Pet Names
by swimtime
- Play it ↗
- Difficulty: easy (but not for me)
This crossword destroyed me. I can't begin to explain how many squiggly lines appeared after I had finished entering letters into the grid, demonstrating my vain attempts to occupy each empty square with something, no matter how nonsensical. I think the more crosswords I solve, the worse I become at solving them.
I actually breezed through the first half of this grid, plonking HONEYBADGER
and having an altogether good time. I made a couple mistakes, entering AWL
instead of AXE for "Woodcutter's tool" and misremembering "Fitzgerald crowned
the 'Queen of Jazz'", ELLA. I struggled a bit on EASYAS for "Marks of a bird
course?" because the wordplay doesn't make any sense, a feeling that I stand
behind even after reading the post-solve description where the editor explains
it's a Canadian idiom.
The bottom half of the grid was where the real struggle began. On my first pass
I was only able to slot POSIES, SALTED, and DRUG, and that was after
reading all of the acrosses. My self-satisfied feelings of cleverness
immediately dissolved into panic as I watched my time tick up, desperately
searching for something to key into.
I was surprised that I couldn't slot anything for "Apt rhyme of 13-Across";
there aren't that many things that rhyme with SPA, and few of them aptly. In
retrospect, AAH is kind of a BS word anyway, so I don't feel that bad about
myself. It also doesn't help that I misspelled SARAN wrap as "seran", making
"Hawaiian word for bigeye or yellowfin tuna" unnecessarily difficult.
Man, some of the fill in that lower grid is rough. AGITA for "Stress that you
can't do anything to address" is kind of insane. Where does this word come from,
and why should I know it? Either way, the real time sinks were 32A and 34A, with
a couple of idioms that I just couldn't nail down. Not to mention the themer's
pet name, SUGAR, that likewise vacated my mind.
Regardless of how this crossword went, it's a reminder that even after solving some 60 of these things every morning I can still be humbled by an easy puzzle. It's nice that Puzzmo's midi crosswords can pose such a significant challenge, even if most of it can be chalked up to my own inability.
Send your comments to [email protected].