D. to the N. to the F.
CHANGE OF HEART
I knew I should never have mentioned that other Blindauer puzzle, and I should definitely not have bad-mouthed it. This is my comeuppance, I guess.
Well, ok, we finished this, almost. If not for not knowing 29D: Cambodia's Lon ____ (NOL), we would have completed it in about 1:40:00. We had to look that up. But Frannie figured out that we had to erase all the Across centers and go with the Downs, so we were oh, so close. If there's another level than that, one that, say, clues all the new words, we don't know what it is. And speaking of not knowing things, what's a GORME? Everything else is somewhat familiar as crossword fill.
I guess this is kind of like that Steinberg puzzle where you had to erase, or add, really, Rs to words, and the resulting words weren't really clued. Am I remembering that right? Anyway, it's kind of like that. You are left with new words with no clues. Somewhat interesting, and challenging, but is it art?
- Horace
Endlessly DNF. DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF DNF.
ReplyDeleteDid I mention I didn't finish it? Even once I got the theme, I still struggled. The truth was, I guessed NOL, but GERARDO was completely out of the question. I agree with Rex Parker - if you're going to do something like this, the down answers have to be reasonable to get, not some random person. I find this sort of puzzle to be clever but uninteresting, and not worth the time I spent on it.
We got to 45 minutes and stopped, as per directed. We had most of the puzzle filled in, although we used the rebus thing and had double letters all over the place wishing and hoping we'd find some reason for it. Mon ami did say early on that maybe we were just making new words, but that seemed so shallow and I thought there must be a reason. No. No reason. Just new words that don't make any sense in the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteTwo things about finishing:
First, when we did fill in all the right answers and go the "Puzzle Solved" message, the changed letters were switching between red and black/blue, as in one second red, one second black/blue (blue if we had "checked" it). Did you version do this?
Second, you said something a few puzzles ago about having to hit a "submit" button. We have no such option. As soon as we enter anything in the last blank space it gives us either a "Puzzle Solved" or a "Sorry, the puzzle is complete but there are one or more errors in the grid" (That may not be exactly right, but that's the idea.) So we don't have the opportunity to review before submitting.
Colum, we had "_ _ rardo" and guessed correctly on that one, but went with "Pol" for the other. I know, different guy, and first name rather than last name, but "Nol?" Wasn't gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteAnd Icarus, we use the New York Times Crossword iPad app, but the old version, not the new version. We'll have to update in December, when our current subscription runs out. It offers the choice of submitting it or canceling so that you can go back and review. It might have been in the settings somewhere. And there is no colored flashing, or even black and white flashing.