February 1, 1976: One of the abbreviations applied to him.Q: Name a famous military figure of the past 50 years. The first three letters of his first name and the first three letters of his last name are both well-known military abbreviations. Who is it?
Edit: That was the date he attained the rank of Colonel. The other hint was the colon.
A: COLIN POWELL --> Col. and P.O.W.
Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.
ReplyDeleteYou may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.
Another "puzzle" that took no time at all to solve. Back to bed and a clue later.
ReplyDeleteHe is not from the Netherlands. ---Rob
ReplyDeleteOne of the abbreviations reminds me of the subject of a recent Trumpism.
ReplyDeleteChuck
"Browning Automatic Rifle" + "Special Activities Division" = the military leader of the pop charts (almost) 50 years ago. (As I said, almost all 3-letter combos are military abbreviations.)
ReplyDeleteI don't really want to stop the show, but I thought you might like to know:
DeleteSatellite Ground Terminal / Photographic Exploitation Products
[I can see Space Data Base shaking his head in dismay]
Amazing that both musical sergeants were contemporaries.
DeleteCould either of them have been if they weren't ... both?
DeleteIsn't WP an abbreviation of WOLFPACK ?
ReplyDeleteHad to double-check my dictionary, and then post at this site.
ReplyDeleteHad to double-check my dictionary, and then post at this site.
ReplyDelete65
ReplyDelete65 to 43 is the score I got.
DeleteDivide by 5. What kind of number is that?
DeleteVery good!! Omit one letter and rearrange.
Mire? Bog?
Beelzebub has a devil set aside for you, WW!
Very proper, Paul, could even be noble. Might also leave a chill.
DeleteCan anyone in Blainesville remember an easier Will Shortz offering than this one? I cannot.
ReplyDeleteLegoOddsOfGettingYourLapelPinThisWeekIsOneInAThousandOrTwo
Racing right over to the Englishman's site with my pick.
DeleteMy pick and this gentleman's pick are close to our Bruntons. . .
DeleteAre “Gra.” and “Hop.” military abbreviations? If they are, this is my alternative answer. But I doubt if Mr. Shortz uses “his” as a neutral pronoun.
DeleteLegoNotExactlyAMilitaryIndustrialComplexPuzzle
Lego, I thought rearranging "I am a monarch" to Chairman Mao was pretty easy. You had all the letters and there were no hyphenated, abbreviated, apostrophized hon'ey-bears involved.
DeleteAlas, I could find neither GRA nor HOP here.
DeleteAmazing Grace, wires, and pepper packets. Thanks, Lego, for bringing us Grace.
DeleteThis one will receive a high number of correct entries.
Delete60's clue: Adam West.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletetmi
Deleteeasy enough already
WN: that's the rap on the knuckles I mentioned last week.
DeleteDon't worry, you're not in the Harriett Hall of Infamy.
I think this puzzle would have been a little more challenging if WS hadn't included the "50 years" part. Kit Carson would at least have had a fighting chance.
But admit it, ecoarchitect, you first thought of Smedley Butler, didn't you?
DeleteFunny how Butler loops around to the answer. Actually not that funny.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSuch an Esoteric Group of Bloggers here...Love you all.
DeleteWW, I never thought that my comment would/could be "Googled" to our Military Guy...I was raised with it...So now that I've decided to move on, I'll probably just avoid having my ego get in the way. Looking forward to next week!
We're all looking forward to next week after this serving of SOS.
DeleteEsoteric is one word to describe us. . .
DeleteNo worries, Wordnerd, I don't think too many are having trouble with this one. Or are too chicken to cut the mustard and say so...
sdb, SOS or TOT?
Good point.
DeleteThis week's puzzle was 2 EZ 4 words. I've admired this powerful military figure, ever since he came to national prominence shortly after I finished college.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. On more than one occasion, he blatantly lied in order to say what his bosses wanted to hear.
DeleteSometimes a life is led in preparation for some unknowable event far off in the future. When that time finally comes either he succeeds or fails and he will, and should, be judged by that courage or lack thereof. I agree with jan completely.
DeleteA nerve seems to have been touched.
DeleteI find it more than slightly ironic that our military academies place major (no pun intended) importance on honesty and will expel anyone they discover breaking that code of honor. Yet dishonesty is the hallmark of the military and its leaders. Mendacity rules! Truth is always the first casualty of war. But, don't worry; we'll all be home by Christmas.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWhen you're in it up to your ears, keep your mouth shut!
DeleteAnd when you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you.
DeleteYou guys are reminding me of another great 3 letter military abbreviation: SOS
DeleteDried beef gravy on toast?
DeleteMy Mom made the
BEST
Hard to get into the conversation without giving away too much, which is unfortunate as the conversation needs to happen, in this blog and beyond. Our benevolent host has let much more slip through than I would.
DeleteI think the larger fault for the last 50 years has been with the civilian leadership more than the military, and I think that's the case in more than one way with this military figure.
I agree, and wanted to say so too, but don't want to give away this give-away puzzle. That being said, it takes two to tango.
Deleteabsolutely, but remember it was the civilian who sinned.
DeleteGiven that the mark has been missed, what is the road forward?
DeleteEco,
DeleteI can't tell for sure, but you may be missing something in my 12:43 PM clue. It has much to do with your "civilian" comment.
I did get your clue, just offering to SOSR. And were we to fight over this I would truly be an ECO.
DeleteLook them up in the very rich mines at http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/dod_dictionary/. I think it was Jan who noted at the end of last week's that the military has almost every combination covered in an abbreviation.
BTW (not a military abbreviation) only one of Will's answers is in that official dictionary. And neither SOS nor KP means what we all think. They don't even have SNAFU!
eaco,
DeleteMost interesting indeed. I never encountered SOSR nor ECO. I suspect these may be new with the advent of computers. SOS, FUBAR and SNAFU are not official military jargon, but I thought KP was. I like SOSR a lot. I guessed right away correctly which one of WS's is not included, and am not surprised. I was thinking about posting a hint about it being somewhat ambiguous by its Left/Right anomaly. But you wouldn't want me to get political now, would you?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGot this one, but I still don't have the superhero puzzle on Puzzleria! I've got everything but that(and a few answers on the Guardian Prize Puzzle). Anyone else do cryptic crosswords on Guardian? They've redesigned their website. I guess it's okay.
ReplyDeletepatjberry,
DeleteYou are a puzzle solver of the first rank. I like your pluck. Thank you for mentioning Puzzleria! Sorry the hints I posted on Puzzleria! for my superhero puzzle came a cropper.
But, at least this week’s Puzzleria! puzzles were “posers,” to use a great word Will Shortz used in his on-air anagram puzzle.
And so, okay, this is a familiar refrain but, if you need to solve more challenging puzzles than Will’s cream puff this week, give Puzzleria! a shot – five original puzzles, all of them more challenging than the NPR “challenge” this week.
Puzzleria! offers no lapel pins, but we are a kinda fun blog.
LegoLapelPinSchmlapelPin!
I just don't understand why Mr. Shortz chose a puzzle THIS simple. Indeed, Puzzleria is way more fun!
ReplyDeleteI noticed blaine's clue actually has a 2nd clue within it that might be a giveaway for one of the two names- perhaps intended?
ReplyDeleteWas Blaine's clue intended? I've got an instrument at work that can scope that out.
DeleteWelch's grape juice.
ReplyDeletelake effect.
Do you suppose I've missed it?
I thank Legolambda for the compliment. I solved all but one puzzle on Puzzleria! this week, and that ain't bad. I do prefer the NPR puzzle better, though. I realize there's always someone here complaining what a softball it seems to be every week, but after a few Puzzleria! samples I can honestly say I welcome an easier puzzle on Sundays. Growing up we had cryptograms in our Sunday paper, and it often bothered me if I couldn't solve one right away. Imagine if I'd known about the NPR puzzle way back in 1987 when it started. With no Internet yet it had to be practically impossible some weeks. I was just happy to get four cryptograms solved. As for the remark about it taking two to tango, I dare say with this being a military puzzle, the same would hold true for the foxtrot!
ReplyDeleteI also don't mind a little detective work to get the answer, just as long as it leads to a rewarding end.(I also have to admit, if I'm right this week, then this is definitely one of Sandy Weisz's better efforts.)
ReplyDeleteReally?
DeleteIf this is one of her "better efforts," then what in the world were her other debacles like?
Debacle is a bit strong, I thought this puzzle was cute, easy, and fairly forgettable. Not a legacy puzzle.
DeleteThe subject, unfortunately has left a painful legacy for all.
Okay, I will accept travesty then, but don't you think it is high time for WS to offer up worthwhile puzzles? Car Talk does it. I am notified by Lego that he is again using one of my puzzles WS refuses to use, next week on his Puzzleria! Blog. I challenge anyone to take a good look at my offering there and then tell me why this jerk refuses to use any of my submissions. He is nothing but an egotistical phony in my opinion.
DeleteI thought travesty was worse than debacle? We clearly need a ranking system, like the circles in Dante's Inferno. Maybe WW can help, I've heard she's at the center of it all.
DeleteTo Legoland (and Lego, I am trying to be helpful here): I think I'd like the puzzles, but the graphics of the website are too overpowering and visually confusing, and I have a hard time figuring out what I'm looking at and where the clues are.
Too many colors, and fonts, and sizes, and images bouncing all over making paragraphs of different widths. Maybe I spend too much time looking at graphics, but a website needs to be clean and simple for me.
I hope I don't offend, it kind of reminds me of the old Dr. Bronner's soap bottles, which were lots of fun when I was a kid and had more time, but this internet age requires instant digestion.
From Merriam-Webster:
Deletetravesty
noun
: something that is shocking, upsetting, or ridiculous because it is not what it is supposed to be
Interesting. In the usage I hear a travesty seems to be of a more enduring consequence, whereas a debacle is just a kind of mess that can be cleaned up.
DeleteAnd do we really trust Merriam-Webster? They include:
Rhymes with DEBACLE
gang-tackle, ramshackle, unshackle
That sounds very Bostonian to me. Raises my hackle, I pounded the wall that I have to spackle all the crackle.
Yes, I trust MW most of the time. The dictionaries do not decide what words mean. They provide information on how words are being used at the present time, and perhaps the past too. I grew up hearing ADVERTISEMENT being pronounced AD VERT IS MENT and that is how MW listed its first pronunciation back then. Now MW has switched to the way almost everyone today (but not I) pronounce it, which is AD VER TISE MENT. I want to scream every time I hear it pronounced that childish way, but I told the judge I would control myself and refrain from screaming in public. Now I restrict myself to screaming on this blog. Isn't that a scream!?
DeleteWe all have our issues, I have a menagerie of pet peeves.
DeleteI would not want an official pronunciation police, these things vary by region and over time. You can still hear AD VERT IS MENT on the BBC, though they don't play advertisements.
Still, I want to commit violence to my electronic devices every time I hear someone use impact as a verb, as in:
THEM: "How did that impact you?"
ME: "Blam! blam! blam!"
Should I ever (god forbid) be attacked by a drone, would you be okay with my saying I was impacted by the bomb they dropped on me? Or perhaps it might be an impacted tooth.
Deleteecoarchitect,
DeleteI am truly very grateful for your comments. They are quite helpful to me, as is any constructive feedback/criticism. I can tell from your comments that you are and intelligent and passionate puzzle aficionado, so I value what you have been kind enough to say to me. And I believe you likely express a sentiment shared by other potential Puzzlerians!Thank you for speaking up.
I want Puzzleria! to be as inviting and enjoyable a puzzling experience as I can make it. The last thing I want to do is to turn people away or scare them off with confusingly daunting graphics and design.
My graphics and layout do indeed tend to be a bit "busy," shall we say. Overkill is a vice of mine, both in layout and in words. I love the sound of my own prose. I could use some cleaner and simpler! You make valid points, and I shall try to take them to heart.
I was not familiar with Dr. Bronner's soap bottles so I Duck Duck Went to this site and discovered that his labels are actually simpler and (fittingly) cleaner than my Puzzleria! blog pages!
Time to unclutter. Thanks, ecoarchitect.
LegoObservesThatShortzHasLapelPins,BronnerHasLabelSpins&LambdaHasLabyrinthineLayouts!
SDB: since you raise a morbid image I will try to out(mor)bid you. I don't mind anything said by a person being hit by a drone, since I won't hear a thing they say.....
DeleteLego: thanks for the link to the Dr B pages, I have a bottle but usually only use it for travel and backpacking, and that gets transferred into a smaller bottle, so I haven't read the prophesies in many years.
I remember the first time I worked on my website with a reasonable editing tool, but no template. There is a great temptation to put every toy and gizmo and whatnot into them. "Less is more", as Mies van der Rohe said, to which we replied, "Less is a bore!". The balance is out there.
ECO:
DeleteYes, my understanding is that most who are the victims of a drone strike do not get a fair hearing. Only a hair searing.
Well said, SDB. Perhaps Obama's biggest sin, though not only.
DeleteWW used the term TOT earlier, I could see as apropos:
Tower of Terror
Trick or Treat
Trail of Tears
Time Over Target
Texas Oil Tools
Times of Tribulation
Termination of Tenancy (ouch!)
Technical Operations Team
Tracer on Target
Or did she simply mean Totally Off Topic?
I recently discovered that the Billy Joel lyric I thought was "ain't that travesty" was actually "aimed at the average teen".
DeleteNow I'll read the previous comments in this thread and discover what kind of fool I am.
ECO:
DeleteI want to thank you for not including Tongue on Tit. Or, well, never mind.
T*rds On Toast.
Delete*Pick a vowel, (almost) any vowel.
Paul, you have a way with words! I knew someone would stool the show.
DeleteI'm happy to say neither of those combinations entered my mind and, like Bob K's "cabin boy" ditty from last week, I will strive to keep it that way.
DeleteECO:
DeleteI, on the other hand, committed to memory the full seven limerick version of "The Good Ship Venus" many years ago. Number six is the only one that is not a true limerick, but too good to be left out.
The cabinpboy
Was the captain's joy,
A cunning little nipper,
They filled his a**
With bro;ken glass
And circumcised the skipper.
Eat your heart out Shelley.
I fear my undersized brain has a small poetry corner, and I mostly reserve that for the works of the immortal F.O. Nash:
DeleteThe Lord in His wisdom made the fly,
and then forgot to tell us why.
ECO, my theory on the overuse/abuse of impact is that people don't know the difference between affect and effect.
Deleteecoarchitect and Blainesville Puzzlers all,
DeleteOgden Nash, quite a fella,
To condense Musca domestica.
Why might the fly be in our homes?
To be the subject of such poems!
On another topic covered here of late, so not TOT, if the devil/angel scale were pH ranging from 0 for the former (devil) and 14 for the latter (angel), I would be a 10.5.
And in the realm of "How about that!?" litmus is derived from different strains of lichen. I lichen that to a solid acid test.
I believe that's a WW original poem!? Definitely makes you a 10+ in my book. Would "The Donald" do a downgrade? Why should we care what he does?
DeleteAnd I never knew that about litmus; I wonder if our GI answer thinks they're lots of fun.
Thank you, ecoarchitect. Writing it was pHun.
DeleteNot sure about Donald Trump, but I did write " Lichen it to a Litmus Test" which includes the image of a politician dipped in lichen. You don't see that every day. . .
I once looked up Sandy Weisz, and I'll have you know Sandy is a he!
ReplyDeleteWell, he he.
DeleteI thought the Billy Joel lyric was "Hey, that's your average teen."
DeleteIs it giving away too much to say that one of the acronyms applies to a presidential candidate? --Margaret G.
ReplyDeleteSince it is a long way to Thursday and it seems that everyone has solved this week's challenge, I am going to offer some thoughts for discussion.
ReplyDeleteWords gone as fast as the buggy whip! When talking to his son about driving a Jalopy, his son looked at his father quizzically and said, "what the heck is
a Jalopy?" OMG (new phrase!), he never heard of the word jalopy!! HOLY MACKEREL, I STILL USE MOST OF THESE! I hope you are hunky dory after you read this and chuckle... .
WORDS AND PHRASES REMIND US OF THE WAY WE WORD, by Richard Lederer
About a month ago, I illuminated some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology. These phrases included "Don’t touch that dial," "Carbon copy," "You sound like a broken record" and "Hung out to dry." A bevy of readers have asked me to shine light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to oblige: Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We’d put on our best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right. Hubba-hubba! We’d cut a rug in some juke joint and then go necking and petting and smooching and spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods and jalopies in some passion pit or lovers’ lane. Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat! Holy moley! We were in like Flynn and living the life of Riley, and even a regular guy couldn’t accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea in China ! Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but when’s the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes and pedal pushers. Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isn’t anymore.
Like Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and Kurt Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” or “This is a fine kettle of fish!” we discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards. Poof, poof, poof go the words of our youth, the words we’ve left behind. We blink, and they’re gone, evanesced from the landscape and wordscape of our perception, like Mickey Mouse wristwatches, hula hoops, skate keys, candy cigarettes, little wax bottles of colored sugar water and an organ grinder’s monkey. Where have all those phrases gone? Long time missing. Where have all those phrases gone? Long time ago: Pshaw. The milkman did it. Think about the starving Armenians. Bigger than a bread box. Banned in Boston. The very idea! It’s your nickel. Don’t forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Turn-of-the-century. Iron curtain. Domino theory. Fail safe. Civil defense. Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cooties. Going like sixty. I’ll see you in the funny papers. Don’t take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatroyd! And awa-a-ay we go! Oh, my stars and garters!
It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter had liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff, this winking out of the words of our youth, these words that lodge in our heart’s deep core. But just as one never steps into the same river twice, one cannot step into the same language twice. Even as one enters, words are swept downstream into the past, forever making a different river. We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeful times. For a child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy that has no age. We at the other end of the chronological arc have the advantage of remembering there are words that once did not exist, and there were words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no more except in our collective memory. It’s one of the greatest advantages of aging. We can have archaic and eat it, too. See ‘ya later, alligator!
After awhile, Crocodile! How now, Brown Cow?
DeleteWords? What are those?
DeleteU UR LOL ROGL ICYMI IMHO
By the way, I wonder what people do with all the time they've saved writing U and UR?
Word Woman
Loll around all day browsing URLs?
DeleteLegoInsteadOfDoingBicepsCURLls(LOLL:LaughingOutLoudLambda)
You save those minutes up for a month, then you party.
Deleteron,
ReplyDeleteWonderful stuff. Thanks for posting this. Richard Lederer has long been one of my heroes. Prolific and prolix (in the best sense of that word). His "A Way With Words" NPR show, which he co-founded, was a weekly treat.
"Turn of the century" will always sound ancient to me, something my grandparents experienced. (I wonder if they experienced Y1.9K?) "Moxie" is a top-ten word. So are "pitching woo," "jalopies," "whillikers," "Jehoshaphat," and "moley."
My mother used to sometimes call me Jehoshaphat wnen I was a lad.
Blainesville seems to be populated by Whillikers or Whillhaters!
LegoWondersHowManyMonkee'sUnclesThePreFabFourHad?
I'm not sure if my answer is down to the point, but being inspired by a popular advert of the past 50 years, I've felt like I gained 50+ years!
ReplyDeleteRIP Merl Reagle I'd seen the name occasionally associated with crosswords, but recently he'd played a role in Lisa Simpson's love affair with the crossword. I only just found out on the Guardian puzzle blog this week that he died. Good Simpsons episode, BTW. Will Shortz was in it too.
ReplyDeleteFetzeR eagle Peak Merlot
DeleteCOLIN POWELL (Col. and P.O.W)
ReplyDelete"My pick and this gentleman's pick are close to our Bruntons. . ." >>> Colin Powell was also a geology major in college, carrying a rock pick and Brunton compass.
"65" referred to Colin Powell being the 65th U. S. Secretary of State.
"Welch's grape juice" >>> Colin Powell has Scottish heritage which includes some Welsh people. Powell is a traditional Welsh name, according to some sources.
"lake effect" >>>Lake (John Wesley) Powell
"Do you suppose I've missed it?" >>> Do you suppose I've missed my calling (Colin)?
and I added 65 to 43, as Powell was SOS to President Bush 43.
Delete65 - 43 is a catch-22. . .
DeleteTwo more: "Or are too chicken to cut the mustard and say so..." pointed to Col. Sanders and Col. Mustard.
COLIN POWELL > COL & POW (colonel and prisoner of war)
ReplyDeleteMy hint:
"You guys are reminding me of another great 3 letter military abbreviation: SOS" Everyone knows SOS stands for SAVE OUR SOULS and SH*T ON a SHINGLE, but I was also using it as a clue for SECRETARY OF STATE, which Colin Powell was after he retired from the military.
Colin Powell
ReplyDeleteCol., Colonel
P.O.W., Prisoner of War
Last Sunday I said, “One of the abbreviations reminds me of the subject of a recent Trumpism,” John McCain, POW.
Chuck
COLIN POWELL-->>COL=Colonel, POW, or P.O.W. = Prisoner Of War.
ReplyDeleteColin Powell and I are both graduates of the City College of New York.
COLIN POWELL
ReplyDelete> Was Blaine's clue intended? I've got an instrument at work that can scope that out.
Anyone up for a colonoscopy?
I wrote, "He is not from the Netherlands." This refers to Netherlands NL, and the non-abbreviation parts of the name are IN and ELL. ---Rob
ReplyDeleteMy comment last Sunday: ". . . you can solve this one very quickly (but don't hold me to that!)"
ReplyDeleteyou = U = uranium, a reference to the yellowcake flap
"don't hold me", reference to prisoner of war
I wrote: "Had to double-check my dictionary, and then post at this site."
ReplyDeleteDaniel Webster (maybe a distant relative to Noah) was Secretary of State at two different times. I also posted this twice, not as a fit of WW pique, but the other Secretary of State who served two different times was James Blaine (likely not related to our host, especially as that's his first name).
To SDB, Smedley Butler fits into all of this as he was asked by a group of Republicans to stage a coup and overthrow FDR as President. Among the never-tried conspirators was Prescott Bush, grandfather of 43.
Yes, and the Republicans are still trying to overthrow the government, which is exactly what the Supreme Court did when they overturned the election.
DeleteTrying to? Succeeding in is better phrasing.
DeleteIt should never have come to hanging chads and the Supremes. Remember in 2000 Katherine Harris was the head of the Bush campaign in FL and was also Secretary of State, and her office happened to purge tens of thousands of legitimate voters throughout Florida, mostly in districts heavily represented by African Americans and Jews. They did the same trick in 2004 in Ohio.
Greg Palast did some terrific reporting on this, mostly ignored.
Go back further and remember the "October Surprise" of 1980, that probably kept Jimmy Carter from being re-elected. I had a client who lived in Iran at the time, and his uncle was a high official in the Khomeini government. He told me he heard directly from his uncle that Reagan's people had asked them to keep the hostages until after the election and inauguration. Unfortunately my client died of a sudden heart attack a few months later.
And now the merry tricksters are at it again, purging voters in swing states like North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
DeleteNow you've got me all riled up, I need a stress pill.
But eco, we live in the best country in the world. I know this because people say it. And right now as we speak (so to speak) workers are busy remaking Lincoln's face on Mt. Rushmore into Ronnie Reagan's face. Scalia and Thomas are next. When The Donald is Prez everything will become almost perfect. Gee, I sure do miss the good old days of W. Bush.
DeleteOne of the mostly unnoticed bits of the 2000 campaign was during one of the debates: W was asked what quality was most important in the people with whom he'd surround himself. Not missing a beat, he said "loyalty."
DeleteWhile seeming innocuous though a little naive (what about intelligence, integrity, etc) I never heard anyone comment. We like loyalty, Golden Retrievers are ever popular. I asked (my television) "loyalty to a person or loyalty to the law, the country, and the people of this country?" No reply. Naively I thought loyalty should be earned by the deeds one does.
Colin Powell was a great test case in loyalty. Eric Alterman wrote in The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America that on first receipt Powell threw the infamous Feb 2003 war speech on the floor, calling it garbage - or something like that, I read this >10 years ago.
But Powell, ever the "loyal" soldier, did his duty. And as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Now I really need that stress pill.....
I always thought it just a bit strange that I, here in Seattle, with no connections to classified information for decades knew there were no WMD in Iraq because Chief Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter was interviewed here in Seattle for an hour at our NPR station, and later that same evening he spoke at a huge church across the street from the University of Washington where over 1200 attended (including my cousin and me) and as many were turned away for lack of space. He spoke well and began by informing us he was a Marine major at the time he was in Iraq inspecting and he was also a Republican and voted for Bush. He went on to detail how meticulous the Iraqis are with paperwork and it was easy to prove there were no WMD remaining, except 2 missiles could not be located. That was not surprising since they had so many before. He asked by a show of hands how many were in attendance from the media and only one person responded. That reporter was there from the Seattle Times, but no article was published regarding this talk. Scott Ritter went around the country with this information and a book he had written on the subject in an attempt to keep us from going to war. But of course no one in Washington D.C. knew anything about this. Why didn't anyone tell Dick Chaney, or W or Rummy, or Powel? You don't think they.......? No, of course not; what was I thinking?
DeleteI hope we're not going to give Maj. Colin Powell a pass for his whitewash of the My Lai massacre, reports of which he was assigned to investigate during his time in Vietnam.
Deletejan:
DeleteI know you are well aware that at the time of My Lai there were no Vietnamese living in Vietnam. They had all fled to Cambodia. Therefore there could have been no massacre. I am certain it was all made up by Democrats.
I remember when I was a teenager and reading a Readers Disgust article about the emerging Colin Powel. It was clearly a propaganda piece in that conservative rag and I, even then, thought it a bit odd. Ever since then I have observed his rise and wondered what price he had to pay for it to all happen. It wouldn't be politically correct for me to point out that he is Black and things were not exactly going all that well for Negroes at that time. Oh, shit! I wasn't going to mention that. Damn! Well please just ignore that comment. I am sure he was not being used by any of his superiors. I must have a vivid imagination.
One of my friends was a helicopter pilot in Việt Nam. He has devoted his life, many financial resources, and photography skills to telling the truth about what he and many others witnessed from the air. He returns to Việt Nam at least once a year to try to make some reparations for what happened there.
DeleteAnd in 2050 his kindred spirits will be doing the same in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ah, the circle of death.
DeleteAdam West in the TV series Batman...POW!
ReplyDeleteI actually met Adam West and Burt Ward a gazillion years ago in 1966. My band played a show at Central Park in NYC. Batman and Robin were the headliners, we were the band. West was very nice backstage – took off his mask, engaged in regular conversation, complimentary about the band, etc. Ward was an ass – wouldn’t take off his mask, wouldn’t get out of character, wouldn’t engage in regular conversation, etc. Go figure...
DeleteChuck
Chuck, playing in Central Park with Batman and Robin in 1966: cool! {2015 update: coleslaw!}.
DeleteAnd gazillion? Nah, it was less than half a century ago, within the timeframe of Will's puzzle. . .
sounds like robin laid an egg
ReplyDeleteYes Jan. I was intrigued by blaine's use of a colon (:) in his clue.
ReplyDeleteMy other clue - feeling irritable and having to bow out - were references to Irritable Bowel disease which can effect the colon.
Are saying the answer is Colon Bowel?
DeleteSDB obviously meant:
DeleteR U saying the answer is Colon Bowel?
Happy to be of help.
Thanks.
DeleteSnipper, I'll forgive "effect the colon" since in looking up (:), hoping for some sort of smiling and sad simultaneously emoticon, I found this New Republic study on emoticons.
DeleteThursday, Sept. 10 8:30 p.m. is the start of the NFL season. (Yes, I realize it's not the same kind of football.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, there's a colon in 8:30.
Didn't Corporal Louis LeBeau (portrayed by Robert Clary) always pronounce "Colonel" just like it's spelled?
COLIN POWELL, a former four-star General in the U.S. Army.
ReplyDeleteCOL = COLONEL
POW = PRISONER OF WAR.
Dates of rank of C. Powell
Promotions
Rank
Date
General
April 4, 1989
Lieutenant general
March 26, 1986
Major general
August 1, 1983
Brigadier general
June 1, 1979
Colonel
February 1, 1976
Lieutenant colonel
July 9, 1970
Major
May 24, 1966
Captain
June 2, 1962
First lieutenant
December 30, 1959
Second lieutenant
June 9, 1958
My hint: “wolfpack” contains the letters: “col” & “pow.”
On Sunday, I tried in vain to find a military abbreviation for WIL, so I could use Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry's character on F Troop as my mystery military leader. Today, Melody Patterson, who played his love interest, Wrangler Jane, died at age 66. Which means she was just 16 when the show aired!
ReplyDeleteSad, I really enjoyed that show. Apparently Melody died on the 20th or 21st, depending who you believe. According to IMDB, she was still 15 when she auditioned, and didn't tell them until she got the part. What would Jared Fogle ... never mind.
DeleteLots of funny references in F Troop that I didn't always get the first time around. My dad enjoyed that show and would sometimes cue us in to the subtleties; sometimes we just laughed.
DeleteI had no idea Melody Patterson was so young in that role. She pulled off Wrangler Jane quite well. Is there another Parmenter of fame besides Wilton and the Massachusetts politician?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkpLnZagXbo
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtUIMrJUyc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOCeDkPDzjo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Jazyc2q4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPpIUw3iIpg
Adair rhymes with rare;
I'll stop there.
Hey All:
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't been over to Puzzleria!, lego's blog, lately, I humbly suggest making the journey because lego has again presented one of my far too substandard puzzles for Will Shortz to use. I think you will like it.
SDB
I don't know how those truck-weighing-scales work.
ReplyDeleteIs there a scientist in the house?
Next week's challenge: Name a famous movie in eight letters that has had multiple sequels. The title is one word. Rearrange its letters to get a two-word phrase for a satchel. What is it?
ReplyDeleteAnother too easy puzzle. I think I'll pack it in and head back to bed.
ReplyDeleteI know this will be easy for some of you. You know who you are.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day this would be an oxymoron.
ReplyDeleteFor some of us, it still is.
DeleteI tend to travel light as well.
ReplyDeleteI tend to travel light as well.
ReplyDelete