http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/09/06/opinion/20090906-circular-reasoning.html
Well, I have one answer correct 
I’ve a feeling many dopers will do much better than I
[moderating]
I’m thinking this puzzle will be much happier in the Game Room.
[/moderating]
I can get the quadrant from the right-center through the bottom-center. Some of these really have no relation at all to the previous answer, while others depend critically on it.
Neat puzzle. I like these.
This thing is fun 
I got about 40% of it done and am thrilled it refers to a great science fiction TV show.
I had so much trouble getting that answer right. Kept trying to put in different forms of the TV Show’s name.
I need to pay attention more. :smack:
Yeah, the phrasing on some of them makes it a little convoluted to figure out what the question is.
I managed to get it all except for the summer clothing. And that was because I couldn’t be bothered to write down the sixteen first letters and anagram them.
This Bob Harris is the same guy as the Jeopardy! class clown, one of my all-time favorite contestants.
I like the concept of the puzzle, but the execution is a bit lacking. Too many of the answers are so easy they don’t require any knowledge of the circular clues. A country where they’ve recently cracked down on protesters? Gee, what could it be? A biblical tower? Let me think. On the other hand, some clues are too obscure. You can’t possibly get the science fiction phrase unless you’ve seen the science fiction show. And in that particular case, the circular clues are so tenuous that they won’t help you fill in the blank.
I did appreciate the “with chicken” to “dog food” connection. I wouldn’t have gotten the “with chicken” answer if I hadn’t been able to figure out the dog food brand. (I would have said “con *****”). I wouldn’t have been able to figure out the dog food brand unless I’d remembered the dog food commercials from my youth. However, anybody younger than 35 probably wouldn’t have seen the commercials.
Of the sixteen outer clues, that was the only one I didn’t get, and I indeed haven’t seen the show. Once I had the first letter of the answer, I was able to figure out the “summer clothing” anagram. (I had already solved the Summer in the City portion of the puzzle from general knowledge.)
The answer supplied for the ‘French word’ is two words, not one!
I’ve been Googling for catch phrases from Stargate SG-1 for an hour. No luck.
I’ve got all the others, except the one immediately following it. Answers below, starting with the Olympic one at the top and to the left:
Nixon, Andropov, ordo, Urdu, eight, [Stargate phrase I can’t figure out], [8 letter candy], Faso, Saints, l’oeuf, al pollo, Basenji, Iran, Richard Bach, Babel, Melbourne
You don’t need to give us the answers-- Anyone who wants them can just hit the little question mark.
And does the show you mentioned have any characters with a number for a name?
Oh! I didn’t notice that.
One character, according to IMDB. Eight.
But “Stargate” is NOT the sci-fi series whose cast visiteds the UN! The one that DID doesn’t seem to have a character with the right number name.
And they seem confused as to whether they want the number of SCHOOLS in the Big Ten or the number of states thta have schools in the Big Ten.
Otherwise, I got most of them fairly quickly.
Yeah, I wasn’t crazy about that, either. There is a character named Eightbut she’s usually referred to by other names. And there’s also a character who’s referred to primarily by a number, but her number is SixBased on that, and no knowledge of sports conferences, I had the wrong answer for the previous clue.
I got about half of them, and then started using Internet resources to solve the others. Fun puzzle!
Yeah, it is mildly disappointing (especially with the bottom central answer, which needs NONE of the outer answers to actually get), but I guess it’s a hazard with constructing a closed loop of questions. You need to let solvers start SOMEWHERE, and not necessarily at the same somewhere.