Thursday, January 14, 2021

Thursday, January 14, 2021, Aimee Lucido and Ella Dershowitz

Hmmmm.... I'm not sure about this one. The word bottle is "spinning" through the circled squares, starting both at the twelve o'clock and the six o'clock position, and where the letters intersect, one is used in the Across answer, and the other in the Down answer. I can see what's going on, but I didn't get a real good understanding of why. Nor did I get a real "aha" moment when I figured it out. If I figured it out ... maybe there's more to it that I'm missing, and if so, please chime in with a comment. And while you're at it, you could explain to me how "MOWS down" means "overwhelms." Is it like how the guy below "mowed down" the competition? I suppose that could work.

USAINBOLT

I guess when I see two letters in a square, I expect more of a Schrödinger situation, but still ... I guess it works. I shouldn't wish for more, right?

How demeaning is it to be called a "Common baitfish in North American streams"? I mean, you're already called a CHUB. Sheesh. 

And what about that library clue?! ABOUTNESS - "Relevance of text, in librarian's lingo." I've been working in a library for the last dozen or so years, and while the word doesn't seem completely alien to me, it's not one I ever use. But then, I'm not actually a librarian, and I've got nothing to do with cataloging, which is where I assume it's used. Still - shout out to all the librarians out there! :)

"Tangy" isn't exactly how I'd describe ONIONDIP. You? 

Boy, it's death by a thousand pin pricks today, isn't it? I'd better just leave it. Suffice to say, I'm not INLOVE with this one, but I do appreciate the novelty. How'd you like it?

- Horace

7 comments:

  1. I think that you can choose either form of the BOTTLE spinning, and both the across and down answers still work as words. LIBRE/LITRE I wasn't sure about. And it's not like the alternate answers fulfill the conditions of the actual clue. So I'm a little unclear on the concept myself.

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  2. It doesn’t look to me like any of the alternate answers work with the clues. This one annoyed me a bit which is definitely something I don’t need this week. Let’s hope for better tomorrow. That goes for everything I guess.

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  3. I liked it just fine. It's elegant the way one [BOTTLE] goes clockwise starting from the 12:00 position and the other heads counterclockwise from the 6:00 position. It's also nice that it only works if one enters the across letter first in the circle. Maybe not the greatest Thursday ever, but a good trick to figure out. I liked seeing the old FAERIE spelling, and also enjoyed SOSUEME.

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    1. [BOTTLE] goes clockwise both times, doesn't it? And as Colum pointed out, the "wrong" letter still makes a word, I just wish that word had something to do with the theme. I know that would have been difficult, but ... well, I just wanted more. SOSUEME.

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    2. Yes, you're correct. It's just offset by six hours.

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  4. I was kind of amused by the idea of printing the word bottle on a bottle, and visualized spinning the three dimensional bottle to get the letter on the opposite side. But I agree w those who were annoyed that the alternate word didn't fit the clue.

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