------------------ Saturday, July 26, 2008 Puzzle by Barry C. Silk, edited by Will Shortz In the course of solving a crossword, it can be frustrating to encounter multiple and oddly-juxtaposed consonants and vowels, but that's the stuff of which puzzles are made. Today's sports a heavy dose. An in-progress solving may leave one with consecutive-square partial entries of illogical-looking fragments, e.g. EAEA, MRW, STK, XNA, OUE, RSK, QS, QT, QW with a couple of RH's, coyly embellished with an assortment of slippery clues. That, however, is just fine, for crosswords are often a SURREAL (45D. Fantastic) wedding of a nightmare and a dream. The solitary business of solving is well-represented here with the two long entries of the crossword, ROLLING STONE(7D. Drifter), which can be either a person who drifts from place to place or a rock or ground drill, and ELEANORRIGBY(21D. Title woman of song who “lives in a dream”). Comfort for the frustrated comes in the form of IGNOREIT (62A. “Nothing to get upset about”) and THERENOW(15A. Words of solace); while for the maven, there is MRWIZARD(1A. Conductor of many TV experiments) and IQTEST (9A. Many people get 100 on it); and for everyone there is STUMBLE(13D. Err);DWELLON(8D. Refuse to let go of) and EATITUP(12D. Fall for something hook, line and sinker) or just 42. “Let ITGO”!Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been/ Lives in a dream/ Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door/ Who is it for?/ All the lonely people/ Where do they all come from ?/ All the lonely people/ Where do they all belong ? -- lyrics, Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles
For the puzzle in syndication, there is a number below each puzzle in syndication which corresponds to the original publication date, e.g., 0201 = 02/01/09, etc. All puzzles indexed in the Blog Archive below are archived by date which corresponds to the puzzle number.
Link to Original Posts:
To go to theoriginal unabridged postwith additional commentary, illustrations and the completed puzzle, or to leave a Comment,click on the TITLE at the beginning of today's or any day's commentary.
“The Bride” -- Jan Thorn-Prikker 
