I really should be starting out this post ranting and complaining about Puzzle #14. But, I’m having such a great weekend that I can’t get too riled up about it. Friday night was book club. I love my book club and love that I dropped Plato’s “The Republic” in the discussion. I also used “apiary” in a conversation with my neighbor yesterday. She asked if that had something to do with apes, which made me feel better about not knowing what it was. Of course I simply said, “It’s for bees,” and did not let on that I had just learned that hours earlier.
Last night was my friend’s big showing of her documentary. It was at Seattle Art Museum, the theater was packed, and the film was great. So great. Touching, real. So many people in the audience laughed and cried and clapped spontaneously at different spots in the film. It is called “Stormy Lessons” and hopefully you will be able to see it on PBS soon.
And, today is just a great, lazy Sunday. So, how frustrated can I be that I was unable to complete the puzzle, had several errors, and clearly have much, much more to learn?
Here we go.
History/culture gaps in knowledge
15 across, “Tennis champ Goolagong.” EVONNE. First of all, what a fantastic name. I did get this answer, but only because of the other answers. Never heard of Evonne Goolagong. She was an Australian tennis champ.
37 across, “Legislative act that imposes punishment without a trial.” BILL OF ATTAINDER. My BFF Wikipedia tells me that in jolly old England a criminal could be declared “attainted,” which meant his civil rights were null and void. Therefore, he could be sentenced without a trial. Last time this happened was in 1798. The US Constitution forbids it. Hmmmm….I wonder what Gitmo thinks about that.
57 across, “River of oblivion.” LETHE. Got it but don’t know it. It is one of the rivers of Hades. And here I was thinking Hades only had one river.
3 down, “Shepherdess in Virgil’s Eclogues.” Eek – log – wayz? BFF tells me that it is the first of three major works by Virgil. Sacred-texts.com says it consists of ten poems written between 42 and 39 BC. It’s hard to find any information about Delia. When I Google it, I find other crossworders asking who the shepherdess in Eclogues is. I’m sure it’s eck-logs. Or eck-low-gs.
9 down, “Delaware tribe.” LENAPE. You can learn more about the Lenape here.
25 down, “Inventor Howe.” ELIAS. Interesting and brief info about Howe here.
31 down, “Mont Blanc, e.g.” ALP. Heard of Mont Blanc, didn’t automatically place it as an Alp.
1 across, “Blackguard.” CAD. I know what (or who) a cad is. But, I have not heard the word blackguard. MW tells me it is a “rude or unscrupulous person.” Ok, so a cad.
14 across, “Sport ___ (all-purpose vehicle).” UTE. I have honestly never heard this word before. Sport-ute or sport ute. I’ve heard sport utility vehicle, but not sport ute. I had to Google it to see that ute is just short for utility. I thought it would stand for something (like atv is all terrain vehicle).
47 across, “Cotton menace.” I put down bull weevel. But, it is BOLLWEEVIL.
1 down, “Three-dimensional.” CUBIC. I had guessed it was cubic. Had the b-i-c. Even wrote in the c & u, but then erased them. Oh well.
7 down, “Small knob.” KNURL. I ended up with knull. MW says, “1. A small protuberance, excrescence, or knob, 2. One of a series of small ridges or beads on a metal surface to aid in gripping.” It also says the etymology is likely a blend of knur and gnarl. Protuberance is a great word. Excrescence? Never heard that one. MW says, “a projection or outgrowth especially when abnormal.” Knur, also a great word. MW says, “a hard excrescence (as on a tree trunk)” and references gnarl as a similar word. Knurl, knur, gnarl. Nice.
12 down, “Instant.” TRICE. MW says, “a brief space of time…used chiefly in a phrase (such as) in a trice.”
47 down, “Touched in the head.” So, I’m thinking kooky or crazy or something like that. But, it is BALMY. Balmy means warm – maybe humid – weather, to me. Let me turn to MW – balmy weather means calm weather. Ok, I stand corrected on that. The second definition is crazy or foolish. This seems odd to me as the first definition is “have the qualities of balm” or “mild.” So, it just seems like the second definition is almost the opposite of the first.
48 down, “Common daisy.” OXEYE. Ok.
49 down, “ ____ apso (dog).” LHASA. I got it, but didn’t spell it right. I thought it was Lopsa or Lapsa or something like that.
51 down, “African terrain.” Savannah? Jungle? Big open fields? Nope, VELDT. Back to MW, “a grassland especially of southern Africa usually with scattered shrubs or trees.” Interesting that it comes from the Dutch word for field and is close to Old English feld (field). I wonder what the actual, original word was for it. I'd like to see that etymology.
I’m creating a new category – Foreign Language
10 across, “Mlle from Acapulco.” SRTA. I got this answer and did figure out (eventually) that Mlle is Mademoiselle and Srta is Senorita.
29 across, “Berlin maidens.” I got that it was FRAULEINES after getting a couple of the letters from other answers. But, I didn’t know how to spell it. And, was so thrown by this puzzle, I put an e on the end instead of an s.
22 down, “German the.” DER
And, random errors:
21 across, “Grand Prix, e.g.” Couldn’t figure that one out. I had race from the other answers. I eventually put down LONG RACE. But the answer was ROAD RACE.
33 down, “Popular vodka, informally.” STOLI. My wrong answers to the other clues threw me on this. I know Stoli. Boy, do I know Stoli.
56 across, “What a lumberjack holds.” I got the ndle of AXHANDLE.
58 across, “Tilt.” LEAN. The spelling of Lhasa apso was throwing me on some of these.
62 across, “Pioneering computer game.” I was thinking Pong or Pac Man or something like that. The answer is MYST. I played Myst when it came out. And, for the time, it was – well, I’d say evolutionary, not revolutionary. But, considering I’m not really a big vid game player and it is one of the only games I’ve ever purchased, I would say that it was pioneering if it got to me. Maybe?
43 down, “Biases.” SLANTS. Yeah, just didn’t get that one.
And that’s it. 27 clues out of 128 wrong. That’s 21%. Gnot good. Knot goooood.
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