Thursday, December 14, 2017

Constructor: Joel Fagliano
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

Theme: No theme

***

Word of the day: Tern (8A: Fork-tailed seabird):

Any of numerous aquatic birds of the subfamily Sterninae of the family Laridae, related to the gulls but usually having a more slender body and bill, smaller feet, a long, deeply forked tail, and a more graceful flight, especially those of the genus Sterna, as S. hirundo (common tern) of Eurasia and America, having white, black, and gray plumage.

*** 

Well this is one of the most forgettable puzzles of all time - with 80% typical mini crosswordese (ASEA, LAGER, URBAN, SPY). The mediocre fill was somewhat salvaged by sharp cluing, which is always a major PLUS for me. TERN (8A: Fork-tailed seabird) and URBAN (3D: Keith of country music) were both in particular better-clued than usual ("opposite of rural" always gets my goat). That said this was likely the least-inspired hint for SPY (4D: Secret agent) that I've ever seen.

A couple features of this puzzle are giving me deja vu. Besides having the same grid as yesterday, it also featured its best fill front and center with RUGBY (6A: National sport of New Zealand). Did everyone else know this piece of trivia? I had to use the downs to fill this one in but Sarah (my girlfriend) filled it in no problem.

On the whole this was fairly average in terms of difficulty. It took me 0:39 (longer than usual for a Thursday), but I would have done it a lot faster if I had looked at the downs first. Interestingly enough it took Sarah a bit longer, she filled in RAM for RAT (6D: Chinese Zodiac symbol). Curious to know if any of my other readers fell into that trap.  Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow.

Signed,

Sam Austin, King of Mini CrossWorld

[Follow Sam Austin on Bandcamp]

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Constructor: Joel Fagliano
Relative difficulty: Medium

Theme: No theme

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Word of the day: Wonk (6A: One who's deep in the weeds of policy):

1. a student who spends much time studying and has little or no social life; grind.
2. a stupid, boring, or unattractive person.
3. a person who studies a subject or issue in an excessively assiduous and thorough manner: a policy wonk.

*** 

This was a charming themeless puzzle with some solid fill. The grid looks fairly typical for a midweek puzzle - with dinky little three letter answers for downs in the SE and NW and full-length downs in the middle. The best fill - and cluing - is featured smack dab in the middle with VNECK (6A: Sweater type that exposes the t-shirt).

Some of the other fill (GOBI, OVENS, VWS) feels pretty mundane but at least isn't relegated to the category of true crosswordese a la ELO or NNE. The cluing for EVEN (5A: Tied, as a score) is meh (Even Stevens, anyone?). I've never before heard of the word of the day, either - WONK (6A: One who's deep in the weeds of policy), but the crosses were adequate to fill it in, and it's fun enough that I'm not upset.

This took me 29 seconds - got caught up on WONK so had to switch to the downs, but I didn't look back after that, so we'll call it medium difficulty for a Wednesday.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

Signed,

Sam Austin, King of Mini CrossWorld

[Follow Sam Austin on Bandcamp]

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Constructor: Joel Fagliano
Relative Difficulty: Hard

Theme: The first night of Hanukkah? A couple of themed words snuck in on the day the holiday started. Although I might argue that since the puzzle comes out the evening before - and since Jewish holidays start the evening - it may have been more appropriate to publish this puzzle on Wednesday. Anyway I digress.

***

Word of the day: Liger (6A: Hybrid of two big cat species):

The offspring of a male lion and a female tiger.

*** 

One of the most difficult minis I've faced in the last ~two weeks, and on a Tuesday no less! This puzzle had more than a few vague cluings, including RILE (5A: Agitate) and SLEEK (3D: Stylishly smooth) - I put "Suave" at first. That plus my mispelling of both LATKE (8A: Hanukkah snack) and TERRE (4D: ___ Haute, Indiana) led me to the abysmal time of 1:28. If it's not one thing, it's, well, an OTHER.

Regular mini-solvers will notice the grid is one of the roughly 1/3 that doesn't have any symmetry - filled mostly with expansive 5 letter words besides a few four letter acrosses and one diminutive three-letter down. To me the form of the mini puzzle permits a bit of creativity with the grid so I'm always glad to see one that looks a bit different, though not as unusual (and fun!) as some of the ones that feature two-letter answers towards the bottom.

The theme is of Hanukkah words is convincing - LATKE is solid and EIGHT (2D: Number of nights of Hanukkah) is related enough. I might have even liked to see one more Hanukkah word shoehorned in, but having only two didn't RILE me too much.

And I can't complain too much when the rest of the fill is pretty good on its own. While words like LOL (6D: Response to a funny meme) - or its compatriots IMHO and LMAO - may one day be identified as annoying crosswordese, I haven't grown tired of them yet. BRITA and OTHER are both fine, and LIGER (6A: Hybrid of two big cat species) is also a nice treat, I'm curious to know if most folks were familiar with this hybrid species.

Happy Hanukkah to those of my readers that observe the Jewish holidays. I'll leave you with a clip from my personal favorite Hanukkah-themed episode of any show:

Signed,

Sam Austin, King of Mini CrossWorld

[Follow Sam Austin on Bandcamp]

Monday, December 11, 2017

Constructor: Joel Fagliano
Relative difficulty: Easy

Theme: No theme

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Word of the day: Goode (4D: Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. ____"):

"Johnny B. Goode" is a 1958 rock-and-roll song written and first recorded by Chuck Berry. The song was a major hit among both black and white audiences, peaking at number two on Billboard magazine's Hot R&B Sides chart and number eight on its Hot 100 chart.

*** 

My personal record for mini puzzles is 0:07 - but at 0:09, this one was in the running for the quickest ever. This was one of these puzzles where I didn't have to look at a single down clue - I just rattled off the crosses 5 in a row. In short, it was easy, even for a Monday.

Those who know me, though, know I'm a sucker for disc sports of all kind, so any puzzle with a clue like "Frisbee golf obstacle" (8A: TREE) will rate as one I enjoy. The fill is otherwise fairly mundane -  GATOR (5A: University of Florida mascot) is typical but okay, and ACHOO (6A: Sneeze sound) is pretty good, though the hint is one of those 100% obvious ones that almost makes this puzzle feel like busywork more than a wordgame. It's also how I was able to solve this puzzle while only looking at half the clues.

I know it's a Monday, but I still appreciate when a puzzle goes at least a little out of the way to come up with something clever for a hint. For instance, the clue for YACHT (1D: Blue blood vessel?) remains one of the best in recent memory - and GAS (5D: "Now we're cookin' with ____") is kind of fun too.

The grid is symmetrical horizontally, which isn't typical, but leads to the interesting effect of having two four-letter words at the top and bottom and a sandwich of five-letter words in the middle.

Don't have too much more to offer about this puzzle. Curious to know if any of my readers beat my time! I'll leave you with my personal favorite disc golf video - while he doesn't hit a tree, this OTHER mistake (and according reaction) is still one of the best caught on film.

Signed,

Sam Austin, King of Mini CrossWorld

[Follow Sam Austin on Bandcamp]