There were three theme answers...each spanning the grid with 15 letters. All were good answers, and I thought it was a clever theme.
17A: Is pessimistic (expects the worst).
38A: Is optimistic (hopes for the best).
60A: Is apathetic (couldn't care less).
Favorite clues and/or answers:
6A: "Bearded" bloom (iris). Ours are just starting to pop through the ground. I'm more than ready for spring.
14A: Exotic jelly flavor (guava). We had that in Hawaii, but I don't think we've had it since. Must see if I can find some for a tropical treat.
16A: Boston suburb (Lynn). Never heard of it, but it's also the name of my childhood best friend. We're still in touch...almost 40 years after graduation.
21A: "I agree completely" (so true).
29A: Diving bird (auk).32A: __ shui (feng). I wondered if my house was arranged properly, so I picked up a book on feng shui. It's a wonder we didn't all die twenty years ago. According to that book, everything in our house is wrong.
42A: Taj Mahal site (Agra). Crosswordese that you should remember. I finally have.
43A: Hobby knife brand (X-acto). There's nothing quite like an X-acto knife.
55A: Binging (on a spree). I like that this didn't end in -ing...and that I didn't second-guess myself when I saw that it didn't.
5D: Masked scavengers (raccoons). We're not bothered by them here, but we had to enclose our compost pile and put a concrete block on top to keep the skunks from playing in it.
8D: "__ bin ein Berliner" (ich). I remember this from my childhood. John F. Kennedy said this, intending to say, "I am a Berliner." He should have left out ein...because what he said translated to "I am a jelly doughnut." If any of you know German and can tell me once and for all if that is true, I'd be grateful.
9D: Tom Jones's "__ a Lady" (She's). There are probably a hundred ways to clue that answer, but because they chose this one...here's Tom Jones singing it. Aah, the seventies...don't you love the lace on his cuffs.
11D: Gift of the Magi (myrrh). I love the way it looks...as though it must be spelled wrong.
19D: Captain Queeg's creator (Wouk)...from "The Caine Mutiny." Humphrey Bogart was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Queeg in the 1954 film.
25D: "Love and Marriage" lyricist Sammy (Cahn).
46D: Screwy (wacko).
I liked the similar cluing for consecutive answers...66A: Attack, as with eggs (pelt) and 67A: Attack with rocks (stone). Eggs would be messy, but I'd take them over rocks.
That's it for tonight. Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
12 comments:
I like to think he's the IEEE guy. We need more techies making puzzles!
Those irises can't bloom too soon -- nice photo!
Linda,
Lynn is a city just north of Boston along the coast here in Massachusetts. A real "olio" in population! Because it has access points from the south, west and north, and a reputation to boot, the gingle goes like this:
"Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin. You never go out the way you came in."
Norman
Sard is my new crossword boyfriend. Totally got a kick out of the puzzle.
New word, never before used, per Jim's site - SPYHOP. WACKO but neat.
I kept hoping the last part of the theme would play out as the lyrics to a Mel Brooks song from The Twelve Chairs - "hope for the best, expect the worst, some drink champagne, some die of thirst ..."
Look for a Tom Jones at ye olde blog sometime soon, Linda! Just trying to figure out which one I really want to immortalize ;)
Thanks, Norman, for the info on Lynn.
Wendy/Jim, I totally missed blogging about SPYHOP and SEASCOUT. I should highlight clues that I want to include so that doesn't happen again. C'est la vie.
Anonymous, if you'll put a first name (like Norman does), I can reply personally ; )
For some reason, Blogger isn't sending me comments via email. I just checked the blog before heading to work and was surprised (but pleased) to see four comments. Wonder what's up with that...just checked my settings and they're good to go, so must be a Blogger glitch.
Off to a 7:30 meeting...which is really 6:30.
Linda,
It turns out that "ich bin ein Berliner" is sort of an urban legend. Look at this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner
From the Wikipedia entry, "In fact, Kennedy's statement is both grammatically correct and perfectly idiomatic, and cannot be misunderstood in context. The urban legend is prevalent only in English-speaking countries but largely unknown in Germany, where Kennedy's speech is considered a landmark in the country's postwar history.
@Linda: As a German, I can confirm what jimd said--Germans who know about this legend consider it perfectly silly: I do not believe that any German listening to the speech did not understand it as intended.
Thanks, jimd and ulrich...it's nice to finally put that one to bed.
RUTTY? ICH!
As to SEASCOUT - Someone commented that The Hardy Boys were Sea Scouts and since I read those books as a kid, that is where I remember it from. These were the un-updated books from the 30s and 40s. These books have been updated in the 70s and 80s and references to SEASCOUTS disappeared!!
I guess they were no longer relevant to modern audiences.
I wonder if the same thing happened to the Nancy Drew books
@Linda: I have a friend who was there in front of the city hall when Kennedy gave the speech. He says people were packed like sardines, literally standing on each others toes, but that the excitement was so great that he only noticed when he was home that his feet were bloody. My only personal connection is that my (American) wife and I got married in the same city hall (many years later).
Bob, to answer your Nancy Drew question...yes. I bought a few for my girls, and they didn't seem the same. Nancy no longer referred to her car as a roadster. How sad.
Ulrich, way before the days of airport (and other) security, our neighbor, a highway patrolman, took our family to see JFK and his family shortly after their arrival at Palm Beach International Airport. John Jr. was just a few weeks old, and we all stood right by the limo as it went by...not three feet from us. Caroline waved to us, the President and Mrs. Kennedy smiled, and she pulled back the blanket so we could see the baby. It was such an exciting moment for all of us. Things like that will just never happen again.
I've got one of those JFK stories too! We used to vacation on Cape Cod, and for some unknown reason my parents, though staunch Republicans, decided to drive us out to Hyannis to see the Kennedys coming out of church. Same limo deal.
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