Joon, you didn't tell me you had a Sunday NYT too! I didn't have huge problems solving any of the weird fill (OK maybe LEE AAKER), but it does add up. Personally I'd rather have this high "freshness" than more common words, and I trust Shortz to draw the line.
Made an incorrect guess on Merl Reagle's puzzle, at the CATENA/FANON intersection. CATERA/FARON looked good enough, but N was my next guess. Here's how obscure CATENA is: its only database hit is a Bob Klahn Saturday puzzle from 2000. Paula Gamache's Sunday Challenge has great fill, as always, and too-easy clues, as always.
Oops - the wrong BG puzzle was posted and I failed to notice that I'd already solved it six weeks ago!
2 comments:
i didn't tell you because i didn't know! this puzzle was accepted literally a week ago. in fact, i found out about it after my friday puzzle ran. crazy. and i know for a fact that some people have been waiting a year for their sunday puzzle to show up.
i was pretty displeased with some of the fill, notably the whole area with KUDO/MIRABEL/ISSUANT/TAKIN/ITURBI. if i were trying this again, i'd put a cheater square in there and see if i could get it to come out cleaner, but at the time, that was literally the only fill that would work; i actually didn't think the puzzle was going to be accepted because of that area. and yeah, LEE AAKER is kind of an unfamiliar name but all those vowels in a row look pretty cool.
A week ago!? Holy crap.
KUDO is a great entry and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
(that's not sarcastic, btw)
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