crossword #7

a mysterious visitor has toasted the grave of Poe on his birthday, every year since 1949; 2010 is the first year he didn't show up.

the Cyclopes were sons of Uranus.

Stefan Edberg- a highly successful tennis player of the late 80's and early 90's. Many interesting facts and tidbits: he was a major proponent of the serve-and-volley style of tennis, he was the first player to win the junior Grand Slam (all four of the major events in the juniors league) and he was the childhood hero of Roger Federer. He's considered one of the top ten greatest men's tennis players ever; he appeared in the final for each of the four Grand Slam tournaments; the only won he never won was the French Open (losing in 1989 to the youngest men's Grand Slam title winner ever, 17-year old Michael Chang.) (Also, this match looks like good watching.)

J Dilla- one of the most respected producers in hip hop, whose legend has grown in the wake of his 2006 death from a blood disease. He seems to have been the sort of hip hop artist I'm interested in exploring- that hip, grimy, spacey style. Some of his works and collaborations that could be worth listening to: The Shining, Welcome to Detroit, Champion Sound, and Fantastic, Vol I.

Lake Mendota- a lake on the northern bordern of Madison, Wisconsin.

Phil Mahre and Steve Mahre- twin brothers former Olympic alpine skiers. Phil is considered one of the greatest American skiers of all time; Steve was pretty good too. They finished 1-2 in the slalom 1984 Sarajevo Olympics. Phil retired with 27 World Cup race victories (3rd all time among Americans, behind Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn); Steve finished with 9.

GTE- once upon a time the largest of the 'independent' U.S. telephone companies in the days of the Bell System (the AT&T monopoly, 1877-1984.) Later they merged with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon.

Bennett Cerf- publisher and cofounder of Random House, their leader in their glory days; seems like he was a pretty smart, cool guy. He pushed for and won the court case that allowed for the U.S. publication of Ulysses, a landmark case against government censorship (the opinion is often published in editions of the book.) He was also famous for his jokes and puns (a treasury of tame, anachronistic midcentury humor) and his appearances as a panelist on the classic CBS game show What's My Line?