It's Wednesday, so it must be a WEIRDO puzzle, right? I was surprised at how easy this one was. I had gotten 1A (the first word of today's theme phrase) from crosses, and then figured out CALCULUS, one of the greatest examples of human beings coming up with amazing discoveries at the same time in different parts of the world. For the record, Leibniz published first, but Newton gets all the credit because he claimed to have developed it some years earlier, although he didn't publish until much later.
All this leads to the phrase GREAT / MINDS / THINK / ALIKE, and the puzzle has five examples of great inventions (or in the case of the ATOMBOMB, world-changing inventions in any case) where two people independently having the "aha!" moment. Although in reading multiple articles about these specific inventions (which makes for fascinating reading), it becomes clear that in reality it wasn't so much great minds thinking alike, as it was great minds working together or against each other.
Of course, I always respond with "Fools seldom differ."
Anyway, with 67 squares of theme material, the puzzle is remarkably segmented in order for the answers to have little overlap in terms of crossing down answers. Thus, there are no down answers longer than six letters. There's little room for pizzazz, but I liked 14A: Heat setting (MIAMI), referring to the NBA team, and RIALTO is something I'd like to visit at some point in my life.
I left the last square of 11D: Some college building dedicatees (ALUMNI) open until I had the crossing, just in case. As my daughter goes to Wellesley, most of the dedications are to alumnae. Although, now that I write that, I see it had to be an I, as it was plural.
OHWELL.
- Colum
This was easy although not shockingly so at 10:13. I had most of MINDS from crosses and that was pretty much all I needed to write in GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE. Oddly enough I had not looked at 1 across until this point. I guess I started with the three letter answers in the upper left corner.
ReplyDeleteLiked MAGE and WHIP. Wanted something like larvae for the worms and flies, but couldn't think of a four letter synonym so tried Bugs for a bit until it became clear it was BAIT.
5:25
ReplyDeletePhotography had a similar beginning, with many coming up with a viable method at the same time.
Lots of unfamiliar names.
I had "donors" briefly instead of ALUMNI (and yes, I held the last square too, and now agree that it was unnecessary. Unless we count all the neuter alums...).
Interesting theme.