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| I thought SHOE FETISH had to be kinky, and what Carrie Bradshaw had was a SHOE Obsession. No?
I actually sailed through big chunks of this puzzle with no trouble except for the quote itself, which I stared at for a good while, and then had a HAHA moment which was very satisfying.
The puzzle felt a bit heavy on crosswordese (or may be I'm finally getting familiar with it). But I agree, Orange, I think that even people from the neighboring and crossword worthy UAE wouldn't know from ASIR!
foodie | 07.01.09 - 11:05 pm | #
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| George W. Bush quote: \"Time is not on our side.\"
nicholasc | 07.02.09 - 12:02 am | #
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| The link to the Picasso portrait of Gertrude Stein doesn't work for me.
I had always thought that the line was \"*A* rose is a rose ...\", but I see from Wikipedia that the original is as quoted in this puzzle. This confusion actually slowed me down a bit. It also slowed me down that I couldn't immediately recall Gertrude Stein's name, but I could recall her other famous remark (about Oakland), that \"There is no there there\".
Amb{rose} Bierce is a favorite of mine, and so that cracked the rebus for me.
tmccormick4 | 07.02.09 - 1:19 am | #
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| link fixed.
joon | Homepage | 07.02.09 - 6:59 am | #
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| We interrupt this crossword discussion with an announcement from the technical support team--there was a problem with Safari 4 users and the hide/reveal functions of these blog posts. I believe I have fixed it for this particular post, can you confirm?
And now we return you to your regularly-scheduled post.
Evad | 07.02.09 - 7:04 am | #
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| even if you had read julius caesar, in this case it wouldn'a helped as the guy seems to have had three (coun't 'em) three wives! the one in the play is calpurnia -- and it was her name i was trying to dredge up for the puzzle fill. wrong...
but boy -- was this puzzle a goodie!
;-)
janie | 07.02.09 - 8:18 am | #
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| Rare shout out to me, CORNELIA!
Unfortunately, I don't think the name is as noted in history for the wife of Julius Caesar as for the noble mother of the Graecchi brothers... Ah well, amazing to see it in a puzzle. Thanks, Ms Gorski.
ArtLvr | 07.02.09 - 8:37 am | #
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| Guess what, Orange: there's a form of stud that is hi/lo.
sandy huss | 07.02.09 - 9:35 am | #
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| Evad -
I was just going to say, this post looks perfect in Safari 4. Great work!
(Don't forget, the Kaidoku blog debuts today!)
Alex | Homepage | 07.02.09 - 9:51 am | #
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| Hi/Lo is not a poker game in and of itself, but rather a variation of any poker game in which the high hand splits with the low hand. Usually the low has to be at least an 8 to qualify, but there is no rule of poker that says that must be so and I have played variations of hi/low called Any-Any in which there are no qualifying requirements.
In the current World Series of Poker, there are two hi/lo games, Omaha H/L and Eight or Better Stud H/L. I played in one of the lower stakes Eight or better Stud games at the World Series in 2006.
The Eight refers to the fact that the low hand has to be at least an 8, or else there is no qualifying low hand and the high hand wins the whole pot. Aces are below deuces and straights and flushes do not count against you. the winning low hand is determined in serial order by the highest low card. 7-6-5-4-3 is better than 8-4-3-2-A because the 7 (the highest low card) is better than the 8. 8-6-5-4-3 is better than 8-7-3-2-A because the 8's tie and the 6 is lower than the seven.
while this would be obvious to a H/L poker player, I have occasionally played in games where a player has absolutely no knowledge of the Low concept. A hand like 4-3-2-2-A is not a good low hand because the twos are paired. A pair loses to any unpaired hand.
Deal!!
Steve
Steve Manion | 07.02.09 - 10:02 am | #
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| I've actually been giggling about the Sino-Roman clue since I saw it. Considering the source (Gorski-Shortz), I think that's the response they were looking for.
Damn hard puzzle and yet couldn't be anything but a Thursday. Fun!
Sara | 07.02.09 - 10:25 am | #
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| Hey, the Li Po clue actually helped me, unlike most pope clues. He was a famous T'ang Dynasty poet, and T'ang poetry reached its peak in the 700s.
Will Nediger | 07.02.09 - 10:29 am | #
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| Put away most of this crossword quickly, but got bogged down in various patches badly - mostly due to subtle mistakes. ASIR was a complete gimme for me put it down immediately without even looking...
One of my subtle mistakes was FOOTFETISH for SHOE, a little less blue that. Get mind OUT of gutter...
For Caesar's wife, immediately thought of Livia... wrong Caesar, but the L was right so thought must be a cunning variant of it - no!
Had DSOs for Mil. awards, they're always there to trip you up!
Gareth | 07.02.09 - 11:23 am | #
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| CS: Oh, Don Ho, was just think how weird Donho was as a surname.
Gareth | 07.02.09 - 11:28 am | #
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| gareth -- oh, ho!
;-)
janie | 07.02.09 - 11:33 am | #
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| will: ditto on li po/DCCI. i already had the ___I, so the rest was easy from the clue. it wasn't until i read sara's comment that i thought about how incongruous a juxtaposition that clue really is.
i think i lucked out on this puzzle. the NW stymied me, but i worked my way across the top and the first rebus square i reached was AMB[ROSE], an absolute gimme. then i filled in the rest of 34a and pretty much blew through the puzzle (going back to clean up the NW from below), except for a hiccup at MARCI/DSCS. MAROI looked like a very strange movie name. and i didn't know ASIR either, but i assumed it was old-school crosswordese (it certainly has the look, doesn't it? ADIT, ANIL, etc.). but if orange doesn't know it, maybe it's just plain obscure. i see that 3 of its 4 uses are by liz gorski; maybe she has some sentimental attachment to it.
joon | 07.02.09 - 11:36 am | #
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| Thanks for fixing that illus. link, Joon. Wikipedia tells me \"The southwestern 'Asir region has mountains as high as 3,000 m (9,840 ft) and is known for having the greenest and freshest climate in all of the country, one that attracts many Saudis to resorts such as Abha in the summer months.\" Maybe Liz vacations at Abha...
Orange | Homepage | 07.02.09 - 11:40 am | #
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| Orange, if Liz does go there, I guess it would be her Abha moment.
I had the same Calpurnia thoughts (she gave us the term Caesarian birth, methinks) and thought the rose phrase started \"A rose is... So, today was a learning day for me. Guessed the Li Po Roman date as joon and remembered being told that his bad poems were called Li Po suctions.
miguel | 07.02.09 - 12:17 pm | #
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| for anyone who needs more by way of inner/\"middle ears\" and xwords, there also martin ashwood-smith's 6/19 crossynergy.
and wow -- now that i go back to look at it again, i see that i entirely missed a key element of the theme fill -- something that is almost identical to pete's fill -- and that strengthens further a beautifully constructed puzzle that's loaded with great non-theme fill, too.
apologies, martin -- and ch\"ears,\" all!
janie | 07.02.09 - 1:59 pm | #
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| I had a brief lull in starting. I saw Bierce and thought of Ambrose, but not knowing who the quote referenced didn't immediately make the connection to a rebus. But the Picasso portrait was a gimme for me, and then the quote was obvious. (I knew it didn't start with \"A,\" one of those popular mistakes that's often the subject of debunking.)
With those big entries in, I had a lot to build on but still some snags. I, too, thought of Calpurnia, and a corner with ASIR and HILO was my final obstacle.
John Haber | Homepage | 07.02.09 - 3:14 pm | #
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| July 3. The generation gap is evident. Tony Martin is one of the last living movie musical comedy stars. Married to Cyd Charisse whom Fred Astaire once said was \"his greatest dance partner.\" They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversay in 2008. She has since died; he is now 96.
angela osborne | 07.03.09 - 9:50 am | #
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