I get a lot of email here at The JimH Crossword Blog. Sometimes readers take issue with one of my random opinions, sometimes they just want to let me know they read my blog, often they ask interesting questions.
Julia, a Deputy Editor at that ezine (sic) Slate thought my readers might enjoy this diatribe against puzzles and puzzlers. I found it hilarious, or maybe I was outraged. Or both. What do you think? Discuss.
I blogged recently about the most popular answer words and another reader wondered if any answers longer than fifteen letters have been used more than once. That's not something I track but I dug into the database to find out. The answers are surprising.
16 letters: You might correctly guess that FLY IN THE OINTMENT, PASS INTERFERENCE, and SHRINKING VIOLET would appear more than once, but what about that famous "Jane Austen book about Rosa Parks," RIDE AND PREJUDICE or that "Henry James story about a mutiny," THE TURN OF THE CREW?
17 letters: TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, WEARING OF THE GREEN and SYDNEY GREENSTREET make sense, but don't forget the "unfinished Norman Mailer work about strip-searching narcotics smugglers" known as THE NAKED AND THE DEA.
19 letters: There are no 18-letter duplicates but this "homily about gymnastics" has been used twice: SERMON ON THE DISMOUNT.
20 letters: Yes, disturbingly, there's a reused answer this long too. "Nose-picking and belching in the White House" is one of the clues for GROSS NATIONAL CONDUCT. That phrase has the honor of being the longest reused answer.
The Thursday, August 21 puzzle by Gary J. Whitehead (answers) doesn't use any of those answers. The idea of an ageless theme is fine but it's made even better here because all the de-aged answer phrases are clever.
I like how crosswords have a way of keeping you humble. Well, not you probably, but me anyway. "Beethoven's ____ Symphony" was a piece of cake for me. Old Ludwig only named two of his nine, and since Pastoral didn't fit it had to be Eroica. Herr von Beethoven may have given the rest only numbers but the ninth is commonly and, I'm afraid, famously referred to as the CHORAL Symphony for reasons that make sense if you listen to it. Better yet, go see it. Wherever you live, your local professional orchestra trots it out every year or two. Don't worry, the music is great enough to withstand repeated performances.
The last Down clue is "U.S./U.K. divider." I wonder if it's an intentional reference to George Bernard Shaw's famous observation that "England and America are two countries separated by a common language." Today, the answer is ATL.
As a matter of interest, today's constructor has his own Wikipedia entry.