Monday, May 12, 2014

Jim Horne’s Manifesto (Solution No. 3,325)

The solution to puzzle no. 3,325 is below the fold as usual.

While we’re on the subject of difficulty (or lack thereof), I noticed a post from Jim Horne (proprietor of xwordinfo.com) asking “What are crossword bloggers thinking?”  He notes that many of the most popular crossword blogs, and their commentors, take inordinate pleasure in sniping at the puzzles they review, so he found it discouraging to blog.

The manifesto had seven points—I think they’re all insightful.
  • Blogs are written by people who are not the target audience for the puzzles
  • The blogs are written by people who have done so many puzzles that they've become tired of the standard forms.
  • The bloggers seem to be more conservative than I am
  • Bloggers have an unreasonable focus on the weakest short fill entries
  • There’s a tendency to equate knowledge gaps with bad puzzle-making
  • There is too much focus on symmetry and consistency
  • There is irrational hand-wringing when made-up rules are broken
If I had to distill it down to a single point, it would be: “solvers and bloggers have to learn to meet the constructor halfway.” Go read the whole thing.



Solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,325

Themework: see 29a.  The theme answers are the five ranks in a royal flush.

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Hard, though the theme can help you. 

Political content: 16d.  I was trying to make ISSA (Darrell, R-CA) fit at first, but he’s from the San Diego area

Legend: “*” anagram; “~” sounds like; “<“ letters reversed; “( )” letters inserted; “_” or lower case: letters deleted; “†” explicit in the clue, “^” first or last letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters; “§” heteronym, “¶“ letter bank

Across
1a,
30a 
SKIP ROP E
SKI PROP (“a pole”) + E (“excellent”)
I’m going to take a page from Emily and drop a video at the end of the solution.
3a
*WHITE SPACE
*SHAPE TWICE (anagram indicated by “rearrange”)
10a
BIL(KIN)G_
KIN (“relatives”) contained in (“invested in”) BILG_e_ (“worthless stuff,” omission of last letter indicated by “mostly”)
11a
WEBSITE
Pun. You might find spiderwebs in the attic.
12a
LE GATE
LT (“the French”) + GATE (“door”)
13a
P SAL MIST
^P^etraeus (first letter indicated by “heading”) + SAL (†) + MIST (“fog”)
I was misdirected for a while, trying to anagram “SAL TO THE”
14a
_GLE N_
goo_GLE N_ews (hidden word indicated by “covers”)
15a
PRO M_ QUEEN
PRO (“supporting”) M_c_QUEEN (“Steve,” omission of C [“$100”] indicated by “loses”)
18a
*APPLE(J)ACK
*PACK PALE (anagram indicated by “brewed”) containing ^J^anuary (first letter indicated by “beginning”)
20a
A(IM)S
IM (“instant message”) contained in (“interrupting”) AS (“ballplayers”)
23a
LEVI T ATE
LEVI (“man in the Bible”) + prophe^T^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) + ATE (“took in”)
25a
PRIES T
PRIES (“is a busybody”) + T (“true”)
27a
<_CAR(DIA)C<
<CRAC_k_ (“some cocaine,” omission of last letter indicated by “almost entirely”) containing (“to obtain”) AID (“help”), reversal of the whole thing indicated by “reject”
28a
*MOISTEN
*NO ITEMS (anagram indicated by “strangely”)
29a
ROY (AL F) LUSH
ROY (“Rogers”) + LUSH (“drunk”) containing (“capturing”) ALF (“alien life form”)
30a

see 1a


Down
1d
SUB T_LE
SUB (“hero”) preceding (“at first”) T_a_LE (“story,” omission of A indicated by “lacking A”)
Placement of the SUB component at the end of the clue makes it harder.
2d
ILL(E) GAL
ILL (“sick”) + GAL (“girl”) containing (“taking”) E (“ecstacy”)
4d
HUG O
HUG (“display of affection”) + O (repeat of “hug”)
5d
<T(OWNS)FOL< K
OWNS (“has”) contained in (“lodged in”) <LOFT< (“garret,” reversal indicated by “up”) followed by (“above”) awestruck^K^ (last letter indicated by “last of”)
6d
<SI< BY L
<IS< (†, reversal indicated by “rising”) + BY (“near”) + ^L^acedaemon (first letter indicated by “capital”)
Lacedaemon (where’d they get that one?) is a province of Greece.
7d
AS I N INE
Rebus
8d
*ELECTING
*CITE GLEN (anagram indicated by “freely”), cross-reference to 14A “GLEN” in anagram fodder
9d
PITT _ANCE
PITT (“Brad”) + _d_ANCE (“Lindy, say,” omission of first letter indicated by “past the opening”)
Another challenging clue to parse.
15d
<_PRAC TI CAL_<
<shel_LAC IT CARP_enter< (hidden word indicated by “substance,” reversal indicated by “if inverted”)
16d
QUA TRAIN
QUA (“some”) + TRAIN (“exercise”)
Subtle.
17d
CAB L<E CAR<
CAB (“taxi”) + ^L^imo (first letter indicated by “in the lead”) preceding (“dominating”) <RACE< (“competition,” reversal indicated by “uphill”)
19d
P OVER T Y
P OVER T (“P/T”) + emplo^Y^ments (middle letter indicated by “at the center”)
Getting this one is why you should try and work out all the clues in these puzzles.
21d
*MAESTRO
*SOME TAR (anagram indicated by “mixed”)
22d
*STANCE
*ASCENT (anagram indicated by “ruined”)
24d
T<RIAL<
^T^he (†, first letter indicated by “entrance”) + <LAIR< (“den,” reversal indicated by “in reverse”)
26d
¶EMUS
¶MUSEUM
This might be a first: an inverted letter bank. 


Double Dutch Bus (Frankie Smith, 1981)



4 comments:

  1. Thanks for that link! Very interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dang! I still don't get 7d. What's nane got to do with it, rebus or not?

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  3. Locheriboll: the clue is trying to say "inane", but there's a "9" where the "i" is.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Eckless, but I figured out that much. But why? Why a nine? Could have made more sense with a picture of an eye!

    ReplyDelete

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