05.04.07 -- NIGHT CUTS...

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Friday, May 4, 2007

Puzzle by Manny Nosowsky, edited by Will Shortz

What an ominous foreboding puzzle is this that forms a central square of nine letters that when anagrammed spell out NIGHT CUTS!…or…GUN STITCH! I worked this puzzle yesterday evening, maybe I should CUT NIGHTS! Or worse...! (That's right...you do the "math"!)

Little surprise what with the entries that cross: LETMEJUSTSAY (7D Remark introducer), RESIDENTIALAREA (8D Where no one has any business going?), TOUGHCOOKIES (21D Ones who can handle adversity) forming the vertical half of a cross whose horizontal half is formed by UNSUNGHEROES (31A Ones not getting their deserved acclaim), ASOLDDASTHEHILLS (34A Ancient), and DIDJUSTICETO (37A Treated fairly).
Continuing with the hostilities are OPPOSE (9A Buck), STEN (26A Tommy gun?), VALOR (44A Grounds for a medal), ASH (47A Bit of pollution), EERINESS (57A Creepy feeling), ONPATROL (12D Like the Coast Guard), CAPITALR (1A You can always identify a Republican by one), SOULJAH (24D Hi-hop’s Sister _____) [read “soldier”], SERIOUS (26D Grave), SINISTER (35D Ominous), and ITISAN (52A With 36-Down, “Very strange…”), ODDTHING (36D See 52-Across).
IT IS AN ODD THING indeed!

34A Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Black Hills of South Dakota

31A Hundreds Dead
37A "Justice" (ceiling tondo) by Sanzio Raffaello ca.1509
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican
For further commentary:
LINDA at MADNESS...CROSSWORD & OTHERWISE
REX PARKER DOES THE NYT CROSSWORD PUZZLE
ORANGE at DIARY OF A CROSSWORD FIEND
Puzzle available on the internet at
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games
If you subscribe to home delivery of The New York Times you are eligible to access the daily crossword via The New York Times - Times Reader, without additional charge, as part of your home delivery subscription.

2 comments:

Linda G said...

While I didn't have much trouble with the long answers, some of the short fill was pretty tough.

But the Sun puzzle...that's another story.

DONALD said...

I do the Sun puzzle occasionally, but bloggiing has cut down on the number of non-Times puzzles by quite a few -- just as well, I have a tenant who does nothing but eat and do crosswords!

On your recommendation, I will check out today's Sun, maybe during the Yankee game tonight...it makes losing easier!

Have a great day!