NYT (p) 2:50 ... LAT 1:42 ... CS 1:39 ... ND 1:22 ... JON 5:37 ... BEQ 2:48
Solved the NYT last night at my aunt and uncle's house. I printed out copies for my mom and myself, and she finished in maybe 8 minutes! I had never seen the word HUMUS - or so I thought, because it was in a Sunday puzzle last year. Still, not a Monday word (even though Mom and aunt knew it immediately). And not a great showing for me, but I wasn't "warmed up" at all.
Holy crap, Matt Jones, nice 16x16 themeless featuring huge Longoesque white spaces! The fill's not bad at all, especially in the crazy center chunk. Spent a minute finishing the top section because WCT, LUXO, and ASHA were total unknowns and I couldn't figure out CRUISE from -R-I-E.
6 comments:
I'm glad to see that you posted a "slow" time on the NYT. I struggled with this one at the LA Tournament, coming in at a little over 4 minutes. Ouch.
The Jonesin' puzzle was awesome! My experience in the NE mirrored yours. I had no clue on WCT, LUXO, and ASHA & couldn't get BREEZE INTO out of my head.
Does anyone have a clue on this week's MGWCC? Eric Maddy (Crosswords LA champ) told us he figured it out. I'm going to pick a random 4-letter place name and send it in.
I tried hard to make BREEZE work! Felt better about the NYT after seeing Al was over 2:30.
I got the MG meta in maybe 10 minutes... it wasn't too hard once the puzzle was solved correctly (or with one unimportant letter wrong). I simply love that vowel theme for some reason!
I'm just not seeing the MG meta this week. That's OK, I missed the deadline a couple of weeks ago, so I'm out of the running for a pencil & notepad anyway. I don't envy joon, because he's the official MGWCC blogger and has to figure out the meta every week. That's a lot of pressure! :)
i can't tell you how many times my brother subjected me to "brimful of ASHA" back in 1997. hundreds, at least. that said, i also had no clue on WCT and LUXO, so it did take me a while.
doug, it's not so bad being me. i enjoy working out the metas, and if i ever do get stumped (it's happened once before, though not since i started blogging the puzzle) i can count on my readers to fill me in.
WCT was a mystery in the Jonesin, and I forgot LUXO but figured the LUX root was a good way to go, and ASHA goes back to my college days, so that fit in nicely.
I solved the MGWCC but didn't quite understand the entire meta theme - I backed into the answer, so I know I am missing a small part of the picture somewhere.
Joon, I assumed you'd ask Matt (or Amy or someone) if you couldn't solve a meta by Monday night...
ASHA is a gorgeous Indian-American I knew in college who went to work for the CIA. College was also when I stopped listening to pop/rock/any music, so the song was very WTF.
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