Welcome to day 2 of my week of surprise blogging! During which I will attempt to be surprised and surprising all at the same time. ARYA surprised yet?
No? RHO well.
Today's puzzle takes the four main BEERINGREDIENTS and hides them inside four other two-word phrases. Nicely, all of the hidden words are split across the two words. The most surprising of these was IOWATERRITORY, a term I'd no memory of encountering before, but all four stand up to inspection.
I'll just go on a little tangent here. More of a rant really. I don't really like IPAs. And nowadays, it seems that 90% of beers on draft are IPAs. Or double IPAs. Or super IPAs. See, I'd rather have less of the hops, and more of the malt. Although not so much that it becomes a stout.
Speaking of which, on a recent trip to Ommegang in Cooperstown, I tried a Gnomegang beer. I highly recommend it, although they are very difficult to find outside of the actual brewery, it seems.
Oh yeah, the crossword puzzle. My error was stupid: I had dORIA in at 14A: Middle-earth area under the Misty Mountains. Clearly I was thinking of the Andrea Doria, the ghost ship. MORIA is where The Fellowship encountered the balrog, and Gandalf "died". Anyway, dELT was clearly incorrect, I should have figured that out before finishing the puzzle. Ah, well.
Other things I liked included 53A: How a dying machine goes (KAPUT) and BLOVIATES.
- Colum
I totally fell for "one" two three four (in place of HUP). Hook line and sinker fell for it. Finish the puzzle and wonder why no ding fell for it. Saw something fishy in that corner and kept looking at ASH or RHO fell for it.
ReplyDeleteFavorite part of the puzzle: the long downs BLOVIATE and UNMERITED.
Time: 10:15, typical for Tuesday.
7:11
ReplyDeleteI also liked BLOVIATES. And if I had more oomph, I'd write a twenty sentence paragraph telling you just how much I liked it.
I had HUt, at 10A, but fixed it before the end.
Me, I like an IPA, but I think they've been overdone. The double and triple IPAs are just not necessary. A clean, crisp taste is one thing. A grapefruity taste challenge is another. Give me a Sierra Nevada any day.