2:20:30
BURJKHALIFA? (1A: World's tallest building). OK, Mr. Lim, we see how it's going to be...
This one was tough, but I liked it. So many tricky clues. Like 11D: Forward, back or center (ATHLETE) for example... or 36A: Belfast is on its shore (MAINE)! We had a tough time in the NE, but almost everything, once it was gotten, elicited a sigh of understanding rather than a groan. "23A: She's beautiful, per a popular song," for example, (AMERICA), was great. And 12D: Like every Bond film since 1989 (PGTHIRTEEN) had us going down many, many wrong paths.
If it wasn't for our friend Andrew, who knew 7D: "I shall not find myself so ____ die": Antony (APTTO), AND KTOSLIN (5D: Singer of the 1987 #1 country hit "Do Ya"), we might never have finished, because you know we didn't know the name of that building!
This not only seemed especially tricky, it also seemed particularly clean. Sure, the somewhat common TSR (54A: Co. purchased by Wizards of the Coast) was there (but with a clue we'd not seen before), and YAGO (45D: ____ Sant'Gria (wine choice)) was right next to IGOR (46D: Servant in the "Discworld" novels), and we knew neither, but the crosses were gettable, and good, so I don't much mind.
Lastly, Frannie didn't love CRANIA as "43A: Trepanning targets," thinking that trepanning really just went through the crania, and targeted something on the other side, but, well, neither of us are doctors, so perhaps we're missing something. (If only Colum looked at this blog on days other than Sunday...)
Regardless of that detail, I thought this was a good, satisfying solve.
- Horace
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013, Brad Wilber and Doug Peterson
0:50:00
This solve went the same way that Hemingway says you go bankrupt - "gradually, and then suddenly." We started it while we watched the NFL season-opener, and both of us were a little drowsy. I immediately got a few things, like CARROTCAKE (17A: Dessert often with cream cheese icing) (a personal favorite!) and then PUCE (1D: Brownish-purple) (Really? Wasn't that JUST in?!), EWOKS (26D: Endor natives) (Ditto! ... or was it "Endor?" Or both?), and a few other things. Frannie got APPLECIDER (12D: Press production) and KTEL (39A: Onetime TV music vendor), IND (22D: Not the party type? Abbr.) (Nice!), and several others. Then we both drifted off while the Ravens looked to be beating up on the Broncos.
When I woke up, Peyton had taken charge. Seven TD passes!? Really? It got interesting for a minute there in the third when that idiot dropped the ball before crossing the line, but not quite interesting enough to keep me from picking up the puzzle again. And this time, things just started to drop.
A lot of it today just seemed like tricky clues for very standard entries. I thought of LPGA immediately for 18A: Ironwoman org.?, but hesitated because I didn't (and still don't) know exactly what they're referring to. Is that a specific tournament? Is it because "irons" are used in golf? Anyway, all I really needed was female + sports organization = LPGA. And the same was true of the clue immediately above - 16A: Only event in which Venezuela medaled at the 2012 Olympics (EPEE). Had no idea that that was true, but fewer puzzles DON'T contain "epee" than do. That kind of thinking ended up working against me, though, with 49A: "Revolution 9" collaborator. I thought "music person + somewhat unusual + three letters = "Eno."" Nope. Did John Lennon even know Brian Eno? I kept asking myself. Are the ages too different? Duh. It was ONO.
Not a terribly exciting puzzle. Good "Huygens material" though, with BCUP (48D: Smallish lingerie spec) and OTHERWOMAN (56A: One-third of a triangle, maybe). The latter was also one of the better clues. Much of the long fill was just kind of boring.
Meh.
- Horace
This solve went the same way that Hemingway says you go bankrupt - "gradually, and then suddenly." We started it while we watched the NFL season-opener, and both of us were a little drowsy. I immediately got a few things, like CARROTCAKE (17A: Dessert often with cream cheese icing) (a personal favorite!) and then PUCE (1D: Brownish-purple) (Really? Wasn't that JUST in?!), EWOKS (26D: Endor natives) (Ditto! ... or was it "Endor?" Or both?), and a few other things. Frannie got APPLECIDER (12D: Press production) and KTEL (39A: Onetime TV music vendor), IND (22D: Not the party type? Abbr.) (Nice!), and several others. Then we both drifted off while the Ravens looked to be beating up on the Broncos.
When I woke up, Peyton had taken charge. Seven TD passes!? Really? It got interesting for a minute there in the third when that idiot dropped the ball before crossing the line, but not quite interesting enough to keep me from picking up the puzzle again. And this time, things just started to drop.
A lot of it today just seemed like tricky clues for very standard entries. I thought of LPGA immediately for 18A: Ironwoman org.?, but hesitated because I didn't (and still don't) know exactly what they're referring to. Is that a specific tournament? Is it because "irons" are used in golf? Anyway, all I really needed was female + sports organization = LPGA. And the same was true of the clue immediately above - 16A: Only event in which Venezuela medaled at the 2012 Olympics (EPEE). Had no idea that that was true, but fewer puzzles DON'T contain "epee" than do. That kind of thinking ended up working against me, though, with 49A: "Revolution 9" collaborator. I thought "music person + somewhat unusual + three letters = "Eno."" Nope. Did John Lennon even know Brian Eno? I kept asking myself. Are the ages too different? Duh. It was ONO.
Not a terribly exciting puzzle. Good "Huygens material" though, with BCUP (48D: Smallish lingerie spec) and OTHERWOMAN (56A: One-third of a triangle, maybe). The latter was also one of the better clues. Much of the long fill was just kind of boring.
Meh.
- Horace
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013, Damon Gulczynski
0:30:52
Seemed very easy for a Thursday. Our time would have reflected it better had we not fumbled for several minutes trying to get it accepted by the iPad app. Sure, it says things like MORT, and CORP, but it'll only take a rebus with both. Hmpf.
The trick was cool, I'll give it that. I actually changed Frannie's STUTTERED (50A: Bumbled verbally) to SPUTTERED because I had never heard of a TANSY (51D: Flowering plant). I think we also changed DUST (56D: Sign of neglect) to RUST when we put in RICERS (56A: Kitchen gadgets). It took us forever to realize that either one was possible. As I said, cool. It's really quite a thing that Mr. Gulczynski was able to work four "_ or _" words into the grid AND eight changeable answers. Impressive.
Aside from all that, though, there were several things that seemed tailored to me and my family in this one. For instance, I just took the first German course of my life mere hours before starting this puzzle, and it already helped, with 15A: Eins und zwei (DREI). We did numbers tonight, and I was able to figure it out! Thanks, puzzle, for helping with my homework! Also, my oldest brother and his family are big "Settlers of Catan" players, and he could have helped me with ORE (8D: Resource in the game Settlers of Catan). That same brother is a Reds fan, so CIN (27A: Reds, for short) made me think of him again. And STRATEGO (46A: Game with scouts and miners) went in immediately, too, because my brothers and I used to play that a lot when we were younger.
One thing I'm a little tired of, however, is OSOS (31A: Bogotá bears). That's been in a LOT recently. And I don't often spell TRANKS (69A: Downers, in brief), but when I do, I prefer the spelling "tranqs." Not that either is very good. There's plenty of crosswordsy stuff in here, but the theme is clever, and he stuck in a bunch of "semi-theme" "ors" like ORR, OER, ORE, and NOR so, let's call it a wash. Well, ok, how 'bout slightly better than that.
- Horace
Seemed very easy for a Thursday. Our time would have reflected it better had we not fumbled for several minutes trying to get it accepted by the iPad app. Sure, it says things like MORT, and CORP, but it'll only take a rebus with both. Hmpf.
The trick was cool, I'll give it that. I actually changed Frannie's STUTTERED (50A: Bumbled verbally) to SPUTTERED because I had never heard of a TANSY (51D: Flowering plant). I think we also changed DUST (56D: Sign of neglect) to RUST when we put in RICERS (56A: Kitchen gadgets). It took us forever to realize that either one was possible. As I said, cool. It's really quite a thing that Mr. Gulczynski was able to work four "_ or _" words into the grid AND eight changeable answers. Impressive.
Aside from all that, though, there were several things that seemed tailored to me and my family in this one. For instance, I just took the first German course of my life mere hours before starting this puzzle, and it already helped, with 15A: Eins und zwei (DREI). We did numbers tonight, and I was able to figure it out! Thanks, puzzle, for helping with my homework! Also, my oldest brother and his family are big "Settlers of Catan" players, and he could have helped me with ORE (8D: Resource in the game Settlers of Catan). That same brother is a Reds fan, so CIN (27A: Reds, for short) made me think of him again. And STRATEGO (46A: Game with scouts and miners) went in immediately, too, because my brothers and I used to play that a lot when we were younger.
One thing I'm a little tired of, however, is OSOS (31A: Bogotá bears). That's been in a LOT recently. And I don't often spell TRANKS (69A: Downers, in brief), but when I do, I prefer the spelling "tranqs." Not that either is very good. There's plenty of crosswordsy stuff in here, but the theme is clever, and he stuck in a bunch of "semi-theme" "ors" like ORR, OER, ORE, and NOR so, let's call it a wash. Well, ok, how 'bout slightly better than that.
- Horace
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013, Joel Fagliano
0:23:50
Yesterday, I loved the theme, and because of that, I could overlook whatever garbage fill there happened to be. Today, I hated the theme, and because of that, it's difficult to find anything good at all to say. And they were both, strangely, homophone-based. I guess. Wouldn't you say that of today's? RTJOHNSON (17A: "Laugh-In" comic) for "Arte Johnson?" Gosh, that's awfully clever. ... Maybe it's just me, but just the look of ENFLEMMING (21A: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" author) makes me unhappy. It is, of course, an interesting factoid, but somehow that's just not enough today.
Favorite clue: 72A: Life partner? (DEATH). Runner up: 51A: Rightmost column (ONES).
Least favorite: 5D: "Sounds dandy!" (FUN).
Favorite clue that I didn't see until just now: 53D: Highest and lowest black key on a piano (BFLAT).
There you have it.
- Horace
Yesterday, I loved the theme, and because of that, I could overlook whatever garbage fill there happened to be. Today, I hated the theme, and because of that, it's difficult to find anything good at all to say. And they were both, strangely, homophone-based. I guess. Wouldn't you say that of today's? RTJOHNSON (17A: "Laugh-In" comic) for "Arte Johnson?" Gosh, that's awfully clever. ... Maybe it's just me, but just the look of ENFLEMMING (21A: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" author) makes me unhappy. It is, of course, an interesting factoid, but somehow that's just not enough today.
Favorite clue: 72A: Life partner? (DEATH). Runner up: 51A: Rightmost column (ONES).
Least favorite: 5D: "Sounds dandy!" (FUN).
Favorite clue that I didn't see until just now: 53D: Highest and lowest black key on a piano (BFLAT).
There you have it.
- Horace
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013, Dan Schoenholz
0:08:57
"Criticism is easier than craftsmanship," as they say, so let's start with some of that. AONE (13A: Top of the line) and LASE (14A: Use a surgical beam on) are things that I mostly only see or hear in crossword puzzles. "A-One" is, I guess, something you might hear someone say, but who ever says "lase" in normal conversation? I hold that even in a conversation about laser surgery, you'd be more likely to hear "Yeah, they're going to cut it off with a laser" rather than "They're going to lase it off." And I'm much more likely to use the "take advantage of" definition of AVAIL than the "16A: Be of use to" definition. Not that it's wrong. Not that any of these are wrong, but they're just, well... crosswordsy. As is, in my opinion, the AMEBA spelling of amoeba. Also, before I get on to the "praise" portion of this review, let me just say that I thought CDE (43A: Start of a musical scale) was very weak. It's exactly what I thought of (yes, even starting on C), but I really hoped it wasn't the actual answer.
I did enjoy the homonym theme quite a bit. I love the directness of the answers, especially, for some reason, FRENCHFORYES (23A: Oui), and PERSONALPRONOUN (35A: We). I also enjoyed the clues for MINTS (19A: Money makers), ACES (61A: They aren't returned), and the very nice "62A: Impudent" for WISE. 33A: Org. for Wizards and Magic (NBA) was fun, too. And I even liked the quaint cwossing of ANON (3D: Soon, quaintly) and YON (20A: Farther away, quaintly).
So despite my bellyaching, I thought this was a decent enough Tuesday. Monday through Wednesday, a good theme can go a long way.
- Horace
"Criticism is easier than craftsmanship," as they say, so let's start with some of that. AONE (13A: Top of the line) and LASE (14A: Use a surgical beam on) are things that I mostly only see or hear in crossword puzzles. "A-One" is, I guess, something you might hear someone say, but who ever says "lase" in normal conversation? I hold that even in a conversation about laser surgery, you'd be more likely to hear "Yeah, they're going to cut it off with a laser" rather than "They're going to lase it off." And I'm much more likely to use the "take advantage of" definition of AVAIL than the "16A: Be of use to" definition. Not that it's wrong. Not that any of these are wrong, but they're just, well... crosswordsy. As is, in my opinion, the AMEBA spelling of amoeba. Also, before I get on to the "praise" portion of this review, let me just say that I thought CDE (43A: Start of a musical scale) was very weak. It's exactly what I thought of (yes, even starting on C), but I really hoped it wasn't the actual answer.
I did enjoy the homonym theme quite a bit. I love the directness of the answers, especially, for some reason, FRENCHFORYES (23A: Oui), and PERSONALPRONOUN (35A: We). I also enjoyed the clues for MINTS (19A: Money makers), ACES (61A: They aren't returned), and the very nice "62A: Impudent" for WISE. 33A: Org. for Wizards and Magic (NBA) was fun, too. And I even liked the quaint cwossing of ANON (3D: Soon, quaintly) and YON (20A: Farther away, quaintly).
So despite my bellyaching, I thought this was a decent enough Tuesday. Monday through Wednesday, a good theme can go a long way.
- Horace
Monday, September 2, 2013
Monday, September 2, 2013 - Jim Peredo
Hello fellow word enthusiasts! Frannie here, sitting down to comment on today's puzzle. I did the puzzle last night,or, perhaps, more correctly, very early this morning at about 1:30AM. Apparently, I completed it in a little over 10 minutes. I have almost no memory of it. Thinking about it later in the day, I did remember one answer, STEELYGAZE (96A: Intense look). I wanted the answer to be Blue Steel, or Magnum, but neither fit. I'm guessing that the ease with which I was able to enter most of the answers contributed to my poor recall. Many of the them were right in my wheelhouse. Could it be that Mr. Peredo is as old as I am? Clues such as 15A Record for later viewing (TAPE) and 16A Leaf gatherer (Rake) and, of course, 1A and 5D, APAIN/NECK give the impression of someone who has seen a few years go by, and might, by Zoolander's standards be OLD (60A Aged). Given some of these clue and answer pairs (HAPPYDAYS (33D The Fonz's sitcom) for example), maybe he even knew NOAH (64A Ark builder). Kidding! But it was a different time when HOES were still Tilling tools (27D). And when was the last time WAITERS were good at taking orders? (46D) Ha! Of course, ALIST (1D Group of preferred party attendees) and OAKLANDAS (11D Team in "Moneyball" (2011)) are more current. Possibly, the puzzle was written by a very young man back in 1993, and Will Shortz finally approved it. I kid, I kid.
LEST the way I phrase seem like puzzle malaise, I want to give Mr. Peredo's rhyming due praise. The only thing that would more amaze would have been the inclusion of Rutherford B. Hayes. :)
~Frannie
LEST the way I phrase seem like puzzle malaise, I want to give Mr. Peredo's rhyming due praise. The only thing that would more amaze would have been the inclusion of Rutherford B. Hayes. :)
~Frannie
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013, John Farmer
1:11:29
I liked it. We put in the names first, but that didn't seem to work, so then we put in the numbers, and that did work. It is an obvious criticism, I think that the theme squares change with the Across and Down answers, but didn't someone once say that the definition of intelligence is the ability to hold two conflicting ideas in the mind at the same time? Or something like that. Perhaps I'm holding the actual quote and a slightly paraphrased one in my mind together. Does that count? [Before you send hate mail, I looked it up, and F. Scott Fitzerald said something very close to what I wrote. Also, I found another nice quote by a guy named Albert Edward Wiggam (no relation to the Chief, I don't think, who, incidentally, spells it "Wiggum") "Intelligence appears to be the thing that enables a man to get along without education. Education enables a man to get along without the use of his intelligence." Hah!]
Anywho, the puzzle was pretty standard fare for a Sunday, I thought. We finished in the far East, with such answers as HAIRCUT[100] (43D: 1980s British band), MHO (42A: Electrical unit, old-style), and STADIA (56A: Olympic venues). Winners all. And in other areas, is AALARGE (115A: Certain 111-Across specification) redundant? I usually just see "Large."
I was just about to question the answer ROOMER (79A: Letter with a limited amount of space), when I finally parsed the clue correctly and realized that the first word means "renter" not "epistle." One answer that I couldn't figure out, however, was AMESLAN (91D: Acronym for the hearing-impaired). I've looked it up now, to save you the trouble, and it's short for "American Sign Language." Huh. Well, I've learned. Do I now put that into the "intelligence" or the "education" category? HA!
As I said at the outset, I liked it. It was challenging enough, and there were some pretty witty clues. Plus, there's that nice dollar sign in the middle of the grid. Hurricane symbol on Thursday, and the dollar sign today... fancy!
- Horace
I liked it. We put in the names first, but that didn't seem to work, so then we put in the numbers, and that did work. It is an obvious criticism, I think that the theme squares change with the Across and Down answers, but didn't someone once say that the definition of intelligence is the ability to hold two conflicting ideas in the mind at the same time? Or something like that. Perhaps I'm holding the actual quote and a slightly paraphrased one in my mind together. Does that count? [Before you send hate mail, I looked it up, and F. Scott Fitzerald said something very close to what I wrote. Also, I found another nice quote by a guy named Albert Edward Wiggam (no relation to the Chief, I don't think, who, incidentally, spells it "Wiggum") "Intelligence appears to be the thing that enables a man to get along without education. Education enables a man to get along without the use of his intelligence." Hah!]
Anywho, the puzzle was pretty standard fare for a Sunday, I thought. We finished in the far East, with such answers as HAIRCUT[100] (43D: 1980s British band), MHO (42A: Electrical unit, old-style), and STADIA (56A: Olympic venues). Winners all. And in other areas, is AALARGE (115A: Certain 111-Across specification) redundant? I usually just see "Large."
I was just about to question the answer ROOMER (79A: Letter with a limited amount of space), when I finally parsed the clue correctly and realized that the first word means "renter" not "epistle." One answer that I couldn't figure out, however, was AMESLAN (91D: Acronym for the hearing-impaired). I've looked it up now, to save you the trouble, and it's short for "American Sign Language." Huh. Well, I've learned. Do I now put that into the "intelligence" or the "education" category? HA!
As I said at the outset, I liked it. It was challenging enough, and there were some pretty witty clues. Plus, there's that nice dollar sign in the middle of the grid. Hurricane symbol on Thursday, and the dollar sign today... fancy!
- Horace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)