Honey, I Shrunk the Solar System -- NASA
------------------
Sunday, April 20, 2008
SPACED OUT, Puzzle by John Farmer, edited by Will Shortz
In today’s crossword puzzle, another one of those irreconcilable differences occurs between the electronic and printed newspaper (New York Times Magazine) versions of this puzzle.
Electronic reads SUN (9D. Center of many revolutions) -- Notepad: When the puzzle is done, the letters in the following squares spell a bonus phrase: 7A - 3rd letter, 31A - 5th, 65A - 4th, 104A - 6th, 136A - 3rd, 151A - 1st, 149A - 4th, 133A - 4th, 100A - 1st, 62A - 1st, 29A - 6th.
Printed copy reads SUN (9D. Center of many revolutions [whose first letter starts a bonus phrase reading clockwise around the shaded squares]).
It appears that shaded squares cannot be implemented in the electronic version, hence the long explanation in the Notepad.
However, the solution posted here is from the electronic version, so I just shaded them in because it's tedious to look up all of the notepad letters, e.g.:
S O L A R S Y S T E M
Now, with that out of the way -- what fun!
Qualify that. It’s fun for the solver of the printed copy, not as much for the electronic solver. In the printed copy, there are those mysterious shaded squares, and in the electronic version, one doesn’t even know they exist -- hence it’s an afterthought instead of a clue or a goal of the solution. Both copies, of course, have the circled squares, which spell out MERCURY, VENUS, EARTH, MARS, JUPITER, SATURN, URANUS and NEPTUNE.
The SUN (9D) presides above center of the puzzle, and the planets in the eight entries follow in order of their proximity to the sun. Alas, however, poor PLUTO (131D. 2006 neologism meaning “to demote”) doesn’t even get a “dwarf planet” mention -- Pluto’s been doubly Plutoed! Credit that as “gone, but not forgotten!”
The entries containing the planet names are as follows: THEAMERICANCENTURY (24A. 1941 Henry Luce article that coined a name for an era); EVERYTHINGMUSTGO (34A. Closeout come-on); THECATCHERINTHERYE (52A. Novel that ends “Don’t ever tell anybody anything, if you do, you start missing everybody”); SMOKEANDMIRRORS (75A. Artful deception); JUMPINTOTHEFIRE (82A. 1972 Harry Nilsson hit); FIVESTARRESTAURANT (107A. Prime eatery); VANCOUVERCANUCKS (125A. Stanley Cup finalists of 1982 and 1994); and INDEPENDENTCOUNSEL (138A. Head of a special government inquiry).
I went on and on about PLUTO in the post of 03.11.08 -- A Shot in the Dark, so I’ll cool it here, ‘cause I already did it there!
Pluto in True Color -- Eliot Young (SwRI) et al., NASAThe verb "to pluto" (preterite and past
participle: "plutoed") is a neologism coined in the aftermath of the decision to demote the planet Pluto to the status of "dwarf planet". In January 2007, the American Dialect Society chose "plutoed" as its 2006 Word of the Year, defining "to pluto" as "to demote or devalue someone or something", "as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet."Beyond the solar system, I found myself wavering on the spelling of AMONTILLADO, ECHT, JETES, HENMAN, VAIL, VIJAY, WOLDS, and others. There were lots of conversational entries and clues -- “Poor venomous fool“; “I’m king of the world!”; “You did it!”, YAY; “Dee-lish!” and YUMMY; “These ARE the times that …”; “ANY takers?”; “NONEOF (either) the above” or “your business”; “So long, dahling” and TATA; “The fix ISIN”; “May IGO now?”; “OUR Father…”
I also exhausted the subject of "The Catcher in the Rye" (here used to give us EARTH in circles) with the post of 03.16.08 -- Solitaire -- the Acrostic -- so, that too, I’ll leave alone -- “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody”, oops, couldn’t resist!
Never heard of MOTHERNIGHT; didn’t know Sting’s last name was SUMNER; just couldn’t register ROTHKO, There are lots of people in the puzzle -- YAZ, Antony and Cleopatra, Mary URE, ALAN King, Henry Luce, SHOLOM Aleichem; ORR; Celine Dion and RKELLY; Seigneur de Montaigne; Beethoven, ROSSINI, LIV Ullmann; Harry Nilsson, PORTIA; MINEO and Gene Krupa; Lorenz Hart; NAOMI Watts; Charles de Gaulle; STELLA; ASA Gray; LEAH and Judah; IRVS Kupcinet and Cross; Paul Bunyan; YASMINE Bleeth; IDI Amin; Robert URICH; Nick Nolte, Kurt Vonnegut; Jean KERR; Mussorgsky; Miley Cyrus; Emile HIRSCH; EUCLID; Joel and Ethan COEN; and those two standards AYN Rand and EMO Philips. They are all awaiting Gustav Holst, composer of “The Planets”!
Today’s little square box of a crossword puzzle containing so much of our solar system with a vast variety of miscellany is a brilliant composition, and conjures up William Blake -- “To see the world in a grain of sand; And heaven in a wildflower; Hold infinity in the palm of your hand; And eternity in an hour.”
Read Linda at Madness…Crossword and Otherwise.
-----------------
For today's cartoons, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.
