On Crosswords

Just spent the past two hours doing a crossword that was way out of my league. Unlike the NYTimes Crosswords, the Korea Times doesn't have an increasing level of difficulty: Monday easy puzzles to Sunday pro level. From my 3 plus years experience with crosswords, I'd say the highest level is equivalent to a Tuesday NYTimes puzzle. The majority of clues are identifying and defining, with a few tricky ones that sometimes end with question marks. The Korean Herald puzzles on the other hand have the Word Jumbles, which are great for warming the ol'dentrites before jumping into the mighty grid, however it doesn't have a theme. I'm suspecting The Herald puzzles are computer generated, they are marked as puzzle numbers no authors or titles. I still like to do them on the subway though.

Well, today's puzzle was by Leonard Gravis entitled HIDE AND SEEK. I like to play commentary when doing puzzles like, "Easy one Leonard, Okay, Mr. Gravis ECRU to BLEW to Apple's Apple, that must be LOGO! Oh Leo..." Leonardo kicked my ass today. This one was out of my league because the connecting clues were on names of actors and authors, jeez! I looked up one (actually many) of the answers online for the clue, Without the defendant present, and it was INABSENTIA. Mr. Gravis was getting on my nerves. Any food clues? Bring it! But ol'Leonard didn't have any, oh except 'chix of the sea' that rabbit! 죽고 십냐? Do you want to die mister? The two answers to the HIDE AND SEEK theme were 'WHERES WALDO' and 'LOST IN SPACE'. Ends up that 'Wheres Waldo' was a TV Kids series on CBS which aired from 1991-1992. That was a hard one. I'm stumped on 66 across, 'UTUSE'? Okay, okay Leo, you snookered me already.

Going to Paris in 2 weeks. Can't wait to see you buddy, the pun master! 13 years we've been friends. Instead of saying, I went to Lyon or explored the wonderful boulangeries, the Eiffel Tower, the bustling cafes in Belleville and Montmartre- I can say yes, we did crosswords at these places. I like how it involves the players. Everyone can contribute an answer. What's foreign to me may be common place to you. I Absolutely love it when someone is searching for an answer saying, "OMG! I know this."