DNF
Well, DF, but had an error. Had AEo and SADo (I know, funny name for a town). I suppose I might have tried AER later on today, after I'd had a little time away from the puzzle, but there were two other crosses that wore us out. PYE/AYERS and ALEK/KAUAI. We tried both the Y and the K very early on, but when neither set off the "Well Done" notification, we tried other possible word-making letters one after another, and then again. Finally, it didn't seem all that fun anymore.
The puzzle theme was broken early, and once it was, most of the fill was quite easy. It must have been quite a chore putting this thing together, but the payoff was somewhat less than satisfying, partly, to be fair, due to our lack of knowledge, but partly, I think, due to some less-than-fair crosses and some less-than-inspired fill. RLS, ULT, BOSNS, SOTO, OHED, LTS, SADR(!).
I know, I'm just bitter. Perhaps you had more fun with it. I hope so.
- Horace
TITT (DNF)
ReplyDeleteWorked on it in three sessions totaling 1:05:27. I didn't figure out the theme with the four letters. I knew it was something odd since there always seemed to be too many blocks for the answer (KAUAI being a prime example). However I was never able to fill in anything crosswise to the four-letter blocks to make any guesses as to the theme. I think that 29D may have been TRUMPCARD, but again, there were too many blocks. Did Horace and Frances fill in the .pdf version as recommended, or did they fill it out on the iPad? Maybe these four-letter blocks didn't appear on the electronic version. Anyway, this was out of my present league.
Hmm... as you print it out, I thought you would have gotten the "one big square" version, not the four circles version, which is what we had on the iPad. There was a lot of complaining about the different formats in the crossword blogosphere, and I guess for a short time no solution would be accepted for the digital solvers.
ReplyDeleteBut, well, that's the way it goes. Friday's puzzle is much, much more enjoyable.
I also missed a letter. I finished in just under a half-hour and was left with a guess at the cross of what turned out to be AYERS and PYE. Well, I correctly guessed Y, but it turns out I had "moie" and "Ayerm," which apparently weren't correct. I know "moire" is a silk textile, so I figured maybe the word without the R is a variant of that. This is two days in a row with a completely lame-ass theme. The syndicated puzzle had the large squares for LARGE PRINT, but nothing else in the grid had anything to do with large print, did it? When I saw the unusual layout, I was excited and expecting a LOT more bang for my buck.
ReplyDelete