Dave Bardolph author page
1 puzzle by Dave Bardolph
with Jeff Chen comments
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| T | H | E | P | O | U | N | D | O | F | F | L | E | S | H |
| I | N | D | E | X | T | E | T | R | A | S | H | Y | ||
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| L | E | N | D | M | E | Y | O | U | R | E | A | R | S | |
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| L | A | R | D | S | L | A | C | K | T | I | N | Y | ||
| B | R | E | A | D | T | O | O | L | O | D | E | |||
| A | Y | T | H | E | R | E | S | T | H | E | R | U | B | |
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| A | W | W | P | I | C | K | S | D | I | N | A | R | ||
| W | H | A | T | S | D | O | N | E | I | S | D | O | N | E |
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| S | W | E | E | T | T | E | L | L | R | E | E | D |
I love the image of these Shakespearean characters hanging out at a backyard BBQ, scheming to cook a steak. Sort of a "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble" with A-1, hot sauce, and ketchup. The Bard and the backyard; such different walks of life; I'd have never thought of juxtaposing the two. Clever!
I'm no Shakespeare aficionado — I read roughly five pages of every assigned play in school and said a lot of "prithees" and "portents" to get by on tests — so the THE in THE POUND OF FLESH confused me. Isn't it A POUND OF FLESH? Apparently not!
I also hitched at the Shylock reference, since there are so many negative connotations, but the entry is a direct quote from that character. Hard to avoid the reference.
As much as the imagery amused me, I would have loved it even more if all the quotes had related to a steak. Shylock presenting it, Hamlet seasoning it, Lady Macbeth calling it done. Surely there has to be a fourth meat-sounding quote from all of Shakespeare?
I knew there was a reason why I should have done the assigned reading.
Such solid gridwork, and in a debut, too! It's so rare that a new constructor comes out of the gate with only a bit of CPU EEG, and those are minor. I'd challenge Dave to next time open up his grid more, allowing for a few bonuses, perhaps taking out the square between RANT and EEL, or maybe even between EGRET and WAVE.
I'm still giggling about these larger-than-life figures with barbeque sauce smeared into their waxed mustaches. Such a fun debut.