One of my greatest joys is doing the Sunday Crossword puzzle from the Washington Post. It usually takes me all week to finish it. My method is to go through all the clues from 1A to the end and fill in what I can, then go back and start again with the additional help of the words that I had filled in. At a certain point, I will circle clues that are particularly hard or that are part of the meta puzzle – the Washington Post always has a meta puzzle – clues that make up the solution to another bigger picture clue. When I’m done, I like to look up references and answers that were unfamiliar to me.
This week, I looked up:
“Do I Wanna Know?” by the Arctic Monkeys. The crossword creator often uses music clues, most are songs I don’t know because I don’t listen to a lot of music. I try to listen to the songs that are mentioned in the puzzled.
The crossword clue: 5 Across: “Do I ___ Know?” (Arctic Monkeys Song)
What UHF is. It stands for Ultra High Frequency and is a designation for radio frequencies of a certain range. UHF waves travel in straight lines.
Clue: 62 Across The U of UHF
Who Monica Seles is. She’s a tennis star. Actually, I realized I had heard of her, after I looked her up. She’s the one who got stabbed in the back by the fan of a rival tennis player. I remember that happening, and it was wild.
Clue: 74 A: One who was a tennis star either way. (I thought this was a clever clue – the “either way” refers to the palindromic nature of her name.)
Who Joe Maddon is. He’s a Major League Baseball manager and player, now retired. I don’t do very well with sports clues.
Clue: 99A: Manager Joe who won the 2016 World Series with the Chicago Cubs.
The 1889 Jules Verne short story “In the Year 2889”, about a day in the life of a newspaper magnate, 1000 years into the future.
Hint: 51D – Creator of “phonotelephote” videoconferencing in the 1889 short story “In the Year 2889”
What NL Central is. Another Sports one. It’s one of Major League Baseball’s six divisions.
Hint: 57D- Cub scouts’ divisions, for short? (I thought this clue had to do with Boy Scouts… I was wrong.)
Who Edd Hall is. He’s a voice over personality best known for being the announcer for Jay Leno.
Clue: 73 D – Announcer Hall
And, my favorite clue from the puzzle:
“Geishas’ bands” – 4 letter word.
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The answer is…. obis!
This clue made me so happy because my current opera is set in Japan so there have been SO MANY obi discussions in rehearsals.
Do you do crossword puzzles?