Tuesday, 9/15/09

NYT (p) 2:24 ... LAT (p) 2:05 ... CS (p) 2:13 ... ND (p) 2:06 ... BT 3:35 ... TO 3:46

One little problem with Tausig's puzzle: the intersection of DI* and *ATRI could legitimately be either an M or a P! I guessed the wrong one at first, which is why I even noticed. Couldn't [Not the sharpest knife in the drawer] be a noun phrase, cluing the slangy DIP? But that's not an issue for the vast majority solving on paper.

Many problems with the Onion puzzle, starting with a flat-out blooper at 6-Across. It's an awesome clue, but the "character" is indisputably spelled ZUUL, not ZOOL. I also found the theme nonsensical, and frowned on the crossing of POMI and IANDI (I played "mash the keyboard" to get Mr. Happy Pencil). At least ALCALA's crossings were straightforward...

1 comment:

Joon said...

i had a different problem with ben's puzzle: NIBS for DIBS. this is dumb, but DIBS didn't occur to me. then i didn't know what to make of NM_ and _ER_TE or _ODIN (var.).