XWord Muggles Forum

Julie O wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:32 am The women authors last names Rand (3D/17A), Buck (12D/20A) Lee (29D/28A), Tan (35D/47A), and Rice (65D/68A) were squeezed into the individual squares. I struggled with filling the grid on this one, and it wasn't until I completed it that I figured out what was going on.

Thanks - I never would have gotten that one. If they had left out the whole names instead of leaving in the first letter I probably would have gotten 4 of them (I never would have gotten Buck because I wouldn't have thought of "Kicked the Bucket").

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:21 am
However - bring on the meta in 7 hours

Yes!

PJM wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:06 am

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 9:21 am

Julie O wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:32 am

The women authors last names Rand (3D/17A), Buck (12D/20A) Lee (29D/28A), Tan (35D/47A), and Rice (65D/68A) were squeezed into the individual squares. I struggled with filling the grid on this one, and it wasn't until I completed it that I figured out what was going on.

I had kind of the opposite problem. I understood the method but did not know the authors. I got Buck, Lee and Tan after a while. Rand never occurred to me and I still have a blank square there. And I do not know Rice and would have not known where to put it except for your comment. I don't particularly like the grids where one square represents more than one letter.

Thanks for your post.

However - bring on the meta in 7 hours

I don't like those grids either.

I'll bet you do know Rice -- Anne Rice wrote the Vampire Chronicles etc.

Sorry - just another poorly read engineer I guess

I seem to be in the minority - I love rebuses (rebi?). They are my favorite type of crossword, after metas and cryptics. Maybe it's because the rebus provides an additional puzzle in a puzzle. That, and the fact that this dinosaur still solves primarily on paper; I can imagine it's trickier online. I will have to look at some of the online puzzles to see if and how they allow for the rebus entries.

I really enjoyed "Novel Women", and got the mechanism immediately with my favorite opera at 17A.

Rebuses have always angered me, and I don't know why. My reaction is like, "if you don't want to make crossword puzzles, then don't make crossword puzzles!" Which doesn't make a great deal of sense.

the smashing 3 or 4 letters into one box was a Pain In The Ass ...

I got it, but I immediately threw it into the recycling pile. It was not one of my favorites.

The "SANTA/SANTANA" down clue was my first one solved - the TAN was needed. At that point, I knew that I wasn't going to be happy with the rest of the grid. BUCK (Pearl) took a while - I knew it was SAWBUCKS down, but struggled to make it work. RICE - yes, I knew of her books. And I'm a fan of Ayn, so that one - but I don't know opera, so I was at a loss on that one for a while.