So you want to have a New York Times tribute puzzle about yourself. Here's the simple recipe that anyone can follow:
- Be famous.
- Be recently deceased.
- Have exactly 15 letters in your name, or maybe 16 if David J. Kahn thinks you're interesting enough.
See how easy that is? Follow my specific steps and you too can enjoy the benefits and privileges with absolutely no money down.
The Thursday, June 26 puzzle (answers) closely follows the June 1 death of that French fashion designer with the famous monogram. (I love this photo that I posted earlier.)I'm not much into that world but I read several obits and found them fascinating for their insights into not just the man but also the strange business he was a part of. The best was this remembrance from The Economist, a publication with remarkably high writing standards.
SCALAR has appeared 8 times in the NYT, and half those times the clue is simply "graduated." This always trips me up because I only think of that word as meaning a magnitude-only quantity. You have to go further down the list of definitions in your dictionary before you hit something like "ladderlike in arrangement or organization; graduated" so the clue is correct despite how awkward it seems to me.
This is the second time this year we've had ERESTU as an answer. It's almost always clued as "1974 hit by Mocedades" so it's a song worth remembering for future crosswords. It's also known as Touch the Wind. The De Oratore writer whose bust appears above is CICERO.
I've blogged before (here and here) about my desire for more topical themes in crosswords. I wonder how hard it was for Mr. Kahn and Mr. Shortz to crank this one out quickly.
(Cursorily) looks like you need to go way back to Calvin Coolidge to find the last Kahn tribute to a 14, so from now on you can call me SethMG. Next step: to find a strange business to be a part of.
RADII!
Posted by: SethMG | June 26, 2008 at 01:32 AM
Has there been another example of a rebus tribute puzzle? Is this the first of a new sub-genre?
Posted by: Crosscan | June 26, 2008 at 05:18 AM
Byron Waldon's CHARLTON HESTON tribute puzzle this spring was submitted to Will less than a week after Heston's passing and published a week and a half (I think) later. Vic Fleming's puzzle welcoming Ratzinger as the new pope was similarly quick into print, IIRC.
Posted by: Orange | June 26, 2008 at 06:41 AM
Good for you SethMG, but Jim and I can only be a passing reference at best. I actually have done nothing of note, but Jim's software is currently on about one billion computers world wide, so he has a head start. I think this post should have ended with Carpe Mortum.
I caught on to the likely hood of a rebus and then got YVES from just a few crosses. I still took my time though. SE first to fall and SW the last. Mr. Kahn is a pro and I liked the challenge, however.
Posted by: PhillySolver | June 26, 2008 at 08:08 AM
In the future, parents who plan more glam for their offspring than just bookshelves full of unwarranted soccer trophies will be ensuring the kids have 15-letter names. At times, they'll have to bend rules to make this happen, like spelling Henry "Hen4ry" (with a silent 4).
Posted by: KarmaSartre | June 26, 2008 at 09:01 AM
if you want your kids to be immortalized in crossword puzzles, you should just be sure to name them something short, original, and chock-full of vowels. maybe ASIE or EDE, something like that. that way they'll show up not just once but over and over.
Posted by: joon | June 26, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Oh, crap. I managed to misspell Byron's last name? It's Walden. I know better.
Posted by: Orange | June 27, 2008 at 09:52 AM
i know the feeling. i seem to always get brad wilber's name wrong (wilbur is my error of choice). i've never met him, but i have done a bunch of his puzzles (sloooowly, i might add) so i should probably get it right some day.
Posted by: joon | June 27, 2008 at 05:49 PM