07.09.07

Up in Arms

Monday, July 9, 2007

Puzzle by Peter A. Collins, edited by Will Shortz

It's a good thing I located the crayons the kids left behind on the fourth of July for Patrick Blindauer's HAPPYBIRTHDAY USA special, because this Monday's puzzle made finding them twice worthwhile -- this time I used the "sea green" to color in the circles (which don't show up too well in print) for this post. If this goes on, I'll have to register for kindergarten this fall!

OCTOPUS (36A Creature suggested by this puzzle's circled letters) and ABDOMEN (24D Body's midsection) cross at their centers in the center of the grid with the aforementioned circled letters spelling ARM eight times (colored "sea green" below) radiating outward (or should I say out-word?) to form a virtual verbal octopus!

I am always grateful for a puzzle that leads me to discover something new, and the Wikipedia reference on OCTOPUS was quite an enlightenment. I had no idea that octopi were so intelligent -- for instance they’ve been known to “open the covers of their aquariums and survive for a time in the air in order to get to a nearby feeder tank and gorge themselves on the fish there.” They have a very short life span, made even shorter upon engaging in reproduction, and they've also been known to catch and kill some species of sharks. The Wikipedia article is worth a read. Actually, I was searching as to whether an octopus has an ABDOMEN (24D Body’s midsection) to determine if I should color in that word as part of the “puzzle-octopus” -- well, I did, because it does! It makes perfect sense as the ARMs are connected to the ABDOMEN of the OCTOPUS!

It's a nice surprise for a Monday, but I am sure the Puzzle Police will have a thing or two about where it's parked -- lucky if it doesn't get a ticket! That's right, except for the intelligible clues and lack of really obscure entries, this is the sort of crossword puzzle one encounters later in the week. Who's complaining? This is a real gem any day of the week!

MAMMAL (1A Warm-blooded animal), YESMAAM (7A Polite concurrence), MARMOTS (61A Coarse-haired burrowers), and IAMSAM (62A 2001 Sean Penn film) are the entries providing the M in the ARMs. ERITREA (14A Neighbor of Sudan), ARREARS (16A Behind on payments, after “in”), PRAIRIE (59A Kansas expanse), and ARRIERE (60A Back: Fr.) are the R’s -- that last one is obscure. SEASTAR (17A Five-pointed ocean denizen), CATNAPS (18A Short sleeps), ROADTAX (52A Driver’s levy), and BARTABS (55A Drinkers may run them up) supply the A’s.

Also (hopefully I’m not sounding over-enthusiastic), I liked the symmetrical placement of the rhyming GROWDIM (40D Fade) and TINYTIM (42D “Tip-Toe Thru’ the Tulips” singer); PIT (29D Cherry seed) and POD (37D Pea’s home) adjacent to ABDOMEN up left and down right; and the necessary happenstance fill ARE, AAA, ARP, AAR, ARS, and AES, along with MES, MSS, MIA -- and in other locations in the grid, ETC, ENE, SOO, MOP, TIN, JED, AID, ditto.

Our octopus gets a little company with the SEASTAR, and, with a stretch, ROE (sometimes clued as having to do with fish eggs), and perhaps with passing YACHTS (7D Regatta boats) filled with LOONIES (22D Cuckoos) and captained by a COLONEL (27D Rank below brigadier general) speeding along with music blaring ALLEGRO (23A Fast, in music) headed to old TERRA firma (43A) to the tune of The Beatle‘s “Octopus‘s Garden“.

Unforunately, an octopus has only arms, because the constructor has provided a TOERING (26D Jewelry for a sandal wearer) -- but not to NIGGLE (39A Criticize in a petty way), this is a puzzle that will PLEASE (31D “The Magic Word”) one and all -- “under the sea, in an octopus' garden”!

Like MTSINAI (4D Where Moses got the Ten Commandments), a gift from Heaven -- puzzlemaster Peter A. Collins and, ergo, his solvers are blessed with this little Monday monster!

To go to original post with illustrations and puzzle grid or to leave a Comment, click on TITLE at the beginning of this post’s commentary.