John N

Chess moves. “Queen to King’s Knight 4.” That’s how I interpret the special instruction. I.e., Take this pair of letters, move the pair TO here, and replace what’s there. The frustration today seems to arise from solvers who interpret the instruction as, “Change this pair TO this pair.” Both interpretations are valid, especially to chess players of a certain age (the descriptive notation used in the example gave way to algebraic notation around 1980). Two things can be true at once. Isn’t the fun of crossword puzzles when your first guess ~isn’t~ the right answer?

Second appearance of YOUCANCOUNTONME in a short period of time. It’s an amazing 2000 film starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, and Matthew Broderick. I hope to see it clued as such one day. Kinda like the thrill I get when forgotten jazz great Etta Jones is the clue for ETTA rather than Etta James. Her “Don’t Go to Strangers” is a superb place to start. And her late-career “I’ll Be Seeing You” is one of the song’s greatest recordings.

Fun fact: ETCH and ENGRAVE are two different intaglio processes in printing. Engravings are like portraits on US paper money, where lines are tooled or carved out of the metal plate. Etchings are made by painting corrosive chemicals on metal to wear away the design. Not synonymous, if you’re considering the last 500 of printing, but no biggie!