ARTISTIC DIFFERENCES
Hello, Puzzlers! Horace here, just back from the A.C.P.T., where I had a very good weekend. I finished six puzzles perfectly, with time to spare, and I caught on to the trick in Puzzle Five, but, alas, did not finish the grid in the 30 minutes that were given. But oh well. It was a fun time, as always. Saw old friends, and made a few new ones. We had to cut out immediately after this morning's puzzle, but I heard from one of those old friends that Dan Feyer nipped Paolo Pasco in the final by about two seconds. Seems like those two are at the bleeding edge of solving right now. They tied after seven puzzles, and finished the final in almost the same time. Incredible.
But you're not here to hear about that. Or maybe you are... but I feel an obligation to talk about the Sunday puzzle too. So let's do that for a minute.
It's an odd hybrid of a rebus. It works in the Down clues by being just two consecutive letters, but in the Acrosses it is sort of a "this and that" kind of thing. The "this" part works with the clue, and the "that" shows what the original phrase was. Let's look to an example:
"Spaceship battle? / An iconic van Gogh" - THESTARRY[F/N]IGHT
Planning one's 24-hour itinerary? / An iconic Michelangelo, with "The" - CREATIONOFADA[Y/M]
Heh. Pretty good. THERE[O/D]BALLOON is a little weak maybe, but THE[G/B]IRTHOFVENUS got a chuckle.
What to say about the rest of the fill? OHIDUNNO. MORASS is a nice word, ETTU, stale though it may be, always gets a chuckle out of this Latin enthusiast. Never heard of ROTEL tomatoes. And let's end on the word RIPSNORTER. Hah!
- Horace
Glad you had a good time at the ACPT! Great job with the puzzles, so close to that elusive perfect weekend. With regard to this puzzle, I liked the rebus concept, especially one of the ones you didn't mention: THE[R/M]ONALISA. Not to mention there was a meta-puzzle aspect with FORGERY at the end. Fun stuff.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had fun, Horace, and Frannie, too! Two seconds, you say? Wow! Today's puzzle? Loved the FORGERY meta. Did you take pictures in Stamford?
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