Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
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THEME: "Nosy News" — two-word phrases where the "zee" sound is added to back end of first word, creating wackiness (clued "?"-style)
Did a very, very brutal puzzle today by this same constructor—the infamous Puzzle 5 at the ACPT, to be exact. It was so much better than this puzzle that I'm having a hard time giving this one a fair shake. Add -zee, get wackiness—as the concept goes, this is just fine. But for me, there was too much randomness: I'd get the front end of phrase, but then the back end = ??? OIL ... HOLE? SKI ... RACE? EURO ... MART? This kept happening. STEPTOE???? (8A: Isolated hill surrounded by lava) I'm sure it's a thing, but it's not making this puzzle any more entertaining. Add to this oddness the fact that the cluing was obviously deliberately ratcheted up this week (after week's of super-easiness), and the solving experience comes up less enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I actually welcome the harder cluing on Sundays. It's just that when there's just hardness and no real payoff for overcoming that hardness, I don't get a satisfied feeling. The truth is, this is probably an above-average Sunday, but it's definitely not an above-average Quigley.
I'm still at the tournament, and I need to go back down and be social. So that's it, blog-wise, for tonight. I'll do Puzzle of the Week later in the week—maybe tomorrow. I'll also have pictures and tales from the tournament weekend. As of right now, after Puzzle 6, I'm in 53rd place, despite having no errors. This is partly because I'm just solving for "fun" and not "competing," and partly because I really tanked Brendan's Puzzle 5. I mean, I finished it, but most of my peers beat me by like 10 minutes. Total disaster. As for the tournament as a whole, the familiar names are at the top of the leaderboard. You can see results here.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: "Nosy News" — two-word phrases where the "zee" sound is added to back end of first word, creating wackiness (clued "?"-style)
Theme answers:
- DAISY TRADER
- CHOOSY TOY
- EASY COMMERCE
- BREEZY CHEESE
- ROSY HOUSE
- BOISE WONDER
- HAZY SAILOR
- DOOZY POINT
[I honestly can't find any definition of what this is. On The Internet. I cannot find. It seems to be another word for "European Market," which is possibly something to do with eurobonds or eurocurrency or some other euro-prefixed thing, but seriously wtf? The EEC is known as the Common Market, but I have no idea what relationship that entity has to this answer]
• • •
Did a very, very brutal puzzle today by this same constructor—the infamous Puzzle 5 at the ACPT, to be exact. It was so much better than this puzzle that I'm having a hard time giving this one a fair shake. Add -zee, get wackiness—as the concept goes, this is just fine. But for me, there was too much randomness: I'd get the front end of phrase, but then the back end = ??? OIL ... HOLE? SKI ... RACE? EURO ... MART? This kept happening. STEPTOE???? (8A: Isolated hill surrounded by lava) I'm sure it's a thing, but it's not making this puzzle any more entertaining. Add to this oddness the fact that the cluing was obviously deliberately ratcheted up this week (after week's of super-easiness), and the solving experience comes up less enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I actually welcome the harder cluing on Sundays. It's just that when there's just hardness and no real payoff for overcoming that hardness, I don't get a satisfied feeling. The truth is, this is probably an above-average Sunday, but it's definitely not an above-average Quigley.
I'm still at the tournament, and I need to go back down and be social. So that's it, blog-wise, for tonight. I'll do Puzzle of the Week later in the week—maybe tomorrow. I'll also have pictures and tales from the tournament weekend. As of right now, after Puzzle 6, I'm in 53rd place, despite having no errors. This is partly because I'm just solving for "fun" and not "competing," and partly because I really tanked Brendan's Puzzle 5. I mean, I finished it, but most of my peers beat me by like 10 minutes. Total disaster. As for the tournament as a whole, the familiar names are at the top of the leaderboard. You can see results here.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld