NYT 3:22 (p) ... SUN 7:26 (p) ... LAT 3:52 (p) ... CS 3:15 (p)
Happy New Year! It's not exactly a resolution, but I'm going to stay away from the NYT applet for a while and do most of the daily puzzles on paper. Less than two months until the ACPT, and I may as well go for broke with the training. My goal is to win the B division and finish in the top 10 overall.
Alan Arbesfeld's NYT is great except for the bizarro NATES, and I never saw that clue. Karen M. Tracey's Sun "Themeless Thursday" seemed easy enough until I got to the north and northeast quadrants, where I couldn't get anything to stick. Figured out early that [Woodstock artist] CHARLES was SCHULZ, but it wouldn't fit unless I spelled it with a T. Knew [The Plow] had to be a constellation, but had it starting with an A based on the incorrect ABASE (shoulda been ABUSE, and the U would have given me URSAM--OR). Eventually I guessed SPARSE for [Thin] (wanted SVELTE), which filled in the top section... and Sparky's middle initial, which helped mop up the rest of it. And I thought I had KMT all figured out!
In the LAT, I'm proud of myself for immediately figuring out [Yearns for pines?: Abbr.] = SYN. In the CS, FINAL SCORE and NO FLY ZONES are great long fill, but the thematic resolutions are a bit stilted except for EXERCISE DAILY.
3 comments:
you're setting your sights too low. my goal for you is the A finals, since my goal for me is to win B, and i can't do that if you're still in it. i'm not at all sure i can do it anyway, but at least i don't know about anybody else in B who's much faster than me.
i had the same ABaSE mistake staring at me for what seemed like a long time, but for whatever reason, SPARSE came to me immediately off the SP (and SEOUL was a gimme), so it didn't take all that long to unravel. and it's nothing personal, dan, but i get a warm fuzzy feeling every time i can finish any puzzle faster than you. (it's only happened a couple of times, though. as in literally twice, at least that i can recall.)
yeah, I didn't even have BEEP in there because I left in SVELTE...
Get ready for the fuzzy feelings to fade as you start beating me more often. Of course, not at the tourney, I hope...
I think you have a definite shot at the A finals. You're beating me often in Across Lite. My goal is "oldest finalist" (which I'm now eligible for), but of course that gets much harder as you get older.
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