crossword 3:07
meta -2 minutes or so
hello and welcome to week #289 of matt gaffney’s weekly crossword contest, “Father Time”. it must be patriotism month at MGWCC, because after last week’s name a state puzzle, this week’s instructions ask us to identify one of America’s Founding Fathers. so what are the theme answers?
- {When there was a new technology to be discovered, this Founder would often ___} HEAD UP THE CHARGE.
- {He was often known to ___ with what he invented} SHOCK THE WORLD.
- {As a newspaper owner, he certainly kept up on ___} CURRENT EVENTS.
- {And if you look at the money he’s on, you’ll see that even today he’s got serious ___!} PURCHASING POWER.
with CHARGE, SHOCK, CURRENT, and POWER staring us in the face, it’s clear we’re talking about benjamin franklin, who was a pioneer in the study of electricity in addition to being a founding father. the references to inventing, newspapers, and money (he’s on the $100 bill) are also there in case you didn’t pick up on the whole electricity thing. i guess this is harder than the week 1 puzzle, but not by much! there are 600+ correct solvers as i write this.
odds & ends:
- {Surprise election announcement} is “IT’S A TIE!”. recount, anyone?
- {Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is there} is a terribly long clue for WALES. at least it wasn’t LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH in the grid.
- {Didn’t go for} ESCHEWED. love this word.
- {2013 They Might Be Giants album, or the microscopic machines it’s named after} clues NANOBOTS. nice fresh fill. is matt a tmbg fan? i don’t know. i think i learned about this album from mike nothnagel’s twitter feed. we love the tmbg children’s albums, but i haven’t listened to their “regular” music since factory showroom. here’s the video of you’re on fire, from NANOBOTS. combustible heads!
december is a only a 4-friday month, so i wonder how brutal weeks 3 and 4 will be…
Ωygod, it’s electricity puns!
PDF-printout solvers saw Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch breach the grid and make it halfway across…
NDE
Ωygod — ha ha, that’s funny.
…yrndrobwllllantysiliog…
Four Ls in a row?? Whoa.
Actually two ll’s in a row. No kidding: Welsh is one of several languages where ll is treated as a single letter.
Re “Ωygod” — sorry, couldn’t resist…
NDE
Looks like 685 correct entries this week, just 9 shy of last week’s record.
Good thing Matt isn’t giving away notepads to all correct solvers this month!
Yeah, but it is possible that some opted out of the leaderboard, so it could be a new record.
(Edit: looks like 635 to me)
@icdogg, I wrote the code behind the leaderboard, so I have access to the results…50 correct entries used only an email address when they submitted, so that explains the difference from what you see on Matt’s site.
These no-nickname submitters who opt off the leaderboard are still eligible for weekly and monthly prizes.
Now hearing Barry Manilow’s “I Write the Songs” as “I Write the Code” in my head. “I write the code behind the leeeeaderboard…”
Ah. I see.
(Emily Litella voice) Never mind.
Small point, but this week’s contest was called “Father Time” – “State Lines” was last week.
I too was happy to see a nice shout-out to They Might Be Giants!
oops, there i go plagiarizing myself. (no, not really—you caught my copy & paste goof.) will fix, thanks.
I took the title to be a nod to Franklin’s roll in daylight saving time:
http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/history.html
Actually, Franklin’s essay mentioned in your link was intended as a satirical dig at what he perceived to be French laziness.
Or, if not laziness, at least his natural aversion to the Parisian custom of waking up late and staying out at night…early to bed, early to rise, you know.