2 thoughts on “0920-09 New York Times Crossword Answers 20 Sep 09”

  1. Needed a little help from you with this one. Roue? Rube?

    How do you verify before you post each crossword?

  2. Hi there, my anonymous friend!

    ROUE is a lovely word, I think, describing a less then lovely man. He could otherwise be described as a cad, someone of loose morals. It comes from the French word "rouer" meaning "to break on a wheel". This describes the ancient form of capital punishment where a poor soul was lashed to a wheel and then beaten to death with cudgels and bars. I guess the suggestion is that a ROUE with his loose morals deserves such a punishment.

    A RUBE on the other hand, is not necessarily of loose morals. A RUBE is person lacking sophistication, often described as "a country bumpkin". An unfair comparison in my opinion, but there you go …

    I verify my answers by looking up answers I don't know in (mainly) online reference works. I post my solution very soon after the crossword becomes available online, and long before the solved grid is published (that takes 24 hours). So, I "hit the books" to make sure I'm right!

    Thanks for stopping by!

Comments are closed.