0:05:48
It was something of a relief to see Mr. Quigley's name on a Monday, for a change. Some of you may remember us writing that his puzzle in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was particularly brutal, and ever since then, when I see him late in the week I am struck with a twinge of panic. Today, however, his very sharp edge was sheathed, and only the very interesting handle was visible. (OK, that metaphor was a bit odd, but I think you get the idea...)
The theme answers running up and down the grid like a yoyo (very nicely done) are all lovely, and when YOYOTRICKS (26D: What 5-, 7-, 10- and 15-Down all are) is highlighted, the grid is filled with the color of theme. And even with all that, the rest of the fill is quite good. EGYPTIAN (24A: Cairo native) is especially nice. There's some of the usual stuff like LOO, MAS, AMO, ASSN, etc, but it didn't bother me today. I'm calling it a good Monday.
- Horace
4:16. A very nice Monday, smooth sailing throughout, but with a pretty darn good theme, some nice fill (like EGYPTIAN and SOFTC, which I particularly like). There's a fair amount of crosswordese, brought about by the five long answer theme entries. Don't love seeing ORONO and ECRU, among others, but I'll accept it, as you said.
ReplyDeleteI also see now that the grid is only 15 x 14 squares. Weird.
ReplyDelete6:27
ReplyDeleteI've yet to count grid squares. We often see OKD as "OKED," but either is fine by me, and I actually prefer the former. I loved seeing ZAPPA in there, but other than that there wasn't much of note. The theme was particularly good for a Monday.
27:17
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of OKD. I might tolerate OK'D, but I don't like it. I liked seeing ZAPPA, too, but it was not a reference Jeremy was ever going to get, nor was GRETA Van Susteren, as she was on way to late at night. I thought there was a long shot that he might have know EPSOM, but no and it made that SE corner very difficult with little help from the crosses.
On the other hand, Jeremy is great with geography and got EGYPTIAN and, after running through all of the 5-letter countries (Burma, India, China) in southern Asia, NEPAL. And I love that he knows stuff like LOO and CIAO from our travels, and POST from his coding and FEZ from, well, Indiana Jones.