Friday, August 22, 2008
Puzzle by Kevin G. Der, edited by Will Shortz
Writing a crossword blog is a frivolity on a frivolity -- -- commenting on crossword blogs is pure madness!
A few links for today's crossword -- Across: 1. It has 33 letters, RUSSIANLANGUAGE; 2. 16. All-Star Game, e.g., INTERLEAGUEPLAY; 18. High seats, THRONES; 20. Oscar nominee for "My Man Godfrey", AUER; 26. Actress Berger, SENTA; 37. Rio TINTO, multinational coal-mining giant; 40. Chaotic place, MARESNEST; 44. Classic 1974 role for Marty Feldman, IGOR; 54. “An Inconvenient Truth” topic, GREENHOUSEGASES.
Down: 5. Setting of the 2007 animated film “Persepolis”, IRAN; 13. Spanish city and province on the Mediterranean, ALICANTE; 14. Baroque dances, GAVOTTES; 26. Some Rockefeller Center murals, SERTS; 31. Ancient city to which Paul wrote an Epistle, COLOSSAE; 33. Angels are sometimes seen over them, FIRTREES; 41. Japanese mushrooms, ENOKIS; 43. Baseball’s Joe and others, TORRES; 50. Men might dress in this, DRAG.
“I know that I'm a partisan divider, but to me it seems that puzzle people are fleeing from real puzzles—fleeing the complexity, the fear of the unknown, fleeing from the messiness of life that cannot be contained in a box, fleeing to an illusion of mastery and control. They're control freaks seeking control of something worthless: ‘I can fill in a bunch of boxes with letters!’
“Those little crossword-puzzle boxes serve as the fragile containment structures for their darker fears, cells they lock themselves into in order to hide from the world. Hide from the fact that there are so many things they will never find answers for.
“That sometimes one only wants numbness. One doesn't want to be reminded of the full-blooded life that one can find in reading. That full-blooded life can only make one think of the death that awaits you or someone you love.”
The Puzzle of Puzzle People by Ron Rosenbaum
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For today’s cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
For the complete post, go HERE.
