This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today. If you are doing the New York Times crossword in any other publication, you are working on the syndicated puzzle.
Here is a link to my answers to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword.
Needed a little help from you with this one. Roue? Rube?
How do you verify before you post each crossword?
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!