Oops! 
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Puzzle by Oliver Hill, edited by Will Shortz
Perhaps in anticipation that this crossword puzzle would not be dreary or tedious enough, there are ten across entries deliberately misspelled, which along with IMPROPERLYSPELLED (65A. Like the answers to the 10 asterisked clues, more often than any other English words, according to a 1999 study) are today’s little spelling bee lesson of inter-related entries. MILLENIUM (26. *Long, long time) = millennium; INNOCULATE (32. *Stick with a needle, maybe) = inoculate; EMBARASSMENT (34. *Absence at a nudist colony?) = embarrassment; HARRASSES (44. *Bugs) = harasses; MINISCULE (51. Wee) = minuscule (however, Webster‘s has miniscule as an alternate spelling); NOTICABLE (82. *Conspicuous) = noticeable; SUPERCEDE (87. *Supplant) = supersede; PERSEVERENCE (94. *Doggedness) = perseverance; ACCOMODATE (97. *Oblige) = accommodate; OCCURENCE (107. *Event) = occurrence. I just had a war with my spell-check function while typing the above. Saturday’s puzzle offered us CURATESEGG (18A. Something damned with faint praise, in British lingo); today’s gives us CURES (99D. Parish priests) and VICARS (96D. Parish priests) -- very Shortzesque -- Heavens (114D. SKY) and then “Heavens!” (109D. EGAD) -- well it is Sunday! ----------------- For an additional cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
