Send us feedback.THEME: H-CK - every theme answer begins with this letter combination, with the vowel in the second spacing changing, in alphabetical order, as you move through the puzzleĪnother fine birthday puzzle for me. Last year I got a Manny Nosowsky Sunday puzzle - this year, an Andrea Carla Michaels Monday. I finished this one much more quickly, but not without a similar amount of joy. Part of that joy comes from the genuinely entertaining fill the other part of that joy comes from Smashing my old solving time record by a full 20 seconds. There always seems to be some luck involved (i.e. ![]() never even looked at the clue for HUCKABEES - just filled it in from existing crosses - and knew HOCKNEY from just the -EY only because, well, I like art, etc.). All my first guesses ended up being correct, and the only answer that even mildly held me up was 33D: Flax-colored (golden) - and I wasn't held up long. As someone who a year ago was happy to solve a Monday in under 6 minutes, I can tell you that lots of practice, over time, will in fact make you a better solver. All the studying in the world cannot beat the simple act of doing puzzles, over and over. 17A: Bean-filled bag moved with the foot (HACKy-sack).This is also true of GRE / SAT - type tests, but I digress. I am curious about the length of theme clues. It seems odd to me that two of the theme answers are very short (seven letters) and positioned directly across from other NON-theme seven-letter answers - e.g. HECKLER's across from MISS YOU ( 23A: Postcard sentiment) and HOCKNEY's across from ROMANIA ( 54A: Bucharest's land). 38D: "You don't say!," after "Well" ("I declare!") - gorgeous.I'm somehow less bothered by the Longer non-theme answers running Down - all of which are at least good and two of which are gorgeous, by the way: I'm not saying this is illegal, but it seems quite uncommon for theme answers to be matched in length by non-theme answers running in the same direction. There are many multiple-word phrases in this puzzle. I especially like the juxtaposition of EARN A ( 63A: _ living) and A MESS ( 66A: What _!" ("It's so dirty!"), with their reversed placement of the indefinite article. I also especially like the near-juxtaposition of BOK ( 4D: _ choy (Chinese green))and WOK ( 8D: Chinese cooking vessel). 39D: Actor Calhoun (Rory) - he actually doesn't come up a hell of a lot I just like his name because it reminds me of the time Mr.55D: Schindler of "Schindler's List" (Oskar) - even if you know the name, you are likely to spell it with a "C" if you've never thought about its spelling before.(OBE) - Order of the British Empire - learned it from xwords 15A: Wine: Prefix (Oeno-) - comes up not infrequently.14A: Creme-filled cookie (Oreo) - but you knew that.Stuff that you should know if you want to zip through crosswords, including stuff that I learned Only from doing crosswords: Lastly, today, I'm going to point out some words that are XWORD 101 words. Burns likened one of his many greyhound puppies to this actor:īurns: There you are.there you go, little fellow.and you. I've never seenĪnything so adorable! Do you know who it reminds me of?īurns: No, no, no, a person. ![]() ![]() Smithers: Snoop Doggy Dogg? Bob Barker? David Brenner?īurns: No, no! The person who's always standing and walking.
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