Sunday, August 5, 2007
ACROSTIC -- Puzzle by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon -- Edited by Will Shortz
Today’s quotation (appearing at the end of this commentary in the acrostic grid) is from “Close to Home”, a collection of Ellen Goodman’s newspaper columns published in 1979
In the event you are unfamiliar with the acrostic, The New York Times provides the following paragraph:
“Guess the words defined below and write them over their numbered dashes. Then transfer each letter to the correspondingly numbered square in the pattern. Black squares indicate word endings. The filled pattern will contain a quotation reading from left to right. The first letters of the guessed words will form an acrostic giving the author’s name and the title of the work.”
Salvador Dali , 'Soft Watch'
The Times allows the completed grid to be published, but will serve notice of copyright if more than that is duplicated and posted. So, one needs to type it out -- unfortunately, in the case of an acrostic, it would be a monumental task to type the placement of the numbers beneath each defined word which correspond to the grid.
If you are unfamiliar with same, the following is an example:
Without their numbers, the defined words are:
A. EVERYMAN -- Joe Blow or John Doe
B. LIBRATE -- Wobble back and forth before coming to rest
C. LEFTBANK -- Montparnasse setting (2 wds.)
D. ETERNITY -- Typical wait duration?
E. NANETTE -- Title character of a 1925 musical comedy
F. GODUTCH -- Split the bill (2 wds.)
G. ONTARIO -- Home province for the Raptors
H. OPTICIAN -- Person whose job can be a grind?
I. DIFFUSE -- Spread out, scattered
J. MASONIC -- Belonging to a certain secret society
K. ABEYANT -- Not active at the moment
L. NEPOTIST -- One dispensing favors to the family
M. CHEWOUT -- Rake over the coals (2 wds.)
N. LOTHARIO -- Casanova, Don Juan, Romeo
O. OVIFORM - - Shaped like an egg
P. SHYING -- Balking
Q. ETHANCOEN -- One half of a filmmaking duo (2 wds.)
R. THIMBLE -- Item in a digitabulist’s collection
S. OFFENSE -- Scoring strategy or violation, in sports
T. HAWTHORN -- State flower of Missouri
U. OVERWRITE -- Explain on paper too elaborately; cover with words
V. MOUSETRAP -- Invention not easily improved upon
W. EMINEM -- Rapper with a 2002 Oscar for Best Song
The quotation, for me at least, has a way of seeming to be unfocused -- perhaps too many ellipses are involved. One would have to see the original quotation to know.
In any event, having been president of a tenant association for several years, I can certainly empathize with the sentiment involved, although I’m not sure our “urban tribe” was diffuse and stood waiting for an eternity!
Jeroen Bosch: ‘Opstijging naar de hemel’ (ca 1500)
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
If you subscribe to home delivery of The New York Times you are eligible to access the daily crossword via The New York Times - Times Reader, without additional charge, as part of your home delivery subscription.
No comments:
Post a Comment