Comments on: Brian fails to solve the NYT puzzle: Friday, 6-26-09

By: ryanhecht

ryanhecht — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:55:47 +0000

test

By: erinmarie

erinmarie — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:02:44 +0000

I am so glad I found this site I think I would have been up all night on this damn puzzle. I’m also grateful for the explanations as baldy annoyed me the most. I got it pretty quick but wanted it to be wrong. Definitely rude

By: Pat Manzo

Pat Manzo — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:54:53 +0000

@Crosscan: I am admiring your pecs. And your purty dress. @Miguel: I bow to you, for I am impressed by your knowledge of both Arabic and Latin. You must have gone to some posh British public school. Eton, perhaps? @Brian: Sad to say, no one has ever clued GOREN as "wacky detective character on Law and Order CSI". Is it true that you played Dr Frankenfurter in a college production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” ? re: GATES : Apparently we have Meriwether Lewis* to thank for the use of the word "gates" to describe a mountain pass. *of Lewis and Clark fame, whose motto was "Be More Westerner". http://www.gatesofthemountains.com/ http://lewis-clark.org/

By: Crosscan

Crosscan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:20:39 +0000

I guess Benjamin didn't like my dress.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:45:33 +0000

32A. Like drag shows : CAMPY. I hate drag humor. I don’t think it’s funny, and I don’t think it’s entertaining. I don’t think it’s shocking. I don’t understand why it appeals to some people. It’s men in dresses with makeup and wigs, usually acting more stereotypically over-the-top flaming gay than the least bit feminine. But is it campy? I thought parody and satire could be described as campy. I enjoy a good parody. And campy humor can be fun (see: Christopher Guest movies). But drag shows? Wait — is there something about car racing going on here? Is it that kind of drag? No… I’m just lost.

Not sure if this helps, but I've found through my experience of working in London recently that the word "camp" is synonymous for "gay" or "feminine" or (as it is used here in the puzzle) for "drag". I don't hear "campy" that often, but I "camp" is thrown around a lot as slang for homosexual or feminine men.

By: Doug P

Doug P — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:49:07 +0000

Crosscan, you wore the same dress to the ACPT awards banquet. Quite a fashion faux pas!

By: Brian Cimmet

Brian Cimmet — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:26:05 +0000

Well, now I like it better. I like the idea that the Qantas plane is carrying the image of a kangaroo. That's much nicer than the (presumably false) idea that \”kangaroo\” is slang for Australian (which I totally invented last night in an effort to justify this clue).

Thank you, Stephen Grant (nay, Stephen Edwards, a.k.a. Stephen \”Grimaldi\” Grant).

By: Stephen Grant

Stephen Grant — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:10:04 +0000

Oops. It truncated my link.

Try this one:
http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/dyn/home

grimaldi

By: Stephen Grant

Stephen Grant — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:08:21 +0000

"40A. Kangaroo carrier? : QANTAS. I guess the question mark debate continues… Why here? Are we to believe that “kangaroo” is slang for Australian?"

Have you ever seen the qantas logo?
Check it out here. "http://clarkebruce.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/qantas_logo_copy_wideweb__470×2570.jpg"

- S Grimaldi Grant

By: Brian Cimmet

Brian Cimmet — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:25:13 +0000

See, but I *got* FUMIER.

You got GATES? Can you explain GATES to me?

By: Brian Cimmet

Brian Cimmet — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:24:34 +0000

(insert rimshot)

(insert another rimshot)

Is "colloquy" a plural word? Or does it just refer to more than one person? You know, for the record, I tried to make up a word here. As I had the -OQUY, and I knew soliloquy was a "solo," I tried inventing DUOLOQUY, BIOLOQUY, etc…

By: miguel

miguel — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:03:14 +0000

In Arabic Ben means 'son of,' thus Ben Laden means son of Laden and Ben Gun means son of a gun. Ben Ghazi means sons of a Ghazi and Ghazi means sandy beach. So, the residents of Lybya's second largest city are sons of beaches.
Colloquial refers to speaking in an open forum and by tradition that is informal. Colloquy is a plural word (really) and when two people are speaking they have to take turns which makes it formal. A New York Senate forum is a combination of the two and
here the word means 'utter chaos."

By: Crosscan

Crosscan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:19:53 +0000

You mixed up Lynn and me. Happens all the time.

By: ryanhecht

ryanhecht — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:18:36 +0000

I found this to be less difficult than you did. Why is it that I find the Friday puzzles easier than you do and you find the Saturday puzzles easier than I do?

It was definitely on the high side of difficult though. The top left took me about an hour all by itself. I had absolutely nothing up there (insert punchline here) until my brain told my hand to write in AAAMEMBER. I've fallen for that TOWER trick before so my mind was heading there but I still don't know how I came up with right answer. I've also decided that for any 4 letter word that I don't know and that's not river I'm just going to write in CAPP as that's what it always seems to be.

I think the kangaroo carrier clue has a question mark because many people would first think of POUCH. Yes, I know it doesn't fit.

I know exactly 2 things about bridge: Omar Sharif is good at it and some guy named GOREN is good at it.

I'm surprised you didn't write anything about FUMIER. It seems like just the kind of word you hate.

I didn't appreciate the BALDY answer at all. Rude.

Overall, I thought this was great puzzle with great fill and lots of AHA moments.