Lou Weiss author page
1 puzzle by Lou Weiss
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 1 answer word debuted by Lou Weiss.
| I | P | O | D | P | S | A | L | M | T | R | A | M | ||
| M | E | N | U | O | N | S | E | T | R | A | C | E | ||
| P | R | E | V | A | I | L | I | N | G | W | I | N | D | S |
| S | U | G | A | R | H | A | D | H | A | T | C | H | ||
| L | M | A | O | E | R | I | N | |||||||
| P | U | L | L | E | D | S | T | R | I | N | G | S | ||
| I | P | A | D | O | T | H | D | E | L | E | T | E | ||
| E | D | Y | S | S | I | T | E | L | O | N | ||||
| D | O | U | L | A | S | N | O | T | I | M | E | D | ||
| P | E | N | T | A | G | O | N | B | R | A | S | S | ||
| E | D | A | M | K | N | E | E | |||||||
| H | A | R | P | S | O | O | H | A | F | L | A | T | ||
| T | H | E | S | O | U | N | D | O | F | M | U | S | I | C |
| M | O | N | O | G | R | I | L | L | G | A | R | B | ||
| L | Y | O | N | H | A | N | D | Y | E | T | S | Y |
WINDS, STRINGS, BRASS … cue the MUSIC for the major parts of a symphony orchestra.
The percussion section has lodged a complaint, but until a phrase like DEEP PERCUSSION catches on more widely, they're going to have to march to the beat of their own drum.
Solid job disguising the theme. Although woodwinds are similar to PREVAILING WINDS in that you play them using your "wind," tucking that keyword at the back of a phrase helped to delay the a-ha moment. PULLED STRINGS did it even better, since as a cellist, I don't often pull my strings. (Pulled my hair as this subpar cellist struggled to keep up, that's another story.)
This one reminded me of another music theme that also pulled some strings. It made me wonder if today's would have been more or less interesting if the phrases had been interpreted punnily, i.e. PREVAILING WINDS = [Clarinets who come out on top?]. But that's a different concept entirely, and I like the simplicity of today's for an early-week solve.
I struggled mightily with one cross: AMON-RA / OOH. In hindsight, it couldn't be anything else since neither EOH-la-la nor UOH-la-la make any sense. I'm much more used to seeing the Egyptian god as AMEN-RA (or sometimes AMUN-RA), though. Along with some dabs of MTG STA MONO TNN and kicking things off with the discontinued IPOD, it wasn't a perfect grid.
As a constructor who values complete sets, it was tough to ignore the absence of an important part of a symphony. Great revealer, though, and I bet many solvers won't even notice, much less take outrage at the cymbalic omission.