SNAGGED

by Mark Hooper on February 25, 2012
Puzzle time: 5:33
Score: 100%
Difficulty: 5 / 10
Quality: 8 / 10

Theme: SNAGGED - Actually, I am not sure how this works.
Theme entry:

• 17A-60A: Snag (with 60-Across) - Balm (FLY IN THE OINTMENT)
• 37A: Open to doubt or debate (PROBLEMATICAL)

Word of the Puzzle: KRAKOW or KRAKÓW (9A: Former capital of Poland)
Kraków (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkrakuf] (listen)) also Cracow, or Krakow (English /ˈkrækaʊ/), is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish:Wisła) in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century.[1] Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic hubs. It was the capital of Poland from 1038 to 1596; the capital of the Grand Duchy of Kraków from 1846 to 1918; and the capital of Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1999. It is now the capital of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship.
The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre ofSlavonic Europe in 965.[1] With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. The city has a population of approximately 760,000 whereas about 8 million people live within a 100 km radius of itsmain square.[2]
After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II, Kraków was turned into the capital of Germany's General Government. The Jewish population of the city was moved into a walled zone known as the Kraków Ghetto, from which they were sent toextermination camps such as Auschwitz and the concentration camp at Płaszów.
In 1978, Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, was elevated to the papacy as Pope John Paul II – the first Slavic pope ever, and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years.[3] Also that year, UNESCO approved the first ever sites for its new World Heritage List, including the entire Old Town in inscribing Cracow's Historic Centre.[4][5]

Saturday relaxing time! Finally, a weekend puzzle arrived! I have been waiting for this for a week! (Duh!) No Oscar-themed puzzles though, the title was Space Odyssey. And here’s an amusing fact, Stanley “he-who-shall-not-get-the-Academy-Awards” Kubrick actually did win an Academy Awards. In 1968 (the year before man really landed on moon), Kubrick won a Visual Effects award. Which film? … 2001: Space Odyssey. Actually, there have always been an error about one of the nomination of 2001. The error was 2001: Space Odyssey was nominated by Best Writing (Original Screenplay). If I remember, the original novel was written by Arthur C. Clarke, who hoped to have an asteroid numbered 2001 or 3001 named after him. Sorry Clarke, it didn’t come true. 2001 was Einstein (Albert) and 3001 was Michelangelo (Buonarotti). How about Clarke? Clarke was 4923, and guess who was 5020. Not HAL 9000, not Stanley Kubrick, not Keir Dullea or David Bowman. It was someone I mentioned days ago. Who was he? Asimov, Isaac Asimov. Yes, Clarke came before Asimov, but Asimov was not angry about it. OK, let’s get back to the chase, so why is it nominated for Original, not Adapted? Well, there is no particular answer.


Now it’s the time for the crossword, (That was a lot of text!) An one word theme? Uh.... unless it’s a wordplay, I have never encountered an one word theme. And it’s snagged. Double symmetrical word theme is uncommon for crosswords, because it’s hard to make one. Well yes, everyone could make crosswords, just put some random letters and Google it's meaning, but only experts and editors can clue them tricky.

I’m good at geography, and I've heard of the city of Krakow, but what I don't know is it was the capital of Poland before Warsaw.
Let me see:

• Krak des Chevaliers
• Krakatoa
• Krakauer, Jon
• Kraken
• Krakow
• Krakowiak

Something in common, something in common. OK, there are two things you would put in a medicine cabinet, two animals (one on land, one in the sea), two down clues together associated with theirselves. (In this case, ABE and WAR, Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War), and I think that’s it. Oven, Oreo and ATM has been used for three times in a week. And we call them crosswordeses.

 The End. It's been too late, like 10:45 or so, and I have class tomorrow, so no bullets today. And don’t forget to comment this post!

MAYDAY!

by Ruby Deswit on February 24, 2012
Puzzle time: 16:39
Score: 100%
Difficulty: 3 / 10
Quality: 8 / 10
 
Theme: MAYDAY! - Every theme answer has an initial of S.O.S., which is a sign of mayday.
Theme entries:

• 20A: SOS card (SEVEN OF SPADES)
• 37A: SOS Bible book (SONG OF SOLOMON)
• 57A: SOS donation (SHOW OF SUPPORT)

Word of the Puzzle: TARN (6D: Alpine lake)
A tarn (or corrie loch) is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. It is formed when either rain or river water fills the cirque. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn.[2] A corrie may be called a cirque.
The word is derived from the Old Norse word tjörn meaning pond. Its more specific use as a mountain lake emerges as it is the commonly used term for all ponds in the upland areas ofNorthern England. Here, it retains a broader use, referring to any small lake or pond, regardless of its location and origin.[3]
In Scandinavian languages a tjern or tjärn, tärn or tjørn is a small natural lake, often in a forest or with vegetation close around it or growing into the lake.

Freaky Friday puzzle with again an average mix of easy, medium and hard. I don’t think this puzzle is difficult, but after all I am still an amateur. Solving an easy crossword puzzle takes me 10 minutes or so. (Although my record was 6:35)
And I checked out a little bit about today’s puzzle (I’m playing the archives, means that I am playing the crossword puzzle that were from days ago.), and there were no Oscar-themed crossword puzzle. Boo-hoo, that was discouraging.

Time to check out the puzzle, and the theme is Mayday? I saw the show (or Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency and Air Disasters) and I think it was pretty good show after all. But forget the show, we’re not talkin’ about the show, we’re talkin’ about MAYDAY!!

The clue was better than I thought, but SEVEN OF SPADES is just like a random card picked up, which is not the perfect answer of SOS card. But what you don’t know is Seven of Spades is also a Hungarian film filmed in 1916 according to Wikipedia. As for two others, they’re quite not a problem, but really need some time to figure it out.

Tarn = alpine lake? Really, although I thought Alpine lake means some lake in the mountains such as Titicaca (which is impossible because the clue box only has 4 letters). And no, I didn’t guess every lake in the Alps. Which is kind of surprise because this word of the puzzle and last puzzle’s word of the puzzle are both geographic features. And it’s pretty ironic because I’m good at geography.

OMG! There is a crosswordese crossroad crossing right in the crossword! (say that five times real fast) 15A-7D combination is an opera singer eating a white and black snack. Yes, it is ARIA and OREO. And I can’t believe I forgot where the 1952 Winter Olympics were hosted, that’s a shame. But there are several clues that I was right by pure luck, such as (23A Volvo’s Homeland) was apparently SWEDEN
and what I was surprised is that there were 2 cities which is ROME and OSLO, and 2 countries: SWEDEN and KENYA, so there are 4/78 clues that involves countries or capitals, and that is a freakin’ milestone.

Bullets:

Nerds.....

• 28A: Economy size (LARGE) Isn’t this clue kind of too... direct?
• 36A: Amateur’s antonym (PRO) This let me think of a joke about this test and this student. (Picture above)
• 42A: OUR daily bread  Where do you think this is? A diner?
• 64D: “Big Band” for one (ERA) This crossword puzzle sure needs autocorrection. Nope, Chuck Testa!

AN IMMATURE PUZZLE

by Jerry Olander on February 23, 2012
Puzzle Time: 8:46
Score: 100%
Difficulty: 3 / 10
Quality: 8 / 10
 
Theme: AN IMMATURE PUZZLE - The last word is associated with a youngster.
Theme entries:

• 17A: Beaus (BOYFRIENDS)
• 39A: Figures in some Renaissance paintings (MADONNA AND CHILD)
• 64A: One at the wedding (FLOWER GIRL)

Word of the Puzzle: DELL (66A: Farmer’s place, perhaps)
In physical geography, a dell is a small wooded valley. Like "dale", the word "dell" is derived from the Old English word dæl.
(Wikipedia)

Thursday puzzle again, not playing on Thursday. A quick puzzle of easy and hard, crossword is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re gonna get.

An immature puzzle? Seriously? I meant like the word IMMATURE sounds so “Immature”. Well it’s a good example of opposites and neutrals. BOY and GIRL are opposites and CHILD could mean both of them which is neutral. And thanks for the Boyfriend clue, I could get flower girl. Because I had the FLOWER- but didn’t know what to fill in. I checked the theme and I got the idea. Isn’t it weird that it never happened before in my life?
OK, I know what you’re meaning, but I thought the only thing that DELL has are - computers. Or it could be a homophone about that “21” singer (ADELE) which is NOT in this crossword puzzle. But I have never heard of Dell as a valley. Uncommon of the week!



If you have noticed, there are also an opposite clue in this puzzle. In this case, “23A: Sounds of disapproval” (TUTS) and “43A: Shout of approval” (BRAVO). And there is an another clue associated with title which is LARVAE (31A: Immature insects). Just like what they say:”Crossword is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
Bullets:

• 16A: Aptly citrus fruit (UGLI) Here’s a tip: If there’s a clue that involves orange or tangelo, better try ugli.
• 19A: Like dimes (THIN) I got half right when filled COIN in. But then I realized if the answer was coin, the clue should be Dimes, e.g. ,not Like dimes. And you could see why thin isn’t the answer what I expected.
• 53A: Charged atoms (IONS) Another crosswordese! And again, if you spot atoms in the clue. Try ion or ions.
• 70A: Large pawed, short tailed cat. (LYNX) Tried MANX on the first try, got half right. (This could be a meme.) And the only blacks were N and X, well you can see the things that associates with “cats” or “felines” which have 4 letters and end with -NX, there are only 2 possibilities. One is lynx, one is Manx. And I can’t believe I tried the more obscure one, because only cat lovers, people who had Manx cats or felinologist would have known that breed. And yes, it has a large paw and a short tail. So this is counted as a leap in my history of crosswords, since it has never happened before.
• 8D: Kind of bag, bank or bar (SAND) I wonder are there any paper bars? 
• 22D: “I, Robot” author Asimov (ISAAC) Did you know that Isaac Asimov is the only writer to publish books in 9 out of the 10 Dewey Decimal Categories. You didn’t? You should.