tuesday, october 23, 2007
alan arbesfeld / will shortz
difficulty factor: probably didn't even require a band-aid - but once you got one out, mom useta say, "if you don't need it now... you're gonna!" not bad at all; all crosses benefitted each other...
theme: 59A "what the starts of 17A, 26A, 37A, and 52A are": THINGS that can be DRAWN!
- 17A CURTAIN CALL
- 26A BATH SPONGE
- 37A BLOOD STREAM
- 52A GUN SLINGER
there were five "visitors" today. the first, henry james, was arguably one of the most educated, prolific, 
and significant american writers and critics of his time. his belief that narrative fiction, which was best when drawn solely and purely from the writer's own viewpoint and experience (not borrowing from others, or propagandizing), was truly an art form... an art form where brevity - getting to the intended point - was of the absolute finest. hence, today's [most googled] quote at 21A: "IN ART economy is always beauty." not that he always practiced what he staunchly professed. throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, his sometimes wordy - and always worldly - philosophical writings spanned the subjects of biography, travel, and literary and arts criticism, in the form of 20 novels, 112 stories, 12 plays, a substantial number of literary criticisms, and his own voluminous daily journals which were published posthumously.
the second visitor was 25D BOBBY KNIGHT the patient, humble, shy, reserved collegiate basketball coach...
and the third was singulaly named, rock 'n' roll hall-of-famer 39D DION (born dion di mucci) who with the belmonts (named for belmont avenue, in the bronx) had nominal success on the charts in the in the late 1950s. after going solo, his first #1 hit was "runaround sue" followed the next year by the clued song.sometime singer, "the gong show" judge, and game show panelist 41A JAYE p. morgan (born mary margaret morgan, and called "j.p." when she was class treasurer of her high school [a reference to financier john pierpont morgan]) and 47A ILKA chase round out today's guests.
in the "your mileage may vary" category:
best clue of the day: 55A "clobber, biblically"... what's not t' like about that?!
best answer of the day: 12D I FORGOT... it works for me!
worst clue of the day: 60A "suffered from"... hey, i had a bike as a kid and i didn't suffer.
worst answer of the day: 20A "amateurish"... as in the league... or... the current president?! (gee, that would make it one of the better answers!)
keep on keepin' on...
dann
all elements of the puzzle (grid layout, clues, and answers), NYT, NY Times, and The New York Times logo are ©2007 The New York Times
1 comment:
Very good question
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