Weekend Trivia ~ Saturday

9 years ago

Well, Happy New Year, Cottagers!! I missed you good wishes Cynthia - sorry about that!! Another year to play with, eh?? Oh the fun we'll have!!

Rerunning crossword puzzles isn't as rare as one might imagine, though it is usually a lesser newspaper running, say, the New York Times crossword. Historically, crosswords have changed, so today's clue hounds might have problems with the older ones. n 1942, a series of letters to The Daily Telegraph had claimed that the paper's crossword wasn't hard enough. It could be solved in a matter of minutes, they said; so a man called WAJ Gavin, the chairman of the Eccentric Club, suggested this be put to the test. He put up a 100 pound prize, to be donated to charity in the event that anyone could do it, and Arthur Watson, the paper's then editor, arranged a competition in the newsroom on Fleet Street. The puzzle they used for the competition was then published in the newspaper the next day - then, last November, again - in the New York Times. What was so special about this particular crossword?

And I will be back with clues!! Nancy.

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Comments (22)

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
9 years ago
Good one, Nancy. I will need clues. Interestingly, I was watching an old Inspector Morse the other night and he was doing a crossword. The British ones look to be much different from ours. Not sure I could solve one of those as easily as I do here. It looks very different in its layout with single boxes and such. Alas, Morse's favorite puzzlemaker was murdered in the episode.

You have me wishing I had seen that puzzle in November! I usually stick to our Washington Post puzzle on Sundays.

Wondering if the date is pertinent...

Cynthia
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
9 years ago
Ah yes, Morse - he would have made the cut!! I remember Daedelus and the mystery he was involved in - funny how art imitates life so very often. And such is Colin Dexter's love for cryptic puzzles that when it came to his most famous creations, Dexter sought inspiration from two notable clue setters: Ã¢ÂÂInspector Morse is named after Sir Jeremy Morse, who I got to know in the 1950s when he started doing the Ximenes crossword in The Observer,Ã¢ÂÂ he explains. Ã¢ÂÂAnd Dorothy Taylor wrote the The ObserverÃ¢ÂÂs Everyman crossword for years under the name Mrs B Lewis. So thatÃ¢ÂÂs the origin of MorseÃ¢ÂÂs bagman.Ã¢ÂÂ

Actually, both dates are very important!! I am going to try this crossword myself, and will share the link later. Blech, I am crap at cryptic crosswords. Bobbie's DH might know!!

Nancy.
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OK, so here are the answers - sorry bout that!! 1. JFK was the youngest elected president at the time - Theodore Roosevelt was younger when he assumed office, after the assassination of McKinley. 2. He was the first person born in the 20th-century to serve as President. or he was the first Catholic president. 3. KennedyÃ¢ÂÂs hat size was seven and five-eighths, the largest of any President other than William Taft (seven and three-quarters). 4. In a speech made in 1961, Kennedy was recorded as speaking at 327 words per minute, the fastest rate of public speaking in history. 5. After his death, the Canadian Government named Mount Kennedy after him. It was not only CanadaÃ¢ÂÂs but North America's highest unclimbed mountain. Mount Kennedy is a peak in the Saint Elias Mountains within Kluane National Park, in Yukon, Canada. Its 4250-m to 4300-m (14000-foot) summit lies within 10 km of the Alaska Panhandle. His brother Robert Kennedy with a party of experienced mountaineers sponsored by the National Geographic Society and led by Jim Whittaker conquered it in 1965. Upon reaching the peak of the summit, Kennedy left some of his brother's PT-boat tie clips, a copy of his brother's Inaugural Presidential Address, and a John F. Kennedy medallion. So there you go - some trivial trivia about what to me is a leading figure in the 20th century. For everyone: Thanks to all for playing - see you all next week!! Nancy.
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Well, good for you all!! It is the cross-word puzzle. Not as ancient as I thought!! The title for the world's first crossword puzzle is disputed based on whom you ask. The first puzzle that was called a "cross word puzzle" was written in 1862 by Our Young Folks in the United States. The first "cross word" was "dream". Crossword puzzles are said to be the most popular and widespread word game in the world, yet have a short history. The first crosswords appeared in England during the 19th century. They were of an elementary kind, apparently derived from the word square, a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's puzzle books and various periodicals. Although Maleska is usually credited with the first crossword phrase in The New York Times, an 1862 puzzle in the Lady's Book had phrases that are considered modern such as the expression "I did it". Crossword-like puzzles, for example Double Diamond Puzzles, appeared in the magazine St. Nicholas, published since 1873. Another crossword puzzle appeared on September 14, 1890, in the Italian magazine Il Secolo Illustrato della Domenica. It was designed by Giuseppe Airoldi and titled "Per passare il tempo" ("To pass the time"). Airoldi's puzzle was a four-by-four grid with no shaded squares; it included horizontal and vertical clues. On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool, England, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the genre as we know it. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. Later, the name of the puzzle was changed to "crossword". In 1925, the New York Public Library reported that "The latest craze to strike libraries is the crossword puzzle," and complained that when "the puzzle 'fans' swarm to the dictionaries and encyclopedias so as to drive away readers and students who need these books in their daily work, can there be any doubt of the Library's duty to protect its legitimate readers?" The first book of crossword puzzles appeared in 1924, published by Simon and Schuster. "This odd-looking book with a pencil attached to it" was an instant hit and crossword puzzles became the craze of 1924. So, for Annette, TM, Bobbie, Cynthia and Garden Gal: Thanks to all for playing, see you all next week!! Nancy.
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Well, I believe you have all figured it out - it was to allow the knight/warrior to easily mount his steed. I got the info from a web site called The Straight Dope, which is very cleverly written. I will copy right from them, as I like the way it is written. The fact is that most people don't mount a horse from the left side. Most people call a cab. Those having some acquaintance with horsemanship, however, know that the left side is the horse's "near" side while the right side is the "off" side. This is often explained in terms of swords, but we're then obliged to acknowledge obvious fact #2: While a fair number of people still ride horses, you're living in one tough neighborhood if you need to do so while wearing a sword. About those swords. I'm afraid you've gotten the explanation a little scrambled. As you've observed, swords are traditionally worn on the left, since that makes it easier for a right-handed swordsman to pull the sword from its scabbard. If you're wearing a sword on the left, you'll want to mount your horse on its left, since otherwise the sword will get in the way. The practice goes way back before the medieval heyday of knights. In fact, it most likely originated when sword-toting warriors first began riding horses into battle. Let's start with a fundamental fact, essential to understanding equines: The horse isn't a predator--it's prey. Even after millennia of domestication, the horse is physically and mentally hardwired to detect and elude attackers. Its eyes are set on the sides of its head, giving it almost 360 degrees of vision. It sees two monocular fields at once, one through each eye. The binocular vision we human predators take for granted, the horse has in only a small area directly ahead of it. So what it "knows" on one side, it doesn't "know" on the other, until it's been shown. The horse's instincts dispose it to be suspicious of anything new in its environment. The thing behind that rock that wasn't there yesterday could be a lion! What does this have to do with mounting from the left? It means that a horse who's been taught to accept being mounted only from one side may be perfectly docile when the rider clambers aboard on that side, yet spook and refuse to stand still if approached from the unfamiliar direction. That's why authorities on horse training (including our old friend Xenophon) recommend teaching horses to be mounted from the off side, so that they'll stand still for it if circumstances demand that the rider get on from that side But why prefer the left side when swords are no longer a problem? Partly it's the inertia of tradition--horses and humans are both creatures of habit. But it's also common sense to have a standard approach. If you didn't know which side a particular horse had learned to be mounted from, you could get a nasty surprise if you tried to get on from the "wrong" side. There you have it - tradition again, with a little common sense thrown in. I believe everyone got, though perhaps not the monocular bit - lol, I'll let that pass!! So, for everyone: Thanks for playing, and see you all next week! Nancy.
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OK Cynthia - just trust your instincts!! You have it!! As Anglo-Americans began to assert their control over California, they gradually broke up the large Hispanic ranches and replaced them with a more diversified farming economy. With irrigation, southern California proved an ideal environment for growing many crops, particularly valuable fruits like oranges. During the 1870s and 1880s, state railroad lines linking Los Angeles into the new system of transcontinental railways created additional moneymaking opportunities. Settlers, tourists, and health seekers all boarded trains to travel to the Pacific, where the sunny climate and beautiful scenery promised a new and better life. The healthful new California lifestyle became closely associated in the public mind with the sweet fruits that grew so abundantly in the orchards around Los Angeles. Taking advantage of the rapid transportation capabilities of the transcontinental lines, Los Angeles area orchard owners began shipping their oranges to the East in 1886. On February 14th, to be exact!! Well, there's just nooo doubt about it!! For Cynthia: <a href="http://s747.photobucket.com/user/pitaandlily/media/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx119/pitaandlily/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif" border="0" alt=" photo stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif"/></a><a href="http://s747.photobucket.com/user/pitaandlily/media/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx119/pitaandlily/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif" border="0" alt=" photo stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif"/></a><a href="http://s747.photobucket.com/user/pitaandlily/media/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx119/pitaandlily/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif" border="0" alt=" photo stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif"/></a><a href="http://s747.photobucket.com/user/pitaandlily/media/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx119/pitaandlily/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif" border="0" alt=" photo stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif"/></a> For everyone else on the orange wagon: <a href="http://s747.photobucket.com/user/pitaandlily/media/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx119/pitaandlily/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif" border="0" alt=" photo stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif"/></a><a href="http://s747.photobucket.com/user/pitaandlily/media/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i747.photobucket.com/albums/xx119/pitaandlily/stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif" border="0" alt=" photo stars-3_zps97a9a39b.gif"/></a> Thanks for playing - now I'll see if my stars will actually paste!! Nancy.
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aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
9 years ago
Waiting for clues.....

Annette
thinman
9 years ago
I enjoy crosswords too. Our local newspaper carries the L.A. Times puzzles, which range from easy to moderately challenging. I always feel so smart doing the Monday and Tuesday puzzles lickety-split, and then feel progressively dumber through the week.

Having said that, I don't have any idea yet about the puzzle in question. Trying to work with the date clue.

TM
mnwsgal
9 years ago
No idea and DH does not know, either. We get the NY Times puzzle 7 weeks later in our local paper.

A belated Happy New Year to you all.
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
9 years ago
Well, I have thrown a few clues in so far - perhaps too cryptic, though. We actually did trivia on this last year. Maybe it was a bombe, though.

Nancy.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
9 years ago
Thinking of the date, was it in code?

Cynthia
thinman
9 years ago
The bombe makes me think of the Bletchley Park machine, which fits with Cynthia's code remark,

TM
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
9 years ago
Ah, code - yes!! I am watching a marathon of the Mystery of Oak Island today - so few true mysteries left on this earth. Yesterday it was a marathon of Sherlock - I adore Benedict Cumberbatch!!

Nancy.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
9 years ago
Hmm...codes...mysteries...Holmes...Cumberbatch...new movies...

Don't suppose it had anything to do with Smaug (whose voice he was)...

Sigh, can't quite put it all together. Can't stay awake to watch the Ravens beat Pittsburgh in the wild card game. Glad Baltimore is winning, though.

See you all in the morning. Sweet dreams.

Cynthia
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
9 years ago
Well, let's review:

Rerunning crossword puzzles
1942
It could be solved in a matter of minutes, they said
art imitates life
Blech, I am crap at cryptic crosswords
bombe
Benedict Cumberbatch

Not enough clues??

Nancy.
mnwsgal
9 years ago
From the clue, Bletchley Park, and the fact that it was 1942 maybe the winner was contacted to be a code breaker during the war.

Interesting info about selecting the names Morse and Lewis. PBS is running the first Inspector Morse episode Monday night. Think I have seen them all but will enjoy seeing the series again.
Can't believe it has been 14 years since the series ended.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
9 years ago
That is a great idea, Bobbie! Maybe the winner was the character played by Cumberbatch in his new movie. Should remember the name, but can't.

Cynthia
thinman
9 years ago
Alan Turing was the one played by Cumberbatch, I think, though I haven't seen the movie.

TM
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
9 years ago
Hmmmm, thoughts are racing through my mind but aren't connecting anything, I know I'm going to give my head a shake when I see what the answer is.
'Inspector Morse', I'll have to look see if it's on our t.v. lineup right now I'm watching 'A Touch of Frost' reruns on the Knowledge Network saturday nights, my fav.

Annette
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
9 years ago
Annette, I too am watching the Touch of Frost reruns - such a great series. I'll look and see if one of my PBS stations is running the Morse mysteries.

Well, I think you got it, mostly!! People were given a 12-minute deadline, and 5 people beat the 12-minute deadline, although one, the fastest, had misspelled a word and was disqualified. The puzzle was printed in the next dayÃ¢ÂÂs edition, January 13 1942, so that everyone could try their hand . And there the matter might have rested but, unknown to the Telegraph and the contestants, the War Office was watching. Stanley Sedgewick, one of those who took part, said: Ã¢ÂÂSeveral weeks later, I received a letter marked 'ConfidentialÃ¢ÂÂ inviting me, as a consequence of taking part in 'The Daily Telegraph Crossword Time TestÃ¢ÂÂ, to make an appointment to see Col Nichols of the General Staff, who 'would very much like to see you on a matter of national importanceÃ¢ÂÂ.Ã¢ÂÂ Mr Sedgewick, and several others who took part that day, ended up working at Bletchley Park, breaking German military codes.
Ã¢ÂÂWhether itÃ¢ÂÂs a simple cipher, or something as complex as the codes of the Enigma machine which the Bletchley codebreakers were working on, the trick is making links between letters and words,Ã¢ÂÂ says Michael Smith, the author of Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park (and who interviewed Mr Sedgewick for the Telegraph in 1998). Ã¢ÂÂCrosswords are the same sort of lateral-thinking exercise.Ã¢ÂÂ Alan Turing was already on that team, at the time. He had a brilliant mind, and a tragic life - ahead of his time on many levels. I have yet to discover why it is called the Imitation Game - I guess I'll have to watch the movie.

For all:

Thanks for playing!! See you at Cyn's question now!!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: More info and the crossword
aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
9 years ago
No stars for me, I wasn't even close :(.

Annette
thinman
9 years ago
Thanks, Nancy. Pretty cool -- winners turned into code-breakers. WWII history is just fascinating -- so many details that made the course of the war twist this way and that.

Fun question and answer.

TM
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
Original Author
9 years ago
Did anyone try the puzzle? It is some hard - I am not a code breaker.

Nancy.
cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
9 years ago
I will print it and see if I can do it starting tomorrow evening! Haven't looked at the link yet.

I also do not deserve stars-got the code, but latched onto Bobbie's coattails for the answer really. Thanks for the fun-which may or may not continue when I try the puzzle. Haha.

Cynthia
mnwsgal
9 years ago
Thanks for the interesting question and answer, Nancy. Amazing how something one thinks is so inconsequential can change one's life.

I think Cynthia gets stars. If I didn't latch onto others' suggestions and clues I would get few stars. We all help each other to the right (mostly) answers.

This post was edited by mnwsgal on Mon, Jan 5, 15 at 1:06
thinman
9 years ago
That is a tough puzzle, and with the Britishisms, I would not have figured it out in 12 days, let alone 12 minutes. Those were some crazy-smart people.

TM

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