07.18.13 — Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend



Marilyn Monroe performing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
in the 1953 film of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Puzzle by Todd Gross and David Steinberg 
Edited by Will Shortz


MARILYN MONROE (20A. 23-Across singer), DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND (23A. Classic song from a movie celebrating its 60th anniversary on 7/18/13 [starting from the second square]) constitutes the main feature of this rich Thursday crossword.

Other — AUTOGRAPHS (28D. Features of some prized memorabilia), BLENDED (9D. Like some Scotch), KIKI DEE (54D. Elton John duettist on the #1 “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”), LINDEN (21D. Shade tree with deep-red winter buds), NEAT FREAKS (26D. Obsessive organizers).

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The French are glad to die for love.
They delight in fighting duels.
But I prefer a man who lives
And gives expensive jewels.

A kiss on the hand
May be quite continental,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.

A kiss may be grand
But it won't pay the rental
On your humble flat
Or help you at the automat.

Men grow cold
As girls grow old,
And we all lose our charms in the end.

But square-cut or pear-shaped,
These rocks don't loose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Tiffany's!
Cartier!
Black Starr!
Frost Gorm!
Talk to me Harry Winston.
Tell me all about it!

There may come a time
When a lass needs a lawyer,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.

There may come a time
When a hard-boiled employer
Thinks you're awful nice,
But get that ice or else no dice.

He's your guy
When stocks are high,
But beware when they start to descend.

It's then that those louses
Go back to their spouses
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

I've heard of affairs
That are strictly platonic,
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.

And I think affairs
That you must keep liaisonic
Are better bets
If little pets get big baguettes.

Time rolls on,
And youth is gone,
And you can't straighten up when you bend.

But stiff back
Or stiff knees,
You stand straight at Tiffany's.

Diamonds!
Diamonds!
I don't mean rhinestones!
But diamonds are a girl's best friend.

[From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/diamonds-are-a-girls-best-friend-lyrics-marilyn-monroe.html]


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Puzzle available on the internet at
THE NEW YORK TIMES — Crossword Puzzles and Games.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This from Wikipedia:

It is generally regarded as desirable to use apostrophes to show plurals of single lower-case letters,[47] such as be sure to dot your i's and cross your t's. Some style guides rule that upper case letters need no apostrophe (I got three As in my exams[47]) except when there is a risk of misreading, such as at the start of a sentence: A's are the highest marks achievable in these exams.

Me again, apostrophes are usually elided in crosswords but this was doubly confounding to me for being between ABC and s without being either possessive or a contraction. For obvious reasons not even the possessive of it gets one.