I realize that there's nothing inherently better about puzzles that are pangrams and yet it's fun to note when a constructor has been able to use every single letter. Barry C. Silk is a master pangrammaticist. Today's Friday, August 15 puzzle (answers) is his ninth pangram out of 28 NYT puzzles. More importantly, it's full of densely packed, mostly natural sounding words and phrases, with a few doozies thrown in to make a Friday-worthy.
Let's start with my quibble and get that out of the way. Ignore this paragraph if you hate math. You know how when you hear someone talking about something being a "quantum leap" and they mean it's huge and you think, well, that's odd because there is literally nothing smaller than the leap from one quantum state to the next. It's discrete, that's the point, but it's miniscule. I have the same problem with EXPONENTIAL RATE. People use it to mean a "rapidly increasing pace" which it might be, but it can also be as slow as you like in any finite time span. Give me your fortune and I'll be happy to invest it at an exponential rate for you.
Ok, back to the puzzle. "Lumber features": K N _ _ S. It's gotta be knots. NOT! It's not knots but KNARS. Knars means, well, it means knots. That's it. Knots. Not fair, except that this is Friday so anything goes.
Yes, Ian Fleming and his double-nought creation James Bond are both ETONIANs. Write what you know is always the advice. I guess the next fictional character I dream up should be a crossword blogger. Can you imagine anything more dashingly romantic?
"Rail part" is a great clue too; at least it sucked me in completely. A rail is a bird and like other such beasts it is comprised of many parts including a BEAK. "Domino, e.g." is another clue that fooled me even though I well know FATS Domino. ERAT gets a non QED clue, referencing "Sicut erat in principio" meaning "as it was in the beginning."
That famous pornographer D. H. Lawrence wanted to create a utopia at the Kiowa Ranch near, apparently, TAOS, New Mexico. How are we supposed to remember that? I had that same question about the "1923 A.L. M.V.P." but fortunately the only guy I could think of who played that far back, candy bar man Babe RUTH, was the right answer.
Crossword pioneer and one of my personal heroes Stephen Sondheim gets referenced by a song cut from Company called "Multitudes of AMYS." That seems obscure unless you're a fan, although the song does show up in musical reviews.
The most fun clue for me was "soap staple." Soap refers to a TV drama and what would trashy daytime fare be without a VIXEN to stir the pot?
Those five fifteen-letter answer spaces looked intimidating and inviting, and sure enough the pay-off was a great puzzle. I never did get the right kind of domino, so I screwed up Fuji and Mujer. Wasted a couple of minutes trying to convince myself TOM is a variant of TAM, but finally settled on KNARS. I know this is true on a daily basis, but it seemed like so much thought and care went into this puzzle. Very satisfying.
I think "order of magnitude" is another commonly misused mathematical term. There is a fascinating short book about our ignorance of math: "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos.
Posted by: KarmaSartre | August 14, 2008 at 08:33 PM
I hereby nominate Barry Silk to be the Great Pangramjandrum. I think he's earned the position.
Interesting note about EXPONENTIAL RATE. Never thought of it that way, but it does make sense.
I'd guess someone might say something about the "candy bar man Babe RUTH." Snopes has looked into it, and knocks down the story I've heard, the Baby-Ruth-daughter-of-Grover-Cleveland myth. Worth a read.
If anyone says anything about miniscule vs. minuscule, however, I'm not sure what to say.
Good puzzle, good write-up, good night.
Posted by: john farmer | August 14, 2008 at 08:42 PM
Ha! I now wish I had written minuscule. Can we call it a tiny mistake? I'm contributing to the erosion of the English language...
Posted by: JimH | August 14, 2008 at 08:48 PM
Jim, you may be off the hook:
Some consider miniscule a variant spelling of minuscule...
I think that's considered more than enough wiggle room by the Professional Bloggers League.
Posted by: john farmer | August 14, 2008 at 08:58 PM
You guys in the PBL are always showing off and showing your disdain for the ABL, but we just use the word 'small' with various adjectives. (but sometimes 'wee uns')
I join KS in admiring the puzzle plus I was ten minutes faster tonight than yesterday. I did not know MUJER KNARS and AILEY, but it all worked. Many clever clues and an all around good time.
Posted by: PhillySolver | August 14, 2008 at 09:28 PM
BTW, I am guessing you are a MOLE since you have an unauthorized picture of the HQ entrance at Langley.
Posted by: PhillySolver | August 14, 2008 at 09:34 PM
Wow, PhillySolver is right—this whole puzzle is classified! I mean, just look at EXPONENTIAL RATE, such an obvious anagram of ALEX PENETRATION—clearly a reference to LeCarre’s operative Alex Leamas. He’s the mole! Do I even have to mention that 35-Down, ETONIAN, clued as “Ian Fleming or James Bond,” is yet another anagrammed cover name for ANTOINE, obviously a French spy? This is getting scary. I was never here, by the way.
Calmly, Mules
Posted by: Myles Callum | August 15, 2008 at 10:41 AM