Thursday December 13th 2018, NY Times Crossword

-
Time: 17:14
Thursday Average: 26:06
Best Thursday: 10:18

After landing in San Francisco around 10pm(1amin my head), I immediately hopped on the Bart and downloaded Thursday’s crossword. I’ll admit that, being unaccustomed to the late night solve, I was a little worried about tackling a tricky Thursday. It was clear ANON that something was afoot with the isolated squares in the center of the grid. It’s generally considered bad form to have a crossword square with no crosses, so those squares aren’t just sitting there. I actually worked my way around the theme until I wrote in MALCOLM(X) and noticed that Giant X in the middle of the grid. Of course, the X isn’t just an X in the other cases:

  • “Accept the sudden loss of, as an opportunity:” (KISS) GOODBYE. So, the X represents a kiss, as in XOXO. That clue is a bit tortured, isn’t it? 
  • “Publishing debut of 1851, with ‘The:’” NEW YORK(TIMES). It took me an embarrassing amount of time to remember that X is the “times” or multiplication symbol.
  • ”Representative sample of a larger group:” (CROSS) SECTION. An X is also a cross, of a sort. Got it. 

I initially wrote in ON FIREin place of ON A RUN, only to find that it belonged in the Southwest, not the Northeast.

I’d recommend the “How it should have ended” or HISHE YouTube show just for the Superhero cafe segments, in which they get some great mileage out of the I’M BATMANline, which is endlessly ripe for parody.

Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be ridiculed for having no idea who JJ WATTis. Apparently, he’s a defensive end for the Houston Texans, a team that I barely even knew existed. 

I had SAUcE PAN instead of SAUTÉ PAN, so I had to do some searching to close out this puzzle. 

I sometimes wonder what this blog does for my NERD CRED, but I suppose it’ll just depend who you ask. 

There’s actually altogether too much to like in this puzzle. I’ve been thinking I need to drink more tea instead of coffee, so I also welcomed MATCHAand ASSAM. OK, my Bart stop is coming up, so good night!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday May 1st 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 8:16 Wednesday Average: 16:37 Best Wednesday: 6:52 Today's theme is STATE CAPITALS that are, as the clue points out to us, in anagram form. MUST I ? OK, let me see if I can figure this out even though it's past my bedtime. I'll get the easy ones first with Salem ( MALES ) and Dover ( ROVED ). After that, we have Austin ( ANTIUS ), Lansing ( IN SLANG ), and Raleigh ( HAIR GEL ). Finally, there's Madison ( DOMAINS ) and the tricky St. Paul ( UP LAST ) There's an exercise I wouldn't have bothered with if I wasn't writing this blog. I know the phrase well, especially since it seems so popular lately, but I never knew the spelling for "Bury the LEDE ." I always assumed it was "lead." I love slang that comes from typesetting. OK, those anagrams thoroughly wore me out. My final observation is that I don't love the way THE EU looks right above S AND P. Both just look deeply wrong.
Read more

Tuesday October 23rd 2018, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 8:43 Tuesday Average: 13:49 Best Tuesday: 6:10 It's another long day in Beijing and I'm enjoying a night cap in the lounge contemplating my early morning flight to Ulan Baator tomorrow night and feeling a bit like  FLAT  STANLEY . Fortunately, I continue to  RAKE IN the hotel points and the status that goes with it, so I've snagged a couple free beers before they shut down happy hour. Today's theme was  ATHLETIC CUP , which eluded me for a bit since I've only ever referred to it as a cup. Other than the aforementioned NHL championship, we have  GEENA  DAVIS ,  WINONA  RYDER , and  SMALL WORLD  as our theme answers.  Was anyone else hearing TJ from Gilmore Girls yelling, "I'm in  ESCROW !" Sure, it shows up in my mortgage-related dealings, but that's all I'll ever hear. I had no idea that  GALENA is the natural form of lead sulfide and instead I just know the Bulgarian chalga singer by that name. I...
Read more

Monday April 15th 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Image
Time: 7:03 Monday Average: 8:15 Best Monday: 4:10 Nothing's more fun than an IRS -themed crossword for Tax Day! I'd actually forgotten that this day was so imminent until talking to several of my international students who were understandably baffled by how our tax system works. As you can see, the long answers have the IRS letters mixed up and circled with DOLLA R SI GNS , of course, being the most appropriate. I'm surprised that the "Genuine class" anagram for ALEC Guinness, which we know from the Simpsons, doesn't show up as a clue more often. Next time, maybe. AGASSI was always my favorite player back in the big Sampras rivalry days and I'm happy enough to see him crossing TENNIS RACKET . Sometimes those answers just work out, I imagine. 
Read more