This poem always comes to mind around my birthday, because I've always thought I was born on a Tuesday. I found this nifty website that confirmed it.
What does that have to do with Jonathan Gersch's puzzle? Well, it's another Tuesday's child, and it's also full of grace--with an easy but clever theme.
What's more, it's the first pangram I've seen in a while (all 26 letters of the alphabet are in the grid) other than occasions when that was the theme itself.
The theme is revealed at 36A: Word that can follow the starts of 17-, 23-, 51- and 59-Across (knots). The four theme answers are:
- 17A: Spoonerism, usually (slip of the tongue).
- 23A: Sight along the Thames (Windsor Castle)
- 51A: Hoedown folks (square dancers)
- 59A: San Francisco tourist attraction (Fisherman's Wharf)
I was onto this theme sooner than most (themes, not solvers). Got 17A without difficulty, but because of an error in 3D: Slickers and the like (rainwear), I had rainGear...which made 23A look strange indeed. I haven't been there, but I'm relatively certain there's nothing on the Thames that begins with Ginds. Once I got that mess straightened out, I was well on my way. I may not know sports, but I know my knots.
Another good cross at 49A: Like some dental floss (unwaxed) and 39D: Crew's leader (Coxswain). There were some pretty tacky ways they could have clued unwaxed. I'll leave that to your imagination.
I really like the crossing of homonyms at 8D: Grandmother of Enoch (Eve) and 15A: Gutter site (eave). The Eve of Destruction...could be interpreted a number of ways.
Be sure to check the links at the sidebar for further commentary. I'll see you all tomorrow.
That's all (finis).
Linda G
5 comments:
I recall that words that sound alike but are spelled differently are called homophones, rather than homonyms. Homonyms are reserved for words that sound and are spelled a like (e.g., bat as in baseball and bat as in bat[s] in the belfry).
Websters defines "homonym" as a word with the same pronunciation as another but with a different meaning, origin, and usually, spelling...
...and a "homophone" as any of two or more letters or groups of letters having the same pronunciation, with a second definition -- "same as" homonym.
"Eve" and "eave" ergo may be called either a "homonym" or a "homophone".
Unless an audio presentation of the word is present, it would seem more appropriate to refer to the word or words at hand in the sense of "homonym".
Write on, Linda.
I remember homonym, antonym and synonym. I don't think the word homophone had been invented yet when I was in school ; )
well i'll be. thanks to the link i found out i'm a tuesday's child, too. though i'm not claiming all that much grace.
for a goofy picture of me in a windsor knot:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y172/r2bibby/rick11or12.jpg
as for homophones...hey! some of my best friends call me on homophones.
Cornbread, I sure hope you still have that suit ; )
It always makes me smile to see that you've posted something on the blog. And it's always something delightful.
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