Crosswordy things

[tahnan]

Yesterday my main acomplishment was doing three weeks worth of Times crosswords, except for the Sundays, because I just wasn't ready for that sort of time commitment. Some reflections:

• My 7:20 on Thursday, September 26, was one of my best Thursday times ever. Sadly, it was marred by an error, and an error I knew I was making and couldn't fix: "Site of two temples of Ramses II" crossing "Like Shostakovich's Symphony No. 2". The latter is one of my least favorite formats of clue: it's a three-letter answer starting "IN" and then you have to guess which of A, B, C, D, E, F, G the last letter is (unless you really know your classical music). The crossing was obviously no help. I guessed wrong.


• My time on Friday, September 27, was pretty good--but I'd heard two people discussing the gimmick, which made it much easier to solve, unfortunately. Which meant I spent some time avoiding the clues that used that gimmick, trying to keep it fairer. Well, what can you do.


• In spite of this, the week of the 23rd looks like a good week, 20 minutes faster than the week of the 16th. I'll have to see how Sunday goes.


• One puzzle had a slight error in it, I think; it gives "Second to the right, and straight on till morning" as the directions to Neverneverland. However, the directions from the book, "Second to the right, and straight on till morning," are to Neverland, and the directions to Neverneverland, from the movie, begin, I think, "Second star..." A minor point, but we nitpickers are proud of our minor points.

More later.