09.02.08

Of Mice and Men

Stairs inside Torre del Mangia (Bell tower). Siena, Tuscany, Italy -- the photography of QT Luong

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Puzzle by Stanley Newman, edited by Will Shortz

It is worth noting that the name of the author of today’s crossword contains the word MAN as the crossword itself utilizes it as its action figure in five descending (or ascending) interrelated entries creating a human word staircase as follows:

MANAGINGEDITORS (17A. Newspaper V.I.P.’s);
PERMANENTMARKER (23A. Laundry pen, e.g.);
TENCOMMANDMENTS (39A. Exodus 20 subject);
REFERENCEMANUAL (51A. User’s guide); and
MIDDLELOWGERMAN (62A 12th-15th century European tongue).

There are a couple of extra “men” here and there, including MANOR (3D. Feudal estate) and MENACE (42D. Threat) which may or may not have been intended, just as ARID (21A. Bone-dry) and AROD (27A. Yankee nickname starting in 2004) or ADIDAS (9D. Avia alternative) and DDS (63D. Person who’s always feeling down in the mouth?: Abbr.) are just hanging out with no intrigue or relationship; however, NEWS (70A. Part of CNN) furnishes the finish in the puzzle for NEWMAN, the author’s last name.

Middle-sized entries include GEARTO, UNARMS; ORELSE (47D. Threat ender); 4D. PLASMA-screen TV and ABCTV (9A. “Lost” airer); with a fair amount of those of five letters -- AROSE, ATARI, CANTO, CLARE, CLOCK, CNOTE, DELHI, EBERT, EDAMS, EXILE, FEDON, INONE, LONER, NOLAN, ORGAN, PLODS, RAMPS, REMAP, SENSE, STORE, THREE, TRACI, UNMET and VISOR.

The fill: ALTO, ANT, ANY, ASK, ATOP, AXE, BET, CAT, CEO, CURB, DIME, DRAM, EEL, ELAL, ESE, ETON, GPS, HUN, MERE, MOP, NANU, NASA, NORM, PEA, PETE, PTA, RCMP, SCI, SHOE, STIR, STU, WOW and YUK

The juxtaposition of the two clues 42A. Threat and 47A. Threat ender was neat. The clue for CLOCK (11D. What a mouse ran up, in a rhyme) confirms my suspicion that the MAN is ascending and descending, or am I confusing man and mouse. I must admit staring (or should I pun stairing) at the crossword when finished, failing (or should I pun falling) to see MAN negotiating the diagrammatical stairs like an obligatory scene from Alfred Hitchcock.

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