05.31.07 -- KCAB-BACK

Thursday, May 31, 2007

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Puzzle by William F. Stephens, edited Will Shortz

!efas ton si dlrow eht ro eman a evah tsum gnihtyreve ekil -- elzzup "emeht" a siht llac ot gniog si enoemoS

It's just a crossword puzzle with four answers entered backwards with the word "back" missing -- that hardly makes it a "theme" -- let's get over this "theme" and "rebus" fixation -- a "theme" puzzle would include all entries in the puzzle and a "rebus" puzzle would do the same! The good Lord did not say we must have a name for everything, but if we must have a name, name it correctly -- again, "a crossword puzzle with four backward entries" -- that's it!

Check the grids above, can you find a "theme"? That out of the way, the four entries (with a fifth "clue" entry) are:

BACK (55D Missing word in 21-, 31-, 40- and 50-Across, applied literally)

ENOERAUQSOT (21A From the beginning again) -- (BACK)(TOSQUAREONE)

DAEDEHTMORF (31A Revived) -- (BACK)(FROMTHEDEAD)

ERUTUFEHTOT (40A 1985 Michael J. Fox film) -- (BACK)(TOTHEFUTURE)

ELDDASEHTNI (50A Controlling things once more) - (BACK)(INTHESADDLE)

The only other backward/forward entries are ERIE (51D I-90 runs along it) and EIRE (61A U2's home) which cross each other in the bottom center of the grid, ELBA (40D Napoleon's home before his Hundred Days campaign) (e.g., ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW ELBA), and EWE (20A Milk source) -- all of which are oft-seen fill that just happen to be palindromes.

There is no "theme", just four answers entered backwards with a missing word supplied in another area of the puzzle!

Further commentary to follow...(Uh...read "Comments" for this day's post instead.)

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For today's cartoons, go to The Crossword Puzzle Illustrated.

The New York Times Crossword Puzzle solution above is by the author of this blog and does not guarantee accuracy. If you find errors or omissions, you are more than welcome to make note of same in the Comments section of this post -- any corrections found necessary will be executed promptly upon verification.

Puzzle available on the internet at:

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Crossword Puzzles and Games

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