Puzzles #37 & 38 or "I'm Going to Title My Children's Book 'Ivan the Terrible Czar'"

Puzzle #37 – completed with no errors. I don’t dare say I’m improving ‘cause that will mean the next puzzle will suck.

There were only two answers that I don’t really know:

11 down, “Actor Morales.” ESAI. He’s a modern day actor (born in ’62) and while I recognize some of the movies and shows he’s been in, I don’t recognize him. He was in La Bamba, Jericho, and a ton of other stuff.

60 down, “School for a future ens.” USNA. It wasn’t until after looking at the answer that I understood that ens. is ensign (a rank in the Navy), so USNA would stand for U.S. Naval Academy.

Since I completed #37 yesterday, but didn’t have time to blog about it – and it was so short – I am going to complete #38 and put it all in the same blog post…

Sometime later and after dinner (for which I made up a new recipe and it was yummy! Sundried tomato and basil polenta cut in ½ inch thick circles and sautéed/fried up a bit in olive oil – put “Just Jack” cheese on top, then slice of tomato, then a little pile a lightly steamed spinach on top – and then just a little dollop of garlic aioli on top of the spinach. Mmmm…).

#38 was great! And, it was chock full of tried and true clues and answers. First, here are a couple that I totally got and are a result of this little project o’ mine:

65 across, “Director Preminger.” OTTO
13 down, “Art Deco designer.” ERTE

The other very common answers were OBOE, ELIE (as in Wiesel), EDAM (as in the cheese), EDEN (lovely place where Adam and Eve allegedly lived), and IVAN (the terrible czar).

Answers I got, but don’t really know are:

26 across, “Money in South Africa.” RAND. Wikipedia tells me that it gets its name from “Witwatersrand, the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and were most of South Africa’s gold deposits were found.”

3 down, “Actor Lloyd ___.” NOLAN. He’s been in a lot of stuff and, by all accounts, was a great actor. One movie I’ve heard of that he is in – but I have not seen – is The House on 92nd Street. That has been added to the Netflix queue.

Monday Puzzle #17 or "Arty of the Irst Art"

I completed Puzzle #17 yesterday, but didn’t have time to post about it because I spent all of my free time watching Anatomy of a Murder – 2 hours and 40 minutes long! But, worth every minute because it was brilliant.

I watched it because of Puzzle #1’s clue, “Director Preminger.” I’d never heard of Otto Preminger (director of Anatomy of a Murder). I’d heard of the movie, but hadn’t seen it.

Anyway, it is great. Not a “world through rose colored glasses” film that was so typical of the era (movie was released in 1959). The dialogue and the filming were so sophisticated and real. I felt like I was getting a real glimpse into life at that time. AND, the issues surrounding rape, how women were treated…that wasn’t even the premise of the movie. It’s just so interesting to see how that topic was handled 50 years ago.

James Stewart was 51 when the film was released. I had to look up how old George Clooney is today (48) because I see many similarities between the two.

Anyway, it’s a great film – great acting, dialogue. A really good courtroom drama. And a fantastic look at life in the 50’s.

Now, Puzzle #17 went pretty well. I completed it and had one error. Two big things:

1. It had EPEE as an answer! Yay! I have now encountered EPEE and OLEO in this project - hence the name of the aforementioned project.

2. It had “Singer Sumac” as a clue. I did not get it right away. How can I have researched this woman, read about her life, watched her and listened to her on YouTube, and blogged about her – see this clue – and say to myself, “Oh! That’s sounds familiar. I think some sort of modern country singer…it’ll come to me.” It came to me when I completed the other answers and, therefore, got YMA. And, even then I looked at it for a second and thought, “That’s weird.” And then finally, the wheel slowly and squeakily turned and it all came together for me. Ugh.

My error was in 25 across, “52 in old Rome.” LII. But, I put VII. I really don’t know my Roman numerals. This meant that 8 down, “Verdi’s Moor” was wrong. It’s supposed to be Otello and I put Otelvo. I know Verdi and I know Othello. But, WikiP tells me that Otello is an opera adapted from Shakespeare’s “Othello, the Moor of Venice.”

Things I got, but don’t know are:

5 across, “Body of water in Italy.” LAGO. Wordreference.com tells me lago means lake in Italian.
16 across, “Fred’s dancing partner.” ADELE. I know they’re talking about Fred Astaire. I think of him as partnering up with Ginger Rogers. WikiP tells me that Adele was Fred’s older sister and they grew up performing together.

29 down, “TV actress Georgia.” ENGEL. Don’t know who that is. OH! She’s Ted Baxter’s wife on The Mary Tyler Moor Show. I LOVE her.

48 down, “Half-brother of Tom Sawyer.” SID. I read that so long ago…

An answer I was really proud that I got was 52 down, “’A Bar at the Folies-Bergere’ painter.” Somehow, somewhere, Manet emerged out of my brain. I did have to Google the painting to see what it looks like and I do remember it from art history class. Why do I get Manet, but not Yma Sumac?

Answers I got – but realized I don’t know a lot or much about:

36 across, “Singer Sedaka.” NEIL. I totally got that it was Neil Sedaka. But, realized I couldn’t name one of his songs. So, I looked him up and I know a BUNCH of his songs – Calendar Girl, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.

21 down, “Norma ____.” RAE. Again, Norma Rae came right out of my brain. And, I know it’s a movie with maybe Sally Field or someone like that…but that’s where the knowledge ends. Luckily I can watch it streaming on Netflix, so will do that in the next few days. (And, yes, it is Sally Field.)

Ok. Today was the last day of school. I have somehow ended up with 4 kids and am going to go see "Up" with about 4,000 other kids. I love it. End of the school year is so full of energy - feels like looking toward the future - excitement. Love it.

Monday Puzzle #1 Cont. or "Agra Peas are Yummy"

At this rate, I'm going to be doing one puzzle per week. I am a bit disappointed in how many words I don't know in just the first puzzle. But, I suppose getting the other clues to fill in the answers I don't know is just part of crossword puzzling? But, I still want to be able to answer those...especially since these are the easy puzzles.

As I mentioned in the last post, Agra (Taj Mahal site) is one I see all of the time. So, I Googled Agra and the Taj Mahal, just to learn a little bit more about both. But, I only spent a minute or so doing that because I think I'll remember this next time - mainly because I remembered a pre-packaged dinner we used to get that I really liked - Agra Peas from Tasty Bite. Mmmm.

Next one that got filled in because of other answers was 7 down, "Basic rhyme scheme." ABAB. Ok.

Another was "actor Milo" - answer is O'Shea. Never heard of him. Apparently he is an Irish character actor born in 1926. HOWEVER, I totally recognize the photo of him playing Friar Laurence in Romeo & Juliet (1968). AND, I was tickled to see that he played Dr. Durand Durand in Barbarella. I was a major Duran Duran fan and my circle of friends thought we were so cool for knowing where the band's name came from...and we felt a little mischievous when we were finally able to see the film.

Ok, back to AMAH, the "Asian nurse." Looks like it could also be ayah. Indian/Hindi for a woman who has been hired to take care of the house/children.

Next, "Ne plus ULTRA." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ defines it as "The highest point, as of excellence or achievement; the ultimate." Merriam-Webster gives the derivation as New Latin, from 1637, "the highest point capable of being attained." http://www.etymonline.com/ says these words were inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules.

Otto Preminger...never heard of him. 1905 - 1986. I recommend reading about his father on Wikipedia...impressive. But, in a nutshell, Otto was a director known for film noir style mysteries. Received Best Picture Oscar nomination for Anatomy of a Murder (1959). I'll have to add that to my Netflix queue.

Aga - "Old Turkish title." This is another one I see quite a bit. When I Google aga, I get American Gastroenterological Association.

And, finally, another common one - "Poetry Muse." ERATO. From Greek mythology, Erato is one of the Greek muses. She is the muse of lyric poetry - especially love and erotic poetry. (All from Wikipedia).

Well, that's it for Puzzle #1. I know less than I thought I did.