Bemused
May 24, 2004
A cause for perplexity: nearly a third of all traffic through here today seems to be derived from this post from last December, which drew a rather feeble connection between the world of weblogs and a comment in Erasmus. It referred to Erasmus' spokes-deity, the Goddess of Folly, and it is she that is drawing that traffic: from more than a dozen different IP addresses and across at least three time zones, some critical mass of persons using Google and Yahoo is searching the phrase "goddess of folly" and clicking on through. Why this sudden convergence? That is the foolish question of the moment.
Could it be that everyone is trying to solve the same crossword as me... and cheating at it too by using Google to find the answer to 54 down: Goddess of folly
Posted by: Jennifer | December 03, 2004 at 05:37 PM
I am guessing that the crossword theory is correct. If that is the reason you have come, reader, please click through the trackback link above to the post entitled "Erasmus vs. the Balrog." It may provide the answer you were looking for.
Posted by: George Wallace | December 30, 2004 at 09:43 AM
IT'S "ATE" ON TODAY'S CROSSWORD. SEE BRITANNICA.
Posted by: BOB | December 30, 2004 at 10:37 AM
True enough. "Ate" is the answer you would find here as the Greek goddess of "Discord, Wickedness & Blind Folly."
She's better known for her first attribute (discord) than for folly as such, as described in her bio in the Encyclopedia Mythica.
Posted by: George Wallace | December 30, 2004 at 10:47 AM
Ah yes, I too use Google for the crossword answers when I run out of other ideas. Thanks for the answer "ate" for the goddess of folly in thursdays Oregonia. Now, what is the answer for enameled stoneware, four letters, first letter is a T and I think the last letter is an A.
Ron
Posted by: Ron Lang | December 30, 2004 at 01:33 PM
Arrrgh! Someone commented here that the correct response for "enameled metalwork" (4 letters, starts with "T") is TOLE. Unfortunately, we were invaded this evening by several hundred spammed commments from an online poker site and, in my zeal to delete them, I seem to have lopped out at least one legitimate commment. Many, many apologies to the innocent victim(s) and a thousand plagues on the Spammers in question.
Posted by: George Wallace | December 30, 2004 at 08:16 PM
I came here attempting to confirm that "ate" was the goddess of folly after completing the crossword puzzle from the Iowa State Daily on 1/19/06. Amazingly the answer proved to be correct!
Posted by: Nancy Olson | January 20, 2006 at 10:28 AM
They are still using it. It showed up in the Feb 13 issue of the Dayton Daily News. The author could have just asked for the past tense of eat!!!!!
Posted by: Lestoile | February 13, 2006 at 10:33 AM
Turned up in The Oregonian crossword again today...
Posted by: John Boots | March 07, 2006 at 04:52 PM
ATE is the answer to 66Down in the daily crossword published this week by The Tribune Media Services in lots of daily newspapers.
Posted by: cam | March 07, 2006 at 05:21 PM