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Actress Blake / MON 11-5-12 / Jedi's furry friend / Bedazzled actor Moore / Hitchcock thriller set in California
Monday, November 5, 2012
Constructor: Andrea Carla Michaels
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: TRIO (66A: Threesome ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme) — theme answers are two members of a famous TRIO (third member is in the clue)
Word of the Day: AMANDA Blake (5D: Actress Blake) —
Amanda Blake (February 20, 1929 – August 16, 1989) was an American actress best known for the role of the red-haired saloon proprietress "Miss Kitty Russell" on the television western Gunsmoke. (wikipedia)
• • •
I don't get this one. Or, rather, I get it, I think ... in that I see what's happening ... but I don't understand how it's a NYT-caliber theme. There's no wordplay, no cleverness, no nothing. Just ... two members of a TRIO. I don't see how the answers are even interesting. I'm clearly missing something, because 2/3 of a TRIO alone does not in any way make for good theme answers. Totally mystified by how this one cleared the bar, theme-wise. Otherwise, it's a standard Monday puzzle. No more, no less.
Theme answers:
- 20A: Wynken's fishing buddies (BLYNKEN AND NOD)
- 27A: Moe's slapstick pals (LARRY AND CURLY)
- 43A: Huey's fellow nephews (DEWEY AND LOUIE)
- 51A: Snap's cereal mates (CRACKLE AND POP)
Save And Share :
92 comments:
I don't seem to be able to read or understand punctuation these days, so I thought your sentence 'next year I should watch "THE BIRDS"), and LSD"' as 'next year I should watch "THE BIRDS" on LSD', and thought that a very scary prospect.
We have a date?
I liked it, Andrea!!!
Well, I do puzzles because I love words and I loved everything that I wrote in. Damn, a Monday that CRACKLE(d) and POP(ped) for a change.
ICE over ACHE, DARKEN over ARSON, DRAMA over RAND, DEADEN over WINE and (my favorite) ECHO over SHAME.
What's not to love????
Colleen Dewhurst in "A MOON for the Misbegotten." "I'm just a rough, ugly cow of a woman - but I can stil do better than a sniveling wreck like Jim Tyrone."
Andrea, Like LARRY AND CURLY, you
make me BLYNKEN AND NOD.....
I object to Law & Order being called a DRAMA; it's a procedural.
The official, Beatles-sanctioned, non-LSD explanation of how "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" came to be is that Julian Lennon came home from school with a drawing of a classmate floating against a diamond-studded backdrop and the boy himself described it as "Lucy in the sky with diamonds." John Lennon's biographer Phillip Norman notes somewhat wryly that to accept this explanation requires us to believe that someone as skilled at wordplay as John Lennon wouldn't notice the LSD initials and that John had the slightest interest in his son's schoolwork.
I liked it too. Very nice Andrea. A smooth Mon. with nary a cringe in sight. And, a cute theme! This would have been a fast time for me even using the iPad except that I had to chase down a typo. There can be problems if you concentrate primarily on the across clues, i.e. iOYO is not a toy you can do tricks with.
After yesterday's slog of a hated puzzle, this was pure joy!!!
Thank you Andrea -aka-ACME!!!!!!
This felt like a true Monday NYT puzzle as I remember them.
Read "a Moon for the Misbegotten" when I was over in Nam. Saw the production when it was revived with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards Jr. on broadway. Truly great show. There aren't that many of that caliber out there now.
Enough of my rant. I'm with @ Ken Kesey for setting up a date to watch "The Birds" on LSD. I have it on DVD.!!
Happy Monday all!!!
Shanti -
Bob/PurpleGuy
@jae - I also had to iOYO. My only write-over. Cute puzzle! Monday/Tuesday puzzle husband and I had our usual race and I won this time woo hoo!
Love winning!
Hope Andrea will drop by with some inside info on her latest Mon. offering.
Got the theme at the second serving (LARRY AND CURLY) and figured if there was going to be a reveal, it would be something like "Two out of three", "Two thirds", or some such, so TRIO was a bit of a surprise.
The relatively high black square count, 42, attests to the difficulty of using four 13-letter theme entries.
Given the cartoonish bent of the theme, I would have gone with "Nell Fenwick's beau Do-Right" for 46D DUDLEY.
In a rather irritating and annoying manner (he says with great admiration) Rex captured what was bothering me about this puzzle. Come up with two out of three things that make up 13 spaces and you have a theme. Not as much fun as Acme's puzzles usually are. However, Rex should know why this passed muster because he's noted why in the past....
JFC
I second Rex's emotion. This is the first time in memory that I walked away from a Times puzzle without having either: i) learned a new word; ii) said, 'Wow, that's clever'; or iii) suffered a touch of brain ache.
I thought the theme was refreshingly different. It somehow reminded me of how often acme shares the byline of her puzzles with others. If the requirement that AND be in the answer was relaxed EVERSTOCHANCE would have fit.
Sorry, Rex, but I absolutely loved both the puzzle and the theme! They were trios we all know and love, and they were consistent--all fictional characters (I know the Stooges are real guys, but they play roles), all well-known, all fun, etc. There also was no fill and no clues that made me cringe.
The theme seems a mere WISP today. This makes the puzzle very accessible. I'd have preferred trickier cluing, but it is Monday.
On the other hand, the fill is excellent. The worst I can find is SSTS, and that is used to start words rather than pluralize words to make them fit. Otherwise the fill is clean and crisp. I see a complaint or two above that the answers just weren't obscure enough. You all will just have to wait until Saturday for your obscure aria or third largest village in Bfeistan.
Nice puzzle.
I'm with you, Rex. I like my themes to have a bit of a reveal (even on Monday) and make me smile. This was just an exercise in speed filling as the answers were obvious from their clues.
Sort of a meh, for me.
Hi Andrea, I know you are shy and sensitive so no doubt you are lurking. You are also kind and humble and not prone to talking about your work. Come out and play.
This is a delightful puzzle. A trio theme for a Monday based on tales of our youth. Who could ask for more! Well Rex could but Mikey hates every thing these days.
My challenge was the spelling of BLYNKEN with an I. But the rest smooth sailing, as we have come to expect from Acme Puzzlewerks
Purple and Ken, I will bring something to take the edge off. I have to say that I applaud when Lydia and Annie start to feel more than a little peckish. Perhaps we could all go to a bar in Bodega Bay after the movie. Maybe pump a little gas, stop by the school yard or make call from the booth on the corner.
*** (a trio of stars) nice one Andrea
Bedazzled with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook is hilarious.
I'm with the commenters above. Andrea, it would be great to hear your insights into the making of this!
Back at C38 at LGA. A very nice Monday. I love one's that are accessible to non puzzle wife. This fits the bill. Thanks, Andrea.
A silly, fun Monday...thanks ADVIL CACHE MAINE!
Any day that starts with the Stooges is gonna be a great day :-)
But, Anoa Bob had a great suggestion for the clue for DUDLEY...kudos Bob.
The Y in BLYNKEN surprised me too, but YOYO removed all doubt there,
Hi, Andrea. I love your comments on Rex's blog. This puzzle, not so much. It's not that it was a bad puzzle; it was just too easy. I wrote the letters in the boxes about as fast as I could write random letters. This raises an interesting point. For someone like Rex, there must be a maximum speed to "solve" a puzzle. A speed than which it is impossible to physically write faster. Maybe Rex keeps track of his minimum times -- was this it?
Easy, peasy Monday, only pause was to correctly spell BLYNKEN. I would have thought Blinken, but I see from Wiki that the poem is subtitled "Dutch Lullaby". So I did learn something today! Otherwise, the puzzle was a speedy fill, one where you go back and see what the fun downs were that you never got a chance to see.
Liked WISP, SCULPTOR, and THE BIRDS.
@Z - I think I've visited Bfeistan.
Thanks, Andrea!
Not a bad puzzle. Nothing that made it really pop for me though. As I was doing it and until I came here, I kept thinking that there must be more to the theme that I was missing - but I guess not.
Still a big acme fan.
So much to love in this puzzle -- it had some snap, a dash of crackle, and buckets of pop! Yes, it was lightning fast and super easy, but it was fresh and lively and fun.
My only minor glitch was 61A, where I first had "EVAH" -- thinking it was referencing the Cole Porter song.
Thanks and congrats, Andrea!!!
A while back I was playing around with putting SNAP, CRACKLE & POP in a puzzle but couldn't make it work. It's very clever that Andrea used the third fun character as the clue ... and it makes me realize that sometimes we have to think outside the box ... literally!
Yes, very easy, but it's Monday! And you won't find a smoother grid anywhere. Nobody makes filling a grid looks as easy and seamless as Andrea ... and believe me, it is harder than she makes it look!
I say ENCORE, Andrea, ENCORE!
That is, "Nobody makes filling a grid look as easy and seamless as Andrea ..."
Rexy, can't we just love Andrea?
And, Mondays should be easy for newbies to have a shot.
I noticed There oughta be ALAW was also on the LA, today. Is this like girls calling each other to see what they're going to wear today, or is it just a coincidence?
Wynken and Blynken are 2 little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed.
I think it’s cool that two out of the three of these three famous TRIOS are 13 letters when you include AND.
@Gill I.P. and Sue McConnell -ICE crossing ACHE with ADVIL nearby – nICE!
Loved the clue for RIP!!! Haven’t we all been there?
Mysteriously, I spelled BLYNKEN correctly the first time but threw down “sculpter” and “vice.” Shame on me.
I visited Bodega Bay on my honeymoon. Creepy. THE BIRDS is my favorite Hitchcock movie. Scared the bejeezus out of me.
Andrea – did you consider “Tinman and Lion” or “Kukla and Ollie?”
Great Monday for me. I bought it *, line, and sinker!
What a great fun puzzle. Loved it. Wynkin is spelled with a y so therefore Blynkin.
Thanks Andrea
I have a feeling that I am the only person on this planet that has never heard of Wynken, Blynken and Nod
Just listened to the Doobie Bros version and it did not ring a bell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YomNcG9aSGQ
That gave this puzzle a lot more crunch for me. I still dont see how this one rates too easy.
Love ya Andrea!
Liked the puzzle too, and seriously, Rex, you haven't seen Bedazzled? Pretty much the gold standard for mid-sixties British deadpan humor -- with Peter Cook playing the Devil and Dudley Moore falling into his traps over and over as he confronts the 7 Deadly Sins. Numerous great sight gags, such as the Devil putting "Out of Order" hoods on parking meters, then removing them so parkers get tickets. Also a brief cameo from Raquel Welch as Lust.
Easy, sure, but I liked it. Liked the fill which avoided lots of Monday dreck--Miss Eyre nowhere in sight. Thanks, Andrea. I did know that Wynken & Co. referred to sleepy time. Love the Stooges any day of the week.
Cute little Monday puzzle. Didn't Rex mention recently (say, within the last year?) that Will said he was having difficulty filling the first couple of days of the week? I thought this one was just fine. Easy, yes, but it made me smile.
There seems to be a sharp division on this puzzle, with many appearing to like it merely because it's our beloved Acme. It's days like this that we need the cool, thoughtful, impartial, dispassionate analysis of Evil Doug....
JFC
Today's puzzle makes me hate yesterday's even more. The one chance I get to flaunt my knowledge of French is at 66A, but 'menage a trois' didn't fit.
Very fun! To echo Anonymous 6:07, these aren't any old TRIOS. There's no "Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" or "Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga" (not that they would have fit) but figures that many of us grew up with. I thought it was very funny to have them sharing a puzzle grid. And the rest was very nice, too.
Also liked AMI + OUI and MAUI + AHI.
Thank you, @acme - a delightful Monday.
I liked this one. Easy, but no dreck.
And I love the "Flip-Flop" clue on this day before election day.
CJ
Andrea, you had me at 1A. How could I not love a puzzle that starts with Brad PITT!
Still taking ADVIL for headACHE caused by Sunday puz- OUI, OUI...
THIS was a WISP of fresh air, a fun WAY to start the week. Liked the theme and all the fill- not UNE that I would OUST.
Besides the TRIOs, faves were O HENRY, THE BIRDS, and AMANDA Blake.
ENCORE, ENCORE!
What an awful, almost impossible puzzle!
Just look at all these clues and/or answers:
23 A - AMI
37 A - Concordes
42 A - CACHE
49 A Yvette and OUI
64 A - Burgundy or Bordeaux
1 D - PAR
31 D - Quebec and UNE
35 D - AXE
All French words!
Throw in TREVI, MAUI, AHI, EWOK, SAO -- all those foreign words!
How is the average American supposed to solve a puzzle like this?!?
(Or did this complaint only apply yesterday?)
(Oh, and if there is any doubt - Just kidding!)
Forgot 44 D - ENCORE
@That Guy - acutally, there's a bit of French at 31D. Oh, somebody just mentioned that.
I did enjoy this theme, which wasn't as easy as it looked - we've already heard about spelling difficulties with BLYNKEN and LOUIE; and my own write over was Curly and Larry before LARRY AND CURLY. But such fun answers, I liked it.
I did think the revealer was weak - since the theme is not so much TRIOs as "Two out of three ain't bad." And ideally it should have been the answer only, not that the clue, that functioned as a revealer - in other words, clue TRIO with a different meaning. Isn't it a brand name for something?
Still, it's a fun, snappy Monday.
I'd say the revealer just isn't clued well, or maybe is unnecessary altogether. I don't get how it's a "hint to this puzzle's theme." Feels kind of confusing and off-base. Basically I agree with Rex.
But I agree with others that the fill is good and this is totally doable for a Monday audience. Just not great for the solving elite.
Really would like to hear the story of this puzzle from Acme!
Nice one Andrea!
Count me in on the Bodega Bay film party.
I enjoyed doing it and I don't always enjoy a monday.Spelling did seem to be the challenge here-that and order of appearance.Howsomeever I'd say that theme reveal was wispy but hardly enough to pan (throw bread).on another note isn't to BEDAZZLE to adorn with cheap rhinastone grommety things?
Just because the answers had 2 of the 3 in the TRIOs, doesn't make the revealer wrong to me. It's a "hint" to the puzzle's theme- not technically the content.
You'd need a Sunday grid to accommodate the entire TRIO, unless you had shorter ones like tic tac toe, red white and blue, hop, skip and jump would just make it- but lack any Snap, CRACKLE AND POP!
I think @Rex is being WAY too harsh for giving this one the AXE.
Since when do we expect DRAMA from a Monday puzzle?
IMHO Monday solver's will enjoy the theme and wouldn't take it quite so literally.
It also EARNS points for not having the usual cruddy fill- no ono, oreo, otto, eno. Boo HOO!
OT, but as other (@Bob Kerfuffle) note: I was prepared to love yesterday's puzzle, got the theme at MEREMORTALS, said, "Cool" and .... went nowhere, nowhere at all. And I had most of the plane ride this morning. Major DNF.
A tad too easy. Zipped through without once thinking "wow, clever clue". But it's Monday, so who cares?
@Rex - You know you're in trouble with your minions when I'm one of the very few who agree with you. TAO....
JFC
I know it is a Monday but do you think that including "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" in the clue gives away too much of the answer?
Nice, clean puzzle -- a good start to the week!
I've been to the schoolhouse in Bodega, CA, which Tippi Hedrin flees with her students. Now a gift shop.
I really liked this puzzle. A fine work of art by Andrea. After getting 20A I thought the TRIOs were verb-sounding words.
Only corrections were WHIF before WISP and JETS before SSTS.
Anybody remember Dewey, Cheatem and Howe?
Now, am I a robot or not?
@Bird -
We did not invent Dewey, Cheatem and Howe, but they have been our attorneys for longer than anyone can remember.
Meh, I'm fine with this theme. It's a Monday and we're not going to be spending a lot of time on the puzzle, so a straightforward theme is acceptable (though I'd prefer a funny one).
This was one of those Mondays where I initially thought I was going to finish in a slow-for-me time after skipping over a few clues I didn't get immediately, but then I finished within seconds of my best-ever Monday time. It's weird how little sense of time I have when I'm completing a puzzle.
Anyway, I consider this at least an average puzzle for a Monday, so I'll give it the ol' stamp of approval.
It's really simple, Rex. This puzzle was fun. It was the exact opposite of yesterday's (Sunday) puzzle, in which the theme was "smart" (I suppose) but so overly tortured as to be an awful solving experience (so in the end I suppose the constructor outsmarted himself). Solving puzzles is meant to be fun. This puzzle was clean and nice, and fun!
Andrea . . . are you out there?
Or are you holding your tongue and boycotting this blog because of you-know-who's critique?
Really liked having something I could solve. I thought my brain had fried. It was plenty amusing enough and something I could curl up with. I have had all the drama I need for the moment. Thanks Andrea.
Good list @Bob K; deadpan humor welcome.
The cursed Verizon guy never showed.
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)
Mon 5:39, 6:46, 0.83, 1%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:28, 3:41, 0.94, 26%, Easy-Medium
I posted my fastest Monday solve time on record with this one and I may wind up with my highest ever ranking (I'm currently #45). The only thing that slowed me down was my typing ability and spelling BLYNKEN, DEWEY and LOUIE. To me, this puzzle is everything a Monday should be. I thought the theme was fun (I don't get Rex's criticism thereof) and it was eminently solvable and should have been accessible to novice solvers. Only LSD gave me pause. John always insisted that the initials in the song title were pure coincidence. Surely, he'd never play with his audience like that, now would he (nudge-nudge, wink-wink)?
This is the perfect puzzle to introduce people to crosswords. A newcomer would do this puzzle and say it was fun.
I agree with Rex that there was nothing clever or at least cleverish about the theme, and usually that is not the case.
As usual for Acme, it was smooth as silk.
@ anonymous 2:37
Very well put!
MOnday is all about speed for me. so, loved this one.
Hand up for IOYO, despite the spelling of Wynken in the clue. IO,YO could be a redundant version of the io in Io Saturnalia.
Was headed (I thought) toward my first sub 4 minute puzzle. But, alas, some typos (A NOON for the misbegotten), the accursed Y on BLYNKEN, LOCO @ 52D, and HOARD for CACHE @ 42A had to be fixed. Those took me about 2 1/2 minutes to find and fix. So, a little over 6 minutes,despite this being about the easiest NYT puzzle I have ever solved.
But easy does not mean unenjoyable. I liked it, had fun, and did not feel it was too easy. The smoothness won me over.
Thanks, Andrea.
@Georgia
@chefwen
There are replies to your comments on yesterday's blog.
this puzzle was just fun! Each long clue was fun to say.
I guess I take Rex's point about the theme, but, really, how often does anyone actually come up with a truly clever, game-changing theme anymore? I found this one simple, smooth, and solid, as every Monday should be.
@Tobias D: That makes two of us! And yes, "crunchy" is the result (even if "winken" and "blinken" are real German verbs)
@Rex
You always say you want a puzzle with some SNAP, CRACKLE & POP.
Will the real ACM please stand up.
Looks like I have to guide you city folk to your destination again: If you want to see what your darlin' Andrea has to say, (it ain't much) you gotta go to the comments at "Diary of a Crossword Fiend."
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (Dutch Lullaby)
by Eugene Field (1850-1895)
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe---
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea---
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish---
Never afeard are we";
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam---
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home;
'T was all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 't was a dream they 'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea---
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.
I enjoyed the quick romp through childhood trios. Had DEWEY and LOUIE reversed which causes a pile up down there in the middle. And, not having heard of BLYNKEN and what? (and not seeing OHENRY or AMOON right away) I almost DNFed. On a Monday. On an ACME puzzle. But then it all came to me.
Count me in at Bodega Bay.
Hi Hi,
I'm here...busy day...when I have a puzzle it's like a mini-birthday celebration!!!! i get to hear from all my friends and celebrate getting a puzzle published!
Still a big deal to me each time it happens!
The original idea was as a Tuesday...with just the one person in the clue and the solver "shouts out" the other two.
Like a little dance or conversation...I say, "SNAP!" you say "CRACKLE AND POP!!!", I say "HUEY", you shout "DEWEY AND LOUIE"!!!
But it became a Monday, I guess, bec of the otherwise easiness of the fill (and no matter what I do, Will prefers me on Mondays)
(@San Fran, congrats on record time!)
I actually had to rewrite from scratch bec originally I had SHEMP AND CURLY but was told they were never in a film together.
I love that folks have come up with another for a sequel... Love DEWEY, CHEATEM AND HOWE or MANNY, MO AND JACK.
TINKERS TO EVERS TO CHANCE I actually considered but threw it out bec it was baseball...
(Kidding, I tossed it bec it was more "x TO x TO x" than AND and wanted to be consistent)
For TREVI I had ""Three Coins" fountain" to add to the theme.
@AnoaBob
Love TWOOUTOFTHREE (it's even 13!) but the TRIO in the corner was meant as a reveal/dollop...
the theme to me was not that it was only 2 out of three, it was that we work "together" to name the TRIO.
As for "Bedazzled", it's funny, my original clue was about Nell's beau Doright...but in a later version I changed it to "Bedazzled" as it felt more pizzazz-y with the zzz (I have OUZO and ZONE in the SE but that corner was rewritten in editing, so glad there were some Z's in the clues)
For the gentleman @3:28 who said he walked away not having learned anything new, etc. perhaps that hysterical Peter Cook, Dudley Moore film could have been one!
I myself learned how to spell BLYNKEN and got a mini-tutorial about the Stooges!
I also misspelled LOUIs while resolving yesterday!
Actually, I can take no credit for THEBIRDS. The NW also underwent revision, unclear why...My 3D was OUTBURST and, ironically, AMI in my version was APU!!!
(Not sure I would have had so much French or ALAW for that matter and I had YAYA (Yay Sisterhood!) not YOYO, but the powers that be felt this was better, sobeit!)
There is a new movie about Hitchcock's abuse of Tippi Hedren. Apparently the birds actually hurt her and he did a bunch of other cruel things to her.
Now it's off to my First Monday of the month Beatles singalong!!! I guess my choice of songs has been made for me! ;)
Thanks everybody who got it and "sang" along with me today!
@lms - yup - the clue for RIP was fun.
@acme - as was the whole puzzle - how could each of those trios do anything BUT bring smiles?
I guess @rex must be back to hating everything. One might have had a brief ray of hope that between his respites from blogging, and his own published Sunday, that he would do more than "the usual". aah well.
@jfc - give it a rest! I appreciate that you have voted yourself the judge of when-rexites-have-actual-opinions vs when-rexites-have-constructor-fed-koolaid-opinions, but realize that your posts explaining the above are getting quite tiresome.
Oh - and @Andrea - my half-French dear friend's daughter is named Yvette, and is trilingual. I will use this puzzle to introduce her to the delights of crosswords- with those 2 French words, one clued with her name, and the easy-peasyness, it will be perfecte!
Thanks for stopping by.
@Bob K - lol!!
Shout outs to our northern New England nighbors, @lindsey and @dirigonzo.
3rd and out...
My fastest Monday ever! Used to recite the poem wynken blynken and nod when i was (much) younger so it was not a problem for me. Thanks @andrea! Where is your Beatles singalong? May i come next time?
Where's my friggen puzzle for Tues? I don't want to download a pdf, I want to solve a .puz.
For some reason the .puz version is not available. You can get the .pdf version by clicking the "download puzzle as PDF" link
It's fixed now. Clicking on the play button downloads the .puz file.
@Tita - No.
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.
All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 5:44, 6:46, 0.85, 2%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:28, 3:41, 0.94, 26%, Easy-Medium
@JFC - you d**K
@ MIETTE & ACME- I hope you are not as old as it appears. I haven't heard Wynken et alii for the past 80 years, since I was in grade school. Good puzzle anyway.
liked the puzzle. Yes, it was easy just as a Monday puzzle should be.
I did misspell "Blynken' but that was corrected by "yoyo". Any references to TV or film was filled in with crosses.
I liked that I did not have to know a street name in SF or NYC or the third bridge built in Paris, etc.
I think it was a very good puzzle.
A simple Monday confection. I enjoy doing puzzles for the memory jogs as much as anything else; this gave me two.
I can remember seeing THEBIRDS for the first time as a teenager; when the words "THE END" came on the screen--seemingly in the middle of an incredibly tense situation--I cried out loud "Alfred, you sonofabitch!" Apparently, per the new film bio, he was.
OHENRY's Full House was another memorable filmgoing experience for me, though the story that stayed with me was not the one in the clue: it was "The Last Leaf." That one gives me chills even now.
My only gripe: ever since the SSTS' last real-life flight, they've been busier than EVER as they SOAR through crosswords. Can we ground those puppies once and for all?
Hackers like me shoot for PAR; real "golfers" are after THEBIRDS.
On seeing the by-line I knew I was in for a smooth, sweet solve and I wasn't dissapointed. I like the different smile inducing TRIOs. At 1-D originally wanted my golfer to shoot for the Pin. Also like everyone else, I briefly had an i in BLYNKEN.
@Spacecraft - SST is crosswordese at it's worst, but the real thing is (was) an awesome bird. The Air and Space Museum at Boeing Field in Seattle has one and it's fascinating.
My daughter saw THE BIRDS, and has since hated birds of every kind.
Thanks, @ACME, enjoyed your puzzle immensely. Also enjoyed your commentary.
As I sat down to solve this one, I thought "I won't have enough time before I have to leave". Wrong. This was maybe the first time I pretty well just did the acrosses and, when finished, went back to look at the downs to see if I had messed up. Nope. I don't time myself, but this had to be the fastest I have ever solved a puzzle. Is that a good thing? Well, one good thing is that there is no "yech" fill. None, not even SSTS, given how/where it is clued. Dark thought: I wonder if knowing the constructor's name had anything to do with the kudos tossed her way...
@rainforest
why is that a dark thought? SOmetimes I get extra kudos bec they know my name, and more often than not these days I get extra grief for the same! So it balances out!
Am I the only one who thought ACHE and AHME at the beginning and end of the second line was a veiled self-reference (AC+ME = Acme)?
@ Bob Kerfuffle 10:06 AM - Obviously, (almost) no one would have a problem with the foreign words in this puzzle you cited. It's the ones like "Archaic French for 'aardvark scrotum'" that cheese people off.
From reading all the comments I'm starting to wonder if the key to being an elite solver is to drop a lot of acid?
@ JFC - Does that stand for Jesus F. Christ?
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