The October Maltby is now online!!!
Good Luck and Enjoy!
Personal Side Note:
The first cryptic that Sondheim did for New York Magazine (April 1968) was a "Theme and Variations" puzzle. I know this because I started working my way through the Stephen Sondheim's Crossword Puzzles book in order this weekend, and just finished that puzzle.
Re: Harper’s October ‘23 “Theme and Variations”
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2023 3:43 pm
by Tom Wilson
Ohmigosh, thanks for the links to the Sondheim puzzles. I've happened upon several over the years, but this is the mother lode. The new Maltby helped me pass a Monday morning, but these will occupy more than a month of Mondays!
Re: Harper’s October ‘23 “Theme and Variations”
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:35 pm
by oldjudge
This one seemed more straightforward and better clued than most Maltby puzzles. LOL, maybe I am just getting used to them. Thanks to Tom for forwarding this along.
Re: Harper’s October ‘23 “Theme and Variations”
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2023 7:48 pm
by ChrisKochmanski
oldjudge wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:35 pm
This one seemed more straightforward and better clued than most Maltby puzzles. LOL, maybe I am just getting used to them. Thanks to Tom for forwarding this along.
Yes, relatively speaking, for a Maltby, I whipped through this one.
Re: Harper’s October ‘23 “Theme and Variations”
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2023 1:31 am
by Nino
Yes, for me, this was one of the quickest solves of a Maltby. The last fill was 26A. With the four crossing downs in place, I then determined the two letters that gave a solution that works with the word play.
However, I don’t know how it works as a definition.
Did others have a similar experience. Did you work it out as a definition?
Re: Harper’s October ‘23 “Theme and Variations”
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2023 4:22 am
by Richard B.
Nino wrote: ↑Tue Sep 19, 2023 1:31 am
Yes, for me, this was one of the quickest solves of a Maltby. The last fill was 26A. With the four crossing downs in place, I then determined the two letters that gave a solution that works with the word play.
However, I don’t know how it works as a definition.
Did others have a similar experience. Did you work it out as a definition?
(And thank you for placing it under the Spoiler link.)
As it turns out, I had guessed right as to which word was being defined, but I had not consulted that particular online site (which did a much more robust job with that word than the other major online dictionary/thesaurus, which I had checked.)
Thankfully, I can put this puzzle aside now, without having it on my mind until the solution is published weeks from now.
