Little did I anticipate then what that would mean for crossword solving in my dotage.īit the dust where the Gulfport school met the maritime defense via the incorrect dePEND, making the school the USe (University of the Southeast?) and the defense the dNK (sort of like the DEW line but in the ocean?). I seem to recall believing, all those decades ago, that listening to the Rolling Stones meant a betrayal of the Beatles, so I don't know any of their songs.
I worked my way into the grid from YOGI, which made the crossing words easy to anticipate - YES, ONE, GETS, IS - and I was off, not to the races but to a SLO ascent. I agree with about the three layers of difficulty, but mine were reversed, with the easiest one on the bottom. Not much luck, really, but enough luck ( KORAN FLACK!) that key letters in the Stones song turned up, and thus, I was off…Ĭhallenging for me and DNF - but I had FUN trying. Please disregard the rest of the grid.įor the record, this is how I broke this thing: I recognized 1A: 1968 hit with the line "I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag" as a Stones song, but couldn't remember which. of Southern … Mississippi? People know that? Also, people know the OREN guy? Looks like he's been in the grid before, though lately O-REN Ishii from "Kill Bill" seems to be the preferred clue for all your OREN cluing needs (you should try to set your OREN Cluing Needs at "zero"). EFS is hilarious because no no no no. See also (the improbably worse) ITEA ( 23A: Virginia willow's genus). But I caught only the tail end of the Maleska era, and POA never made it into my word bank. Apparently veteran solvers know POA from the olden days when short obscurities reigned. Someone said "Sure, that should be in a puzzle." That fact blows my mind. That "O" was the very last letter I put in up top, and I just stared at that answer. They say "I give up, I was desperate." So if you have to put even one "genus" in your puzzle, you better have a good reason and you should do so only with great contrition. And certainly no more than one "genus." Genuses (or "genera," if you're gonna be a jerk about it) are the lowest form of crossword answer.
Everyone knows the Downs won't be Great (how can they be in a stunt puzzle like this), but you should be limited to only one or two groaners, tops. Still, if you can't manage your Downs, you have no business going to press. This isn't terrible surprising, since outside of the 15s there really aren't that many Acrosses (compared to Downs). I got ten pieces of fill in my grid that I have circled to indicate their deep sub-optimality: nine of them are Downs. This is, of course, the danger with the long stacks-easy to be happy when you're reading Across, but man, don't look Down.
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