![]() Meh words balanced by some fun: ABOVEPAR, OTTAWA, EARWAX, ASININE, UNDERTOW over BORABORA (nice to see the whole word instead of just half). Lots of familiar material, including much xwordese, but somehow it didn't bother me - well, the TERSER/AXER bothered me. Record time for me on this Wednesday, at only 1.324Rex. Like liked the asymmetry of the theme material: it reminded me of the displays in some Manhattan skyscrapers, where you could see exactly where the cars were stopped, or going, and guesstimate how late you were going to be arriving at your office. Got the theme off the OTIS in ROTISSERIES, and the possibility of reverse OTIS from ASININE and STOPIT. I’d call this puzzle a “tweener”, not a stand up and cheer offering but not a stand up and boo offering either a serviceable piece of work from a seasoned constructor. Getting the puzzle’s ostensible raison d’étre, UPSANDDOWNS, out of the way, David proceeds to provide some interesting fill, CURATOR, UNDERTOW, SPINET, FEIGNED and ASININE, as examples, while folding my favorite word of the puzzle, “Vicissitudes”, into the clues.īut, then we get UBI, TOR and TERSER and the AXER WAILED at EBEN, (and it wasn’t a happy sight), but if we are to have answers we like, like ROTISSERIES, we’ll have to handle those little nasties with no sweat. This is a puzzle that David Kahn, (who has contributed 153 Times puzzles to date), likely could write in his sleep, but he gives us an active “watch the bouncing ball” type tribute to Elisha OTIS, he of today’s 16 circles and the guy who created the Muzak delivery system, sometimes called the elevator. Nice of David to start us off with a clever bit of Boston lingo as we trudge home to Southie on the BAH CAH. I can't help but wonder what the puzzle would look like if the circled squares were split up? I know that's not always the best theme strategy, but who knows what one could come up with that way? BAG OF TR ICK S? C OMPAC T D ISC? F OR THE B IRD S? PRE SIDEN T OBAMA? SA IN T J OHN? WA SH ING TON DC? Just a thought. I don't really mind ONE'S in a long entry, but I always think of the phrase as GOES ONE'S OWN WAY, not HAS IT (unless it were HAVE IT YOUR WAY). But even so, the theme entries didn't really sparkle for me - HOT ISSUES is fine, ROTISSERIES and DEPOSITOR are just okay. I guess in retrospect, it's probably better that the letters in OTIS are consecutive, either normally or backwards, and not mixed up in some random jumble. A lot of crosswordese, and LIANES really threw me - I've never seen that as an alternate spelling for LIANAS, but WAED just wouldn't do. Yeah, I wasn't really feeling this one myself. But outpacing the King on a Wednesday? That almost never happens - not bad for a guy who finished close to 200 spots behind Rex at the ACPT! I dunno, I must have hit this puzzle's sweet spot. Today is one of those days! Even though I'm pretty speedy on Mondays and Tuesdays, I almost always still finish behind Rex. Once in a blue moon, I'll finish faster than Rex. I've never heard of HOT ISSUES ( 9D: Stocks in great demand) in the context of stocks, so that's something new. When is by far your most interesting clue, there's a problem. It would be nice if some effort were put into making the whole grid entertaining, not just the theme parts. Most of the rest of the clues are one or two words, and feel like they were pulled from among the most common clues in a database. You *may* call "it" that, but you're more likely to call it a PRONOUN, because that is what "it" is. It's both dull and vague, most of the time. 9D: Stocks in great demand (H OT ISSUES)Ĭluing on this is another weakness.7D: Ignores others' advice (HA S IT ONE'S OWN WAY).34D: Bank customer, at times (DEPO SITOR). ![]() 3D: Cookers for chickens and franks (R OTISSERIES). ![]() (I mean, Irving Bacheller? EBEN Holden? That one hasn't been out of mothballs in ages). Not on my wavelength, and not my cup of tea. ![]() This puzzle is all theme-everything else suffers for the visual gag. The TERSER AXER and the TIERED REFEREE, the alt-spelled LIANES, ANI and ASI, UPI and UBI, and the REY of them all, ONERS. I couldn't get traction anywhere at first, and then when I did, I kept running into UGH-y and/or dull stuff with lots of Es and Rs in it. ![]() The circles and chopped-up middle of the grid, with all the segments and black squares, made the whole thing too busy. But between the asymmetrical, scattered circles and the ultra-choppy grid and the Olde Schoole fill, it was a bit of a mess to look at, and solve. I can see, in retrospect, that the theme is cute in its way: elevators, up and down, OTIS SITO SITO OTIS, what not. ![]()
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