Author: | Paul Hunsberger |
Editor: | Will Shortz |
The idea for this puzzle may, just may, have evolved during a quieter day at the office. Sometimes you don't have to look too far for inspiration, I guess.
What's hopefully fun about this one is the sense of motion it implies. I'm particularly excited though about the graphical elements introduced in 48-Across; nothing wrong with good ol' reliable circles and shaded grey squares, but I'm very happy that Will Shortz was up for something different here.
Originally KNOBANDTUBE, as in the old style of electrical wiring, was the first theme entry in this puzzle but that was deemed too obscure. Anybody overly disappointed to see it go? (If you've ever had to replace knob and tube wiring for real, you probably weren't disappointed at all to see it go).
Enjoy the puzzle, but kids, don't try this at home.
I had the good fortune to meet Paul at the ACPT this year; what a nice guy. When everyone was giving me dirty looks about my difficult Puzzle #5 (Will said he needed a "bastard puzzle" and thought of me. Thanks … I think?), Paul smiled and said he was looking forward to it. (Then again, I didn't see him after the puzzle session ...)
I don't know much about art, but a docent once mentioned how some famous painting did an amazing job of capturing kinetic motion. Not being able to recall the painting or even the artist, I obviously wasn't paying attention, but the idea stuck with me. Paul's puzzle reminded me of it today. What a neat concept, representing an ELASTIC BAND (that's what they call rubber bands in Canada, eh?) stretching, stretching, and then SNAPping. Cool to see something actually "moving" in the puzzle.
And Paul's longer fill added so much to my solving experience. BET IT ALL and SWINDLED, both colorful entries. There's a reason I've seen "Ocean's 11" 21 times. And ISOMERS ... I'm awed by at nature's persnickety behavior, like when the R-isomer of a drug is active in a molecular target, while the L-isomer is inactive or even toxic. Crazy stuff.
Totally confused by [Big prune?]? Clever clue; "prune" and "lop" being synonymous verbs. And for those of you WHIPPERSNAPPERS, "Three's Company" was one of the many sitcoms I watched as a latchkey kid. It's such an offensive show! But man oh man did I love it.
I would have preferred not to have CASITA cross ITA. Yes, ITA got disguised as IT A, but it strikes me as inelegant, since CASITA is a Spanish CASA + diminutive ITA. And REEARN by itself is passable — REEARNing someone's trust is almost as good as "earning back" trust — but adding in RESALE made it feel like too much. Finally, seeing a DRAGON in the lower left isn't quite worth getting both an AGR and ENS.
But today is a case where Jim's viewpoint won me out; a really neat theme far obscuring the little nits I had to pick. Great solve today.
1 L | 2 A | 3 G | 4 C | 5 A | 6 S | 7 I | 8 T | 9 A | 10 A | 11 S | 12 T | 13 I |
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14 A | P | E | 15 R | I | O | T | E | D | 16 S | W | A | N |
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17 N | P | R | 18 U | R | B | A | N | D | 19 E | S | I | G | N |
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20 D | E | A | 21 R | M | E | 22 A | L | L | A | N | ||||
23 H | A | R | E | B | R | 24 A | 25 I | N | E | D | I | D | 26 E | 27 A |
28 O | L | D | E | 29 M | S | T | 30 L | E | N |
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31 A | 32 N | 33 G | I | O | 34 S | 35 A | 36 G | E | L | Y |
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37 B | R | O | A | D | M | 38 I | N | D | E | D | ||||
39 T | 40 R | E | N | D | Y | 41 E | C | L | A | T | ||||
42 O | A | T | 43 B | R | O | 44 U | 45 R | 46 D | 47 U |
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48 W | H | I | 49 P | 50 P | 51 E | R | S | N | 52 A | 53 P | P | E | R | S |
54 T | I | A | R | A | 55 N | A | S | S | A | U |
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56 E | 57 L | A | S | T | I | C | 58 B | 59 A | N | D | 60 A | G | R |
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61 L | O | L | A | 62 C | E | A | S | E | D | 63 L | O | P |
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64 K | O | L | N | 65 A | S | H | L | E | Y | 66 E | N | S |
Across | Down | |
1. Slow Wi-Fi woe : LAG 4. House smaller than a villa : CASITA 10. Italian wine city : ASTI 14. Big lug : APE 15. Ran amok : RIOTED 16. Word before dive or song : SWAN 17. "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" network : NPR 18. Layout of city streets, parks, etc. : URBANDESIGN 20. "Oh heavens!" : DEARME 22. The "A" of E. A. Poe : ALLAN 23. It's so crazy it just might work : HAREBRAINEDIDEA 28. Ye ___ Shoppe : OLDE 29. Winter hrs. in Calgary : MST 30. Cariou who played Sweeney Todd : LEN 31. Cardiologist's procedure, for short : ANGIO 34. With wisdom : SAGELY 37. Tolerant : BROADMINDED 39. In vogue : TRENDY 41. Ostentatious display : ECLAT 42. Bran source : OAT 43. Slangy pal : BRO 44. Language of Pakistan : URDU 48. Presumptuous sorts : WHIPPERSNAPPERS 54. Dress-up item for a little girl : TIARA 55. Capital of the Bahamas : NASSAU 56. Office item suggested visually by this puzzle : ELASTICBAND 60. The "A" of U.S.D.A.: Abbr. : AGR 61. Dancer in "a club down in old Soho" : LOLA 62. Desisted : CEASED 63. Big prune? : LOP 64. City NW of München : KOLN 65. ___ Wilkes, obsession of Scarlett O'Hara : ASHLEY 66. Coast Guard rank: Abbr. : ENS |
1. Cry from a crow's-nest : LANDHO 2. What some losers in court do : APPEAL 3. Actor Butler or Depardieu : GERARD 4. Remnant : CRUMB 5. Broadcaster : AIRER 6. Melodramatic sound : SOB 7. "Let's call ___ day" : ITA 8. Any one of the company in "Three's Company" : TENANT 9. Mix up : ADDLE 10. Allegro ___ (very quick, in music) : ASSAI 11. Hornswoggled : SWINDLED 12. Chasing game : TAG 13. Stopover : INN 19. Ancient times, in ancient times : ELD 21. Win back : REEARN 24. In the thick of : AMID 25. Chemical cousins, in a way : ISOMERS 26. ___ eyes (potion ingredients at Hogwarts) : EEL 27. Some : ANY 32. Pitch-selecting gesture : NOD 33. Like the apparel in a certain Christmas carol : GAY 34. Pre-Letterman gig for Paul Shaffer, for short : SNL 35. Nabokov heroine : ADA 36. Costumes : GETUPS 37. Go for broke : BETITALL 38. Compass for the web browser Safari, e.g. : ICON 39. What tugboats do : TOW 40. Big cheer : RAH 43. Orthodontist's recommendation : BRACES 45. Many a flea market transaction : RESALE 46. "Game of Thrones" menace : DRAGON 47. Takes over : USURPS 49. Galileo, for one : PISAN 50. Bit of butter : PAT 51. Author Jong : ERICA 52. "Bonne ___!" (cry on le premier janvier) : ANNEE 53. Rice ___ : PADDY 56. Big bugler : ELK 57. Place to go in England? : LOO 58. Cousin of "Harrumph!" : BAH 59. What might be seen in the corner of a TV screen: Abbr. : ASL |
Answer summary: 1 unique to this puzzle, 3 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?