Monday, September 26, 2016

Monday, September 26, 2016, Timothy Polin

0:05:40

The crossword week has started off strong with this fine Monday grid from Mr. Polin. It played slightly harder than normal for me, which is a plus, and the theme (STUFFIT) is dense, and runs both horizontally and vertically, which, in my opinion at least, is another plus. Down with uniquely horizontal themes! (pun intended)


1A: Diminishes in intensity (ABATES) gets an A. It's an interesting six-letter word, and on a Monday, that's all it takes, apparently, to get an A. Either that, or the picture of PEPPERPOTTS has put me in such a good mood that I'd have given an A to "erne." The first answer I put in confidently was ARAB (7A: Resident of Oman or Yemen).

Even with the dense theme - I count 71 squares, some of it interlocking - the fill does not contain any real clunkers (with the possible exceptions of SNAX and AGITA), and Mr. Polin has managed to get in some rather interesting entries. BUSHWA (10D: Complete rubbish) will be, I'm guessing, the most controversial, but I applaud the gutsy entry. It's another word that I will try to incorporate into my speech more often. Soon everything I say will come from the NYTX. Yes, I might be a DORK...

I enjoyed BADEGGS (47D: Perpetual troublemakers), DOWEL (12D: Carpentry pin), ROGUE (24D: Charming scoundrel), and speaking of French, I also enjoyed PRIX and ETOILE, though non-Francophiles might cry Mon Dieu!

Overall, I very much enjoyed this one. How about you?

- Horace

3 comments:

  1. 4:23
    Tough for a Monday. I'm not as high on the puzzle as you are, only because I don't entirely buy the theme. It's a stuffed pepper, a stuffed animal, a stuffed olive, all okay, but then there are a stocking stuffer, a turkey with stuffing, and a pillow with stuffing. It's a catastrophe! ("And in here, there's a little guy...").

    ALP was my first confident answer.

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  2. My favorite answer was EXSTAR but there are some other good ones like DEBASED and DOWEL. Oh, and STORK. Why? Just because it is a bird which isn't an owlet or an egret. Want some variety in my avian answers. I mean, even DUCK seems rare (too few vowels, I suppose).

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  3. 5:56
    I have to agree with Horace that this is a nice start to the week. I'd have clued HOMER with something other than a sports allusion, but even that's not bad. ROLODEX is excellent, and adjacent to EMAIL, even. Didn't the movie PILLOWTALK show up recently in a NYT crossword? TURKEYTROT is something in which I've participated in the past, but lately Sue works on Thanksgiving, so I just have a rye-infused Doctor Who party instead, which, on the whole, is more fun.

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