Constructor: David Woolf
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME:"Record of the Year"— a rebus puzzle with three-letter abbrs. of each month, appearing in order, each in its own square, one in each section of the grid
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On the one hand, hurray for a Sunday that made me work a little. I got the theme pretty early, but even knowing what was coming, I still had to fight in each section to find the three-letter month abbr. This puzzle was like 12 mini puzzles, which has the virtue of novelty, if nothing else. I enjoyed the workout, but it was a bit weird / anticlimactic to know, very early on, exactly what was going to go down in each section of the grid. After uncovering my first month, the only real Surprises left involved finding the precise square for each rebus. But you knew what you were looking for and you knew where to look, every time. And there are no other calendar-related answers, so the whole thing plays a bit like a themeless, actually. The fill gets quite iffy in places, but for the most part it holds up, and the rebus answers are often delightfully creative. SOTOMAYOR! CARL JUNG! Fun stuff.
I could've done without STRS, RESAW, three-R'd BRRR, ONRICE, and the terribly absurd ONEK (who runs ONE Ks?). The themers, though, I really liked, on the whole. They taught me a couple of new things. I still don't have all the world capitals memorized. Honestly, I probably haven't heard of a couple couple dozen of them, at least, and BANJUL is certainly one of those. Thank god for JULEPS ... seriously, thank you, God, for JULEPS, they are delicious. Also, they saved me from crashing on the shoals of BANJUL. Does BANJUL have shoals? Possibly. It is coastal. Holy moses, have you seen Gambia on a map? First, it's *The* Gambia, thankyouverymuch. Second of all, it is of an amazingly eely shape, essentially following from the Atlantic back along the contours of the Gambia (!) River, surrounded on all sides by Senegal, until it reaches a place called "unnamed elevation" (on the map I'm looking at).
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If the only thing I remember about today's puzzle is the location and insane shape of (The) Gambia, it will have been worth it. I also didn't know SEPHORA. I mean, looking at pictures of its storefronts, I realized I probably *have* seen those stores around, but not so that I'd remember.
I am all of a sudden having visions of people crashing and burning at the GCHAT / GOTYE crossing. No real reason you should know GOTYE, honestly, and _CHAT seems like it could be Lots o' things. Oh well. Happy continued New Year.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. if you have time for another puzzle today, or want to print one out and save it for when you *do* have time, please check out Patrick Blindauer's latest free puzzle, inspired by his new baby daughter (just go to "Play" in the top menu of his site). It's pretty magical, and not (only) for sentimental reasons.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME:"Record of the Year"— a rebus puzzle with three-letter abbrs. of each month, appearing in order, each in its own square, one in each section of the grid
- TROJANS / JANGLE
- LIFEBLOOD / FEBRILE
- MIMIMART / IMARET
- CAPRIS / APRICOT
- SOTOMAYOR / MAYHEM
- CARL JUNG / ADJUNCT
- BANJUL / JULEPS
- SLAUGHTER / CAUGHT
- ASEPTIC / SEPHORA
- DOCTRINE / DECOCT
- CASANOVAS / WIN OVER
- TAPE DECKS / DECEIT
Sephora is a French brand and chain of cosmetics stores founded in 1970. [...] On November 18/2014, a lawsuit was filed against Sephora alleging that they discriminated against Asian customers based on stereotypes that all Asian customers abuse discounts to engage in bulk purchasing for re-sale. [...] Sephora currently operates over 360 stores across North America. Featuring more than 200 brands, along with its own private label, Sephora offers beauty products including makeup, skincare, body, fragrance, color, and haircare. (wikipedia)Notable crosswordese:
- UNS (32D: Young ___)
- EPEE (64A: Cousin of a foil)
- ULNAS (73D: Ones up in arms?)
- SSRS (116D: They were wiped off the map in '91)
- EPODE (105D: Horatian work)
- IMARET(17D: Turkish inn) (man, knowing this helped today...)
- IMACS (7D: Some desktops)
- ESTES (127A: Blues musician known as Sleepy John) (new one today, to me)
- EKGS (113D: Hosp. readouts)
- DAE (118D: Daniel ___ Kim, "Hawaii Five-O" actor)
- AMÉLIE (23A: 2001 foreign film with five Oscar nominations)
- GOTYE (40D: Singer with the 2012 #1 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know")
- GCHAT (40A: Alternative to Facebook Messenger)
• • •
I could've done without STRS, RESAW, three-R'd BRRR, ONRICE, and the terribly absurd ONEK (who runs ONE Ks?). The themers, though, I really liked, on the whole. They taught me a couple of new things. I still don't have all the world capitals memorized. Honestly, I probably haven't heard of a couple couple dozen of them, at least, and BANJUL is certainly one of those. Thank god for JULEPS ... seriously, thank you, God, for JULEPS, they are delicious. Also, they saved me from crashing on the shoals of BANJUL. Does BANJUL have shoals? Possibly. It is coastal. Holy moses, have you seen Gambia on a map? First, it's *The* Gambia, thankyouverymuch. Second of all, it is of an amazingly eely shape, essentially following from the Atlantic back along the contours of the Gambia (!) River, surrounded on all sides by Senegal, until it reaches a place called "unnamed elevation" (on the map I'm looking at).
If the only thing I remember about today's puzzle is the location and insane shape of (The) Gambia, it will have been worth it. I also didn't know SEPHORA. I mean, looking at pictures of its storefronts, I realized I probably *have* seen those stores around, but not so that I'd remember.
I am all of a sudden having visions of people crashing and burning at the GCHAT / GOTYE crossing. No real reason you should know GOTYE, honestly, and _CHAT seems like it could be Lots o' things. Oh well. Happy continued New Year.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. if you have time for another puzzle today, or want to print one out and save it for when you *do* have time, please check out Patrick Blindauer's latest free puzzle, inspired by his new baby daughter (just go to "Play" in the top menu of his site). It's pretty magical, and not (only) for sentimental reasons.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]