ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Almost, but not quite, pulled off the double milestone: 100th themeless as the 300th puzzle. Oh well. Better luck next time.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Yikes. SERAC/TABARET cross was an out-and-out (-and-out) guess. First guess correct. Lucky.
Liked it. Way to move on BLOOD LIBEL.
rp
ARETE, ESKER, SERAC. OMG, a genie just appeared. Hard, but nothing ungettable from crosses…lot’s of juicy stuff, thanks.
I agree with Rex re: SERAC/TABARET, and… I’d never heard CHUB used in that way either, and… NEILL wanted to be NIGEL…so that whole section required rare use of the ‘Reveal’ button….so ashamed…
Heh heh….Chub.
I believe I have done the 3 hardest xwords in the last 8 days. The 3 would be this one, the chicago suntimes from yesterday (1/22/2011), and the nytimes (1/16/2010). This would make the perfect troika. no reference used, the grindworks. worse than waterboarding.
Ditto on SERAC/TABARET, NIGEL for NEILL. Add to that I don’t know TOESTOPS, wasn’t sure about DIRTFARMER. CHUB for me is a small freshwater fish… So that empty spot in the middle took at least ten minutes to fill.
And for a while I had 59D as Marry DIM, which may be a more accurate statement of the book’s philosophy.
Is CHUB perhaps Canadian slang for the relevant phenomenon? Because the one and only instance in which I remember it being used that way was in an old Kids in the Hall sketch.
It went something like this:
Mother (Dave Foley?): “And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson. . . .” (exits room)
Guy who’s always hanging around the house (Scott Thompson?): “Hey look, I’ve got a chub on!”
Son (Kevin McDonald?): “MAY I REMIND YOU YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT THE WOMAN WHO BROUGHT ME INTO THIS WORLD?”
If I weren’t a KitH nut who has nearly ever sketch memorized, I would have had a much more difficult time with that part of today’s grid.
Ah, here’s the sketch I’m thinking of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypx2YYfaubU
Between having TARANTO instead of OTRANTO and STIFLED instead of STILLED, I spent the lion’s share of my time in the SW.
Plus, I’m really not sure when we dropped the “cafe au” from “LAITS”. Most baristas serve lattes, right?
41A, 47A and 52A gave me a thought of a polite and agreeable kid from South Carolina… “SO DO I, NANNA. YES’M”
Wow, beatdown today. Fajita mix of fresh stuff and total brutality – 8-Down, and for me, those characters and names (The Office, Desperate Housewives, the singer) – probably gimmes for some, but here that stuff is just thumbtacks and broken glass thrown on the ground as a roadblock. Nice job.
No issue with chub, almost a gimme. I just wish that Dirt Farmer had been clued as the Levon Helm. Would have filled the BEQ random music clue for the puzzle.
This was tough … had to look up JIBJAB to get the NW corner started. Still don’t understand how {Barista’s beverages} can be LAITS.
I was just generally slow, not a lot of trouble. Did try STIFLED, but figured JETWASH/JOSTLERS had to be right. 43D took me longer than it should’ve because I thought of several other hormones first. Ditto 57A, which I blanked on for some reason. (It’s usually ANAIS/NIN PEPYS, right?)
Really like the clues for 11A and 58A.
SERAC just seemed right there with the crosses I had, so my guesses were fine there. Loved the “chub” clue – my friends and I jokingly use the phrase “chubby at the base” to describe when something is even mildly interesting. For example: “Wow – that “chub” clue totally made me chubby at the base.” Since I’m a chick, I crack myself up when I say it. (By the way, if ‘chub’ is Canadian in origin, it’s made its colorful way down to Kentucky.)
I wanted stoppers for TOESTOP, but knew immediately what the clue referred to.
Great puzzle overall. Made up for some mediocre NYT this week.