Either way, LaPerla does a lot to cut back on the MUSTY.Ģ. Best I know, La Perla does lace, maybe plether, never chocolate. My brain linked her with La Perla, probly on account of the plethora of bras in recent grids. PERLE MESTA good on two counts, besides knowing her:ġ. The total number of wins and losses aren't equal, but each win is balanced by a loss. Of the remaining 1/4, you won 1/4 and I lost 1/4 = 0. If I wind up with 3/4 of the pie, and you wind up with 1/4, then of my 3/4, I won 3/4 and you lost 3/4 = 0. Oh, so you are right, we are right the puzzle is wrong. So, that doesn't necessarily mean the number of wins, but the amount of gain.
If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero. In game theory and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). If's a situation where if you subtract the number of losses from the number of wins, the result is zero. Thank, Lynch, for bringing up the question on ZERO SUM - I thought the same thing. we haven't seen a haha lately, have we? (In fact, I've never seen one in real life they're like ernes, or adits. By the way, my second selection is performed by the orchestra whose Music Director was Felix Mendelssohn from 1835 until his death in 1847.īy the way, Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt translates to "QUALM Sea and Prosperous Voyage."Īt 70+, PERLE MESTA went in right away, but i spelled it PEarl first. 112 by Beethoven, and the Concert Overture Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Op. The musical titles became the Cantata Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, Op. But I feel my GASTANK close to being on empty, so I'll leave before I suffer a NET LOSS.īut before I do, let me present these two pieces of music inspired by the same two poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Meeres Stille and Glückliche Fahrt (no, it's not what you think). There is plenty of juicy tidbits to PICK AT if you really DISSECT this Monday puzzle, which with a little tweaking could have been a Wednesday - except for the straightforward simplicity of the theme. ZERO SUM is an interesting game theory and mathematics concept studied and developed by the likes of John Von Neumann and John Forbes Nash, Jr. I enjoyed the ATEMS-METAS-EATMS anagrams, one of my favorite word games alongside puns. I wonder if she married a guy by the name of Gates, would she be known as PERLE Gates. PERLE MESTA neé Pearl Skervin (1889-1975) married steel manufacturer George Mesta in 1916. Not that there is anything wrong with that either. It is fun dusting off some of these oldish concepts, expressions and persons and air them out once in a while to displace some of the "fresh and hip" entries that will only be displaced by another set of "fresh and hip" entries in ten years. Not that there is anything wrong with that. This one had a somewhat MUSTY odor to it: zoot SUIT, art DECO, Anita O'DAY, SUSIE Q, ADLAI, EGAD, RUNIC, JAPES and PERLE MESTA, the US Ambassador to Luxembourg (1949-1953). Fill is not terrible, but neither is it above average. I enjoyed the banks of 7s in all the corners, especially ZERO SUM ICECUBE (3D: Like a game with equal winners and losers + 2D: Drink cooler), which would make a nice band name or title for a dadaist sculpture of some kind. In the plural, it literally makes me laugh ( 49A: Army NCOs).
The number of plurals necessitated by the theme makes the puzzle especially blah. Feels very MUSTY, to say the least ( 28A: Stale-smelling). The theme in general is surprisingly rudimentary-the kind I'm surprised make the grade any more.
Never her full name, though, that I recall, so I almost want to give the puzzle credit for originality there. Since then I've seen either her first or her last name several times in puzzles. I know her because of that one time I didn't know her and fell flat on my face. That's a rough Monday themer for the pre-retired set. Clue is no help, as no one knows what "Call Me Madam" is either. I finished this in normal Monday time, but the times posted at the NYT website are running much more Tuesday than Monday, so I think this played slightly harder than usual.