Friday March 29th 2019, NY Times Crossword

-
Time: 26:56
Saturday Average: 27:33
Best Saturday: 10:21

The Friday themeless is usually a treat, but this one gave me fits as so many proper nouns fell somewhere outside my wheelhouse. For starters, we had 19th century founder of the Ethical Culture Movement FELIX Adler and Anne MEARA, mother of Ben Stiller. I always forget the names of the BeeGees, but there's BARRY GIBB taking up space here too. Ka LAE is apparently Hawaii's southernmost point. Anyhow, that collection left me feeling MALADROIT (perfectly welcome great word) in an otherwise largely enjoyable puzzle. I don't really understand cluing JUBILEE as "Golden time" when obviously the more comprehensible way would be "Pyrotechnical mutant who's now a vampire, I think."

OK, I don't love GLISSANDI for "Dramatic musical effects" either. "In dat place" yields DERE? Come on. That one ATE AT me.

"Preoccupied with arcane details" in terms of actual use should absolutely be wonkish and not WONKY, which means not operating correctly. I may technically be wrong, but I don't think you'll find the crossword-proposed usage anywhere.

Wow, I don't mean to complain about this puzzle so much. I enjoyed the long middle answers of DIXIE LAND JAZZ (I had "band" for a long time), MOBILE ALABAMA (former capital of French Louisiana, who knew?), and DOUBLE DEALERS. Badass Swede Stefan EDBERG is always welcome.

I have one more complaint. I hated that SAT SCORE was "Important figure in a student's education." Maybe it doesn't help when my cynical first response was "bank statement," but the SAT is a garbage test that is essentially meaningless in terms of predicting student success.

But I have fond memories of DOT MATRIX printers and how many people can say that?

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