Upon opening the puzzle app this morning, I was greeted by a blinking circle around the 'i' icon, under which I found a note reading, "Today's puzzle has an extraordinary quality. Can you discover what it is?" As I solved the puzzle, I ungenerously thought to my self that yes, I was able to discern the extraordinary quality and that was lack thereof - if you see what I mean. Many answers elicited a sigh or an eyeroll such as "Leaves in, editorially" (STETS), "Post-mortem meetings, in business-speak" (RETROS), "Postlarval" (PUPAL), "Lead-in to gift or miracle" (ITSA), and "Try to tear" (RIPAT), but when I finished the puzzle (after a near-Natick, discussed in riveting detail below) and realized what the intended extraordinary quality was, I reversed my decision. The answers throughout the grid are, in some way which probably has a specific name that I don't know, mirrored reflections of each other. In brief, for example, the answer to 1A in the top northwest corner is DAP and the last Across answer in the southeast, is its reverse: PAD. "British bye-byes" or TATAS appear in the top middle while in the bottom middle we find SATAT ("Occupied, as a table"), and so on. All in all, a pretty neat accomplishment, even if I felt some of the content suffered.
My one solve problem occurred in the midwest. I wasn't sure what the "Funky bass technique" might be, I never saw your "Kill Bill" movies, and I wasn't exactly sure where the clue "'Two thumbs down' and 'I hated it!'" was going. Of course, had I realized the extraordinary quality of the grid sooner, I wouldn't have had this problem, as I had already successfully completed the middle east section of the puzzle. I'm sure all of our dear perspicacious Readers were way ahead of me on this one and twigged to the puzzle symmetry much more quickly than I, hopefully resulting in some record personal bests.
I didn't really like the clue/answer symmetry of SNOOPS for "Does some detective work." Is detective work snooping or investigating? Maybe some of each. It's not like it's a non-match, but a side match that didn't suit this solver.
OTH, "Bright" was a nicely ambiguous clue for SMART, and I liked DEEPS for "Abysses." I also appreciated that the answer to the clue "'Now!'" was STAT instead of ASAP. Also, even as a partial ORAMA still says fun to me. Other ROIs for this solver were DATA, TRAMS, and SLED.
To sum up, my PANS turned to a appreciative SNAP once I realized the scope of the STUNT.
~Frannie.
What an achievement. I had no idea what was going on while I was solving (and I didn't read the note at all), but when I finished and looked at the grid I was astounded.
ReplyDeleteIt reminded me, if I may, of the time we completed Joon Pahk's contest puzzle that he left lying around at the 2022 ACPT. We accidentally put all the Downs in as Acrosses and vice versa. And since it was a meta puzzle, we eventually had to figure that out and reverse everything in order to solve it (and win his random drawing, thank you very much). Anyway, this stunt reminded me of that. Really quite beautiful.
I didn't get it until after the solve, either, when I happened to look at AMARO and O-RAMA and the penny dropped. It was fun looking at all the answers with sheer admiration.
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