Sunday, June 14, 2009 Cryptic Crossword by Daniel Raymon, edited by Will Shortz It is interesting to note that the New York Times Magazine has been shrunk -- I can’t come up with a thuddier word, so shrunk it is! The Editor’s Letter in part states, "The magazine you are holding is 9 percent smaller -- a little off the top, a little off the sides -- than the issue you held last week… We’re delighted with the way we look now. And you? Don’t hesitate to e-mail us your review at magazine@nytimes.com." Hello!, would that mean stopping the presses? I doubt it. Done deal -- a little over a year ago, the newspaper itself shrunk and most recently the sections were combined, not to mention the television guide disappeared several years ago -- and now today, the Cryptic Crossword is on an entirely separate page from the main crossword which shares the page with that dreadful KENKEN krud! Not enough room, you see... Soon, in order to get our news, we’ll be Twittering the Times! Progress! On topic, this Sunday’s cryptic seems more cryptic than usual -- perhaps reflecting its’ isolation and being replaced by a numbers game, or whatever that is that lurks beneath the not-so-venerable-today crossword puzzle on the next-to-last sadly shrunken page of The New York Times. Across: 1. Become less effervescent (7), FLATTER; 5. Extremely desperate, the German pursues entry (2-2-3), DO OR DIE; 9. Steal from crooked flier (5), RIFLE, anagram; 10. Famous film actor from Missouri competes with sailor (5, 4), MO VIE STAR; 11. Finds a hunter’s quivers (8), UNEARTHS, anagram; 12. Doctor, conservative, reversed disease affecting trees (3, 3), DR YROT; 14. A quail that’s gray (4) A SHY; 15. Twisted coach limps for effect (10), ACCO MPLIS H, double anagram, etc.; 18. Butcher held antler, spellbound (10), ENTHRALLED, jumbled double anagram; 19. Settlement wrapped up in a hearing (4) PACT, homophone; 21. Timeless yearning for old philosophical text (1, 5), I CHING, homophone; 22. Order to produce cooked bean soup (8), SUBPOENA, anagram; 24. Love commercial and love allowance (9), AD O RATION; 25. Greek character at the ruins (5), THETA; 26. Rest a little and catch some rays, having won $1,000 and a summer in France (4, 3) TA K ETE N, tan, K, ete; 27. Pie orts dirtied counter (7), RIPOSTE, anagram. Down: 1. Lucky specialty: catching fish (9), FOR TUNA TE; 2. Director from Florida upset and embarrassed by difficulty with rooster (6, 9), ALF RED HITCH COCK; 3. They collect money and what belongs to them (6), THE IRS; 4. Bertram’s hack left pens in terrible condition (10), RAMS HACK LE, left out bereft; 5. Dropped peace sign (4), DOVE; 6. Near-rotten doctor I reprove (8) OVERRIPE, anagram; 7. Rolling die near men tests predictability (15), DETERMINATENESS, anagram; 8. Feel sorry for decapitated bird (5), EGRET, anagram with missing r; 13. Father is more entertaining around two hospital areas (10), F OR ER UNNER; 16. Popular songs blasted apartheid (3, 6), HIT PARADE, anagram; 17. Execute secretive government group infiltrating piece of land (8), TRA NSA CT; 20. Have a meal, swallowing seed, and regurgitate (4, 2), S PIT UP; 21. To sleep in that thing is not suitable (5) I NAP T; 23. Describe shell of lima bean, whatever! All I know is that if the Sunday edition gets any smaller, well... just shrink us all, and everything’ll be back to normal!
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3 comments:
You posted "whatever" for 23A, but wrote "LIMN" on the solution, which is correct. To LIMN is to outline clearly, and fits the clue perfectly (LIMa beaN).
I still find these difficult, so I try not to peek. Occasionally, I must cheat, but then am led to other answers on my own. I enjoy your blog and thank you for your hard work.
Thank you for the helping hand. Also, I am glad you pointed out that the cryptic was on another page of the shrunken magazine. I had gone on line and printed it out, thinking it was a victim of the downsizing. I am relieved that it was reprieved!
I give it an "F".
Nancy C.
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