tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869983234842507044.post5323026194480078257..comments2024-03-27T07:17:39.554-04:00Comments on Horace and Frances discuss the New York Times Crossword Puzzle: Friday, July 17, 2015, Paolo PascoHorace Fawleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04676932991883111336noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869983234842507044.post-78538717992996302952015-07-20T09:48:17.594-04:002015-07-20T09:48:17.594-04:0027:41
My goodness...15. I did, indeed, love 45A Li...27:41<br />My goodness...15. I did, indeed, love 45A Like e, but not i (REAL), ET59, and read it aloud to Sue, who was less-impressed. And yes, Colum, ENDOWED could have been clued a little more risque-ly. But I agree that this is an excellent puzzle on its own, and amazingly so when it is considered that it's a 15-year-old's debut. Nice placement of TICKS below TIMECOP (a movie with which I'm unfamiliar, and will probably remain so), and any time I see Kahuna in a puzzle in any form I think of the excellent performance of Adam West as the Big Kahuna in "American Vampire." Back to REAL, though, I was also pleased that it appears below CERES, which I filled in with zero crosses. How can one not think of The Three Stooges when one hears of an APESUIT?Huygenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14539030936919012404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869983234842507044.post-22609367492888636842015-07-19T22:19:34.608-04:002015-07-19T22:19:34.608-04:000:36:46
So young Mr. Steinberg has some new compe...0:36:46<br /><br />So young Mr. Steinberg has some new competition! I agree that this was an excellent debut. And it's impressive that he puts in "grown up" references like WALTERMITTY and MINORTHREAT (grown-up because of the cluing, which, come to think of it, could have been Shortz's doing...) without resorting to completely obscure references. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes it feels more like somebody has just looked up a lot of trivia, but these things are in the public consciousness. Like STREAKER, for example. Nobody's talked about them since the Seventies, but everybody knows what they are. And unlike TAMAR, which is clearly just forced because it actually appears in print somewhere. Same with BEL and SHA, I guess, which are both terrible, in my opinion. But still, sometimes you have to allow for such things in order to get this kind of a grid.Horace Fawleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04676932991883111336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869983234842507044.post-86827659182507936102015-07-18T09:09:58.372-04:002015-07-18T09:09:58.372-04:00Of course, I did mean the SW, not the SE. And I gu...Of course, I did mean the SW, not the SE. And I guess I'm of the age that I thought of Clemente first, but went to Robbie ALOMAR when it didn't fit.Colum Amoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15026647589873845732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7869983234842507044.post-18342041999318692132015-07-18T00:02:43.002-04:002015-07-18T00:02:43.002-04:00Man, it's like we're brothers: I too start...Man, it's like we're brothers: I too started with ALOMAR and ASNER (but isn't that the SW?) after failing to gain any traction anywhere else I looked. It all fell nicely from that corner outward. What a terrific puzzle! A bright beacon in a largely dark and dreary week. Your review nicely spotlights most of the fine elements. I had the same reaction to the definition of "fix" used in 7-Across. Very cool and clever. I think my favorite entry of all is MINORTHREAT. It's charmingly unusual and there is an understated elegance to it. It's almost an oxymoron, isn't it? Fortunately you left a few gems for me to call out. PEDANT is a very nice six-letter entry, but how psyched is Huygens going to be about "Like e, but not i"? (The Dutchman, as you may or may not know, loves the maths almost as much as he loves ribaldry) Also enjoyed "Result of a messy breakup?" even though my smug first try "debRis" resulted in my only writeover. KAHUNAS brought a smile; it's just that kind of word. When they are this stellar, I could n't care less about the 3-letter fill. I will just say, though, that I don't know NAS or his work at all, but I'm already sick of him. And to be a nitpicker, I don't think "nonsense" rings exactly true in the "Nonsense song syllable" clue for SHA. Love, love, love this Friday, though. Young Paolo has set a high bar for his future submissions.<br />P.S. I was wondering what the cut-off age is such that those below it don't immediately think of Clemente when they see "Roberto in the Baseball Hall of Fame."englishteacher59https://www.blogger.com/profile/16790678319090827125noreply@blogger.com