In today's puzzle we get an OCELOT of puzzle-related material: ACROSSWORD quote, a NAMEDROP of the first puzzle editor of the NYT (MARGARETFARRAR), plus the word GRID.
As if that weren't enough, we have some very nice C/APs like "Hinders, as one's style" for CRAMPS and "Schemes" for PLOTS, as well as several that amuse and entertain, including, "Make a long story short?" (RECAP), "School where students learn to spell?" (HOGWARTS), "Strike from the Bible?" (SMITE) - ha!, not to mention my favorite clue today: "Like Usain Bolt's last name" (APT) - apt!
As our esteemed reader Philbo pointed out yesterday, you can't ESC the typos WHILESOLVING, I briefly had SODA POo in the southeast corner. Luckily, the word POO caught my eye before I completed the grid. I thought it was funny, but didn't remember the clue for it, so I checked it and saved myself from a FWOE - this time.
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| Venn diagram showing the uppercase glyphs shared by the Greek, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets |
The only other trouble spot I had was at 57D: "With 58-Down, words before cheese," crossed by the trixy clue "Lasers read them from the inside out" (CDS). Turned out to be the ever-delicious MAC AND cheese. Mmmm, Mac and Cheese...
Today's puzzle also revealed a new item: "booty" SHORTS. Who knew?
Remember REO Speedwagon? Their "Hi Infidelity" album was one of only five I owned before college. Commence judging! :)
~Frannie.
Tough Tuesday! The quote plus the highly divided grid made for slow going for this solver. MAC AND was the hardest get, because CDS was not at all clear. I also almost had a FWOE because I thought the second part of the quote might start with "...if your..." and I don't drink much cognac. Fortunately I caught it in time!
ReplyDeleteI had the same reaction to this one as Colum: quite tough for a Tuesday! And, yes, that MAC AND was a doozie. Quote puzzles are usually a tad harder, aren't they (unless, of course, you know the quote)? I enjoyed it quite a bit. Frances highlighted my favorite answer, APT for Bolt's last name. Sadly, I've never been at a party with a SEXYELF; hot nurse at a Halloween party, sure, but never an elf. I must be going to the wrong soirees. You have to chuckle at 47-down, right? When in doubt when asked for a parent company, always go with NESTLE. They control half the grocery store. Who knew, indeed, re booty SHORTS (By the way, is it a coincidence that SHORTz crosses M. FARRAR?) Who knew about the name, anyway--I think we can all picture what they are. "Daisy Dukes" and anything shorter, I suppose. And REO?! Really, Frannie.
ReplyDeleteREO Speedwagon! Blast from the past! At one point, the biggest pop band in the entire world. I'm glad it wasn't just me that found this one a lot to chew on for a Tuesday. I had BLT instead of PBJ for quite a while. Limped in in 4:37..
ReplyDeleteYeah, I basically took a DNF on the CD squares. I was staring and staring at MA and AN and finally just asked Frannie to tell me what they were. "Lasers read them from the inside out" would have been a tricky clue in 1990. Today, it seems akin to asking about the inner workings of a Model T.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the quote, I didn't have any trouble with it, except that in skimming it while solving, I read the first line as "you can think" and then wondered why a crossword would include a quote so hard on crosswords. ...
So, in short, not my finest hour.
I loved it! Such a sweet quote. And being able to drop the name in right away helped smooth the solve.
ReplyDelete