NYT 5:14 ... LAT 1:35 ... CS 1:41 ... ND 2:59
I saw that Joon had today's NYT, and decided not to wait until tomorrow. Had to submit three times - first two were for empty squares, and my actual mistake was GREAT instead of DREAM in 37D. I'll write about the Pleasantville tournament in the morning. (Maybe.)
...OK, yeah, that's the easiest Saturday LAT in history.
3 comments:
Yeah, what was with the LA Times? Fun fill in there, clued for a Monday. I guess it opens up unthemed puzzles to a wider audience, maybe.
N.B. Just over 2 minutes in AcrossLite here, which is about my minimum in an app. Supports the Monday-difficulty guesstimate.
Check out the comments at L.A. Crossword Confidential. We are all (well, most of us) sick to death of the Mondayification of the L.A. Times.
Unthemed puzzles have a wider audience already--those syndicated crappy unthemed puzzles with undistinguished fill that undiscerning solvers indisposed to a challenge will do. It's a travesty to take a constructor like Barry Silk, who crafts excellent themeless puzzles, and dumb his puzzle down to Monday level. What's the point in paying constructors? Rich Norris could just set Crossword Compiler loose and make some lousy puzzles with easy clues, if that's what Tribune Media Services wants in a Saturday puzzle.
I wouldn't go that far - Rich needs pros like Barry to fill the grid with such sparkle (and little xwordese/obscurity). Hopefully even Mr. Idiot TMS Editor appreciates that. Even though I agree with your and Rex's rants, I don't think they'll make a whit of difference.
There could be a wild card here -- Wayne Robert Williams, who's apparently un-retired. (I spotted his byline this week in a free metro paper on the subway.) Maybe some papers can go back to the WRW puzzles that their readership so enjoyed, and the LAT can ramp back up a bit...
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