch a good crossword.
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Nope. That reminds me, new Atlantic puzzle finally came out.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:34 (fifteen years ago) link
i still like sudoku but yah crossword is best
― it amuses and intrigues throughout (Lamp), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Looks like WS put out some Kenken books last year.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:47 (fifteen years ago) link
I just did the first KenKen puzzle, 4x4. Pretty fun!
― I shall always respect my elders (Z S), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:27 (fifteen years ago) link
The word puzzle goes in the Arts section; I think any numerical puzzles should really go in Science Times or Business Day
― nabisco, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:41 (fifteen years ago) link
By the way, if anyone did the Thursday puzzle a few weeks back where certain squares were filled with the letters HEAD, what did you mark into those squares while working? Because I enjoyed drawing tiny little heads in there.
― nabisco, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:46 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.kenken.com/images/main_tagline.jpg
GEDDIT?
― i'm shy (Abbott), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Its creator is kind of sexy:
http://www.kenken.com/images/main_sub_left7.jpg
― i'm shy (Abbott), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:50 (fifteen years ago) link
ok in the spirit of the thread here is a complaint about kenken: it prevents me from folding my paper into a perfect rectangle a quarter of the original page size.
― max, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 15:12 (fifteen years ago) link
My complaint is that I never until today heard the phrase "play hob with."
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, some of the phrases are pretty outmoded. The other day the clue "wolves" yielded the answer "mashers." Has anyone been called a masher since 1930-something?
One that really pissed me off recently: clue = vacations, answer = RANDRS. Plural acronym!!! Rest and relaxations???
― Dan Peterson, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:33 (fifteen years ago) link
holy shit -
http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:40 (fifteen years ago) link
Both "masher" and "RandR" I learned in my youth from extensive watching of Bugs Bunny cartoons.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:43 (fifteen years ago) link
this is really common ny times style!
― max, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:58 (fifteen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabbit_Twouble
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I've seen RANDR before, but don't recall RANDRS. As noted above, NYT often invents plurals. I'll leave it to any former military (or Bugs Bunny) as to whether they've ever used "we went on three r-and-r's last year" in a sentence.
― Dan Peterson, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
What are you holy-shitting about? That it exists? If you like Rex's blog, check out Diary of a Crossword Fiend, whose author does not only the NY Times every day, but also a half-dozen other papers and even more puzzles syndicated online or in nontraditional venues.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:12 (fifteen years ago) link
i check rex's blog every sunday--if he says the sunday puzzle is easy or medium, i'll do it. otherwise, i won't bother
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:13 (fifteen years ago) link