Initial Impressions

Today's crossword puzzle (by Bruce Venzke) is called "Men of Letters." As with all Friday puzzles, it's a little more challenging than usual. The theme answers were all famous men who used initials as their first names (see yesterday's post regarding my love of monograms).

17A: Peter Pan creator: J(ames) M(atthew) BARRIE (1860-1937). Barrie was reported to be asexual and a pedophile. He was extremely close to his mother, who never got over the trauma of the death of his older brother. His mom found comfort that the deceased would remain a little boy forever and never grow up. Also, Barrie's marriage to Mary Ansell was reportedly never consummated. Barrie's inspiration for Peter Pan came from two orphan boys (George and Jack Llewelyn) whom he would unofficially adopt. Barrie had a long string of successes following Peter Pan and had a wide circle of friends. After his death, Barrie gave the rights of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Of course, many stage adaptations and films arose from Barrie's most famous character.

35A: Bright Day author: J(ohn) B(oynton) PRIESTLEY (1894-1984) published 26 novels, his most famous being Bright Day. To order your copy, go to http://www.amazon.com/Bright-Day-Phoenix-fiction-Priestley/dp/0226682110/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307709624&sr=1-1. Priestley was a socialist and was on George Orwell's "blacklist" of people who were affiliated with the Communist Party.

58A: Co-creator of "Lost": J(effrey) J(acob) ABRAMS (1966-  ). "Lost" may have ended last season, but Abrams is responsible for being creator or executive producer for several other TV shows, including "Felicity," "Alias," and "Fringe."

11D: Retail-chain founder: J(ames) C(ash) PENNEY (1875-1971). Penney's (www.jcpenney.com) is the ultimate middle-class store. They went "upscale" in 1999. Personally, I look but I don't buy anything there. Penney founded his first store in 1902. Many Penney's stores were on main streets all over the U.S. By the late 1950s-early 1960s, mall culture evolved, and Penney's became an anchor at many of these shopping centers. J.C. Penney had also owned Eckerd Drugs (now Rite-Aid).

35D: U.S. Steel founder: J(ohn) P(ierpont) MORGAN (1837-1913). J.P. Morgan simply dominated corporate America in his day.  In addition to U.S. Steel, he also was responsible for creating Chase Manhattan Bank. In fact, Chase is now called JPMorgan Chase as a result of the merger of the two companies in 2000.

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) is responsible for today's cryptoquote:

"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."

Flaubert is most famous for his novel Madame Bovary. As a writer, he used a combination of the romantic and realist styles in his works. His writing style was lean and precise and had a large influence on many 20th Century writers.

We're off to see Book of Mormon this afternoon. I can't wait!

More Weiner skits on "Bill Maher tonight. . . .

The heat wave finally broke, so I'm going out to enjoy it!

Signing off,
The Puzzlechick