Constructor: David Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: STEARIC (
32A: Fat-derived) —
adj.
- Of, relating to, or similar to stearin or fat.
- Of or relating to stearic acid.
[French stéarique, from Greek stear, tallow.]
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/stearic#ixzz2vLYp2k4u
• • •
I just saw David Steinberg about half an hour ago at a party my friend was throwing here at the Brooklyn Marriott. Nice kid. I'm still recovering from a cold, and now also recovering from a delicious meal, so I'm going to have to blow off the blogging specifics tonight. I enjoyed this puzzle.
APATOW and
BOZ were gimmes; they gave me my initial toehold, and I struggled only intermittently after that.
STEARIC was the only word I didn't really know.
BIG HOAX feels a little GREEN PAINT. "
JUST DO IT!" was nicely clued (
36D: Popular line of footwear?). 'Fraid that's all I got for you tonight. More tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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Easy-medium for me too. Solid zippy Sat. with a fair amount of crunch! Just enough gimmes in each section...OTIS, APATOW, MECCA, STOLI, SEXY SADIE, HOAX (I was iffy on the BIG part), RADNER, MONARCHY...to make this very doable. Another fine puzzle David!
ReplyDeleteAlso did not know STEARIC.
Personally, this was the most enjoyable Steinberg Joint to date. Loved the clues for JAILBREAK, CANDYSHOP, AIRSPACE, JUSTDOIT and OPENAREA. And SEXYSADIE made an appearance. Which is nice. I think.
ReplyDeleteAPOLLOXII also felt a bit "Green paint-ish" to me, as any number of other missions also included a moonwalk, but that's a minor quibble over an otherwise fine effort.
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ReplyDeleteI don't always connect w/ David's puzzles, but sometimes I just click with him right off the bat. The NW corner practically filled itself and from there I just sort of zig-zagged down and across the rest of the puzzle. A few googles here and there, but actually very few for a Saturday. I would never guess he would know who "OTIS" is!! (A much better clue than "Elevator man")
ReplyDeleteMedium for me, and like @wreck, clicked early which usually doesn't happen. I got going in the NE with MSDOS/ETAL/DAKAR, then skipped around until I guessed the L in LENA/LAIT and was done. Never heard of LENA, but had to be LAIT, right? Yes, right. Same
ReplyDeletereaction to BIGHOAX as @Rex
Another golf first for this long-time baffer, a hole-in-one on a par 5 is an Albatross, not a CONDOR.
Liked it a lot, initially daunting, but, ultimately enjoyable. Thanks David
ReplyDeleteHey, Mr. Shortz, I'll gladly pay you anything you'd like if you'd stop publishing these painfully affected trivia concoctions masquerading as crosswords. And, yeah, we know why you do it, and no, that's not a good reason.
An Albatross is a double eagle in Britain and maybe the rest of Europe. A hole-in-one on a par 5 is virtually impossible and has only been recorded three times apparently. Because of it's extreme rarity its name is never brought up and even experienced golfers probably aren't aware of it--which makes it perfect for constructors like Mr. Steinberg.
I could not agree more
DeleteHey! Why all the bile? This is for fun! We too were slowed down but not stopped by cultural references we simply did not know, but then we were able to dig them out by working on the crosses a little harder. I think the problem of people who get all bent out of shape by the harder puzzles is that they are trying to do them alone. Super competitive people don't always know how to have fun, and even if they worked with their very best buddy, they'd resent that person for getting an answer first. Lighten up!
DeleteAn albatross is 3 under par, a condor is 4 under par. An albatross is the same as a double eagle.
ReplyDeleteI thought BIG HOAX wasn't so "green paint" because of the Giant/BIG connection. Maybe that's just me.
ReplyDeleteRandom condor association.
ReplyDeleteI hated this puzzle. Clues were more vague than cleverly misdirecting. Like time? GOINGBY?!?!? It was run in the 1980's? Ugh! It's flown in? Some Yale degrees?
ReplyDeleteLena is known for its goldfields? By whom? The wikipedia page for Lena includes the word gold exactly once. At least the Cardiff Giant is known for little more than being big and a hoax.
My single least favorite clue/answer was Goya/Aragonese. I know both fairly well, but it might as well have been Pepe and Paraguayan. After this puzzle, I may add an avatar to my profile. I'm thinking of Goya's "Saturn devouring his son".
@JTearney, thx for the albatross info. I've never had one, maybe partly responsible for my ignorance. Agree with anon2:53, never heard of CONDOR as a description for -4. I will try to make one tomorrow, though
ReplyDeleteHated this puzzle for some of the same reasons stated above, especially by Anonymous 2:53 am.
ReplyDeleteChallenging, for me -- maybe because my heat has gone out and I'm about to leave town for a week, hoping I can get it dealt with somehow. It will be warm where we're going, but I don't want to come home to frozen pipes!
ReplyDeleteBEET RED ANTS!
Did this on the early-morning bus to NYC -- some great stuff in each corner, though I also raised my eyebrow at AIOLIS and AOLERS and ARIOSI. Fun and easy-medium Saturday in any event.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the tourney, y'all.
@Danp:
Thanks for the kind words yesterday on my Devil Cross meta.
Any puzzle with my name in it (Rossi)is fine with me...
ReplyDeleteIt's Saturday, so I expect to struggle, and I did. I didn't know either JACOBS or APATOW so neither was a gimme for me. Same with YATES and SEXY SADIE. Maybe I should have, but I didn't, so I struggled. Luckily, they (and STEARIC and KIP) fell to crosses. If I win in the end, harder is better. So I probably liked this puzzle better than those of you who found it easy.
ReplyDeleteThe names in the NW corner killed this puzzle for me. I had EPhrOn in there for the longest time, I had no clue who JACOBS and OTIS were, and the two pen names BLY and BOZ (with a zed), plus the Laotian KIP was just too much I thought. By the way, according to Wikipedia it is 100-att, not at. And it was not Nellie BLY who wrote Ten Days in a Mad-House, it was Elizabeth Cochrane (1864-1922).
ReplyDeleteI was a little taken aback by the randomness of a few phrases both yesterday and today, from Friday's IN A STATE of NOT GREAT ICKINESS and CITRIC acid, to ARAGONESE BIG HOAX GOING BY in an OPEN AREA and STEARIC acid today. Even my spell checker doesn't know what STEARIC is. Yesterday we had CRAB apple and CRAN apple, today the red ANT is BEET red, like a can or red paint.
Short of these few nits, I liked this one. The AIRSPACE and JUST DO IT clues have to be the best of the week. I also enjoyed CLARITIN, GOOGLEBOT, COKE ZERO and BILIOUS.
For music, I could go with ARAGONESE composer Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710), Mantuan-Jewish violinist / composer Salamone ROSSI (1570-1630), or the obvious one: Spanish Overture No.1 subtitled Capriccio brillante on the ARAGONESE Jota by STOLI-drinking Saint Petersburgian Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) of all people. But instead, let me INTONE this beautiful Sonata sopra la Bergamasca by the aforementioned Salamone ROSSI.
Enjoy your weekend, and to all those participating at the ACPT, good luck.
Nellie Bly is the pen name for Elizabeth Cochrane. Ok puzzle. Flower lady
ReplyDeleteWe don't usually enjoy David Steinberg puzzles much, but this one was a blast. Played Easy-Medium here.
ReplyDeleteMight have been naticked in NW but saved by gimmes LLDS and BOZ, both of which were extensively discussed on this blog within the last week or two. ROSSI should have been a gimme, but the question mark had us looking for something more clever. Slowed by believing in "curse" for SWEAR and Can for CHA.
Some fresh stuff (GOOGLEBOT), some older pop culture (RADNER), a little classic literature (BLY, BOZ), and a tough word or two (STEARIC). Very nice mix, fun cluing, and little "ese" - a solid Saturday. Big fan of the word BILIOUS, neat to see it used in a puzzle.
Oh yeah, and I learned that the over-used term SEXYSADIE comes from song.
Keep 'em coming David.
Just about worst ever Sat score. Twice as long as my average. APATOW was no gimme. The clue for time was lousy. This puzzle just flat out didn't click for me.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed very much. Lots of fun clues, but not overly difficult. My favorite Steinberg puzzle so far, too.
ReplyDeleteMany things I did not know so DNF. But of course knew 40 across!!!
ReplyDeleteSo Anon 7:33 You appear in Criminal Minds??? One of my favorite TV shows.
Good luck everyone!!!
I still don't get the connection between "popular line of footwear" and JUSTDOIT. Didn't get within a prayer of finishing.
ReplyDelete"just do it" as Nike's slogan.
DeleteI found this one really hard, although my hangover may have had something to do with that. :)
ReplyDeleteLike others, I am not crazy about BIGHOAX, but most of the other stuff is just hard, not unfair or anything. Stepping back, I really appreciate the grid. Lots of cool Scrabbliness.
The clue for JUSTDOIT is brilliant. @Blue Stater -- "Just Do It" was (still is?) a slogan for Nike and thus a prominent "line" in its advertising.
🌕🌕🌕 (3 Mohns) CONDOR who knew.
ReplyDeleteLiving in Western Wisconsin I of course went for Justin as in boots instead of JUSTDOIT. And like cowboy attire here it was just wrong.
My biggest LOL was penning in sandy seas instead of CANDYSHOP. I mean you can see it cantcha? Please say yes.
Grrrr moment was being vexed by APOLLO XII v. XI (first moon walk).
Early dk motorcycle adventure (Triumph 650) was a trip to Cardiff -- not far from the family manse located between Lafayette and Jamesville. I so loved the idea of a BIGHOAX I became a psychologist and statistician.
@Evan. Glad you saw it. I'm working on a strategy to win the next available T-shirt.
ReplyDeleteThank you, @Sir Hillary. Of course one nanosecond after I posted my query I realized what it was. Hate when that happens. >8-}
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't the best Saturday I've ever done, but it was the first I've completed without help, so there's that. APATOW, IONIZE, AIOLIS, and APOLLOXII in the NW got me started, and a pretty quick run through the NE really helped as well. Any ones I got stuck on (not many) were easy to get by cross.
ReplyDeleteDid I mention that it was the first Saturday I've solved by myself?? I'm not the greatest crossword-type person in the world....
@Anonymous, alone? A triumph indeed! My husband and I are - jointly - a genius. But I once did a Saturday alone, so I know how you feel. Ahhh!
DeleteClose to challenging for me. I didn't know some of the proper names without lots of crosses. I hadn't seen or heard the word BILIOUS in a long time. I had no idea that AIOLIS were Provencal or that Goya was ARAGONESE. I had ELEGANT instead of OPULENT for a while. But it was all worth it--the grid is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI saw David Steinberg's name and groaned. Almost put the puzzle down then and there, but AUNTIE popped off the page and I decided to give it a try. Well worth the effort; for me, medium-challenging, but I finally finished one by my nemesis!
ReplyDeleteTil the next round of torture, thanks, DS.
Very entertaining. Threw down JAILBREAK immediately and was off & running.
ReplyDeleteI liked it, especially all the clever clues. Though I DNF due to the naticky NW.
ReplyDeleteI have been listening to Car Talk while solving the puzzle and Will Shortz just called in! And he had a question about his 1992 Saab re exactly the same problem I've been having with my 1997 Mercedes. And, I have a 1991 Saab! So just very weird coincidences. Maybe you had to be there . . . .
MECCA was my starting point rather than destination, and from there I was able to ZIP through DAKAR across the MESAS and down to the SEA BED. Then I had to hop-scotch around to finish the west side. Resisted BILIOUS for the longest time because I only knew its definition as "nauseous."
ReplyDeleteHad no idea the Cardiff Giant was a BIG HOAX - I imagined it was a cousin of the Cerne Abbas Giant.
I'd like to solve a Steinberg puzzle that had less COKE, CLARITIN, Ultra-BRITE, STOLI, etc., and more nifty words like MOJITO and OPULENT and even BAGGY or cleverly clued like AIR SPACE.
Would someone explain "Green Paint" please? I haven't been here in a while, so perhaps it has come up previously and I missed it. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteMostly pleasant, but it crossed the trivial trivia line. A couple of authors I've never heard of, a random choice of APOLLO mission to make it fit, Dickens nickname clued by title that isn't exactly on the frequently read list, a 1960'sminor sitcom character, a director, and who/whatever Pimienta is... and that's just the NW.
ReplyDeleteCONDOR? I'm surprised to read that there have been three. A par five is so long that it should take three shots to get onto the green for most people. Even the longest drives should be well short of the green. I can only imagine that some weird circumstance would lead to a hole-in-one on a par 5.
@Logan - let's see, an adjective/noun pair where the adjective is arbitrary. I don't agree that this is an example. What saves BIG HOAX is that the hoax involved a "giant," so that BIG really isn't arbitrary. If the clue had been "Crop circles e.g." Then there would be no reason to include BIG in the answer. Make sense?
ReplyDelete@Z - Yes, thanks, that makes sense. However, I never had heard the expression before and wonder where it originated. Do you know?
ReplyDeleteFun, nice and easy. Like becoming a bottle blond.
ReplyDeleteLoved CONDOR.
Great Saturday puzzle. Thanks David. Have fun everybody!!
@Z:
ReplyDeleteA hole in one on a par 5 is crazy, but I suspect the 3 were on "short" par 5's with a severe dogleg that was cut over.
What Norm said.
ReplyDelete@Logan - I think this is the first appearance of "green paint" here.
ReplyDeleteWoo-hoo! I finished a Saturday puzzle! I finished a David Steinberg puzzle! And I did it without Googling except to check if MOJITO is a real word! I must be dreaming!
ReplyDelete'Just do it' is Nike's long time ad slogan, mostly for their running/training shoes.
ReplyDeleteCertainly the most enjoyment I've gotten out of a David Steinberg puzzle. Also the easiest Steinberg puzzle I've done. I'm sure the two aren't coincident with each other.
ReplyDeleteLike @Carola, I started my trek with MECCA. Got the two long C-led downs, and I was off to the races. Only significant holdups were BILIOUS/BRITE, and ARAGONESE/ARIOSI, where I semi-Naticked (I had -ene and -ete in there first). Otherwise, this flew by. Certainly one of my fastest Saturdays.
While it was easy for me, I can see how many struggled. The cluing is indeed trivia-laden, and there are a lot of proper and brand names. I don't object to either in my puzzles, and I think they can add some freshness and verve, but they should be used a little more judiciously than was the case today (I could practically hear @OISK cursing at the adjacent pairs of JACOBS and APATOW, and COKE ZERO and CLARITIN).
There are still some remnants of Steinberg's earlier off-key obscurity (like KIP - btw, @AliasZ, one of my dictionaries has the currency spelled at, not att, so the clue's fair in my opinion), but it's good to see him maturing and hitting a more gettable and clever tone. Dial back the trivia and name-dropping a bit, and I think his appeal will broaden.
Neighbor is a bird-watcher. Next time I golf I'll tell him I was within 300 yards of a CONDOR today. @wreck has it right - You'd need a dogleg par 5 with maybe a convenient cart path.
ReplyDeleteRemember Redford movie? "Three Days of the Condor" - old CIA Cold War paranoia flick Lotsa fun.
@z's alter ego Zed: Well, okay! You dug deep to find that for me. Thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteI see two (2) anonymice finished this puzzle without googling. Sad to say I have to be right out in the open with my DNF. I had to Reveal Word for BOZ (I was looking for "Sketches" in IMDB; should have gone to Amazon) and OTIS (Mayberry had a town drunk? And a village idiot? In a town with a population of 5? I did not know that. Or care, until today.) Anyway, that's cheating even by my standards.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of it I found fun though challenging, and mostly gettable with what little I know and figuring out the cleverness in the cluing. Maybe Rex's assessment of "Easy-Medium" means "--for a David Steinberg"!
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ReplyDeleteHey, you know what a hole in one on a Par 5 hole is? A hole in one! An ace!
ReplyDeleteMy first answer was IMPOSSIBLE but it didn't fit.
I have heard of a Double Eagle also being called an Albatross but I prefer Double Eagle because it lacks any negative connotations. "BTW, how's that Albatross feel hanging around your neck?
I learned a new word today, CONDOR, which is a word I will never be able to apply in real life.
I particularly liked the cluing on this puzzle as there was much misdirection leading to AHA!
I wish everybody at the tournament much success!!!
Pics please!
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ReplyDeleteDidn't know "CONDOR" -- to me, a three under par is a double-eagle.
ReplyDeleteMore seriously, though: INDECIPHERABLE CLUING! What the FRIG does "100-at" mean? What does "The addition" mean, and how does that result in "LAIT"?
No idea who/what "Pimienta" is, and why his/her/its partner is a "SAL" (maybe "Dean [Moriarty]'s partner" would have been a better clue?)
As for "CANDY SHOP," I always get thrown by clues that use the pronoun "one" to mean a thing instead of a person -- we NEVER use that in everyday speech or even writing.
I also thought there were too many names and brand names, and AOLERS seems purty ugly to me, but maybe I'm just BILIOUS . . .
I've been reading this blog for ages and have never left a comment. Today's puzzle, however, seemed to merit a comment if only because I found the number of booze-clues (and answers) coming from the young Daniel Steinberg slightly troubling. Someone get this kid (or Will Shortz?) to crossword AA stat.
ReplyDelete@Jazzmanchgo the (with an accent over the E) is Tea in French. Lait is milk in French. So you are adding milk to your tea.
ReplyDeleteOh this was a joy. Smile after smile over clever clues. This had zip. Oh, it wasn't perfect, but it had so many enjoyable moments, I don't give a damn.
ReplyDeleteRex, sending healing thoughts your way...
lotsa "ahas" for me; cross refs. my only hope. Steinberg's clever, but maybe a bit too precious. Since I've used my mute on all commercials for years, I'm bad on anything related to ads.
ReplyDeleteIf I finish a Saturday I am happy! So thanks David!
ReplyDeleteI finished it, giving me a three puzzle personal Steinberg winning streak. I disliked it less than usual, a bit less pop trivia, but why does David find it mandatory to include a sneaker reference? Adidas, Reebok, and now a Nike commercial in the past few of his puzzles. There is still too much product-commercial stuff to suit me. Rossi, Googlebot (the usual computerese from David) Stoli, AOLers, Ultra Brite, Just do it…Yet what makes this puzzle a good one none the less is that they were not stuffed together, and not obscure. Only Googlebot is a complete mystery. So thanks, David, even though I never heard of Sexysadie, nor director Yates, I am not so deeply buried under my rock that I didn't know Apatow. Pretty good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteOthers spoke of the gimmes that got them started but looking back I don't see anything I would call that, still I managed to get it done in fairly good time for me (which is to say I finished the puzzle the same day I started). I completely agree with those who say this puzzle seemed more solver-friendly, and much more fun, than others by DS. GOOGLEBOT is a real thing? I find that troubling.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is away, so I. Started this puzzle at 3m in effort to get to sleep, and though my brain was hardly functioning woke this morning to discover I hade a big dent, though w/ a few strange mistakes like cell break and dietcoke. Fixed them and surmised correctly re naticks. Tried Texas .tie before sexy Sadie. Etc. But finished correctly, so, fun puzzle DS!
ReplyDeletePimienta is Spanish for pepper, so I'm guessing the SAL is Spanish for salt. The usual Spanish speakers must all be at ACPT so I had to go look it up for myself.
ReplyDelete@Logan - Used the google machine with "green paint rex parker does" in the box. The google machine shot back a half dozen or so blog pages and I looked for the oldest date. Fortunately, OFL commented on how he had just learned the term in that post. Given how many times it has popped up it is time for OFL to add it to his FAQ page.
Thé has used before to cue a French answer, so I wasn't sucked in by it this time.
Nice to watch young Mr.Steinberg mature as a constructor,which he seems to be doing at a brisk pace.
ReplyDeleteThis one had a wide variety of answers, some outside my ken, but even those were accessible through reasonable crosses. Sharp fill, interesting and frequently challenging (but fair) cluing, and thus little not to like. BIG HOAX was not particularly good IMO. but nothing else made me even come close to wincing.
DAKAR was accra first. Mojito was coctèl.
Thanks,Mr. Steinberg.
It took me so long to finish that very few of you will read this. It was certainly challenging for me. Eleven entries that I didn't know although three or four were short and easy to guess. Six of the clues were for entries I know but they were too clever for me until a got some letters from the crosses.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that the stats will show this one to be beyond easy-medium.
I had to break for "life" in the middle, so late finishing. For me, this one is when David Steinberg really arrived. So much fun! So fresh. So crunchy. Perfect! A Standing O.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this one, DS! A fight to the finish -- good thing I solve on an iPad, because of all the writeovers! Loved seeing BILIOUS in the grid; not a word I see every day. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation and my 10/15/2012 post for an explanation of a tweak I've made to my method. 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.
ReplyDeleteAll solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 6:04, 6:18, 0.96, 30%, Easy-Medium
Tue 8:07, 8:16, 0.99, 49%, Medium
Wed 10:46, 10:14, 1.05, 66%, Medium-Challenging
Thu 21:36, 18:35, 1.16, 79%, Medium-Challenging
Fri 24:12, 21:06, 1.15, 79%, Medium-Challenging
Sat 24:08, 28:16, 0.85, 18%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:47, 4:00, 0.95, 19%, Easy
Tue 5:10, 5:13, 0.99, 44%, Medium
Wed 6:09, 6:14, 0.99, 45%, Medium
Thu 14:12, 10:36, 1.34, 85%, Challenging
Fri 14:20, 12:15, 1.17, 76%, Medium-Challenging
Sat 16:23, 18:05, 0.91, 31%, Easy-Medium
A condor is four under par, thus a two on a par six is also a condor. Perhaps that's where the three occurred.
ReplyDeleteGo to Laos often, anything but kip is not in circulation even in the poorest hilltribe villages
ReplyDeleteIs what happens when CW creator's world is a crossword dictionary
Didn't know apatow. Msdos updated to windows 95 in 1995 so it wouldn't hurt to say '95. My skill level couldn't get me from curse to swear and white to bte so DNF
JACOBS also wrote "A Year of Living Biblically" which is really "enlightening." I recommend it. Totally enjoyable read.
ReplyDeleteSeemed hard to me, but I did manage to finish with no errors, which isn't usually the case in a Saturday. Managed to guess condor after a few crosses (gee, what could possibly be better than an eagle?) but words like apatow took every cross.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'll add that if you didn't do the Friday LA Times crossword this week I highly recommend it.
ReplyDeleteHave fun, Michael!
ReplyDeleteMust be that David Steinberg and I jive on crosswordese - another Sat. w/out having to google. Not surprisingly OTIS was my JAILBREAK, somehow identify w/ alkies in old TV shows. And my artist wife will be happy to know at some future date, that I recall Goya as ARAGONESE.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Mr. Parket referring to David as a "nice kid", makes me wonder if I'm wrong about his identity, thought he is the former standup comic. Yes, no?
@KMS - Not that David Steinberg, THIS David Steinberg who I believe is still a teenager.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. Dirigonzo - Pretty impressive to have that kind of ability. Gotta wonder how it will be with his kids!
ReplyDeleteSanfranman or anyone: in scoring the difficulty of a puzzle, what two quantities determine the Ratio?
ReplyDeleteAlso, please explain "an tick" for a noob. Thanks
@curious - Rex's FAQ page might be of interest to you. As for @sanfranman59 - he uses the solve times on the NYT website for those using the java applet.
ReplyDelete@curious - Ratio - missed that part of your question... Median time for this week's puzzle on the website compared to the average median for that day of the week in his data base.
ReplyDeleteLooking at this initially, I was convinced I'd never get it. Finally found something I knew--DREI--and worked from there. Some time later, I had it done, and still don't remember how I managed it. At times I was throwing down pure guesses: could bad-tempered be BILIOUS? What about Ultra_____? Wait, wasn't there an old toothpaste called Ultra-BRITE? Could clearing simply be OPENAREA? These stabs turned out to be right; even a blind squirrel, etc.
ReplyDeleteThen in the still undone NW (didn't know 1d and forgot 2d) I spotted a gimme I'd missed earlier: BOZ. Needless to say, this was a Godsend. It still took quite a while to parse out that X from EXHALES into part of a Romanumeral with APOLLO, and at last the headslap of JAILBREAK let me infer JACOBS. My only literary A.J. thus far was Cronin.
This was for me the friendliest Steinberg yet--and still was "Ultra" hard. Like it? Gotta like the ones you think you'll naver get through--but do. It didn't help that my restroom door read WOMEN for too long, or that my Goya was ARAGONian before being -ESE. A near natick at GOOGLEB_T/ARI_SI, but -BAT made less sense than -BOT, so I went with it. Only three techie references and nary a rapper. I'll take it! Thanks, David.
NW was a mess for me. Mainly because I couldn't figure out how to turn the obvious answer CANDY STORE (too many letters) into CANDY SHOP. How does one plow through these puzzles on a daily basis and not be able to think of a four letter synonym for STORE that begins with S? Well, he gets impatient, that's how. Should've put the paper down for a while and come back to it later.
ReplyDeleteHad to guess at the Apollo mission. I know XI was the first and XVII was the last, so that narrowed it down to XII, XIV and XVI. A pure guess, since 8d & 9d were foreign to me, and with 33% better odds per square I chose XII. Score one for math as a means of solving.
I thought it was brilliant. Loved the whacky cluing. For 3-Down (turn positive, say), I had gObluE for a while, thinking pregnancy test. I do not know why.
ReplyDeleteDidn't understand KIP until I googled after I'd finished. The clue "100-at currency unit" refers to the fact that the Laotian kip is made up of 100 ats. Typing that, it seems obvious, and maybe y'all got it right away. But I didn't. Also had to (after the fact) google BOZ. That one, I'm embarrassed about.
It is truly spring here in the Canadian south west. Or the Pacific Northwest. Or Cascadia. Whatever you want to call it. Too bad I have papers to mark :-( though that might explain why I'm posting a comment…. sigh)
First time through decided this wasn't for me, looked at the author, knew I was right, and quit. Mr S. and I seem to exist in two different spaces. Just came here, to Syndiland, to say 'See you all Monday".
ReplyDeleteApropos of nothing, Apollo 8 was the one which ignited my enthusiasm. Not only was it the first time ever that people had been unable to see the Earth (what a feeling that must have been!), but the shape of the number matches the shape of the trajectory.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the puzzle. Enjoyable enough, but a bit of a trivia quiz in disguise.
Even tho I'm old enough to be DS's grandmother, I appreciate all his puzzles. His talent is remarkable. He just may be my schadenfreude!
ReplyDeleteA very late comment here, but I'm surprised no one commented on another clue that this is a teenaged constructor, and not the Beatles-era comic: SEXY SADIE isn't really a "she" .
ReplyDelete