Bill

Having joined the chorus of those with qualms about Sunday’s puzzle I feel obligated to praise Tuesday’s, which exemplifies what I enjoy most about puzzles. Subtle, thoughtful wordplay is what it’s all about for me and this puzzle rings the bell.

This was a good puzzle. Lots of things I didn’t know: screenwriters, authors, movies, rap songs, mythological characters both Greek and Norse. But without undue difficulty I was able to get those filled with the crossing clues. In my youth my justification for doing crossword puzzles was that I often learned something. I don’t feel the need to justify myself these days, but if I did today would be a case in point. As people become more and more siloed in their own interests listening to their own subset of the multitudinous communication channels available these days, writing a crossword puzzle for a wide swath of the population must be more and more difficult. This one did a good job of it.

This was fun. Steven Wright. One of my favorites. You can’t have everything. Where would you put it? Hadn’t heard the joke in this puzzle before. Pitch perfect Wright joke, though, so entirely solvable. And thank you for allowing multiple solutions in the key boxes. Filled in the grid on my phone without any corrections necessary and no futzing with the correct entries for the tricky clues.

This was okay, but I ended up looking for non-existent errors because I entered LINE instead of ——. I remembered recently I had obsessed about how to enter the cutesy theme but it turned out I could have entered a rebus or either of the two letters or a rebus with the two letters separated by a slash. So this time I didn’t sweat it. Wrong.

Thought this was going to be manageable when I got CROWDFUNDING without any crossing answers completed and ORANGUTAN with only one. But no. So many proper names I had never heard of, one from the 18th century! This puzzle is borderline sadistic.

This was fun. As usual I solved the puzzle in order to figure out the theme rather than using the theme to solve the puzzle. This is almost always the quickest route for me (last Sunday being an exception). Themes seem contrived, this one a little more than usual. Loved “It’s home is on the range”. Went from ANTELOPE to SAUCEPAN to SAUTEPAN

I enjoyed this. But GAZPACHO? Charlie horse is the name of a horse that begins with C. Whiskey soda is a soda that begins with W. Golf course is a course that begins with G. Soup course? Salad course? I’ve never heard of a gazpacho course. Did Marjorie Taylor Green write this puzzle?

Oy, convoluted “themes” like this is why I often ignore themes and solve the puzzle without reference to the theme. Having I had to look Deb’s notes to figure out the “themes”. Too cute by half.

This was a good Tuesday puzzle. I once worked for Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration in cooperation with the federal OSHA. Can’t imagine how ‘Office monitor, in brief’ is an appropriate clue, given that the goal of the organization is to reduce occupational injuries and illnesses in all workplace settings. I had filled in all four letters from crossing clues and was amazed to see that the organization was described in that way.

Oh boy, another creative theme. As usual I just did the puzzle and then read the notes in an effort to understand the theme. The expression I usually see is “Buy one get one free”, often abbreviated as BOGO. But the puzzle uses “Buy get one free”. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but had to wonder if this was part of the cutesy theme or an idiosyncratic hack to make it fit. Apparently it was the latter as no explanation in the notes. And for the life of me I don’t see how you get from “1/4” to PERCENT, even with reference to NOQUARTER

“Classic red rubber dog toy”? I got it from cross clues, but even then I had no idea what this is. A tad overly specific IMHO

I thought onomatopoeia was the title of a song. <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Unua9Y-a0" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Unua9Y-a0</a> … and all martinis have gin and ‘cocoa nibs’ was the correct spelling. But I don’t drink alcohol so I defer to those more knowledgeable.

Easier than a Monday puzzle but three or four times more time consuming. Other than keeping a streak going it was a waste of time.

“ On a general note, a boom in debuts means that we’re moving into a golden age of puzzling that welcomes experimentation and a diversity of voices — which could lead to a much-needed update to the canon of crossword entries.” Many more Art Heists and I will let my subscription lapse. Diversity of voices is fine. Innovation and experimentation are solutions in search of a problem.