Anyway, back to Matt's puzzle. (Okay, one more snipe. Read what Matt wrote on his blog here.) There was an interesting part in Rosenbaum's article where he pokes fun at a solver who has not filled in the answer to the clue [Mauna ___] by saying, "Whoa, tough one, dude." Of course the answer could be either LOA or KEA and one does not write either in until one has a verifying cross clue. In this weeks puzzle, Matt had KEA in the answer grid twice (that's unusual) and LOA once. All three had the same clue [Mauna ___]. I thought that was hilarious.
The puzzle taught me that I had not read the article carefully. 8A had the clue [Hillbilly ___ (crossword-solving, according to 22-across--] for the answer HEROIN. 22A is, of course, RONROSENBAUM.
One clue which had me stumped for a while was 49A: [The real crime of 22-across's piece] ITWASNTFUNNY. But I only needed a few letters to figure it out after I corrected my mistake on 35D [Heart tube] which I had filled in as aorta but which turned out to be STENT.
There were a few typical misdirecting or vague MG-typical clues just to spice things up a bit:
- 19A One of four: SEASONS ("one of four what?" was my first response)
- 38A Kay follower: ELL
- 42A Compass dir.: ENE
- 1D Sent down: KOD
- 4D Rhyming word in a soft drink brand: Yello (I think this is Mello Yello--a caffeinated, citrus-flavored soft drink from Coca Cola.)
- 6D Brunch's less well-known cousin: LINNER
- 8D Laughter syllables: HOS (really?) Here's another possibility: employees, to a pimp.
- 50D X: TIMES
Oy, that last one killed me. But the one which had me going the most was "brunch's less well-known cousin". I thought LINNER right away, but I then thought, "no, that can't be it!" because I thought my sister and I had made that up years ago and know one would know it (I've never heard of it being used until this puzzle). That's going in my clues file.
So now, the puzzle done, I ended up writing several limericks but will only show the two I liked best here. This is one:
The author who comes from Bay Shore
Disdained puzzlers with words we abhor
He penned with his nib
Tripe that sounded so glib
That we likely will read him no more
I found out he is from Bay Shore, Long Island in his online bio. Kind of hard to fit Rosenbaum in a limerick with the correct meter. I also found out he is an older guy, so that is used in the next limerick:
There once was a man of late years
Who wrote of the "Starbucks of Tears"
With prose he distorts
As he disses Will Shortz
With his head firmly stuck up his rear
Unfortunately, neither of these won. But I did have fun writing them--and learning about them. My first try looked good to me, but when I shared it with a friend who writes limericks he said, "the meter is wrong," and I had to toss this one. Here it is:
A columnist who regards crosswords with fear
Wrote in Slate of the "Starbucks of Tears"
Rosenbaum dissed Will Shortz
And puzzle solvers--of course!
Causing cruciverbalists to jeer ala Lear.
By the way, this "Starbucks of Tears" thing is a Rosenbaum-coined term. Apparently where he was observing people doing these crosswords and sudoku puzzles there were a lot of sad-looking people in there. His presumption--probably correct--is that they were out from visiting a nearby hospital and were depressed. What was he doing in there?
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