I remember thinking while the Olympics were happening that ignoring them completely was going to hurt me eventually. Some crossword was going to ask me who won the Bronze Medal in the three-legged race and I would have no idea. When I realized today's theme was going to be Olympic-related and saw the name David J. Kahn on the puzzle, my heart sank.
Fortunately for me, MICHAEL PHELPS was able to accomplish something so dramatic that it even seeped through to my consciousness. EIGHT GOLD MEDALS seems nearly as hard as constructing an 18-block puzzle and it means that if I want to beat the new record I now need to win nine at the next games. I better start training right away. Nah, it can wait until tomorrow.
The Wednesday, September 3 puzzle (answers) makes me wish that more puzzles could be this timely. I can't imagine what the back-stage scramble looks like to pull this off, although I bet Mr. Kahn had already calculated that whether the final total was seven or eight gold medals, it was still a 15-letter answer and he could start on at least the bottom half of the crossword before the final race even started. Thank goodness Mr. Phelps finished out of the medals in the R&B Twister Competition.
With women catching up and surpassing men in so many categories these days, it's nice to see studly guys like Michael and me still own one non-Olympic category. Apparently we SNORE more. Take that, Hillary and Sarah!
The pressure the NRA has been applying to Mr. Shortz and the rest of the NYT Box Team is finally starting to pay off. BULLET makes it's debut as an answer today.
It makes me sad that SST is now correctly referred to as a "bygone aircraft." I was fortunate enough to fly Concorde between Heathrow and JFK and it was such a fantastic experience aboard one of the most beautiful machines ever created. It always surprises me when technology backslides and civilians can no longer take the supersonic shortcut across the ocean.
