Monday Puzzle #33 or "Definition of Fray?"

I started to read a Pierre Loti book (reference Monday Puzzle #8). It is “An Iceland Fisherman” and I am enjoying it very much. So, I am happy that this crossword project has turned me onto an author I am enjoying.

Completed Puzzle #33 and only have a couple of answers that I don’t really know. They are:

1 across, “Unravel, as a cord.” FRAY. Fray, to me, means – well, I think of it in the context as “in the fray.” So, I would define it as something complicated or busy or where the action is. And, MW does provide, “a usually disorderly or protracted fight, struggle, or dispute” as a definition. It also provides, “a raveled place or worn spot (as on fabric).” The definitions of the verb fray are “1a. to wear (as an edge of cloth) by or as if by rubbing, b. to separate the threads at the edge of, 2. Strain, irritate.” The intransitive verb definitions are, “1. To wear out or into shreds, 2. To show signs of strain.”

So, I’m not sure if I agree with this clue. If the clue referenced a worn cord or shredding/torn cord. But, to unravel a cord…I, at least, don’t see that in these definitions.

The other one is another vocab issue. It is 8 down, “What usurers do.” LEND. MW tells me that a usurer is “one that lends money especially at an exorbitant rate.”

This puzzle had “Safe sword” as a clue – EPEE! I love it when epee or oleo show up in the puzzle.

Monday Puzzle #12 or "Philosophical Questions About Gaiters"

Hoorah! Finished it and no errors! And, finished it pretty quickly, too. Relatively, of course.

This puzzle had a tried and true clue. 26 across, “Old U.S. gasoline.” ESSO. I have this memorized now because I’ve done enough crossword puzzles to learn it. For the purpose of this project, I decided to look it up. My good old friend Wikipedia tells me that it comes from Standard Oil. SO. ESS-O. ESSO. Get it? The brand has been replaced by Exxon.

Things I got but don’t really know:

33 across, “Terse note from a boss.” SEEME. Ohhhhkaaaaay. This is another one of those “I’m just not that quick” answers. I just Googled “seeme” and got all these results with the words “see me” in them…and then…only then…realized that is the answer to the clue. It is not the non-existent word “seeme.” It is “see me,” which will send a jolt of terror down any employee’s spine. Just for fun, I went to MW to see if seeme is a word – and it is not.

4 down, “____ Longa, birthplace of Romulus and Remus.” Now, I love Romulus and Remus. I don’t know why. Maybe because those are the only names/facts I recall from any of my Ancient Greece/Rome classes. I know that they are twins. I know that they were raised by a wolf. And I know that they either founded Rome or had something to do with the founding of Rome. And now, puzzle creator Robert Dillman just has to push my knowledge over the line. I don’t know where they were born. I would’ve said Rome. Or across the river from Rome?

The answer is ALBA. So now I know that they were born in Alba Longa. They were supposed to be killed so they would not take over the throne. Their mom was probably buried alive. Nice. Cause she was supposed to be a vestal virgin and Mars went and seduced her. They were set adrift down a river in a basket, made it to shore, were fed by a woodpecker, and then the wolf. Although, the wolf may have been a prostitute.

Romulus and Remus stood on different hills. The birds flew around Romulus, so he was king of Rome. He then killed Remus at some point. Thanks, Robert Dillman. I was bitter at first. But now appreciate the additional knowledge. (Jessica) Alba (Eva) Longa(oria).

10 down, “Popular charge card.” OPTIMA. If it’s popular, should I have heard of it? Looks like it was American Express’ first real credit card. All of their previous cards required full payment each month.

45 down, “Shoe style.” GAITER. Is a gaiter a type of shoe or is it a shoe accessory?

I ordered a book by Pierre Loti, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and a Tuesday NYT crossword book from Barnes and Noble last night. Early to be ordering the Tuesday book, but like to have it ready when I’m done with the Mondays.

Monday Puzzle #8 or "Crosswordz in the Hood"

Today started out with a car chase and gun shots…you can’t say that about every day. 4:30-ish am, police siren, sounds like they are driving quickly in big loopy circles around the neighborhood. Because I’ve watched enough “COPS” to know these things, I thought, “Hmmm, sounds like a car chase.” Then, the siren seemed to stay in one place for a bit. Then, “Pop! Pop!” Now, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a gunshot in my life, but this sounded like what people who are being interviewed by the local tv news describe as what they heard when their neighbor went crazy with the gun. So, being the deductively reasonable person that I am, I thought, “Holy shit! That sounded like a gun!” And then, immediately after that, I heard a car zoom crazy fast up the street while the police siren went on and on and on and on in that one place. For about 10 minutes. And then the helicopters came. And then I fell asleep.

News this morning confirmed that there was a car chase in my neighborhood – they came to a dead end – policeman got out of his car and as he was walking to the suspect’s car, the suspect put the car in gear and slammed into the police car (managed to break the policeman’s hand). Policeman fired shots at the fleeing vehicle. Fleeing vehicle ended up going over a little embankment and almost ramming into a house. 3 people caught, 1 on the loose.

I lived in the city for years and, yes, one night someone was arrested in our back alley (with police dogs and everything). But, I never heard gunfire – or ever had my car and garage broken into – until I moved to the burbs. Love it.

And, to top it all off, after reading up on the happenings in the news, then dropping the kid off at school, got home and the phone rang. Caller ID said “DOC.” Now, this person had called a few times the night before, but I didn’t answer because it looked like a solicitor. So, with this fourth call, I wanted to answer – find out who it was – and then ask to be taken off of the list. The automated, professional, slightly upbeat but not too upbeat recorded female voice said, “You are” at the same time I said, “Hello!?” and went on to say, “receiving a collect call from,” and then insert slightly embarrassed, tired, rough, resigned, definitely not upbeat voice that says, “Scotty.” Back to the automated lady, “an inmate at the Monroe Correctional Facility. If you accept this…” At this point it has all computed – this is not the Democratic somethin’ or other Committee. This is not my sister calling me collect. This is an inmate. Calling collect. So, automated lady says, “If you accept this call…” and I say in a slightly raised, incredulous, with just a hint of hysteria voice, “Wrong number!!” and hang up.

Poor Scotty. I hope he found who he was looking for. And I’m happy (hoping) it’s not me.

Puzzle number 8. Completed it. No errors. If this continues, I will need to start timing myself. But, I hadn’t planned on doing that until I got to Sunday puzzles. I’m assuming there will be some automated timer thing that’s inserted into the NYT crossword puzzle BCI in 2035, so I won’t have to mess with a stopwatch.

However, as always, there were some clues and answers that – even though I solved the puzzle – I don’t really know them.

5 across, “Peach ____ (dessert).” MELBA. Now, I’ve heard of cobbler and pie. But melba? I’ve heard of melba toast. Ok, on this diet, it is pretty torturous for me to go Googling Peach Melba. I had to stop when I got to the Food Network’s recipe and photo. Suffice it to say that Peach Melba is a dessert. A very yummy looking dessert…

5 down, “Food critic Sheraton.” Oh come on! Food again!!! I’m going to have to go find something to trick my body into thinking I’m giving it chocolate. Answer is MIMI. Mimi Sheraton. According to http://www.starchefs.com/, Mimi was “born into a food loving family.” Thank god. How horrible would it have been for her if she’d been born into a food hating family.

37 down, “French novelist Pierre.” LOTI. I don’t think I’ve heard of or read any of his work. I’ll have to go to the library to see if they have something I can check out.

38 down – another common clue that I have not committed to memory yet! “Summers on the Riviera.” ETES.

62 down, “Prefix with acetylene.” OXY. A mixture of oxygen and acetylene. Used in welding…hence the oxyacetylene torch.

That’s it! We’ll see what Number Nine brings us.