July 26, 2005

Shteyman classes up the joint on a Wednesday

Yeah, I more or less got my butt kicked by the last Michael Shteyman puzzle. I was a little leery when his byline popped up on Wednesday's NYT, but I think I found the right wavelength this time. Proving he is no gink, Michael used so many great entries, particularly the multi-word ones, such as CAVEINS, OLDSAWS, LOWPOINT, TRYME, CATSEYE, and GETTO.

There were some autobiographical answers. Rachmaninoff is Misha's fellow EMIGRE. And maybe OXY, ELUTE, and AMPULE came up in his science labs. And one could imagine the puzzle's quip coming up in his English classes after he arrived in the US. Then there are the mini-themes throughout, like ISR plus SEDERS. Not to mention SEETHRU plus BOOB. (Boys will be boys...)