Today's feature C/AP was "It's shortest at the Equator" (DAWN). First, the capitalization of the word "equator" struck me. According to a British source, "... this is not wrong, but it's not recommended." But are they really in any position to be giving advice about anything right now? Second, Why? Well, I looked it up and it's because at the equator (yeah, you heard me) the sun goes directly down - perpendicular to the horizon, while at higher latitudes, it goes down at more of an angle, and so remains closer to the horizon, albeit a little to the left or right, for a longer time. Never really thought of that before, and I'm happy to know it. Always nice when a puzzle can do that.
But what of the rest of it? Well, the very next C/AP - "Buzzes while buzzed?" (DRUNKDIALS) was fun, and through that we've got another interesting bit of trivia - "Where the piano was invented" (ITALY). I suppose I might have been able to intuit that from the very name "piano," but I didn't. Instead, I got a few crosses. NOLIE.
ENNUI (World-weary feeling) reminds me of my old friend Baudelaire, and CREE (Native Canadian) reminds me of Laurie Anderson. Both good.
BAREHEADED (Uncapped?) was a bit much, and I was not familiar with BOTTLEGREEN (Dark hue named after a type of glassware) before today. And was it a little odd to have two such similar phrases atop each other: HANGONASECOND and WAITRIGHTTHERE? I guess I don't mind. The third in the stutter-step middle was fun, though - "Make dough from scratch?" (WINTHELOTTERY). Heh.
Overall, I guess it was a fine Friday.
WEREDONE.
- Horace
I enjoyed the solve and enjoyed admiring the puzzle afterward. Really cool entries, terrific clues...as you say, Horace, a fine Friday!
ReplyDeleteI, too, was unaware of the ITALY thing, but should have been, both for the reason mentioned by Horace and because all of the musical instructions in written piano music (and music in general, which I guess can throw one off a bit) are in Italian. I was also unaware that EBAY owns Skype, but don't really care much about that. The puzzle was an enjoyable solve, as are most Fridays (I know it's considered gauche nowadays to mention this, but I've been getting through them in between 8-15 minutes for the most part, which is quite fast for me). NONOTTHAT is a nice entry, as were ADULATORY and CONCERTOS. The DAWN thing is the opposite of what I remember from my times near the Equator; we made much more note of the rapid sunsets. BTW, as of this puzzle I'm on my longest streak solving ever: 75! My previous record was 63, if I remember correctly.
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