Try and solve our hardest puzzle yet!
SUNDAY PUZZLE – Hello my crossword folks! Welcome to my second themeless puzzle for the daily! Ever since I published my first one, I’ve been especially fond of themeless puzzles, as I’m a huge fan of the flexibility you get with the fill. Today’s puzzle is definitely our hardest puzzle yet, so for those of you that breeze through our puzzles will hopefully have a bit of a challenge today. The editor’s solve time on this puzzle was 8:09, so if you’re looking for a time to beat, that’s the one. I hope you have a great time solving it! If you have any questions or corrections feel free to email me at vschmitt@umich.edu. If you would like to contribute to the crossword or brag about beating his time, email the editor at pavkan@umich.edu. Happy solving!
Tricky Clues:
40A. The clue “Barely reacts” refers to BATS AN EYE. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of you found this one pretty difficult, as it could really refer to so many different things. I also just find the act of batting one’s eyes to be pretty funny. It reeks of the 80’s.
49A. I hope this one gave you an “Aha!” moment. The clue “Cook with a lot of Apples?” refers to TIM, as in the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook. The part of this clue that might have tipped you off is the fact that “Apples” is capitalized, meaning it refers to a proper noun. Subtle hints like that can make all the difference when you’re trying to interpret a clue.
2D. I told you that this is our hardest puzzle yet. Unless you’re a huge geology nerd, you most likely struggled with this one. The clue “Marble-like” refers to AGATINE, which essentially means “like an agate.” Even if you don’t know what an agate is, I can almost guarantee that you’ve seen one in your life before; whether it be in a high school science class or a trip to a museum, these beautiful rock formations are hard to keep your eyes off of.
13D. I’m proud of this one. The clue “Supporters of the arts?” refers to EASELS. This is pretty self-explanatory, but the idea is that easels “support” artwork as their primary function, even though the question implies a different sort of “support.”
27D. The clue “Ran into trouble” refers to HIT A SNAG. In my experience, the entries that give people the most trouble are ones involving multiple words. This puzzle is no stranger to these entries, but I think this one is especially difficult given the tense. The use of “Ran” in the clue means that it’s past-tense, and if you’re anything like me, you would’ve been itching to fill in an -ED at the end of this entry before you even figured out what it was. Generally, this wouldn’t be a bad bet, as a vast majority of English verbs do use an -ed to signify the past-tense. The irregularity of HIT combined with the three distinct words creates a formidable challenge for most solvers.
Answer Key:
