Hey, it's Colum again, a new week, and that much closer to ACPT. I am very pleased to have made it under four minutes while solving on paper. I think my training is paying off!
I had one major hiccup: 38D: "Allow me" (ICANHELP). I tried ICANdoit, which I think is closer to the correct interpretation of the quoted phrase, but that cuts no beans when it doesn't fit with the crosses. I looked at 50A: "Star Wars Episode IV" subtitle, where I had ANEWD___ and thought: "There's no way that's 'A New Deal', is there?" Nope, ANEWHOPE, as any redblooded self-respecting American knows.
Before I get to the good stuff, I'm just going to acknowledge three answers whose spelling I was unsure about as I entered them. The first is HADJI. I never know if it's going to be DJ or JJ. Then there was 11D: Blood-related (HEMAL). Yuck. That's just not a real term at all, speaketh the physician. Finally, there is DECA. I just left the third letter blank until I saw the ___K in the crossing answer, and figured it had to be C.
The theme today has to do with ONE EYEd things. SAMMYDAVISJR lost his left eye in a car accident. POLYPHEMUS lost his single eye to Odysseus. The JACKOFSPADES is a classic one-eyed Jack, but does he really not have another eye out of sight? And finally...
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| Nobody knows how he lost an eye |
- Colum
9:28
ReplyDeleteA very, very long slog for a Monday. I've heard "Tin lizzies" 100 times now and always forget they're just MODELTS, and with it crossing HADJI (as Colum mentions), I couldn't parse it correctly, wanting a "j" instead of a "D" but knowing it was wrong. So I left that square blank for a while. Also, for some reason, RACEWAY wasn't coming to me, even though it crossed the eminently gettable SAWTO. I originally thought SetTO there, but even when I got the JACKOFSPADES entered (which didn't take long), I kept wanting SAtTO for some reason. Anyway, I eventually sussed it all out. ANEWHOPE is a dislike to me, as it is a re-naming, which I don't enjoy. Can't we just call it "Star Wars" and be done with it? Everyone would know what we were referencing.
4:26
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think I won't start solving on paper until the first puzzle of the ACPT.
I liked this somewhat surprising theme. What won't they think of?!
My favorite clue was 4D: Hero who's neither a bird nor a plane (SUPERMAN). So silly. I also enjoyed their decision to not even include the "old riddle" in 50D. Heh.