Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, composing as “Lester Ruff” — less rough, easier. Yes, indeed. I began with 1-D, six letters, ”Advisor to Odysseus” and, unlike Odysseus, sailed on through — no detours.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
2-D, six letters, “California schools close on his birthday.” I did not know that.
9-A, six letters, “Tries to draw.” Mild misdirection.
12-D, eight letters, “Verb for the past.” So spelled, really? Yes, really.
16-A, six letters, “Layout with a PYFGCRL line.” I remember when the idea seemed to be everywhere, at least in the Apple II world.
23-A, four letters, “Jack’s beat poet pal.” At the wheel, keeping everyone in stitches.
26-D, seven letters, “What Snoopy drives in She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown.” A cheerful touch.
27-A, four letters, “Dramatic overture.” Clever phrasing.
37-D, eight letters, “Me, me, me, me, me,. . . .” Hah.
54-A, three letters, “Hopper, for instance.” Heh.
60-A, eight letters, “The Mr. Coffee TM75, e.g.” What? This clue is a bit of a problem.
Another nit to pick: the clue for 48-D, six letters, “Southwestern sluggers” makes for a problem with the answer for 44-D.
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Friday, November 25, 2022
Tuck Points
A third imaginary radio show, Tuck Points, all about sheets:
“This week on Tuck Points: well-fitted fitted sheets, the foundation of good sleep.”Other imaginary shows
Blanket statements : Stemside
Blanket Statements
Another imaginary radio show: Blanket Statements, the show about blankets and the people who sleep with them:
“After the break, we’ll be talking about plaid. Is it really warmer?”Yes, plaid is really warmer, In blankets and in everything else.
Another imaginary show
Stemside
Thursday, November 24, 2022
Thanksgiving 1922
[“Vaudeville on Island: Keith Artists to Give Thanksgiving Program on Blackwell’s.” The New York Times, November 30, 1922.]
Yes, November 30: the next-to-last Thursday of the month wouldn’t become Thanksgiving Day until 1939.
It’s not clear what population these vaudevillians were entertaining: at various times asylum, hospital, and prison populations were all housed on Blackwell’s Island, or Welfare Island, as it had already been renamed in 1921. Given a Times report on Thanksgiving 1914 at Blackwell’s, I suspect that the audience was a prison population.
I recognize two of the names here: Eddie Foy, whom I know only as a name, and “Demarest,” as in William Demarest, Uncle Charley from My Three Sons, who perfomed in vaudeville with his wife Estelle Collette (real name Esther Zychlin).
On this same Thanksgiving, the great tenor Beniamino Gigli sang at Sing Sing. The inmates had already been visited by vaudevillians on November 26th. From the Times: “Sing Sing has not had a grand opera entertainment since the San Carlo Opera Company was there a year ago” (“Grand Opera for Convicts at Sing Sing Thanksgiving,” November 27, 1922.)
And if you’ve never heard Gigli, here’s “M’apparì” (1923). And another rendition, thirty years later.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Related Thanksgiving posts
Blackwell’s Island, 1914 : Sing Sing, 1907 : Sing Sing, 1908
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Vote for a word of the year
Oxford Languages is asking the public to vote for a word of the year. The choices, which for some reason Oxford lists out of alphabetical order: metaverse, #IStandWith, and goblin mode. Vote here.
My choice for word of the year: angst. As in a Ted Berrigan poem from A Certain Slant of Sunlight (Oakland, CA: O Books, 1988):
AngstMe too. “The news” is a nightmare.
I had angst.
Thus far two dictionaries have chosen their words of the year. Why didn’t Oxford Languages do likewise? Maybe they, too, had angst.
*
December 5: The votes are in, and Oxford Languages has goblin mode for its word of the year. Oy and gevalt.
[“I had angst”: yes, that’s the whole poem.]
The rules
From The Chicago Manual of Style blog Shop Talk, an explanation of when to capitalize an initial the.
[Should it be the Left Banke or The Left Banke? I go back and forth. Uh-oh, a nitpicker. Just walk away, Renée.]
Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Lydia Ricci’s art
Lydia Ricci: “tiny sculptures made from the scraps of daily existence.” There are also animations. And an Instagram page.
Found via Daughter Number Three.
[Lydia Ricci’s art marks the second time in two days I’ve seen a depiction of an old-school cassette recorder with a red Record button. The first time: in an episode of Arthur.]
