![]() I finished this one much more quickly, but not without a similar amount of joy. Part of that joy comes from the genuinely entertaining fill the other part of that joy comes from Smashing my old solving time record by a full 20 seconds. There always seems to be some luck involved (i.e. never even looked at the clue for HUCKABEES - just filled it in from existing crosses - and knew HOCKNEY from just the -EY only because, well, I like art, etc.). All my first guesses ended up being correct, and the only answer that even mildly held me up was 33D: Flax-colored (golden) - and I wasn't held up long. As someone who a year ago was happy to solve a Monday in under 6 minutes, I can tell you that lots of practice, over time, will in fact make you a better solver. All the studying in the world cannot beat the simple act of doing puzzles, over and over. 17A: Bean-filled bag moved with the foot (HACKy-sack).This is also true of GRE / SAT - type tests, but I digress. I am curious about the length of theme clues. It seems odd to me that two of the theme answers are very short (seven letters) and positioned directly across from other NON-theme seven-letter answers - e.g. HECKLER's across from MISS YOU ( 23A: Postcard sentiment) and HOCKNEY's across from ROMANIA ( 54A: Bucharest's land). 38D: "You don't say!," after "Well" ("I declare!") - gorgeous.I'm somehow less bothered by the Longer non-theme answers running Down - all of which are at least good and two of which are gorgeous, by the way: I'm not saying this is illegal, but it seems quite uncommon for theme answers to be matched in length by non-theme answers running in the same direction. There are many multiple-word phrases in this puzzle. I especially like the juxtaposition of EARN A ( 63A: _ living) and A MESS ( 66A: What _!" ("It's so dirty!"), with their reversed placement of the indefinite article. I also especially like the near-juxtaposition of BOK ( 4D: _ choy (Chinese green))and WOK ( 8D: Chinese cooking vessel). 39D: Actor Calhoun (Rory) - he actually doesn't come up a hell of a lot I just like his name because it reminds me of the time Mr.55D: Schindler of "Schindler's List" (Oskar) - even if you know the name, you are likely to spell it with a "C" if you've never thought about its spelling before.(OBE) - Order of the British Empire - learned it from xwords 15A: Wine: Prefix (Oeno-) - comes up not infrequently.14A: Creme-filled cookie (Oreo) - but you knew that.Stuff that you should know if you want to zip through crosswords, including stuff that I learned Only from doing crosswords: Lastly, today, I'm going to point out some words that are XWORD 101 words. Burns likened one of his many greyhound puppies to this actor:īurns: There you are.there you go, little fellow.and you. I've never seenĪnything so adorable! Do you know who it reminds me of?īurns: No, no, no, a person. 03.13.Smithers: Snoop Doggy Dogg? Bob Barker? David Brenner?īurns: No, no! The person who's always standing and walking.03.14.10 - Explosion of Life - the Acrostic.03.28.10 - Then We Came to the End - the Acrostic. ![]() If you subscribe to home delivery of The New York Times you are eligible to access the daily crossword via The New York Times - Times Reader, without additional charge, as part of your home delivery. THE NEW YORK TIMES - Crossword Puzzles and Games.
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