Words: 70
Average Length: 5.29
Fair warning: I had a bit of fun while cluing today’s puzzle. I hope the result, while challenging, is still fun and perhaps even amusing.
One explanatory note regarding 52 Down: a “fake book” is a compendium of lead sheets, which give the melody line and chords of a song but not a full arrangement. They’re useful in settings where an amateur musician might not know all the tunes.
Words: 66
Average Length: 5.73
I’m big into Connections. Not the New York Times game, which often irks me. The real thing – the connections between all 8.3 billion of us, all cousins of one degree or another That’s today’s theme.
I’m particularly taken by 43 Across, a bland answer with enormous significance: As the clue says, nearly everyone living outside Africa today can trace a large portion of their DNA to a group of 1000-2500 breeding-age individuals who left Africa only 50,000 years ago.
And if you go back another 100,000 years or so, then all of us – regardless of where we live – can trace our lineage back to a single woman, “Mitochondrial Eve”, who lived in East Africa (33 Across, to be exact) around 6,000 generations ago.*
In other words, we’re all related (17 Down), and we’re all in this together (20 Across)!
OK, lesson’s over. Time to solve, cousins!
*Mitochondrial Eve wasn’t the only woman alive at the time, but she was the only one whose progeny survive today. (The male most recent common ancestor, “Y-Chromosome Adam,” likely lived more than 200,000 years ago – he and Mt-Eve weren’t a couple.)
Themeless 135:
Words: 77 (16×15)
Average Length: 5.25
Whoops – one of the seeds for this puzzle, 25 Across, was also a seed in a themeless puzzle I posted several weeks ago. (The other seeds were 6 Down and 33 Down.) I somehow forgot that I’d already used it. If your memory is better than mine – and I sure hope it is – you should have a head start.
Let’s Do the Time Warp Again:
Words: 7 (4×3)
Average Length: 3.43
Yesterday, a fellow cruciverbalist, Moose Dixon, posted a terrific Tim Curry tribute puzzle, which you can solve here. After completing it, I dashed off this micro-puzzle, entitled “Let’s Do the Time Warp Again”. Here are links to the online and AcrossLite versions. I didn’t do a pdf, but you can print the .puz file if you like solving on paper.
Words: 10 (5×5)
Average Length: 5.00
I’ve now constructed a handful of cryptic crosswords. I’m still not sure whether I’m following all the rules, but I’m pleased with the way this puzzle turned out. Any tips/corrections/comments would be greatly appreciated!
Not to fear, non-cryptic solvers – I’ll post an American-style midi in a couple of days.
Keep scrolling down for an explanation of the answers.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ * * * * * * * * _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ * * * * * * * * _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
1A: Anagram of spare
6A: Answer dangles and coats the throat when talking
7A: Answer contained within “amid a swamp”
8A: Homophone pair: baits/bates
9A: Anagram of nasty
1D: Spirit (rum) + degree (BA)
2D: Naïve read bottom to top
3D: Sydney (Australia) note = AUD + it
4D: Pun
5D: Butt (ass) contained within little Seymour (SY)
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.46
The three seeds for today’s puzzle came from diametrically opposed ends of the TV viewing spectrum. 26 Across and 15 Down were answers on “Jeopardy!” several months ago and duly entered my spreadsheet of stuff I want to put in a crossword. 3 Down was being played one afternoon on a favored show of my three-year old granddaughter, “Spidey and His Amazing Friends.”
A note on 57 Across: the composer in the answer got the nickname “Papa” because he was adored by the musicians who worked for him. He had no legitimate children of his own; there is debate whether he fathered an illegitimate child with a mistress. (Now you’re caught up on gossip from the 18th century!)
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.29
Unlike my wife, who seems to have perfect recollection of everything that’s happened to her since age 3, I retain few clear memories of my earliest years. One I do have, though, is playing 50A in Kindergarten (well before differential calculus got on the curriculum). That was my first seed for what I thought might be a fowl-focused themed puzzle, but after I came up with 19 Across and not much else, I opted for a mostly-themeless. Apologies for the partial dupe in 9 Down and 29 Down – I didn’t see it until just now and won’t let it give me a “gilty” conscience. Finally, you can thank me later for the two music recommendations in the clues (1D and 35A).
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.57
I’m happy with how wide-open and relatively 3-free this grid turned out. 1A and 15A were the seeds. 10D and 64A are clued etymologically because I think their origins are pretty cool, and I loved learning the facts in the clue for 17A. I also wanted to give a shout out to 21A. She’s one of my favorite authors; her books are humane, quirky, and filled with local (Baltimore) color.
I usually alternate between themed and themeless puzzles, but when I took a fresh look at the themed puzzle I intended to post today, I wasn’t thrilled with it. So here’s next week’s planned puzzle a week early.
The seeds for this grid were 6D/20A and 7D. My favorite clue is 29A – it’s not a pun or misdirect, but a beautiful quote I ran across somewhere.
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