Apparently pretty hard. The following is an email I received yesterday, months after I submitted a crossword puzzle to the New York Times:
Hi Cal,
This is [name] writing, helping Will with correspondence.
Will says thanks, but must send regrets on the following:
--Teetotaler 15x -- which didn't excite him enough
--Mission Impossible 15x -- it's a cute idea, but he thinks some people can raise one eyebrow. Also, some would say "door hinge" is an acceptable rhyme for "orange."
Sorry about that. Will did appreciate seeing these, tho. For information on the specs for manuscript submission, please go to www.cruciverb.com and click on Publisher Specifications.
Best regards,
[name]
For the record, Teetotaler was my T-themed puzzle (http://www.mycrosswords.com/237/ChristopherLee/Teetotaller.html) where I not only had 5 clues themed T, but an actual T in the grid shaped by black squares, as well as every single freaking clue starting with T. Mission Impossible (http://www.mycrosswords.com/237/ChristopherLee/MissionImpossible.html) was my masterpiece mostly because the non-theme clues and answers turned out to be good. The theme wasn't bad either, it had to do with "nearly impossible tasks" such as rhyming with orange and raising one eyebrow, as noted in the e-mail. Apparently Shortz didn't find these themes compelling enough, and then it really didn't matter how the rest of the grid looked. I've made over 25 crosswords, and these were the 2 very best, and they didn't make it. It'll take a great theme and then some luck to get in there.
ANYWAYS, I'm typing this from my Auntie Mary's apartment in midtown Manhattan. I just spent the last 2 hours communicating with friends on Gchat, Facebook and AIM. The last time I did that, I was in Beijing, and I realize how similar these situations are. I was so nervous when I first got into that city and I spent a lot of time trying to connect with the friends I missed from back home, as well as talking with the friends I had made there. I feel the same here in a way. I'm in a big city and when I step outside the apartment, I'm not sure where I'm going. There's nothing stopping me from going anywhere, but there's not the limitless urge to sporadically explore like there was in Ireland. Its difficult to pinpoint where the difference lies; is it the unhesitating disdain that city dwellers here show obviously clueless tourists? Is it the towering maze-like array of high rises that disorient your sense of direction? Or is it my subconcious guilty feeling that I should know this city, I should fit in, and that everytime this is proven wrong it stabs deep into my soul?
Not sure, I'll get back to you on that one. But just like Beijing, I am back to blogging. June and work start tomorrow. I'm wearing a suit.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Basketball and such
If you're obsessed with Sporcle and geography, this game should be right up your alley. I dare you to beat my score - 17/24 without any outside help, even for spelling.
http://sporcle.com/games/namethatcountry.php
I really like sporcle - I think during exam period, I might have spent more time on sporcle than on any one of my subjects. But I got a 3.67 so I think that's ok. I resolve to one day create my own sporcle game, which really shouldn't be too difficult.
In other news, the weather in Boston has been resolutely gloomy for the last 3 days. After two weeks of more or less glorious "I love Boston in May!" kind of weather, it has been consistently 50 degrees, damp if not raining, with not even the hint of sunshine. I even developed a cold, along with a sinus problem and headaches, which sucks cause I almost never get sick. After 2 weeks of seeing a Chinese doctor in Chinatown, my ankle has progressed to the point where I can do one legged calf raises, but it's still not really ready for ultimate movement. I'm moving out this weekend to New York and I think that's enough of a life update.
These NBA conference finals have been enormously entertaining. It's really revitalized my interest in watching full sports games. I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was a half year away from American sports or a disappointing Georgetown season or just getting older, but I basically never watch full basketball games anymore. Nor baseball for that matter. Both sports are worth tuning in before the end but it really takes a lot of patience to watch the whole thing. However, you can't call yourself a true sports fan if you don't watch the games - I won't pretend I know how one team is beating another just from what it did in the final 12 minutes. You don't see the adjustments, the different runs each team had, the way the Cavs got Dwight Howard into foul trouble. Anyways, I've been watching considerably more of these games and for the most part, they have not disappointed.
That first weekend was especially ridiculous, with the two Orlando-Cleveland games being 1 point dramatic affairs. It's been enjoyable watching some of the individual talent displayed too and while I haven't been as impressed by Howard, Rashard Lewis has really proven to be a terrific second (or even third) option. Mo Williams seemed to be a lot quicker earlier in the season though, now most of his points come off 3's. And then there's LeBron, whom you can't gush enough about. I think about 3 times a game he puts on a move that triggers uncontrollable audible praise - aka I stand up and shout Holy fucking shit. In the other series, I've been really impressed by Kobe and Carmelo. I was talking today about how Carmelo really looks like an average athlete, with his chubby neck and all. There's nothing in his body that suggests explosiveness, much less one of the best scorers in the NBA. It seems like he can score wherever, whenever. He's so much better when paired with a great point guard, and in retrospect, Chauncey Billups seems an obvious and enormous upgrade over Allen Iverson. Anthony can do so much without the ball and sets himself up well for easy layups. If they had an even better point guard, like a younger Jason Kidd, they'd be a championship team. But there's no way they'll be able to upgrade from Billups, who's only getting older, and that's why its hard to win championships. Kobe, who's never won a championship outside of Shaq, seems to have reached a real veteran level. He's so much smarter than he was the first few years after he booted Shaq from the Lakers and now knows how to get teammates involve and read his defender like a book. I think that's a product of being in the league for so long coming straight from high school. However, he also seems to be just pass his physical prime, which is also a product of coming straight from high school, as well as playing tons of playoff and international games. He can't go 100% for 45 minutes a game, like LeBron does, but when he turns it on like he did tonight eliminating the Nuggets, he's golden.
So the Lakers are in the finals. The Cavs-Magic series have defied most predictions and every single ESPN analyst picked the Cavs, most in 5 games. So while I think Cleveland will win tomorrow and force a game 7, I'm far from comfortable with that pick. But when you watch LeBron play at his A+ level, you really do wonder how the hell he can lose. But his support group is a firm B, while the Magic are A-/A all around and it wears the Cavs down. If the Cavs do win and get to the finals, the Lakers will probably be an easier match for them as that series would be more of a mano a mano between Kobe and Lebron. I would definitely like the Cavs in that series, whereas if the Magic make the finals, I'd go with the Lakers.
http://sporcle.com/games/namethatcountry.php
I really like sporcle - I think during exam period, I might have spent more time on sporcle than on any one of my subjects. But I got a 3.67 so I think that's ok. I resolve to one day create my own sporcle game, which really shouldn't be too difficult.
In other news, the weather in Boston has been resolutely gloomy for the last 3 days. After two weeks of more or less glorious "I love Boston in May!" kind of weather, it has been consistently 50 degrees, damp if not raining, with not even the hint of sunshine. I even developed a cold, along with a sinus problem and headaches, which sucks cause I almost never get sick. After 2 weeks of seeing a Chinese doctor in Chinatown, my ankle has progressed to the point where I can do one legged calf raises, but it's still not really ready for ultimate movement. I'm moving out this weekend to New York and I think that's enough of a life update.
These NBA conference finals have been enormously entertaining. It's really revitalized my interest in watching full sports games. I'm not sure what it was, maybe it was a half year away from American sports or a disappointing Georgetown season or just getting older, but I basically never watch full basketball games anymore. Nor baseball for that matter. Both sports are worth tuning in before the end but it really takes a lot of patience to watch the whole thing. However, you can't call yourself a true sports fan if you don't watch the games - I won't pretend I know how one team is beating another just from what it did in the final 12 minutes. You don't see the adjustments, the different runs each team had, the way the Cavs got Dwight Howard into foul trouble. Anyways, I've been watching considerably more of these games and for the most part, they have not disappointed.
That first weekend was especially ridiculous, with the two Orlando-Cleveland games being 1 point dramatic affairs. It's been enjoyable watching some of the individual talent displayed too and while I haven't been as impressed by Howard, Rashard Lewis has really proven to be a terrific second (or even third) option. Mo Williams seemed to be a lot quicker earlier in the season though, now most of his points come off 3's. And then there's LeBron, whom you can't gush enough about. I think about 3 times a game he puts on a move that triggers uncontrollable audible praise - aka I stand up and shout Holy fucking shit. In the other series, I've been really impressed by Kobe and Carmelo. I was talking today about how Carmelo really looks like an average athlete, with his chubby neck and all. There's nothing in his body that suggests explosiveness, much less one of the best scorers in the NBA. It seems like he can score wherever, whenever. He's so much better when paired with a great point guard, and in retrospect, Chauncey Billups seems an obvious and enormous upgrade over Allen Iverson. Anthony can do so much without the ball and sets himself up well for easy layups. If they had an even better point guard, like a younger Jason Kidd, they'd be a championship team. But there's no way they'll be able to upgrade from Billups, who's only getting older, and that's why its hard to win championships. Kobe, who's never won a championship outside of Shaq, seems to have reached a real veteran level. He's so much smarter than he was the first few years after he booted Shaq from the Lakers and now knows how to get teammates involve and read his defender like a book. I think that's a product of being in the league for so long coming straight from high school. However, he also seems to be just pass his physical prime, which is also a product of coming straight from high school, as well as playing tons of playoff and international games. He can't go 100% for 45 minutes a game, like LeBron does, but when he turns it on like he did tonight eliminating the Nuggets, he's golden.
So the Lakers are in the finals. The Cavs-Magic series have defied most predictions and every single ESPN analyst picked the Cavs, most in 5 games. So while I think Cleveland will win tomorrow and force a game 7, I'm far from comfortable with that pick. But when you watch LeBron play at his A+ level, you really do wonder how the hell he can lose. But his support group is a firm B, while the Magic are A-/A all around and it wears the Cavs down. If the Cavs do win and get to the finals, the Lakers will probably be an easier match for them as that series would be more of a mano a mano between Kobe and Lebron. I would definitely like the Cavs in that series, whereas if the Magic make the finals, I'd go with the Lakers.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Update and Random Thoughts
First the random thoughts:
If anyone ever wondered if Olympic track could be exciting, check out this video from the 1972 Olympics. The American Dave Wottle, the skinny kid wearing a cap in lane 3, was a big underdog and the East German favorite hadn't lost a race in 4 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHid-nC45k&feature=related
Take a look if you please, it still stuns me every time I watch it. And as someone who has seen Olympic track live, it's not bad, but they still haven't figured out how to make it a great spectator sport (every single seat is going to have a terrible view for at least some events).
Boston sports fans are pretty glum after consecutive game 7 losses by the B's and C's, and the Red Sox really aren't playing too well. You gotta be proud of the Celtics for even going 7 games with the rag tag group they had guarding Dwight Howard, who really doesn't have the finishing skills to abuse less talented defenders, and picks up bad fouls. Maybe he can step it up against the Cavs, but I doubt it; Cleveland could finish them quick. I was wondering though, how much impact the Olympics will have on the legacy of this season. Writers have talked about it, how all these great American players were living together and they realized, wow, Kobe really does work hard. Lebron, Carmelo and Dwight saw Kobe getting to the gym hours before they did and not only pushed themselves to win the gold, but pushed themselves after the Olympics ended. Its no coincidence that those 4 guys are each the undisputed leaders of the teams left in the postseason. If only Tayshaun Prince had followed their lead.
I'm not sure this merits a spoiler alert, because who cares about the plots in summer movies, but I had to pick apart two of the flicks I've seen. Wolverine was exactly what I expected it to be - great action, cool new mutant powers, and just a horrendous gap-filled storyline. I guess the most glaring is the fact that Sabertooth, who plays a huge role in this movie, does actually appear in X-Men 1 & 2 but with a different actor! (A Canadian pro wrestler actually) In those movies, he's nothing more than a henchman, I can't remember if he even had lines, and sorry if I'm spoiling anything, but the revelation in Wolverine that he and Wolverine are half-brothers is clearly yet unconceived. Then there's Star Trek, which Eva, my family friend, loved. The movie is really geared towards her audience, the former Trekkies, now in their mid 30s or 40s, which is rather unusual for a summer blockbuster. My biggest complaint with the movie is that this Romulan starship attacks Vulcan and Earth, home planets of two powerful races. They have this drill that is beaming a large hole through their service. The drill can be destroyed, easily in fact because Kirk destroys it with freaking handheld phasers. Yet, when it sets on Earth, in the vicinity of San Francisco, not one shot gets fired at it. Really, I hope that in 150 years, Earth is better defended than that. It would have been passable if the starship was seen destroying even a few defenses, but no. Oh and also, if you can create a blackhole intended to absorb novas, (novae?) do you really need to place it in the center of the planet to destroy it? And if some random unkempt stranger with a crazy Scottish accent beamed himself onto my ship without warning, I wouldn't immediately promote him to Chief Engineer. But that said, Star Trek was very cool, especially if all the characters and technology struck you with nostalgia.
Ok so I've been keeping busy in this week and a half of summer. I somehow got myself into helping this guy Jonah Keri write a book on the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays. He's pretty well known in the sports industry, so even though I'm doing this for free and whatnot its pretty cool that I'm working for him. So I'm transcribing interviews for him which takes forever but occupies me pretty well.
Then I somehow got this gig with HSBC in New York this summer, which I'm pretty excited about. HSBC stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Bank of China originally, but it's actually now a UK bank and not really any more prevalent in China than in anywhere else. It's actually the largest bank in the world now. So that starts June 1, I'll move in the weekend before, and who knows, living in New York might give me something to blog about.
If anyone ever wondered if Olympic track could be exciting, check out this video from the 1972 Olympics. The American Dave Wottle, the skinny kid wearing a cap in lane 3, was a big underdog and the East German favorite hadn't lost a race in 4 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHid-nC45k&feature=related
Take a look if you please, it still stuns me every time I watch it. And as someone who has seen Olympic track live, it's not bad, but they still haven't figured out how to make it a great spectator sport (every single seat is going to have a terrible view for at least some events).
Boston sports fans are pretty glum after consecutive game 7 losses by the B's and C's, and the Red Sox really aren't playing too well. You gotta be proud of the Celtics for even going 7 games with the rag tag group they had guarding Dwight Howard, who really doesn't have the finishing skills to abuse less talented defenders, and picks up bad fouls. Maybe he can step it up against the Cavs, but I doubt it; Cleveland could finish them quick. I was wondering though, how much impact the Olympics will have on the legacy of this season. Writers have talked about it, how all these great American players were living together and they realized, wow, Kobe really does work hard. Lebron, Carmelo and Dwight saw Kobe getting to the gym hours before they did and not only pushed themselves to win the gold, but pushed themselves after the Olympics ended. Its no coincidence that those 4 guys are each the undisputed leaders of the teams left in the postseason. If only Tayshaun Prince had followed their lead.
I'm not sure this merits a spoiler alert, because who cares about the plots in summer movies, but I had to pick apart two of the flicks I've seen. Wolverine was exactly what I expected it to be - great action, cool new mutant powers, and just a horrendous gap-filled storyline. I guess the most glaring is the fact that Sabertooth, who plays a huge role in this movie, does actually appear in X-Men 1 & 2 but with a different actor! (A Canadian pro wrestler actually) In those movies, he's nothing more than a henchman, I can't remember if he even had lines, and sorry if I'm spoiling anything, but the revelation in Wolverine that he and Wolverine are half-brothers is clearly yet unconceived. Then there's Star Trek, which Eva, my family friend, loved. The movie is really geared towards her audience, the former Trekkies, now in their mid 30s or 40s, which is rather unusual for a summer blockbuster. My biggest complaint with the movie is that this Romulan starship attacks Vulcan and Earth, home planets of two powerful races. They have this drill that is beaming a large hole through their service. The drill can be destroyed, easily in fact because Kirk destroys it with freaking handheld phasers. Yet, when it sets on Earth, in the vicinity of San Francisco, not one shot gets fired at it. Really, I hope that in 150 years, Earth is better defended than that. It would have been passable if the starship was seen destroying even a few defenses, but no. Oh and also, if you can create a blackhole intended to absorb novas, (novae?) do you really need to place it in the center of the planet to destroy it? And if some random unkempt stranger with a crazy Scottish accent beamed himself onto my ship without warning, I wouldn't immediately promote him to Chief Engineer. But that said, Star Trek was very cool, especially if all the characters and technology struck you with nostalgia.
Ok so I've been keeping busy in this week and a half of summer. I somehow got myself into helping this guy Jonah Keri write a book on the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays. He's pretty well known in the sports industry, so even though I'm doing this for free and whatnot its pretty cool that I'm working for him. So I'm transcribing interviews for him which takes forever but occupies me pretty well.
Then I somehow got this gig with HSBC in New York this summer, which I'm pretty excited about. HSBC stands for Hong Kong Shanghai Bank of China originally, but it's actually now a UK bank and not really any more prevalent in China than in anywhere else. It's actually the largest bank in the world now. So that starts June 1, I'll move in the weekend before, and who knows, living in New York might give me something to blog about.
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