SUNDAY, october 07, 2007
political positions
nancy salomon & harvey estes / will shortz
difficulty factor: only one band-aid outta five today... just a few minor scrapes.
title/theme: political positions DEMocrats on the left, a lone INDependent in the center, and REPublicans on the right. an often incorrect over simplification of a truly convoluted system, but very cute crosswording, indeed!
a rebus? well, no... a CRAMALOT? YES! (see the perfect explanation by robert loy [who is pinch-hitting for regular puzzler/blogger linda g.]: (http://madness--crosswordandotherwise.blogspot.com/ and then navigate to 2007-10-07) finally there is a better term for this!
i don't know why, but i thought today's puzzle was pretty darned easy. i finished it with barely a glitch in under a half hour. maybe it's because i was sitting in the very rustic, and to me, idyllic surroundings of a tiny island in the st. lawrence seaway near chippewa bay! a line from roger miller's 'king of the road' comes to mind now... "no phone, no pools, no pets..." (more correctly, there is NO ELECTRICITY, so there's NO TV... the fridge and stove both run on propane... and it's always after 5 o'clock, so there's always beer! oh, and "every-meat-veggie-and-cheese" omelets go real good with beer for breakfast; it's a must-do on island holidays.) ah, the simplicity of it!
yes, i wanted SCALPEL at 1A, but 3D bert LAHR (born irving lahrheim) would have nothing of it. neither would 4D ALEC baldwin (born alexander rae baldwin III), or 5D TINA turner (born Anna Mae Bullock), and i wasn't gonna fight with all three of 'em. Francisco Pizarro González fought the 2D INCAS for years in the 1520-30's before subduing them. this gave me -ILAT--, and from there DILATOR. 20A IN A LINE brought me to 1D as DI--. since ACE was out of the picture, then some sort of crown [DIADEM] was in order to solve it and discover what would prove to be at least part of the theme.
- 1D DIADEM
- 26A DEMARCATED
- 36D DEMOS
- 33A READ 'EM AND WEEP
- 58D IN TANDEM
- 87A ACEDEMY AWARD
- 95D SIDEMAN
- 109A I DEMAND A RECOUNT
- 51D SATIN DOLL
- 65A DON'T MIND IF I DO
- 15D FIRE PIT
- 24A TUPPERWARE PARTY
- 39D CREPE
- 42A CARE PACKAGES
- 86D AD REP
- 92A INSTANT REPLAY
- 104D REPORT
- 103A SPARE PARTS
i absolutely hated the the answer to 77A PIX. because of the "rule" that "if a clue ands in 's'... so does the answer..." geez, and especially if its just a three-letter answer!
i think editor will shortz missed the boat a bit (especially after yesterday's SCREW IT answer) and probably could have clued 108D STDS with something more like "prom night hassles?" okay, maybe not...
keep on keepin' on...
dann
1 comment:
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