04.27.08 -- Oops!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

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Puzzle by Oliver Hill, edited by Will Shortz

Perhaps in anticipation that this crossword puzzle would not be dreary or tedious enough, there are ten across entries deliberately misspelled, which along with the central across entry IMPROPERLYSPELLED (65A. Like the answers to the 10 asterisked clues, more often than any other English words, according to a 1999 study) are today’s little spelling bee lesson of inter-related entries.

MILLENIUM (26. *Long, long time) = millennium; INNOCULATE (32. *Stick with a needle, maybe) = inoculate; EMBARASSMENT (34. *Absence at a nudist colony?) = embarrassment; HARRASSES (44. *Bugs) = harasses; MINISCULE (51. Wee) = minuscule (however, Webster‘s has miniscule as an alternate spelling); NOTICABLE (82. *Conspicuous) = noticeable; SUPERCEDE (87. *Supplant) = supersede; PERSEVERENCE (94. *Doggedness) = perseverance; ACCOMODATE (97. *Oblige) = accommodate; OCCURENCE (107. *Event) = occurrence.

I just had a war with my spell-check function while typing the above.

Saturday’s puzzle offered us CURATESEGG (18A. Something damned with faint praise, in British lingo); today’s gives us CURES (99D. Parish priests) and VICARS (96D. Parish priests) -- very Shortzesque -- Heavens (114D. SKY) and then “Heavens!” (109D. EGAD) -- well it is Sunday!

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THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

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Across: Program executors, for short; 5. Miracle- ___; 8. Tribal council makeup, often; 14. Casual attire; 19. Like the carol “Away in a Manger,” originally; 21. Wine sometimes blended with Cabernet Sauvignon; 22. Be; 23. Turn away; 24. Foot, slangily; 25. 2% alternative; 28. Loot; 30. Yank or Tiger; 31. Half-baked; 41. What a Tennessee cheerleader asks for a lot?; 42. Stuck; 43. Neighbor of Ga.; 50. Jazzy Jones; 54. Below par; 55. X-ray ___; 56. “What a moron I am!”; 57. Gawk at; 58. Whatchamacallit; 60. Monterrey mister; 62. Suffix not seen much in London; 63. Least bold; 69. Narrative; 71. ___ choy (Chinese vegetable)(; 72. Contract specifics; 73. Luster; 74. Tip of the Arabian Peninsula; 76. Massage target?; 77. Spicy cuisine; 81. Debt acknowledgment; 86. Trying period for a doctoral student; 91. Clean air org.; 91. Baseball’s ___ league; 93. Gen ___; 103. Commotion; 104. Series of rounds; 105. Is undecided; 113. Root used in perfumery; 115. Farmer’s ___; 117. Attempts; 118. T-shirt style; 119. Follows; 120. Like some pens; 121. Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” e.g.; 122. Plain; 123. Alternative to dial-up; 124. French noblemen. Down: 1. Symbol of happiness; 2. Long-haired sheepdog; 3. Regulated bus.; 4. Writer/illustrator Silverstein; 5. Mustang competitor; 6. Photoshop options; 7. Tops; 8. Ambulance figure: Abbr.; 9. Many August babies; 10. Disarming words?; 11. Rocker John; 12. Violinist’s need; 13. Pen, to Pierre; 14. 1950’s Braves All-Star pitcher Burdette; 15. Relaxes, in a way; 16. It’s bowed; 17 Archipelago part; 18. Cubic meter; 20. Laredo-to-Galveston dir.; 27. “Bro!”; 29. Cliff; 33. Spanish “a”; 34. Karl Max’s one; 35. Alphabet quartet; 36. Expose; 37. Product with TV’s first advertising jingle, 1948; 38. Word of encouragement; 39. QB Manning; 40. “Illmatic” rapper; 44. Most massive; 45. The whole wide world; 46. Show up again; 47. Judged, with “up”; 48. They’re seen in many John Constable paintings; 49. ___ machine; 51. Orator’s no-no; 52. Restaurant chain since 1958; 53. Close, as a relationship; 56 Laura of “Jurassic Park”; 58. Some shampoos; 59. Running mate with Dick; 60. Like cotton candy; 61. Commercial come-on; 62. Type; 64. Ticklish one?; 65. Freeze; 66. Target of many a Bart Simpson prank call; 67. Rice-A-___; 68. Marmalade component; 69. Without adjustments; 70. Dynasty of Confucius and Lao-Tzu; 75. Trendy; 77. Olive or apple; 78. Goldie of “Cactus Flower”; 79. Actor Baldwin; 80. “Ah, yes”; 83. O.K. mark; 84. When Earth Day is celebrated: Abbr.; 85. ___ profundo; 86. Anthem contraction; 88. Rare imports, maybe; 89. Crucial sleep stage; 90. Cock-a-doodle-doo; 92. Examination; 94. Opposite of “nod off”; 95. Marked permanently; 96. Parish priests; 97. Previously mentioned; 98 Toes’ woes; 99. Parish priests; 100. Matriarchs; 101. ___ -garde; 102. Brusque; 106. Ooze; 108. Dorm heads, for short; 109. “Heavens!”; 110. International chain of fusion cuisine restaurants; 111. Course after trig; 112. Somme times; 114. Heavens; 116. Literary inits.