Thursday, July 30, 2009

Crosswords of the Day: 7/30/2009

Both the LAT and the NYT puzzles were terrific today. I have to give them both **** for their themes, and they were also both mostly free of bad clues, although they both had their fair share. They were also both very similar themes, namely dealing with letters that sound like words, albeit in completely different ways. The crossword blogs were in love with the NYT today, even though it feels like a less well done version of one of my all-time favorite puzzles, which had clues like "Where Sinbad sailed" and the answer would be CCCCCCC (count how many C's there are).

So, which one to give the nod to? Well, while I loved both, I actually think I had a more fun time solving the LAT today, and the NYT theme did feel a wee bit arbitrary, although it was undoubtedly clever. Still, great puzzle day today.

Best clue: This is from the LAT. "Part of a pickup line?" for TAXI. Love it, love it, love it. Clever, utterly misleading, yet totally fair. A close second was in the NYT, and was "Big chip off the old block?" for ICEBERG. Both quite good, but I like the TAXI one more.

Worst clue: There really weren't any noticeably bad clues today, which is rare. One that felt really odd but wasn't inherently bad was in the NYT, and was "Like H.P. Lovecraft among all popular writers?" for EERIEST. I mean, I figured it out right away, but that seems like a weird, opinionated clue (you could easily argue that Poe was just as eerie as Lovecraft, although I wouldn't agree). There was some bad crosswordese throughout both, like AGIN (clued as "Opposin'") in the LAT and a ton of plurals in the NYT, which felt really forced. But again, both puzzles were very well done. Good day today in crossword land.

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