archive for November of 2005

media Washington Post — NOT A CROSSWORD

Posted November 4, 2005 • Comments Off on Washington Post — NOT A CROSSWORD

I was just reading Gene Weingarten’s critique of Wednesday’s Washington Post. The backstory of this is that every day certain Post staffers are assigned to read the whole paper and write up their opinions of what was done wrong and right and mostly wrong. Wednesday was Gene’s turn. He got on his weekly online chat and allowed readers to suggest whatever THEY wanted to critique about Wednesday’s paper, promising to pass their concerns onto the giants of the paper (the Bradlees and such), who actually do read these critiques.

The reader portion of the critique is really pretty great. There’s a thoughtful piece about the Post’s eagerness to explain why each anonymous source is anonymous, regardless of whether said anonymity is newsworthy or increases the source’s credibility. There’s a correct but hopelessly naïve piece about how horoscopes are a waste of space (though it does have a good feature idea). There’s a complaint about how washingtonpost.com messes up words with diacriticals, like résumé. There’s a bemoaning of crappy hockey coverage, which lapse honestly really is inexcusable, especially when DC’s basketball team, covered to the gills, sucks so consistently. And, lastly, there’s a piece that makes me VERY, VERY GLAD I use the Adblock extension: eleven people complained about those disgusting Lamisil ads on the website.

Gene’s portion of Gene’s critique contains this paragraph:

3. The (unintentionally) funniest story today was on B2, about a
graffito found in Charles County that “included a word sometimes used pejoratively about black people.” The story then added that it was possible this word referred only to Halloween. Out of delicacy,
presumably, we declined to specify the middlin’ epithet in question. This resulted in what was, in my opinion, a totally ridiculous but highly entertaining story. After a full hour debate, my wife finally figured out what the word must be, which made us laugh even more. This story was a silly mistake. Simply not a story. In my opinion.

I immediately thought: I must know what this word is.

The paragraph refers to this story: Graffiti Near Arson Target Probed as a Possible Slur

Now that I’ve read the story, I think I know what the word is. What I do NOT understand is what the hell that has to do with Halloween. Am I guessing wrong? Someone help me.

other Washington Post Sunday crossword, October 16 (contains answers)

Posted November 4, 2005 • Comments Off on Washington Post Sunday crossword, October 16 (contains answers)

Cw051016

Title: America’s Next Top Models
Theme entries: clothing items, redefined as puns with professions

24A, The sandwich makers wore ___: WRAP skirts
45A, The day-care workers wore ___: KID gloves
69A, The cutlers wore ___: STILETTO heels
87A, The caddies wore ___: TEE shirts
113A, The congressmen wore ___: HOUSE coats
3D, The memory experts wore ___: JOGGING shoes
12D, The circus promoters wore ___: TENT dresses
65D, The limo drivers wore ___: STRETCH jeans
69D, The spiritual advisers wore ___: SUPPORT hose

Things I learned, with web links so you can learn them too:

75A, Indy’s Luyendyk: ARIE
85A, How boors behave: INAPTLY [I got this, but I don’t think it’s a damn word]
97A, Conductor de Waart: EDO
105A, Vezina Trophy org.: NHL [uh, Stanley Cup?]
121A, Miner’s vein: LEDGE [def. 4]
36D, Big D hoopster: MAV [I cannot navigate nba.com in my browser. They can blow me.]

[At this time four squares in the upper right were blank, and several others were wrong.]

26A, Bellini heroine: NORMA
13D, Siouan tongue: OTO

Oh. Wait. I just got it. Hold on. It’s comrades and sorority. The other opera is Tosca. I fix. (Two opera clues right next to each other. Bastidges.)

Okay, I scribbled some more crap in the corner, and now we’re fine. See? This is the first one this bad in a while. The real root of the problem was 22 Across, E-TOOL. Not e-mail. Not e-book. Sigh.

Cw051016-Detail

Overall:
I messed up a biblical 17 squares in this one, including fixing a bunch of letters I got outright wrong. I even had to scribble in two theme entries: I had jogging suits and stretch pants. This was another cute, easy theme, but of course the whole puzzle is so messed up it doesn’t matter. Nine theme entries, and (I think) nine things I had to look up (counting cutler), both slightly higher than average numbers.

other Washington Post Sunday crossword, October 9 (contains answers)

Posted November 4, 2005 • Comments Off on Washington Post Sunday crossword, October 9 (contains answers)

Cw051009

Title: Sounds Like a Line to Me
Theme entries: familiar old pickup lines with one word replaced with a homonym, and clued with a profession.

23A, Sailor’s line?: “You have nice ayes”
36A, Stylist’s line?: “You comb here often?”
68A, Oilman’s line?: “Kiss me, you fuel”
93A, Chess player’s line?: “The knight is young”
113A, Dramatist’s line?: “Your plays or mine?”
3D, Pizza maker’s line?: “You knead a lift?”
58D, Mathematician’s line?: “What’s your sine?”

Things I learned, with web links so you can learn them too:

1A, Rogers‘s real surname: SLYE [Ohhh. Roy Rogers. Duh. I knew that. And can I just say, it sucks when I don’t get 1 Across right away. It’s just so awful.]
21A, France’s Petain: HENRI
28A, Former justice Abe: FORTAS [rang a bell at least]
62A, Saloon workers of yore: B-GIRLS
81A, Derrick parts: JIBS [but not as in the cut of; that’s a sail. That is a great reference link, by the way. Click ittttt.]
111A, Lake near Banff: LOUISE [see note on 111 Down]
118A, Place for oakum: SEAM
11D, Novelist Seton: ANYA [This is one of those classic crossword clues that work as tools in the grid, like elan and eke and ante and aper. For some reason I simply cannot retain this one. I think it’s because I am from New Jersey and when I see Seton I instantly think of Mother Seton, of Hall fame.]
53D, Pastoral work: IDYL
89D, Soap ingredient: SODA ASH
111D, Sr.’s exam: LSAT [I had PSAT here and was righteously indignant. Lake Pouise? I’m stupid.]

Overall:
I technically, at the time, messed up no squares in this one (the streak ends at 4, which is just as well; the following week was a clusterfuck) but I actually got one letter outright wrong. This was a fun theme, but honestly it was too easy. As soon as I got it, I was looking for 58 Down so I could put in the inevitable “what’s your sine.” 7 theme entries (average), 11 things I had to look up (high).

work Sick.

Posted November 1, 2005 • Comments Off on Sick.

As if the concept of getting sick when I don’t get sick pay wasn’t bad enough, there’s the actual getting sick part, which we all know is unpleasant and bad.

Sunday night I was up all night with intense stomach pains, and I finally just threw up, and felt fine, but I’d gotten no sleep, so I called in sick. I told them it was food poisoning (your guess is as good as mine) and that I’d be fine—just fine—to work on Tuesday.

Then there was Halloween. I ate four tons of food last night.

I slept fine Monday night until around six, at which time I woke up with, lo and behold, intense stomach pains. I couldn’t do anything about it so I loaded up on painkillers. We are now—and this is a set of words I do not think I have ever typed before—out of Aleve.

What’s really stupid is the Aleve didn’t even work. So a little while ago—after discovering to my dismay that what I thought were my three remaining Vicodins were in fact Allegra—well, I took a Percocet. All hail the Percocet. I could drop a brick on my foot right now and wouldn’t feel it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The FDA is 100% right to legislate and limit narcotic prescriptions like they do. This here is a recreational drug.

In any case, I have called in sick again, and thankfully spoke to a different person in the office. I feel especially bad because yesterday was the third day of a three-day assignment and today was the day of a one-day assignment in a different place. So both those clients? Screwedish.

I guess I’m just broken, and I just can’t eat anymore. You can bet your bottom dollar today will be an Experimental Low-Key Food Day. No tuna noodle casserole like Sunday. No lasagna and fourteen Kit-Kats (est.) like Monday. Today I am a jam-and-toast girl.

But I’m still not getting paid.

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