06.05.07 -- Shoughle Off to Boughalo

The New York Times Crossword In Gothic

'To die, to sleep ... To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay there's the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause...' - Hamlet's soliloquy upon contemplating suicide.

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Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Puzzle by Barry C. Silk, edited by Will Shortz

SLUFFED (26D Discarded: Var.) is an odious corruption scrawled asymmetrically across the face of this puzzle. A corruption from shuffled to sloughed to sluffed -- and when does sluffed get corrupted to shuffled? No matter, in the light of the rabid corruption of the English language throughout the continent, especially on the internet, rap lyrics of deceased musicians (TUPAC [9D Rapper Shakur]), and crossword puzzle jargon, I am sure William Shakespeare would not only understand, but acquiesce in this age of the HOTKEY (46D Computer user’s shortcut). The rat race is leaving the English language behind in a MIRE (30d Muddy area).

A central fifteen-letter entry, LEADER OF THE PACK (38A 1964 #1 hit by the Shangri-Las...) is presented as a clue to 18A ACE OF SPACES, 28A ALPHAMALE, 45A DENMOTHER, and 59A MARLBOROMAN, all given the same clue -- 38-Across, in a sense.

SNARL (4A Traffic tie-up), UVULA (16A Throat dangler) are the ugly step-sisters in this puzzle; TEA (22A Afternoon social) and SEA (19D Pirate’s domain) cross each other, as do LAO (60D Southeast Asian language) and ENLAI (64A Zhou _____); commercial entries RCCOLA (1D Soft drink since 1905) and REEBOK (48D Adidas competitor) bracket the grid which also includes NODOZ (68A All-night trucker‘s aid), MOBIL (50D It merged with Exxon), AOL (40D Gmail alternative) and Marlboro. ERITU (35A Verdi aria) and FIORI (43A Italian flowers) float across left and right of center with HOSPITAL (27D Setting for TV’s “House”) and SCHEDULE (21D Plan) juxtaposed down just right and left of center, while WHOM (36D Often-misused pronoun) gets a finger-wag even as "sluffed" is sloughed off.

DOGRUN (45D Area connected to a kennel), ENIGMA (47D Conundrum), PIXIE (15A Playful sprite), and OLDPAL (2D Friend since high school, say) are the least abrasive entries. A wealth of three-letter entries including ROC, CLU, CDE, AXE, RIO EVA, UTA, SEC, TSK, LAW, ERA, AOL, AKA, LAO, OTO, MID, KGB, EMO, YAK take up their standard positions.

Human beings, living or dead, referred to include Zhou Enlai, Uta Hagen, Emo Philips, Clu Gulager, J. S. Bach, the Shangri-Las, Milton Berle, Vladimir Putin, Eva of the Velvet Underground, Duran Duran, Tupac Shakur, Alex Rodriguez, Arlo Guthrie and Inez Foxx.

Shuffle off to Buffalo!

The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.

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