The New York Times Crossword in Gothic: 09.09.12 — If Walls Could Talk

Peasants in an Inn Playing "La Main Chaude", Jan Miense Molenaer

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Sunday, September 9, 2012

ACROSTIC, Puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

Edited by Will Shortz

This Sunday’s delightful acrostic draws a quotation from If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley.

Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two "dirty centuries"? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly, and truly intimate history of home life. Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes. ~ Amazon.com

The quotation: SNUGGLING … TOGETHER IN A BIG BED WAS NORMAL … A FRENCH PHRASE BOOK FOR USE BY MEDIEVAL (TRAVELERS) INCLUDED THE … USEFUL EXPRESSIONS: “YOU ARE AN ILL BED-FELLOW,” “YOU PULL ALL THE BED CLOTHES,” AND “YOU DO NOTHING BUT KICK ABOUT.”

The author’s name and the title of the work: L WORSLEY, IF WALLS COULD TALK

View of the heavily cratered terrain of Callisto's anti-Jovian hemisphere obtained in 2001 by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

The defined words:

A. Gathering place for the inn crowd, LOUNGE
B. Took the chill off (2 wds.), WARMED UP
C. Rectangular, but not square, OBLONG
D. Give or get a second wind, REFRESH
E. Insomniac’s dream?, SHUTEYE
F. Accessory for a flower child (2 wds.), LOVE BEADS
G. Galatians or Colossians, e.g., EPISTLE
H. Sultan-deposing revolutionary (2 wds.), YOUNG TURK
I. Area relatively close to home, INFIELD
J. Deck with garlands, FESTOON
K. Companion volleyball in “Cast Away”, WILSON
L. Gastropod also called an ormer or ear shell, ABALONE
M. Suffer through hardship and neglect, LANGUISH
N. Burn the midnight oil, LUCUBRATE
O. Confession to a priest, old-style, SHRIFT
P. Jovian moon found by Galileo, CALLISTO
Q. Banded form of chalcedony, ONYX
R. Like Sikh men, UNSHAVED
S. Showman who said “I’m a one-man Disneyland”, LIBERACE
T. Loose scales formed on the skin; temper, DANDER
U. Restaurant meal with a set menu (2 wds.), TABLE D’HÔTE
V. Nonsensical verse often written as a parody, AMPHIGORY
W. Home of Texas Tech University, LUBBOCK
X. Fix that’s workable though inelegant, KLUDGE

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The paragraphs prior, the full paragraph of the quotation and the ensuing paragraph:

Medieval beds for most people consisted of hay or straw (‘hitting the hay’ had a literal meaning) stuffed into a sack. These sacks might be made out of ‘ticking’, the rough striped cloth still used to cover mattresses today. A mattress might also be known as a ‘palliasse’, from ‘paille’, the French word for straw. John Russell in c.1452 gives instructions for making a bed for several sleepers, 9 ft long by 7 ft wide. He says you should collect ‘litter’ (presumably leaves, not crisp packers) to ‘stuff’ the mattress. Then the stuffing should be distributed evenly to remove the worst lumps. Each simple mattress should be ‘craftily trod … with wisps drawn out at feet and side”.

It sounds rather uncomfortable, but presumably it was softer than the floor.

And snuggling up together in a big bed was normal, indeed desirable, for warmth and security. A French phrase book for use by medieval travelers included the following useful expressions: ‘you are an ill bed-fellow’, ‘you pull all the bed clothes’ and ‘you do nothing but kick about’. The sixteenth-century poet Andrew Barclay describes the horrible sounds that could be expected in a roomful of sleepers.

Some buck and some babble, some cometh drunk to bed,
Some brawl and some jangle, when they be beastly fed;
Some laugh and some cry, each man will have his will,
Some spew and some piss, not one of them is still.
Never be they still till middle of the night,
And then some brawled, and for their beds fight.

~ If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley

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