The only saving grace with this one was that many of the answers could be found via Google...but that didn't make it easy.
Even with help from Google, the northwest corner was a bear. Two of the best long answers eluded me...1A: Not a very good drawing (short straw
) and 15A: A little red (medium rare). Google couldn't help with those two, but it gave me 17A: Band with the 1982 platinum album "The Number of the Best" (Iron Maiden). The downs weren't much help...I had only 3D: Nonalcoholic beer brand (O'Doul's) and 5D: Rolaids alternative (Tums). I refused to believe that 1D: Joke indicator would be smiles...I was right. Smiley is the answer, and it makes much more sense with the clue. Didn't know 2D: Bygone New York daily, with "the" (Herald). 4D: Twist things (rinds)...another good clue, but I was thinking the other kinds of twists so had bends. Was completely clueless on 7D: Like some chromium and arsenic (trivalent) and 8D: Base numbers, in math (radixes).I finally declared the puzzle finished (thanks for that phrase, Donald...it's perfect) and checked my grid at Harris's blog, Water and Waves...and groaned when I saw what would have been obvious at another time.
Favorite answers include 23A: Certain code (tax law)...because I love the letter X in the grid, 28A: River past the ruins of Nineveh (Tigris), 30A: Martin Luther's crime (heresy), 36A: Singer whose 2002 song "Foolish" was #1 for 10 weeks (Ashanti), 56A: Bean product? (brain child), 59A: 10th-century exile from Iceland (Eric the Red), 61A: Upsetting types (dark horses)...not familiar with the phrase, but it sure looks good in the grid, 12D: Test (trial run), 13D: Medium in a tube (oil paint), 14D: It's hard to do this barefoot (waterski), 31D: Standard (yardstick), 34D: Two-part lake connected by the Strait of Tiquina (Titicaca), 35D: 1996 Emmy-winning role for Alan Rickman (Rasputin) and 52D: Ancient denizen along the Caspian (Mede).Favorite clues...43A: Modern info holders (PDA), 55A: The other shoe, e.g. (mate), 24D: Fountain requests (wishes)...not shakes, 44D: Connecting flight (stairs) and 49D: Land in the Colosseum (terra).
16A: Da capo __ (Baroque piece) was certainly a Saturday clue for crossword regular aria. A nice change from [Diva performance] or some such clue.
It was refreshing to see 54D: __ Rios Bay (Ocho). Don and I climbed the Dunns River falls there...an exciting adventure that requires making a human chain. Alas...that was before the days of digital cameras, so I can't put my finger on the picture to include it. Here are some others enjoying the trip.It's been mostly sunny and warm all week. I broke out the capris and sandals, even though some of my coworkers are still in long pants and boots. Today is supposed to be cloudy and colder...a good day to spend cleaning out closets to find clothing donations for the local Heirlooms for Hospice store.
Keeping my fingers crossed that Sunday's puzzle won't follow the pattern of the past week.
Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
10 comments:
Linda - A few Googles, some stabs, and visual word fall-ins along with 1-1/2 cups of coffee this AM put this one to bed.
Is the constructor (Rich Norris) the same R.N. as the LATimes CWP Editor?
Lastly, if you haven't filled your appetite for puzzling, today's LAT is by Barry C. Silk.
Getting ready to tackle that one next.
Enjoy your Saturday!!
- Norman
It's a damn good thing that I take TUMS and have a PDA, is all I can say. And that, inexplicably, I could see ERIC THE RED being an answer with absolutely no crosses. Why something of that ilk could ooze out of my bean when I haven't thought of it in probably 40+ years is just, well, insane!
Other than that, nada, my little tostada. I was duped by the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern clue once again - It's DANE, stupid! - and hope never to be again, but I had to google to get anything else going. Well, I had Arf for YIP, too, so that didn't help. And did you know that ASHANTI and Beyonce have the same number of letters? Well, they do, sadly. And I'm not so good on the IRON MAIDEN front. Iron Butterfly, maybe. Has In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida ever been an answer?
Nice puzzle, though.
Linda, I agree it has been a tough week. The puzzles were all doable just hard.
Norman, another good Saturday for you....way to go!
Nice short blog Wendy,nice way with words!
Tough puzzle. Did some googling, but still couldn't manage to finish. The NW defeated me even though I managed to come up with TRIVALENT and O'DOULS.
It has been a hard puzzling week.
Wendy, forgot to mention on the previous post the w/ just the "R" in the second position, that ERIC THE RED came into mind.
Well it only took the last 1/2 of the second cup of coffee to conclude Barry Silk's LAT CWP today. There a few clues in the LAT that really make you wonder if there isn't something in the air in LA that "smogs" the brain.
Still would like to know if today's constructionist is the Editor of the LAT's puzzle.
And lastly, finally used Linda's link to create a Google Acct.
Norman
Norman...he is one and the same. I still need to learn how to do links in the comments section. (Wendy, help!)
You can read about him at http://www.puzzlesofthemonthclubs.com/about/
If I decide to be a glutton for punishment, I'll download today's LAT ; )
Linda, I'll email you momentarily; if I describe the process in comments the way I found it best to learn it, most of it becomes invisible to the naked eye (which is what you want) ...
Thank you Bob for your nice words.
Thank you, Wendy!
Norman, here's where you can read about Rich Norris.
Woo-hoo!
Linda & Wendy - Thanks for the link to Rich Norris. Interesting that the two of them work together. Linda - Wish you luck on tomorrow's Sunday after this week. Ugh! Bob and I try to refrain from Sunday's, although even though I had a ton of accounting work to do last weekend for the office, I got tempted and finished. I honestly look forward to the "diagramless" Sunday "extra" puzzles about once every month.
That's it for me this week. To all enjoy the rest of the weekend!
phew! one tough puzzle. i pronounced it done w/out much done in NW...i thought the rest of the week was fun and doable, but this one? not so doable.
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