Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
---|---|---|---|
92 | 11/23/2001 | 11/18/2018 | 14 |
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Variety |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
11 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 61 | 7 |
Scrabble | Rebus | Circle | Pangram |
---|---|---|---|
1.59 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
HAT TIP to the puzzle magazines of my long-gone youth. One of them (Dell?) had a little word puzzle where you had to go from STARTLING to I deleting one letter at a time, always forming a new word without anagramming. (BTW, there are two solutions.)
One of my bugaboos is plural names, which I really try to avoid. This one has two! The second one came when I just had to get IN MEM out of the grid and upgraded it with TV MOM. I tried to do something about ALIS. I could replace the corner, but because of the interlock, it would require redoing the whole of the eastern seaboard, and I just couldn't pull it off. Because of a tough crossing, ALIS needed the easiest clue possible, but I like to tell myself the real clue is the first word of Oregon's state motto. I'm pretty happy how the rest turned out. Hope you all enjoy it!
How to describe this theme? There's a letter-adding progression of IN, SIN, SING, STING, STRING, STARING, STARTING, STARTLING … with each word shifted down one phrase for kooky results? Instead of "sing in the shower," we get STING IN THE SHOWER.
It's pretty impressive that every word in this letter-add sequence can be part of a real phrase. Not an easy task – I once tried to build a BEARD growth puzzle with Ian Livengood, but it was so tough to find good phrases. A BEAR, you might say.
(groan)
The theme didn't do much for me — the notion dragged on too far. The constructor in me was much more interested in the findings than the solver, who got tired of it.
Very nice gridwork! I didn't notice much crossword glue at all, so it was a huge surprise to see the word count at a low low 132. So few constructors can pull this off. If I were the grid police, Byron would be one of the few people I'd issue a license for sub-140 wording.
To get such nice entries in EBENEZER SCROOGE and PROBLEM SECTIONS (I'm a math dork, so sue me), each running through three themers is great stuff. And TEA TIMES, LION TAMING, THE PIANIST, CAT DOOR – that's the way to make the most out of your long slots!
And that clue for TEA TIMES! [Pauses for service] made me think about a tennis server taking a moment to gather his/her strategy before firing. TEA service is much different. (Although it's fun to imagine a TEA SERVICE service at Wimbledon, with one hand on a racket and the other holding a teacup, with pinky extended.)
Unusual for me to get through an average Sunday puzzle, without slogging through at least 10 dabs of crossword glue, of the ALIS, ENDE, SEP variety. To give me a smooth solve in a colorful, 132-word grid? Fantastic craftsmanship.
Unfortunately, a great grid doesn't cover up a theme that doesn't hold one's attention. Probably would have been better if downsized into a four-themer weekday grid.
1 S | 2 T | 3 H | 4 E | 5 L | 6 E | 7 N | 8 A | 9 A | 10 C | 11 T | 12 S | 13 O | 14 N | 15 S | 16 P | 17 A | 18 M | 19 S |
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20 T | E | A | T | I | M | E | S | 21 L | O | V | A | T | O | 22 A | R | T | O | O |
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23 I | N | T | H | O | U | G | H | 24 T | A | S | M | U | C | H | 25 G | O | D | N | O |
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26 F | U | T | O | N | S | 27 B | O | N | M | O | T | 28 L | A | B | A | T | T |
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29 F | R | I | S | T | 30 S | I | N | S | O | M | E | 31 S | 32 M | A | L | L | W | A | Y |
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33 S | E | P | 34 A | 35 V | O | N | 36 S | E | A | N | 37 E | N | G | |||||||
38 E | M | I | T | 39 W | 40 E | 41 E | 42 P | 43 G | R | A | 44 M | M | ||||||||
45 R | 46 A | B | I | D | 47 S | I | N | G | O | 48 F | O | M | I | S | S | 49 I | 50 O | 51 N |
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52 P | A | R | E | N | 53 C | A | T | D | O | O | R | 54 G | E | N | R | E |
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55 S | T | I | N | G | 56 I | N | T | H | E | S | H | O | 57 W | 58 E | 59 R | 60 C | A | L | I |
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61 H | A | Z | E | 62 F | E | Y | 63 R | A | N | 64 T | W | A | S |
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65 A | T | O | Z | 66 S | T | R | 67 I | 68 N | 69 G | 70 O | 71 P | E | R | A | 72 T | I | O | N | S |
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73 W | A | N | E | 74 S | 75 C | O | Y | N | E | S | S | 76 H | O | R | D | E |
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77 S | T | A | R | I | 78 N | 79 G | 80 Q | U | A | R | T | E | T | 81 K | E | N | D | O | ||
82 S | T | O | L | I | 83 H | O | O | K | 84 H | I | P | S | ||||||||
85 A | 86 M | C | 87 L | E | N | 88 A | 89 P | E | D | I | 90 C | 91 O | 92 G |
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93 S | T | A | R | 94 T | I | N | G | D | 95 A | 96 G | 97 G | 98 E | R | S | 99 A | 100 S | A | N | A |
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101 A | E | R | O | B | E | 102 D | R | E | A | M | Y | 103 A | N | I | M | A | S |
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104 B | A | L | O | O | 105 S | 106 T | A | R | T | L | I | N | 107 G | L | I | N | E | U | P |
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108 E | S | I | G | N | 109 O | H | M | A | M | A | 110 N | O | I | S | E | T | T | E |
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111 R | E | N | E | E | 112 Y | E | S | Y | E | S | 113 E | A | S | T | W | O | O | D |
Answer summary: 14 unique to this puzzle, 1 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?