Haven’t started on the 25-foot deal yet… Not sure exactly how to begin. I suppose at the left edge, since it apparently gets harder as it progresses rightward. I have some work to do over the weekend (i.e. taxes), so we’ll see what happens. The wife is still rehabbing her knee, so I’m tending to her needs as well. Late Wednesday night, though, I tackled the Thursday challenges. Or, at least, some of them. (I still think that the Sun puzzles are out of my league.)
Also, I’m trying to use different colors for clue answers… Brown yesterday, purple today. We’ll see what I eventually like.
Scores
New York Times 18:55
Los Angeles Times 9:30
CrosSynergy 8:09
New York Sun 21:56 (with one gimme)
Wall Street Journal 29:52
New York Times
by David J. Kahn; edited by Will Shortz
Loved this. Absolutely loved this. The only bad part is that I took too much time looking for the gimmicks, I think it added minutes to my (already pathetic) time:
- 64A. What you can find in the grid after completing this puzzle, looking up, down, left, right and diagonally, word search-style : A DOZEN ROSES
And lo and behold, there are a dozen “ROSE” sequences hidden throughout the grid. Oh, such joy. The long center answer at 38A. Classic 1911 children’s novel… with a hint to this puzzle’s theme was THE SECRET GARDEN, which sadly I learned as a musical before I learned it as a book.
I had some trouble with a handful of things in the left area… 38D. One way to get to the top is always always something clever, and never something logical. I have probably missed cutesy clues for T-BAR on more occasions than I can count. A life in Maine apparently did not provide me with enough skiing jargon. And I went with the opposite guess on 39D. “Too great a burden to bear”: Martin Luther King, Jr. by trying to make HOPE work when he was talking about HATE. Up in the top right, my errant choices of ANOL, HARDWOOD and INK for 10D, 11D and 12D led me into all kinds of trouble. If only I knew that ALEPPO was a city in Syria, I might have avoided what felt like hours of cluelessness. (Can one suffer from cluelessness in a crossword puzzle, where one is inundated with clues?)
My Excel spreadsheet is getting out of hand. I’ve included a screen shot here. I think you can right-click and View image… to see it at it’s full resolution.
In other news, I’m making flash cards for myself on words I never remember. I’m starting with the list in Amy Reynaldo’s book, and adding to it as I go through archives of New York Times puzzles. To be fair, I’m not actually sure what my goal is here. I think my goal has many facets: 1) to be more smarter, thank you for playing; 2) to finish higher than 563rd at next year’s ACPT; 3) to complete a full week of New York Times puzzles without the aid of Google, Wikipedia or other internet sources (or any sources, for that matter). Perhaps I also need to buy a book of 1,000,001 useless facts.
Los Angeles Times
by Gary Steinmehl; edited by Rich Norris
Did it in half the time as the New York puzzle, but had about half the fun. It got off to a great start as the 1D. Sound of sawing wood was ZZZ. Initially, I hoped that triple letters or grouped consonants or something would be the trick. Alas, no. Instead, the trick was saved for the last of the down clues, 67D. Word that can precede the first word in the answers to starred clues (SKY). A little boring, and with it as the only throughline for the puzzle, left me wanting more. Maybe this was because of the absolute utter joy I had with the New York Times puzzle. I mean — a dozen roses! So cool!Because I’m more interested in the New York Times than the L.A. puzzle, I’ll just list the long answers here and be done with it:
- 18A. Doing the macarena, e.g. : LINE DANCING
- 23A. Stationery : WRITING PAPER
- 53A. Carefree : LIGHT HEARTED
- 61A. Cannonball origination spot : DIVING BOARD
There you have it.
CrosSynergy: “Ster-linguistics”
by Randolph Ross
Cute puzzle, if a little generic. The title was the most confusing part to me. Is the title a play on some long word I don’t know? Or a phrase I don’t know? Or is it just a random made up hyphenated word to explain that the long answers within the grid will get STER added to them somewhere?
- 17A. Physicians who treat unmarried women? : SPIN[STER] DOCTORS
- 25A. Dictionary reader, at times? : WEB[STER] BROWSER — I think this would have been better clued as “Online dictionary reader” or “Electronic dictionary reader.” The “at times” thing is a clue trick I really don’t care for that much.
- 42A. Those with affection for cool cats? : HIP[STER] HUGGERS
- 55A. Rodent in the rye? : HAM[STER] SANDWICH
Otherwise, there was one little gem within the grid: 36D. Pupil in the 70s? (C STUDENT)… Other than that, fairly straightforward. I was distracted in the middle (and paused the clock) while my wife killed a bumblebee in our foyer. I am deathly afraid of flying insects, and this guy was huge. I am still having a mild coronary, and it’s been twenty minutes.
New York Sun: Themeless Thursday
by Doug Peterson; edited by Peter Gordon
I tried. I let Across Lite show me a few mistakes (not answers, just where squares were wrong), and then I asked for one free answer at 8D. Rose’s home (PBS), which I still don’t understand. I assume there’s someone named Rose who has a show on PBS. Or lives at the station. I don’t know.
I think the Sun puzzles are like an insider game… You have to be brilliant to do them, to enjoy them. It’s like a secret society. If you have fun doing the Sun puzzles, you are part of the Crossword Society of the World. I am not a worthy pledge to such an organization. I need to be more smarter. Maybe next year…
