Sunday, July 29, 2007
TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!
Puzzle by Brendan Emmett Quigley, edited by Will Shortz
Is it just me, or is this the most arduous and groan-inducing crossword puzzle of the year thusfar? I'm sure I'm wrong! It has to be me! Brendan Emmett Quigley, the constructor of the this Sunday odds and ends chore is one of my favorite crossword creators -- what happened?!
NOTONESCUPOFTEETH (23A Somebody else's soaking dentures?)
CATHODEWRAITH (37A Ghost in a battery?)
ESCAPEKEITH (62A Avoid being captured by guitarist Richards?)
DOUBLEYOUTH (70A Baby twins?)
SEATTLESLEUTH (92A Sherlock at the Space Needle?)
BOTTOMOFTHEWEALTH (109A Billionaire's last dollar?)
THOROUGHBREADTH (43D Very detailed scope?)
HIGHWAYTOHEALTH (16D Good eating and clean living?)
Tongue-twisters, letter-plays: PINGPONG (1A Basis for the first commercially successful video); MAANDPA (9A Just folks?); PTER (42A Wing: Prefix) and PTUI (63D Spitting sound); POSSLQS (42 (D Some residents, by census classification) crossing IQUIT (69A Fed-up cry); NANANA (98A Repeated sounds in "Hey Jude"); AARP and AAHS; KHAYYAM (102A Poet Omar); ANGELOU (115A "Gather Together in My Name" writer); LOOP and SOON; ELY and ELIS; RAHAL (64A 1986 Indy 500 winner) and ARHAT (15D Nirvana attainer); THOTH (39D Egyptian god of wisdom) -- is TH-O-TH a lisp of S-O-S!
At the risk of sounding like a TEACHER (29A One who might stand in front of a map) who's one of those RANTERS (59D Highly opinionated sorts), I was UNAWED (94D Not impressed), SIGHED (45A Was wistful), ACHED (101D Suffered) and was SADDENED (119A Made blue) by this puzzle's DESCENT (118A Start of a trip in a bathysphere) to the BOTTOMOFTHEWEALTH (bottom of the well?)!
If "TH" were uniformly applied, there would be a key to the puzzle from it's title 'TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!"; but "tea" is "teeth", "rays" is "wraith", "keith" is "keys", "doubleyouth" is "w's", "sleuth" is "Slew", "wealth" is "well", "breadth" is "bred", and "health" is "hell" -- confusion to the NTH degree (117A).
Little-happenstance-fill is rampant -- RAI, CAD, GNC, AFT, NYE, ILE, HAM, GIG, YON, ELY, ISO, SSR, ATT, LEE, JEB, INS, TEC, OLE, MAD, PAY, ART, ATE, YON, CTRS, ITIS, BOCA, DEET, SASK, VITA, AONE, MTGS, LEIA, HRS, etc.
Postitive stuff that ELATES (60D Lifts up) -- MISSIS (48D Wife, colloquially) which will be MISSUS when convenient; MOOCOW (9D Farm animal, in kidspeak) and when an "S" is needed, this will be MOSCOW; AKILL (55D "A View to ____") crossing dead center with TRILL (67A Fluttering sound) -- CREAM (95A Drub); AMORE (58A Love, in Livorno); DELVE (70D Go [into]) and DEARTHS (46D Shortages) -- IMOUT, BEATSME, NOSIREE, this NOTER is ATANEND -- TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!
Puzzle available on the internet at
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