This puzzle was a killer! Not a single gimme, so I resorted to Google just to start. That gave me a couple of answers, such as:
18A: Baseball Hall-of-Famer Orlando __ (Cepeda).33A: "The Daughters of Joshua __" (1972 Buddy Ebsen film) (Cabe).
41A: He declined a Nobel Prize in Literature (Sartre).
50A: Limestone regions with deep fissures and sinkholes (karsts).
7D: Wolf __, captain in Jack London's "The Sea-Wolf" (Larsen).
36D: "The Prophecy of the __" (Eddic poem) (Seeress).
41D: __ Gamp, nurse in "Martin Chuzzlewith" (Sarah).
Seeress and Sarah gave me enough letters that I was able to finish the southeast corner, but I still had way too many blanks. I started putting in an S whenever there was a plural answer, then -er when it looked as though a word would end that way. 5D [Maximally mangy] got an -est at the end...and before long seediest emerged.
Then I came to a complete and utter standstill. I took a peek at Diary of a Crossword Fiend...she hadn't posted yet, so that was a dead-end. I then turned to Water and Waves...Harris usually solves early, and I was relieved to see that he had already posted the grid. He's a very experienced solver, and he had trouble with this one as well...so I didn't beat myself up. I did, however, take a peek at the first two across answers...1A: Choirs' neighbors (apses) and 6A: Lung covering (pleura). With those letters in place, I managed to finish the rest of the puzzle.
This isn't my preferred way to solve, but I'm all about being honest here.
I wonder how many others tripped up on 46A: Where much info can be found these days. Raise your hand if you had internet...instead of the correct on the net. That sure made for some confusion in the southwest.
Some of my favorite answers:
14A: Phrase of interest (per annum). Actually, it's the clue that I like.
19A: Grapevine exhortation (pass it on). I kept thinking of the dancing raisins...actually considered I heard it as a possible answer.
4D: Prince William, e.g. (elder son).
10D: Products of some "mills" (rumors).
14D: Works with everyday objects (pop art).29D: Cookout item usually eaten with two hands (spare rib). That always reminds me of a line from a vegetarian cookbook I had. It asked what pig ever said he didn't want all of his? Or something like that...maybe you had to be there.
Most disgusting word in the puzzle...1D: Sore spot (abscess). No visual on that one...I like having readers.
That's it for this one. Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
6 comments:
Disgusting, perhaps...But the homophonic APSES/ABSCESS impressed me.
Liffey
Hi Linda.
I'm just getting around to solving the Friday and Saturday puzzles, which means I've just read the blogs and discovered you were hoping for a puzzle by me yesterday. (Aww.)
You may be interested to know that the diagramless puzzle in tomorrow's paper is mine. (In fact, it's available online today.)
I promise...I have some Fridays in the pipeline!
MN
I thought "Grapevine exhortation" was Raisin On! Not so, but I so like my answer. (Sorry I'm so late on this, but it's Monday, and I just finished the puzzle.)
What's infuriating out here in SyndicationLand-- I actually had words like KARSTS, I knew Cepeda's name, and I got NW and SE all filled in. And then I just...tanked. I had Creeper, took it out; I put in Estimate (vs evaluate) but I don't think it mattered! Did not bother to Google; I'm a failure! AND I live in Arkansas. Couldn't be worse, eh?
Elaine in Arkansas
Elaine, you most certainly are not a failure! I didn't finish the puzzle, and I used to live in Arkansas (Mountain View)...and I'm not a failure, either ; )
Picked it up, put it down--repeat the process 10 times (?) Shortz is getting too private.
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