NY Times Crossword

November 9, 2021

Jennifer Lee and Victor Galson

 

The following clues are the beginning lines of poems by Ogden Nash. Can you finish the poems? Can you improve on the author's words - as shown in the answers?

1. God in his wisdom made the fly,

    And then forgot ........................

2. Tell me, O Octopus, I begs, 

    Is those things arms, .................

3. The cow is of the bovine ilk;

     One end is moo, .......................

 

4. The trouble with a kitten is that

    Eventually ................................. 

Answers:

 

1. ..... to tell us why.

2. ..... or is they legs?

3. ..... the other milk. 

4 ...... it becomes a cat.

   

Once he found a dove cage in the bushes.

He took it home

so he could

keep it empty.

 

Wislawa Szymborska

Polish poet 

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996

 

 

I DIDN'T SLEEP A WINK

From Reader's Digest

In English, we say we "didn't sleep a wink." The equivalent phrase in the African language Xhosa translates: "When dawn broke, we were looking through yesterday's eyes."

DOUBLE DACTYLS
Credit: NY Times Crossword
March 2, 2017
Peter Gordon (adapted)

A double dactyl is a metrical foot of six syllables, with the accent falling on the first and fourth syllables. The four phrases below are double dactyls and were used as clues in this puzzle.

Start of the question is
More of the question is
End of the question is
Here's what the answer is

These are the answers to the clues: (They are not double dactyls.)

What famous poet
Has a name that's
A double dactyl?

Do you know the answer?

HINT:
She was an American from Amherst, Massachusetts.

Answer:

Emily Dickinson (Em i ly Dick in son)

Now, can you name three U.S. Presidents whose names were double dactyls?

Answers:

Benjamin Harrison
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt 

From THE MAHABHARATA
Hindu Epic Poem

What soul hath a man's which is his, yet another's?
What friend do the gods grant, the best of all others?
What joy in existence is greatest? and how
May poor men be rich and abundant? Say thou.

Sons are the second souls of man,
And wives the heaven-sent friends; nor can
Among all joys health be surpassed;
Contentment answereth thy last.

Still, tell me what foeman is worst to subdue?
And what is the sickness lasts a lifetime all through?
Of men that are upright, say which is the best?
And of those that are wicked, who passeth the rest?

Anger is a man's unconquered foe;
The ache of greed doth never go;
Who loveth most of saints is first;
Of bad men cruel men are the worst.

UNTITLED POEM
From The Enigma - Sept. 2011
National Puzzlers' League Magazine
WRYLDE  (adapted)

Tread lightly, she is near,
Speak gently, she can hear.
All her bright, golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.

She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.
Coffin-board, heavy stone
Lie on her breast.

She cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life's buried here,
Heap earth upon it. 

VETERANS' DAY
Father Denis Edward O'Brien
United States Marine Corps

It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

Source:
Dear Ann
Syndicated newspaper column
Ann Landers - Nov. 11, 1999

TO A SPECIAL BOY
by Shirley Klein - who suffers from cerebral palsy

Robbie, we all drag wagons behind us.
Big, red empty wagons
Waiting for someone to fill them
With some hope, dreams, love.
We pass by different-colored houses,
The door opens, we offer a smile
As the door closes again
And we pass to the next house
Up the endless hill.
They tell me at the top
In an ever-open doorway
Patient, understanding eyes
Watch for us.

First, though, we must pass up the endless hill
Because along the way
There might be other wagons we can fill
With a bright leaf, a white flower, or a song.

THE LOVER I SHALL NEVER KNOW
by Shirley Klein

The lover I shall never know
Keeps pace with my loneliness,
A taunting figure
That mocks my dreams.
And when I see others held,
My shoulders ache in their cold nakedness
As I turn to face the empty shadow
Of the lover I shall never know.