THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]
Sixty worder for today. That’s probably my lower limit for themeless construction nowadays. (For those that don’t know, the lower the word count, the harder it is for the constructor to make). The jump from 60 to 58 is pretty chasmic. I think that’s when the openness of the grid just takes over and it becomes substantially harder to compartmentalize the puzzle. Todays, you’ll note, is basically four different puzzles, one in each corner. And when you can compartmentalize the grid, you it becomes “easier” to manage. Still, I think the balance of “how low can he go” and loads of fresh answers is fairly respectable in this one. Hopefully you agree.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
A camera doesn’t “pan in” for a closeup (28D). “Moves in” or “zooms in” would be correct. Panning is a horizontal rotation.
DASHY: Worst entry of the year, especially next to the trivia couplet of MAOS and MRS…and the cutesy SAIDAAH to boot. Probably too much trivia in this puzzle generally, which I think was the basis of any difficulty.
Had SEAFiNS/RAFi instead of SEAFANS/RAFA. I knew Nadal, just didn’t realize the form of his nickname.
Gary Numan has lots more than one hit.