Thursday, May 24, 2007
Puzzle by Patrick Merrell, edited by Will Shortz
Stretching the fifteen squares across this crossword puzzle's grid are DDDMONSTERMOVIE (17A "Creature From the Black Lagoon," e.g.), HHHHCLUBMEETING (41A Gathering of budding agriculturists), and KKKKKKKKKKRACES (62A Some running competitions)
-- long-hand for 3D monster movie, 4H club meeting and 10K races -- the three main entries in a crossword puzzle construction seemingly obsessed with duplication of letters for the sake of itself.
That's perfectly "oll korrect," uh, I mean, O.K., as this sort of letters-for-letters-sake indulgence is a harmless alphabetical amusement, the etymological equivalent of archaeology (think hieroglyphics). Undoubtedly, some well-meaning soul will blandly brand it a "theme" -- yes, there are those quotation marks again!
Hanging up three balloons does not really constitute a "theme" (not again!); however, several other entries join in the attempt: III (34A Sundial hour), TEEM (45A Brim), SST (57A Old J.F.K. sight), SKEET (73A Target sport), POOHBAH (22D Bigwig), TUTEE (37D One in a class by himself), and the odd-looking KAA (63A "The Jungle Book" python).
The three fifteen-letter acrosses necessitate a lot of fill top and bottom of the puzzle: KID, END, BAD, IKE, APT, REV, LAI, EKE, KLM, KAA, KFC, KTS, CUE, ETE, SET which are joined elsewhere in the construction by TEK, OSE, ABE, ISE, CSI, CSA, RAT, UNI, SON and the aforementioned III. Hey, those are just the three-letter entries!
Oll korrect (e.g., O.K.), four-letter fill: AIMS, ESME, ETAT, EBBS, ANIL, SACK, SKYS, AHEM, POWS, ASHE -- not until we get to PIKESPEAK (15A Site of an annual auto hill climb) and LAFAYETTE (69A City of Indiana or Louisiana) can we look back at the runner-ups, those little-monster five and six letter words of head, heart, hands, and health (oops, that's the 4 H's), does this puzzle speak, and oddly it does so -- KEBAB (1A Food that's stuck on a plate) (Never experienced kebab sticking to a plate), BENICE (50A "Please refrain from personal attacks") (is that the only way to be nice?), MACYS (Big parade organizer) (now them's balloons!), all SORTS (60A Separates).
Middle right of the puzzle grouped running down are BIKINIS, BIONICS and SINGLET (that's an image!) -- boy, those five and six letter entries have character! BROKAW (5D "The Greatest Generation") is from my home state, OBIES (44A Cousins of Drama Desk Awards) -- one hangs on my wall; MOHAWK (30A Attention-getting haircut) -- something I don't have enough hair for (watch your dangling prepositions); AHEM (52A "Excuse me") NOTME (25D Cry of innocence); CSA (58A Gray side: Abbr.) and I mean ACUTE (70A Severe)!
With that, I'll 40A Call ITAN evening...
O.K., give it "****"!
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For today's cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
Click here for original post with illustrations and puzzle grid.
