a practice post

[edit, edit, edit]

a cyberquaintance who blogs her take on the new york times crossword puzzle on a daily basis is vacating to hawaii in a few weeks and for some ricoculous reason i offered to sit in for her a few times while she and her husband do the hula. or whatever it is one does there…

(i know what yer thinkin'. yes, she’s read my blog and she still agreed. so there…)

”Only a couple of rules, Rick...no nekkid women on the blog, no saying fuck.”

so i figure i’d better give it a practice shot. ya think?

[notes to self…work on formatting…gotta remember not to break the freakin’ rules…must at least try to be coherent…hmm?…think her readers’ll mind if i comment on the syndicated puzzle from 6 weeks in their past?…(just kidding Linda)]

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

i enjoyed Elizabeth A. Long’s themed puzzle from monday, july 16, 2007.

it’s real easy, but that’s no knock on the constructor. Mondays are easy by convention. you could take this same puzzle and re-clue it to produce a fairly difficult puzzle. Easily.

for example:

15D is Monday-ly clued as: not new. the answer? [USED] (duh.)

but what if the clue had been... go forward?
the answer could still be [USED] but this time it might have abbr. as an indicator and refer to putting your vehicle in Drive [USE D.] (d’oh! i can just hear the purists whining now. "unfair, unfair. what a stretch!")

ok. Enough of that c**p. let's get to the puzzle...

the themed clues/answers are:
-17A: *It rolls across the Plains [SAGEBRUSH]
-11D: *Juice drink brand [OCEAN SPRAY]
-31D: *Alluring dance [STRIPTEASE]
-65A: *Beehive contents [HONEYCOMB]

and of course what they have in common is:

the theme:
25D: With 22-Down, what the ends of the answers to the 4 starred clues are examples of [HOW TO FIX]
22D: see 25D: [YOUR HAIR]

(note to self...work on clarity. ok, i'm a workin')

some further musings on the theme answers

17A: sagebrush
“I always thought tumbleweed were just dead sagebrush until I looked it up today. They are not.”
before I learned that factoid I had planned on including an audio clip of roy rogers and the sons of the pioneers singing *Tumbling Tumbleweeds*. Oh what the heck. here, take a listen. (Linda G. did you notice I didn’t say, “what the fuck?” aren’t you proud of me?)

the awesome critter pictured at the beginning of this post is a sagebrush lizard and you can see its colorful underside here. check it out. (no lizards were harmed in the making of this blog.)

11D: ocean spray
the 2 year anniversary of Katrina is approaching. (i sure wish i'd hear from the folks who took refuge here at my house back then. i think of 'em often. there were 10 people in all. a family of 5, 3 crazy ass cajun brothers and 2 ne'er-do-wells, one of whom i kicked the fuck OUT! but not before he robbed me.)

this is interesting. (if anyone can either debunk or verify it, i'd be interested to hear.)

"According to a new study by two University of California, Berkeley, mathematicians and their Russian colleague, the water droplets kicked up by rough seas serve to lubricate the swirling winds of hurricanes and cyclones, letting them build to speeds approaching 200 miles per hour. Without the lubricating effect of the spray, the mathematicians estimate, winds would rise to little more than 25 miles per hour."

"If you could develop a detergent to reduce the size of the droplets, you might be able to stop a hurricane," he said. "That's not as far fetched as it sounds. In ancient times, sailors carried oil to pour out on the water to calm storms. Pouring oil on choppy waters was not a superstition."

31D: striptease
i promised *madness* i wouldn’t add any nekkid women when i sub for her, so in the spirit of that promise…

striptease

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65A: honeycomb

One of dad’s many hobbies was beekeeping. I spent many an evening in his garage extracting honey and chewing the honey filled comb. I can’t think of a sweeter memory or remember how many times we crooned this song together while doing our work.
...with a hank of hair and a......honeycomb.....what a darn good life.......

hahahahahaha

and finally, some random odds and ends and why i like them…

-27 across: Kevin of “Field of Dreams” = [COSTNER]. because I like the actor, love baseball and am a sucker for sappy movies.

-42 down: eats = [GRUB]. Not the boring verb, but a really funny noun.

-29 across: psychiatrists' appointments = [SESSIONS]. i have voted against Pete Sessions, (R Texas) 6 or 7 times. i much prefer…

-72 across: Politicos with a donkey symbol = [DEMS] (Linda didn’t mention any restrictions on politics.)

-2 down: False witness = [LIAR]. liar liar pants on fire, glad to see you go, karl...you too, alberto. now if we could just get rid of that other (i promised i wouldn't say fucking) texan...

there’s more. oh, there’s always more, but i’ll let it go for now. Next time maybe i’ll practice posting the completed grid.

(how many nekkid women does it take to screw in a lightbulb? gosh, i don't know, how many can you fit in that thang?)

don't worry, madness. i won't say screw, either. or maybe you've changed your mind after reading this...

later,
rick