Sunday, November 2, 2008WEB MASTER, Puzzle by Elizabeth C. Gorski, edited by Will Shortz
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII[SPIDER] (25-Down -- Visual presentation of what gave 115-Across special powers) and THE AMAZING [SPIDER]MAN (115-Across), along with PHOTOGRAPHER (12D. 115-Across’s day job), TOBY MAGUIRE (64D. Film star who played 115-Across); OTTO OCTAVIUS (26D. Tentacled enemy of 115-Across), ALFRED MOLINA (47D. Film star who played 26-Down), GREEN GOBLIN (38A. Pumpkin bomb-throwing enemy of 115-Across, with “the”), WILLEM DAFOE (100A. Film star who played 38-Across) and COMIC BOOK COVER (24A. Where you might see 115-Across), are the interrelated entries of this Sunday crossword. Wow! All those I’s forming a strand from which to dangle a glyph of a spider? Cool!!!
If the way to a man’s heart were not through his stomach, it would be through the boy he hides in himself along with his heroes, those secret idols scrawled upon pages splashed with color and fantastic adventures, valiant rescuers with other-worldly powers and incredible magnetism for the opposite sex, all in the spare time of an everyday everyman possessing an undisclosed identity. Ah, that’s the life!
Today’s crossword covers much more, however, and the few following links may reveal where this brilliant crossword and its author would have us travel, providing a secondary clue or an outright answer in a puzzle that’s a bit like a diversion in study hall, you know, a comic book read between the pages of Dostoevsky or Proust!
Across: 1. Precipitate; 21. Falafel sandwich sauce; 27. They’re hidden in a Hirschfeld sketch; 40. Scottish cattle breed; 43. Gibson’s “Ransom” co-star; 44. Prominent stars in constellations; 50. Food writer Rombauer and others; 61. Bandleader Puente; 68. “London Fields” author; 73. Plant with tendrils; 75. Sight from the Bering Sea; 80. Vintage wheels; 86. Singer Lauper; 97. Handel opera based on Greek myth; 108. The planet Venus; 122. Pupil’s spot; 127. Firewood measures.
Down: 1. 10-G, e.g.: Abbr.; 3. Actor Jeremy of “North Country”; 7. Chewy cookie; 9. Monet painting also known as “:The Woman in the Green Dress”; 11. Wooden shoe; 17. California’s High SIERRA; 18. Joan of Arc’s crime; 33. Indian fort locale; 46. Largest moon of Uranus; 51. Comfy shoe; 63. Mohawk, for one; 82. “Scenes From a MALL” (Woody Allen film); 86. Home of Rapid City: Abbr.; 87. Setting of the painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware”; 89. Natural sweetener; 101. Small program; 104. Swindle; 107. Young business partner?; 117. Glamorous Gardner.
If crosswords were webs and their authors were spiders, Elizabeth C. Gorski is herself, a web master!
Excuse me, I hear a damsel in distress!
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For today’s cartoon, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
For the complete post, go HERE.
