tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69989892011-09-13T23:09:52.982-07:00Harper's Crossword Solvers ClubNot affiliated with Harper's or any other magazine.Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.comBlogger191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1104671648038213632005-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:002005-01-02T05:14:08.036-08:00Wrong anglesHarper's January 2005 Puzzle: RighTangles
Every answer forms a right angle in the answer grid, the solver has to figure out at which letter and in which direction each word bends. I finished this one pretty quickly. The two answers hinted at in the instructions were dead giveaways, I thought, as if the puzzle author thought the puzzle would be so difficult that he wanted to give the solver an Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1101655364890241642004-11-28T07:11:00.000-08:002004-11-28T07:22:44.890-08:00The More the MerrierRobert M. Jeffers, guestblogging at Eschaton brings blogging about Harper's Magazine to the masses, here and here.
As Jeffers notes, if you beleive the book review by Greg Grandin, Niall Ferguson is a scary political theorist, advocating decreases in the American standard of living and a much more warlike society in order to make us better able to kill our enemies. I suspect (or at least I hope)Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1101010630024541622004-11-20T20:06:00.000-08:002004-11-20T20:17:10.023-08:00First PlaceHarper's December 2004 Puzzle: Three's a Charm
My blog dreams have come true: I have gotten a Harper's Puzzle-related comment to one of my posts. Thank you, commenter.
For this months puzzle, there are eleven unclued words in the answer grid, which have something in common. Not the most original puzzle theme idea.
Once I figured out what the theme was, I knew there was no way I would finish Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1098931241489107852004-10-27T19:35:00.000-07:002004-10-27T19:40:41.490-07:00Not the puppies!Harper's Magazine November 2004.
Good article on the politics of abortion. Fine Gene Lyons review of the Left Behind books. I can't argue with Lapham's criticism of the electoral college. Decent article about the value our society places on busyness is marred by a pretty gratuitous anti-Bush ending. Even though my politics are pretty similar to Harper's', I don't like it when they get too Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1098930930549720702004-10-27T19:32:00.000-07:002004-10-27T19:35:30.550-07:00Activation EnergyHarper's November 2004 Crossword: "Sensitivity Training".
Nine answers have to be rewritten as phrases with the same pronounciation as the clued word before being entered in the grid. For example bordeaux is the clue answer, boredough is entered in the puzzle.
This was what I call an activation energy puzzle. After struggling with the puzzle for a couple of days, not making much progress, I Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1096748719971493512004-10-02T13:58:00.000-07:002004-10-02T13:25:19.973-07:00Nothing to sayHarper's Magazine and Crossword October 2004 (kind of)
This is basically a placeholder post, since there was nothing in this month's Harper's that I am inspired to comment on, but I am not yet quite willing to abandon my plan to blog about each month's issue.
What else is new? I recently got the new Mark Lanegan CD. My impression: the high points are great, the low points are pretty dull, but Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1094003903314302882004-08-31T18:35:00.000-07:002004-08-31T19:07:14.290-07:00Feeling loony"The president has gone from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible on the war on terror," said Phil Singer, a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
So now the Kerry campaign accepts the fact that the war in Iraq is the same thing as the "war on terror"? OK, I know, it was just a spokesman trying to score a cheap point, but still. That almost Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1093651943005962042004-08-27T17:01:00.000-07:002004-08-27T17:12:23.006-07:00CopycatsI see some well-known bloggers are trying to move in on my territory (blogging about Harper's). I too noticed the anomaly that is getting attention: the strange introduction to Lapham's cover story in the September issue, in which Lapham describes (in past tense) his reactions to the 2004 Republican Convention, as if he was writing after the convention took place. Eugene Volokh is all over this Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1093103242032623362004-08-21T08:43:00.000-07:002004-08-21T08:47:22.033-07:00Follow the moneyHarper's Magazine September 2004
That was a good magazine. It's probably not a coincidence that many of the main articles were written by people who haven't been regular Harper's contributors.
Seriously, I would recommend anybody of a leftist political persuasion pick up this issue, for the Naomi Klein article if nothing else. Klein frames everything that has been happening in Iraq since the Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1093102991396219012004-08-21T08:37:00.000-07:002004-08-21T08:43:11.396-07:00AdditivesHarper's September 2004 Puzzle
Split Personalities. Eight of the longest answers are words that can be split into two shorter words (e.g. chartreuse = chart + reuse). The 16 shorter words are clued (in a scrambled order), and the solver has to reconstruct the longer words from them.
One effect of this theme is that most of the clues are for short words (only 12 out of about 50 clue answers are Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1091373056307339352004-08-01T07:34:00.000-07:002004-08-01T08:10:56.306-07:00The long viewHarper's Magazine August 2004
When I created this silly blog, my intention was not to just be critical of everything Harper's does, but also to use the subject matter in Harper's as a departure point for my own commentary. And this month's magazine does at least provide some meaty material for that sort of thing.
So what do I think about building the next progressive majority?
I think that theHarmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1091370855237697092004-08-01T07:18:00.000-07:002004-08-01T07:34:15.236-07:00Take a little trip with Richard MaltbyHarper's Magazine August 2004 Crossword.
"Foursomes". Clues are given in groups of four clues, corresponding to four entries in the answer grid. The solver has to figure out which clue goes to which location in the answer grid.
I liked this one. First of all, all of the clues were "fair" to me: none of the answers relied on knowlege that I never learned. Second, I liked the way that the theme Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1090076194877843802004-07-17T07:48:00.000-07:002004-07-18T06:35:36.493-07:00Saturday morning Russian novel bloggingEvery once in a while, I get the notion to read a classic old novel that I haven't read. Right now I'm about halfway through Crime and Punishment. I was inspired to read this particular book after seeing several "A-list" bloggers expressing a fondness for Dostoyevsky (Matt Yglesias, for example).
It's a pretty good read so far, not as tedious as I was expecting.
[The rest of the post deleted. IHarmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1087863333160354922004-06-21T17:05:00.000-07:002004-06-21T17:15:33.160-07:00Death awaitsHarper's Magazine, July 2004
I was glad to see nothing about the Abu Ghirab torture photos and subsequent shitstorm, other than a couple of brief mentions. Not because I think this story has been given more attention than it deserves, but because, as I mentioned last month, Harper's is at its best when it is expanding the subject matter, not when it is commenting on already well-covered issues. Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1087858202166099222004-06-21T15:40:00.000-07:002004-07-04T10:56:05.900-07:00Getting a handle on immigrationHarper's July 2004 Crossword
"Crazy Quilt". This was the closest thing to a straightforward cryptic crossword that I have seen in this series. The theme is that, instead of running straight across or down, the answers can shift over one row (for across answers) or one column (down answers) every three letters. But once I assumed that (as in a normal crossword) each square in the grid was used Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1085259796602072822004-05-22T14:01:00.000-07:002004-05-22T14:03:16.603-07:00Actually, the puzzle was the best part.Harper’s Monthly Magazine, June 2004.
It’s a magazine about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. This is not why I read Harper’s. When I want to read opinionated takes on the major news of the day, along with preaching-to-the-choir essays about how dishonest the Bush administration is, I read weblogs like Billmon and Maxspeak. I look to Harper’s to broaden my view a bit, tell me about Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1085196931762845322004-05-21T20:32:00.000-07:002004-05-21T20:39:40.640-07:00Damn you, Johnny CochranHarper’s June 2004 Crossword Puzzle.
The theme is Sixes and Sevens. This is basically the same theme as the Sixes and Sevens (and Twelves) puzzle from October 2003, and in acknowledgement of that fact the grid is identical to the grid of that puzzle. Six and seven letter words are clued in random order, the solver has to figure out which clue goes where in the puzzle.
The key to solving the Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1084667743027376712004-05-15T17:23:00.000-07:002004-05-15T17:35:43.026-07:00Introductory PostI've been a Harper's Magazine subscriber since July 2001. I manage to completely finish the puzzle about half of the time. I avoid using any outside references while I'm solving the puzzle, and I typically spend about a week on the puzzle before I finish it or give up.
On this blog I will post my reactions to the puzzle each month, as well as some thoughts about the other content of Harper's, Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6998989.post-1084633557233936152004-05-15T08:05:00.000-07:002004-05-15T08:05:57.233-07:00First postHi.Harmyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15897344106060257720noreply@blogger.com1