|
Puzzler-solvers puzzle over 'foreign' challenges
(November 22, 2009) -- Being an avid crossword puzzle and acrostic solver, I have noticed of late that I need to speak French, Spanish and some German; know every obscure actor/actress; understand Greek; know my Roman numerals; and understand phrases that mean absolutely nothing to me.
How many puzzle-solvers can answer the following Acrostic clue: Congress of Welsh bards and musicians? Ten letters. Try "eisteddfod." It's in my Webster dictionary.
Without a Bible, a crossword puzzle dictionary, Webster's dictionary, a world almanac, poetry book(s), the complete works of William Shakespeare and, sometimes, a set of encyclopedias, there is no way to successfully master today's acrostics or New York Times crosswords. I admit that I like it that way. A challenging puzzle gives me a chance to learn (but, unfortunately, not retain sometimes). I just hate it when there are five or six clues that are French!
My sister-in-law Cindy gave me a copy of "Crosswords for Dummies, Volume III" recently. The suggestions were helpful in recalling three- and four-letter words that are commonly used in crosswords. The crosswords were easy (on my level); too bad I have that aforementioned short memory retention problem.
Crosswords are full of fill-in-the-blanks (i.e., Darkness at _____ or From A _____ or From ____ Z); wordplays (i.e., Golden Vegetables or Truce Veggies; clues with a question mark at the end (i.e., Sister of Ima Hogg?); those pesky Roman numerals (i.e., Half of CXIV or IV x XIII); quips and quotes -- plus the author's name and, if from a book, the book's title); cities (foreign and domestic); states; and abbreviations galore. A standard solution contained in most puzzles has to do with Gen. Robert E. Lee in some shape, form or fashion.
Oh, the answers in the above paragraph are, respectively, noon, to Z, A to, Fourteen Carrots, Peas Offering. Ura, LVI and LII.
Years ago, for some reason or another, I purchased dictionaries that translated English into German, French and Spanish. Now if I need to know the answer to "Sorrow on the Seine," a "French G.I." or "French cabbage," I can look it up to learn, respectively, peine, poilu and chou.
Who knows the first name of actresses Verdugo, Merkel, Hagen or Massey? Oh, that would be, respectively, Elena, Una, Uta and Ilona.
How about some Hebrew letters, months or measurements? Know anything about heraldry? Does anyone know what an arikara is? A Japanese sash? A harem room? A wild ox? A Tasmania pine? A silkworm? The code of silence? Or, a willow genus? Answers, respectively, ree, obi, oda, anoa, huon, eri, omerta and itea.
And then there are all those phrases with one or more word missing: ad astra per aspera, alla breve, ariadne auf naxos, dernier cri, entre nous, ipse fixit, je ne sais quoi, ora pro nobis, vita brevis, sotto voce, aer lingus, non compos mentis, etal.
I sometimes struggle, but I keep trying without peeking at the answers. When I do check my answers with the correct ones, I find I have made up a few new words by placing a "L" where a "V" actually belongs or a "X" when I have no idea.
And, I have found that it helps if you doodle on the page. Pencil or ink caricatures or inanimate objects beside a clue often relaxes the mind while you mix brain-teasing mediums. Gotta go. I'm working on one entitled "Flowery Verse" by Avery P. Bromfield with the caption "poets from four different centuries are represented."
Some views, notions and ramblings:
We are almost halfway through the new TV season and I still miss Without a Trace and The Eleventh Hour, canceled suddenly by CBS. I miss Dr. Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell) and his kick-ass FBI cohort, Rachel Young (Marley Shelton), out there solving the weird cases. And, I miss Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia) and Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery) in their on-and-off relationship; Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano) and Elena Delgado (Roselyn Sanchez) in their really hot on relationship; and fellow FBI agents Martin (Eric Close) and Vivian (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) finding missing people. Of all networks, I still cannot fathom why the procedural drama-minded CBS canceled two Top 20 favorites.
-
The Good Wife, Mercy and Flash Forward are my three favorite new shows. I would have watched the premiere episode of V if it had not been on opposite my favorite show, NCIS. (NOTE: I don't have TiVo or a DVR, just a VHS tape deck connected to the TV in the den -- where, of course, I prefer to watch television.) As for Mercy, it is a sleeper that airs on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on NBC. Nurses Veronica, Sonja and Chloe have enough woes in their work zone to have problems in their personal lives; but that's what makes the program worth coming back to each Wednesday.
-
The crossover episode involving the casts of CSI: Miami, CSI: New York and CSI held my attention during the week; however, the storyline was not as strong as all the previews and media hype promised. I have been a CSI fan from Day One, but the show is struggling to keep the current characters on track to bonding as an A-team. They seem so ... fragmented. As I have written before, the show needs its writers to inject a carryover plotline -- a la Red John on The Mentalist and, this season, the Compass Killer on CSI: New York -- or, at least, get away from two storylines that somehow connect at the end of the episode.
-
A month (plus a few days) has elapsed since my "The Bourne Gemini" plotline was unveiled -- and there has been no contact from any big-time, or small-time for that matter, movie producers eager to script and film a fourth Jason Bourne movie with Matt Damon in the lead. My friend and blog editor, Sandy, warned me that I had given away the basic plotline in my Oct. 19 webcolumn, but I reminded her that The Anson Biz-zine is a copyrighted production -- so my elbertreble musings should be protected. Right?
-
A church marquee sign caught my eye recently. It read: The greatest of all faults is to imagine you have them.
|
