Greetings, Gentle Reader. I mean, S'UP DOG?
Here's the best part of this puzzle. Next time I lose my glasses, I can refer to 137 Across which tells me exactly where to find them. What a useful crossword!
When you bring together two A-List constructors like Mike Nothnagel and David Quarfoot for a Sunday puzzle, you expect something special is going to happen. Sure enough. The July 27 puzzle Going Every Which Way (answers) is a doozy. I found it considerably trickier than a typical Sunday but eventually possible and very satisfying. It introduces 28 new answer words to my database!
This is their third collaboration. You can see the set in miniature here. I don't want to say too much about today's gimmick because if you came here looking for help I want to encourage you to go back and try again on your own. I'll tell you what. I'll give you a few pointers and then you keep plugging away. If you really get stuck, the answers link above reveals all. As usual on Sundays, the title contains a key clue. (How often do you forget to check that before getting most of the way through a NYT Large?)
Some of my problems came because I wasn't paying close attention. In Wagner, Tristan loved Isolde but depending on your source sometimes it's sometimes Tristram and, as in today's puzzle, ISEULT. Bug is a not a verb but a noun, a VW BEETLE.
The Orcmeister's full name is John Ronald REUEL Tolkien. Who knew? The Unesco World Heritage Site in Jordan is PETRA. The choice word isn't ELSE but rather EENY.
My favorite clue is "result of pulling the plug." It's a great definition for EDDY. Does it really spin the other way if you pull that plug from the southern hemisphere? Why, yes it does.
I've been intrigued with the collection of answers which only appear in a single puzzle. Many of these unique words are wacky theme entries but some of them are surprising. I've added two new pages to my stats site: Random Unique Words picks 30 from a hat and shows their definitions. For a look at all the ones that have cropped up in the past month, there is another page called Recent Unique Words.
A great puzzle and lots of fun. It reminded me of the ACPT puzzle with a similar theme, but this one expanded the grid and with good effect. I forgot about LIMNS and wonder if we discussed that here a few months back. I wish I could tell my dad that playing Nine Ball in college actually did serve a purpose later in later life. It was easy, but why is ELMER ok for the way the clue is worded? I don't see how a last name only was implied.
Once again, your data base is amazing and interesting. Unique words indeed. joon can probably tells us how many words in the dictionary are three letters or more and then calculate what percentage we have seen. Then he can do an analysis and tell us how many years it will be before we have seen them all. ;)
Posted by: PhillySolver | July 26, 2008 at 05:51 PM
I swore I would never do a puzzle with "sphagnous" as a clue. One has one's principles. It's as ugly a sounding word as "gingivitis" is beautiful. But the combination of Nothfoot and Quarnagel was too hard to resist. A good, thing, as it was a superb puzzle. The Reuel/Iseult crossing was beyond me. Loved the theme, and the higher than usual difficulty for a Sunday was welcome. A doozy indeed.
Posted by: KarmaSartre | July 26, 2008 at 09:54 PM
Philly asks about ELMER's clue, implying that a last name is needed -- I put in ELMER but was vaguely thinking possibly a cartoon character? Elmer Fudd? Please let me know what the correct answer is, Jim.
Must also note a sneaky SILENT U in 87D "building", which some solvers call a Quarfoot signature... And as for GINNIE Mae, I first tried Sallie -- not wanting 81D to be ending -IG -- but then saw BIGDIG. Neat! I got the ISEULT, but SEAU is another guess needing an explanation. Finally, I was going to complain about the misspelling of "replys" at 157A, until it turned out to be REPAYS/HSIA. Some awfully tricky moments...
The theme wasn't hard to discover because of UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS as well as the title, but it still added a complicating dimension because the squares for a rebus weren't symmetrically located and one still had to choose the correct fill. Thus this was a very satisfying puzzle in many ways. Copious congrats to the constructors!
Posted by: ArtLvr | July 26, 2008 at 11:55 PM
Loved this puzzle. Artlvr, I assumed the Elmer was Mr. Fudd - Warner Bros. did all the Bugs Bunny cartoons and Elmer was always after that rascally rabbit. Seau (pronounced (SAY ow) is a long-time, very well-regarded football player. I agree with Karmasarte, the Iseult/Reuel crossing was deadly. Lucky guess there. Hope these guys collaborate more often!
Posted by: jannieb | July 27, 2008 at 05:00 AM
This was a horrible puzzle! It may be tournament level, but for those of us who are not all that talented, it was unfair. I got it with the aid of google, but honestly, do I want to know the esoteric 5th taste in Japan? When there is a format like up/down right/left, the clues should be less obscure -- I still wonder what seau means -- if there are tougher clues, then let us get them through working our a reasonable puzzle.
Posted by: paul L | July 27, 2008 at 05:39 AM
Seau is the surname of football player Junior Seau - I'm sure it means something in the language of its origin (maybe Samoan????) but that is beyond me!
Posted by: jannieb | July 27, 2008 at 07:12 AM
I had no trouble with REUEL, ISEULT, and UMAMI, but I just trashed the rest of the puzzle! Mistakes everywhere: FANNIE for GINNIE, SUPDOC for SUPDOG -- so "BIG DIG" never did come to me ("BICDIF"?). I had to come here before I snapped to "VW BEETLE," which finally let me fill in Minnesota. I had forgotten SEAU and AZAWA from earlier puzzles, but the crosses that came from VW BEETLE finally made them appear to me.
Great puzzle. I particularly enjoyed the multiple rebuses in single answers.
Posted by: Wendy Laubach | July 27, 2008 at 07:50 AM
@paul L--A horrible puzzle? What you mean (I think) is that it was a difficult puzzle, or that you are not experienced enough to handle it, that this puzzle did you in. Don't blame the puzzle, which was actually a very good one. You've got to broaden your knowledge, maybe read the rest of the Times. I knew umami, and not from crosswords, but from--get this--reading the Food section on Wednesday! I knew Seau from--get this--watching football!
Re Elmer (Fudd): Whoever was ruminating over this clue, OF COURSE THAT'S WHO IT IS! (I knew him from--get this--watching cartoons! When I was five!)
Although I thought some of the rights and lefts were arbitrary (I'd have clued DOWN THE RIGHT FIELD LINE as "BEHIND FIRST BASE" instead of the ambiguous "BARELY FAIR, MAYBE") I thought it was a very well constructed and fair but tough puzzle.
Posted by: Steve L | July 27, 2008 at 11:11 AM
Hey everyone.
Glad you enjoyed the puzzle. David and I had a pretty good time constructing this one. In fact, we did it twice: we had to get rid of a couple of bad non-theme entries, and ended up redoing 95% of the grid. It became, however, a *much* better puzzle.
@paul L: The reference to the ACPT is not because this puzzle is necessarily "tournament level", but because a puzzle with a similar theme was used in the tournament this past year. (For a short explanation of why, see my comment on Amy Reynaldo's blog.)
MN (or is it MQ?)
Posted by: Nothnagel | July 27, 2008 at 01:35 PM
@jannieb --My Samoan is way too rusty, but, in Ancient Samoan, the word SEAU meant "Fierce tackling warrior with huge contract".
Posted by: KarmaSartre | July 27, 2008 at 04:07 PM
@karmasartre - sounds about right to me!
Posted by: jannieb | July 27, 2008 at 04:39 PM
I love everything about Mike Nothnagel's puzzles...and cringe when I see Quarfoot's name on the byline. When they're together, I know I'll easily solve one half of it and struggle with the other. This was no exception, but I loved it. It did take much longer than usual, though...and I was missing a few squares in that ISEULT/REUEL section of the puzzle when I came here. I loved the theme answers...especially the multidirectional ones ; )
Posted by: Linda G | July 27, 2008 at 06:58 PM
How can I get a blank of "Going Every Which Way"?
I want to give it to friends and relatives as a highly enjoyable challenge.
Thx.
Posted by: Margery | August 22, 2008 at 09:10 AM
Margery, the archived NYT puzzles are available on their Premium Crosswords page. I don't, and can't, make blank puzzles available on my site. Sorry.
This is a pay-for service but it's well worth it. You download Across Lite and have access to puzzles going back to 1996 which you can solve on your computer or print out.
Posted by: JimH | August 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM