I am not one for New Year's resolutions. I am already dreading all of the weight loss ads on TV that typically start at this time of year. I've already cleaned out much of my closets and basement, though that seems to be a never-ending chore. But, I do have a few things I plan to do in the coming year and I will be happy to share my future plans with you.
One goal has already been started. I plan to read all of the Agatha Christie novels. In truth, I have seen more dramatizations of her works that I have read novels, thanks to Masterpiece Mystery and Hollywood. Up until a few months ago, I had only read 'And Then There Were None'. And I read that when I was quite young. Like maybe 10? And only after seeing the movie on TV. But I was hooked on mysteries and can't for the life pf me understand why I never read her novels. I am reading all of the Hercule Poirot first, but have to admit that I am tempted to also buy the complete series of the Masterpiece presentations. (though, in truth, I would watch them once and put it on a shelf and I can borrow them for free from my library)
When I am not reading, I will be watching Netflix. Currently I am not a subscriber, though I had been for several years. Then I switched to Amazon. Now I discover that one of my favorite TV shows will only be available on Netflix. It seems that the audience for 'Longmire' was considered 'too old' for the A&E network so they cancelled it. Season 4 will be shown on Netflix. I enjoy westerns, probably because growing up that is what my dad watched on our one and only TV. What teen-aged girl in the 1960's didn't have a crush on Rowdy Yates on 'Rawhide'? (a young Clint Eastwood)
Of course, I will also be penning my blog posts for April's A to Z Challenge. Which means I must finish labeling and editing all of my vacation photos. And I still have some letters I need to associate with my trip to make my alphabet complete.
I will also be looking for a new blog to follow as regards the New York Times crossword. For several years I have read a blog when I have been stumped as to the theme or lack thereof in a puzzle. When I did the puzzle in the newspaper, I rarely checked the blog. Now that I do the puzzle online, I usually check the blog to see what the author thought of it. I have become more and more irritated with his whining. Seems like if he has a hard time with the puzzle he whines about whatever - obscure cluing, not liking Scrabble, never heard of them - UGH. This morning was another example of a puzzle I found to be fairly easy that he said was medium-challenging. I didn't even bother to read his reasoning. So, it seems I will be 'googling' for a new source of clarity and less frustration with someone who whines like a little girl.
Of course, when I am not busy with all of the above, I will be baby-sitting, going to yoga, and using my Christmas gifts. One son bought me a great chef's knife from Shun and another got me a KitchenAid Pro Line mixer. The secret to the knife is to ask your son to carve the turkey and give him the worse knife you have in the drawer. I did give him the carving knife after I realized my 'error', but now I have a really cool knife for chopping. And my old Kitchen Aid mixer had a hard time with bread dough and my shortbread cookies. This new one with a 1.3 HP motor should solve those problems.
I wish each of you a very Happy New Year. And if you are making resolutions, make them attainable and truly useful to you and your loved ones.
Showing posts with label NYT Xwords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NYT Xwords. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
A lot of Nonsense
A few days ago I was doing a New York Times crosswords with several clues of 'nonsense'. The puzzle originally ran on January 14. I have to admit that I relied a lot on the crosses to figure out all the words meaning 'nonsense'. The answers in the puzzle included:
bilge, rot, tripe, jive, jazz, hokum, prattle, twaddle, hot air, blather, hogwash, hooey, tosh, bunk, and bushwa
I got a treat doing this, especially since I had written a post in January about the nonsense that some folks write in their blogs (including yours truly at times) and send in forwarded emails.
One blogger on the Rexwordpuzzle site added some more words meaning 'nonsense', thereby saving me the trouble of looking them up. Who knew there were so many ways to say basically nothing?
bilge, rot, tripe, jive, jazz, hokum, prattle, twaddle, hot air, blather, hogwash, hooey, tosh, bunk, and bushwa
I got a treat doing this, especially since I had written a post in January about the nonsense that some folks write in their blogs (including yours truly at times) and send in forwarded emails.
One blogger on the Rexwordpuzzle site added some more words meaning 'nonsense', thereby saving me the trouble of looking them up. Who knew there were so many ways to say basically nothing?
applesauce, balderdash, balls, baloney, bollocks, bosh, bull, bullshit, buncombe, bunkum,
cobblers, double dutch, drivel, eyewash, fiddle faddle, garbage, gibberish, gobbledygook,
guff, horse feathers, jabberwocky, malarkey, moonshine, mumbo jumbo, pants, pap,
piffle, poppycock, rhubarb, rubbish, tomfoolery, tommyrot, trash, and waffle
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Happy Birthday Crosswords
It is the 100th anniversary of the crossword puzzle. I probably do not turn on the TV in the morning more than five times a year, but there was Will Shortz on the TV talking about puzzles. Then I saw the Google doodle and a crossword puzzle link. So, for you puzzle lovers, if you go to Google.com, you have the opportunity to do an online crossword.
Here is the link to a story about the crossword and the Google doodle.
And since some folks are getting a different 'doodle': https://www.google.com/#ct=100th-anniversary-of-the-crossword-puzzle-5629550536949760-hp&hl=en&oi=ddle&q=crossword%20inventor
Here is the link to a story about the crossword and the Google doodle.
And since some folks are getting a different 'doodle': https://www.google.com/#ct=100th-anniversary-of-the-crossword-puzzle-5629550536949760-hp&hl=en&oi=ddle&q=crossword%20inventor
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Catching up with the News
This morning my local newspaper printed the wrong puzzle grid for the New York Times crossword puzzle. I put in the first across answer (well, one that fit), but then realized that there were way too many spaces for the down responses. I thought it might be some kind of rebus. Moving to the next across clue I saw that the numbers of the entire puzzle did not match the numbers of the clues. Ugh. Email sent to paper.
So now I have an extra five or so minutes and thought I would sit here and catch up on the news.
First up: Detroit. I must say I was really surprised that the jury in the Kilpatrick trial came back with guilty verdicts. After the mistrial earlier of Bobby Ferguson, I was sure they would be dead-locked again despite the piles of evidence. But oh ye of little faith, this jury got it right.
Unfortunately, the City is so far down I am not sure how it can rise from the ashes. And I doubt that the appointment of a 'dictator' is going to make much of a difference.
Speaking of which: What a slap in the face to every finance person in the entire state that the Governor found it necessary to go Maryland to find an emergency manager to run the City. Why did Michigan State University waste everyone's time and money training people in the duties of an EM, even if it was under the old public act?
And to compound this folly, the Detroit News discovers that this 'financial genius' who was appointed has tax liens on his home in Maryland for unpaid taxes that he claims he knew nothing about. The Governor's office says they vetted the candidate and did not discover this. As I recall they also said they vetted their appointee to the Detroit Financial Advisory Panel who just happened to have ties to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, which was cited during the Kilpatrick trial as a sort of slush fund for the former Mayor. You call that vetting?
My suggestion to the Governor's office: GOOGLE.
In other news, today is the first day of Spring. It is 21 degrees outside. Some guy on the radio says this is due to global warming. I thought that meant it would be warmer?
And closer to home a 75-year old grandmother was found guilty of murdering her 17-year old grandson. She shot him six times, in self-defense, even while he was on the phone with 911 bleeding and asking for help. All the excuses aside, including the drug use of the grandson, and blame being placed on the parents who were in Arizona caring for a daughter with cancer, murder is still Murder. There doesn't seem to be any 'good' excuse for it. Another jury seems to get it.
Now, I will get my act together and go off to yoga class. Yesterday my instructor had me demonstrate Warrior III, telling my fellow students that I go to classes four times a week and it takes lots of practice to do it correctly. I was so pleased with myself that I was doing it in my kitchen last night while waiting for my coffee to brew.
Hope you have a serene and peaceful first day of Spring.
So now I have an extra five or so minutes and thought I would sit here and catch up on the news.
First up: Detroit. I must say I was really surprised that the jury in the Kilpatrick trial came back with guilty verdicts. After the mistrial earlier of Bobby Ferguson, I was sure they would be dead-locked again despite the piles of evidence. But oh ye of little faith, this jury got it right.
Unfortunately, the City is so far down I am not sure how it can rise from the ashes. And I doubt that the appointment of a 'dictator' is going to make much of a difference.
Speaking of which: What a slap in the face to every finance person in the entire state that the Governor found it necessary to go Maryland to find an emergency manager to run the City. Why did Michigan State University waste everyone's time and money training people in the duties of an EM, even if it was under the old public act?
And to compound this folly, the Detroit News discovers that this 'financial genius' who was appointed has tax liens on his home in Maryland for unpaid taxes that he claims he knew nothing about. The Governor's office says they vetted the candidate and did not discover this. As I recall they also said they vetted their appointee to the Detroit Financial Advisory Panel who just happened to have ties to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, which was cited during the Kilpatrick trial as a sort of slush fund for the former Mayor. You call that vetting?
My suggestion to the Governor's office: GOOGLE.
In other news, today is the first day of Spring. It is 21 degrees outside. Some guy on the radio says this is due to global warming. I thought that meant it would be warmer?
And closer to home a 75-year old grandmother was found guilty of murdering her 17-year old grandson. She shot him six times, in self-defense, even while he was on the phone with 911 bleeding and asking for help. All the excuses aside, including the drug use of the grandson, and blame being placed on the parents who were in Arizona caring for a daughter with cancer, murder is still Murder. There doesn't seem to be any 'good' excuse for it. Another jury seems to get it.
Now, I will get my act together and go off to yoga class. Yesterday my instructor had me demonstrate Warrior III, telling my fellow students that I go to classes four times a week and it takes lots of practice to do it correctly. I was so pleased with myself that I was doing it in my kitchen last night while waiting for my coffee to brew.
Hope you have a serene and peaceful first day of Spring.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Crossword Cleverness
I keep a stack of articles and notes next to my computer that I think might make interesting blog posts. Most of them never see the light of day as other ideas come up, and let's face it, even though I am retired, I do have other 'stuff' to do.
Today I pulled out a newspaper that was lying here and saw the New York Times crossword puzzle from December 29. I have to mention it.
The puzzle was composed by Joe Krozel and I loved the answers. You have to give credit to anyone who can use 'Ptolemaic system' and 'Liechtensteiner' in a puzzle, let alone in the same one.
I especially loved the answers 'elected official' and 'horse manure' for 'Governor' and 'balderdash'. I got a real chuckle out of that.
I have a friend, Tom Pepper, who has had two crosswords published in the NYT. I doubt that I could ever put one together, though I think I could come up with some mysterious cluing.
Here is Joe's completed puzzle as it appears on Rex Parker's blog:
Nice job, Joe!
Today I pulled out a newspaper that was lying here and saw the New York Times crossword puzzle from December 29. I have to mention it.
The puzzle was composed by Joe Krozel and I loved the answers. You have to give credit to anyone who can use 'Ptolemaic system' and 'Liechtensteiner' in a puzzle, let alone in the same one.
I especially loved the answers 'elected official' and 'horse manure' for 'Governor' and 'balderdash'. I got a real chuckle out of that.
I have a friend, Tom Pepper, who has had two crosswords published in the NYT. I doubt that I could ever put one together, though I think I could come up with some mysterious cluing.
Here is Joe's completed puzzle as it appears on Rex Parker's blog:
Nice job, Joe!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
What's the Rush?
As a whole, I think Americans are in a tremendous rush to get 'stuff' done. It seems that everything is a contest. My first recollection of this is when we were going to be the 'first' to the moon. It was terribly exciting, but in the grand scheme of things was it that important?
When I was working at the hospital, one of my co-workers complained that a worker who was from Georgia moved too slow. She said she could crawl faster than this woman could walk. The general consensus among the 'Northerners' was that 'Southerners' moved too slow.
Well, when it comes to living life, that is OK with me. So imagine my chagrin when I was playing my first game of Sudoku on my new Kindle Fire yesterday and was told when I finished how many other times I beat. I had no idea this was a contest. If I am playing this to relax, why do I want to be in a hurry?
And this is not the only game that time limits are applied to. Seems like a lot of people vie to see who can finish a New York Times Crossword in the fastest time. Unless you are in the annual contest, who cares?
If you play Solitaire on your computer, you can choose the 'timed game' option. Now I ask you: If you are playing a game where you have less than a 3% chance of actually winning, do you really care how fast you can lose?
I always say that life is not a race to the finish line, but I think I must be in the minority.
When I was working at the hospital, one of my co-workers complained that a worker who was from Georgia moved too slow. She said she could crawl faster than this woman could walk. The general consensus among the 'Northerners' was that 'Southerners' moved too slow.
Well, when it comes to living life, that is OK with me. So imagine my chagrin when I was playing my first game of Sudoku on my new Kindle Fire yesterday and was told when I finished how many other times I beat. I had no idea this was a contest. If I am playing this to relax, why do I want to be in a hurry?
And this is not the only game that time limits are applied to. Seems like a lot of people vie to see who can finish a New York Times Crossword in the fastest time. Unless you are in the annual contest, who cares?
If you play Solitaire on your computer, you can choose the 'timed game' option. Now I ask you: If you are playing a game where you have less than a 3% chance of actually winning, do you really care how fast you can lose?
I always say that life is not a race to the finish line, but I think I must be in the minority.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Inspired NY Times X-word
My congratulations to Jonah Kagan who designed an NYT crossword puzzle that was truly inspired. Since I do the puzzle that is syndicated in the Oakland Press, the actual date of the puzzle was May 11.
Now, Rex Parker disagrees with me on this puzzle's cleverness, but call me a math nerd and I will feel honored.
The puzzle starts with telling you that 11 circled letters can be connected to spell a two-word phrase appropriate for the puzzle. So, I go looking for the clue to the longest answer and at 33 across I read: Mathematical sequence related to a pattern found in (4 clues) across, infomally. The answer Fibonacci pops into my head and sure enough I find that 'Fibonacci series' fits, which I guess is informal for 'Fibonacci sequence'.
But the four answers? Artichoke, Nautilus, Innerear, and Sunflower have me questioning my reasoning. And my circled letters 'LDENOITOGAR' mean absolutely nothing. Duh!
But then 'nautilus', of course, the spiral. All answers have spirals. I write the letters as they appear on a separate sheet of paper and the answer pops right out: Golden ratio. Redraw the line to look like the nautilus shell starting with the 'G' on the left side. Ingenious. Inspired. What a way to start the day.
Now, Rex Parker disagrees with me on this puzzle's cleverness, but call me a math nerd and I will feel honored.
The puzzle starts with telling you that 11 circled letters can be connected to spell a two-word phrase appropriate for the puzzle. So, I go looking for the clue to the longest answer and at 33 across I read: Mathematical sequence related to a pattern found in (4 clues) across, infomally. The answer Fibonacci pops into my head and sure enough I find that 'Fibonacci series' fits, which I guess is informal for 'Fibonacci sequence'.
But the four answers? Artichoke, Nautilus, Innerear, and Sunflower have me questioning my reasoning. And my circled letters 'LDENOITOGAR' mean absolutely nothing. Duh!
But then 'nautilus', of course, the spiral. All answers have spirals. I write the letters as they appear on a separate sheet of paper and the answer pops right out: Golden ratio. Redraw the line to look like the nautilus shell starting with the 'G' on the left side. Ingenious. Inspired. What a way to start the day.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Too clever for Words
I've mentioned before that I do the NY Times crossword each morning. Back in March, I did one that was just too clever, IMO.
I could never construct one of these. I am pretty good at Scrtabble, but then I am not trying to fill in the entire board.
The puzzle on March 19 had 21 multiple word answers in the 15 x 15 grid. Going across there was:
car bombs
I told you
rest stop
at em
on leave
Tex Mex
crepe pan
a average
in spades
On the down side:
stood apart
Lord it over
Eugene Levy
up as
ate into
rose tinted
message pad
Jamaica rum
even more so
text editor
in a rage
Iran Air
The Times stopped giving clues such as 'two words' many moons ago. Once I got my head around the fact that these were multiple word answers it made life simpler. I just wish I were as clever.
I could never construct one of these. I am pretty good at Scrtabble, but then I am not trying to fill in the entire board.
The puzzle on March 19 had 21 multiple word answers in the 15 x 15 grid. Going across there was:
car bombs
I told you
rest stop
at em
on leave
Tex Mex
crepe pan
a average
in spades
On the down side:
stood apart
Lord it over
Eugene Levy
up as
ate into
rose tinted
message pad
Jamaica rum
even more so
text editor
in a rage
Iran Air
The Times stopped giving clues such as 'two words' many moons ago. Once I got my head around the fact that these were multiple word answers it made life simpler. I just wish I were as clever.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)