Comments on: Wednesday, 6/2/10

By: ArtLvr

ArtLvr — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:11:26 +0000

Just did the latest Fireball — I won’t spoil it for anyone, but it was amusing and not too hard…

By: cyberdiva

cyberdiva — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:41:09 +0000

Well, I’m usually sitting here reading other people’s accounts of how they solved puzzles I couldn’t even start, so please forgive me if I say that I found Wednesday’s NYT surprisingly easy. I didn’t finish it in Amy’s kind of time, but probably 3 X Amy, which almost NEVER happens. I too had HOPI, but then I saw ____ + 4 and knew that had to be ZIP, which led to ZUNI, and the rest just fell into place.

Probably the gods will get back at me tomorrow by making me unable to finish Thursday’s, but for the rest of today, I’m feeling good.

By: ktd

ktd — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:49:34 +0000

Wow, ZIP + 4 seems very obvious now. I’m trying to imagine where I might have encountered this phrase–definitely never in speech, probably only on a form somewhere (most just ask for ZIP). I really thought this was some weird/ironic way of saying “0 + 4″.

By: Amy Reynaldo

Amy Reynaldo — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:07:48 +0000

ZIP + 4 is your ZIP code with the extra four digits after the dash. The extra numbers identify your location within your ZIP code more precisely.

A shut-out team may lack touchdowns or runs, or it may lack goals. Depending on the sport.

URI has other clues—[Mentalist Geller] and [Ocean State sch.], for example, for Uri Geller and the University of Rhode Island.

By: ktd

ktd — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:56:52 +0000

Hear hear for the lower left! I also put in HOPI and then crossed it with PIU for “___ troppo”. I stalled trying to think of a word __UG to describe the engine noise, before restarting the corner with NON troppo which led to ZUNI, etc. According to xwordinfo, URI has been used 94 times in NYT puzzles since 1993, so I guess it’s probably worth committing to memory. Can anyone explain what ZIP + 4 means?

The clue “What a shut-out team may lack” doesn’t sound quite right for GOALS, because the very definition of shut-out means you didn’t score. But I guess there’s a secondary way of connecting the clue and answer that distinguishes goals from runs, touchdowns, etc.

You know what other game has goals? Soccer (that’s football to Gareth). World Cup in nine days!

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:39:53 +0000

June 2 is Milo O’Shea’s birthday.

By: Amy Reynaldo

Amy Reynaldo — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:48:42 +0000

I second the remarks about the ZIP corner (ZIP’s clue was hard, and the plausibility of HOPI slowed things down), and I too had FIN before ABE. It’s all about the Benjamins much more than “the Abes.”