Had a v. good time in Westport at the tournament yesterday. Rexeans were representing at the after-party...thx v. much to mac/Marion for hosting us!
Today's German-themed puzzle by Dan Schoenholz was a super-mellow solve by MetaRex's non-speedy standards...the only resistance was at the end in the SE, where I wasn't seeing anything to complement GARTEN until HOD bubbled up from nowhere and led the way to LOW-RENT and SPIRACLE. Nice corner.
Gotta keep mum about the Westport puzzles, which are the NYT ones for next M-TH if I understood right. So I'll just note the party games that Will did an excellent job in leading us in. CWP fans being the detail-obsessed unruly lions we are, I'll focus on a semi-catch and then a real catch of the ringmaster aka the Puzzlemaster by us unruly beasts. Both took place in a game in which Will asked us to name the unique member of a category that is alphabetically in between two other members of the category. (So, for example, if the two other members are "Illinois" and "Iowa," the answer is Indiana.)
The near catch: Will said "All's Well That Ends Well" and "As You Like It." A member of the other team came up with, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Will said no dice, saying "no articles," which got a few groans/roars from the lions, and then gave the other guys another shot--they came up with his intended answer, "Antony and Cleopatra." Will then made the nicely trickybacious point that he had said "unique," and that given that clue, "Antony and Cleopatra" had to be the right answer. Touche! With that light flick of the logic whip, the lions were fended off.
A few questions later, though, the lions won a rare victory. Will said "Bucks" and "Celtics." A member of our team came up with his intended answer, "Cavaliers." Then someone else on our team piped up, "Bulls." Touche! Hey, maybe Will wants to let the lions win now and again...it's a better game that way.
Rex is mainly mellow...agree...
I think Evil Doug and others are right in defending BEERY against Rex's dissing given the actors w/ the same letters. The underlying issue is whether a common meaning for an answer makes up for a stretch clue. Yep, says moi...ya can clue EAT w/ "Eli Zabar store" and it's fine by me...it's not fine by me if ya clue ETI as "Leading insurance provider."
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