(Roughly) Daily

Clement Clarke Moore’s famous poem, originally entitled “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” has been a Christmas staple since it’s publication (in The New York Sentinel) on December 23, 1823.  But it has surely never been as deeply explored nor as richly interpreted as by the director of Caves Of Forgotten Dreams, Encounters At The End Of The World, and Grizzly Man:

Readers might also enjoy Germany’s cinematic treasure reading Curious George, Where’s Waldo, and Madeline… just visit Ryan Iverson’s “Stupid is the New Awesome” channel on You Tube.

As we sigh at the Existential ennui of it all, we might recall that it was exactly 90 years later– on this date in 1913– that Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross,” the first crossword puzzle, was published in the New York World:

2-3.    What bargain hunters enjoy.        6-22.    What we all should be.
4-5.    A written acknowledgment.         4-26.    A day dream.
6-7.    Such and nothing more.                2-11.    A talon.
10-11.    A bird.                                            19-28.    A pigeon.
14-15.    Opposed to less.                           F-7.    Part of your head.
18-19.    What this puzzle is.                     23-30.    A river in Russia.
22-23.    An animal of prey.                      1-32.    To govern.
26-27.    The close of a day.                      33-34.    An aromatic plant.
28-29.    To elude.                                      N-8.    A fist.
30-31.    The plural of is.                           24-31.    To agree with.
8-9.    To cultivate.                                     3-12.    Part of a ship.
12-13.    A bar of wood or iron.                20-29.    One.
16-17.    What artists learn to do.            5-27.    Exchanging.
20-21.    Fastened.                                      9-25.    To sink in mud.
24-25.    Found on the seashore.             13-21.    A boy.
10-18.    The fibre of the gomuti palm.

solution (source)