Illustration by Joseph Martin Kronheim
"Strong-arm, nothing daunted, soon found the monster, who was fast asleep, so he made short work of him by sending his sword right through his heart; at which he jumped up, uttering a loud scream, and made as if he would spring forward and seize Strong-arm; but the good sword had done its work, and the monster fell heavily on the ground, dead."
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Sunday, June 10, 2007
Click here for LARGE PRINT.
Puzzle by Bob Klahn, edited by Will Shortz
I worked this puzzle Saturday morning (the Magazine and other Sunday sections are delivered with the Times Saturday subscription) after it was thrown into my driveway in its blue plastic wrapper, flopping violently across the asphalt like inanimate road kill -- somehow, I knew things were wrong. It had arrived late, it was double-wrapped (fear of rain) and its rubber band was askew to one side. Nevertheless, these things will happen I told myself.
I took the bruised blue-plastic covered edition into the house to the kitchen where I prepared an English muffin and hot chocolate with which to drown my meager medication, sliding the blue-wrapped paper out from the first blue wrapper and then the paper itself from the second blue wrapper. I then immediately bypassed the tonnage of news and trivia, going straight to the Magazine -- I ripped out the back page with the puzzle and photocopied it, the better to write upon than the thin glossy paper provided by the Times (not complaining, just making note).
I scanned the puzzle with the HP scanner and e-mailed it to two addresses -- puzzle solvers who like to get it earlier than Sunday morning --- I feel all right about doing this, as it does not deprive the New York Times of remuneration for their publishing services, as both parties make purchases from the publisher, and for many years.
I sat down to start the puzzle -- ACHE (1A Cause for massage) and its corner, fine. GIGOLO (6D “Just a _____” [Marlene Dietrich’s last film]) brought more into focus; but wait, there’s a title to this puzzle -- it says ‘ALL ABOUT NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO” -- hmm… Well, never mind, oh wait CAMPAIGN with seven more squares…hmmm….
And on it went -- ever so often, I’d check back and say, how is this puzzle “all about National Public Radio”? Well, the answer is, it’s not! The title means to be a “helpful” clue for eight long answers that contain the initials NPR.
Yes, that is it! -- don’t dare call this a “theme”! -- no, no, no, don’t, just stop now! It’s not! 24 squares out of 441 squares, 67 of which are black!?!?!! No way! If you really want to say it has a "theme", then it’s “Black Squares and Words”.
To top it off, the long answers have nothing to do with any kind of broadcasting, save for JASONPRIESTLEY (58A TV star who directed the 1999 documentary “Barenaked in America”). The other entries, CAMPAIGNPROMISE (23A Tax relief, e.g.), SEASONPREMIERE (83A Fall even, usually), SILKSCREENPRINT (121A Serigraph), HUMANPRETZEL (3D Contortionist), and PUSHKINPRIZE (66D Russian literary award established in 1881) are antithetical -- only the two diabolical entries MODERNPROMETHEUS (39A Mary Shelley subtitle, with “The”) and MANHATTANPROJECT (101A Matter of W.W. II secrecy) seemed to have any kind of relationship, but what? What was I looking for -- WHAT? The double-blue wrapped missile skidded across my driveway over and over again in my mind, like discarded auto trash!
The artwork above is by Emil Rothengatter who signed his works "E. Ro" or E. Roe". Born in Germany, Rothengatter was brought to the United States as an infant. He served an apprenticeship in lithography in Philadelphia before moving to New York at age 22 to work for Currier and Ives. He soon quit the company because he was only allowed to draw ladie's heads. By 1880 he appeared in Cinicinnati, which was the center of poster printing at the time. He was working on circus posters when he was ommisssioned by James A. Bailey to record the birth of the first elephant born in captivity.
Further, why have I waited so long to write about this crossword puzzle? To be frank, I thought, I don’t care for it much -- but reminding myself that there is always a Rorschach to be analyzed, I laid it neatly upon my computer desk, glancing at TOAMOUSE (17D Robert Burns poem), then placed my own mouse on top of the completed puzzle, went back to bed (yes, at noon!) and fell asleep while watching Roger Clemens earn one million buckaroos pitching to the Pirates. When I awoke, the game was over and the evil puzzle still lurked next to my computer -- solved, but not blogged! I went about doing what I must do outside of puzzledom and returned to it again in the late Saturday evening. There it was, still prone upon the surface of my desk.
The Torture of Prometheus, 1819 -- Giclee Print
by Jean-Louis-Cesar Lair
YAKUTSK (92A World’s biggest city built on continuous permafrost), I said to myself -- OGPU (5D K.G.B. predecessor). PLOPPLOP (59D Initial sounds of a relief effort?) -- what? Shoes or excrement? ZENER (128A _____cards [ESP testers]), ENGLUT (63A Consume priggishly), TOE (64A Piggy), it’s sounding like someone is gathering body parts to create a Frankenstein’s monster -- and there's more, yes! STERNUM (99D It sticks to the ribs), REARM (25D Give up on détente), RIM (10D Circular edge), GRIN (11D Put on a happy face), PEC (14D Lifter’s rippler), SEEDS (129A They’re the pits), and back to ACHE and HUMAN PRETZEL with a TWIST (102D New wrinkles)! Wait! Suddenly! There, there in the corner, the last word going down along the right edge of the puzzle -- MONSTRO (100D The whale in “Pinocchio”)!
A deconstruction of this construction reveals a pieced-together monster, a formula for self-destruction and failed promises, twisted pride and lustful longing. It is a walk-in freezer full of unassembled parts waiting for a bolt of lightning during a really scary thunderstorm to bring it to life! Currently, it’s just a DEAD MONSTER!
Frankenstein flees "the creature" -- 1831 edition, inside cover illustration.
Well, I have good news -- I just decided to check out Mr. Strong’s appraisal on the REX PARKER DOES THE NYT CROSSWORD PUZZLE blog site-- and it is so on the money, I don’t have to write anything -- all I need do is refer you there!
39A and 101A
Ha, ha! ...and I thought it was just me!
------------------
For today's cartoons, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.
Puzzle available on the internet at
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games
If you subscribe to home delivery of The New York Times you are eligible to access the daily crossword via The New York Times - Times Reader, without additional charge, as part of your home delivery subscription.
Illustration by Joseph Martin Kronheim
The artwork above is by Emil Rothengatter who signed his works "E. Ro" or E. Roe". Born in Germany, Rothengatter was brought to the United States as an infant. He served an apprenticeship in lithography in Philadelphia before moving to New York at age 22 to work for Currier and Ives. He soon quit the company because he was only allowed to draw ladie's heads. By 1880 he appeared in Cinicinnati, which was the center of poster printing at the time. He was working on circus posters when he was ommisssioned by James A. Bailey to record the birth of the first elephant born in captivity.
Further, why have I waited so long to write about this crossword puzzle? To be frank, I thought, I don’t care for it much -- but reminding myself that there is always a Rorschach to be analyzed, I laid it neatly upon my computer desk, glancing at TOAMOUSE (17D Robert Burns poem), then placed my own mouse on top of the completed puzzle, went back to bed (yes, at noon!) and fell asleep while watching Roger Clemens earn one million buckaroos pitching to the Pirates. When I awoke, the game was over and the evil puzzle still lurked next to my computer -- solved, but not blogged! I went about doing what I must do outside of puzzledom and returned to it again in the late Saturday evening. There it was, still prone upon the surface of my desk.
The Torture of Prometheus, 1819 -- Giclee Print
by Jean-Louis-Cesar Lair
YAKUTSK (92A World’s biggest city built on continuous permafrost), I said to myself -- OGPU (5D K.G.B. predecessor). PLOPPLOP (59D Initial sounds of a relief effort?) -- what? Shoes or excrement? ZENER (128A _____cards [ESP testers]), ENGLUT (63A Consume priggishly), TOE (64A Piggy), it’s sounding like someone is gathering body parts to create a Frankenstein’s monster -- and there's more, yes! STERNUM (99D It sticks to the ribs), REARM (25D Give up on détente), RIM (10D Circular edge), GRIN (11D Put on a happy face), PEC (14D Lifter’s rippler), SEEDS (129A They’re the pits), and back to ACHE and HUMAN PRETZEL with a TWIST (102D New wrinkles)! Wait! Suddenly! There, there in the corner, the last word going down along the right edge of the puzzle -- MONSTRO (100D The whale in “Pinocchio”)!
A deconstruction of this construction reveals a pieced-together monster, a formula for self-destruction and failed promises, twisted pride and lustful longing. It is a walk-in freezer full of unassembled parts waiting for a bolt of lightning during a really scary thunderstorm to bring it to life! Currently, it’s just a DEAD MONSTER!
Frankenstein flees "the creature" -- 1831 edition, inside cover illustration.
Well, I have good news -- I just decided to check out Mr. Strong’s appraisal on the REX PARKER DOES THE NYT CROSSWORD PUZZLE blog site-- and it is so on the money, I don’t have to write anything -- all I need do is refer you there!
39A and 101A
Ha, ha! ...and I thought it was just me!
------------------
For today's cartoons, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.
Puzzle available on the internet at
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games
If you subscribe to home delivery of The New York Times you are eligible to access the daily crossword via The New York Times - Times Reader, without additional charge, as part of your home delivery subscription.
6 comments:
Is Mr. Strong your sock puppet?
Among the many definitions of "theme" listed here:
http://www.answers.com/theme&r=67
(from music, poetry, movies, writing, etc.) it sounds like a theme can be "A conceptual idea that motivates a given work." Well, isn't that just what a crossword theme is? An idea that motivates the creation of the whole thing? Other theme definitions mention recurrent elements that serve as a unifying idea--they don't say that every single word of a book or note of a musical piece must reflect the theme, just that the theme unifies the whole.
skal
Mr. Strong is no one's sock puppet!
I certainly respect your opinion; however, I'm not sure that it applies as I have no regard whatsoever for the words "theme" and "non-theme" as used to separate all crosswords into "convenient" categories -- that along with "rebus" seem to be just plain lazy -- that's just my opinion -- as I say, I am fully tolerant of any others regarding the issue.
Yet further, when a "theme" is so weak that one cannot even find it, or it is just pasted onto the puzzle, how does it "motivate the creation of the whole thing"?
I am optimistic that better words will be found -- meanwhile, I remind myself that just because someone has managed to have one's usage documented on Google does not mean that it is de facto.
If categories are to be made, perhaps a dialogue for suggestions of terms these "categories" could issue from a forum and then entered into Wikipedia or somewhere under "crossword types".
I don't think a dictionary definition for the word "theme" is sufficient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man_Theme
Thanks for your note!
Wikipedia already describes different types of themes, using the word "theme" in doing so. What appeared in my Google link was citations from published dictionaries, not the made-up rantings of kooks on the Web.
If you are fully tolerant of others on this issue, then I am not sure why you keep mentioning it critically?
skal
Picture, if you will, the Mona Lisa -- someone comes along and draws a moustache upon the painting -- is that a theme?
Or, if you will, a box of Brillo pads!
I do not proselytize my opinions on this subject in other blogs -- I have merely stated them in this venue.
I cannot believe that “tolerance” is the abdication of “freedom of speech”.
If I were “intolerant”, I would merely delete any Comments that did not agree with my viewpoint.
I stand by my previous comments and will continue to comment upon the subject at will.
The two posts cited below are further discussion of the matter on this blog:
http://donaldsweblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/kcabback.html
http://donaldsweblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/whats-in-theme.html
I understand and am familiar with the information of which you make note. It does not change my opinion. If you have NEW information, I will, of course, receive same with tolerance and an open mind.
Incidentally, it is difficult to hold a dialogue with someone who’s identity is completely cloaked. I have no idea of your interests motivations on the subject.
Nevertheless, I thank you for your interest and want to assure you that there is absolutely no animosity on my part -- just curiosity.
What if an artist (or art student) painted a copy of the Mona Lisa with the intention from the get-go of including a mustache? What if playing around with the canon and gender norms is his point? Then the enigmatic smile ceases to be the focus and is not the artwork's theme.
When a crossword writer begins making a standard crossword, the group of related entries--the theme, if you will--are the starting point. Everything else in the crossword is there in the service of those "theme" entries. If an amazing word won't fit without wrecking the "theme" entries, out it goes. The successfulness of the "theme" entries is probably the first thing a crossword puzzle editor looks at.
See reply posted June 14, 2007.
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