Part of the fun of puzzling is that in the beginning you have to figure out even the basic rules yourself. Nobody tells you about the graduated difficulty levels throughout the week. Mondays are easy. Wednesdays are satisfyingly challenging. Fridays and Saturdays are sometimes doable but always hard. Then along comes Sunday with its larger grid and a mid-week difficulty level.
Sundays were how I gauged my progress. When I first started, I'd leave partially-finished puzzles by my bed and have to check them night after night. It turns out that as with any hard problem, if you look at puzzles the next day with fresh eyes sometimes new answers jump out at you. (Much more on that topic in later posts.) It would often take me most of the week to finish. Over time I managed to solve them in fewer and fewer days. For a long time I would settle for what I called a Moral Victory if I could get all the trick clues, more properly the theme clues. Eventually only a complete solution would do. I'm only an average solver and I'm certainly not a fast one. Worse, I've probably peaked at this point and likely won't improve much. This is good news for me! I'll continue to enjoy all the puzzles from each day of the week.
This Sunday's puzzle called PUTTING ON SOME WEIGHT is, I'm afraid, only so-so. The best puzzles contain individual clues that make you grin at their deviousness or a theme that confounds at first and is delightfully satisfying when it finally pulls into focus. Today had neither. My favorite 111 Across (5 letters): "Item often cloned." The answer is IBMPC. (Did I mention this blog will include spoilers?) Note that this puzzle appeared in the NYT on November 11 but will show up a week or more later in syndication.
Still, IBMPC is a good but not great answer. Five letters means you might think SHEEP or DOLLY but poor Dolly, whatever her failings, wouldn't be an item and Will Shortz isn't so sloppy as to make her one. PCs are clearly items, but the clue is more a historical curiosity than a hip modern reference. It feels like they pulled this one from the database without a hint of acknowledgment that it's been a very long time since anyone cloned an IBM PC for the simple reason that it's been a very long time since IBM has made a PC. It's an 1980s reference without an indication in the clue that "often" doesn't mean "in living memory."
Poor Will hasn't got a chance. It's his job in life to not only entertain me but to make me feel smugly superior every time I am up to his devious challenges. Each new great clue raises the bar, and the once fine but now average ones now feel like a letdown.
So instead I'll mention a favorite answer from a recent puzzle. Four letters. Clue is: "Master of the double take." It starts with N.
I had to determine the first three letters before the final letter came to me but it still gave me a big smile. Here it is with the first three filled in: NOA_
