Had a v. good time with David Quarfoot's puzzle this am. The SW was a particular pleasure. I came up w/ ASTERIX for the comic book character named after a flower, SHIMMY BAR for the guitar attachment, X-ZERO for the car model (perhaps X-TILE (v. nice clue) was influencing me there). Since I kinda knew that the Sp. name preceder had to be SRA, I kinda knew the whole thing had to be wrong, but it was great while it lasted.
The SE was also good. I got stuck on ACOLYTE for sayer of opening words and on the Stones album (or is it a song?) TATTOO YOU for needlework. Again, kinda knew that all had to be wrong, but it was good while it lasted.
Nothing too interesting in terms of wrong answers in the NW, but I liked wondering, "Is this the puzzle that gets in JEWISH?!" Then, JESUS FISH. V.v. nice. Yes, Kanye, you can say JESUS in the NYT crossword puzzle.
All of my wrong answers and confusions (e.g., had SINGLET but got stuck on how that helps in climbing...finally realized we were talking about fighting...got the incorrect signal at the end and had quite a slog until I realized I DID/RIATAS should be ID'ED/REATAS) resulted in a slow time. In fact, my time was v. similar--slightly longer even--than my time yesterday. But no grumpiness today. How come? Well, no google searches today helps a lot. Also, getting beat up with interesting fails all over the puzzle was nice today, while getting destroyed by the bottom yesterday did not feel nice.
Today was like a double diamond ski run that's good and tough all the way down. You don't do that well because you're not such a good skier, but it's highly pleasurable. Yesterday was like a diamond run that's an intermediate for a while but then turns into a sheer ice drop and you gotta cheat by traversing or snowplowing.
Rex v. nice...thx on MN colleges, Scottish medievalism...thx to commentariat for pointing out the double BAR...it's okay, sure, but it's good to have the nitty points raised...
Just noticed something now looking at the hard-copy puzz page...there's a pretty cross at the bottom...an extremely nice subliminal complement to JESUS FISH at 1A.
Comments