I have so much to do before we leave, including a couple of loads of laundry before I can pack, and I have to work all day tomorrow. I am so tired...and I wasn't mentally prepared for a rebus. But there it was.
I was falling asleep at my desk trying to solve the puzzle. I knew it was a rebus...I even had two of the answers. But I couldn't get it to make any sense at all.
So I turned to Harris...he always solves early and posts the grid. I said in an earlier post that I'd fess up if I ever had to resort to this, and this is a first.
The theme was THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. The first one I got was MAN, because I had enough letters in place to know that 16A: One of the Munsters was HERMAN, [crossing with 13D: Flow out (EMANATE)] and there wasn't enough room for it. I was also pretty certain that 15A: Burn slowly was SMOLDER [with 7D: Gave up one's hand (FOLDED)]...again, it wouldn't fit. What really threw me was 14A: Longtime Vicki Lawrence character (THELMA). I had mama, the only character I could remember.
I don't feel right blogging about a puzzle I didn't solve. I'll post the grid, though, because I think it's easier to see the theme answers when they're written out...the applet only shows the first letter of the word, and that always used to confuse me.
I hope you'll discuss this one among yourselves. Did you breeze through it? Or did you tear your hair out? Were you somewhere in between?
I do hope you'll all enjoy spending the next two weeks with guest bloggers Howard B, Robert, Dave, Wendy, and Rick...listed in order of appearance. Thanks to all of you for agreeing to do this. I hope it's a fun experience for each of you.
And thanks to all of you who have been reading this blog. If you weren't out there, there would be no need for guest bloggers.
Aloha.
Linda G
8 comments:
Bon Voyage -- have a great time!
Ditto
The ones across the top had me stumped. The 1st I got wa the errANDean cross. I got Hemingway easily because I had the 1st 4 letters from the downs. From there it came together.
Have a great trip, Linda. Aloha!
Enjoy yourself Linda...as to the puzzle is was hard...took me over one hour to solve...ugh!
Aloha
Bob
Enjoy your vacation!
(The key to this puzzle was both in managing to find the author in the center, and also uncovering a couple of the rebus squares. This could be made significantly easier or difficult depending, by luck, on which parts of the puzzle you solved first). The rebus was symmetrical, so if you figured out the game, you could eventually interpret what and where the other word squares were.
I'll do my best for you tomorrow.
Have a restful and restorative time away! I'm looking forward to trying this blogging madness out.
Here I am in Syndication-Land. Here is a burning question: was there a title on this puzzle??? because I don't know how you knew the theme. I got Hemingway and large chunks of the puzzle, but got hung up trying to find words that "fit" because I did not know the theme. If our newspaper is omitting that bit, it would explain a lot of confusion.
Elaine.walizer@gmail.com (Arkansas)
Elaine, a title only appears online for the Sunday puzzle. Sometimes it's a help...often a hindrance.
So I don't really KNOW the theme...I only try to put into words the way I see the theme answers connected to one another. Often times it's harder to describe the theme than it is to solve the puzzle.
I hope that helps...it was also hard to put that into words. This puzzle isn't the best example, especially since I wimped out and didn't solve it. Look through posts the past week or two. The earlier weekday puzzles are themed...Friday and Saturday usually aren't.
Good luck!
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