COUNTDOWN
Greetings, Dear Reader! I'm back after what seems like a long time. I've had some ups and downs over the past few weeks - well, ok, more downs than ups - but it's a new month and I am hoping for the best. I mean, what else can you do, really?
First off, happy birthday to my esteemed co-blogger Colum! He was living it up in the Big Apple last night, and I hope that today he is sleeping in and having cake for breakfast.
The theme today could put one in mind of a surprise party. Do people count down at those? What do I know, I'm not sure I've ever been at one. Maybe it's more of a New Year's Eve thing. ... anywayyyyyy.... let's get on with it.
The numbers TEN through ONE are clued with dashes in the Downs, and used in their entirety in the Acrosses that they start in. It's a little sad to me that they used dashes instead of just providing regular clues for all the numbers, but I guess maybe that helped solvers to understand that there was a trick in the Across answers. As in:
24A: "It might help you keep up with old classmates" - the letters in the Across space spell ALUMNWSLETTER, but the N starts the answer NINE in the Down, and if you use those letters in the across, you get "alumNI NEwsletter." It's a nice little trick.
Some weird answers today: OILBOOMS (High times for the petroleum industry), TINDERS (Birch barck and pine cones, e.g.), EARTHREENTRY (Concern at the end of a space journey), and EATER (Consumer), for example. But then there were some good ones too - "One taking interest in your education?" (SALLIEMAE), "Missing work?" (STOLENART), "Government bonds?" (ALLIANCES), and "Exchange words?" (WANNATRADE). Hah!
I guess they clued with dashes because it's as though the Down word doesn't exist - it's just part of the Across word, but then, would it have been better if the letters of the Down word were not included in the rest of the Across words that they went through? Would that have been too confusing? It's confusing to try to even explain what I mean... maybe I should just stop.
- Horace
They had to put the names of the numbers into the down answers so they could "count down." I don't love the dashes, but I understand why they're there. Fun idea. I kind of wish there had been a "blast off" at the end of the puzzle, maybe going upward? That would have been fun.
ReplyDeleteYes, I get the "count down" part, but I still think they could have clued the numbers somehow. Like "She's the ____" or "____ Days a Week." They still would have been going down... and yes, a blastoff, or some kind of final "event" would have been great, but I suppose there's only so much we can ask of a crossword puzzle.
Delete