Well, the themeless puzzles in The Turn did not disappoint this week. Both put up hard fights, and had plenty of fun and interesting answers with tough clues.
I will register my official (not official because I have no standing other than what we have given ourselves by writing this blog) (maybe official because Will Shortz expressed a hope that we weren't going to stop any time soon) complaint about the 1A and 2D. It is certainly true that a BOG is often an archaeological site, and I didn't fall for the more obvious diG. I don't like the clue "During" for OVER. Of course, now, looking at it, I can't see why I thought eVER would work. Ah well.
I also had an error at the crossing of TANKA and TUGS. I tried lUGS for "Jerks," and have never heard of this particular Japanese poetry form. But this one I chalk up to a learning moment.
The three grid-spanning answers are fun and fresh. NEVERFELTBETTER is great, while GAMESHOWNETWORK is a fine answer whose clue was actually a little too easy for this solver. The best clue of the three comes at 56A: People may never get over it (BARBEDWIREFENCE). Hah!
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| Do they look wise? |
Some other fun clues:
30A: Poorly written words (SCRAWL) - hits home for this doctor.
59A: Musical segment (ACTII). Nice the use of "musical" as a noun rather than an adjective.
12D: One working for a dictator (STENO). True in so many senses.
33D: About to be sold (GOINGONCE) - unexpected!
Fun having THEMAFIA, GRAWLIX, BEAGLES, and HARDPASS as well.
Tomorrow we turn things back to Horace. See you in a couple of weeks!
P.S. There is a theme to the pictures in my posts this week - any guesses as to what might connect them all together?
- Colum
I fell for diG because I was so convinced of diNG (diNG) - why is BANG (BANG) attention-grabbing? Unless we're talking about actual pistol shots... but I don't think we are. Anyway, that NW corner did me in today. I knew AVI just had to be right, but I couldn't part with diNG. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteSo, early on, I thought you were going with a movie theme - Lego, Sin City, Moonstruck, Auntie Mame, Bambi, but then you lost me at MOSH pit and owls. ... I'll give it a little more thought as I write the review today (Sunday).
There are no wrong answers... but yours wasn't right.
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