MAN Descending a Staircase
We don't hear from Stanley Newman that often. Today's Tuesday, September 2 puzzle (answers) is his 12th in my database stretching back to his first nearly 15 years ago. It was typical Tuesday difficulty but the theme was completely unhelpful for the simple reason that I couldn't figure it out while I was solving.
In fact, I couldn't figure it out after I had finished solving it either. Robin looked at my answers and spotted the MAN stepping down to the right through the five 15-letter answers. I guess that's it. If there's something more, please let me know.
The image is Duchamp's famous Nude Descending the Staircase No. 2. This seemingly innocent piece of, uh, erotica I guess, was rejected by the Salon des Indépendants in Paris and caused a huge scandal when it was finally displayed in New York City in 1913. I wonder if this is what Mr. Newman was thinking about when he devised his equally scandalous crossword.
Here's the Freshness Factor surprise du jour. The word CLOCK has never appeared as an answer in a NYT puzzle before today. TEN COMMANDMENTS has now appeared 7 times. My favorite clue was Peter Gordon's: "contents of some tablets," in 2002.
GPS is a fairly common answer that until recently referred, somewhat awkwardly, to "family docs." Modern technology has made this a better answer ever since Global Positioning Systems have become more popular.
I suppose this puzzle gives me an excuse to include another fine art morphing video. This one is called Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase.
Finally, here's the answer to the question I posed yesterday: which crossword holds the record for most occurrences of a single letter? In 1994, Cathy Millhauser constructed a Sunday puzzle called Eland which repeated one letter 138 times. (Once again, that's a direct link to XWord Info since it predates the NYT puzzle archives.) The daily record holder is perhaps even more amazing. One letter is repeated 78 times in a 15 by 15 grid.
I think the MAN trick is theme enough...in fact, I love it. The spacing is perfect. I didn't get it until I finished, either. I'd be surprised if Mr. Newman worried about squeezing in something else.
I always think of Duchamps' painting as "Nude Ascending the Staircase Backwards No. 2" -- I must be looking at it differently.
Posted by: KarmaSartre | September 01, 2008 at 07:41 PM
"We don't hear from Stanley Newman that often" is a mite misleading. Stan is actually one of the most prolific constructors out there—he may well publish 50 or 100 Newsday crosswords every year (he's the editor as well), and he's published dozens of books of crosswords. Cruciverb.com appears to be down at the moment so I can't get a count of his puzzles, but there must be hundreds, probably far more than Manny Nosowsky's 240 NYT's.
Posted by: Orange | September 01, 2008 at 08:33 PM
Orange is quite right. I should have said we don't hear from him much at the NYT.
In the Puzzle Books module on the left, there's a link to Cruciverbalism: A Crossword Fanatic's Guide to Life in the Grid which he co-wrote with Mark Lasswell.
Posted by: JimH | September 01, 2008 at 09:11 PM
More? Yes, there's a little dividend in 3D MANOR... and you might say Mr. Newman is to the "manner" of xwords born? Who da Man? etc.
Loved your Art-morph video, Jim. And again, thank you for PastBlasts!
Posted by: ArtLvr | September 01, 2008 at 09:21 PM
I had to ask someone what the theme was. Oy.
Posted by: Ellen | September 02, 2008 at 01:42 AM
I loved the 5 men; spotted them by 23A, which helped with the rest of the long answers.
Very elegant descent!
Posted by: PondGirl | September 02, 2008 at 03:05 PM