Theme: Quote
17A: Start of Will Durant quote: No man who's
40A: Part 2 of quote: In a hurry is quite
66A: End of quote: Civilized
Great haste makes great waste, take your time, "slow down, I just wanna get to know you...".
But it's a bit overkill to categorize people in a hurry as uncivilized. Who is not in a hurry these days? However, when you consider that Durant and his wife spent 40 years writing The Story of Civilization, it's not that a far-fetched concept. Their life is the greatest love story I've ever heard (a marriage that lasted 69 years). They died within 2 weeks of each other. NPR did a great piece on them 2 years ago I think.
A few thorny spots for me today, but I managed to get away relatively unscathed. Oh, I started from the upper left corner again, could not break my old habit.
Across entries:
5A: New entrant into society: DEB (Debutante). Do you know that the columnist who named Jackie Kennedy (then Jacqueline Bouvier) Deb of the Year in 1947 is Oleg Cassini's brother? Oleg of course later became Jackie's favorite couturier.
9A: Of the Vatican: PAPAL. I blushed when I read excerpts of Pope Benedict's first encyclical - Deus Caritas Est. It's just a bit overwhelming to hear a Pope's reflection on Eros.
14A: Ecole attendee: ELEVE. French word for student.
16A: European river: RHONE
20A: Muffled crash: THUD
21A: Sighting: ESPIAL. Tiger Woods has won an amazing 18 ESPY Awards.
23A: Cool dude: CAT. How I miss Ed Bradley! He is a real cool cat. Scott Pelley starts to grate on my nerve now.
24A: Islamic women's quarters: HAREMS. Often see Oda clued as Harem room. Seraglio carries the same meaning - a sequestered area for wives. Hijab is the headscarf Muslim women wear. Houri is the beautiful virgin promised to those faithfuls in their Koranic paradise.
30A: Dozen: TWELVE
33A: Studio letters: MGM
44A: Zhivago's love: LARA. Dr. Zhivago is Omar Sharif's best movie in my view. Juliet Christie's performance was also impeccable. This movie made living in cold freezing Minnesota very romantic. By the way, this movie is also the favorite of our Chief Justice John Roberts.
45A: "Olympia" painter: MANET. OK, MANET painted beautiful women, MONET painted beautiful scenery.
46A: Bert's twin: NAN. Bobbsey twins. I had no idea. Only knew Nan (or sometimes Naan) as Indian bread.
47A: Kept looking: STARED
50A: Make booties, e. g. : KNIT. I always thought baby's shoes are Bootees, different spelling, no?
52A: Choir section: TENORS
55A: Scant: SPARSE
59A: Last of a log: ASH. I groaned at this clue.
61A: Actress Sobieski: LEELEE. This girl does look like Helen Hunt.
63A: Frozen fail: HAIL
64A: Tea of "Spanglish": LEONI. She is in A League of Their Own too.
70A: Heating apparatus: STOVE
73A: Even more calamitous: DIRER. That's what I feel about Bernanke's rather innovative rescue package. I mean, the plan allows the banks to use their risky home-loan securities as collateral. It does not make much sense to me, but what do I know? At least, the market did not retreat much yesterday.
Down entires:
3D: Madagascar primate: LEMUR. It looks like this. Indri is a short-tailed Lemur.
4D: Ducks and dodges: EVADES. Is duck and dodge (together) a phrase? Only knew Mitt Romney ducks, and he dodges.
6D: Morse dashes: DAHS. Unknown, dots and dits are familiar to me, though I have no idea what distinguishes "dot" from "dit".
9D: Undergraduate courses: PRE-LAW
11D: China: PORCELAIN
12D: Actress Paquin: ANNA. She won an Oscar for Piano, when she was only 11 years old. Interesting: Shirley Temple is not the youngest Oscar winner. She was only given an honary Oscar for achievemetns when she was 6. Taturn O'Neal was the youngest, age 10, for Paper Moon. Never seen it.
18D: Certain strong wind: WESTER. Wind or storm coming from the west.
27D: Andean country: PERU. It's due south of Florida, not California. Learned something from the uppish Alex Trebeck yesterday.
17A: Start of Will Durant quote: No man who's
40A: Part 2 of quote: In a hurry is quite
66A: End of quote: Civilized
Great haste makes great waste, take your time, "slow down, I just wanna get to know you...".
But it's a bit overkill to categorize people in a hurry as uncivilized. Who is not in a hurry these days? However, when you consider that Durant and his wife spent 40 years writing The Story of Civilization, it's not that a far-fetched concept. Their life is the greatest love story I've ever heard (a marriage that lasted 69 years). They died within 2 weeks of each other. NPR did a great piece on them 2 years ago I think.
A few thorny spots for me today, but I managed to get away relatively unscathed. Oh, I started from the upper left corner again, could not break my old habit.
Across entries:
5A: New entrant into society: DEB (Debutante). Do you know that the columnist who named Jackie Kennedy (then Jacqueline Bouvier) Deb of the Year in 1947 is Oleg Cassini's brother? Oleg of course later became Jackie's favorite couturier.
9A: Of the Vatican: PAPAL. I blushed when I read excerpts of Pope Benedict's first encyclical - Deus Caritas Est. It's just a bit overwhelming to hear a Pope's reflection on Eros.
14A: Ecole attendee: ELEVE. French word for student.
16A: European river: RHONE
20A: Muffled crash: THUD
21A: Sighting: ESPIAL. Tiger Woods has won an amazing 18 ESPY Awards.
23A: Cool dude: CAT. How I miss Ed Bradley! He is a real cool cat. Scott Pelley starts to grate on my nerve now.
24A: Islamic women's quarters: HAREMS. Often see Oda clued as Harem room. Seraglio carries the same meaning - a sequestered area for wives. Hijab is the headscarf Muslim women wear. Houri is the beautiful virgin promised to those faithfuls in their Koranic paradise.
30A: Dozen: TWELVE
33A: Studio letters: MGM
44A: Zhivago's love: LARA. Dr. Zhivago is Omar Sharif's best movie in my view. Juliet Christie's performance was also impeccable. This movie made living in cold freezing Minnesota very romantic. By the way, this movie is also the favorite of our Chief Justice John Roberts.
45A: "Olympia" painter: MANET. OK, MANET painted beautiful women, MONET painted beautiful scenery.
46A: Bert's twin: NAN. Bobbsey twins. I had no idea. Only knew Nan (or sometimes Naan) as Indian bread.
47A: Kept looking: STARED
50A: Make booties, e. g. : KNIT. I always thought baby's shoes are Bootees, different spelling, no?
52A: Choir section: TENORS
55A: Scant: SPARSE
59A: Last of a log: ASH. I groaned at this clue.
61A: Actress Sobieski: LEELEE. This girl does look like Helen Hunt.
63A: Frozen fail: HAIL
64A: Tea of "Spanglish": LEONI. She is in A League of Their Own too.
70A: Heating apparatus: STOVE
73A: Even more calamitous: DIRER. That's what I feel about Bernanke's rather innovative rescue package. I mean, the plan allows the banks to use their risky home-loan securities as collateral. It does not make much sense to me, but what do I know? At least, the market did not retreat much yesterday.
Down entires:
3D: Madagascar primate: LEMUR. It looks like this. Indri is a short-tailed Lemur.
4D: Ducks and dodges: EVADES. Is duck and dodge (together) a phrase? Only knew Mitt Romney ducks, and he dodges.
6D: Morse dashes: DAHS. Unknown, dots and dits are familiar to me, though I have no idea what distinguishes "dot" from "dit".
9D: Undergraduate courses: PRE-LAW
11D: China: PORCELAIN
12D: Actress Paquin: ANNA. She won an Oscar for Piano, when she was only 11 years old. Interesting: Shirley Temple is not the youngest Oscar winner. She was only given an honary Oscar for achievemetns when she was 6. Taturn O'Neal was the youngest, age 10, for Paper Moon. Never seen it.
18D: Certain strong wind: WESTER. Wind or storm coming from the west.
27D: Andean country: PERU. It's due south of Florida, not California. Learned something from the uppish Alex Trebeck yesterday.
31D: "La dolce ___": VITA. Never saw the movie (The Sweet Life)
33D: Wire measures: MILS
34D: Biting insect: GNAT
35D: Long runs: MARATHONS
37D: Hand-woven rug: RYA. It's "a handwoven Scandinavian rug with a thick pile and usually a strong, colorful design."
42D: Judo teacher: SENSEI. "Sen" means first, "sei" means giving birth. Together, Sensei means teacher. It might sound too much of a stretch to you, but it's a gimmie for me. Cultural thing I think.
43D: Trademark swab: Q TIP
48D: Sign up: ENLIST
51D: Pacific destination: TAHITI. Look at this Gauguin's Tahitian Women on the Beach.
54D: Shift out of place: SLIDE
56D: Stubble cutter: RAZOR
57D: Sifting utensil: SIEVE
59D: Ray of "Battle Cry": ALDO. Repeat offender.
67D: Leary's drug: LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide). The Acid.
I am very interested in the time you spent on today's puzzle, so please chime in on the Comment section. Also congratulations to Dennis for his "a bit over 5 minutes" record today.
C. C.
