![]() ![]() If that entry was only one row away from the bottom instead of the two we see here, it would have to be stacked with another 14-letter entry, because otherwise any blocks in the row above MARGARET FARRAR would create two-letter entries at the bottom (which is not allowed - most of the time). I would guess that it is one square taller than normal in order to include the grid-spanning MARGARET FARRAR at the bottom of the puzzle. The puzzle needs to be an even number of squares wide to accommodate the mirror symmetry of the even-length theme entries, and since MARGARET FARRAR is 14 letters long that was likely the easiest way to fit it in. This brings me to the second notable feature of this puzzle: Instead of a traditional 15 x 15 square grid, this puzzle is 14 squares wide and 16 squares tall (a size that crossword constructors sometimes jokingly refer to as a “tall boy”). But since these entries are all an even number of letters, they can be laid out with mirror symmetry across a vertical axis drawn between 6D and 7D. Bukszpan has broken them down, are 12 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 14 letters long, and, although they could form a rotationally symmetrical set if the order did not matter, the order does matter in a quip puzzle. Farrar does not break down into such neat pairs. I’ve done my share of quip puzzles over the years, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a crossword puzzle about crossword puzzles! The theme, as revealed in four of the five long Across entries, is an “optimistic quote” that reads: “YOU CAN’T THINK / OF YOUR TROUBLES / WHILE SOLVING / A CROSSWORD.” The quotation, as we learn in the last long Across entry, is by the “First puzzle editor of The New York Times,” MARGARET FARRAR. ![]() Bukszpan has managed to do just that, because unlike other quip puzzles this one is a little bit meta. This is a theme type that has become less common in recent years, but it’s still a classic, and I appreciate when a constructor finds a new take. As an added bonus, the speaker of the quotation is included as an entry. This puzzle is a quote or “quip” puzzle, in which a particular quotation unfurls, from top to bottom, through the solve. The clue “60 minuti” includes the Italian word for “minutes,” so 60 Italian minutes is ORA, which means “hour.” Today’s Theme When a clue has a non-English word in it, the answer will be in whatever language is being used. I laughed out loud at the clue “Make it well known that you know someone well-known well.” To do so is to NAME DROP.ĥ1D. That is HOGWARTS, the school of magic in the “Harry Potter” books.ģ9D. The “School where students learn to spell?” is not a school where they learn to spell words but rather a school where they learn to perform spells. I can never remember the “Letters on a bottle of brandy,” so perhaps I should work harder to memorize that VSO stands for “Very Superior Old.”ģ6D. Bond, James Bond, is a special AGENT.Ģ2D. In the clue “Bond is a special one,” the word “one” is standing in for the entry. Perhaps the question mark is there to note that “long story short” is also a common expression one might use before RECAPping.ĦD. I’m a little curious about the question mark in the clue “Make a long story short?” As I mentioned above, the question mark generally means that there is a pun or some sort of wordplay, but I think RECAP is a pretty straightforward interpretation of the clue. That said, it is a very funny mental image.ĥD. Under what circumstances would a person attend a holiday party as a SEXY ELF? I could imagine maybe seeing one at a Halloween party, but I have never in my life seen a SEXY ELF at a holiday party. I almost spat out my coffee at the clue-and-entry pair “Risqué costume for a holiday party” for SEXY ELF. STET is the way a proofreader says, “Actually, don’t delete this” the word is Latin for “let it stand.”ĢD. (Today I Learned) that TALI is another word for “Anklebones.”Ħ5A.
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