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I pretty early on cottoned on to the theme --- a fairly complex one where part of an answer must be read in a "circle" of four squares looping back to the above row, backwards, then down and re-using the letters from before to complete the phrase. The first one I got was BEVERAGE ROOM (reads as BEVEROOM), which made UNDER ONE ROOF (reads as UNDEROOF) fall into place because I was already thinking that had to be the answer to "all together, as a family" even though it didn't fit.
- Update: the loops all start with ER. SupER LoopER! I didn't even notice that.
Never heard of the painting "The Hallucinogenic Toreador," but I knew with a title like that it had to be DALI.
South American plains" are LLANOS? What happened to *PAMPAS?
Look, if I don't know anything at all about baseball or football, how am I supposed to have heard of ESA Tikkanen? Also Karen ENKE. I'll try to remember you guys, but it's probably a lost cause. See you in a future puzzle.
The SULU Sea lies within the Philippines, between Borneo and Visayas. Fun fact: The "Star Trek" character Mr. Sulu was named for the Sulu Sea.
Woamn "who swam the English Channel in 1926:" Gertrude EDERLE. She was 21 when she did that. She wasn't very elderly! Ha? Ederle. Hm.
"Altar constellation:" ARA. Never heard of it. Fun fact: In ancient Greek mythology, Ara was identified as the altar where the gods first made offerings and formed an alliance before defeating the Titans.
In all, I loved this puzzle. The things I didn't know were still eminently guessable. (What other Roman philosopher is there besides SENECA? Who would Homer exchange cross words with but LISA? I may not know who Mahmoud Abbas is, but it sounds like he may be the head of the PLO. Etc.)
I was pleased when I saw the trick and liked the way the phrases loop around on themselves. I wrote them all out and underlined the ERs. So each phrase as an ER, two letters, and then another ER. I see Rex’s point about the na und? Still, the two inside letters are backwards and sit atop the phrase, so I liked the trick. Must’ve been tough to construct. I agree that it was easy, especially since I went in and filled in all the ERs after I saw the deal. Maybe it the repeater pair had been different letters each time, it would have been tougher? ONE STOP SHOPPING, TWENTY FOUR HOURS, POTATO SACK RACE (ahem)…
ReplyDeleteI had “goal” for my setting a world record. Hah. What would your world record goal be?
“All cruelty springs from weakness.” Never heard that quote, but it’s so true. The thing is, this is obviously lost on the cruel guys. Bet they think they’re all that and a bag of chips.
And speaking of anonymice, PESTS’ has “vermin” for the clue. I like it when the plural is not obvious.
I misread the clue for ALT POP as a group called Weezer and the Shins. Made a mental note to look into that group. I just googled ALT POP and lost patience to really understand it, but the term seems like an oxymoron. Music is POP ‘cause it’s popular, right? Vapid? That’s why I like any Boston Pops stuff, I think. It’s not challenging; perfect for me. ALTernative means I won’t understand it. It’ll make me feel dumb and unhip.
Loved the clue for SPADES.
Chance, nice blog.
ReplyDeleteLoren, I love your comments! I don't see that you have your own blog --- maybe you should! Hilarious. Right on the money for the cruel guys. Weezer and the Shins! A supergroup for the ages.
ReplyDeleteRex is grumpy when he doesn't "get it." He didn't know whata diastema was, so he raged against that puzzle's maker. He didn't spot the ER trick here, so he said there was no point. Me, I think it's amazingly clever. Love your proposed examples too.
Thanks Marcie!