Puzzle by Will Nediger
Ever look at the clues for a puzzle and think “word”? -- "the clue for all entries is word ”. Today’s crossword looked that way to me when I first read the list of clues -- I found nothing! Well, I went to the bottom and saw 58A, “Order of roses”, hedged a bet for ONEDOZEN and worked my way up the grid via CADIZ, CEASE, HALO, HASTO, SAMESIZE (wrong!), IVEHADIT, HID and FLATTEN. End. Nothing. So I let it be and came back later to start back at the top -- I knew TONY, but I kept thinking "Carousel" (which doesn’t fit) -- suddenly it hit me, its OKLAHOMA! Down I went, FLAMEWAR, MAYHAP, ARSENAL! When I got back to SAMESIZE, it turned into LIFESIZE. From there to the bottom left of the puzzle quickly filled and I was half finished. Always feel like I’m on my way when there’s a full stream of filled-in squares from top to bottom. Loved seeing FLAMEWAR after yesterdays FLAME (both utilizing synonymous clues). “Flaming” is reacting to someone's newsgroup posting or e-mail in a hostile manner by publicly chastising the person or bombarding the person with nasty e-mail. Flaming may occur to users who ask stupid questions or who engage in behavior that violates what is considered proper online "netiquette". A flame war occurs when two or more users flame each other in an escalating manner that threatens to continue unabated. Yesterdays clue for FLAME read “scathing online criticism”, today’s FLAMEWAR, “result of provocative posters?” The right half of this construction took a little more effort and a bit of Wite-Out® (see here "Why Do the NYT Puzzle in Ink?" -- 03.19.07) and was every bit as miscellaneous as the left. Particularly liked MOONUNIT, VERTIGO, CODEX and FLIES, each answer I got seemed like I'd solved a mini-puzzle in itself. I finished somewhere around CEASE. Looking at the overall, there’s the duality of CIVICS and CIVILIZE and the locality of MEXICO! -- could it be Rex Parker in Cancun -- see Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle for explanation. TGIF!
Illustrations: Above -- 26A CODEX. Below -- 34A Kim Novak as Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster in Alfred Hitchcock's "VERTIGO" ; 2D FLAMEWAR; singular of 24D PANTS and 44A FLIES; 8D LOUISXIV; 41D Cancun MEXICO. Left click to enlarge images or puzzle.
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