Solutions and comments on the weekly cryptic crossword puzzles set by Joshua Kosman (Trazom) and Henri Picciotto (Hot), published in The Nation magazine.
Also weekly links to other cryptic and variety crosswords including solutions to New York Times cryptic, diagramless, and puns & anagrams puzzles.
Showing posts with label Richard Silvestri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Silvestri. Show all posts
Some of you will instantly recognize the title of this post:
it’s one of the standards of a Grateful Dead concert, and as good a summation
of their life and work as anything else.
The bus came by and
I got on—that’s where it all began;
There was Cowboy
Neal, at the wheel, of a bus to never-ever land.
The song, written in 1967, is the first part of a three-part
piece called “That’s it for the Other One.” It refers to the events of that
summer and two of the people who accompanied the Dead in their early travels:
Owsley Stanley, who made and supplied much of the LSD that fueled the
psychedelic events of the time; and Neal Cassady, one of the Merry Pranksters
on Ken Kesey’s bus.
The tune starts light, and then an ominous roaring drum riff
kicks off the second movement, which gets fast and dark and trippy. Then it turns into an extended
improvisational jam. Eventually,
the jam winds up and comes back to the first theme. Then sometimes they carry that theme around a while and
other times they’d segue into a different song. The “Cryptical” in the name doesn’t have any significance:
they just needed to assign a name to the song for publishing reasons.
Puzzles: sometimes mind-bending, often addictive, but a lot healthier than LSD...
No weekend Wall Street Journal due to the holiday. Other regular weekly cryptics are found in the National Post (easy this week, but Falcon needed a lot of time) and the Globe and Mail (harder than usual). Richard Silvestri constructed the New York Times cryptic this weekend: did you like it more or less than the Hex puzzles that usually occupy that space?
Difficulty-wise, this is about on a par with the National Post cryptics by Hex. Less inventive than the The Nation puzzles. Interestingly, the grid is the same that Silvestri used for his July NYT cryptic. I won’t complain about that.
The rink where I had a came a couple of Sundays ago is one of the nicer places I skate. The ice is kept in good condition (they have a well-regarded figure skating club), the referees’s dressing room is spacious and even has a hot shower (so I can be presentable when I get to church), and the place is well-lit. I also like it because there’s an area near the blue line on the far boards where the ventilation system blows warm air. It must be misadjusted, because the warm air is supposed to be aimed at the bleachers, but I’m not going to complain.
The rink is not that cold otherwise (the one up north from me is very cold), but the warm spot still is a very comfortable place. It’s calming in a tense game, but it can also get my attention as I skate through and keep me alert in an easy game.
We haven’t had a new Kevin Wald puzzle in a while, so maybe it’s a good thing that the grid of “Many a Day” is pretty easy to fill (by standards of Uc’s puzzles, which are pretty darn hard).
The WSJ variety puzzle is a new type (right?) by Mike Shenk. It’s called “Alternation” and it reminded me of a Nathan Curtis puzzle. It’s probably easier to construct than a straight crossword, and quicker if not easier to solve. With that in mind, I posted a challenge grid as well as the usual solution and hints.
The New York Times has a cryptic this week: it’s by Richard Silvestri. Among the spoilers (read her post after you solve) Deb Amlen has a good description of the attraction of cryptics: “The reshaping of our train of thought is what makes cryptic crosswords so much fun.” She also informs us that the Times is preparing to make some of their cryptics available in their mobile app.
Regular weekly straight cryptics are found at the Stickler, the National Post, and the Globe and Mail. The Stickler was hard: I haven’t had time to solve the others yet since I need to be Mr. Mom this weekend (more precisely, to do figure skating and orchestra taxi service).
Joey has the right idea for a long, restful weekend
Early edition of Sunday brunch for this long weekend. Good thing too, since there are plenty of new cryptics to keep you busy. We start in the New York Times (behind the paywall). Richard Silvestri is the constructor. Look for the solution here.
North of the border, it was Canada Day Tuesday, but neither Fraser Simpson nor Hex marked the event with their weekend puzzles for the Globe and Mail and the National Post respectively. And in case you missed it, there was a new The Nation cryptic (and a cluing challenge) Thursday.
Multiple variety cryptics too this weekend. The change tracker I was using to follow Kevin Wald’s page doesn’t seem to have worked too well, so I missed a few recent puzzles. I’ll post links over the next few weeks to catch up, starting with 6/28, which logically (of course Kevin does things logically) was posted last weekend. Great puzzle, and not as difficult to finish as some of Kevin’s other cryptics. Give it a try.
Tom Toce has his bi-monthly variety cryptic in Contingencies. It’s a Double Trouble, where there are two grids and each clue is actually two clues, one for each grid. You have to figure out which one. Note there are a couple of errors in the grids: there should be a bar to the left of square 19, so the enumeration of 17a is (5), and the square at the bottom left corner should be numbered 27.
In other puzzling pastimes, the Wall Street Journal has a Rows Garden by Patrick Berry. Medium difficulty. If you’re feeling creative, you can also add to the comment thread for the Friday non-puzzle.
Nathan Curtis is back! He’s been preoccupied with BAPHL, which went off in Boston last weekend, so there hasn’t been time for any new puzzles. With that done, he’s posted a new mini Rows Garden.
Below the fold is the solution to this weekend’s New York Times variety puzzle, a straight cryptic by Richard Silvestri. If you want explanations of any of the answers, just ask in the comments.
Once you’re done, why not stick around for Sunday brunch. Many more cryptics and other puzzles on the menu this week: so many that they’re being served up early.
Scroll down below the video for the weekend’s new puzzles. [update: Link to NYT solution added]
I think I’ve mentioned it before, but the hockey rulebook and related publications have a rather peculiar language. We wear trousers rather than pants, players get into altercations rather than fights, and the “third man in” rule actually penalizes the “first to intervene.”
Third man in rightly is one of the most serious offenses in the book. One of the others is physically abusing or interfering with an official. It so happens that the latter most happens in the process of preventing the former, and that was the case in the Stanley Cup game this week between the Canadiens and the Rangers. There was a fight between two other players during the first period, and Carcillo appeared to be looking for a chance to join in. Scott Driscoll, who’s one of the top linesmen in the league, saw the situation developing, and smartly placed himself in between Carcillo and the fight.
Carcillo then threw an elbow at Driscoll to try and get free and get into the fight. That earned him a ten-game suspension. That’s a long suspension, in line with what the league hands out for a high hit that injures an opponent. Kerry Fraser explains the story behind that rule over at his blog “C’mon Ref.”
Some of the TSN viewers who responded to Fraser’s explanation didn’t buy it, but if you’ve ever refereed men’s league, you know exactly why the penalty is so stiff. Fights happen occasionally, and scuffles happen a lot more. But there are a few players who go absolutely bonkers when one of their teammates gets into a scrap. We had a couple of them in the Penn league a few years ago. If you don’t stop them, they can turn a routine pushing and shoving incident into a full-blown brawl involving all the players on the ice. So league commissioners usually issue long suspensions for these incidents. The ones that don’t? That’s a story for another day.
How about doing battle in a much less violent way with these puzzles?
The Sunday New York Times (behind the paywall) features a cryptic by Richard Silvestri. The solution is posted below. Deb Amlen blogs it (spoiler alert) at Wordplay.
There’s a Hex cryptic in the National Post, but Falcon is on vacation and you’ll have to wait to see it. I’ve already solved it, and it was hard. You can get the Globe and Mail puzzle by Fraser Simpson right now.
The Wall Street Journal weekend puzzle is a Labyrinth by Mike Shenk. It’s definitely hard. Lots of solvers are having trouble with the top four rows, so they’re not finding a toehold. Try and get the rows below that, and see if that gives you enough of a hint at a “winding” answer that you can get some letters extending into the top rows. If not, I have a hint grid posted elsewhere on the blog, and the solution is up if you want to check your answers.
Good news if you own Puzzazz (and if you liked that Labyrinth, the new e-book of variety puzzles: “Mike Shenk’s Variety Show” is a pretty good reason to download the app). Version 3.3 was just released this week. I was glad to see that the app now allows you to delete puzzles from your download folder once you’re through with them. Next I’d like to see a way to create different download folders so cryptics can go in one “book” and Puns and Anagrams can go in another.
Puzzazz has also finished the e-book version of “Cryptic All-Stars.” I’ve been working my way through the book over the last couple of months, and while the standard isn’t as uniformly high as we get from the top constructors like Hot and Trazom, the variety of variety puzzles and constructing styles has been entertaining.
[back-posted to keep the current The Nation post at the top]
Below the fold is the solution to this weekend’s New York Times variety puzzle: a straight cryptic by Richard Silvestri.
After you look at that, why not look around the rest of the blog? We have links to new cryptics from The Nation most Thursdays, solutions on the subsequent Mondays, and Sunday brunch every weekend, featuring a smorgasbord of cryptic and variety crosswords, interspersed with hockey, music, fencing, and other such topics.
Fencers aren’t used to whistles. I learned that last weekend at the tournament where I was Bout Committee. When I found out we didn’t have a PA system at the field house, I used one of my whistles to call the captains over and start a round of matches or make an announcement.
The first time I used it, I stepped away from the captains who were already over at my table before blowing it, and two of them looked over at me like their ears were bleeding. I didn't blow it especially hard or long: just my usual whistle.
I guess they were used to hearing a cheap phys-ed class whistle and not a professional-grade model. And like a lot of other tools of any trade, there really is a difference.
Acme Thunderer
Hockey referees might be more particular about their whistles than any other sports officials. Why? Having a good sound matters for everyone, but because we move so much faster than anyone else, ergonomics are especially important in hockey. We have to get the whistle to our lips safely and precisely, at the same time as we’re skating full-tilt after an icing, or making a hard stop on the blue line.
So our whistles have a fingerclamp which keeps the whistle on the back of our hand while we’re skating. And when I need to blow the whistle, I make a fist and bring the whistle up. It’s a great feature. When I was in grad school and rode my bike to campus, I’d wear my ref whistle, so if someone in a car wasn’t paying attention or got too close, I could blow the whistle. Thankfully, I didn’t need it much, but it worked really well. Those of you who are urban cyclists might want to visit a hockey pro shop to get a fingerclamp whistle.
Hear that whistle sounding? It’s your signal to start solving. How about we warm up with the weekly Hex cryptic in the National Post? Falcon says it’s a hodgepodge.
There’s another cryptic for us in the New York Times this weekend (behind the paywall). This one is by Richard Silvestri. I’ll post the solution Sunday afternoon or evening.
It’s not easy to keep up with Ucaoimhu, since the puzzles on his pages are listed by theme category instead of by date. So I’m catching up with a few, starting this week with “Baccarat, Etc.” which actually was a September puzzle. Even though it’s only nine by nine (that’s part of the theme), it’s still got the incredible depth of Kevin’s full-sized variety cryptics. Smaller puzzles are a great idea: they’re faster to construct and to solve, and they give new solvers a better chance at getting all the way through to the puzzles you solve after the grid part is done.
Once you’ve finished the mental workout of those cryptics, BEQ informs us that our friend from Down Under, Denise Sutherland, has a clue-writing contest up: entries being taken until next weekend. She’s offering copies of her books as prizes--sorry, the cute fluffy dog is not on the prize list. So sip your coffee (or that Bloody Mary) and think about the word “INTERCHANGE”
In the regular crossword department, the Wall Street Journal offers a “Riding the Waves” by Patrick Berry. It’s an easy variety crossword with another nice bonus at the end.
And Nathan Curtis ought to be around shortly with his regular weekend variety puzzle. I’ll link it here once it’s up.
Creating the carpets (picture courtesy aroundantigua.com)
As I compose this week's Sunday Brunch post, I'm enjoying a cup of coffee from Antigua, Guatemala, and recalling my visit there in 1979. Raydoc had gone to Quetzaltenango for a couple of months on an exchange program with Project Hope, and the rest of our family came for a spring break visit. I spent some time out in the rural areas helping train local health workers (and ruining my French for life), and then we toured some other parts of the country.
The trip coincided with Holy Week, and we got to see one of the country's richest traditions: the processions through town in Antigua. People use stencils to create elaborate carpets made out of colored sawdust and flower petals. Then groups of men bearing huge floats on which are sculptures of Jesus carrying the cross, Mary, and others walk through the carpets, the way Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, with palm branches and cloaks spread before him.
How about some elegantly patterned carpets of letters? We'll start with the block cryptics then. Hex in the National Post are already looking forward to April Fool's Day. Falcon wasn't tricked, of course. He has the solution at natpostcryptic.blogspot.com.
The New York Times has a cryptic byRichard Silvestri behind the paywall. Deb Amlen has comment (and spoilers) at Wordplay.
The Wall Street Journal has a new variety puzzle by Patrick Berry called "Pairing Up." You have to fit two letters into some of the spaces, but you're not told where. You'll need to start in one of the corners. Get one of the words right on the border, and use the intersecting words to figure where the double is. If you're still stuck, I have a hint grid and solution posted.
I also was thinking of Guatemala this year because two doctors from Guatemala City are here at Penn this academic year for studies in epidemiology and evidence-based practice. I get the privilege of teaching them the ins and outs of performing systematic reviews and assessing the strength and validity of research evidence.
by the way, no new puzzle this week, The Nation published a double issue last week
This weekend, the Times gives us a straight block cryptic by Richard Silvestri. No theme or extras, and nothing too rewarding in the cluing—just plain hard.
The August issue of Harpers is online: Richard Maltby's latest is a sixes, sevens, and twelves. Hard as usual—haven't finished it yet.
Hex comes two for the price of one in the National Post, thanks to a mix-up last week. Falcon has solutions and commentary.
The Wall Street Journal offers a "Honeycomb" variety non-cryptic by editor Mike Shenk. Commenters say they have had trouble printing the puzzle from the HTML page, so instead you should go to the main blog page at http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/ and then select "Download PDF version." You could call this one an "honorary cryptic" since all the clues have a definition hidden in them. It's also pretty easy, so this is a good puzzle for your friends who'd like to get started in the world of cryptics. They'll get the satisfaction of solving the puzzle plus the surprise of finding how the clue works.
Any other puzzles you'd like to bring to our attention?
The song, written in 1967, is the first part of a three-part
piece called “That’s it for the Other One.” It refers to the events of that
summer and two of the people who accompanied the Dead in their early travels:
Owsley Stanley, who made and supplied much of the LSD that fueled the
psychedelic events of the time; and Neal Cassady, one of the Merry Pranksters
on Ken Kesey’s bus. 
