Sunday February 17th 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Time: 31:14
Sunday Average: 48:06
Best Sunday: 21:55

Since my relatively recent obsession with crosswords began, I've been struck by how largely unrelated the crossword skill is to the trivia skill set. Sure, occasionally happening to know a given factoid or musician will help you get an answer more quickly on occasion, but for the most part there's surprisingly little overlap. I would bet that folks who aren't involved in crosswords or trivia would assume that they're essentially the same. That said, I love trivia even though I'm awful at it and this Trivial Pursuit themed puzzle, titled "Trivial Matters," was just the ticket. The colors representing the various categories were largely given away by the "1966 Donovan hit with a rhyming title," which is obviously MELLOW (YELLOW). The colors filled rebus squares and, upon finishing the puzzle, the app niftily revealed those familiar pies.

  • "What kind of tree ALWAYS HAS FOLIAGE?" EVER(GREEN)
  • "What DELAWARE NICKNAME comes from a farm bird?" (BLUE) HEN STATE
  • "Where were battleships sunk in an 1894 JAPANESE VICTORY?" (YELLOW) SEA
  • "What 1986 HIGH SCHOOL romantic comedy got its title from a song by the Psychedelic Furs?" PRETTY IN (PINK)
  • "What annual game have the OKLAHOMA SOONERS won more than any other team?" (ORANGE) BOWL
  • "Who wrote a 2003 best seller about a SECRET CODE?" DAN (BROWN). YECCH. 
I'm annoyed at myself for forgetting NOLO yet again for "Court plea, in brief." Nolo contendere is the plea of no contest. I'll try to remember again. I also feel like I'm failing my generation by being so unsure about TIMON for "Meerkat in 'The Lion King.'" Confession: I'm not 100% certain I've ever watched The Lion King straight through. I was proud of knowing ULYANOV for "Vladimir Lenin's real last name" off the top of my head, so trivia does help now and then, I suppose.

Today was a travel day by bus from Lahore to Faisalabad, a new city for me. We were supposed to go to Islamabad, but a Saudi prince came to town and bought out literally every hotel room, apparently. Imagine being able to throw your weight around like that.

Comments

  1. S. SandrigonFebruary 17, 2019 at 1:04 PM

    We finished it by noonish on a Sunday, which was a miracle. No cheating! Got the Timon one immediately, obvs, and I only figured out the Lenin question because Walter says it in the Big Lebowski. You might want to edit your "occasionally on occasion" sentence. I'm finally reading Pale Fire. CC says hi.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday May 1st 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 8:16 Wednesday Average: 16:37 Best Wednesday: 6:52 Today's theme is STATE CAPITALS that are, as the clue points out to us, in anagram form. MUST I ? OK, let me see if I can figure this out even though it's past my bedtime. I'll get the easy ones first with Salem ( MALES ) and Dover ( ROVED ). After that, we have Austin ( ANTIUS ), Lansing ( IN SLANG ), and Raleigh ( HAIR GEL ). Finally, there's Madison ( DOMAINS ) and the tricky St. Paul ( UP LAST ) There's an exercise I wouldn't have bothered with if I wasn't writing this blog. I know the phrase well, especially since it seems so popular lately, but I never knew the spelling for "Bury the LEDE ." I always assumed it was "lead." I love slang that comes from typesetting. OK, those anagrams thoroughly wore me out. My final observation is that I don't love the way THE EU looks right above S AND P. Both just look deeply wrong.
Read more

Tuesday October 23rd 2018, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 8:43 Tuesday Average: 13:49 Best Tuesday: 6:10 It's another long day in Beijing and I'm enjoying a night cap in the lounge contemplating my early morning flight to Ulan Baator tomorrow night and feeling a bit like  FLAT  STANLEY . Fortunately, I continue to  RAKE IN the hotel points and the status that goes with it, so I've snagged a couple free beers before they shut down happy hour. Today's theme was  ATHLETIC CUP , which eluded me for a bit since I've only ever referred to it as a cup. Other than the aforementioned NHL championship, we have  GEENA  DAVIS ,  WINONA  RYDER , and  SMALL WORLD  as our theme answers.  Was anyone else hearing TJ from Gilmore Girls yelling, "I'm in  ESCROW !" Sure, it shows up in my mortgage-related dealings, but that's all I'll ever hear. I had no idea that  GALENA is the natural form of lead sulfide and instead I just know the Bulgarian chalga singer by that name. I...
Read more

Monday April 15th 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 7:03 Monday Average: 8:15 Best Monday: 4:10 Nothing's more fun than an IRS -themed crossword for Tax Day! I'd actually forgotten that this day was so imminent until talking to several of my international students who were understandably baffled by how our tax system works. As you can see, the long answers have the IRS letters mixed up and circled with DOLLA R SI GNS , of course, being the most appropriate. I'm surprised that the "Genuine class" anagram for ALEC Guinness, which we know from the Simpsons, doesn't show up as a clue more often. Next time, maybe. AGASSI was always my favorite player back in the big Sampras rivalry days and I'm happy enough to see him crossing TENNIS RACKET . Sometimes those answers just work out, I imagine. 
Read more