01.24.10 -- Going Too Far




Astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, lunar module pilot, photographed this sweeping view showing fellow Moon-explorer astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., mission commander, and the Apollo 14 Lunar Module (LM). A small cluster of rocks and a few prints made by the lunar overshoes of Mitchell are in the foreground. Mitchell was standing in the boulder field, located just north by northwest of the LM, when he took this picture during the second Apollo 14 extravehicular activity (EVA-2), on February 6, 1971. NASA

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

GOING TOO FAR, Puzzle by Eric Berlin, edited by Will Shortz

“AMERICA IS A VAST CONSPIRACY TO MAKE YOU HAPPY”, a quote from Problems and Other Stories by John Updike, is contained in the gray squares of this finely crafted Second Sunday puzzle.  A note accompanies the crossword -- “Many of the answers in this crossword are one letter too long and won’t fit in the spaces provided. Each of these answers will either begin or end in the gray square immediately before or after it. When the puzzle is done, all the gray squares will have been used exactly once, and the letters in them (reading left to right, line by line) will spell out a quote by John Updike.”


Across: 1. Brownish tin, SEPIA; 5. Deep divide, SCHISM; 10. Lustful one, in slang, LECH; 14. Offer one’s view, OPINE; 15. Answered the alarm, say, AROSE; 16. Fix, as laces, RETIE; 17. Refusals, NOES; 18. European peninsula, IBERIA; 19. Chair person?, CANER; 20. No. on a check, ACCT; 21. Commander on Apollo 14, ALAN SHEPARD; 23. Scientific proposals, THEOREMS; 25. Charged bits, IONS; 26. Very, in Versailles, TRES; 27. “Is that a fact?”, OH REALLY; 31. Quiet and dignified, SOLEMN; 34. Insurance grps., HMOS; 36. Absolut alternative, briefly, STOLI; 37. Significant span of time, ERA; 38. Stew ingredients, often, POTATOES; 41. Supermodel from Somalia, IMAN; 42. Toiling hard, AT IT; 44. Don’t merely call, RAISE; 45. With, ALONG; 47. Soap ingredient, LANOLIN; 49. Kind of soap, LYE; 50. Behaved, RULY; 51. Old-fashioned heater, OIL STOVE; 56. Ad campaign honors, CLIO AWARDS; 60. Mex. Titles, SRAS; 61. Ga. neighbor, TENN; 62. Expensive bar, INGOT; 63. Stilettos, e.g., HEELS; 64. Grammar class taboo, AIN’T; 65. Chest pain, ANGINA; 66. “Gay” city, PAREE; 67. Busybody, SNOOP; 68. James Stewart title role, DESTRY; 69. Little ones, TOTS.


Down: 1. Many a Beethoven piece, SONATA; 2. Significant span of time, EPOCH; 3. Gun, slangily PIECE; 4. About to occur, IN STORE; 5. Some furs, SABLES; 6. Best part, metaphorically, CREAM; 7. Big band section, HORNS; 8. Fertility goddess, ISIS; 9. Fish that swims upright, SEA HORSE; 10. Doesn’t hesitate to accept, LEAPS AT; 11. Site for Sicilian hikers, ETNA; 12. Old Oldsmobile, CIERA; 13. Group that gets driven, HERD; 22. Compass point: Abbr., ENE; 24. San REMO; 27. Tommyrot, HOOEY; 28. Option for a sportscast director, SLO MO; 29. Grassy expanse, LLANO; 30. Trying to win, VYING; 31. Close up, SEAL; 32. “Not quite, but close, SORTA; 33. Singer Frankie, LAINE; 34. Sequence, CHAIN; 35. Geog. High points, MTS; 39. You may want to have this behind you, TAIL WIND; 40. Authority, SAY SO; 43. City in Canada’s Golden Horseshoe, TORONTO; 46. “Dinner time!”, LET’S EAT; 48. Certain feast, LUAU; 49. Top-notch, as an athlete, ALL-STAR; 51. Welsh dogs, CORGIS; 52. “I DON’T believe it”; 53. He might throw his hat in a ring, TORERO; 54. Upscale restaurant employee, VALET; 55. Pigsties, MESSES; 58. Stand in for, ACT AS; 57 Political columnist Joe KLEIN; 58. Words before time or hurry, IN NO; 59. Haloed one, in France, ANGE.




Click on image to enlarge.

Puzzle available on the internet at


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