All three genera of vampire bats- Desmodus, Diaemus, and Diphylla-are exclusively nocturnal, so that’s okay. Let’s say mythical vampires are just a misdirection in the clue. I feel it’s unnecessarily exacting to point out the duplication contained therein, but here I am doing so-although not dinging the constructor or editor for that. Probably the trickiest clue in the puzzle. This was an exceptionally smooth crossword it practically filled itself in. Additionally, they’re all intangible and/or invisible, but that seems coincidental? Or maybe just a little bonus. Judging by the awkwardness, this must have been difficult to clue without infringing on the revealer. I thought at first that this hadn’t affected my solving time, but now that I realize I was at a typical Monday time even though this grid is a slim 14 squares across, not 15, it probably did.Ĭhase Dittrich’s Universal Crossword, “Fragile” - pannonica’s write-up The grid is pretty clean although some of the clues I think lean toward a Tuesday-Wednesday level (for example, if you don’t have any crossings, could lead you to LYFT or the correct answer, UBER, at 20A). I say “I think” because…crosswords have themes? That you know about before you’re done solving the puzzle? What?! The punny cluing means there’s no need for a revealer, although I think it might be a little harder to parse the theme than an average Monday. In this theme, we have three ways to watch TV shows: a NETWORK, a CHANNEL, and a STATION. Something else you probably have in the house: a television. Los Angeles Times 7/11/22 by Justin Daneau Justin Daneau’s Los Angeles Times crossword - Stella’s write-up The song was later given lyrics and became the signature tune of Johnny Mathis. I was going to embed a video of Oscar the Grouch singing “I Love Trash” but let me break out of my norm and try to class the place up with ERROLL Garner playing “Misty,” which he wrote by the way. But it’s not a problem for the narcissist, is it? With the clue, it seems obvious it means to sink the ball on your first putt once you’ve arrived on the green. I’m not familiar with the phrase ONE-PUTT, but then I don’t follow golf. The grid isn’t all that flashy, but there are plenty of 7s to enjoy: AVOCADO, LOBSTER, BASMATI, PAPRIKA (I’m getting hungry), PROTEGE, TITANIC, UTOPIAN, and AGATHAS (the awards). This felt like a perfect over-the-plate Monday-level theme. The meanings of the words change just enough to make the theme work. The other theme answers are familiar phrases whose first words can also be synonyms for “trash.” Also 9a for OSCAR, whose wordplay I only got while writing this recap.ĭave Rus’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Sporting Communication”-Jim P’s reviewĭave Rus makes his cruciverbial debut with a smooth grid all about trash. I basically had no resistance throughout this puzzle, except for trying to put down “trounce” instead of THRASH for once I had the T.įavorite clues: Despite its aggressive wordiness, 35a for SHE. Roy mentions in his construction notes that his original fill was quite different – I’d be interested to know if the black square layout was different too.įill highlights: HOT WIRES, PANKO, NPR NEWS, SHIP’S LOG, EGGNOGįill lowlights: There are minimal lowlights here actually! Nothing too esoteric for a Monday (unless you are anti-UK-crossword-words like SNOGS or NAE). I don’t love how this particular layout creates those 3×4 sections in the NW/SE corners though. Thus, I’m not surprised that it might take a strange configuration of squares to get optimal fill. These theme answers aren’t lengths that are too hard to work with, but they are a pretty well-defined set (in that none of them could really be switched out for another answer). The extra black squares on the left and right sides of the puzzle are pretty rare to see – in my experience, they mostly crop up when working with theme answers of tricky lengths (like 14’s). Maybe this is because I’m a crossword constructor, but my first thought when I opened the grid was “huh, that’s a weird black square pattern”. I’m not sure what exactly the colors have to do with paint, but honestly I don’t mind it, the wordplay still comes through. It’s very cool that such common phrases can be linked together like this I love when crosswords show me new takes on everyday words and this puzzle does that well. Neat! I noticed the colors while solving but not the finger parts, at least until I came to the revealer. So, each theme answer comprises a color and part of the finger.
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