Is it just me, or does it seem there's been a spate of Bruce Haight puzzles lately? He had the first one at the A.C.P.T. this year, too! And - full disclosure - when I spoke to him at the tournament, I joked about his "stunt puzzles," and he hinted that he had another one in the pipeline. This, I'm assuming - using only seven letters - is it.
Sure, there are a few entries - I'm looking at you, ASSAI, ELEA, and REES - that are on the outskirts, but I rather enjoyed STALEAIR (4D: Result of poor ventilation), RARITIES (38D: They come along once in a blue moon), and the meta-clued ELLS (45A: The black square chunk in front of 55-, 60- and 63-Across, and others). And I think the four anagrams added a nice touch.
I briefly attempted to write a review using only A, E, I, L, R, S, and T, but didn't get very far before realizing that it would be rather tiresome to read, so I applaud Mr. Haight for the effort. One of these stunt puzzles every once in a while keeps things interesting.
- Horace
I SIT LISTLESS, STARE AT LITTLE LETTERSET. IRATE, I ERASE. RESTART. I TIRE. I IS ILLITERATE. AT LAST, I REALISE ALL LETTERS ARE EASIER.
ReplyDeleteReal terse, still, "Stare at little letterset" is stellar!
DeleteHi Horace,
ReplyDeleteI realize some of your comments are tongue in cheek, but I really enjoyed your write-up. NO other reviewers had anything nice to say, not even Deb Amlen who gets paid to write nice things! Great seeing you at the ACPT - I need to buy you guys a drink next year! Bruce
4:47
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly an accomplishment. I liked SALTIER the best, which may in fact describe the reviewers (using "salty" the way my daughters' generation does, rather than in the sense of "coarse"). At the same time, it's humorous to include these four anagrams, when virtually every answer in the puzzle is an anagram of another answer... ALTAIR and LARIAT, ALTER and LATER, etc. etc.
I'm usually suspicious of these kinds of constraints, as they can lead to a lot of forced answers and the benefit can be abstract ("isn't that clever") rather than something which adds enjoyment while solving.
ReplyDeleteSo how does this one stack up? Better than usual I guess. The constrained letters and the theme (in which each of the letters appears exactly once) does narrow down the possible answers a lot. And more importantly, answers like RETAILS, ISRAEL, TILT, and LARIAT do get high marks.
Still, not sure I can entirely forgive ELEA, ASSAI, and a larger than usual crop of crosswordese.
5:51
ReplyDeleteThis may be my fastest Tuesday time ever. Because of the quickly sussed out theme, which is an amusing and somewhat impressive accomplishment, I knew to constrain my thoughts to those letters. I liked the longer answers the best, like STALEAIR, RARITIES, ALISTER, STILLER and SISSIES (my favorite). Lots of the small stuff was just OK, but REARS stands out, especially so close to the LASS. Strange that there was no need for "ass" somewhere as glue.