OK, I said I would start solving on paper today, but I have a big symposium that I have to be at all day (and at which I will introduce one of the speakers!), so I didn't know when I'd have time to print it out, do it, and then write the review, so one more day of computer-solving for me. We'll see what that does to me at the tournament. Of course, I've never taken any time to solve on paper before either of the last three tournaments, and they've all been fun, so why am I worrying?
Today I was happy to see a rebus, but it took me quite a while to realize how it worked in the Down direction. This I credit to my terrible habit of only half-reading long clues, which is especially unhelpful when the clues are revealers. 61A: Classic letter puzzle -- or, when parsed differently, a hint to three Down answers in this puzzle (WORDSQUARE) clearly states that the square, when used for Downs, can be either W or D. And "W or D," when read across, spells "WORD." Brilliant. I love it!
On the whole, this felt a tad on the easy side, but it still took me fifteen minutes, so I guess that might just be a false impression.
I loved seeing ANYHOO (4D: "Moving right along...") in there. I had "ANYHOw," at first, and was very nervous when I had 27A starting with "dPRw" for a while. Yikes! TRIASSIC (6D: Period when mammals first appeared) went right in (Hi Dad!), but when "passeggiata" (Hi Italy!) didn't fit at 28D: Evening stroll (PASEO), I had to wait for crosses. And speaking of waiting for crosses, I think I had six of the seven before I figured out DOORDIE (43D: Last-ditch), and nearly as many for CUPOFCOCOA (31D: Place for a marshmallow).
Overall, I love this one. It's a great new take on the Schrödinger square, and there's plenty of bonus material to make us overlook ENHALO and UNTUNE.
- Horace
11:38
ReplyDeleteTough puzzle! I was unimpressed by the fact that "word" was squished into a square going across, while the down answers were all just W. Then I looked at the revealer and got the cleverness. My favorite answer is DOORDIE. I just love how that looks. Or as a command to a particularly frustrating entryway.
48:32
ReplyDeleteWell, I, for one, had a tough time with this puzzle, but it sure was fun. The middle north had me for quite a while. Plus the fact that I couldn't figure out the rebus too well, especially since I wasn't able to see the "w or d" part for the downs, made this add up to an almost fifty minute solve, which is extremely unusual for a Thursday. Yes, UNTUNE and ENHALO are just awful, but the puzzle on the whole is brilliant.