06.08.07

The Wizard of Rorschach


Friday, June 8, 2007

Puzzle by Randolph Ross, edited by Will Shortz

Commentary upon a crossword puzzle, especially one of this great variety, can be similar to the results of a Rorschach test -- what “you” see is what “you” get!
Definitions of a Rorschach test (after Hermann Rorschach [1884-1922], Swiss psychiatrist) include “a psychological test in which a subject's interpretations of a series of standard inkblots are analyzed as an indication of personality traits, preoccupations, and conflicts” and “a test for the analysis of personality, in which the person being tested tells what is suggested to him by a standard series of inkblot designs: his responses are then analyzed and interpreted.”

Certainly, a crossword puzzle with the wild and imaginative variety of today’s by Randolph Ross is fair game to be interpreted any which way one wants -- more so, but no less than the controversial and constantly misnamed genre of crossword puzzles which provide a central focus for the solver in the form of a quotation, graphics, letter-play, grid-work design or the such within the context of the standard variety of crossword puzzle (and are consequently misnamed grossly for the “gimmick” included in the puzzle even though the “gimmick” compromises a minuscule amount of entry in the puzzle). Even those crossword puzzles (if one forgets the effort of the crossword constructor to thwart the solver from the remainder of the puzzle, relegating it to “fill”) can be a Rorschach test.

Bloggers of crossword puzzles reveal a considerable amount of themselves in writing about the puzzles. Ego and id get equal time with pomposity, hubris and mendacity emanating from the commentator in an effort, it would seem, to conceal and yet reveal his or her personal life and abilities in a form most desirable for presentation to the world of crossword aficionados and beyond -- some claim speed, others incredible vast knowledge, some speak of colleagues and hobnob with the puzzle constructors themselves at an annual meeting and tournament and adopt a revolting air of superiority. To get in the spirit, I hereby egotistically pronounce myself Emperor of Etymology.

You see there, I’ve done it too!

Six eleven-letter entries in two groups open and close this amazing crossword puzzle top and bottom, and six ten-letter entries in two groups bracket the crossword left and right:

MRBOJANGLES (1A 1971 hit with the lyric “He danced for those at minstrel shows”)
AIRFORCEONE (15A Film in which Ford was president)
PLAYSAROUND (17A Clowns)
NICHOLASCAGE (56A Oscar winner between Tom Hanks and Geoffrey Rush)
DNAMOLECULE (61A Subject of “The Double Helix”)
SAFETYZONES (63A Protected areas)
STATEHOUSE (27D Dome site)
PARAMOUNTS (28D Supreme rulers)
EVILINTENT (29A Malice aforethought)
BANANARAMA (12D Girl group with the 1986 #1 hit “Venus”)
BROKERSTIP (13D “Buy now,” e.g.)
STRETCHERS (14D Emergency equipment)

Eight-letter entries include LIEAWAKE (20A Have insomnia), SPEEDBAG (27A Boxer’s training equipment), WINESAPS (44A McIntosh cousins), and OUTDATES (49A Makes obsolete). Seven-letter entries include GEOLOGY (8D Topic in oil exploration), EMANATE (37A Issue), ARIDEST (35A Least interesting), and AWESOME (41D Skater dude’s exclamation).

Six letters, OFYORE (4D In the distant past) and STUCCO (45D Wall treatment), RAMBOS (22A Tough guys), and DESERT (48a Most of Mauritania).

Five letters, LOUIS (9D Tiffany who made Tiffany lamps), SEDAN (11D Body type), ADMEN (23D Some pitchers), BARTH (25D Author of the “The Sot-Weed Factor”),WOMAN (21D Creation of Genesis 2:22), HATER (34D Misanthrope), JEDIS (33D Film knights), DOLED (36D Given [out]), DECAF (48D After-dinner request), NONET (26A Group on Miles Davis’s “Birth of the Cool,” e.g.), MARYJ (32A Grammy winner Blige), HARSH (34A Like Arctic winters), TALON (39A Curved nail), HADIT (40A Seen enough), HONES (46A Improves).

The above entries fill the entire grid without resorting to four and three-letter entries which exist (in actuality do not exit) upon the happenstance of the longer entries, e.g.: MAPS, RILE, BRAG, ENNE, MBAS, SEGO, MARC, EMIL (43A Title boy in a 1964 Disney film),MINE, TINA (50D Brown with a blue pencil), FAUN (52 Pan, for one), OGLE, SEES, UFOS (51A “The X-Files” fodder), JOS, ARA, NCR, BBS, ART, NOR, MIR, TAV, UNE, STN, EST, LOT, ALY, and SEZ, all there because they must be there in order for the longer entries to mesh.

Quite an achievement! -- Sir Randolph Ross is the Royal Wizard of Rorschach!!!

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For today's cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

To go to original post with illustrations and puzzle grid, click on title at the beginning of commentary.