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Hoppy brew / TUE 10-11-11 / /, to a bowler / Miler Sebastian / Marie with two Nobels / Nonfielding A.L. players / Protective part of a trunk
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Constructor: Ed Sessa
Relative difficulty: Whatever
THEME: Tumblers — Each theme answer is a different definition of the word "tumblers."
Hey, everybody. PuzzleGirl here with your Tuesday serving of puzzly goodness. Rex is sans Internet tonight for some reason, so you're stuck with me. Let's try to make the best of it, shall we?Theme answers:
- 17A: Tumblers (LOCK DEVICES).
- 32A: Tumblers (CIRCUS ACROBATS).
- 41A: Tumblers (WHISKEY GLASSES).
- 59A: Tumblers (JACK AND JILL).
Okay, some people don't like this type of theme, but I'm not one of them. I like a little something different now and then just to mix it up. I also think the JACK AND JILL answer is inspired. Doug and I were chatting about it and he said he thought the acrobats and Jack and Jill lead to the same definition of "tumblers," but I disagree. Jack and Jill are inadvertently falling down a hill having tripped on a rock or something. On the other hand, the circus people are doing that activity known as "tumbling" and though they may be rolling around much like someone falling down a hill, their actions are controlled and purposeful. I rest my case.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time here today. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm in Oprah Magazine. Wait, what? You didn't know I was in Oprah Magazine? Yes, I really am. Page 167 of the November issue if you just want to check it out in line at the grocery store. It's a section about people who have found a hobby they're passionate about. Mine is about scrapbooking. No no no, of course it isn't. It's about puzzles! It's just a little part of a bigger article, but it has my picture and everything so yeah, it's exciting. I mean, it's freaking Oprah.
Was there something else we were supposed to be talking about? Oh right, the puzzle. Setting aside a couple of clunkers (I'm looking at you OBEYER and KEY CASE) and the presence of URKEL, there's some pretty awesome fill here. I mean, how can you not like RABBIT TEST? That right there is a sparkly entry. Also, "WHERE TO?" I always get a kick out of the colloquial phrases.I don't think I would have liked only two sports abbreviations in the grid, but since there are three, it almost seems kinda cool. Other than that, um … yeah, I think I'm done. I mentioned the thing about Oprah, right? ….
Love,
PuzzleGirl
P.S. from Rex: What PuzzleGirl didn't say—she's ending her own popular crossword blog, "L.A. Crossword Confidential." Today is her last post over there. I assume that I will be able to call her out of retirement when I need a substitute blogger, like when I'm
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69 comments:
Welcome Puzzle Girl. Always a pleasure to have you drop by. Good writeup.
Wanted KEYring before KEYCASE.I think of a keycase as being closed, so not much jingling going on.
Otherwise, fun puzzle and quick solve.
Shanti -
PurpleGuy
The write up really made me smile.Normally I would feel competent to guess the relative difficulty(I feel like I have been on a roll lately) but I decided to solve on paper and I SUCK AT SOLVING ON PAPER!.
Uggg, I keep fumbling to find the clues and I cannot for the life of me read my own writing.Paper is barbaric.
Never heard a rocks glass called a tumbler before.To me a tumbler is a big plastic cup from the 70s.
Is Joon killing it or what? Kept me on the edge of my seat in double Jeopardy though...
How can you not like the Rabbit Test? You know the rabbit dies, right? You guys have sex, then you cut open a rabbit to see if your blood effects our ovaries. You're killing us, that's how!
Even though it was a bit clunky, I liked this puzzle -- not too much tired predictable fill. And, Puzzle Girl, I enjoyed your write-up. And with that, good night!
After a few semi clunker Tuesday's this puzzle was terrific.
URKEL, ULCER, URIAH, EROICA ARCHITECTS. Great words you don't see too often on a Tuesday and I love VERSACE REGALIA.
I, for one, saved a couple of bunny rabbits. I knew I was pregnant right away because everything smelled like chicken cacciatore to me.
Thanks for the good write-up @PuzzleGirl and congrats on being featured in O Magazine!! I'll have to get a copy.
Jill AKA Gill I.P. who can't sign in but I didn't go up for water
Yay, Puzzle Girl. Great sub job. 17A Luck devices? Really? Kinda creepy. I don't know why.
@pk thats LOCK DEVICES-not so creepy. Hands up for KEYRING .I liked everthing but OBEYER.My first thought logging in was MMM Rex is in an odd mood tonight!Good write PG.
I think sometimes folks don't like these bec the definitions break patterns...Adjective noun, redundant adjective noun (CIRCUS acrobats vs Accounting acrobats), Adjective noun, then two people.
But at least nothing sounded forced or arbitrary.
@PuzzleGirl,
Love your writeups...I want more Oprah story, ie how did they find you? Was the writer a fan of your LA blog? Have you been secretly corresponding with Stedman?
One small thing that struck me about this puzzle were lots of double Ls:
LOLL, JILL, CHILLY.
No pic of the dreadful Joan Rivers/BiLLy Crystal film "RABBITTEST" where HE is pregnant???
In the 70s, my dad wrote a book called ULCERS for lay people, busting myths about them.
The title ULCERS was in big red letters, and he used to make us
(my sisters and me) carry it around on buses to generate buzz, back in the day when Amazon doesn't exist.
I often wonder how many relationships I missed out on, bec the guy thought "Oh no, she has ULCERS (in BIG RED LETTERS) so that's probably a bad sign..."
And my dad would "joke" that women don't get ulcers, they give them.
RIP, daddy!
Snappy little Tuesday puzzle, I liked it.
Only write over was at 19A hod before BIN.
Normally you would not see me picking up an O magazine (the girl has gotten a little full of herself lately) but to read PG in it has got me ready to shell out a few bucks.
Thanks for a fun Tuesday Mr. Sessa and our own Puzzle Girl write up.
Joon is still astounding and my buddy Andy came in first again on the Amazing Race, keep winning 'em boys.
It seems like the crossworld is finally getting the attention it deserves! ACME was in the online "Atlantic," with a video, PG is in O, and Joon is rocking Jeopardy. Congrats to all.
@PG, I had the same thought as Doug, that the acrobats and the nursery rhyme pair are both doing the same kind of tumbling, but you convinced me otherwise.
I enjoyed solving the puzzle tonight, except OBEYER. And the clue for KEY CASE is odd; the ones I remember were leather and wrapped around the keys and snapped shut, making it less likely the keys would rattle or jingle. Maybe someone here uses one and can comment.
NYT seems to be having problems with the Across Lite file. If it's not working for you, try this link: http://www.xwordinfo.com/special/Oct1111.puz
JimH
Thanks, PG.
CHIPPY (?) for CHILLY. KEYRING for KEYCASE (whatever that is). Had no idea that a tumbler was a LOCK DEVICE. Liked JACK AND JILL as an answer.
Where is my "I'll Tumble For Ya" video??? It's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwb9-OlQimc
My internet is back, as you can see.
rp
PG - I'm going to say something to you I would never say to RP -- Cute comments!
Well PG you managed to name drop (albeit one name) more than my beloved Acme.
Gotta pack.
Nice puzzle.
*** (3 Stars) And I should say that after a few snorts any WHISKEYGLASS I may have--tumbles like JACKANDJILL...
dk
Geez, only 14 comments and it's all been said already. I'll just echo the enthusiasm for JACK AND JILL (having already used the only three definitions of tumbler I could think of, I was in suspense to see what the 4th would be, and this was an elegant resolution), and add that I really loved 50D "Big Indian" as a clue for RAJAH.
@Rex, the tumblers are the little things inside a lock that are moved by the teeth of the key - or by a lock-picking tool if you know how to do that.
OBEYER slowed me down in the NW, so I thought it was a crunchy puzzle for a Tuesday, but no, it was really just the one word that was crunchy.
Had Ryan PERRY on the mind as well (ouch - he is better than a 21.60 ERA), so I had to do a little work up there.
Loved JACKANDJILL. A little concerned about CIRCUSACROBATS with WHISKEYGLASSES, seems a bit dangerous if you ask me.
Haven't heard the term RABBITTEST in ages, I wonder how hard that clue is for the under 35 crowd. Speaking of being under 35, loved the video, with the reference to John Cougar and the shaggy hair. My hair style was very similar back when Mellencamp went by Cougar.
-Z the Barbarian
captcha - dopenoca - Mr. Perry's nickname in Detroit this morning (but only this morning- we're pretty forgiving around here).
Hand up here for key ring. The whole point of a KEY CASE is that it doesn't jungle. A tumbler is a WHISKEY GLASS if you really really like whiskey. Good Tuesday puzzle, nice write up.
Gallias Caesar subegit Nicomedes Caesarem:
Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat qui subegit Gallias
Nicomedes non triumphat qui subegit Caesarem.
Caesar subdued Gaul - but Nicomedes subdued Caesar:
Behold now Caesar triumphs, who has conquered Gaul -
Nicomedes does not triumph, although he conquered Caesar.
Never heard of the RABBITTEST, but pretty much everything else here went pretty smoothly. PGs nitpick about the three sports-abbreviation fills goes for me as well, but otherwise can't complain. Doing yesterday's and today's puzzles at the same time, I noticed that we had ALIE yesterday and ILIE today; are we going to get ULIE tomorrow? (no, I have no idea how to clue that, and I'm not going to be disappointed in the least if it doesn't show up).
I like this kind of theme for Tuesdays, and the TILT clue brought back some fun pinball memories from back in the day. Thanks much, Mr. Sessa!
Really enjoyed this puzzle, especially the variance in the types of Tumblers that comprised the 4 theme answers. They were all sufficiently diverse that it took at least a few crosses to get all of them (except maybe JACKANDJILL, my favorite of the 4). That caused my time to be at least a minute slower than a usual Tuesday (was around a low 6 minute).
Many really solid 6 and 7 letter answers, KEYCASE not so much. Loved PRUSSIA, REGALIA and VERSACE....
Great Tuesday puzzle, Ed Sessa!
I was struck by all the U's ... M & A should be delighted. URIAH and URKEL: what a pair!
Now I have this hilarious image in my head of JACKANDJILL tumbling down the hill doing back flips and other stunts.
My husband can't believe how I'm shouting at the TV cheering Joon on.
ARCHITECTS is really elegant.
Perhaps KEYCASE could have been clued in a court room context, no?
Great writeup, PG!
I whipped through this and then came up with Tack and Drill for Jack and Jill. Need more coffee!
Nice writeup and congrats on the Oprah article.
If you buy the O magazine, make sure you get the right one. It's the one with Oprah on the cover....
Evil
Fun easy puzzle. Great write-up PG!!
Can't wait to see your article. Gosh two famous people that I have met!!
PG and Joon.
@Tobias -- it is interesting how paper and electronic solving are so different. The few times I've done a Monday or Tuesday on line, I bring in times around 3-4 minutes; on paper same M/Tu puzzle times are around 10 minutes, for reasons you noted.
So, a good paper-day on the New Haven. Liked 26A, Protective part of a trunk, which felt more like a Wednesday clue. South was a pause for me as I have no idea who URKEL is.
WHISKEY GLASSES crossing RABBITTEST: cause and effect? Hmmmm.
Good puzzle and write up. OF course I had KEYring. Also had hod carrying my coal, and for some reason my brain read quarry for query at 9D.
Yes, crosswords are getting good press. I literally got chills yesterday when Joon bet his first true daily double, and got a little scared when he found his second daily double with $30k and cried "he's not!" and he didn't.
Congrats, PG, on your spot in O.
desotat: Tweety Bird feeling sad.
Also, I, too, had trouble getting the puzzle today. Had to navigate away and back to get it.
Baking today, peanut butter brownies and lemon bars.
How often is a Tuesday puzzle this much fun? Nice one, Ed!
Just read a student's paper on David & Bathsheba; that would make a good clue for URIAH.
Puzzle Dad loves "tilt" -- many a misspent hour banging away at a pinball machine as a lad.
Puzzle Mom loves Oprah, at least this month. We even sprang for our very own copy.
Am I the only iPad solver who can't get the puzzle to download today? It failed on both my iPad (with two different apps) and my iPhone.
@Matthew G
I use StandAlone and I just tried it on my iPod Touch and it downloaded fine. I had this happen to me before and fixed it by tapping the settings icon in lower right corner, selecting puzzle providers and reentering my NYT credentials. HTH.
I like this type of theme. How nice that a word can mean so many different things. And that the brain that creates all the meanings is able to select the right one most of the time. When the wrong one is chosen it is sometimes termed serendipity and is a cause for celebration or laughter. Programming languages are vastly inferior to natural languages in this regard.
What PG said. Nice puzzle, but OBEYER is really ugly.
I'm old enough to remember living in a house with a coal furnace and a coal BIN in the basement.
@Bugs: I'm remeinded of the M*A*S*H episode where the docs need to use Radar's pet rabbit for a RABBIT TEST (for Hot Lips??) Radar objects when he realizes the rabbit does not survive these things. Finally agrees to have Hawkeye operate to remove the rabbit's ovaries and spare her life. Don't know whether it was medically feasible but it made for a humorous episode.
@ Bugs is right about the rabbit test. Fortunately those days are behind us.
@ Glimmerglass is right too. If you drink your whiskey out of a tumbler I hope you're using a lot of ice and mixer.
The crossing of Ava (Gabor) and penthouse view gave me a Green Acres theme song earworm.
Aside from key case and obeyer I liked this one just fine.
Thanks PG.
Go Joon go!
When I was a kid we had a black cat named COALBIN. We had another cat SPIRO, who I believe was in yesterday's puzzle. Her(!) abrasiveness reminded my father of the veep, hence the name.
Not much to say about the puzzle. Liked JACK AND JILL.
For those, like me, who did not know ABOU Ben Adhem, a poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). I had to memorize his "The Glove and the Lion" in middle school.
ABOU BEN ADHEM
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still, and said "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
never heard of RABBIT TEST; i'm glad it wasn't on jeopardy. and now that i've read some of the (oblique) references to it, i am kind of afraid to google it.
Actually, Sinatra was married to Ava Gardner and Eva Gabor was on Green Acres. 3 and out.
"Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
Up Jack got, and home did trot,
As fast as he could caper,
To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob
With vinegar and brown paper."
I see no evidence that Jack tumbled. He fell. Jill tumbled after. Protest!
@mother Goose
Thanks for flying by!
I have NEVER heard the second verse!
Vinegar and Brown Paper! Then what? Did she kill a rabbit to see if Jell was pregnant???
Hand up for hod before BIN. Though I think a hod carries bricks.
Jokes used to run, "The rabbit died," meaning pregnant. Alas, the rabbit was killed pregnant or not. Glad that's out of date.
Good write up PG. Considerate, too, to give us the page number. Thanks.
@Quilter1, brownies and lemon bars, yum. @Joon--zowie.
Good Tuesday puzzle, with Jack and Jill my favorite answer and obeyer not so great.
I think the rabbit test expression was used long after they found a more humane way to determine a pregnancy. Never knew it had something to do with the poor bunny's ovaries, so I didn't know it had to be a female.
Now after an O magazine. I've never read one before, I'm curious.
@ quilter1,
I did realize it was Ava Gardner.
The Green Acres thing is just how my mind was wandering.
OBEYER looks like a captcha...
Thanks for the poem, JaxinLA; I never heard of abou ben adhem.
Joon, your knowledge is amazing, yes, but even better is the class with which you're handling yourself on the show. You are an inspiration!
Loved the write up--though when I first signed on and saw "whatever" I also wondered (along with @syndy) what was up in Rex's world. For what it's worth, I'd give it an easy rating. I did it in less than average time, and that's my only way to judge. Also, I enjoyed doing it, which doesn't hurt a bit.
I'm going to echo @acme, PuzzleGirl. Have you been corresponding with Stedman? Anyway, very cool that you're in O magazine.
@chefwen--So YOU'RE the one I commented to yesterday--and you didn't come on! I think your buddy Andy is awesome. So is Joon!
Go LIONS! Just don't get to say that very often, so I couldn't help myself. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be able to say Go TIGERS! as well.
prangl--Alabama potato snack? (Forgive me. It's my first attempt.)
Seems that Ed Sessa didn’t get the memo reminding constructors that Tuesday puzzles must always be disappointing to solvers. This was a terrific one, for a change!
I had no problem id'ing my least favorite entry, OBEYER, but was torn for best of show among Gianni VERSACE, JACKANDJILL or RABBITTEST.
I settled on RABBITTEST when reminded of how, in a simpler time, we tweens would say things like, "The rabbit died, huh?" Wink, wink.
Or, with similar wit, "So, did you flunk the Wassermann Test?" Wink, wink.
Each comment making us feel very sophisticated though I'm sure none of us had a clue what we were talking about.
Thanks Ed, for a strange but fun trip down my memory's muddy lane.
Hey@Joon Jennings of Jeopardy, nice to hear from you! We've been rooting for you here and in our household.
I wondered if their reference to Hippocampus as "equine" bothered you. I know it means Sea Horse, but equine is just not the right connotation to me... I thought I saw you hesitate a tad, or may be I was just projecting. Anyhow, way to go!
Puzzle Girl is in O Magazine! Acme in the Atlantic, Rex was discussed on the Jimmy Kimmel show by Dana Delany. Our kids are making a big splash! We're so proud!
I love whiskey, sans ice, and always use a whiskey glass. I always thought a tumbler was a tall drinking glass. According to Wikipedia, "Tumblers are flat-bottomed drinking glasses." Now I know. Crosswords are fun AND educational. ;-)
A KEYCASE jingles? Really?
Since I do these puzzles during lunch at work, I cannot do them online (web site is blocked, yadda, yadda, yadda). I like doing it pen anyway. Even on Sunday!
@evil doug - Good one, made me laugh.
@600 - You are right, Andy is awesome, he is also one of the kindest, most thoughtful, genuinely nice guy that I know, he wife carries the same qualities. I am lucky to know them both.
Fun Tuesday! Well done, Mr. Sessa. I say what everyone says: Yay for JACKANDJILL; boo for OBEYER. KEYCASE is a stretch.
I wanted to see a theme answer with "gymnast."
ARCHITECTS is awesome. RABBITTEST a delight.
I thought for sure the multiple sport abbreviations would not settle well with some (looking at you @Tobias Duncan).
My alma mater (UCLA) got a shout out so I am happy.
The presence of anatomical terms (iliac, rib cage)made me happy as well, since we are doing anatomy right now in med school.
Oh and I definitely smiled a wry smile when I got to "Jack and Jill" for tumblers. Clever.
Good theme and nice crunchy fill. I picked up a vaguely retro "Mad Men" feel with Frank & Ava, prefab houses, whiskey glasses, ulcers, etc.
PG and joon: Congrats!
I had RABBI_____ for 11d for a while, and I'm thinking, "Do rabbis pat your stomach or something?" like there's some Jewish tradition I don't know about.
@acme: ULCER, hah!
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation of my method):
All solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Tue 7:55, 8:53, 0.89, 18%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Tue 4:16, 4:35, 0.93, 31%, Easy-Medium
Good Tuesday puzzle -- thanks, Ed
@evil -- hysterical as usual
keep rockin' Joon -- so impressive !!! -- brutal final jeopardy, I too thought Benedict Arnold was a gimme
great write-up, PG -- knew I was in for a treat when I saw "whatever" for the difficulty rating will check out O mag
I was expecting to find GYMNASTS, which I think would also be a separate enough distinction from ACROBATS and J&J.
Not having TV, I'll look for computer versions of this Joon guy. (Of course, I know him from print, but ... .)
Damn, you better not leave us in a single day like PG did Rex!!
joon bets 'er all on math **again** yesterday! Thumbs up, dude.
Good TuesPuz, Ed Sessa. And good strategy, disconnectin' 31's DSL, just to be on the safe side. But he gets riled more by RRN's and the circles and pangrams, IMO.
M&A Word of the Day: ECCE. (Woulda clued it as "Look the same both ways". More sparkle.)
Had OmEYER and was convinced it was some sort or rebus for O(scar)mEYER. Then I convinced myself it was actually TiKE, not TYKE. Then I ran the alphabet on the (mistaken) m. Then, finally, changed i back to Y and ran the alphabet again, although not in ABC order, but in QWERTY order. So 'B' was right near the end. All in the NYT Java applet.
All day with this.
Took a 7:20 puzzle and made it an 11:24 puzzle. Worst single-letter experience ever.
@puzzle girl Got O magazine this afternoon and read about you!!!!! Great!!
Jack and Jill went up the hill
Each with a buck and a quarter.
Jill came down with two and a half
They didn't go up for water.
The version you get when your name is Jill.
Nice puzzle. May your tribe increase.
And 2 fine poems!
One of the poems I covered with my inmates after 9/11. Not the Jack and Jill.
Joon wins again. It's actually getting a little boring. But, I was working evenings when Jenkins was winning, so at least I can witness this one. He mentioned "Guess my word."
@Michaels - funny. I've had 2 ulcers (craters) in my life. The first from staying home with small child, not from a germ. The cure was ice cram and honey, and cimetidine the rest of my life. What was your dad's theory?
Agree, some garbage fill that is beyond the usual rote for NYT.
Personal Bete Noir: ILIAC is a PELVIC bone, not hip related. One must respect Anatomy better. There was one even more egregious last week.
tsk, tsk
Redanman: actually, the hip is comprised of the three bones of the pelvis, and the ilium is one of them.
From SyndLand: I had to laugh: I got LUCKDEVICES, not remembering ABOU (since I've only seen that once before), and thinking "hey, slot machines have tumblers in them, so that must be right!"
Only three write overs. Once I had RAJAH in place I assumed the final tumblers were going to be rock tumblers, so I entered JARS and waited for the crosses. Didn't take long to see the crosses weren't going to be JARS-friendly.
Shout-out to Dirk, Nasty, Stig and Barry at 6d.
We're CHILLY, ACHY and have a FEVER - flu season must be here.
@Tim, great rational for your wrong answer.
No write-up from Rex today, so let's see what he had to say 5 years ago:
- "Solving time: roughly 10 minutes (with pen)"
- "I Like Symmetry. How much? I LOVE the new Honda Civic ads that end with a little "ding" sound as the final "C" turns around the face the other way, creating not only a palindrome but a word the second half of which is a mirror image of the first. My (college) graduating class of 1991 gave itself the name of Palindrome. Dorky, yes, but it only happens once a century (for a while), so ... yeah, it's dorky. Still, I [heart] palindromes - but only single-word palindromes, none of that "A man, a plan, a canal, panama" crap."
- "Remember when Cagney and Lacy was like the most badass cop show on TV? Sharon Gless was an alcoholic cop Way before that Dennis Franz guy. And now all cops are basically stage dummies ogling "scientific" evidence and muttering one-liners on their search for the apparently THOUSANDS of psychotic genius child-torturing serial murder-rapists that walk among us."
- "Poor Leif. Probably got to North America centuries ahead of Columbus (if Newfoundland counts...) - Norsemen may eventually have gotten as far as Minnesota! - and yet, he gets no respect - the Rodney Dangerfield of the exploring world. All glory goes to Columbus, bringer of slavery and pestilence. But did you know?: in 1964, President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson declared October 9 to be "Leif Erikson Day" in the United States. I demand that we all celebrate this next year. It's time Leif Ericson reclaimed his rightful place in history."
- "I never saw a single episode of "The A-Team" growing up, yet I have this weird love for it, as it seems to represent everything horribly, but now campily, wrong with the 80s. Remember when blowing @#$# up was just good fun and bad guys were clownishly incompetent? Good times. Brian ENO is hereby inducted into the Pantheon, as he is everywhere you want to be, puzzle-wise."
- There were 9 comments; @Isabella added "I do the NYTimes crosswords every day and have no one to complain to when I think a clue or its answer is lame, or the whole puzzle is dumb.
Looks like I'll be coming here from now on.
Great site!"
Syndicated solver here.
I did this over lunch and I also liked it, though I can understand the feelings of those who don't. It can be annoying to have long horizontal theme answers that can't be guessed without doing a lot of down crosses first. Still, this one was easy enough that it didn't require any extraordinary effort to figure out the theme answers.
KEY CASE was indeed odd, and I almost wrote in "KEY ring", on the principle that a key case doesn't jangle. I don't think the puzzle composer had ever seen a key case, just heard about one, and assumed it was the same as a key ring.
Being only 31, I had never even heard of the RABBIT TEST. Home pregnancy tests for human chorionic gonadotropin have been available for longer than I've been alive. That slowed me down in the NE, but I got through it without a single error.
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