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VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE
New York Times, Sunday, July 24, 1949
Author:
Alice Cook
Editor:
Margaret Farrar
Rows: 23, Columns: 23, Words: 158 , Blocks: 69 , Avg Word Len: 5.82 , Missing: { J K Q X Z } , Scrabble score: 612 (avg 1.33)
Open Squares: 196 , Cheaters: 0 , FITB: 10 , XRef: 0 , Words that never appeared in a previous NYT crossword: 43
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© 1949, The New York Times No. 389
Across
1
8
He solved the riddle of the Sphinx. :
OEDIPUS 15
Latest people admitted to United Nations. :
ISRAELI 22
23
24
Nonelectrical particle, size of a proton. :
NEUTRON 25
Strongest influence in China today. :
RUSSIAN 26
27
28
Instinctive energy sources in the unconscious. :
IDS 29
31
33
34
36
Companion of the Apostle Paul. :
TITUS 38
39
41
Make earnest appeal. :
PLEAD 43
T. Roosevelt's were rough. :
RIDERS 45
47
48
50
52
53
54
56
___ Undset, Nobel prize winner, 1928. :
SIGRID 58
Famous painter, engraver and woodcut artist. :
DURER 60
Two-strand cords used by sailors for seizing. :
MARLINES 64
66
70
71
One of Ezio Pinza's professions. :
ACTOR 73
75
Bring into harmony again. :
RETUNE 76
Character in "Little Men." :
DEMI 78
80
82
83
State of rigid censorship and secrecy, coined by Churchill, 1946. :
IRONCURTAIN 86
88
___ aequat effectum. :
CAUSA 89
He had fifty daughters. :
NEREUS 91
What Charles Kullman is. :
TENOR 92
California plant with dense masses of blue flowers. :
NAMA 93
Related through the father. :
AGNATE 95
97
Apollo had an oracle here. :
DELOS 99
Coarse sacking made of jute. :
TAT 100
102
104
106
108
110
Small rodent of Chile. :
DEGU 111
Queen Wilhelmina's mother. :
EMMA 114
116
118
Dressed in one's best. :
DOLLED 122
123
125
127
128
Screens used in batting practice. :
CAGES 130
Home of League of Nations. :
GENEVA 132
134
135
136
139
Picture of the mourning Virgin Mary. :
PIETA 141
142
144
Protozoan with hairlike processes. :
CILIATE 146
Money equivalent of injuries sustained. :
DAMAGES 148
149
150
One of the electrodes in a vacuum tube. :
ELEMENT 151
152
153
Down
1
2
3
4
"Wild Bill" Donovan's outfit. :
OSS 5
Most beautiful woman of Corinth. :
LAIS 6
7
French impressionist painter (1841–1919). :
RENOIR 8
9
Sensitivity to correctness of musical sounds. :
EAR 10
Give out little by little. :
DRIB 11
12
Slender tube for transferring fluids. :
PIPET 13
14
Was in a state of agitation :
SEETHED 15
16
17
18
Vengeful daughter of Zeus. :
ATE 19
20
21
Alimentary canal: Colloq. :
INSIDES 30
32
Salome's stepfather. :
HEROD 35
37
Small line used to finish off a stroke of a letter. :
SERIF 40
42
44
46
Faulty play on the diamond. :
ERROR 49
51
Well-known poem by Amy Lowell. :
LILACS 55
57
59
60
___ Corps, wearers of the caduceus. :
MEDICAL 61
62
63
65
67
68
Stock in trade of the Sphinx. :
ENIGMAS 69
72
Made a noise like thunder. :
ROARED 74
President of Second Austrian Republic. :
RENNER 77
79
81
84
85
87
90
Trygve Lie heads this section of United Nations. :
SECRETARIAT 94
She plays a lyre. :
ERATO 96
98
Utah's state flowers. :
SEGOS 101
103
Chinese equivalent of 50c pieces. :
YUANS 105
Game in which player undertakes not to take a trick. :
NULLO 107
109
111
112
113
115
117
119
City in central France, famed for its porcelain. :
LIMOGES 120
121
124
Apply fresh color to. :
RETINT 126
Placed in a tennis tournament, as a ranking player. :
SEEDED 129
131
It flows from the Valdai Hills to the Caspian. :
VOLGA 133
137
138
Garden plant with scarlet flowers. :
SAGE 140
Where Iowa State College is. :
AMES 143
145
What Alaska is: Abbr. :
TER 147
Answer summary: 8 unique to this puzzle , 35 debuted here and reused later , 7 appeared only in pre-Shortz puzzles .
Analyzing...
Analysis
There are 0 circles, 0 rebus squares and 0 cheater squares.
The grid has normal (rotational) crossword symmetry.
It has 8 words unique to this puzzle:
It has 35 additional words that debuted in this puzzle and were later reused (total number of puzzles in brackets):
These words have only appeared in pre-Shortz puzzles:
These 38 answer words are not legal Scrabble™ entries, which sometimes means they are interesting:
Grid has an unusual size: 23 rows x 23 columns.
Note: average values here are based on Shortz Era stats. Pre-Shortz puzzles didn't vary consistently by day of week.
Distribution of answer words by length
Letter distribution
Scrabble Score: 1
2
3
4
5
8
10
Thumbnails for 7/24/1949
Various thumbnail views are shown:
Standard view shows the grid pattern most clearly
Open Squares (those which don't touch any block, even diagonally) are blue
Vowel distribution
Scrabble score uses the same color key as above
Freshness view shows unique answers in red (see colorized grid below)
With answers
Shortz Era puzzles that may be similar to this one
Crosswords that share the most words with this one:
Unusual or long words that appear elsewhere:
Identical grids
Other puzzles with the same block pattern as this one:
Topologically similar grids
Other crosswords with exactly 69 blocks, 158 words, 196 open squares, and an average word length of 5.82:
Colorized grid (based on pre-Shortz, Shortz Era and Variety word frequencies)
In this view, unusual answers are colored depending on how often they have appeared in other puzzles.
Unique answers are in red, red overwrites orange which overwrites yellow, etc.
Unique
1 other
2 others
3 others
4 others
Freshness
How common is each answer word?
This chart shows the number of puzzles each word has appeared in across all NYT puzzles, old and modern.
Found bugs or have suggestions?
Crosswords published prior to Nov. 21, 1993 are provided by David Steinberg and The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project .