Dan Solovay
Burlington MA
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Burlington MA
Lots of elegant touches in the fill. 37A could be FLY but is FLU, leading to USS. That makes you realize 38D’s bow is the ship part, not clothing part, hinted at by 47A’s SPRIT, with which it shares the S. And of course the alliteration with DIDSO and DUNEZO. A gem.
@Steve congrats! Warning: those gold stars are addictive.
@Mimi I think it’s defensible in this case. The theme is word pairs where the first word has this pattern: ABCDefgh (where capital means shaded) and the second word has AeBfCgDh. (Too subtle for me to totally get while solving, but that’s why I read these comments!) So if you posit that as a special rule for this puzzle (and IMO that’s how themes work—they are one puzzle distortions of expectations), then GOOFoffs and GoOfOfFs are different words. And where the composer appears to be goofing off, he’s actually pulling off a card trick. I found that self-descriptive bit of irony and showmanship delicious, once it clicked.
Very cute theme.
@Lewis thank you for sharing this explainer. Now that I understand the theme, I like the irony of the self-descriptive GOOFOFFS, as clearly the composer did anything but. I admire how deeply these people think about words and word relationships.
@Jeff Wilson it’s legit because the theme justifies it. See this: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4gs26k" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4gs26k</a>
For Daniel Bodily’s question: “What do you think? Do the extra visual cues in this puzzle enhance or detract from your solving experience? Please let me know in the comments.” I enjoyed the yellow circles. It was very satisfying when the mystery cracked.
Such fun. I let out a very long ohhhhhhhhh when I realized what was going on, when seeing 51D could be CODES. The passage from confusion to comprehension never stops being a delight. And congrats to Daniel Bodily on getting a 15x14 grid accepted. We are in AREA FIFTY ONE indeed!
@Barry Ancona Technically correct, but we use it the way we use other Latin expressions like “etc.” and “et al.”, that are abbreviations. And it seems unlikely that “In re:” would have become so established as an expression if it didn’t align with “regarding”. So a permissible description in my view. It certainly wouldn’t confuse anyone, even if slightly imprecise.
@Barry Ancona If we are going to engage in the noble act of picking nits, she said it was “used” as an abbreviation, not that it *was* an abbreviation. And she is, without any doubt, correct.
10D seems to be cut off after the word “and” for me. App issue? Congratulations on the debut, Ryan!
@RSA agree. A cluing miss.
Fun theme. I need someone to explain 112D. How are TIPS “Tax code issues”? Not clicking for me.
@Patrick J. Bingo! Felling smarter now. Crossword brain was failing me.
And I must say, 31D is a fabulous clue. Bravo!
@Barry Ancona thanks, I see the comments now. I scanned earlier, but without comment search it takes some commitment to find things.
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