Karen Lurie author page
2 puzzles by Karen Lurie
with Jeff Chen comments
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★ It's not uncommon for "Name That Theme" to stump me on a Wednesday. MINERAL WATER … MEDIUM RARE … FEELING ILL.
Stomach flu from undercooked beef from cows that drank contaminated water?
Bzzt!
WELL, ACTUALLY reminded me of the bizarre six-well Monday two weeks ago, when the Universal and LAT both ran WELL, WELL, WELL themes. I worried that the NYT would run another — things happen in threes, after all.
WELL, ACTUALLY, today's NYT was hardly well-worn! I had to read through the clues and the themers several times before figuring it out. Well, well, well worth it, though! Do you want MINERAL WATER? No, I'd like WELL (water), ACTUALLY. Shall we cook your steak MEDIUM RARE? Please make that WELL (done), ACTUALLY. Uh oh, are you FEELING ILL? No, I'm doing WELL, ACTUALLY.
Talk about well done! That's incredibly imaginative, an order of magnitude more so than those Universal or LAT puzzles.
Not many bonuses in the fill, but a few mid-lengthers like WINGMAN, EARLOBE, SHERPAS, REGALIA helped out. This grid layout can be tricky — moving MEDIUM RARE and FEELING ILL one row toward the center can help space things out better, allowing for more breathing room to incorporate longer bonuses.
A creative and memorable POW!
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SPOILER ALERT, the revealer comes first! The theme purposefully spoiled by an early revealer? Something so cheeky about that; I love the rule-breaking aspect.
I've seen FINDING NEMO a few times, so I knew that THEY (Marlin and Dory) FOUND NEMO. Something clever about this "spoiler." Although I can't point to exactly what makes it clever, it pleased me.
KILL BILL was shelved further in my mental archives, so I couldn't remember if she (O-Ren Ishii) killed Bill or not. Or who Bill was, for that matter. SHE KILLED BILL, that answers that — but it doesn't answer my question regarding why this is a spoiler.
(Astute reader Julian Blatt points out that the "she" is actually Beatrix Kiddo. No kidding, so much for my mental archives!)
Free Willy was even deeper in the dusty corners of my brain. Was there any question if Willy got freed, given the movie poster? So why is HE FREED WILLY a spoiler?
Someone spoil my questions already!
Theme hesitations aside, I loved the debut of POWER POSING. If you've never heard the term before, it's Wonder Woman's trademark move, adopted by powerful women everywhere. Neat to get GWEN STEFANI in a symmetrical spot — I'd love for someone to send in a pic of her POWER POSING!
Although the SPOILER ALERT theme ironically left me with unanswered questions, there's a delightful seed there. I typically hate it when a puzzle gives away the game much too early, so my constructor radar pinged, wanting to brainstorm more on how this could be developed further. I like when a debut intrigues me to think further.