I loved the Thursday, January 17 crossword by Matt Ginsberg (answers). I'm a sucker for puzzles that require you to figure out the puzzle. Clever constructors hide the key to the theme in the SE corner, preferably in a Down clue, and that's just what happened here. I got all the way to the end before figuring out the theme and then everything fell into place. What fun.
Part of the psychology of puzzling is that if you make a mistake early on it's often hard to recover. That happens when you write in a wrong letter but sometimes it occurs even before. I read "1/64 of a checkerboard, maybe" and for some reason didn't see the "Abbr." indication the first time I read the clue. Subsequent scans of that clue meant I only got to the first word and then thought, "yeah, yeah, it's that one" so I never did read the full clue until the very end. Now I can't get the last letter of the checkerboard clue and the Across clue doesn't help because I don't know who Taylor, Wilson or Harding is. I give up on that and concentrate on the checkers. Four letter: SQI_. What kind of word fits that pattern? After a while I figure it must by ANN on the cross but that makes the checkers answer SQIN which ain't a word I know.
You know because you're smarter than me and read the whole clue. Checkerboard squares are roughly one square inch. Ahhhhhhhh. Those simultaneously frustrating and amusing moments and are part of the joy of the sport.
UPDATE: I realize I've been remiss. A previous post with a Marx Bros. clue inspired me to include a relevant quote and I didn't do that this time. One of the answer films was ANIMAL CRACKERS which is a favorite for many reasons and a good place to start if you're wondering what the hubbub is about. We'll talk more about Groucho and kin in an upcoming post.
Capt. Spaulding: Signor Ravelli's first selection will be "Somewhere My Love Lies Sleeping" with a male chorus.