ACROSS LITE PUZZLE:
[ FANGS FOR THE MEMORIES]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ FANGS FOR THE MEMORIES]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
This one is probably more of an “Easium.” I erred on the side of caution and called it “Medium.” Maybe I should make “Easium” and “Mard” buttons? Who knows?
Share the puzzle. New one on Friday.
SW is the only place I slowed down; not familiar with DUCAT as a slang word. Put MIRE in, thinking it was probably wrong, but gave it a shot anyway and it ended up unlocking the whole corner. So pretty much, got lucky.
Got my first rejection email from Will Shortz Monday night; theme didn’t excite him enough. Turnaround was about 2 months, about what I expected. I pulled out the puzzle, not having looked at it since I mailed it off. I still like the theme, but there’s some crappy fill in there – it’s a bit abbr.-heavy. So I’ll try to rework it if I can and submit it to other outlets…
Extra points for the TV SET clue.
The legend grows.
Bonus points for ZBIGNIEW. And DRACULASNEEZE.
Minus points for East Coast bias — Arizona playing at 4:30 Saturday? Not 4:30 in Phoenix or New Orleans 🙂
ZBIGNIEW? Ouch. The rest was, as always, fun except for the clue for 63A and only because of a personal experience I had in Istanbul last spring (a guy jumped out of his hotel window and I woke up to a dead guy splattered on the ground beneath MY hotel window. Terrible, I know). So, obviously, my first thought was TURKS. Not your fault for bringing that up, though…Just hope I can make it through the day.
I just downloaded 20A last night and am listening to it now.
The Across Lite version of the puzzle (as downloaded this morning) shows 50A as “Team playing at 4:30 this Sunday”. NEWYORK didn’t fit, though… 🙂
64As are amphibians, not reptiles. It’s a Class thing.
Hmmmmm. Clue base on experience IRL?
Mr. Dictionary sez “lizardlike amphibian”, so I guess maybe we could compromise and call it an ambiguian.
The “mard” and “easium” neologisms are terrific! If original, copyright them. Now, how ’bout one for halfway between “hard” and “fail”? That’s where I found myself today.
Started in NW as usual, and almost immediately got 3D, “The PRINCESS and the Pea”, which I checked by crossing it with OTERI, and Cheri was confirmed both by RNA and by GOD (interesting juxtaposition). Looked OK, though useless, till I eventually (as in “eons”) was looking at D_SNNA for 31A.
Soon thereafter I got 36D DIARRHEA. The H was crossed by 59A CHAOS, the S of which was crossed by RUSTY. Yes, one of *those* days. The diarrhea didn’t clear up until I got GENXER much, much later.
OK, totally hosed in W, so I went E where I got good traction, filled it up and down, then started working back across toward W. BTW, “Brzezinski” was an evil, evil challenge. My ear new the name just fine, but. As the crosses filled, I was astonished to find that my first SWAG had been correct. Only moment of luck today.
First had-to-be-a-theme answer I worked across to was __ACULA SNEEZE. Whereupon, without hesitation or much thought, apparently, I filled in EJ. Whereupon my brain caught on fire. After a moment of “OMG WTF?!” I remembered the puzzle’s title and fixed it, but…
And SW took almost as long as the rest of the puzzle (oddly, the NYT puzz was the same way for me today).
The only clue/answer pair I still have a problem with is “Fug!” = DA BOMB. So far as I can tell from my own experience and from the ‘net, they have very different meanings. The former I’ve only heard for “fucking ugly!”, and the latter only for something or someone that’s totally excellent, or the best. Is this maybe an East Coast thing? Anyone?
Best clue of the day was “Chain in a cell”. Nice.
Uhm, no. Evolutionary biologist here.
Damn love that VAMPIRE WEEKEND, well actually still listening to the second album and making the call. I knew I would misspell ZIBIGNIEW which caused a bit of a problem on the bottom. The rest if the puzzle filled up really quickly so spot on with the grading.
Tell me my tweets were the inspiration for this puzzle.
I think this is one of the few BEQ’s that I’ve been able to finish (despite those band clues and sports clues and celebrity clues and so on.) I can hear WC Fields blithely mentioning his DUCAT …
and @lit.doc, 51Dwas the “Fug” clue. I got DA BOMB in spite of the clue–“all that”????– my son’s friends seemed to mean “amazing” or “wow” the way they used it.
The one I do not get is 58A Hot dog= “ONER???”
yeah, i was just coming in here to post how fantastic that was. i also chuckled cause i instantly knew what it was with only the ultimate T filled in. ZBIGNIEW needs to be used more often. the southwest was a bit rocky but otherwise yeah, easy puzzle, but really fun.
Thank you. Duly noted. Evolutionary biologists rock, as I’ve learned from Richard Dawkins over thirty-some years.
Though I eventually worked it out, same reaction here to 58A. I kinda think “oner” exists only in the puzzosphere, but it usually ref’s someone who can dependably get the job done in one try, e.g. a tennis star who can usually blast an ace past her opponent. Hey, I just work here.
Speaking of defenestration of TV Sets, wasn’t there a picture of you doing just that in the early days of this blawg?
I can’t hear Zbigniew Brzezinski’s name without thinking of this: http://is.gd/6gx64
Makes me laugh every time.
Yep, easium. My only real hangup was working out the spelling of ZBIGNIEW. Interesting to learn there was a real cop called Popeye that the Popeye Doyle character was based on.
Offbeat theme! Wasn’t familiar with all 3 of the entries, but were interesting to learn. Only real complaint – title has caused “Thnks fr th Mmrs” to be stuck in my head. Grrr. Though it might make a good crossword entry! Actually Brett Favre’s >WIFE>!! It’s still a Nick Cave song to me, I don’t care. 64A – Newt <> lizard [OK I see it’s been noted in the comments, needs reiterating though] . OK now I’m at 3. LOL.
Took me time to read all the comments, but I enjoyed the article.