Halfway through 2022! And hasn't it been a doozy of a year so far. It can only go up, wouldn't you agree?
Fortunately, we have the NYT crossword to take our minds off of things. And today we have a real fun Thursday tricksy one.
The revealer comes at 40A: Warning before a gory movie scene ... or a phonetic hint to answering four rows in this puzzle (COVERYOUREYES). If you were having difficulty answering some of the clues in the third, fifth, eleventh, and thirteenth row, join the club! In fact, the three separate clues should be read as one clue to a 15-letter answer, all four of which have two Is, which are "covered" by being in the black squares.
So in the fifth row, the clues "French," "Cake," and "Advocate?" combine to clue MAR[I]EANTO[I]NETTE, apocryphal originator of the statement "Let them eat cake" (or "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," in the original French). It seems unlikely that she said this, seeing as how the phrase was well documented before she ever became Queen of France.
The other three answers are VEND[I]NGMACH[I]NES (Mechanical Snack Dispensers), DETRO[I]TREDW[I]NGS (Atlantic Division Skaters) and ALL[I]NONEPR[I]NTER (Home Office Convenience). The answers themselves are less interesting than the trick, which is really well carried out. I had to answer a lot of crosses before I finally figured it out (with row eleven).
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| The site of the entirely enjoyable series DERRY Girls |
The remainder of the clues run light on misdirection and confusion, which is kind of the constructors. It took me a long time to figure out 34D: Top gear? (PARK), which is referring to PRNDL gear setups in cars. I definitely enjoyed the symmetric archaicisms of PETARD and KNELLS.
- Colum
I LOVED this one! I somehow powered through with only the Downs and finished, and then it took some time before I figured it out. But jeez, was it ever worth it. Finally, the problem of the "-" clue is solved! So clever. So nice. Did I already say how much I loved it?
ReplyDeleteOooo. Even once I had the revealer I was still imagining that one letter covered up the I or that EYE was covered, or something went backwards or around a corner. But I forgot an entire class of themes which can be summed up as "what are they doing with those black squares?"
ReplyDeleteKind of agree that the trick was the high point but I really did like OAHU. For all the times I've been there, I never have gotten around to going to the Iolani Palace.