Today's Wednesday puzzle (answers) is Stephen Edward Anderson's second at the NYT, this one with an air of equine equanimity. That's Roy and his pal off to the the right and they're pleased as punch that even the taxidermied can be thematically immortalized along with three trusty friends. (Who's Topper? Someone will tell me.) Fitting RIDE 'EM COWBOY balanced nicely in the center was a bonus.
BTW, my favorite cowboy clue of the past was "Headless horseman" in a Jeremy Thomas Paine puzzle eight years ago. Click here for the quarfotic answer.
EAR has appeared as an answer word 187 times but never before clued as "Wave catcher." Nice to see a little physics now and then.
I mentioned in an earlier post that since the Times started publishing puzzles in electronic format there have been three that never came out in Across Lite versions, including one referenced in that earlier entry. I've converted another one so now you can try this clever Joe DiPietro crossword from 2003 called People with Unlisted Numbers available here. That means it's also added to my database and if you just want to read it with the answers you can see it here. The notepad describes the minor discrepancy with the print version.
Update: Seth's comment below reminds me of why crossword blogging is so much fun. Here I was feeling all smug that I nailed the puzzle and I hadn't even noticed that I'd missed a theme clue. HAD A BIT tied it all together right in the center of the puzzle.
