ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I find it oddly refreshing when I stumble upon the vowel-heavy, common every-day crossword repeaters in real-life. I bet it’ll be something similar to the members of SETI (see 40-Down), whenever they make (if they every make) contact. “We’ve been hearing about you and debating about your existence for so Goddamn long, you really do exist!”
Just last week, I had a moment similar to that whilst walking from our hotel in Paris to Notre Dame. Sure, all the years of strictly C- French classwork I’ve accrued since those halcyon days of high school came back to me (somewhat). — Look, it’s a boulangerie! Over there’s a Citroen!
Now seeing Notre Dame was pretty boss, but the constructor in me was psyched not only to stand on the Île de la Cité, but also to cross the Seine to get there. I mean, seriously. This was like the geographical meccaof overused fill entries: (ILE, DE LA, CITE, NOTRE, DAME and SEINE). Suddenly, all these years of cluing the same vowel-heavy entries left the realm of “the strictly academic” into “the tangible.”
Does anybody have any idea how many fucking times I’ve clued ILE? In the past year alone? And the Seine? And I guarantee in those French classes I butchered some essay or two about that river. But my God, from a puzzlemaker’s standpoint, that entry’s bailed my sorry ass out of miracle wide-open corners for years! That river’s contribution to my puzzlemaking can never be repaid!
Even when I was in Italy (or Italia, your pick), as psyched as I was to be in Rome (or Roma), I was equally pleased to see the Tiber. Ditto for the Arno in Pisa (both entries). Hell, even in my wife’s hometown of York, England, I saw the rare but occasionally used Ouse.
Rivers and cities of the world: geography students hate you, but puzzlemakers worship at your altar.
Bizarre tangent/question for all you grammar and foreign language nuts out there. In the languages that assign genders to nouns, is there a rule for neologisms? Like, when new technologies are introduced, is there some Bilderberg group who decides whether iPods are feminine or masculine? Inquiring minds want to know.
Second side tangent: the French language allows for some pretty out there mots croisés grids. I guess because they’re so vowel-heavy, it’s not uncommon to see a 4×8 section intersecting a 4×12 section. Like I’ve said, my French is pretty shit aside from butchering some restaurant orders, so I couldn’t tell you any of the characteristics of those puzzles.
Well, anyway. Enjoy the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.
Wow, this ain’t no NYT Monday! NDJAMENA? Ndjagotme. MCA? LEE “Scratch” Perry? GLUTEI (not glutes)? I have to learn to think in BEQ terms instead of WS.
Not that I’m complaining. Before the Times applet gave me the ability to easily time myself for sport, I didn’t even bother with Mon-Tu puzzles. It just surprised me when I didn’t breeze through this one.
I still don’t see the theme. But I had fun. Thanks again for this site.
That’s a great question about how gender is assigned to neologisms. In Russian, for the most part, the gender would be determined by the end letter of the word. Those with a consonant would be masculine and those with a vowel would be feminine (with the exception of ‘o’, which would be neuter).
Here’s an article that may be of interest to you: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/MED-Magazine/March2006/36-New-Word-Neologisms.htm
I don’t have anything to say yet with regard to today’s puzzle. I got so sidetracked with the neologism question that I haven’t even looked at it.
don’t see the theme? look at the circled letters in the longest answers. and baby, not only is it cold, it’s cold “outside.” (although here in my office it’s also freezing. brr.)
this was my slowest solve of the 13 puzzles so far, but i liked it. NDJAMENA is fantastic. the DIRECTER/YRLY/STR part of the grid isn’t so hot, but there aren’t too many appealing options for Y__Y crossing two theme entries.
even the spam check on this site is extra-scrabbly. i just had to enter exxz3x to post this comment.
Chichikov: thanks for the article.
Joon: I will try and force the spam checker to be extra Scrabbly.
I’ve got to say that I loved the MC-A and EDNA cross because I’m a fan of both. Now a combo of the Beastie Boys and Incredibles lines will be going thru my brain for the rest of the day.
That was a lively puzzle. NDJAMENA, GLUTEI…may as well have been in French. Mine’s equally les merdes.
Looks like a typo in the clue for 14 across.
(Fixed — ed.)
Thanks for the site and the challenging puzzles,
KarmaSartre, that’s one amazing handle.
Did something change with the RSS feed? Previously, I could view the whole post, including picture and links, in Google Reader. For this one, I had to come to the site to read the whole post and download the puzzle.
Andy: Not that I’m aware of. I haven’t touched anything with Feedburner (RSS related). Has any other subscribers had this problem as well?
@joon
thanks for cluing me in. There were no circles when I solved in AL this morning (not embedded but in the separate program).
This was a really fun puzzle and for some reason the quickest solve for me. Until I hit NDJAMENA. I had the whole damn puzzled filled except for the J square. Finally I gave up and cheated. So…close…
Enjoyed the puzzle, but got slowed a bit by the clue for 37A which isn’t quite accurate; it’s not actually a directory, nor does it store files. It’s a database of key/value pairs. Something like “Place for some PC operating system settings” would be better.
yes had the same effect in google reader. had to jump out to get to the page to read it all. Bummer, much more vexing to read.
I know the French have a governing board that decides which words will be introduced to their vocabulary, and to re-name words that are too Anglicized. (A Walkman is “un baladeur” and e-mail used to be “le courrier electronique,” though it looks like it’s been shortened to “courriel,” for example.) They are very protective of their language. I would assume that they also help decide gender. Unfortunately, those are fairly random, but sometimes word endings dictate gender. Easiest to identify are -lle and -ee endings, as they are feminized endings of masculine terms in other parts of French speech.
Um, wow, I’m gonna stop nerding out now.
Wow! Thanks, rockinamanda. Nice to see you again, too.