LAT 27:51
CS 7:50
Newsday tba (maybe)
(Updated at 12:45pm Saturday)
Hi everyone. PuzzleGirl here, trying to make it through the tough Saturday puzzles and then I'm outta here! Gonna be a little lazy tonight — hope you don't mind. I'm also filling in for the vacationing Rex Parker, so I'm going to send you over to his blog if you care what I think about today's New York Times crossword. I'll have the post up over there by 9am and I'll see you back here a little later with the rest of the day's puzzles.Updated:
I couldn't finish Brad Wilber's L.A. Times crossword without mistakes. Having gurgle for BURBLE at 1A — and being completely convinced that it was correct — made the northwest impossible. I also didn't know the word SARACEN so Siracen looked fine for [Crusader's foe] and [Neighbor of Scorpius] ARA might as well have been Ari. But this puzzle had a lot of fun fill. Only real clunker for me was the wildly out-of-place AWNINGED. But here's the sparkly stuff I liked:- [Illegal aid?] = CRIB, as in crib sheet, a small note you can hold in your hand (or hide somewhere else unobtrusive) and cheat from while taking an exam.
- [Hummer, e.g.] = GAS HOG. Have you seen the website where people submit pictures of themselves flipping the bird to Hummers? Good stuff.
- [Ark and bark] are BOATS. See also [Sailer "round Nassau town" of song] Sloop JOHN B.
- [Tweezing target] is a UNIBROW. I was thinking the more benign eyebrow.
- [In days of yore] = AGES AGO. I originally had long ago, but I like the real answer better.
- GIGO is a [Data entry acronym] meaning "Garbage In, Garbage Out."
- This is embarrassing. For [1998 Reeve memoir] I had S-IL--- and came up with So I Lied. That would be completely inappropriate now, wouldn't it? Actual title of Superman's book: STILL ME.
Randall J. Hartman's CrosSynergy puzzle, "Go Ahead," adds the letters GO to the beginning of familiar phrases and then clues the resulting phrases with question-mark clues.- [Mongolian newspaper?] = GOBI WEEKLY (bi-weekly)
- [Stabbed hair stylist?] = GORED BARBER (Red Barber)
- [Stroller component?] = GO-CART WHEEL (cartwheel)
- [Incite ERA advocate?] = GOAD LIBBER (ad libber)
- I don't believe I will ever get used to ALTA being the abbreviation for Alberta. There really needs to be a B in there somewhere.
- [It's got you covered] = EPIDERMIS. Made me laugh out loud.
- Did you know Madagascar (wrong answer) and MOZAMBIQUE (right answer) have the same number of letters?
But hey! I'm only 20 minutes in! If I finish this one, I'll log back on and tell you about it. If I don't, well, maybe Orange will take three minutes or so to complete the ridiculously hard puzzle and enlighten us all. It's been a blast as usual, guys. All together now: "Welcome back, Orange!"