Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Wednesday, December 18, 2019, Margaret Saine

11:58

Today we have a quote puzzle with a self-referential bonus feature. The quote is about editing as an art form. Within the "long-winded" quote are shaded squares that offer an edited and more concise version of the quote that still conveys its original meaning. The example is certainly apt - apt! - it just seems like a long way to go to make the point.

Although there weren't too many tough nuts to crack, I was slowed by some bum first guesses. Perhaps thinking too much of yesterday's puzzle, I dropped in oarER instead of the correct ROWER at 9A. I also entered drS for RNS at 25A. Also, EYES were not the first thing I thought of when I read the clue "Unrealistic part of many statues." Anyone else?

On the other hand, there were many answers that went right in like RINKY (-dink) [is there another kind of dink?], DRACO (Harry's foil in Harry Potter), and even, "Illustration for an ill tourist?" (ANAGRAM), which didn't fool me for a minute.

POLKADOT
USURP is a great looking word. It looks like it shouldn't mean anything at all, it should just represent a sound. I also liked CHEESY and ODDMAN (One who's "out"). Fun is that INFLATED follows hard on the heels of EGO (no offense M. Nwodim). And, I like to give a shout out to WAWA. :)

In the spirit of the puzzle's quote, I'll keep this one short. Plus, I have packages to SEND! 'Tis the season.

~Frannie.

5 comments:

  1. 7:19
    An odd beast of a puzzle. My problem is that the syntax of the quote is very peculiar. Really, one should say "It is surely an art form to edit a draft of writing well." Alternately, one could have said "To edit a draft of writing well is surely an art form." That "editing" is a problem, although I see how it is needed for the edited version. I too put in "oarER" first, and winced, and then unwinced as I corrected it. I almost had an error because I put ALTa rather than ALTO in. But I'd left the second D blank in ODDMAN, which gave me a few moments to consider the possibilities.

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  2. ANAGRAM fooled me for a number of minutes, although it was quite enjoyable when I did get it (mostly from crosses, I'm not sure whether I should admit how long I was pondering, well do I send a telegram to a tourist? A mailgram? A, oh my gosh there must be a gram with only three letters at the front. Etc).

    Also had dOt-com before ROM-com.

    Agree that the syntax of the quote is odd, but the whole concept of a quote which can be shortened to a few circled squares did delight me, so I'll take it.

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  3. 12:13
    C'mon, no one likes a quote puzzle, or a riddle puzzle, do they? This one was no exception. I don't know of this DRACO, but I've never read the books, and saw only the first movie when my kids were much younger. No, Frannie, EYES were not my first thought regarding statues!

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  4. I liked it...it made me laugh. Ditto on the DOT before ROM goof. Funny, though, I plunked in EYES right away...if you look at the eyes of some old statues, they look like Little Orphan Annie's. :-)

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  5. 7:10
    I don't mind the original syntax. The more I study other languages, the more I like to think word order is fluid. If only we still had declensions! "Editing well a draft of writing surely an art form is." etc.

    Yeah, count me among those who were happily stumped by ANAGRAM and did not think first "EYES" when prompted statues to think of. :)

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