I don't remember the last time I needed Google to finish a Tuesday puzzle. I'll be interested to see if the rest of you found it as difficult.
There must be a word to describe this theme...but I don't have a clue what it would be. The five theme answers all begin with A and end in Z:
17A: Semiautobiographical Bob Fosse film (All That Jazz).
38A: A.L. M.V.P. in 2003, 2005 and 2007 (Alex Rodriguez).
60A: 1970s joint U.S./Soviet space project (Apollo-Soyuz).
12D: Namesake of a branch of Judaism (Ashkenaz). 38D: The Rock (Alcatraz). I guess if you were to escape, there really wouldn't be anywhere to go.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I had never heard of one of them...and barely remembered another.
When all was said and done, though, how could you not love this puzzle? Exceptional fill included:
22A: Creature from the forest moon of Endor (Ewok).
43A: New Jersey's __ Air Force Base (McGuire).
50A: Arizona birthplace of Cesar Chavez (Yuma). Good guess...what else would have started with Y? Thanks to 32D: Hang on the line (air dry).
1D: Daisy developed by Luther Burbank (Shasta). We used to have several in the yard, but they've just died away over the last twenty years...go figure. I think I'll plant a few more this year.8D: Resident of Japan's "second city" (Osakan).
11D: Supporter of the House of Stuart (Jacobite).
23D: The Beatles' "I Am the __" (Walrus).
25D: Only son of Czar Nicholas II (Alexei).
39D: Georgia city or college (LaGrange).
40D: Drag performer with a wax likeness in New York's Madame Russauds (RuPaul).
46D: Alignment of the sun, earth and moon, e.g. (syzygy).
And that's barely the tip of the iceberg.
But it's almost 11:00, and my head is pounding. I just noticed I missed a letter in the grid...the T at the cross of 56A: Decisive defeat (rout) and 57D: Hitler : German :: __ : Japan (Tojo).
Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
7 comments:
I really liked this puzzle. I was sailing through it until I got to the SE corner. I once studied astrophysics but I'm quite certain that I have never encountered the word SYZYGY before. I was sure that the YZYGY part must be wrong - one wouldn't encounter that combination even in Polish. To make matters worse SFC wasn't in my mental lexicon. The across entries all looked OK so I tried it and it worked. Whew.
I had no trouble until I put in PFC as an NCO. But what is an SFC---seargent first class---never heard of it. I also have never heard of syzygy
Your left off the T at the top of 57D and the end of 56A. The rest of the puzzle seemed straightforward.
lucy
I too really liked this puzzle. I usually do well with straight up trivia type answers. Upper left and lower right were only spots I got hung up. Thanks for clarifying the theme - I just wasn't seeing it. :0
Loved this puzzle and loved the theme although this Red Sox fan do without ALEX RODRIQUEZ sitting dead center. ;) I thought the puzzle was quite easy, in fact I finished in record time for me.
How great a word is SYZYGY? It looks great, sounds great, and has all those Scrabbly letters. I have no idea why it was luking in the recesses of my memory, but as soon as I got the ygy I had it.
Hope you're feeling better today, Linda.
Annielee
I am impressed that all of yopu previous commentors found this puzzle easy...my hat is off to you all....personally I found this to be very hard sort of a Friday/Saturday combination
I get these puzzles roughly 6 weeks behind the rest of you, in syndication, so this is a tardy comment. (I'm glad you keep this info up for long enough that we syndicatees can use it. I often turn to it to see if I have gotten Wednesday or Thursday puzzles correct, or for help on Thursdays --I never have time for Friday or Saturday). Anyway, I thought this was a tough puzzle for Tuesday. More like a Wednesday or easy Thursday. I, too, found the SFC/Syzygy business required Google help.
It's always so nice to hear from solvers in syndication land.
Six weeks from now, though, you'll find blanks for about a week. I'm burning the midnight oil trying to finish up a huge project for work...getting everything ready for our residents to occupy 22 new apartments for the chronically homeless. The dedication is this Thursday morning...so things will be back to normal soon.
Thanks for coming by and commenting ; )
Post a Comment