Constructor: Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Challenging
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THEME:"Twisting One's Words"— eight Down answers loop around a black square before continuing down—counterclockwise in the north, clockwise in the south, per the CORIOLIS FORCE (33D: What causes storms to swirl in opposite directions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres)
Theme answers:
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THANK-YOU MESSAGEfor the week ending January 17, 2016
Hello, solvers. Just wanted to thank everyone who made a financial contribution to the blog this week. It's been a joy to hear from solvers all over the world, some of whom have wonderful solving stories to tell (some of which I'll be sharing), but most of whom simply wanted to offer kind words of appreciation. Thank-you cards are, of course, forthcoming for those of you who sent me snail mail (and emails for everyone else). You are, of course, free to contribute at any time during the year. The mailing address...
Rex Parker
℅ Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton NY 13905
And the Paypal button...
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You can type in all of "coriolis" and Google *still* won't suggest "force." If you look up "coriolis effect," you will see "CORIOLIS FORCE" listed as a synonym. But ... on a puzzle like this, you really want to stick the landing with your revealer phrase, and that landing is not stuck. I'll confess I wasn't sure how spell "Coriolis"—I was like "corona Coriolanus borealis ... I know it's in there somewhere."
The fill in this thing, not surprisingly, gets strained at times. There's just so much theme material here, the rough fill is probably inevitable. In fact, given the thematic constraint, you'd probably have to say the fill came out pretty smooth, all things considered. STPAULMN is so bizarre I almost like it. If the puzzle had gone whole hog with STPAULMNUSA, then I might've stood up and clapped. I don't think just tacking a state abbr. on the end of a city is particularly advisable or otherwise, uh, good (I'm looking at you again, ERIEPA!) (to its credit, ERIE appears today PA-free) but I'd rather have a crazy improvised long answer than the TZE spelling of TSE or whatever ARYL is or LAR (?) or DAVI SDS HUA ARRS EHS REFIS YGOR or several other things in this grid. But I still think this puzzle wins more than it loses. Also, while I don't love SATNAV (105D: GPS, e.g.), I do love that I keep misreading it as "SATAN V" ("Look Who's Satan Now"?).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Challenging
THEME:"Twisting One's Words"— eight Down answers loop around a black square before continuing down—counterclockwise in the north, clockwise in the south, per the CORIOLIS FORCE (33D: What causes storms to swirl in opposite directions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres)
Theme answers:
- "IS THIS THING ON?" (4D: Question asked while tapping a microphone)
- HAS THE LIMELIGHT (6D: Experiences fame)
- CREME DE MENTHE (13D: Drink for Hercule Poirot)
- MANIFEST DESTINY (14D: Spreading belief?)
- BATTERY TERMINAL (66D: Plus or minus thing)
- DRAMATIZATION (84D: [This is how it might have happened])
- ON HANDS AND KNEES (69D: Crawling, say)
- LONE STAR STATE (88D: Texas)
In the context of organic molecules, aryl is any functional group or substituent derived from an aromatic ring, be it phenyl, naphthyl, thienyl, indolyl, etc. (see IUPAC nomenclature). "Aryl" is used for the sake of abbreviation or generalization, and "Ar" is used as a placeholder for the aryl group in chemical structure diagrams. // A simple aryl group is phenyl, C6H5; it is derived from benzene. The tolyl group, CH3C6H4, is derived from toluene (methylbenzene). The xylyl group, (CH3)2C6H3, is derived from xylene (dimethylbenzene), while the naphthyl group, C10H7, is derived from naphthalene. // Arylation is a chemical process in which an aryl group is attached to a substrate. (wikipedia)
• • •
THANK-YOU MESSAGEfor the week ending January 17, 2016
Hello, solvers. Just wanted to thank everyone who made a financial contribution to the blog this week. It's been a joy to hear from solvers all over the world, some of whom have wonderful solving stories to tell (some of which I'll be sharing), but most of whom simply wanted to offer kind words of appreciation. Thank-you cards are, of course, forthcoming for those of you who sent me snail mail (and emails for everyone else). You are, of course, free to contribute at any time during the year. The mailing address...
℅ Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton NY 13905
And the Paypal button...
• • •
There is much to admire here. It's an ambitious theme, worthy of the Sunday (so many Sunday themes, of late, are lacking the dazzle a Sunday needs to have). The theme is also dense, and neatly represents its core concept. There is one theme answer that clunks like a clunky thing clunks (HAS THE LIMELIGHT), but 7/8 solid is solid. The primary defect of this puzzle, thematically, is that everyone knows the phrase (if they know it) as the "Coriolis EFFECT":
The fill in this thing, not surprisingly, gets strained at times. There's just so much theme material here, the rough fill is probably inevitable. In fact, given the thematic constraint, you'd probably have to say the fill came out pretty smooth, all things considered. STPAULMN is so bizarre I almost like it. If the puzzle had gone whole hog with STPAULMNUSA, then I might've stood up and clapped. I don't think just tacking a state abbr. on the end of a city is particularly advisable or otherwise, uh, good (I'm looking at you again, ERIEPA!) (to its credit, ERIE appears today PA-free) but I'd rather have a crazy improvised long answer than the TZE spelling of TSE or whatever ARYL is or LAR (?) or DAVI SDS HUA ARRS EHS REFIS YGOR or several other things in this grid. But I still think this puzzle wins more than it loses. Also, while I don't love SATNAV (105D: GPS, e.g.), I do love that I keep misreading it as "SATAN V" ("Look Who's Satan Now"?).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]