Theme: Nanny (Fine) Rhyme Time
20A: 1977 PGA Championship winner: LANNY WADKINS
50A: Slugger with second-most grand slams: MANNY RAMIREZ
3D: "Lethal Weapon" star: DANNY GLOVER
25D: Candy brand: FANNY FARMER
LANNY WADKINS is a familiar name to most golf nuts. He used to cover every PGA Championship for CBS. I did not know that he won 1977 PGA. Filled in MANNY RAMIREZ quickly, though I had no idea that he has the second-most grand slams (20), only 3 behind the record holder Lou Gehrig. Had no problem getting DANNY GLOVER. But FANNY FARMER was new to me.
Nice and easy puzzle for me. There were several unfamiliar names, but most were obtainable from the adjacent fills. I liked how the two Across theme answers intersect the two Down clues.
My favorite today is the clue for YUAN (52D: Dynasty before Ming). YUAN is mostly known as "Chinese Currency ". YUAN Dynasty (1271-1368) was founded by Khubai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan.
In his poem, Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem wrote: In Xanadu did Kubla Khan /A stately pleasure-dome decree /Where Alph, the sacred river, ran /Through caverns measureless to man/Down to a sunless sea."
Most of the crossword constructors must be excited that Obama won the election. Now they can have fun cluing his two daughters' names: Malia and Sasha, very crossword-friendly, plenty of vowels.
Across:
1A: Brewski: SUDS. This reminds me of a clue for ALE: "Bath suds". Bath is the spa capital of the UK. It's located in south-west England. See it? It's close to Bristol.
5A: Shoot from a cover: SNIPE. I love Clint Eastwood/John Malkovich's "In the Line of Fire".
10A: Principal Skinner's nemesis: BART. I got it from the down clues. Have never watched "The Simpsons".
14A: Grizzly weapon: CLAW
23A: Opposite of the seven seas?: DRYLAND. I did not know that DRYLAND is a word.
29A: "Pursuit of the Graf __": SPEE. I've never seen this movie, have you? I cannot understand the fun of "I am as mad as Hell, and I am not going to take it any more!" in Peter Finch's "Network".
31A: "Exodus" hero: ARI. He is portrayed by Paul Newman in the movie.
32A: Bases on balls: WALKS
35A: FDR's Blue Eagle: NRA (National Recovery Administration). NRA is also National Rifle Association of course. I wonder why it's called Blue Eagle instead of Brown Eagle?
38A: Nabokov novel: PNIN. Learned from doing Xword. Have never read this book.
39A: RPM part: REV. I wrote down PER first.
45A: Fire from a low-flying aircraft: STRAFE. I can never remember this word. So close to STRIFE in spelling.
53A: River of Pisa: ARNO. Here is the map. See Florence and Siena?
56A: Bible version: DOUAY. No idea. I strung the answer together from across fills. What is DOUAY?
Down:
2D: Of an arm bone: ULNAR. Ulna: ULNAR. Radius: RADIAL.
4D: Tchaikovsky ballet: SWAN LAKE. Very pretty.
5D: Gives rise to: SPAWNS.
9D: Applied scientist: ENGINEER. I would not have got this answer without the across fills. Such a narrow definition of ENGINEER.
21D: Kissers: YAPS. I sure have problem with English slangs.
26D: Gallico novel, "Mrs. __ Goes to Paris": 'ARRIS. Have you read this novel? I've never heard of it before.
27D: Laughing: RIANT. Present particle of French verb "rire" (laugh). Risible has the same root. (Note: Thanks, Martin.)
32D: Merchandise: WARES. New definition to me. I always associate WARE with hardware, software, silverware, etc.
37D: Magnificent: SPLENDID. Do you like NPR's "The SPLENDID Table"?
38D: First public performance: PREMIERE. Same pronunciation as premier, right?
48D: Love in Limousin: AMOUR. Good alliteration in the clue. "Love in Louvre" (Cupid & Psyche) will be great too.
48D: Silk -cotton tree: CEIBA. See this picture. Kind of like cotton, isn't it? New word to me. Wikipedia says it's also called kapok, and it's a sacred symbol in Maya mythology.
49D: Pound and Stone: EZRAS. Know the poet Pound, have never heard of EZRA Stone before. What is he famous for?
51D: Sushi wrapping: NORI. I also love NORI rice cracker.
55D: Keanu in "The Matrix": NEO
C.C.
20A: 1977 PGA Championship winner: LANNY WADKINS
50A: Slugger with second-most grand slams: MANNY RAMIREZ
3D: "Lethal Weapon" star: DANNY GLOVER
25D: Candy brand: FANNY FARMER
LANNY WADKINS is a familiar name to most golf nuts. He used to cover every PGA Championship for CBS. I did not know that he won 1977 PGA. Filled in MANNY RAMIREZ quickly, though I had no idea that he has the second-most grand slams (20), only 3 behind the record holder Lou Gehrig. Had no problem getting DANNY GLOVER. But FANNY FARMER was new to me.
Nice and easy puzzle for me. There were several unfamiliar names, but most were obtainable from the adjacent fills. I liked how the two Across theme answers intersect the two Down clues.
My favorite today is the clue for YUAN (52D: Dynasty before Ming). YUAN is mostly known as "Chinese Currency ". YUAN Dynasty (1271-1368) was founded by Khubai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan.
In his poem, Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem wrote: In Xanadu did Kubla Khan /A stately pleasure-dome decree /Where Alph, the sacred river, ran /Through caverns measureless to man/Down to a sunless sea."
The Dynasty before YUAN is called Song, and the Dynasty after Ming is Qing, the last Dynasty in China. Had to memorize this in primary school, the same as you did for all the 43 US Presidents I suppose.
Most of the crossword constructors must be excited that Obama won the election. Now they can have fun cluing his two daughters' names: Malia and Sasha, very crossword-friendly, plenty of vowels.
Across:
1A: Brewski: SUDS. This reminds me of a clue for ALE: "Bath suds". Bath is the spa capital of the UK. It's located in south-west England. See it? It's close to Bristol.
5A: Shoot from a cover: SNIPE. I love Clint Eastwood/John Malkovich's "In the Line of Fire".
10A: Principal Skinner's nemesis: BART. I got it from the down clues. Have never watched "The Simpsons".
14A: Grizzly weapon: CLAW
23A: Opposite of the seven seas?: DRYLAND. I did not know that DRYLAND is a word.
29A: "Pursuit of the Graf __": SPEE. I've never seen this movie, have you? I cannot understand the fun of "I am as mad as Hell, and I am not going to take it any more!" in Peter Finch's "Network".
31A: "Exodus" hero: ARI. He is portrayed by Paul Newman in the movie.
32A: Bases on balls: WALKS
35A: FDR's Blue Eagle: NRA (National Recovery Administration). NRA is also National Rifle Association of course. I wonder why it's called Blue Eagle instead of Brown Eagle?
38A: Nabokov novel: PNIN. Learned from doing Xword. Have never read this book.
39A: RPM part: REV. I wrote down PER first.
45A: Fire from a low-flying aircraft: STRAFE. I can never remember this word. So close to STRIFE in spelling.
53A: River of Pisa: ARNO. Here is the map. See Florence and Siena?
56A: Bible version: DOUAY. No idea. I strung the answer together from across fills. What is DOUAY?
Down:
2D: Of an arm bone: ULNAR. Ulna: ULNAR. Radius: RADIAL.
4D: Tchaikovsky ballet: SWAN LAKE. Very pretty.
5D: Gives rise to: SPAWNS.
9D: Applied scientist: ENGINEER. I would not have got this answer without the across fills. Such a narrow definition of ENGINEER.
21D: Kissers: YAPS. I sure have problem with English slangs.
26D: Gallico novel, "Mrs. __ Goes to Paris": 'ARRIS. Have you read this novel? I've never heard of it before.
27D: Laughing: RIANT. Present particle of French verb "rire" (laugh). Risible has the same root. (Note: Thanks, Martin.)
32D: Merchandise: WARES. New definition to me. I always associate WARE with hardware, software, silverware, etc.
37D: Magnificent: SPLENDID. Do you like NPR's "The SPLENDID Table"?
38D: First public performance: PREMIERE. Same pronunciation as premier, right?
48D: Love in Limousin: AMOUR. Good alliteration in the clue. "Love in Louvre" (Cupid & Psyche) will be great too.
48D: Silk -cotton tree: CEIBA. See this picture. Kind of like cotton, isn't it? New word to me. Wikipedia says it's also called kapok, and it's a sacred symbol in Maya mythology.
49D: Pound and Stone: EZRAS. Know the poet Pound, have never heard of EZRA Stone before. What is he famous for?
51D: Sushi wrapping: NORI. I also love NORI rice cracker.
55D: Keanu in "The Matrix": NEO
C.C.
Did not know PNIN, RIANT, ARRIS, NORI or DOUAY. OK but not as fun as yesterday's puzzle.
ReplyDeleteNYTanonimo,
ReplyDeleteYou've been MIA. PNIN, RIANT & NORI have all made several appearances in TMS puzzle since Jan 21.
Razzberry,
Thanks for the 2 DEAD AS links yesterday. I like the way you worded your phrases.
Kazie,
Do you know why English is considered a Germanic language instead of the Romance language? What's the major difference between the two?
Anonymous @ 7:28pm,
ReplyDeleteThanks. I've corrected my mistake.
Jimbo,
I am so happy to "see" you. You look so young and cheerful.
Argyle,
You probably should have typed your comments in Word document and saved them first.
Clear Ayes,
You were missed yesterday.
RIANT, PNIN, NEO, DOUAY, 'ARRIS.
ReplyDeleteAll left me wanting. Maybe we've had them before, but I don't remember them.
Got the themed answers first. (Different, usually I struggle there). And , except for the aforementioned , the rest fell pretty easily
19 minutes and 54 seconds, with time to feed the cat.
ReplyDeleteI got SPEE, ARI, PNIN, EZRAS, CEIBA, ARNO and DOUAY from the perps. My first guess for AMONG was MIDST, for SPEWS LEAKS and for DOUAY DOGMA. I assumed "Pound and stone" had something to do with British weight measures.
C.C., I had a student once in Korea who was named Janghua and I said to him "Isn't Janghua a kind of flower?" and he didn't answer. There is a famous female Korean singer named Uhm Janghua so I was under the impression it was a girl's name. In English, Rose, Daisy, Petunia and Lily are all girl's names.
I'm not Kazie but I can tell you that the word Anglo-Saxon refers to the Angle and Saxon tribes who came from Germany almost two thousand years ago. At the time, England was part of the Roman Empire and the Romans fought the Angles and Saxons, eventually losing to them and abandoning England to them. The original inhabitants of England were Celtic (Irish, Welsh, Cornish and Scottish) but they were displaced by these newcomers. Then about a thousand years ago England was invaded by the French speaking Normans. It was because of the Normans that words like beef, pork and mutton were introduced to the English language, refering to food served at the table, while the Anglo-Saxon peasants continued to refer to the animals as cows, pigs and sheep.
Martin
Good morning C.C. and DF's.
ReplyDeleteOnly trouble spot was Arris, Riant and Pnin. Everything else was easy. Edgar Fontaine? Have we had him before?
Knew C.C. would have something on the Yuan dynasty.
Blue Eagel - because the color of the eagle on the poster that showed compliance with the NRA was chosen as blue, not brown.
Strafing and sniping. Did anyone ever get suckered into going on a "snipe hunt?"
Premier and premiere - same pronunciation and they have similar meanings - first in importance versus first public performance. Except that a prime minister can be called a premier but never a premiere.
Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night, Cracker Night, Fireworks Night). It is an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November and celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605 in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, England.
And today is National Donut Day. Treat your local police officers to a nice glazed donut. I hear they like them.
Have a great Wednesday.
Morning, folks!
ReplyDeleteToday's effort was another puzzle that started off incredibly easy and then devolved into something completely different. I did manage to finish unassisted, but had to guess at the crossing of DOUAY and YUAN. And yes, I only know YUAN as a unit of Chinese currency. My wife is useless when it comes to helping me out with Chinese dynasties, since she only knows their Mandarin names and doesn't know how to spell them in English.
Other unknowns today included LANNY WADKINS (sorry, I'm not into golf), ARRIS and CEIBA. Fortunately, I was able to recall ARI, SPEE, NRA, PNIN, ARNO, SMEE and NORI from previous puzzle experiences.
Oh -- and it was nice to see SPEE and SMEE in the same puzzle. Pity the constructor couldn't work in SNEE somewhere... ^_^
Good morning, c.c. and gang - same problems for me with 'ceiba' and 'douay', which fell into place with the perps.
ReplyDeleteI kept thinking it was 'Larry WaTkins', and that left me with an 'I-Pot', which I figured must be a piece of very smart cookware.
Lots of DFette material here as well, but I'd best leave it alone.
Have a happy hump day.
Martin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Germanic language explanation. I am also confused about Celtic, Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Irish. What are the major differences among them?
Dr. Dad,
What is "Snipe Hunt"?
Barry,
SONG, YUAN, MING & Qing are all Mandarin Chinese. But I agree with your wife, Cantonese spellings drive me to Cloud Cuckoo Land (It means nuts, isn't it?).
Dennis,
I'd best? Is it grammatically correct? I thought it's always "I'd better".
Good morning CC, DFs and DFettes. Nice easy puzzle today until I got to the center east side then the hammer fell. I did not know Arris, Riant or Pnin although I should have known Pnin from previous puzzles. I also struggled to get the center south completed but it fell into place when I guessed Yuan.
ReplyDeleteMy friend is flying here today in his newly refurbished twin Comanche so I guess we will be out flying for awhile today. Hope you all have a great day.
Cantonese spellings drive me to Cloud Cuckoo Land (It means nuts, isn't it?).
ReplyDeleteCloud-cuckoo-land literally means a realm of fantasy or of whimsical or foolish behavior (it's a translation of the Greek nephelokokkygia). I've never actually heard it used in a phrase like that, although I suppose it could be a humorous extension of the more common phrase, "It drives me cuckoo."
@drdad yes I have stood in the woods alone at night holding an old sack waiting for the snipe to be chased my way. LOL
ReplyDeleteC.C. - see Dick's 7:12 a.m. post. He has been on one. I didn't fall for it. It is a form of wild goose chase that is also known as a fool's errand, is one of a class of practical jokes that involves experienced people making fun of newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task. The origin of the term is a practical joke where inexperienced campers are told about a bird or animal called the snipe as well as a usually ridiculous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a burlap bag or making strange noises. Incidentally, the snipe (a family of shorebirds) is difficult to catch for experienced hunters, so much so that the word "sniper" is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.
ReplyDeleteMrs 'Arris goes to Paris is a delightful read. Read it many many years ago.
ReplyDeleteMartin,
ReplyDeletethanks for the history. Saves me the time to put that altogether. It also explains why all the words we use for cooked meat come from the French, whereas the animals go by their Germanic derivative names.
c.c.,
English, and most of our words, are derived from their originally Saxon ancestors, and, as Martin pointed out, most of the French influence came later with William the conqueror, and French became the language of the ruling classes--not only in England either: at times in Germany too, it was the fashion. In fact one German king is quoted as saying he only used German when speaking to his horse.
In truth, English is a mongrel, having influences from many different sources, but our most common, oldest words are Saxon. If you can find a "family tree" of all languages, you'll find it's on the same branch as German and the Scandinavian languages. The many different roots account for the high number of words in the language--many words of different origins exist for the same things.
The puzzle was OK for me today, but I had to goole some names and titles I didn't know.
C.C.,
ReplyDeleteI don't think the link for Celtic worked. According to the link, Welsh and Cornish are similar and Irish and Scottish are similar and they are all derived ultimately from Celtic. There's also a small island off the coasts of Ireland and Scotland known as the Isle of Man where the ancient language was Manx: I didn't know they had their own language there; to me "Manx" refers to a breed of cat. There are also some people in France who speak a language called Breton which is apparently a Celtic language similar to both Welsh and Cornish.
The wikipedia article does not go into detail describing the similarity and differences between these six languages but it does cite "partial intelligibility" as a measure of how similar the languages are. Basically what you need to do is take any two people from different areas and ask them to talk to each other: if they understand each other fairly easily then they speak the same language whereas if they can make each other understood with great difficulty (without knowing each other's language) then this is evidence that their languages are related. Note that people might understand each other simply because their languages have vocabulary in common but that linguists would insist that two languages only be considered "related" if they actually belong to the same language group (which suggests that there was a time in the past when Angles, Saxons, Germans and Scandinavians, for example, all spoke the same language): this English is more closely related to German even though English has borrowed a lot of words from French and vice-versa.
I don't know if there is a family tree that includes all languages but European languages have been shown to be definitely related to languages in India.
Martin
dr.dad,
ReplyDeleteThe reason première isn't used for a man is that it's the feminine form of premier--they both mean first in French. In show business, it is feminine to go with "nuit"--a feminine noun, as in "first night".
It's also more common in English borrowings from French to adopt only the feminine form of adjectives or nouns, and then people get them mixed up too. Think fiancé(e)--the extra "e" is only used when it's the girl.
Martin and c.c.,
ReplyDeleteThe breton language is indeed closer to the Gaelic family than to French. It's spoken only in the far north-western corner of France--Brittany is the old province there.
Another interesting thing there linking that area with Britain are the menhirs--huge stones like at Stonehenge, but all lined up rather than in a circle.
Yeah, A fairly easy puzzle for me.I have never read the book Mrs. Arris Goes To Paris but I did buy the movie many years ago. It is very good and stars Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Arris. i don't know how closely it follows the book. I too have been tricked into a snipe hunt by friends and I use that term loosely. Beautiful day here in PA think I'll go riding.
ReplyDeleteDrDad - not many snipes in west Texas - but cattle & horse tipping...now that's exciting. Ha Ha! ;~p
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I only completed about half the puzzle, I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and I am so happy that now people will stop stuffing my mailbox, calling on the phone, and banging on my door trying to sell their candidates, at least for two years. Since I don't comment often, I hope you will allow me some writer's latitude off the crossword subject to submit my thoughts for today, November 5, 2008:
ReplyDeleteThe earliest years of my life, learning to walk and talk, were spent in a brownstone fourplex, a couple of blocks from Plymouth and Lyndale in North Minneapolis. We didn’t have a sand box, but the cinder pile of spent coal in the back provided a play area for us. Many people of color lived in a neighborhood north of us along Broadway. My mother taught me that they were to be called “gentle people”. These were the days when George Mikan was the tallest player in the NBA, Jackie Robinson and Luke Easter were the only African American players in the major leagues, and American Bowling Congress had not yet opened the membership door to black bowlers.
In the 50s, my family moved to Hopkins, and growing into the exploratory age, my friends and I located the two dumps in the city. There was the Red Owl dump, full of plywood and pallet wood great for making treehouses. The Hopkins city dump had a myriad of treasures. We once got an old bicycle frame, pedals and sprockets, a couple of wheels with only a few spokes missing, and with a couple of bucks at the hardware store we added tires, a few bolts, and a lot of oil and rebuilt a bike. Add a clothespin and a Bill Tuttle baseball card and we could make it sound like a motor bike.
A little older and us poor but honest white kids found we could earn money picking raspberries or carrying golf bags at the local country club. Once a couple of black kids came to the caddy shack but they were turned away. The caddy master said he already had enough caddies, but we knew it was a lie. We knew the real reason, but we were 13 and our opinion didn’t matter. In 1967, my old Plymouth and Lyndale neighborhood was ravaged by protests and rioting. I didn’t agree with the methods, but I did sympathize with the cause. Later I was drafted and spent several months at the Army Hospital in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, about 40 miles north of Nashville, TN. I had many new friends of all races and creeds who each were serving our country as best they could. It was there in April of 1968 that I came to really understand the ugliness of racism. Many of my aforementioned black friends wouldn’t speak to me for weeks after that dark April 4th day in Tennessee.
Some wounds take time to heal, and I’m not sure if this one ever totally will. But as we have upgraded ourselves from the city dump in Hopkins, to the high speed internet of today, we find ourselves forty years later welcoming Barack Obama and his message of change, ironically to the “White” house. As for me, I never would have dreamed in my lifetime that the United States would elect a president with a bowling average of 37. God Bless America
Hi c.c. and all,
ReplyDeleteWell, as others have said I did not know Riant, Arris, Pnin, or Douay. I only got Ceiba and Wadkins from the perps. I had never heard of Lanny Wadkins.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Off to the gym!
For those interested in the complex history of the English language, there are two good articles in Wikipedia. On is titled "Britons (historical)" and deals with the earliest beginings.
ReplyDeleteCalef
Good Morning All, It's a good thing this morning's crossword wasn't particularly difficult. My brain is still fuzzy from 15 hours at our polling place. It was an interesting place to spend an historic day.
ReplyDeleteI got CEIBA from the across answers and DOUAY from the perps. I Googled DOUAY post-puzzle and learned that it was the basis for most English Catholic bibles.
A long time ago, I read "Mrs. 'ARRIS Goes To Paris" from my grandmother's Reader's Digest version. Mrs. Harris is a Cockney cleaning lady from London, who takes a trip to Paris to buy a couture dress. 'ARRIS refers to the way she pronounces her own name.
Jimbo, Nice to see you.
Boomer, Thank you for your wonderful story. I certainly hope that President Elect Obama finds the time to work on that average....we don't want to be on the losing end of The Bowling Wars!
EZRA Pound...I don't know much about him. According to Wikipedia, he was an anti-semite and a propagandist for Mussolini during WWII. He was charged with treason after the war, but was found mentally incompetent to be tried and was hospitalized for 12 years. His poems are often difficult to understand. Here's a short one.
And the days are not full enough
And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass
The DOUAY RHEIMS Bible was finished in 2609.It is considered the foundation for nearly all english speaking catholics
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the PICTS!
ReplyDeleteWhat is DOUAY?
English Catholic version of the Bible written at the English College at Douai, in Flanders.
Ezra Stone played the comically trouble-prone teen-ager Henry Aldrich on radio as a young man and then became a successful theater and television ...actor, producer, director, writer, teacher and lecturer. (I didn't know that.)
Interesting cross: Anna Pavlova was famous for performing in Swan Lake around the world.
Yes, C.C., I copied it before I published it.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, everyone! Finally caught up on all of the back puzzles. No real problems with this one today. All the unknown names were easy to get from the perps.
ReplyDeleteEveryone have a great day!
Good morning C.C. & all
ReplyDeleteI thought this one would be a slam dunk because it started off so easy. Then, I got slowed somewhat in the south; mainly from my misspells at the yuan/douay cross. Knew nori from previous xw's use. No problem with ceiba, the source of kapok which was used(& still may be in some) in life preservers & flotation devices. I knew Mrs. 'Arris goes to Paris even though I couldn't remember the author. I also knew Fanny Farmer candy so pnin and riant came from the perps. I can't really fault any of the clues but I think I was not on the same wavelength as the author. It made me think outside my normal box... but, isn't that what it's for?
I may be hard to find again for awhile. I'm heading for Oahu, Kauai, & The Big Island for a couple of weeks. If the xw is available, I'll check in. It's not as much fun for me but I may have to resort to doing it online.
Aloha kâkou! & Mahalo â nui
Good morning, C.C. and gang. I'm running a bit late as I took ladylove to jury duty.
ReplyDeleteMy only problem today was 26D. Well, 35A and 38A would have done just as well. The rest came fairly easily.
WOTD THERIAC: THEER ee ak
noun
1: a mixture of drugs and honey formerly held to be an antidote to poison
*2: cure-all
"Chicken soup may not be a theriac," she said, "but it is comforting to eat when you're feeling sick."
@Martin: Thanks for the language & history lesson; it was a joy to read.
ReplyDelete@Argyle. I knew the term Douay-Reims, but not the background. A tip of my porkpie to you.
@Drdad: Who has not been suckered in on a snipe hunt. It was my first Boy Scouts campout for me.
Martin & Kazie & Calef,
ReplyDeleteI am so surprised that Semitic is not part of Indo-European languages, while Iranian is. Why is that? I am also bit confused about Indo-Aryan branch.
Kazie,
Somehow the single menhirs reminds me of the Blarney Stone and the Irish Crowning stone "Lia Fail". I don't suppose it has any Norman influence?
Marme,
Is your riding a year-long activity? Will you be able to ride in the winter?
Razzberry,
ReplyDeleteWhat are "cattle & horse tipping"?
Clear Ayes,
No wonder it's 'Arris. Thanks. "And life slips by like a field mouse/Not shaking the grass". What does it mean? Life passes by very quietly?
Argyle,
I was ignorant of ANNA & SWAN LAKE connection. Thanks for pointing it out. What is PICTS?
Judging from the response in the blogs, I struggled with most of the same terms. I learn something new nearly everyday, as I never heard the word "riant" before. The fact that it means the same as "laughing" seems strange to me. Rather curious word that; it reminds me of "rant." I really can't see myself using "riant" in a conversation, can you?
ReplyDelete56 ACROSS: Bible version. The answer, Douay, comes from a location in Flanders called Douai, where the English Catholic version of the Bible was undertaken around 1582, with the New Testament being published that year. The Old Testament followed in 1609-10, as it was a much larger undertaking.
Basically, the effort concerned a translation from the Latin Vulgate into a more user friendly English version. The translation was also undertaken as an effort to undermine the progress of the Protestant Reformation, which was then taking place in England.
I was aware of the answer, as I own an old family Bible, which happens to be a Douay version, as opposed to the King James version, which is used by Protestants. On a personal note, although I'm Catholic, I prefer the King James version...I think it's more beautifully written.
Rose
9:58 today. I had to guess at the "I" in the cross of PNIN and 'ARRIS (never heard of either). DOUAY and CEIBA were only gotten via the crosses. RIANT was a gimme and is frequent crossword fill.
ReplyDelete@c.c.: Do you like NPR's "The SPLENDID Table"?
Yes, I love that program. The big problem for me is that it is on our local PBS station at 6PM Sunday nights--an awkward time for me. (My wife and I eat out every dinner--I no longer am interested in cooking like I used to do--and that time is right in the middle of our usual dinner hour.) I should probably download the podcast, but there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything...
A leftover from yesterday: @carol: Embien, just a question for you, why DRIVE to a ballot drop box location when we have VOTE BY MAIL here in Oregon?? Why don't people put it in the mail in time for it to be counted? That is not a difficult thing to do. The other way just defeats the whole purpose of having vote by mail, to say nothing of clogging up steet traffic all across town! ARGHHHH! There, thanks..now I feel so much better.
ReplyDeleteMaybe where you live you don't have to drive to put something in the mail, but out here in the country that's not true. Plus there is so much mail theft I'd never consider putting something as important as a ballot in my mailbox to send out. It's not an extra trip if one is going to the library anyway.
There. I feel better now (grin).
Embien,
ReplyDeleteI was shocked that you like "The Splendid Table". I like it too. Sometimes I listen to it @ 6:00am Sunday morning.
Clear Ayes et al,
Are you aware that the root word for "Cockney" is "cock's egg"? How strange!
c.c., The stone in your link looks very df-ish to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the Norman link--that conquest wasn't until 1066 (described in the Bayeux tapestry). Those stones have been there so long, they are a mystery in the same way Stonehenge is. though if you have read any of the Astérix books, you would think they dated from Roman times, but this is fantasy, albeit a mighty funny read in the original French. I think they lose a lot in translation.
This puzzle started very slow for me, probably because I stayed up too late last night watching the election returns. My first mistake was to quickly write in “beer” for 1A! Without consideration I also filled in 50A incorrectly. And even once I started getting some of the crosses, I wanted to fill it in as “Minnie Minoso”. I kept reading the clue “Ms. McEntire” for 61A and could not understand what POOR had to do with her. Almost everything else seemed a puzzle to me. Well, a large cup of coffee, a diet Pepsi and the quiet of lunch cleared my mind, and I worked the puzzle at top speed, with no errors and with no help.
ReplyDelete@cc: The Paul Galico book Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris is one of a series about the charwoman that I read when I was in high school.
I am familiar with Fannie Farmer as the author of the famous 1918 Boston Cooking-School cook book. I am not familiar with FANNY FARMER candy. Chicago is the home of Fannie May candies.
As for “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” It was never considered to be funny. Faye Dunaway was excited about her news anchor’s rant because she saw it as a way to up the ratings for her station. Peter Finch ranted about his anger on live broadcasts leading up to his suicide. I have not seen this movie since it came out in 1976, but seeing your clip, I re-experienced much of the despair, cynicism and anger I have felt for much of the last eight years. Last night, for the first time in a long time, I felt proud to be an American.
@boomer: Thank you for sharing your sentiments.
@Clear Ayes: The Pound poem may have been short, but it was powerful in feeling. Thank you!
C.C.
ReplyDeleteEarly languages were from tribes in different geographic locations. Semitic languages originated further to the east, some around the Euphrates River.
Persian, or Parsi or Farsi, is the language of Iran and it descends from the old Persian Empire, which was further west and north.
They were from different parts of Asia, not from Europe.
I hope I am correct in this, I am working from long ago memory.
Calef.
doesitinink, sorry, but there is NO time when you should not be proud to be an American. Pride in country shouldn't be based on who's running it. There's an awful lot of people who'd give a limb to be an American, regardless of the vagaries of politics.
ReplyDeleteC.C. "And life slips by like a field mouse/Not shaking the grass". What does it mean? Life passes by very quietly?"
ReplyDeleteI don't think Ezra Pound meant that life passes by quietly. The poem has to be taken as a whole. Pound says we don't fill our days and nights with enough meaningful experiences. Before we know it our lives have passed without our having done anything of merit, importance, or intensity. Well, that's his opinion anyway. He was a pretty pessimistic guy.
About WARES - There is a nursery rhyme that uses "wares" as a type of merchandise in the first verse. In the poem the wares are pies.
Simple Simon
Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair;
Said Simple Simon to the pieman "Let me taste your wares"
Said the pieman to Simple Simon "Show me first your penny"
Said Simple Simon to the pieman "Indeed, I have not any!"
Dennis is a tough act to follow.... *S*
ReplyDeleteI finally made it to the c/w this afternoon. I finished it, but it took some guessing.
NORI, DOUAY, PNIN, RIANT, and CEIBA were all new to me, but they came through the fills. LANNY was a guess, and I had to revise the T in his last name when I realized the Apple product was an IPOD. I was sitting here thinking, "Pie, crisp, crumble, sauce....." and nothing fit.
Thanks for the interesting information on languages.
Hi all, not too much to add so I won't.
ReplyDeleteEmbien, thanks for the explanation..I did forget that not everyone lives in a place that has a secure mailbox. Ours is a slot in our front door, as are many in the 'close in neighborhoods'.. I just thought by now, there would be more 'locked' rural mailboxes. I do understand some people have lost their ballots, or spilled something on them so must go get replacements. I just didn't think it would jam up traffic like it supposedly did. No offense was meant.
Dennis amen to your 3:22 post. We have so much to be thankful for living in America I could never not be proud to be an American. Good luck and God bless Mr Obama.
ReplyDeletec.c.,
ReplyDeleteSince you're a big baseball fan, thought you'd be interested to know that Paul Gallico, our xw clue writer of "Mrs. 'Arris...", also wrote "Pride of the Yankees", the story of Lou Gehrig that was made into a fairly good film starring Gary Cooper. Gallico also wrote the disaster novel "The Poseidon Adventure".
C.C. asked...@What is PICTS?
ReplyDeleteMy head is starting to hurt from researching. First of all, it would be "Who are PICTS?" And it turns out there are several different views about their origins. What's known is they are the the people who fiercely fought the Romans when they first invaded Britain. Traditionally, the name Pict is said to mean 'painted people' (having the same Latin root as the English word 'picture'). But tonight I read that it may not be true and Pict is what they called themselves.
Anyhow, they do not appear to be Celtic but are contemporaries of them and pretty much disappeared for unknown reasons.
On another note, I found this bit of trivia: "People who would have been recognised as Scots may have been living in Argyll as early as c.300."
Maybe you would like to compare Ezra Pound's And the days are not full enough
ReplyDeleteAnd the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass
to Pink Floyd's Time
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I’d something more to say.
Lately, I had a scare and really don't think it is wise to publish where I live so I changed my blog name. Same pic. Same person. Just a different name. Paranoid? Maybe. Safe, probably.
ReplyDeleteArgyle, What an fascinating comparison between Ezra Pound's poem and Pink Floyd's lyrics. The last line of the lyrics reminded me of Henry David Thoreau's line from "Walden", "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation."
ReplyDeleteJeannie, We'll get used to the new name. I hope you didn't have too uncomfortable an experience. It is a valuable lesson to us that when we are being free and easy with our blog friends, there are always others (who may not be so friendly) who are watching.