Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Wednesday, April 5, 2017, Alex Eaton-Salners

D.N.F.

I think that the cross that did me in was intentionally left as a potential "impossible cross" by the editor to test us on our political currency. At least I hope it was for that. If it was to test us on a basketball player who retired eight years ago, then I no longer know what is important. Of course, it could be argued by many who know me that I have never known that... Anyway, OK, yes, Mr. Shortz, I did not know the name of the president of Mexico. Happy?

Enrique Peña Nieto
Other than that, there was some nice stuff in here. COPERNICUS (5D: He placed the sun at the center of the universe) and GEOLOGISTS (30D: Rock scientists) (Hi Dad!) went in without crosses, and once I had a few of the clues referencing 43-Down (SPANISH) I was able to fill in both that and 44-Down (ESPANOL). In fact, even with running the alphabet on the N in NSA, and then going to xwordinfo to check the name of the president, my stopped timer still reads under 9 minutes.

1A: Rod at a pig roast (SPIT) - C. Gross.
Favorite: 13D: Tiny bit (SMIDGE)
Least favorite: 46A: Gave the go-ahead (OKED).

One detail that Frannie pointed out to me is that everywhere that the ñ appears, it works for both crosses. Very nice. Overall, though, the impossible cross, and the very little known (or known about) poet ERINNA (definite Saturday material) put a damper on my happiness. Even though here the crosses, such as they were, were fair. Ish. PEPSI is a brand, GASTRAPS (54A: Devices that prevent fumes from escaping) seems forced (how many had "GAShoodS" at first?), and INAT (59A: ____ the finish (having potential to win)) is a partial that just seems made up.

Overall, I appreciate the effort, and I stand humbled by my North American ignorance, but I didn't love it.

- Horace


6 comments:

  1. 6:46
    After I finished, I reset the puzzle and had my 16 year old son take a stab at it since he is taking Spanish class this year. He finished it in 9:24, which is lower than his usual Monday time. So I guess this was pretty easy for a 16x15 if you don't get tripped up. A few more runs like this, and maybe I can convince him to go to the Indie 500 in June.

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    Replies
    1. Wait - you have a sixteen-year-old son?! Did you have him when you, yourself, were 14?

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    2. Thanks. I am very happy to hear you say that. I think crossword tournaments must take 15 years off our appearance because we are surrounded by so many elderly folks.

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  2. As the world famous Greek poet ERINNA used to say, "Mexican presidents and retired basketball players are my Achilles' heel." :(

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  3. 3:59
    Man, this played super easy for me. I knew PENANIETO, which helped. I also knew MUTOMBO, which helped figure out BASSOS rather than BASSeS, which I had initially. I also had POiS initially for "Okra units" (?!) but corrected when OKay didn't work but OKED did. Very much disliked that cross. The I of ERINNA was also a guess, but it made more sense with INAT (rather than oNAT). Anyway, all my guesses worked out.

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  4. 10:17 (FWTE)
    I'll take that "finished with" rating because of the MUTOMBO/PENANIETO/BASSOS crosses, which weren't that fair since no one (except Colum) knows of this MUTOMBO. I liked FLEXORS and TNG, of course, the latter for a couple of reasons. Loved a nice OPAH while in HI, and WOOT is good. ERINNA is not known to me. All-in-all, I give this a very slight thumbs-up. That cross mentioned above should have been reworked somehow.

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