A Crossword Poem

Clear Ayes posted this poem a few days ago and I liked it a lot. Thought some of you might not have read it.

Enjoy!

C.C.

Author: Xillus Xavier

Crossword Puzzle(d)

Satisfy
Four squares ACROSS:

Simple answer or torturous enigma?
Puzzles can be candy for the brain.
Or a thorn.

This puzzle shall entertain me!
Write black lines on white paper;
black and white answers.

Eraser: ally of guessers everywhere.

Quite Obvious
Five squares DOWN:

Only the mentally strong will
venture their time, their
energy, their intellectual
resources to sate the needs of
these letter-starved squares. Obviously!

With unyielding fortitude,
I shall use a pen - not pencil -
and confidently vanquish my grid-like enemy.
The overt words at first of course!

And when the clue
for an eleven-letter word for freedom arises -
Mr. Thesaurus here at my side
gives me deliverance.

Friday September 26, 2008 Michael T. Williams

Theme: The Long and The Short of It

17A: Three longs: DIVISION FACE BOW

57A: Three longs: SHOT ISLAND RANGE

3D: Three shorts: WAVE COMING STORY

7D: Three shorts: HAND CIRCUIT CAKE

11D: Three shorts: RIB TEMPER CHANGE

I like this theme, not the grid structure. Somehow the middle part felt very cramped and I had difficulty breathing. I turned the puzzle 90 degrees and I still did not like the shape. I did not know why those broken blocks bothered me.

There are quite a few unfamiliar clues & answers for me in this puzzle. And I struggled hard for letter T between the intersection of INIT (55D: 1st letter) and CHETS (66A: Huntley and Atkins"). I think I vaguely heard of CHET Huntley before, but I could not dredge his name out of my brain. Had a big V8 moment with INIT (Initial).

The clue for ATF (8D: Booze, butts, and bullets bureau) should have an abbreviated "bureau "or simply "org."

Across:

10A: Linkletter and Carney: ARTS. Pure guess. Not familiar with either of them.

23A: Hush-hush: SECRET. Beautiful red rose, such mysterious folded structure. No wonder rose (anagram of Eros) is the symbol of SECRECY, love, perfection and femininity. Dante's Paradise.

25A: Sweet-talk: COAX

32A: Arabic Mac: IBN. But BIN is more popular, isn't it? Both refer to "Son of". Abu is "father of". Al is "the", as in Al - Qaida. Here is a photo of FDR with IBN Saud, former king of Saudi Arabia.

36A: Guitar ridge: FRET. No idea. I got it from across fills.

40A: Phoenix of Egyptian gods: BENU. Or BENNU. See this picture. I've never heard of it before.

43A: Highland plant: GORSE. Also spelled as furze, furse, whin. An evergreen shrub. Unknown to me. Wikipedia says "Common GORSE flowers most strongly in spring, though it bears some flowers year round, hence the old country phrase: "When GORSE is out of blossom, kissing's out of fashion." The flowers have a very distinctive strong coconut scent."

44A: Stops a stealer: TAGS. Very creative baseball TAG. Hmm, this is great, so is this one, this one, this one and this one. I don't under this Colgroup tag, what does it mean? Other baseball references are OTT (22A: Mel of the Giants) and ATL (61D: Braves in box scores).

46A: Like-minded voters: BLOC

69A: Bacon amount: RASHER. Don't laugh at me, but really I have never heard of RASHER. Always thought it's called slice or strip. I've never developed a taste for bacon or hotdog. I do love apple pie.

52A: Place for three men?: TUB. Learned this rhyme from a comment Carol made sometime ago. I like this picture.

63A: Funny Jack of Hollywood: OAKIE

64A: End-of-week cry: TGIF. We seem to get a TGIF every Friday now.

Down:

5D: Robberies: HEISTS. Have you seen HEIST?

12D: Boxing letters: TKO

19D: Courteney or Wally: COX. Only know Courteney COX (Monica in "Friends").

24D: Indian cash: RUPEES

29D: Composer Saint - ___: SAENS. He composed "Danse Macabre". DANSE was clued as Saint-Saëns' "___ Macabre" in our puzzle before.

30D: Provide with a trait: ENDUE. New word to me. I was thinking of ENDOW.

33D: Forbidden acts: TABOOS. "... You give me the Sweetest TABOO, that's why I am in love with you...."

34D: Greek letter: DELTA. Xchefwalt probably wants DELTA to be clued as "Flower's end?" I really like this tricky flow-er clue, you know, you can clue NILE "The longest flower in the word?"

36D: Calf-length skirt: MIDI. Do you call this one as MIDI? "Après __ " might be too obvious. "Nice noon?" sounds great, don't you think so?

43D: Egg white: GLAIR. New word to me.

46D: Dracula's conquest: BRIDES

50D: Baylor of basketball: ELGIN. No, not a familar name to me. ELGIN was clued as "City in Scotland or Illinois" in an April puzzle.

C.C.