Brian: Wednesday, April 16
Yuck, yuck, yuck. And now, extra yuck. The first yucks were for the fact that I’m already exhausted from Podcast Episode #005 (get your download now!), and then that I ate too much Chinese food, and then that I just watched Night At The Museum, which was simplythemosthorriblethingI’veseeninyears.
After that, I tried to to Wednesday’s puzzles.
New York Times – 12:54 (worst Wednesday for me in what feels like centuries — except I’ve only been doing crosswords since early February)
Los Angeles Times – 8:59
New York Sun – 9:55
The Onion – 8:56
New York Times
constructed by Edward Sessa; edited by Will Shortz
I got off to a hot start here, filling about 80% of the grid in the first three minutes. I got three of the long answers:
- 17A. INK – This is the one I didn’t have at first.
- 25A. IN : SOCIAL ADVANTAGE
- 43A. I : PERSONAL PRONOUN
- 57A. : DISAPPEARING INK
Very clever, lots of fun. (And by the way, I’ve switched to maroon highlights for the answers to go better with Ryan’s re-design for the site!)
I was also flying along brilliantly with lots of words I never thought I’d find: DADA, DECO, KWAI, KAYO, SCAMP, GINSU, MASSE, ITALY (if you asked me to name two countries affiliated with G8, I don’t even think Italy would be one of them, and yet — here it is!), BRAVO, GOP, etc… All great. I had a little trouble in the top of the grid, as I’ve never heard of MARL (pictured at left), and spent too long trying to decide whether I approved of “clayey” as a legitimate word. I got hung up also with the crossing at 39A/39D, as I tried GATE for a tollbooth’s access and GUNK for what gets caught in a trap (correct choices: LANE and LINT, respectively). Further complications arose when I couldn’t understand what kind of hound deserved its own quarry, and what that would even mean (48A). Oddly enough, Merriam-Webster, suggests the “one that is sought or pursued” definition (in the case of 48A, a HARE) before the one about an excavation site. Go figure.
And finally, the top center was my downfall. I doubted everything I thought I knew (5D. FILIAL, 7D. TAPE and 8D. ANOS) in favor of things that seemed less likely (21A. NULLS instead of NIXES) and apparently a bunch of random letters instead of either 5A. FATAL or 15A. INANE. To my own fault, I didn’t know the word ANOXIA, and Merriam-Webster isn’t much help here: “Hypoxia, especially of such severity as to result in permanent damage.” Okay, I’ll look up HYPOXIA: “A deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues of the body.” Hm. Whatever.
And what ended up putting me into a crossword coma was my complete inability to locate the term CEPHALOPOD despite haveing CEPHAL—DSB-AY staring me in the face. (Yes, I later learned that 10D. was ALPERT not ALBERT, but even that combined with the knowledge of creatures who spew ink in defense was not enough.)
Los Angeles Times
constructed by Alan Olschwang; edited by Rich Norris
Like the New York Times puzzle, I was off to the races at first, and then spent a good four minutes on seven squares, most of which I had to cheat to get. The long answers were easy enough:
- 17A. Space shuttle supply : ROCKET FUEL
- 26A. 80s title sitcom role for Soleil Moon Frye : PUNKY BREWSTER
- 43A. Quick action in an emergency : RAPID RESPONSE
- 57A. Roll toppers : POPPY SEEDS
But then the “theme” clue: 22A. With 48-Across, what 17-, 26-, 43- and 57-Across each begins with. My head is still spinning from trying to understand what they want here… 48A has the oh-so-useful clue of See 22-Across. I have GEN-E, so I’m thinking it’s either GENIE or GENRE. And 22A so far has M—C, which immediately suggests MUSIC, although I’m sure there are other ideas out there. My brain is still swimming in the filth that was Night At The Museum (at least it was in Blu-Ray), and I can’t figure out what the hell they’re looking for. ROCKET, PUNKY, RAPID and POPPY — what are these things? R-P-R-P… I decide that 22A is MUSIC, but fail to understand that while each long answer is a two-word thing, it’s not the first word they’re looking for, its the first syllable: ROCK, PUNK, RAP and POP. Four MUSIC GENREs.
Sigh. Now onto the New York Sun, and I’ll see if I actually can give myself ANOXIA.
New York Sun
constructed by Lee Glickstein; edited by Peter Gordon
I’m getting more exhausted as the night progresses, and my Chinese food is talking back to me. The Sun puzzle was cute, taking normal phrases or titles, and using a homonym-like swap, changed one of the words in said title or phrase to a person’s name:
- 17A. Educator Horace alongside a comic book hero? : MANN AND SUPERMAN
- 35A. Leave the infant of “In Treatment” star Gabriel in the sun too long? : BURN, BABY BYRNE — This clue had too many “in”s in it for me… Infant, In Treatment, in the sun… In in in.
- 53A. Discussion between a former Colorado senator and a ’70s to ’90s rock band? : HART TO HEART TALK
Fun and nice, even if I got stuck for a while with answers I ought to have known (BMOC was in two puzzles today!) but didn’t. I need to go to sleep…
