A new Friday record! At least as far as this blog is concerned. Very nice long down clues.
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Monday, May 18, 2020
Friday: 13:23
Oh, look, context. In older posts, it can be hard to decipher what I'm talking about without a visual aid. I cribbed this image from Rex Parker, but hopefully it won't disappear like some other images I've pasted before. Those six intersecting 11-letter answers is nifty, and I was pretty quick about it. Put a frozen pizza in the oven for 22 minutes, and raced it with the puzzle. Not always a sure thing on a Friday, but I got there with plenty of time to spare.
Oh, look, context. In older posts, it can be hard to decipher what I'm talking about without a visual aid. I cribbed this image from Rex Parker, but hopefully it won't disappear like some other images I've pasted before. Those six intersecting 11-letter answers is nifty, and I was pretty quick about it. Put a frozen pizza in the oven for 22 minutes, and raced it with the puzzle. Not always a sure thing on a Friday, but I got there with plenty of time to spare.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Friday 12:22 (crusht)
Easy puzzle for a Friday, and no Valentine-related clues. I believe 12:22 is a Friday personal best (yet oddly, slower than my Saturday best). I really ought to keep track of this in some sort of spreadsheet, but I never get so obsessive to do that. It would have gone even faster if I knew 1-Across, which was likely a gimme for many (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band led by Iggy Pop THE STOOGES). Ten letters right off the bat, and the Downs are pretty easy. Instead, I finished up filling out that area last (I got The Stooges once I found both O's). "Much-admired" person turned out to be ICON instead of the usual IDOL, so that cost me some time to unravel (tricky, since two of the letters are right, and those are with somewhat easier crosses).
Here's what I believe are my best times, since I took note of dominating. Middle days are more whatever. Tuesday and Wednesday feel mostly the same, and time is more about clues than solving a gimmick.
Monday 4:44
Thursday 8:59
Friday 12:22
Saturday 12:03 (on a 15 x 16 grid, 12:30 otherwise)
Easy puzzle for a Friday, and no Valentine-related clues. I believe 12:22 is a Friday personal best (yet oddly, slower than my Saturday best). I really ought to keep track of this in some sort of spreadsheet, but I never get so obsessive to do that. It would have gone even faster if I knew 1-Across, which was likely a gimme for many (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band led by Iggy Pop THE STOOGES). Ten letters right off the bat, and the Downs are pretty easy. Instead, I finished up filling out that area last (I got The Stooges once I found both O's). "Much-admired" person turned out to be ICON instead of the usual IDOL, so that cost me some time to unravel (tricky, since two of the letters are right, and those are with somewhat easier crosses).
Here's what I believe are my best times, since I took note of dominating. Middle days are more whatever. Tuesday and Wednesday feel mostly the same, and time is more about clues than solving a gimmick.
Monday 4:44
Thursday 8:59
Friday 12:22
Saturday 12:03 (on a 15 x 16 grid, 12:30 otherwise)
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Monday 7:05
Tuesday 6:38
Let's talk politics. Vote for Bernie Sanders. While most democrats poll higher than the President (a giant meteor wiping out all life on the planet polled higher than him in a recent poll), Bernie has the highest chance of defeating him in the fall. It is gratifying to see Biden tanking it early, since I think he has the least chance of beating Trump, but I worry that if all the moderates gravitate towards Buttigieg or Bloomberg, they'll outnumber the Bernie supporters after he presumably forces Warren out. Warren is essentially fighting for third place in New Hampshire with Biden, and Bernie is expected to win, as he did four years ago.
Biden is basically counting on South Carolina, since he has the most minority support, and Buttigieg is weak on that front. Biden might win it, too, since Bloomberg is skipping that one as well. If Bernie finishes a strong second, that's probably curtains for Warren. I do like her, but this just isn't the right time. I know she'll be a champion for Bernie over anyone else in the race.
I'm usually pretty good at predicting this sort of thing. In 2008, I overheard two people (presumably republicans) in my chorus discussing politics, and one of them bet $50 that not only would Mitt Romney win the nomination, he would win the presidency as well. I wish I could have gotten in on that. I was quite sure McCain would get the nomination, and I was right. But nothing is a sure bet anymore. Bloomberg throws a wrench into the works, spending nothing but his own money, but billionaires are not the most popular these days, especially among the youth. Millennials of voting age: You outnumber the Boomers! Register! Vote!
Tuesday 6:38
Let's talk politics. Vote for Bernie Sanders. While most democrats poll higher than the President (a giant meteor wiping out all life on the planet polled higher than him in a recent poll), Bernie has the highest chance of defeating him in the fall. It is gratifying to see Biden tanking it early, since I think he has the least chance of beating Trump, but I worry that if all the moderates gravitate towards Buttigieg or Bloomberg, they'll outnumber the Bernie supporters after he presumably forces Warren out. Warren is essentially fighting for third place in New Hampshire with Biden, and Bernie is expected to win, as he did four years ago.
Biden is basically counting on South Carolina, since he has the most minority support, and Buttigieg is weak on that front. Biden might win it, too, since Bloomberg is skipping that one as well. If Bernie finishes a strong second, that's probably curtains for Warren. I do like her, but this just isn't the right time. I know she'll be a champion for Bernie over anyone else in the race.
I'm usually pretty good at predicting this sort of thing. In 2008, I overheard two people (presumably republicans) in my chorus discussing politics, and one of them bet $50 that not only would Mitt Romney win the nomination, he would win the presidency as well. I wish I could have gotten in on that. I was quite sure McCain would get the nomination, and I was right. But nothing is a sure bet anymore. Bloomberg throws a wrench into the works, spending nothing but his own money, but billionaires are not the most popular these days, especially among the youth. Millennials of voting age: You outnumber the Boomers! Register! Vote!
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Thursday 11:17
This felt extremely fast, and I thought it might be a PB, but there was an 8:59 back in July 2018. There were a number of 2-letter answers, each being an element matching with the atomic number of the numbered square. I could have searched up a periodic table to get all those right away, but it might have taken even more time to find a readable table and correspond the numbers. I don't know the elements Nd and Sm (Neodynium and Samarium? Ooookay), but the others were familiar enough. Nice design, too, with two 15-letter downs crossing two 13-letter acrosses.
This felt extremely fast, and I thought it might be a PB, but there was an 8:59 back in July 2018. There were a number of 2-letter answers, each being an element matching with the atomic number of the numbered square. I could have searched up a periodic table to get all those right away, but it might have taken even more time to find a readable table and correspond the numbers. I don't know the elements Nd and Sm (Neodynium and Samarium? Ooookay), but the others were familiar enough. Nice design, too, with two 15-letter downs crossing two 13-letter acrosses.
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Thursday 18:10
Is it too much to ask for a Thanksgiving-themed puzzle on Thanksgiving? It's the one holiday almost nobody argues about. Anyway, the theme was Johnny Cash, and I'm OK with that. Theme answers were JOHNNYCASH, RINGOFFIRE, plus JOAQUIN and PHOENIX, who played him on film. Then there are four connected words where the word FIRE is missing (BALLS, STONE, BRAND, DANCE), so a "Ring of Fire," kinda. Pretty neat.
I usually like Rex Parker's crossword blog, but lately, it's too hateful. Some critiques are fair. He is right to call out bad crosswordese, inappropriate plurals, un-PC clues and things, even if I think he can go too far (I'm no fan of the NRA, but I don't flinch to see it in the puzzle). In this puzzle, he is right that Joaquin Phoenix is a little loose to count as a theme answer (although the other stuff is enough on its own, it's a bit thin). But his big complaint, the thing that ruined the puzzle, is that the "Ring of Fire" words were not a ring, but a square. Yep. That's the problem.
The fucking puzzle is made of squares, Rex! Even when they do some sort of more circular "ring," they usually do it with circled squares. And even then, it still won't be a true ring, more like a dodecagon at best, and this puzzle's concept doesn't lend itself to that type of thing. Also, when they do a meta-thing with circled squares, there's frequently a note about them. If the puzzle has a note, that's an automatic down vote in Rex's book. A good puzzle can usually stand on its own, but sometimes you need a little context to make sense of it. Rex is a smart guy, with a few published puzzles himself (real name Michael Sharp), but he's too judgmental, and dumps on a lot of puzzles that I like. I think Will Shortz's job is more challenging than Rex seems to think. As if the presence of a superior puzzle anywhere else is proof that the quality of Times puzzles has gone to shit. The Times puts out a puzzle every single day. The pool isn't really that large if you want to be diverse.
Is it too much to ask for a Thanksgiving-themed puzzle on Thanksgiving? It's the one holiday almost nobody argues about. Anyway, the theme was Johnny Cash, and I'm OK with that. Theme answers were JOHNNYCASH, RINGOFFIRE, plus JOAQUIN and PHOENIX, who played him on film. Then there are four connected words where the word FIRE is missing (BALLS, STONE, BRAND, DANCE), so a "Ring of Fire," kinda. Pretty neat.
I usually like Rex Parker's crossword blog, but lately, it's too hateful. Some critiques are fair. He is right to call out bad crosswordese, inappropriate plurals, un-PC clues and things, even if I think he can go too far (I'm no fan of the NRA, but I don't flinch to see it in the puzzle). In this puzzle, he is right that Joaquin Phoenix is a little loose to count as a theme answer (although the other stuff is enough on its own, it's a bit thin). But his big complaint, the thing that ruined the puzzle, is that the "Ring of Fire" words were not a ring, but a square. Yep. That's the problem.
The fucking puzzle is made of squares, Rex! Even when they do some sort of more circular "ring," they usually do it with circled squares. And even then, it still won't be a true ring, more like a dodecagon at best, and this puzzle's concept doesn't lend itself to that type of thing. Also, when they do a meta-thing with circled squares, there's frequently a note about them. If the puzzle has a note, that's an automatic down vote in Rex's book. A good puzzle can usually stand on its own, but sometimes you need a little context to make sense of it. Rex is a smart guy, with a few published puzzles himself (real name Michael Sharp), but he's too judgmental, and dumps on a lot of puzzles that I like. I think Will Shortz's job is more challenging than Rex seems to think. As if the presence of a superior puzzle anywhere else is proof that the quality of Times puzzles has gone to shit. The Times puts out a puzzle every single day. The pool isn't really that large if you want to be diverse.
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