Sunday March 17th 2019, NY Times Crossword
Sunday Average: 47:53
Best Sunday: 21:55
Title: That’s Another Story
If you have a YEN for various characters, both historical and fictional, showing up in other works in your imagination, you probably enjoyed this puzzle as much as I did. As usual, there was a fair amount of mucking around in the puzzle until the theme became clear. I even laughed at loud after at reckoning at least one of these theme answers.
- “Biography of Ebenezer Scrooge?:” MARLEY AND ME. Unsurprisingly, this was the first one I got. Since I watch Muppet Christmas Carol so often, I sometimes forget that there’s only one Marley in the novel.
- “Biography of Amelia Earhart?:” GONE GIRL. Too real?
- “Biography of Archimedes?:” LIFE OF PI. This one doesn’t really work for me, but maybe that’s because I never really liked this book title anyway.
- “Biography of the Venus de Milo?:” A FAREWELL TO ARMS. I laughed. After all, what else is there to know?
- “With 112-across, biography of Elvis?:” THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. Why future? This constructor must be an Elvis fan.
- “Biography of Thomas Crapper?:” A GAME OF THRONES. It’s a small thing, but I appreciate that they remembered the indefinite article, which distinguishes the first book from the tv series.
- “Biography of Willie Mays?:” LORD OF THE FLIES. Hell yeah.
- “With 44-down, biography of Walt Disney?:” OF MICE AND MEN. I should have known they’d go cutesy and not into the dark side of Disney, but that’s where my mind immediately went, obviously.
I struggled with “Artist with seven posthumous platinum albums,” because it’s obviously 2Pac, but it would never occur to me to refer to him simply as SHAKUR. I was also thrown by “Quad/glute exercise” being LUNGE instead of squat. Finally, I could not reconcile POOP for “Inside info,” but that’s silly of me to forget 40s slang of unknown origins.
In the end, the NE corner gave me more trouble than anywhere else with awkward verb choices like STEEPENS (“Increases in price”), Cajun dishes that I’ve had but forgotten what they’re called in ETOUFFEE, random film directors like Nicolas ROEG, and finally not realizing that PERDUE chicken is spelled differently from the university up the road a ways from me.
“Lovecraftian” is not a synonym for SCARY. That’s farther off than Alanis Morisette’s ideas of irony.
But I am excited to learn “Corrigenda” as a synonym for ERRATA, which is a word I use surprisingly often, mostly in reference to Fantasy Flight Games.
Oh, Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I’m a bit relieved that this puzzle had nothing to do with it. But I am on to beer now.
I gave up on the NE corner at the end. I got "Farewell to Arms" first, followed by Future King. (I think the idea is that Elvis never really died. Neither did Bruno Mars.) If my wife is reading this, she was no help. Who works on a Sunday that is also St. Patrick's day? I'm about to open another beer with a green label (Anchor Brewer's Pale Ale Citra). Corrigenda!
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