Time to finish/time I gave up: 1:01:49
Did I finish it without help? Yeah, but it was a struggle.
Did I check puzzle? If yes, how many letters were wrong? N/A
Commentary:
I suffered from serious crossword newb syndrome today, as I did not understand until we thought we were done and it said "wrong" that you had to put 2 letters in those boxes with the circles. Is this more obvious in the print version? Or do people just know these things?
I knew that the circles were the theme clues, but we kept trying to make it work as "missing h" or "extra a" and it didn't quite gel. Especially because the "ha" goes in the down clues on the edges and the across clues for all the other ones. It was very confusing. Struggled a lot with the SE corner also. But we prevailed in the end!
A few side notes:
There are 2 Star Wars clues in here (29A Companion of Han in "The Force Awakens" and 48A Calrissian of "The Empire Strikes Back," REY and LANDO, respectively. I assume these puzzles are finalized earlier than a few days before, but a nice reminder of Carrie Fisher nonetheless.
Also several French language clues in here. Completing crosswords is probably now the 2nd most useful thing my college major has done for me.
42A Home of the Triple-A Mud Hens TOLEDO. As a loyal supporter of the Columbus Clippers (and formerly the Buffalo Bisons), I've seen my fair share of the Mud Hens. They're no Clippers or Bisons, I'll tell you that much.
80A It comes in tubes. The answer to this is RIGATONI, but that's not why I remark on it--any time the construction "it comes in ___" is deployed, I think of:
I'm too young for this $h*t
- I have nothing for this category this week! But don't get too excited, crossword author Matthew Sewell, I'm gonna nail you on some other categories.
Really?
- 60A Pulled off DID. Did. Yup. Yeah sometimes you have to put "did" in your puzzle, but I'm sure there's a better clue out there somewhere.
- 99A Beverage with a floral bouquet ROSETEA. Ok, I guess that I will grant that this is probably a flavor of tea that people have, but I find this to be lame and "bouquet" to be deliberately misleading. (I'm still salty that this didn't turn out to be "moscato," which is what I triumphantly filled in when we had OS.) (Although, I will also grant that moscato is probably not floral. I don't do sweet wine so I'm not quite sure.)
- 110A Miles away NOTNEAR. "Not near" is NOTAPHRASE.
- 90D Vital lines AORTAE. Is this an optional jerkface way to say "aortas?" These are the same people who correct other people when they say "alumni" when they mean "alumnus."
- Adrian I was an old pope. I'm not interested enough to find out more about him.
- Dcon (DCON? D-con?) is a glue trap brand. I try not to look at the boxes in the store because they always have dead mice on them. Poor little upside down mice with X's for eyes!
- A petard is a small bomb/explosive. Of course I know that petards are for hoisting oneself, but I always thought they were swords. I don't know why. I guess I conflate the image in my mind with "falling on one's sword."
- Also, for a long time I thought the phrase was "foisted by one's own petard." To foist is to put something unwanted into/onto something else. One thing you really don't want in you is a sword. (Or a bomb!) It works.
- "Slue" is a violent or uncontrollable sliding movement. Thankfully Jamie knew this one was the answer to 38D Zig or zag, otherwise I would have been annoyed enough to put this in one of my other scoff-worthy categories. First of all, I don't know the word "slue," (well, now I do) but secondly, I wouldn't call zigging or zagging violent/uncontrollable. I think zig or zag is more like a wide receiver's route. Which, now that I think about, does often end violently.
Crosswordese fails
- Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect known for his neofuturistic styles. I'm sure he's very important and all, but his father is named Eliel and when you google his name, "eero saarinen father crossword" is one of the suggested searches. Clearly Eliel was so used to being in crosswords, he wanted his son to achieve the same level of long-lasting fame, and so named him Eero.
- See also Xaiver Cugat, whose Google hits are actually all from sites like "crosswordanswers.com"
- See also also "Elephant pluckers of myth" ROCS. 3 strikes here--1 strike for when you start typing elephant pluckers in Google it suggests "of myth"--that's when you know you're in trouble. Second strike for all the hits being "crosswordsolver.com." Third strike for the roc in question being the 4th hit in the results, falling behind 3 different pages for ROCS Staffing and Recruiting Services for Entry-Level Jobs in Virginia. I bet they get a lot of crossword solvers who apply.
The Saarinens often worked as a team, including on Buffalo's Kleinhans Music Hall.
ReplyDeleteAh lovely! I'm saarry I didn't know about them.
ReplyDelete>>Or do people just know these things?
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's one thing you'll need to pick up over time. In general for the Times, Thursdays and Sundays will often require you to do some sort of special entry/weird thing with the clues. You'll also see these a lot in indie crosswords.
What I've found is that clues that are "I *know* it's this answer, but it just doesn't fit!" are my good alarm bells to start putting multiple letters in a square, or go off the grid, or look to see if the word makes a right turn in the grid, etc.
Good to know! I don't usually do the Thursdays, I'll have to get some more practice in.
DeleteYeah, to your point about knowing the answer but not fitting...we probably should have tried a little harder when we though EDARRIS was the right answer, haha ("ha" pun intended.)