Sally Ryan for The New York Times Paul Burrs on his wheat farm near Dixon, Ill., in 2007.TUESDAY’S PUZZLE — There’s an interesting surprise in today’s puzzle that you may overlook because it’s a very low-key entry. On the other hand, we’ve all been doing Brendan Emmett Quigley’s puzzles for so long (Solution, Note: There is no blog or Across Lite file for this puzzle) and enjoyed them so much, that I feel compelled to point it out.
Brendan Emmett Quigley is pregnant. There, I said it. No wait, his wife, Liz is pregnant. I was so excited by the news I almost messed it up. Judging from the Easter egg in the grid at 17 Across, though, he’s taking at least partial credit for this turn of events. Mr. and Mrs. Quigley are terrific people and are going to be wonderful parents. I wish them an easy pregnancy and all of the blessings that parenthood brings. I know you do, too.
Was this puzzle an EASY A for you? There were plenty of courses like that where I went to school, but I don’t remember a course exactly like the one Mr. Quigley recommends. I did like the entries, though. TREADS WATER and the excellent SPELL WEAVING make their first appearances today, and I especially liked DOOZY and WOBBLE so close to KNUCKLE UNDER.
The only place I had a problem was at 61 Across, where I was thinking BUNNY instead of JESUS. My bad.
But I “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. Instead, I leave you with a great song from the album (yes, I totally called it an album!) at 28 Across:
Your thoughts?
You can now download and print the popular variety puzzles from the Sunday magazine free online. Look below for links to this week’s puzzle as well as answers to last week’s.
Deb Amlen is a humorist and puzzle constructor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and other mainstream media. The puzzles she creates for The Onion and Bust Magazine, however, would never fly at The New York Times. Sorry, Mom.
Numberplay is a puzzle suite that will be presented in Wordplay every Monday. The puzzles, which are created by Pradeep Mutalik and made their debut on TierneyLab, are generally mathematical or logical problems, with occasional forays into physics and other branches of science. Every post also includes a word challenge. 