Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
---|---|---|---|
126 | 8/27/1981 | 11/18/2019 | 0 |
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
25 | 8 | 24 | 37 | 26 | 1 | 5 |
Scrab | Rebus | Circle | Pangram | Pre‑WS |
---|---|---|---|---|
1.59 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 9 |
I was mystified at first — why wouldn't you use the proper ordering of the moon's phases: from NEW to CRESCENT to HALF to FULL? And why on earth (or on the moon) would you separate out HALF from the series? Alan's decisions seemed bizarre.
How embarrassing to realize that I've had the sequence wrong all these years! It's actually NEW to CRESCENT to QUARTER to GIBBOUS to FULL.
Wait, you say, what about HALF? It's the kookiest thing. HALF is equal to QUARTER when it comes to the moon's phases.
Wha … ?
Well, QUARTER refers to the fact that it's a quarter of the way through the full lunar month cycle. So even though it looks like a HALF moon, it's a QUARTER moon. And both are correct.
Whoever named these is seriously messed up.
So you see Alan's dilemma? It's great that he strove to incorporate the sequence — I've seen plenty of "word that can precede MOON" puzzles, i.e. phrases with HARVEST, BLUE, BLOOD, etc., but that puzzle type is passé at this point.
However, there is no good phrase using the word GIBBOUS. Makes sense why he decided to skip it.
And how can you place QUARTER and HALF at the same grid entry? You can't! So I understand that decision to shove HALF off on its own. Reasonable choice to place it symmetrically with MOON.
All in all, too many compromises for my taste. Felt inelegant. I probably would have dropped the theme idea, after realizing what a mess these terms present.
But at least the grid is pretty good for a Monday, with just some ARNE, LIS, ORO. Not perfect, but passable for an early-week puzzle.
1 H | 2 A | 3 S | 4 C | 5 E | 6 R | 7 E | 8 A | 9 L | 10 L | 11 A | 12 M | 13 B |
||
14 A | R | I | 15 O | R | A | N | G | E | 16 I | D | O | L |
||
17 L | I | D | 18 N | E | W | Y | E | A | 19 R | S | E | V | E |
|
20 F | A | C | 21 E | T | 22 A | R | N | E | 23 P | I | N |
|||
24 A | L | A | 25 M | 26 O | 27 T | A | 28 S | T | E | D |
||||
29 C | 30 R | E | S | C | E | N | 31 T | 32 R | O | L | L | |||
33 L | O | S | E | 34 W | E | R | E | 35 M | Y | 36 E | 37 Y | 38 E |
||
39 A | L | A | 40 S | L | E | U | T | 41 H | S | 42 V | A | L |
||
43 M | E | R | 44 I | T | 45 A | S | I | A | 46 L | I | N | K |
||
47 Q | U | 48 A | R | T | E | R | 49 B | A | C | K | S |
|||
50 S | 51 E | 52 E | S | A | W | 53 S | T | R | U | T | ||||
54 A | L | L | 55 R | A | 56 I | 57 N | 58 I | D | I | 59 O | 60 M |
|||
61 F | U | L | 62 L | T | I | M | E | 63 J | 64 O | B | 65 O | R | O |
|
66 E | D | I | E | 67 T | A | M | A | L | E | 68 N | E | O |
||
69 R | E | E | D | 70 S | C | O | R | E | D | 71 S | O | N |
Answer summary: 1 unique to this puzzle, 2 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?