UTTERLY DESTROYED CROSSWORD CLUE MANUAL

21a POINT PER SON–I was vaguely aware of a group called Poison.

58a COVER BANDS–I know what a cover band is.

Rather than being presented, say, with a grid containing a few circles, we have instead the following (I’m listing the reveal first, because I think it helps to illustrate the POINT, PERSON): As a workaround, the solver is told to look for bookends (though today that word is used as a verb).

Today’s puzzle is similar to that one and to a couple others that have run of late. Plus, they didn’t know what bubble tea was and didn’t like something about the clue/answer BOT, but I told them those latter two were on them! The beef of the solvers who called the editor, who called me, was that they couldn’t figure out the parenthetical numbers orthe theme. He did not say so, but it’s just not the same without circles or shaded blocks, is it? That’s mybeef. See Jim Q’s review of this a couple weeks ago. 1, RO.PE (pretend the dot is a block) Ģ0a CATALEPSY and 22a CHORD comprised theme entry no.2, PSY.CHO etc. Not being able to use circles or shaded squares, the editor used parenthetical numbers in pairs of clues, creating a “workaround.” E.g.,ġa TARO and 5a PEACH combined as theme entry no. In that puzzle, one-word film titles spanned two answers. She’d received a complaint from a group of solvers regarding the Feb. I was contacted not long ago by the editor in charge of crosswords at my local paper. Kyle Dolan’s Universal Crossword, “Surround Sound,” 2-13-18, solution Kyle Dolan’s Universal Crossword, “Surround Sound”–Judge Vic’s write-up Three stars for the theme and add a quarter for the fill for 3.25 stars. That alone was good for a chuckle.įave clues: for EVE and for SPACE. And of course Zhouqin always finds room for some fun conversational entries like “ LET’S FACE IT!” and the flatulence-implied “ WASN’T ME!”. In the fill though you’ll find some crispy ONION RINGS, and I love the posh-sound RIPOSTE. I won’t go as far as YEESH or OOF, but I found the theme unexciting. And none of the theme entries felt like it was worth it.

I have to say PEN IN is a rather lackluster conceit for a theme. This doesn’t have a lot of surface sense. Founded by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, its slogan is “Waging Peace. I don’t think I knew what the Carter Center was. Theme entries have the trigram PEN added to them. Zhouqin Burnikel’s Wall Street Journal crossword, “Stockholders” - Jim P’s review Great clue.Ĭute theme concept, not well supported by the rest of the fill. I’m so sorry that the world did so little to stop the destruction of the Syrian people. Or ESTD crossing PDAS and ODED, and not even in a corner with circled squares!) (Could’ve done without neighboring ERTE and ROUE, mind you. I mean, starting with DROSS at 1a crossing crosswordese RIATA was a bit rough, but overall, not horribly out of step with Wednesday-caliber fill.

UTTERLY DESTROYED CROSSWORD CLUE MANUAL

When it comes to actual reference books, and not online versions thereof, it’s the Chicago Manual of Style that I’m leafing through the most.Īside from that one 16-letter Across answer, the rest of the theme is in the diagonals, so at least the fill isn’t utterly destroyed by having lots of theme answers intersecting in different ways.

What? Not a single editorial style guide? What a terrible sin of omission. The circled words are different sorts of reference books: DICTIONARY, ALMANAC, ATLAS, THESAURUS. OBLIQUE REFERENCE is the name of the game, clued as 60a. NY Times crossword solution, 3 13 19, no.

Utterly destroyed crossword clue