New York Times, Friday, November 13, 2015
| Author: | Patrick Berry |
| Editor: | Will Shortz |
In an effort to spread around Puzzle of the Week awards, I've recently held Patrick to an impossibly high standard. So many of his themelesses could have been a no-brainer POW choice — almost all of them are that good — but I can usually find some minor nit to pick, some point of critique that us mere mortals can learn from.
Not today. It's a great feeling to be able to gush over a PB puzzle, even as I compare it against his own lofty standards!
What really sold me on this one was those daunting NW and SE regions. Almost no one quad-stacks entries these days, because it's so difficult to fill them cleanly and colorfully. Usually there's some crossing answer which causes a groan, or some answer within the stack which is pretty neutral at best.
Patrick doesn't just use a (quasi-)quad-stack today — he RUNS LONG ANSWERS THROUGH THEM. Not only that, but he DOESN'T SEGMENT THESE CORNERS FROM THE REST OF THE PUZZLE, which usually people need to do in order to pull this off. Such beautiful grid flow.
I never work with these sorts of gargantuan swaths of white space. They're just too hard to execute on. So it's stunning to see all the snazzy material, all pulled off with the usual PB uber-cleaninless. Take the bottom right. SHOULDER STRAP / WHITE FLAG / HONEST ABE / IN ESSENCE is great enough by itself. (So challenging to parse HONESTABE, which I thought was some football player #16, HONES ????) Run IT'S A PLANE through that all, along with no gluey crossing entries = amazing.
Same goes for the upper left. RICE A RONI, BLENDED IN, SAY CHEESE, DEEP SEA DIVERS, with ACEY DEUCY running through them (and no junky fill). Dang, that's incredible.
FILLIP was a tough word for me and I don't know I'd ever use it to replace "bonus," but I liked learning it. AQUIVER doesn't sound as good to me as ALL AQUIVER, but it's no problem.
The only complaint I had was that PB's puzzles as of late have been so wide-open, so difficult to start, that I've found them much harder than any other Friday puzzle. Maybe Saturday would be a better slot.
Some of my friends call PB the Crossword Jesus, and it's puzzles like this that justify that name.
1 O | 2 L | 3 A | 4 F | 5 C | 6 L | 7 A | 8 P | 9 F | 10 A | 11 S | 12 T | 13 S |
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14 R | I | C | E | 15 A | R | O | N | I | 16 I | Q | U | I | T |
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17 B | L | E | N | D | E | D | I | N | 18 L | U | I | G | I |
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19 S | A | Y | C | H | E | E | S | E | 20 L | I | T | E | R |
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21 D | E | E | P | S | E | A | 22 D | I | V | E | R | S |
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23 S | 24 H | E | R | R | Y | 25 P | O | P | E | |||||
26 H | O | U | S | E | 27 H | 28 I | P | S | 29 R | 30 I | 31 G | 32 S |
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33 O | R | C | 34 S | 35 P | O | I | L | E | 36 D | 37 T | N | T |
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38 E | N | Y | 39 A | 40 E | R | I | E | 41 I | 42 S | S | U | E |
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43 C | 44 A | N | S | 45 A | G | H | A | S | T |
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46 S | 47 H | 48 O | U | L | D | E | 49 R | 50 S | T | R | A | P | ||
51 M | A | N | T | A | 52 W | H | I | T | E | F | L | 53 A | 54 G |
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55 O | T | T | E | R | 56 H | O | N | E | S | T | A | B | E |
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57 R | E | A | L | M | 58 I | N | E | S | S | E | N | C | E |
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59 E | S | P | Y | S | 60 P | E | S | T | 61 D | E | S | K |
| Across | Down | |
| 1. Snowman in 2013's "Frozen" : OLAF 5. Flamenco sound : CLAP 9. Observes the Muslim day of Ashura : FASTS 14. Product whose jingle was based on the 1923 hit "Barney Google" : RICEARONI 16. Cry often heard after "That's it!" : IQUIT 17. Fit well, so as hardly to be noticed : BLENDEDIN 18. Green-hatted Nintendo character : LUIGI 19. Words before taking a shot? : SAYCHEESE 20. Engine displacement unit : LITER 21. People who are under a lot of pressure : DEEPSEADIVERS 23. Wine of the palomino grape : SHERRY 25. Vicar of Christ, more familiarly : POPE 26. Gambling opponent : HOUSE 27. Hands-on sites? : HIPS 29. Arranges : RIGS 33. Soldier in the Battle of Helm's Deep : ORC 34. Bad : SPOILED 37. N.B.A. on ___ (sports staple since 1989) : TNT 38. Performer of the 2001 Oscar-nominated song "May It Be" : ENYA 40. The "E" of the old NY&E Rail Road : ERIE 41. Time unit : ISSUE 43. Sacks : CANS 45. More than surprised : AGHAST 46. Line of women's clothing? : SHOULDERSTRAP 51. Flat fish : MANTA 52. Standard of negotiation : WHITEFLAG 55. Pod : whale :: raft : ___ : OTTER 56. Moniker for #16 : HONESTABE 57. Sphere : REALM 58. At bottom : INESSENCE 59. Awards ceremony since 1993 : ESPYS 60. Garden interloper : PEST 61. Newsroom post : DESK |
1. Orrery components : ORBS 2. Diane Sawyer's actual first name : LILA 3. Backgammon variant in which rolling a 1-2 is beneficial : ACEYDEUCY 4. Duelists of old : FENCERS 5. Unsettling : CREEPY 6. Valuable deposits : LODES 7. Ingredient in five-spice powder : ANISE 8. SpongeBob SquarePants lives inside one : PINEAPPLE 9. Nice extra : FILLIP 10. Visibly nervous : AQUIVER 11. Software package : SUITE 12. Animal symbolizing anger in Buddhism : TIGER 13. Shows signs of life : STIRS 15. Conforms (to) : ADHERES 22. Hospital meal accompanier : DOSE 23. Clodhopper, e.g. : SHOE 24. Road rage catalyst : HORN 27. Coachman's handful : HORSEWHIP 28. First Super Bowl to be called "Super Bowl" : III 30. Metropolis misidentification : ITSAPLANE 31. South African game : GNUS 32. Proofer's direction : STET 35. Await : PEND 36. Go from point A to point B? : DIGRESS 39. How devastating insults are felt : ACUTELY 42. Given a raw deal : SHAFTED 44. Ironic items to steal : ALARMS 45. Swear : ATTEST 46. Gooey treat : SMORE 47. Is repelled by : HATES 48. Ready if needed : ONTAP 49. "Starry Night Over the ___" (van Gogh painting) : RHONE 50. Trig ratios : SINES 53. Early lesson : ABCS 54. Sideshow oddity : GEEK |
Answer summary: 3 unique to this puzzle, 6 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?