Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
---|---|---|---|
62 | 10/22/2009 | 11/18/2018 | 6 |
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Variety |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
15 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Scrabble | Rebus | Circle | Pangram |
---|---|---|---|
1.65 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
Ice cream swirls today, CHOCOLATE, RUM RAISIN, BUBBLE GUM, and PISTACHO swirling within the puzzle. And what an impressive construction! There have been tons of puzzles done with 2x2 chunks of letters (square D E A L kind of things), but rarely 3x3s. That's because they are so incredibly tough to execute on without resorting to the ugliest (capital Ug) type of crossword glue to hold those areas together. Most 2x2 chunks suffer, so think about how much harder a 3x3 is — I'd estimate it's a factor of 5 tougher.
Joel is one of the best gridworkers in the business, so I always expect a lot out of his puzzles, but this one goes above and beyond. I braced myself in each of those four areas, ready to cringe at some ridiculous random set of letters trying to pass off as a real entry … but there was nothing even creaky! TOI is very minor, and although NEHI will draw some assorted groans, it is a real brand. (Plus, it's Radar O'Reilly's drink of choice!) It's astounding that Joel managed to pull off this ambitious construction so smoothly.
He did have the advantage of flexibility — both in where the swirl started and which direction it went. Both of those seemed a bit random for my taste, but then again, that's how swirls really do appear in ice cream.
I did hitch on pistachio, as it's my favorite flavor of ice cream … and I've never seen a swirl in any pint I've eaten. Looking it up, there do appear to be pistachio swirl cakes, but no pistachio swirl ice cream. Dang it, now I really want someone to make just that! Hopefully Ben or Jerry is a crossword fan (please pass this along to them if you know ‘em) and heeds my desperate plea.
So that is a ding for me — CHOCOLATE, RUM RAISIN, BUBBLE GUM swirls = real things. Sigh, PISTACHIO. I'm not even sure what that would look like in ice cream form, but dang it, I want to know now!
The swirls smack dab in the 9x3 stacks were even more impressive, given the fact that 9x3 stacks in themselves are hard enough to get clean and colorful. To pull one off with a mostly fixed 3x3 chunk right inside is plain insane. EX HIPPIES did feel slightly made-up, but it's a funny enough answer that I decided I liked it. With great stuff like MATCH GAME, NO CONTEST, THAT'S A LIE — and just an ESTS and a TOI / ALII to pay — these are some brilliant sections.
Neat visual (see below for how it looked in print), gold-medal execution = very fun solve.
1 M | 2 A | 3 T | 4 C | 5 H | 6 G | 7 A | 8 M | 9 E | 10 B | 11 A | 12 S | 13 H |
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14 A | L | E | H | O | U | S | E | S | 15 C | E | L | L | O |
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16 N | O | C | O | N | T | E | S | T | 17 R | E | B | U | S |
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18 N | E | H | I | 19 V | A | S | 20 S | A | L | A | G | E |
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21 R | 22 E | 23 N | E | 24 W | I | Z | ||||||||
25 S | 26 I | 27 R | 28 M | O | R | 29 T | 30 G | A | G | E | 31 D | |||
32 I | N | U | 33 L | I | N | 34 W | A | Y | 35 B | U | 36 G | 37 S |
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38 A | R | M | O | R | 39 K | E | Y | 40 L | U | M | E | T |
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41 M | E | O | W | 42 Z | O | E | 43 W | O | B | B | L | Y |
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44 R | E | 45 M | A | I | N | 46 D | E | R | 47 O | S | X |
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48 N | A | P | 49 E | T | D | 50 S | ||||||||
51 I | 52 M | 53 P | E | R | F | 54 E | 55 C | T | 56 C | 57 A | 58 M | 59 P |
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60 S | W | I | R | L | 61 T | H | A | 62 T | 63 S | A | L | I | E |
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64 M | A | N | G | O | 65 R | E | C | O | I | L | I | N | G |
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66 S | H | A | Y | 67 E | X | H | I | P | P | I | E | S |
Answer summary: 4 unique to this puzzle, 2 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?