New York Times, Monday, March 3, 2014
| Author: | Andrea Carla Michaels and Michael Blake |
| Editor: | Will Shortz |
ANDREA: Started with an email from my friend and partner in many puzzles, Michael Blake, asking if I wanted in on the theme. EASTERNEASTER and PATTERNPATTER had come to him in his sleep and they weren't in the database.
I thought this was a neat and weird concept, x n x, which could be parsed two ways, and was more than just add an N. Will thought it was original too, which pleased us.
We called it LIVE n LEARN even though that wasn't the exact thing we were doing, but the feel we wanted to communicate. We discarded many ideas, they weren't as easy to come up and be clear and/or amusing as we thought, but then we got a nice set together.
I added DIVANDIVA and LEARNLEAR because I wanted them to make the most surface sense possible. Michael then came up with the wonderful FREETOWNFREETOW which went neatly across the middle. Can't imagine who came up with a pangram for the fill! :)
Nice construction today, with some really good long stuff. Chris CHRISTIE makes an appearance along with ESTROGEN, plus a nice STANZA and HINT AT, which always reminds me of the Monty Python "nudge nudge wink wink" sketch. A couple of standout clues as well, my favorite being the one for SLANG. It's hard to come up with inventive clues for a Monday since it's designed to be the easiest puzzle of the week, so clues like this add spice.
Ah, the pangram. Andrea and I have different philosophies on pangrams, and I think both have merit. I personally place a lot of value on smooth fill vs. Scrabbly letters, but I know several solvers who really like seeing pangrams. I hadn't been aware of that until a few months ago — it surprised me to hear it and caused me to change my thinking about "right" and "wrong" when it comes to constructions. I'm sure there will be many solvers who like seeing the X up in the NE corner. It didn't do a lot for me because of the awkward partial THE X, but that's okay. It's Andrea's decision, and like almost all constructor choices, it will please some and not please some. Can't win 'em all.
Finally, I hadn't picked up that an N was at the heart of each answer — nice, from a consistency standpoint. I did notice that LEARN LEAR was the only one where the first word was a verb, so that did stand out a bit.
Nice start to the week.
1 W | 2 A | 3 L | 4 S | 5 H | 6 P | 7 J | 8 S | 9 S | 10 C | 11 A | 12 N | 13 T |
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14 A | M | A | T | I | 15 H | A | H | 16 U | H | H | U | H |
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17 D | I | V | A | N | 18 D | I | V | A | 19 B | R | A | K | E |
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20 S | E | E | N | T | O | 21 A | R | 22 C | 23 I | B | E | X |
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24 Z | A | N | 25 Y | 26 O | U | 27 T | S | |||||||
28 P | A | T | T | E | 29 R | N | P | A | T | 30 T | 31 E | 32 R |
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33 I | 34 B | E | 35 G | O | A | 36 P | I | A | N | O |
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37 F | R | E | 38 E | 39 T | O | W | N | 40 F | 41 R | E | E | T | O | W |
42 W | E | L | S | H | 43 G | O | O | 44 E | S | E |
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45 E | A | S | T | E | 46 R | 47 N | E | A | S | 48 T | 49 E | R | ||
50 R | E | P | O | 51 L | I | R | A | |||||||
52 B | 53 R | 54 I | O | 55 M | B | 56 A | 57 E | U | G | 58 E | 59 N | 60 E |
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61 B | A | D | G | 62 E | 63 L | E | 64 A | R | N | L | E | A | R |
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65 Q | U | E | E | N | 66 E | R | R | 67 K | E | N | T | S |
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68 S | L | A | N | G | 69 R | O | T | 70 S | T | Y | L | E |
| Across | Down | |
| 1. "America's Most Wanted" host John : WALSH 6. Bedwear, informally : PJS 9. Meager : SCANT 14. Prized violin : AMATI 15. Triumphant cry : HAH 16. "Yup" : UHHUH 17. Operatic singer on a sofa? : DIVANDIVA 19. "I ___ for animals" (bumper sticker) : BRAKE 20. Taken care of : SEENTO 21. Curved path : ARC 23. Mountain goat : IBEX 24. Kooky : ZANY 26. Ins' partner : OUTS 28. Chitchat about a dressmaking template? : PATTERNPATTER 33. "May ___ excused?" : IBE 35. Former part of Portuguese India : GOA 36. Set of keys? : PIANO 37. Complimentary road service in Sierra Leone's capital? : FREETOWNFREETOW 42. Like Dylan Thomas, by birth : WELSH 43. Oozy stuff : GOO 44. 180 degrees from WNW : ESE 45. Egg-hunting time in the Orient? : EASTERNEASTER 50. "___ Man," Emilio Estevez film : REPO 51. Former capital of Italy? : LIRA 52. Pizazz : BRIO 55. Many a C.E.O.'s deg. : MBA 57. Broadway's ___ O'Neill Theater : EUGENE 61. Sheriff's star : BADGE 63. Memorize lines for a Shakespearean king? : LEARNLEAR 65. Evil character in "Snow White" : QUEEN 66. Mess up : ERR 67. Superman's adoptive parents : KENTS 68. "Pasted" or "wasted," for "drunk" : SLANG 69. "Balderdash!" : ROT 70. Art Deco, for one : STYLE |
1. Money rolls : WADS 2. Parisian girlfriend : AMIE 3. Wash : LAVE 4. Lyric unit : STANZA 5. Insinuate : HINTAT 6. ___ Beta Kappa : PHI 7. Software platform suitable for Starbucks? : JAVA 8. Actress Stone of "Casino" : SHARON 9. Easily pranked teacher, maybe : SUB 10. New Jersey governor whose first name starts his last name : CHRISTIE 11. "Moby-Dick" captain : AHAB 12. Zap in the microwave : NUKE 13. TV's "___ Factor" : THEX 18. "Please stay!" : DONTGO 22. Quarter of a quart : CUP 25. "Man, that hurts!" : YEOW 27. Reel-to-reel ___ : TAPE 28. Banana skins : PEELS 29. Mountain chain : RANGE 30. ___ Tots : TATER 31. Son of Seth : ENOS 32. Investment firm T. ___ Price : ROWE 33. "___ Never Meet Again" (Elvis song) : IFWE 34. La ___ Tar Pits : BREA 38. Hormone in the pill : ESTROGEN 39. Quaker pronoun : THEE 40. Baby horse : FOAL 41. More optimistic : ROSIER 46. 33 1/3, for a record album: Abbr. : RPM 47. More high-minded : NOBLER 48. Elephants' feelers : TRUNKS 49. "Bald" baby bird : EAGLET 52. Outdoor meals with hamburgers or hot dogs, say, in brief : BBQS 53. Fidel Castro's brother and successor : RAUL 54. Notion : IDEA 56. Commercial prefix with postale : AERO 58. "___ meeny miney mo" : EENY 59. The "N" of N.A.A.C.P.: Abbr. : NATL 60. Scottish Gaelic : ERSE 62. Coll. major of many writers : ENG 64. Paintings, sculptures, etc. : ART |
Answer summary: 5 unique to this puzzle.
Found bugs or have suggestions?