I like crossword puzzles. I really do. But I hated this one. The NYT Crossword gets reprinted some months later in the Mustang Daily, the newspaper of Cal Poly, so Tyler brings it home for me every once in a while. I understand the concept of word play and I get how it can be funny, but this one was just ridiculous.
(FYI: this whole post is about me complaining about this puzzle. So, if this doesn't interest you, stop reading)
First off, I hate puzzles where you have to do something else after you're done to get the joke. 20A clue: With 59-across, hint to this puzzle's secret. The answer is CLARINET / RELATIVE. Then 41A clue: What to do after completing this puzzle, with four straight lines. Answer: CONNECTALLTHEOS.
It doesn't show up really well on the picture, but if you connect the Os you get a bow tie. An O-bow of you will. O-bow, oboe, clarinet relative. Har har.
To make so many Os in the exact right places, all the other answers were really sketchy. Olaf spelled OLOF, and nos (as in yesses and nos) spelled NOES.
Not to mention the use of the all-to-well-known 15A: Mythical king of the Huns. What? You didn't know about King Atli?
As I was complaining to Claire she said "maybe you should make a puzzle with all the answers being authors of xword puzzles, and one of your clues could be "hint to this puzzle" and the answer could be "lame-oes.""
1 comment:
First off, Claire is brilliant.
Second, You are brilliant. I would never have gotten that bow tie thing. I would still be siting there thinking... "Maybe it's suppose to be a butterfly...or a kite? Or maybe i'm not suppose to connect those o's... so.. an X?" And really, I never would have gotten anywhere, i would have given up, and then i would be frustrated. So, nice work. You did it.
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