It's been an awful day and my head is fuzzy. I was able to finish the puzzle, but I'm not sure I understand the theme...but the theme answers are:
16A: Golf club used in a bunker (sand wedge). Okay, is this supposed to be a take-off on sandwich? Because the next three answers all end with a kind of sandwich you'd get in a deli. Or is a wedge a kind of sandwich?
22A: Butcher's device (meat grinder).
44A: U.S.S. Nautilus, for one (American sub).
55A: Spider-Man or the Green Lantern (super hero).
I was just bragging on Sunday that I had nailed Q and A in the 1-Across spot, since that type of clue had been known to trip me up in the past. Well, you know what they say about pride...here's the fall. 1A: The whole ball of wax (A to Z). And I didn't get it. I couldn't even understand the clue for 4D: 1-Across's end, in England. I went online and entered in all of the answers, then started going through the alphabet to fill in that square. Of course, when I got to Z it accepted the puzzle. But I still didn't get it for a few minutes. Atoz? WTF? Yeah, I'm blaming it on my crappy day.
I didn't know 36A: Architect Ludwig Mies van der __ (Rohe) but was able to get it from crosses. Same with 25D: Swedish version of Lawrence (Lars), but it was easy enough to guess the R.
5A: Court cry (oyez). I think we just had it, but it's a great puzzle word. And I liked its cross at 8D: New York's Tappan __ Bridge (Zee). I must have seen it when we were there a few years ago.
Didn't get confused by the identical clues at 37D: Séance sound (knock) and 53D (moan), although I often do. We had a séance at Patty Knoll's house when we were in the ninth grade. We tried to bring back John F. Kennedy...don't ask me why. Anyway, we looked up to see someone standing in the doorway with crossed arms, and we all screamed. It was only her mother, but we all thought she looked just like JFK. That was the end of our séance, and we all had to go to bed.
Some good words that don't often appear include 15A: Mediterranean island country (Malta), 31A: Xerox machine output (photocopy), 37A: Krispy __ Doughnuts (Kreme)...the one here closed a few weeks ago (I feel responsible, since I'd only been there a couple of times), 39A: Tourist shop purchases (souvenirs), 43A: Taste bud locale (tongue)...kind of ties in to the deli thing (yick), 9D: Expert (maven), 23D: Iran's capital (Teheran), 43D: Some supper club attire (tuxedo), and 48D: Brownish photo tint (sepia).
I'm feeling dizzier by the minute, so it's time to say Ciao! (62A: "Toodles," in Milan). Here's the grid.
Please take a moment of silence on Tuesday for all of those who lost their lives...or a loved one...on 9/11.
And I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
8 comments:
Wikipedia gives this definition to wedge:
Wedge (sandwich), a name for a hero sandwich, submarine sandwich, or hoagie in Westchester and Putnam Counties, New York, USA.
Thank you, Sue, for clarifying WEDGE. I just grew up in the wrong part of the country ; )
Thanks for the answers! Didn't want to wait till tomorrow to pound my head (i'm very bad at these!). i'm a college student, and the crossword has become a great way to kill a couple of classes (zzzZZZ) for a few of us. I can honestly say that 1A and 5A were completely demoralizing ways to start a puzzle. 23D took us forever, because we all were in agreement that the capitial was Tehran, a letter short. Also, 60A was really amusing, because we literally had it filled with 7 different names, including, Erin, Eric, Elen, Evan, and a few others that are best not named. Moments later, after a few swings to the head we finally got it. So, in conclusion, my friends and I are complete failures at this lol. Here's hoping we get better!
Later days.
I had "Fake" for 14A making 5D "Ofelet". I actually thought that ofelet was a word. Duh.
Those last two comments made me laugh!
Bach, you and your friends had better knuckle down with your studies. No more doing puzzles during class time! Just teasing you, of course. And you'll get better with puzzles the more you do them.
Ofelet. I so needed to read that this morning. Thanks, JD.
Linda,
I did worse as I completed the puzzle but did not realize that I had one wrong letter until the blogs pointed it out.
Instead of "A to Z," I had "A Ton." It was a a stretch for "the whole ball of wax but it seemed to work. I somehow never realized that "ned" instead of "zed" made absolutely no sense. I combined them for "Atoned" and chalked it up to British quirkiness. When I read the blogs, it dawned on me that I blew it. How do I make "atone" ment for that?
If it makes you feel any better, profphil, I also had ATON...but I don't remember how I rationalized NED. When the puzzle wasn't accepted, I tried every letter of the alphabet in that space, so I was literally stumped until the letter Z went in and the puzzle was accepted. But I still didn't get it! Very humbling, this puzzling stuff.
Linda, I know you're trying to reach me but I'm in the North Carolina mountains on vaca until Friday night so I'll respond to your mails then. Though I can read my mail, for some reason it's hard to send a response remotely using the computer I'm using here. Anyway I'll be back in touch as soon as I get back.
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