The name's William Ernest Butler, but please call me Bill. I grew up in Ireland, but now live out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm retired now, from technology businesses that took our family all over the world. I answer all emails, so please feel free to email me at bill@paxient.com, or leave a comment below.If you are working on the New York Times crossword in any other publication, you are working on the syndicated puzzle. Here is a link to my answers to today's SYNDICATED New York Times crossword. To find any solution other than today's, enter the crossword number (e.g. 1225, 0107) in the "Search the Blog" box above.
This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today ...
COMPLETION TIME: n/a (Watching "Doc Martin
" on television ... must see TV!)THEME: Jabberwocky by LEWIS CARROLL. All the theme answers are nonce and portemanteau words from the poem.
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
"Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Across
1. *4:00 in the afternoon : BRILLIG8. *To make holes : GIMBLE
14. Form of writing of ancient Crete : LINEAR A
There were two linear scripts used in ancient Crete. One is known as Linear A, and the other, imaginatively enough, is known as Linear B.
19. *To go round and round : GYRE
20. Catcher's spot? : RYEClever clue ... as in "The Catcher in the Rye
" by J. D. Salenger.24. *Fearsome, swift-moving creature with snapping jaws : BANDERSNATCH
31. Chucklehead : IGNORAMUS
Ignoramus comes to us directly from Latin, and translates as "we ignore", the first person, plural tense of "ignorare" ... to ignore.
35. Emulate the dodo : DIE OUT
The dodo was a direct relative of the pigeon and dove, although the fully grown dodo was usually three feet tall. One of the reasons the dodo comes to mind when we think of extinction of a species, is that it disappeared not too long ago, in the mid-1600s, and humans were the reason for its demise. The dodo lived exclusively on the island of Mauritius, and when man arrived, we cut back the forest that were its home, and we introduced domestic animals, such as dogs and pigs, that ransacked the dodo's nests.
38. Indian tourist city : MYSORE
Mysore lies about 100 miles southwest of Bangalore. Tourists flock to Mysore especially during the ten-day Mysore Dasara festival, a draw not only for Indians but foreigners as well.
39. Means of unloading? : YARD SALES
Another clever clue ...
43. Unnamed others, briefly : ET AL
Et alii is the equivalent of et cetera, with et cetera being used in place of a list of objects, and et alii used for a list of names.
44. Writer who was the source of all the words with asterisked clues in this puzzle : LEWIS CARROLLLewis Carrol
l was actually a pseudonym, for English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. His most famous novels are of course "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass
", and his most famous poems are the two nonsense pieces "Jabberwocky
" and "The Hunting of the Snark
".47. Wonderland food for Alice : CAKE
Another Lewis Carroll reference, thrown in for good measure.
52. *Grass plot around a sundial : WABE
59. Some buffalo hunters of old : ARAPAHO
The Arapaho
tribe lived on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. The Arapaho traditionally wintered in small camps in the foothills of the Rockies, and then relocated to plains in the Spring where they hunted the buffalo that were gathering to give birth to their young.61. Variety of grape : SULTANA
When I was growing up Ireland, sultana wasn't only the name given to seedless, white grape itself, but also the dried raisin that was derived from the grape. I can't stand grapes, but love sultanas (the raisins). Go figure ...
64. *Lithe and slimy : SLITHY
65. *Smiling radiantly : BEAMISH
Down
1. Lesage hero Gil ___ : BLAS
"Gil Blas
" is considered to be a masterpiece, written by French author, Alain-Rene Lesage.2. Make stew? : RILE
And yet another clever clue ...
3. Certain ancient mummy : INCAThe three Children of Llullaillaco
are three mummified remains of Incan children, sacrificed about 500 years ago. The bodies were not preserved artificially, bit rather by the dry and cold conditions in which they were abandoned, high up on the side of the volcano Llullaillaco on the border of Argentina and Chile.5. Pakistan's so-called "Garden of Mughals" : LAHORE
Lahore
is a large city in Pakistan, second in size only to Karachi. It is known as the Garden of the Mughals (or in English, Moguls) because of its association with the Mughal Empire. The Mughals ruled much of India from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.6. Person whose work is decreasing? : IRONER
I love all these cryptic clues ...
9. ___ caelestes (divine wrath: Lat.) : IRAE
I am not sure if this phrase is used often, but I did find it quoted in Livy's "History of Rome
".
10. ___ Hatter : MADLewis Carroll strikes again ...
Did you know that the name "mad Hatter" doesn't appear anywhere in Lewis Carroll's novel, although the character, the Hatter (and sometimes "Hatta"), is described as mad. There is that famous tag on the Hatter's hat that reads "10/6". This is the price of the hat to purchase, ten shillings and sixpence. The amount isn't completely random, as a guinea was 21 shillings, so ten shillings and sixpence was half a guinea.
11. Old-time floozie : B-GIRL
B-girl is short for "bar girl", a young lady employed by a tavern to encourage the (male, presumably) patrons to spend more money on drinks.
12. "From Russia With Love" actress Lotte : LENYALotte Lenya
was married to composer Kurt Weill. She played Rosa Klebb, one of the main villains in the 1963 Bond movie "From Russia With Love".19. Sharks, e.g. : GANG
In "West Side Story
", the two opposing gangs were the Sharks and the Jets. The Sharks were first-generation Americans youngsters of Puerto Rican descent. The Jets were working-class white youths.22. Long-running CBS hit : CSI
CSI
gets a lot of criticism from the law enforcement agencies for its unrealistic portrayal of the procedures and science of criminal investigation. I don't care though. It's a fun show to watch.24. Vintner's concern : BODY
I've read that a light-bodied wine would feel more "watery" in your mouth, whereas a full-bodied wine would feel more "milky".
25. "O patria mia," e.g. : ARIA"O patra mia" is an aria from Verdi's "Aida
". It is sung by the title character, with "O patra mia" translating as "O, my homeland".28. Waits in music : TOM
Once again, I am loving these crytpic clues ...
29. "Curiouser and curiouser!," e.g. : CRY
That would a cry from Alice as she ventures down the rabbit hole in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
"
32. Mysterious Mr. : MOTOThe mysterious Mr. Moto is a Japanese secret agent who appears in six novels by American author, John P. Marquand. In the movies, Mr. Moto was famously played by Peter Lorre in a series of eight films
from the 1930s.33. Kazakh river : URAL
The Ural River rises in the Ural Mountains in Russia, and flows for half it's length through Russian territory until it crosses the border into Kazakhstan, finally emptying into the Caspian Sea.
34. Bears do it : SELL
Yep, bears on the stock market tens to sell, while the bulls buy.
37. Playing marble : TAW
In the game of marbles
, the "taw" is the shooting marble, and is shot at the "ducks".
40. Departure point for explorer Vasco da Gama : LISBONVasco da Gama
left on is first voyage of discovery in 1497, leaving Lisbon with four ships. He journied around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern most tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean making landfall in India. Landing in India, his fleet became the first expedition to sail directly from Europe to the sub-continent.41. Feudal laborer : ESNE
Esne is an uncommon word, a synonym with serf as best I can tell, a member of the lowest feudal class.
45. Urge formally : ADJURE
Adjure comes from the Latin adjurare, "to swear to".
46. Objects employed to show everyday life : REALIA
My librarian wife tells me that she used use the term "realia" for items that she couldn't file away in teh normal sense of operating a library. In other words they weren't books, films or tapes, but were rather other objects that the library owned such as coins, badges, and various scientific samples, for instance.
52. Wadi : WASH
Wadi is an Arabic term referring to a valley, or perhaps a (mostly) dry riverbed. In English we might call this a wash, or in Spanish an arroyo.
56. Lawyer/civil-rights activist Guinier : LANILani Guinier was the first African-American woman to achieve tenure at Harvard Law School.
2 comments :
Once the Lewis Carrol connection is made the puzzle is reasonable and clever although I thought, difficult
Hi there, Anonymous visitor.
Thanks for stopping by.
Yes, a clever puzzle, and nice to see the Jaberwocky getting the airing it deserves :)
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