"Climate Changes" by Matt Gaffney
Time - 12:42
Everybody likes to talk about the weather, and today Matt has it all backward. Weird weather has reversed things all over the puzzle. Let’s blame it on 98D: [Climate change champion] – AL GORE.
23A: [What July is, to many students?] – TOO COOL WARM FOR SCHOOL
41A: [Headline about comic Billy’s poor memory?] – CRYSTAL CLEAR CLOUDY
58A: [Like irritated Icelanders?] – HOT COLD AND BOTHERED.
86A: [Creedence Clearwater Revival classic about SPF?] – WHO’LL STOP THE RAIN SUN. Better pack the sunscreen. Shouldn’t that be Creedence Cloudywater Revival.
98A: [Ben Stiller movie about mighty Inuit warriors?] – TROPIC ARCTIC THUNDER
120A: [Eugene O’Neill play about insomnia?] – THE ICESANDMAN COMETH. Is sand the opposite of ice? Hockey vs. volleyball?
21A: [Solo song] – ARIA.
26A: [Poetry contest] – SLAM. I didn’t know poetry was a full contact sport. Will this catch on at crossword puzzle tournaments. Look out for that flying pencil!
27A: [Mr. Nahasapeemapetilon] – APU. Let’s see this clue in reverse.
28A: [Mr. Kotter] – GABE.
34A: [Scientist with a unit of capacitance named for him] – FARADAY. Don’t you wish someone would name a unit of capacitance after you? Orange has a fruit and a colour named after her.
63A: [Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” partner] – ACOSTA. Am I dumb or is this obscure?
80A: [Marathoner’s need] – WATER. Non-marathoners also need it.
102A: [President after Fillmore] – PIERCE. He must be the least remembered president.
106A: [“Titanic” actor] – LEO. Had to search for Canadian content this week.
119A: [Sheriff Taylor’s son] – OPIE.
128A: [Robot maid on “The Jetsons”] – ROSIE crossing 124D: [“Little ol’ me?”] – MOI. Today’s question: Who would win in a fight between Rosie and Miss Piggy?
2D: [Kept playing over and over] – LOOPED. Also can happen in badly written computer programs. Also can happen in badly written computer programs. Also can happen in badly written computer programs. Also can happen in badly written computer programs.
31D: [White House party crasher Michaele or Tareq] – SALAHI. This clue will self-destruct after 15 minutes of fame.
33D: [“Heavens to Murgatroyd!”] – YE GODS.
37D: [Human fallibility, with “the”] – OLD ADAM. Huh??? Dictionary? The old Adam, the natural tendency toward sin: He attributed his wild outburst to the old Adam in him.
50D: [Clapton classic] –COCAINE.
101D: [“99 Luftballons” singer] – NENA.
I’ll be on holiday next week, leaving the warm weather of Canada for the coolness of Florida. There will be an extra-special super-secret guest-guest blogger to take care of you. Bye!
December 04, 2009
Daily Beast, 12/4/09
December 02, 2009
MGWCC #78
crossword 6:04
puzzle 0:16
if october was "hell month" at matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, then november must have been "earth month," because all four puzzles featured geographical themes. what does december (i.e. "heaven month"?) have in store? before we get to that, let's take a look at last week's puzzle, "Regional Variation." the five overt theme answers (with starred clues) were:
what about the sixth theme answer, the one hiding in the grid? well, the theme isn't necessarily obvious, but i was on the lookout for another geographical theme (and the title didn't dissuade me of that), so i noticed pretty much right away that each of the starred answers began with the first four letters as a state in new england: MASSachusetts, NEW Hampshire, VERMont, MAINe, and CONNecticut. what's the other state in new england? why, RHODe island, of course. that makes the hidden theme answer RHODA, at 15a, clued as [She moved from Minneapolis to New York City]. i don't know anything about this show other than it spun off from mary tyler moore (i think?), but i imagine this geographically-inclined clue was yet another hint, as was the clue for NEWHART.
odds & ends from the fill:
overall, i found this puzzle surprisingly easy for a fourth-week puzzle, both the crossword and the meta. how did it treat you?
that's all for me this week, this month, and maybe this blog. see you over at the new site!
November 27, 2009
Daily Beast, 11/27/09
"Second Helpings" - 14:09
Welcome to another edition of Crosscan blogs Thanksgiving Puzzles.
The party never ends. Well if it must be Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for another cool Matt Gaffney creation.
115A: [Food you might be eating today – and the theme of this puzzle] – THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS. And the food is all over, stuck in the middle of familiar phrases.
23A: [Manufacturing one specific piece of sports equipment?] – CREATING A SQUASH RACKET
36A:[Comment about Mr. Luciano’s bowling ability?] – LUCKY ROLLS STRIKES. Do you know what three strikes in a row in bowling is called? A turkey! 47A:[Yiddish cries] – OYS!
56A:[“You’re forbidden to smoke when you’re not indoors”] - IT’S COLD TURKEY OUTSIDE.
80A:[Rigging a supposedly fair election?] – SECRET BALLOT STUFFING.
94A:[Golden opportunity you’ve got to grab quickly?] – EXPRESS GRAVY TRAIN.
1A: [God with a twin sister] – APOLLO. Artemis is the twin.
15A:[Cary’s ex] – DYAN Cannon. Cary (nee Archibald Leach) Grant’s exes also include Virginia Cherrill, Barbara Hutton, Betsy Drake. His last wife was Barbara Harris.
29A: [70 W, e.g.] – RTE. It will take you from North Carolina to Arizona.
30A: [Barkin and Raskin] – ELLENS. Why go with Raskin when you can use Ripstein?
35A: [Have A NAX to grind]. You don’t see many naxes around anymore. What? AN AX? Oh, much better.
46A:[Tossed back bacon] – ATE. Tref!
49A:[Hottie of long ago] – PINUP. See also DYAN and 62A:[Actress Larter] – ALI.
50A: [rotf, perhaps] – LOL. Rolling on the floor and laughing out loud.
76A:[Stopped working, as a car] – DIED. This can happen sitting in a parking lot waiting for your wife using the battery with the engine off. Yes, it can. Sigh.
86A: [Ancient city outside of Atlanta] – ROME. Ancient history experts, please explain.
101A:[Upcoming NASA launch vehicle] – ARES. Future astronauts will ride to orbit on Ares I, which uses a single five-segment solid rocket booster, a derivative of the space shuttle's solid rocket booster, for the first stage. A liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen J-2X engine derived from the J-2 engine used on Apollo's second stage will power the crew exploration vehicle's second stage. The Ares I can lift more than 55,000 pounds to low Earth orbit. (NASA website)
120A: [Sword that may lead to gold] – EPEE. Olympic reference!
2D: [Matthew or Luke] – PERRY. Get your mind out of the bible and back into network TV where it belongs.
5D: [“Serve again”] – LET. I don’t think crosswords would be possible without tennis.
15D: [Cicero’s 761] – DCCLXI. Nobody’s perfect.
37D: [River that separates North Korea and China] – YALU. I don’t think crosswords would be possible without foreign rivers.
59D:[Superman, at birth] – KAL-EL. The greatest super-hero. Period.
72D: [Giant chicken on “The Family Guy”] – ERNIE. I don’t think crosswords would be possible without giant chickens.
78D:[Culs-de-sac: abbr.] – CTS. I’m guessing courts?
96D:[Blackwater founder Prince] – ERIK. I don’t think crosswords would be possible without Blackwater founders.
Musical corner:
48A: [Johnny Cash’s “The Ballad of IRA Hayes”]
51D:[Soul great Redding] – OTIS
60D:[Jamie Foxx song “Can I TAKE U Home”]. A song title only a crossword constructor could love.
Canadian content:
124A:[2003 health crisis] – SARS. Nearly shut down Toronto. I got my H1N1 shot yesterday so I am invulnerable like Superman.
95D: [Former Aykroyd co-star] – RADNER. Dan Aykroyd is Canadian, not Gilda Radner.
100D:[“Wayne’s World” comeback] – AS IF. Mike Myers is Canadian. Hey, an excuse to play the Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody.
November 24, 2009
MGWCC #77
crossword 8:47
puzzle 1:29
hi, everybody! this week marks the 77th episode of matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest. this week's puzzle, "Middle of Somewhere," had a really cool theme. let's have a look:
the gimmick here is that each of the four answers is the name of a country (germany, samoa, chile, or romania) with the word OF stuck into the middle. hence the title, "middle of somewhere." to find the contest answer, a familiar thanksgiving food, we take a look at the two-part central instructions: STUFF A NATIONAL / BIRD THE SAME WAY. despite my missteps (true confession: my first thought was, "is NOFENE the name of a thanksgiving food?"), the answer came to me reasonably quickly once i started going through birds and thanksgiving foods: TOFURKEY, of course, the tofu version of turkey that some vegetarians have for thanksgiving. i've never had it. one year some friends and i were going to get turducken, but ... we didn't. that's actually the saddest thanksgiving story i have. maybe i'll share it another time.
i looked somewhat askance at "national bird," because as much as ben franklin wanted otherwise, the turkey is not the national bird of this or any other nation. (it's only native to the USA and mexico, so the options are somewhat limited). but of course, the theme is OF in country names, and indeed TURKEY is both a nation and a bird. are there any other birds that are also countries?
odds and ends from the fill:
that's all from me. have a happy thanksgiving, everybody.
November 20, 2009
Daily Beast, 11/20/09
"New Moon" - 11:45
I was smart this week. I guessed what Matt's theme would be before the puzzle was even published.
Of course, not being a 92D: [Like some mortgages] TEN YEAR old girl, I knew none of the Twilight Saga:New Moon answers specific to the movie. Which is too bad, because I believe the main demographic reading my posts are ten year old girls.
I did better with Matt's take on a new moon, which, as defined at 65A: [Where the moon is located in its new moon phase - - and a pattern that appears twice in this puzzle] BETWEEN THE EARTH AND SUN. So we get a SUN theme answer, then a MOON, then an EARTH. Each theme answer is a movie with SUN/MOON/EARTH in the title. Whew! Why do I never get to blog puzzles with themes like "each theme entry can follow the word CAT"? These are much cooler, though. By the way, if the moon is directly in line between the earth and sun at a new moon, a solar eclipse occurs. Don't look!!
Other theme answers:
23A: [2003 Diane Lane] - UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN
32A: [1982 Albert Finney/Diane Keaton drama] - SHOOT THE MOON
45A: [1991 Jim Jarmusch movie about cab drivers] - NIGHT ON EARTH
87A: [1946 Gregory Peck Western] - DUEL IN THE SUN
103A: [1999 Jim Carrey biopic] - MAN ON THE MOON (Jim Carrey is Canadian)
113A: [1988 Geena Davis comedy] - EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY. The Earth has moved to the front of the title here. The only one of these movies that I've seen.
Movie theme answers:
19A: ["New Moon" protagonist] - BELLA
75A: [ Lautner of "New Moon"] - TAYLOR
54A: ["Twilight" town] - FORKS
125A: ["Twilight" author Stephenie] - MEYER
52D: [Last name of 19-across] - SWAN
Other stuff:
57A: [Be a bootlicker] - KOWTOW - don't you want this to start with a "C"?
84A: [Part of DOS] - SYS - For the ten year olds: Disc Operating System.
118A: [Zener cards test it] - ESP. Successful proven tests remain at zero. But you knew I was going to say that.
6D: [Average guy] - SCHMOE. When did this start getting an "E"?
10D: ["You Can't Take It With You" co-author] - MOSS HART. Checking...George S. Kaufman is your other co-author.
12D: [One of Cosby's TV kids] - Lisa BONET, who played Denise.
16D: [Key used often by Mozart] - G MINOR. The key I use often is house.
32D: ["Oh my!"] - GOSH. Your grandmother's OMG.
36D: [Glocks and such] - GUNS. I'm Canadian, so I don't know guns.
46D: [Britney Spears' "Piece OF ME"] - Do ten year girls still like her?
63D: ["Two and a Half Men" actor] - Charlie SHEEN. Started watching this in reruns. I should hate it but it is too funny.
100D: [1970 AL MVP BOOG Powell] - If the entire puzzle was about 1970 baseball players I would finish faster than Dan Feyer.
111D: [Led Zeppelin classic "DYER Mak'er"] - Hit it!
Crossing of two random names:
124A: [Cervenka of punk rock] - EXENE. huh? How did this turn into a Brendan Emmett Quigley puzzle?
108D: [Dakota Fanning's sister] - ELLE.
EXENA/ELLA looked good to me. Buzz!! Wrong!! Lose bonus points!!
Next weekend is Thanksgiving for you guys down south. I had better start studying. Bye!
November 17, 2009
MGWCC #76
crossword 6:45
puzzle 0:45
quick writeup this time, as i'm super-busy this week. hopefully you all can make up for it in the comments. the 76th episode of matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, "On the Strait Where You Live," featured a curious geographical theme:
so what's going on with this theme? well, it probably has to do with lakes (as the last clue implies). can you think of a LAKE SERIES with five members? i sure can: the great lakes, including lake ERIE of crossword fame. and lookie here, LAKE ERIE is hiding in that last theme answer, except that the ERIE part has been bracketed with a pair of Ss. a similar thing has been done to a geographical place name in the other four theme answers: ST. HELENA plus Es, ELLIS ISLAND plus Hs, PORT JEFFERSON (where is that? wikipedia tells me it's a new york town of 7000 or an ohio town of 300. well then.) plus Os, and ADA, OKLAHOMA plus Ms. putting the extra letters in the indicated order gives ... HOMES, the mnemonic for the great lakes that everybody learned in elementary school. although i have to say, huron, ontario, michigan, and superior are much less useful than ERIE for crossword puzzles.
quick hits from the fill:
okay, that's all. see you next week!
November 13, 2009
Daily Beast, 11/13/09
Time – 11:42 (paper)
“Team Palin” by Matt Gaffney
The publication of a 1A/132A [...new book by Sarah Palin] titled “GOING ROGUE” leads Matt to using the unusual Palin family names for theme answers. Whatever your opinion of the ex-governor of 109A: [Wasila home] – ALASKA, you must admit that not every family could get this puzzle treatment. Osmonds? No. Jacksons? Tito and Jermaine, maybe.
Other theme answers:
23A: [Math lessons for one of Sarah Palin’s kids?] – TRIG CLASSES. Will Trig’s kids be named Calc, Alg and Arith?
39A: [One of Sarah Palin’s kids, when she’s upset?] – WEEPING WILLOW.
56A: [What one of Sarah Palin’s kids puts in her coffee?] – BRISTOL CREAM.
84A: [One of Sarah Palin’s kids, when a slapstick prank is pulled on her?] – THE PIED PIPER.
101A: [Lamp in one of Sarah Palin’s kids’ rooms?] – TRACK LIGHTING. Isn’t high school hard enough with a regular name?
119A: [Dialect spoken by Sarah Palin’s husband?] – TODD ENGLISH. This was new to me. Todd English is a celebrity chef.
Pseudo-theme answer:
82A: [Singer Bareilles] – SARA. Didn’t know the name but I know the song.
Canadian content for the blogger:
93A: [“The Love GURU” (Mike Myers movie)]/ Compare with 32D [Mystic] - SWAMI
2D – [Bobby of NHL fame ] – ORR
115D – [Neighbor of Sask.] – NDAK. Shouldn’t that be neighbour?
Other stuff:
25A: [“Thus Spoke Zarathustra” author] – NIETZSCHE. Made me think of 2001, a Space Odyssey music.
49A: [Throw a fit] – GO APE/76D [Freak out] – PANIC/51D: [Audience disapproval] – BOO HISS
(Is there a hidden political commentary in this puzzle?)
50A: [Fast spreading idea] – MEME. A slow spreading idea is called a YOUYOU.
51A: [Jaw covering] – BEARD. Clever and yet ordinary.
62A: [Fields Medal winner Terence] TAO. That is a big mathematics prize. I’ll bet Mike Nothnagel knew this. I’ll bet Amy didn’t.
69A: [X] – CHI. You wrote TEN, didn’t you? Yes you did. Don’t lie to me.
73A: [Grossmutter, casually] – OMA. Name two terms for grandmother that I didn’t know. I prefer Bubbie.
100A: [Maine college] – BATES. Would you go to a college named after the motel in Psycho?
42D: [Magazine whose next cover features Sonia Sotomayor] - LATINA
54D: [“About SCHMIDT”]. 2002 Jack Nicholson movie. Or another term for grandmother that I didn’t know. Either answer is equally possible.
59D: [Crab-eater’s tool] – MALLET. Why would you eat something that needs a mallet?
91D: [Fencers and hurdlers, e.g.] – ATHLETES. Not in the Winter Olympic, coming to Vancouver in 2010.
95D: [U.S. senator with a palindromic name] – Daniel AKAKA of Hawaii. Not Alaska, despite the A’s and K’s.
98D: [Watch whose days are numbered] – DIGITAL. Clue of the week!
See you next week!
November 10, 2009
MGWCC #75
crossword 4:57
puzzle -2:00 minutes (approximately)
hola. hell month is over at matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, and this week's easy-breezy puzzle, "Ain't No Way," is proof. the straightforward theme involves people whose first name is almost a state (or two):
so north/south CAROLINA, west VIRGINIA, and south/north DAKOTA ... see? (yes, of course you see. why am i belaboring the point?) speaking of points, the instructions this week tell us that There are three points you need for this week's MGWCC. This week's contest answer is the fourth point, the one you don't need. that would be east, although east carolina is ... okay, no, it's not a state.
the fill contained some good, some bad, some ugly, and some unfamiliar:
that's all from me this week. peace out.
November 06, 2009
Daily Beast, 11/6/09
Time - 8:46
Hello possums!
You’re late!
You should have been here an hour ago. Didn’t you remember to fall back on November 1? Matt Gaffney remembered, and that’s the 50D: [Crossword puzzle feature] – THEME of this week’s Daily Beast puzzle, "Daylight Savings”.
All the theme answers had to be pushed back one hour. Isn’t that 53D: [Underhanded] – SNEAKY? Not so much to me as I got this on the title and 1 Across, so a very fast solve. Nevertheless, some fun clues and answers as we have come to expect from Marvellous Matt.
1A & 5A: [Gary Cooper Western, as of 11/01/09?] – High Noon gets pushed back to HIGH ELEVEN.
23A: [Facial growth, as of 11/01/09?] – (Five) FOUR O’CLOCK SHADOW.
54A: [Dolly Parton movie, as of 11/01/09?] – Double switch from Nine to Five to EIGHT TO FOUR
71A: [1933 John Barrymore movie, as of 11/01/09?] – DINNER AT SEVEN (Eight).
89A: [Pot smoker’s favourite time, as of 11/01/09?] – (Four) THREE TWENTY. This one needs some explaining. Mr Wiki?
420, 4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) refers to consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis drug subculture. The term originated from a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in California in 1971. The teens would meet after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana. April 20 (4/20) has evolved into a counterculture where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis.
It is held in Victoria in a park right by my bus stop home from work. Since I usually leave around four, I arrived last April 20 at the stop to a gathering crowd that clearly didn’t include many crossword solving accountants. I walked to the next bus stop.
122A: [Count Basie classic, as of 11/01/09?] – (One) TWELVE O’CLOCK JUMP.
16D: [1961 #1 hit for Gary “U.S.” Bonds, as of 11/01/09?] – QUARTER TO TWO (Three).
65D: [Best Picture of 1969, as of 11/01/09?] – (Midnight) ELEVEN COWBOY.
Other cool stuff:
21A: [Dame] EDNA. Here “she” is performing in Montreal.
44A: [Whiz] – ACE. Wrong. PEE. There goes Matt again.
60A: [One-third of a WWII movie] – TORA. The other thirds are tora and tora, respectively.
75A: [Moo goo gai pan pan] – WOK. Three-letter word madness!
88A: [Olympic great Ray] – EWRY. Who? Raymond "Ray" Clarence Ewry was an American track and field athlete who won 8 gold medals at the Olympic Games This puts him among the most successful Olympians of all time. This guy could Jump!
95A: STEELY [Dan]
110A: [Constellation component] – B STAR . Also known as random letter star.
128A: [Belgian beer, for short] – STELLA Artois. Marlon Brando was ordering a beer in “A Streetcar Named Desire"?
129A: [Maker of the Ektorp chair] – IKEA. Four letters, furniture, IKEA.
2D: [“Young Frankenstein” role] – IGOR. What hump?
10D: [Cup Noodles company] – NISSIN. I don’t think we have this in Canada.
41D: [“Into the GROOVE” (Madonna hit].
66D: [Toronto landmark] – CN TOWER. Popular in puzzles lately.
84D: [This clue has four] – SYLLABLES. Were you thinking, “words” won’t fit?
106D: [Fiona’s guy] – SHREK. As in green ogre.
107D: [“A Confederacy of Dunces” author John Kennedy TOOLE].
115D: [“Africa” band] – TOTO.
120D: [Expectorated] – SPAT.
124A: [“Bravissimo!”] – OLE, Matt!
See you next week, possums.
November 03, 2009
MGWCC #74
crossword 16:08
puzzle 1:15
hell month is over at matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, and i won't say it ended with a whimper, because this was a very cool puzzle, but it was nowhere near as tough a meta as last week's. the puzzle, "65 to Stay Alive" (a reference to speed limits, no?), asks us to find a five-letter common halloween costume. let's have a look at the theme answers:
pretty nifty, eh? all four of this month's earlier contest answers, in order, are theme answers in the grid this week. now what's this about UNLUCKY ALL MONTH? lest you fear that only solvers who have gotten every meta wrong so far are eligible this week (now that would be a dastardly way of making sure nobody got all five right, eh?), it's a relatively straightforward reference to triskaidekaphobia, the belief that the number 13 is somehow unlucky. so all we need to do is go look at the letter in square 13 from all five of this month's crosswords:
well, this is definitely the most meta of any of the metas, what with referencing both contest answers and crossword answers in four previous puzzles (and itself). but it wasn't so hard, was it? there it is, spelled out in order: SHREK. i can't say i've ever seen anybody dressed up as shrek for halloween, but i could certainly imagine it. my son sam dressed up as a cowboy; his friend grace (also going on 2) was a fairy; and we saw a buzz lightyear in their building. but no shrek.
so how about the crossword? it was tough, all right, but i think not quite as tough as last week's. i did have to guess/google two squares, and went 1 for 2:
what else?
okay, that's all for me. i hope everybody else enjoyed hell month as much as i did...
October 30, 2009
Daily Beast, 10/30/09
Time – 9:57
Happy Halloween, everybody.
Matt Gaffney is celebrating by hiding CLASSIC COSTUMES (66A) in six theme answers.
Let’s try and find them.
23A: [Tactic in a tank, e.g.]: COMBAT MANEUVER, hiding Comb.
36A: [It's required to enter some countries]: TRAVEL VISA, hiding Visa.
44A: [Why not to stare at an eclipse, they say]: YOU’LL GO BLIND, hiding Blind.
89A: [Sent up the river]: THROWN IN JAIL, hiding Jail.
94A: [Part of the subway system in Chicago, Boston, or D.C.]: ORANGE LINE, hiding Orange.
114A: [Preparing to make demands, say]: TAKING HOSTAGES, hiding King.
Disclaimer: Crossword Fiend Industries does not endorse the preceding (except for Orange), and considers the correct hidden costumes to be BATMAN, ELVIS, GOBLIN, NINJA, ANGEL and GHOST, respectively.
What's with all the says? Say, Say, Say.
I will be going to 61A: [Magic place?]: ORLANDO in December, where I will no doubt see 27A: [Jack Sparrow’s portrayer]: DEPP.
43A: [Irish chanteuse]: ENYA. Shall we sail away?
59A: [“Scott BAIO is 45...And Single” (VH1 show)]. Shall we remember Joanie Loves Chachi?
65A: [Win every game, as in the World Series]: SWEEP. Not this year.
73A: [Debbie Downer]: SAD SACK. Hint – don’t go to a party with these two and Mopey Marvin, Low Louie and Crying Carl.
86A: [Gateway rival]: DELL - choice of your finest Canadian crossword bloggers.
4D: [Diet soda]: TAB. What’s with TAB and Fresca? Are they still around or not? I’m never sure.
19D: [A face that could STOP A clock]. One of those expressions that makes no sense if you really think about it.
32D: [Obama “birther” lawyer ORLY Taitz]. Nothing about this clue or answer makes any sense to me. Please explain so I can say 70A: [Now I understand]: AH OK.
65D: [Clever piece of candy]: SMARTIE. It seems that Canadian smarties are nothing like American smarties.
75D: [The Golden State, for short]: CALI. California leads all states in number of abbreviations.
78D: [Sex, about half the time]: FEMALE. (Any comment I add here will result in another disclaimer, so let’s move on).
88D: [Use all of, as blankets]: HOG. Why do I always wake up at 2:00 am shivering with no blankets? I could seal those things with duct tape and my wife would find a way to take them.
100D: [novelist Mario Vargas LLOSA.] His most famous book is “Llamas on the Llano”.
122A: [Col. Klink portrayer Klemperer]: WERNER. My Dad was a WWII veteran and loved to watch Hogan's Heroes. He would go around saying "I Know Nothing!" ala Sgt. Schultz.
Canadian Content:
101A: [Mike’s “Shrek” co-star]: EDDIE. (Mike, not Eddie.)
111A: [Actress Cuthbert]: ELISHA
84D: [Ducks, Devils, Flames, et al.]: NHL. (the Flames)
103D: [“Me, Myself & IRENE”] starring Jim Carrey.
Enough 117D: [Bother]: ADO for this week.
(P.S. As I mentioned last week, the torch headed to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver passed a block from my house on Friday. Here's a tip for taking good pictures: Make sure the batteries in your camera aren't dead. Here's a shot from 10 minutes past my place (near a planned stop, which is why the runner isn't running).
October 27, 2009
MGWCC #73
crossword untimed, maybe 15 minutes?
puzzle 2 days
okay, this puzzle was a killer. very tough crossword, and a vague meta that had me scratching my head and fruitlessly investigating blind alleys for days. yup, it's hell month in matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, all right.
the grid had no evident theme answers, but the central answer was SIX BARS, clued as [Average itinerary for a Halloween night pub crawl, maybe]. this caught my attention meta-wise for three reasons:
here is a non-exhaustive list of all the false leads i tried (you should see my marked-up paper):
finally it occurred to me that if i'm looking for a six-letter answer, it probably comes down to finding six different answers and taking one letter from each one. so i started looking for candy BARS (it is halloween this week)... aha! i noticed CLARA right away. i don't even remember why, but some time last week i was looking through old MGWCCs and revisited the one whose answer was CLARK, matt's middle name. one of the hints was that the three answers across the top of the grid were KENT, BAR, and GABLE. so CLARK bars were on my mind, and CLARA [Bow in front of the cameras] is one letter off. and what do you know? i found five more:
as usual, i tried anagramming the letters that were replaced, but KRNXPM isn't very promising. the new letters, though—that seemed better, but AUTNGZ didn't go anywhere either. i wasn't sure exactly what i was looking for, but there are no anagrams of AUTNGZ in my word list, so i thought i might be looking for a proper name or multi-word phrase somehow related to "Outrageous Death," the puzzle's title. (it didn't occur to me until i started this writeup that both of those words also fit the theme, what with nutrageous and heath bars.) but no.
that had me worried that i had identified the wrong BARS in the grid, so i checked out this wikipedia page of candy bars, looking for other names one letter off from grid answers. i didn't find one, but look what was hiding at the bottom of the list: the ZAGNUT bars, of which i had never heard. i knew immediately that it must be the answer.
whew! i was fairly certain i was going to fail this one as late as last night during sunday night football, and i was preparing to admit meta defeat for the first time as MGWCC blogger (and only the second time overall). but luckily things worked out, and persistence paid off.
after all that, i don't have that much to say about the crossword, which was freaking tough. i had to post-solve google a bunch of answers i didn't know:
okay, that's all from me this week. given how tough this sucker was, i don't even want to think about next week...
October 24, 2009
Daily Beast, 10/23/09
Daily Beast - 12:18
I do a lot of puzzles. Over ten a day on average. This is not an estimate. Some of you will know I like to track things in spreadsheets. So it was only natural I decided to determine how many puzzles I solve in a year. This Sunday marks day 365 and this is puzzle 3,677.
I’ve concluded that there are only two proven methods to get better and faster at solving crossword puzzles. One – do lots and lots of puzzles. Two – Buy “How to Conquer the New York Times Crossword Puzzle: Tips, Tricks and Techniques to Master America's Favorite Puzzle” by Amy Reynoldo (convenient link at right). I’ve done both, and I am now quicker than Amy. Well, I was twice. 2 wins, 3,675 losses. Still better than the Washington Nationals since they left Montreal. By the way, this is the 15th anniversary of the Expos only World Series win. I refuse to acknowledge that a strike in 1994 cancelled the season and the playoffs when the Expos had the best record in baseball. I count it as a victory.
Speaking of “The World Series”, that is the title of this week’s Daily Beast puzzle by Matt Gaffney. Like the ’94 Expos/Yankees, we have fictional battles between worlds that don’t exist outside the imagination. I struggled a bit in a few areas and was shocked to discover I solved this without error.
Theme answers:
23A: [World Series where little people battle Sauron in the Emerald City?] - LILLIPUT MIDDLE EARTH OZ. LILLIPUT is the land of little people in "Gulliver’s Travels". Sauron is the villain in MIDDLE EARTH in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The Emerald City is where the Dorothy found "The Wizard of Oz".
36A: [World Series where Thomas the Tank engine runs in vampire paradise?] – SODOR UTOPIA BUFFYVERSE. SODOR is the island where the trains in "Thomas the Tank Engine" run. I have been a model railroader (not so much now, as 3,677 puzzles have taken up a bit of my spare time) but didn’t know this. UTOPIA is the term for a perfect place, first used in “Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia” by Thomas More. BUFFYVERSE is the slang term for the place where the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" were set.
65A: [World Series where the Marx Brothers rule Clark Kent?] – FREEDONIA SMALLVILLE. FREEDONIA was the European country run by Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) in the movie “Duck Soup”. SMALLVILLE is the town where Clark Kent grew up, and depending on the version of the movie, TV show, comic you are looking at, was or wasn’t Superboy before moving to Metropolis as Superman.
91A: [World Series where Homer Simpson makes chocolate bars?] – SPRINGFIELD LOOMPALAND – SPRINGFIELD from “The Simpsons”. LOOMPALAND is where the Oompa-Loompas of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” are found.
109A: [World Series where Aslan the Lion lives in an archipelago playing MMORPGS?] – EARTH SEA NARNIA AZEROTH – Huh? Welcome to “Googling with Jeffrey”. The world of EARTHSEA is one of sea and islands: a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands surrounded by mostly uncharted ocean, created by Ursula K. Le Guin for her short story "The Word of Unbinding". NARNIA is the land in the C.S. Lewis books. AZEROTH is the land where "World of Warcraft", a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) takes place. I knew NARNIA.
Other World Series references (the baseball kind):
77A: [Player with the most World Series rings of all time] is Yogi BERRA with ten.
99A: [1988 World Series MVP Hershiser] is OREL.
118: [1978 World Series MVP Bucky] is DENT.
I’m exhausted from explaining the theme answers, so some closing bullets:
• 6A: [Brown’s predecessor] is BLAIR. British Prime Ministers.
• 32A:[Half a 1980s sitcom pair] – Kate and ALLIE
• 82A: [Swiss watchmaker] / 66D: [inflatable bed maker] – RADO/AERO. The crossing of two makers. “O” was a semi-guess.
• 85A: [Rosie who cheated in the 1980 Boston Marathon] /85D: [Political cartoonist Ted] – RUIZ/RALL. The crossing of two obscure people. I knew RUIZ but I’m guessing many missed this. 90A: [Pet problem] – MANGE didn’t help.
• 2D: [He beat Arthur to win the 1972 U.S. Open] is ILIE Nastase. I used to spell this wrong until I noticed it is I LIE.
• 14D: [Mauna KEA, Hawaii] /16D: [20th-largest island in the U.S.] – OAHU. Aloha.
• 26D: [Christopher of “Deathtrap”] – REEVE. Another Superman reference.
• 36D: [Place to learn, cutesy-style] – SKOOL. Wear ewe cann learn two spelle.
• 39D: [Stuff in a tent] –OXYGEN. Great clue.
• 113D: [2016 Olympics locale] – RIO. The torch headed to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver will pass a block from my house on Friday. I'll try to get a picture and post it next week.
Bye!
October 20, 2009
Wednesday, 10/21/09
BEQ 5:09
Onion 3:47
NYT 3:26
LAT 2:58
CS untimed
Peter Collins' New York Times crossword
All right, this stealth theme totally snuck under my radar, and I filled in 65-Across with the Downs so I never saw the explanatory clue 'til after I was done. Those 9-letter Across answers? Yeah, they have nothing to do with the theme. Instead, we get a concatenation of POP singers:
• 1A, 22A. BOY / GEORGE is clued with ["Whew!"] and [Dragon-slaying saint].
• 22A, 26A. Wham's GEORGE / MICHAEL adds [Archangel in Daniel] to the mix.
• 26A, 46A. JACKSON is [Mississippi's capital], and MICHAEL / JACKSON's concert rehearsal movie comes out this month. Am reading the Entertainment Weekly article about that.
• 46A, 49A. JACKSON / BROWNE, ex of Daryl Hannah back in the day, evokes ["Hagar the Horrible" creator Dik].
Is there a name for this sort of linkage from one name to the next? Not a word ladder, not a "Before & After"...what would you call it?
There are answers in the credit column and answers in the debit column. First up, the credits:
• 55A. The clue for OSLO, [Where the traitorous Vidkun Quisling lived], is great because it's fun to say "Vidkun Quisling." He collaborated with the Nazis in WWII, and his last name is now a lowercase noun, quisling, meaning a traitor who collaborates with an occupying force.
• 42D. JALISCO is [Guadalajara's state]. "Vidkun Quisling never vacationed in Guadalajara, Jalisco."
• 17A. DUMBS DOWN is clued as [Oversimplifies, as educational standards]. No relation to the [Job for a dummy?] that is a CRASH TEST (58A).
• 34A. A beer KEG is a capital-B [Bud holder, of sorts]. Budweiser, that is. (See also ALE, or {Draft pick?].)
• Winnie the Pooh gets a shout-out in 18D: ["Oh, ___!" (Pooh expression)]. Raise your hand if BOTHER was a flat-out gimme.
• 42A. [Ad music] is a JINGLE. Fun word.
Debits:
• 39D. [Place to dip a quill] is an INK POT? Inkwell, I know. This pot o' ink? Not familiar.
• 58D. [Early 10th-centure year] is CMI, or 901.
• 22D. GREG gets clued as [Dharma's sitcom spouse]. Aren't we allowed to forget that show ever existed now? Famous Gregs grumble that they were left out in the cold. I guess cyclist Greg Lemond couldn't be in the clue, what with LE MONDE (43A: [French newspaper since 1944]) in the grid, but Louganis has some immortality, no? And Greg Brady is the all-time classic sitcom GREG.
• One part of the no-duplications guideline for crosswords says that two words with a shared root should not appear together. So it's sketchy to have both OVO and OVOLO in the same puzzle—and crossing at the V, no less! OVOLO, or 31D: [Convex molding], is an architectural term deriving from an Italian diminutive of "egg," from the Latin. And OVO, clued as 35A" [Ab ___ (from the start)], is in a Latin phrase that means, literally, "from the egg."
Donna Levin's Los Angeles Times crossword
The theme is "Hockey Terms I Don't Know," basically—four "blanking a blank" phrases begin with words that double as hockey no-nos that'll land you in the penalty box. Here are the theme entries:
• 17A. [Electrical worker's action] is TRIPPING A SWITCH. This is a kind of icky theme entry, if you ask me. I just asked my husband what sort of "flipping" is a violation in hockey. I'm not an electrical worker, so "tripping a switch" feels like an awkward combination of words to me. I'm sure Dave, my electrician who looks just like Tim Russert, would tell me the phrase is super familiar. You know, if the theme entries weren't all "blanking a blank," this could've been the Dave Matthews Band song "Tripping Billies." Then all sorts of people could complain about quasi-obscure pop culture references.
• 24A. [Discount retailer's action] is SLASHING A PRICE. You know what? If they're slashing prices, maybe they weren't starting out with discount prices and don't deserve the moniker "discount retailer." Furthermore: They're only slashing the one price? Maybe it would have been better to do without the thematic consistency of the "blanking a blank" structure to allow a more natural-sounding phrase here.
• 41A. [Feuder's action] is HOLDING A GRUDGE. I like this one. I kept the first four letters blank for a while because it could've been NURSING A GRUDGE too. And yes, I'd like to see the hockey game in which the players wind up in the penalty box because they were nursing.
• 54A. [Accused speeder's action] is FIGHTING A TICKET. I've never done this. Too much hassle in Chicago, alas.
• 47D. [Place where the starts of this puzzle's four longest answers result in a penalty] is the RINK. Hockey rink, not a figure skating rink. Although I reckon the figure skating judges would not look kindly on any tripping, slashing, fighting action on the ice rink.
There's a word in this puzzle that I don't think I've ever seen before: NOVIA, or 27D: [Spanish sweetheart]. You guys know this word? I took German and French myself. The L.A. Times crossword does seem to include a few more Spanish-language entries than the East Coast–based puzzles.
The bottom corners of this grid seemed a tad clunky. The CN TOWER is a fantastic entry (50A: [Toronto skyline landmark]), but yeesh! WKLY and EEEE and RTES crossing ALEE and plural RYES? The southwest corner has a nice intersection between CRASHES and DASHES, plus the start of a theme entry and the capper, RINK, but there's also the possessive SKY'S crossing CFOS and an AGCY.
Oh, hello, it's BASEBALL, [America's pastime] (9D). Mr. Fiend was watching the Dodgers/Yankees game this evening. My kid noticed that the on-screen scoreboard thingy has two double letters: NYY vs. LAA. Letter patterns! We'll make a crossworder out of him yet. Can't push it. He needs to come to it in his own time. He's only nine, so he could use a few more years to hone his spelling before he gets into crosswords.
Runners know the word SUPINATE (4D: Rotate face-up, as one's palm). I haven't much encountered this word in a hand setting. If your ankles tend to roll outward when you walk, you're a supinator; ankles rolling inward are pronating. The words are related, obviously, to supine and prone, the words for lying on your back and face down, respectively.
When they send the RADIO CAR (37D: Police cruiser), you can expect to see the COPSE (30D: Thicket), right? "Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?"
Updated Wednesday morning:
Raymond Hamel's CrosSynergy/Washington Post puzzle, "The Evolution of Man"—Janie's review
What a coup-de-construction this is, as the embedded word man makes its journey across the grid in five phrases. Or phases... Not only is there a lot of theme fill (65 squares—three 15s and two 10s), but notice how the position of the letters M-A-N shifts three spaces to the right at each pass. That's progress! And here's how it plays out:
•17A. MANAGEMENT [Business owners].
•24A. GERMAN SHEPHERDS [Rin Tin Tin and kin]. Nice clue.
•40A. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE [Realm of Charles V].
•50A. TIGER SALAMANDER [Blotchy amphibian]. Others are more vivid, but here's a pair with muted, "blotchy" tones.
•63A. PAUL NEWMAN ["Hud" star].
In keeping with the "natural history" direction of the theme, it's worth noting the clues and fill that add their support. In addition to those German shepherds and that tiger salamander, the natural world is also represented by:
•COOS/[This is what it sounds like when doves cry];
•SEDONA/[Arizona's "Red Rocks" city];
•DOE/[Female deer];
•ELM/[Tree with "helicopter seeds"] (though it seems the elm produces seeds that fall more into the "flutterer/spinner" category than say the maple, a true "helicopter" seed producer);
•LEECH/[Parasitic sort] ("UGH!"/ ["Yuck!"]);
•YOKE/[Connector for oxen]; and bringing it back to the canines,
•DOO/[Scooby's tail?].
And before parting, I'll just mention that it was good to see: METER MAID, though I wish she'd been clued in connection with "Lovely Rita" and not the quite so straightforward [Ticket issuer]; and also TUBBY, [Tuba in a children's story]. This link will take you to a seriously charming animated version from 1947, narrated by Victor Jory.
Matt Gaffney's Onion A.V. Club crossword
I really liked this theme. I was proud of myself for noticing that the first three theme entries contained English place names. Now, one's a city (CHARLOTTE YORK), one's an island (JERSEY NUMBER), and one's a county (HAMPSHIRE PIG), but they seemed close enough. Then I hit the fourth theme entry: HECHO EN MEXICO, clued as [Clothing tag words, perhaps]. Whoa. We're not in England anymore. Then I worked my way down to the end and NO NEWS: ["I haven't heard anything yet," or the theme of this puzzle]. Oho! New York, New Mexico, etc. Cute. Unexpected.
Let's give out some prizes, shall we?
• Vocabulary word of the day: ARROGATE means [Seize].
• Least likely to appear in the daily paper's crossword: LACTATED, clued with the past-tense [Got milk?]. No, wait. It's gotta be TALK SHIT, or [Trash someone].
• Most arbitrary combination of words: TWO GOALS are [Not quite a hat-trick] in hockey.
• Most suggestive of a menu item: Ehud OLMERT atop an OMELET. Would an Olmert omelet be kosher if it had cheese, or does it need to stick with veggies?
• Least sexist clue: ["Right away, ma'am!"] for "I'M ON IT!" Too often the daily puzzles go with male = gender-neutral instead of going with female = gender-neutral half the time.
Brendan Quigley's blog crossword, "Unfinished Business: Going 0-for-2"
Brendan illustrates the BAD CROSSING concept ([Poor crossword construction technique that requires too much of the solver]) with two bad crossings. Intentional bad crossings! I like it.
The first bad crossing is where 21A and 8D collide. ["Crystalised" band, 2009] is THE XX and ['80s video game with falling blocks] is KLAX. I did guess this one because KLAX sounds like "clacks," which is sort of what falling blocks sound like. I hit random letters on the keyboard, starting with the QWERTY row, for the first letter of 24D: [Vikings tight end Shiancoe] *ISANTHE, where he met 23A: [Animal Collective singer ___ Tare], A*EY. V! Who knew? VISANTHE and AVEY. My son's a Vikings fan because of the purple, but I can't say I've paid any attention to the televised games.
There was another sort of bad crossing with 47A: [Big name in chemicals] and 37D: [Cubist painter Roger]. BASF is somewhat familiar, but Roger BISSIERE? Not.
Nobody had trouble with 27A: [Crossword blogger Reynaldo], right? Right? I was afraid I'd be embroiled in a bad crossing scenario, but HAIRCUT, DARE ME, and EPOXY are not mysterious entries. Can you imagine the ignominy of being considered the reason a crossing is bad?
Favorite clues:
• 41A. [Barbed wire armband, e.g.] for TAT. Should I get a crossword grid armband tattoo?
• 52A. A [Team building?] is the ARENA.
• 22D. [Taking a little off the top?] clues HAIRCUT. That's mostly a guy haircut thing. I'd rather take a little off the ends than the top.
• 40D. Trivia! ASA GRAY is the [Botanist who arranged "On the Origin of Species: to be published in the States]. Botanist? I thought he was an anatomist. No, that's Henry Gray who wrote Gray's Anatomy.
MGWCC #72
crossword 8:50
puzzle 2 days, and i eventually had to seek internet help
boo—oh, never mind. this week's episode of matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, the third installment of "hell month," had these (apparent) theme entries:
what do these four answers have in common? the first thing that struck me is that they all use the same letters: AEFNORSTU. there's no A in RUN, FORREST, RUN, or U in AFTERNOON TEA, or T in REFUSE AN OFFER, but still, all four only use those nine letters. the next thing i noticed: the same is true of the puzzle's title, "Frustrates for Fun." the third thing i noticed: the same is true of every single answer in the grid! whoa. this isn't the first time i've seen such a gimmick (jim horne's xwordinfo site has a whole page of them), nor the most minimal (i think matt ginsberg had a sun puzzle where he used only eight distinct letters), but it still took me by surprise.
so what's the answer to the metapuzzle? the instructions state that This week's contest answer is the name of a well-known horror film. simple enough. i figured it must be a title that only uses those letters, but i got nowhere trying to anagram them in my head. NEAT FOURS? ROUTE FENS? it turns out that my usual method of anagramming something is to think of the answer first, and then check to see if it's a true anagram. (certainly this is how i solve cryptics.) well, i don't know much about horror movies. SAW VI (it is inexplicable to me that there are six of these movies... i remember hearing about 1 and 2, but what happened to 3 through 5?), THE RING, BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, HALLOWEEN, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, ... okay, i'm done. or so i thought. i've never actually seen a horror movie (unless you count the unintentional horror that was batman & robin), so i was about ready to give up.
anyway, i thought about it for several days. then, since matt relaxed the restriction on googling for the answer, i googled for the answer. this site quickly came up, and what do you know? there it is at #14: Nosferatu. okay. i have this friend who's into vampires (yeah, i know, i know, but this was before everybody else was into vampires), so i have this vague knowledge that nosferatu is a vampire. i did not know it was a horror movie, and certainly would not have solved this meta without googling. does that cheapen my accomplishment? you bet it does! for a limited time only, my accomplishment is 30% off. act now!
okay, what else? i'm a sourpuss, so i'll start with the bad stuff:
frankly, though, with only nine letters to work with, the fill is just not going to be that exciting. not really matt's fault. there were lots of partials, but i didn't mind; some of them had clever clues. i liked ["For here OR TO go?"]. i didn't love ["I give it A TEN!"] and [TEN TO five (almost quitting time)]. but there was basically nothing obscure in the grid, which is no mean feat. the closest thing was TRURO, on cape cod. the clue, [Town between Wellfleet and Provincetown], isn't much help either, unless you happen to know that provincetown is on (actually at the end of) cape cod. i've never heard of wellfleet, and i live in eastern mass.
clues i enjoyed:
that's all for me.
October 16, 2009
Daily Beast, 10/16/09
Time - 12:17
Hello, crossword puzzle fans. Welcome to Jeffrey Krasnick blogs about Matt Gaffney’s “Where the Wild Things Are” puzzle in the current “Daily Beast”.
This is not Roger Ebert reviews the movie “Where the Wild Things Are”. Roger and I have a deal – he does movies, I do puzzles. So I won’t discuss the movie. A good thing, since everything I know about the movie comes from Roger’s review I just read, post-solving. Well, I learned 3 things about the movie from the puzzle: It is based on a book written by (43A) Maurice SENDAK; the kid in it is named (36A) MAX, who is not in a balloon; and it stars (109D) Catherine O'HARA.
Matt’s cool spin on the title, revealed way down at 135 across, is to hide an ANIMAL in ten city names. Well, Matt didn’t hide them, they were already hidden there. Am I making sense?
Theme Answers:
1A – MOSCOW, Russia
23A – BATTLE CREEK, Michigan
25A – ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands
52A – NEWTON, Massachusetts
57A – BOTSWANA, Africa (oopsy, not a city)
89A – CAPE TOWN, South Africa
94A – NASSAU, the Bahamas
123A – CLEVELAND, Ohio
125A – SCHENECTADY, New York
56D – SPANDAU, Germany
Hmm. No Canadian cities. What about BRAMPTON, SAANICH, RED DEER, SWIFT CURRENT, STRATHCONA, MOOSE JAW. Put them two-by-two in MARKHAM.
Other animal references: HAWK, WASP, ORIOLE, PAWS, HORSE’S HEAD, ANT.
More Canadian content:
Tim Horton – a medium box of Timbits and a double-double, please.
Pam Anderson, Mike Myers, Catherine Ohara, Tamara Taylor
For 3 word fans:
47A: IN A SHOE
103A: AS I’VE SAID
69D: RAN AN AD
98D: X’S AND O’S
Other interesting stuff:
30D – [They make you #2] - LAXATIVES. One of those clues that you think, nah can’t be talking about that! This one is.
71A - [Unfit for habitation] - SQUALID, like living IN A SHOE, perhaps?
99A - [Frames in a scandal] – SEX TAPE. Great clue.
54D - [2008 bank failure, for short] – WAMU – That would be Washington Mutual. Quick, name the only country that has had no bank failures during the current crisis.
Tip of the week:
21 Across – [Artist Sciele]
Here is my three step solving process.
1) Solve 11D XEROXED, 12D EGOS, 13D NOTED, and 14D ANT.
2) Read what is written in 21A: EGON
3) Done!
Not necessary if you are an expert on Austrian painters who died at 28.
This series is a great addition to the Sunday-sized puzzle world. See you next week!
October 13, 2009
MGWCC #71
crossword 5:22
puzzle 1:03
hello, everyone, and wel-BOO!
(okay, admit it. i scared you that time.)
-come to the 71st episode of matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, and the second week in "hell month." this week's puzzle, "Walk in Fear," has a very curious theme. the following seemingly-unrelated clues are all marked with asterisks:
so what's going on here? well, the instructions tell us that This week's contest answer is an unnerving event that occurs five times in this puzzle. what's the unnerving event? well, the first five starred answers (the ones that read down) are all the names of cats, real or fictional: SYLVESTER from looney tunes; FELIX the cat of silent films; ALONZO ... i have no idea who ALONZO is (but maybe one of you can enlighten me?); SOCKS, the former first cat of the clinton white house; and SCRATCHY of the simpsons, who's not only fictional but metafictional (i.e. he's a fictional character even in the simpsons universe). tipped off by the "unnerving event," i conjectured that they were actually all black cats, and the sixth theme answer, PERSONAL JOURNEY, intersects all of them. in one sense, therefore, you might say that all of these black cats are crossing one's path. neat, eh? neater if i had any idea who ALONZO was.
the crossword wasn't too tough, but it had its moments. i liked the double-stacked 11s in the NE (ANNOUNCES TO and KWANZAA CARD) and SW (IN ACTUALITY and MACHU PICCHU) corners. there was some unfamiliar stuff:
clues i enjoyed:
so far, hell month hasn't been so bad for me. how's it been treating you?
October 10, 2009
Daily Beast, 10/9/09
Time - 10:53
Hello, everyone. This is Jeffrey Krasnick, Canada's only crossword blogger, back with the first post on Matt Gaffney's Sunday-sized "Daily Beast" crosswords. You can find the puzzle here.
This week's puzzle is called "Columbus' Circle" and is theme to coincide with Monday's holiday: Thanksgiving, or as Americans call it, Columbus Day. The theme answers all include names of famous explorers.
23A - SHORT ORDER COOK. Martin Short is a famous Canadian explorer. No wait, it is Captain James Cook. Here in Victoria, he gets a statue and we have a Cook Street named after him.
39A - CLARK GABLE. William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame. Not to be confused with Martin and Lewis.
51A - MAGELLAN FUND - Ferdinand Magellan, first man to sail around the world. Went well, except for the part of the trip where he was killed.
65A - DRAKE'S CAKES - Francis Drake, second most famous male duck, after Donald.
85A - RALEIGH BIKES - Sir Walter Raleigh. If your parents name you Sir, good things will happen to you.
91A - POLO SHIRTS - Marco Polo, who explored on horseback while whacking a wooden ball.
112A - LANCE ARMSTRONG - Lance Bass, discover of JC Chasez. Or perhaps, astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Other stuff:
26A - [Atlanta housewife Leakes] is NENE. Huh? NeNe Leakes is a star of 'The Real Housewives of Atlanta." Matt - Nene is a Hawaiian goose.
56A - [Elton John rewrote a song for her] - LADY DIANA. Shouldn't that be Bernie Taupin, lyricist, rewrote a song for her? And wasn't she Princess Diana at that time?
61A - [Norah's dad] is RAVI Shankar. Norah Jones is great.
75A - "Hace _____" ("It's hot" in Spanish)]/75D - [Scots toss them]: CALOR/CABERS. Error alert. That "C " could have been any consonant to me.
109A - ABED/ 118A - AWAKEN. Nice.
16D - [Village People classic] - YMCA
33D - [Cough drop name] - HALLS. I was sucking on a Halls Centres (cherry) as I solved this, with the bag right below the screen. This is the type of planning you must do (88D) PREPLAY to be a speed solver.
52D - [Bails on plans] - FLAKES. Never heard of this meaning. Maybe NeNe knows it.
63D - [Defiled, as someone's face] - SPAT IN. Ewww! Matt! Not while we eat our corn FLAKES.
96D - [2007 Michael Moore movie] - SICKO. Canadian health care: Leave your credit card at home.
99D - [Creepy deck] - TAROT. Subtle hint to Hell Month at Matt's contest site. Check it out.
114D - [Open ___ night] - MIC. I put ALL. So did you. Admit it.
October 07, 2009
MGWCC #70
crossword 4:33
puzzle 0:05
boo!
did i scare you? no? oh, well. it's hell month over at matt gaffney's weekly crossword contest, which surely means something sinister is coming up, because this week's puzzle, "Black-Hearted," wasn't particularly tough for a first-of-the-month. let's have a look at the theme answers:
what do these theme answers have in common? aided by the puzzle's title, we notice that they all contain the letters RAVEN in consecutive order: CONTRAVENE, VENTNOR AVENUE, INTRAVENOUS DRIP, BRAVE NEW WORLD, and COBRA VENOM. what does that mean about the contest answer? the instructions tell us that Hell Month contest answer #1 is the name of a well-known author. no problem, then: edgar allan poe wrote the raven, a spectacular poem in trochaic octameter (boo!). it's definitely creepy enough to be a fitting start to hell month.
on the other hand, this puzzle wasn't so tough for a MGWCC. the theme answers were all clued plainly, and include no off-beat made-up phrases like KON-TIKI RONDEAUX. and the fill wasn't terribly tough, either. i suspect matt has some tougher challenges planned for us in the weeks ahead. highlights:
that's all for this week, but there's more hell to pay...
