Clue: This scientist, born into a wealthy English family in the 13th century and who spend a good portion of his life as a friar, was eventually confined by church leaders for his beliefs. He is oft credited for inventing this modern aid.

Scientist: 2 words - 1st word is 5 letters, 2nd word is 5 letters, the 2nd letter of which is an "A" from Zubin Mehta.

Aid: 1 word, 6 letters, the 4th of which is an "S" from Bayerische Staatsoper.

Roger Bacon.

But I can't figure out what the invention is. Lenses? But they came before he did, it seems.

I was looking for glasses though spectacles would have been a better answer. He was a forerunner in the field of optics, and most sources cite him as the first to put forth the idea of using lenses as a vision aid.
You are up, 111op!

Ok, but glasses have 7 letters. :-) I was debating whether to put glasses or lenses....

Good God, my counting could only be described as wombatesque!

Clue: In an interesting take on architecture about two years ago, this creative team (Blank 1), which won a/an (Blank 2), award created a (Blank 3) on (Blank 4) in (Blank 5).

Blank 1: Identify the team of two. Give the two last names. Name 1 has 6 letters. Name 2 has 8 letters, 1st = "S."

Blank 2: Identify the award they've won (but not necessarily tied to the structure they've created). 9 letters.

Blank 3: Identify the structure they've created. 2 words, 1st = 4 letters, 2nd = 8 letters. (You can argue that this is perhaps, a slight misnomer. Is it really a ... in the traditional sense?)

Blank 4: Identify more precise location of structure. 2 words, 1st = 4 letters, 2nd = 9 letters.

Blank 5: Identify (indeed European) country where this all took place. 11 letters, 1st = "S"

Sorry -- misplacement of comma -- comma comes after "award." I don't want to create any confusion.

Ok, sorry -- poor grammar. Since the structure they've create is (presumably) unique, change "a" to "the" -- i.e. .... created *the* (Blank 3).

1. Diller & Scofidio
2. Arteplages?
3. Blur Building (I thought it was called the "cloud"?)
4. Lake Neuchâtel
5. Switzerland

Pretty good research, but the award they won is wrong (or not the one I had in mind). The one I had in mind is usually referred to as the genius award. Do some more Google searches. :-)

I actually didn't know that this is called the Blur Building until I started researching this again for the clue.

Anyway, neat stuff, eh? They had a retrospective at the Whitney a while ago. They also redesigned the Brasserie restaurant at the Seagram building in NYC. I went to eat there just so I can see what it was like.

But you can have the next clue.

MacArthur Foundation Award?

Anyhow, I'm getting jealous of you living in NYC and having the luxury of art & culture at your doorstep!

Next clue:
This man co-founded an aid organization 30+ years ago, which has since grown to considerable size. One of the chapter-presidents of this organization, unfortunately died "in the line of duty" in the Spring of 2003 far away from his home country.

Name:
Co-founder (7,8, "n" is 6th letter of last name)
Organization (8,4,10, "n" is 7th letter of 1st word)
Chapter-President (5,6, "n" is 5th letter of last name)
"n" taken from Neuchâtel

Yes, they won the MacArthur -- which I guess I maybe sort of knew.

I do like NYC a lot, but the housing prices here are just *insane.* And anyway, after a while, the novelty does wear off, I think.

That's why I enjoyed living in Philadelphia, and going up to NYC once a month to visit my friends. I even had their apt key so that I could go anytime. No more of that... :(

Well, maybe you can move back here?

But if it's any consolation, after a while, it does seem like more of the same. This year I haven't bought any tickets for Carnegie Hall concerts for the coming season, which is pretty unusual. I guess I've gotten used to the luxury of world-class concerts and am no longer so excited that I need to buy tickets well in advance. Mahler 8 is on the program for the coming season, which I find very unusual since it requires a rather massive orchestra and chorus. It's rarely performed.

I guess another thing I miss about Philadelphia is that I used to live 2 blocks from the symphony hall. I could get rush tickets for just $10! And nothing better than leaving my apt at 7:45p and be seated in the concert hall by 7:55p; and be home 5 mins after the concert was over (while other patrons still waiting for the parking garage elevator to get to their cars).

Need a little hint for the clue?

Wow, that's nice! And the orchestra at Philly is excellent of course -- I've already heard them a couple of times with both Sawallisch and Eschenbach.

Yes, I do need a clue. Google doesn't give anything, but I was also thinking that there must be someone else who knows what the answer is.

It was interesting (though sad) that you gave the clue La Règle du jeu yesterday, and we just heard that Henri Cartier Bresson has died. I was reading up on him, and apparently he was an assistant to Jean Renoir and had worked on the film.

A little hint: The deceased person was a physician, and he was investigating an illness when he died, far way from Europe...

Yes, I was reading the Times obit and was thinking about the same thing.

Even more coincidental, a friend e-mailed me to say that she just watched "La Regle du Jeu" and wanted me to tell her why I liked it so much. Actually it's been quite a while since I saw the movie. But I was reading some old reviews via IMDB and the NYT review from 1961 ends with the following: "For discerning audiences, The Rules of the Game affords a memorable experience." I find this pretty amusing. If you hate this movie, does that mean you're not discerning? :-)

But I guess "everyone has his reasons" (something like this is one of the famous lines from that movie).

Oh, that's an obvious clue.

The physician is Richard Dawkins, right? I remember reading about this -- but I never read "The Selfish Gene."

Should be able to research the rest.

Oops, guess not. Wrong # of letters. More research needs to be done. :-)