Sixes and Sevens (And Twelves) - July 2014

We're back, Dear Readers! Back and better than ever! Travel to Europe with Sweet Vlad was incredible. Some photos on the Tweeter.

And THANK YOU to all those in the past month who responded to our Call and reached out, commented, emailed, passed along dollar support, kai, ta, loipa. We felt the love. Love is bond.

Din't e'en ha' ti' to check answers this month nor check our logic so this post is likely RIFE with errors and a reminder that this is a SAFE SPACE for correcting logic. Also: sincere question for the comments: how many people, would you estimate, participate in the monthly Harper's cryptic contest? Hard to know, right???????

The Theme

We've seen this bad boy before. Unclued six, seven, and twelve letter answers. A couple handfuls with clue numbers. Straightforward fun.

Highlights!

• 9D) Mail boxes I put out (5)
  (Mail boxes = POST) + I = POSIT

Nice! Tight. Simple. This clue puts out.

• 6g/5A) I'm right in front—entralled by quiet, soft, tiny thing
  (IM * rev = MI) + (quiet = SH) + (right = R) = SHRIMP

SHRIMP makes frequent puzzle appearances but this one charmed us for the narrative. The quiet soft tiny thing! It enthralls!

• 24A) Reactionary, unmoved, shows a bit of kindness at heart? Unreal! (5)
  ((unmoved = DEAF) * rev.) = FAED) + (bit of kindness = K) = FAKED

Nice.

• 7D) Entering one by one, managed to become an extra in Argo (5)
  (one by one = I I) + (managed = RAN) = IRANI

Also nice. Very much enjoyed Argo for the Arkin-Goodman scenes, but it's a drag that we don't have any blockbuster superstar Iranians for the mostly unnamed Iranian roles. Hashtag institutional racism, hashtag shitty things. Hashtag frustration with culture.

• 1A) Notice something that grips counsel (6)
  (Notice = AD) + (something that grips = VISE) = ADVISE

Sweet. Simple. Love.

• 6a/31A) The least ordinary poems about death initially take a little time
  (poems = ODES) + (death = D) + (time = T) = ODDEST

Prolly coulda taken out “initially” for to make cleaner smoother, but still quite nice.

• 6h/17A) Gets into office, lets CEO endlessly become agitated
  (CEO * endlessly = CE) + LETS = ELECTS

Oh we wish! We wish politics were antagonistic to corporate business! Agitation!!

• 6j/21D)Breaking rules, tenor gets fruit
  (RULES + (tenor = T)) * anagram = RESULT

Like “fruit of labors” or “fruit of loins.” Nice. Thought this would involve SAX or somehow become SYNTAX.

• 7b/8D) A coward gets the most out of work
  (gets the most out of = MILKS) + (work = OP) = MILKSOP

OP like opus prolly. Nice clue, and love the word MILKSOP.

• 7c/1D) Medusa's masks put on
  MEDUSAS * anagram = ASSUMED

Mmm! Very nice narrative flavor to this one! Mythological! Anagramical! Love.

• 7g/10A) Disease you can get from the beach? Quite the opposite!
  DISEASE * anagram = SEASIDE

Worked hard to make “Disease you can get from the beach” the definition side. Our margin notes say “sunstroke” “rickets” (cuz the sun and Vitamin D, and rickets is a Vitamin D deficiency, so it's “quite the opposite” of a beach disease ... it's thin reasoning! We know!)

The twelves were spectacular, and much anagrammious:

• 12a/23A) Screwing up as tenderfeet, use the bay to get rid of something
  AS TENDERFEET * anagram = DEFENESTRATE

Like bay window. Mwa!

• 12b/4D) Is one's mutual interaction coincidental?
  IS ONES MUTUAL * amagram = SIMULTANEOUS

• 12d/16A) In perversion of altruism, get left imprisoned—it makes Man of steel lead copper, perhaps
  (ALTRUISM GET + (left = L)) * anagram = METALLURGIST

• 12d/6D) After buildup, king takes care of overreaches
  (buildup = HYPE) + (king = REX) + (takes care = TENDS) = HYPEREXTENDS

Excellent! Wonderful. So nice when the component syllables break up in a fresh way relative to the answer.

Lowlights!

• 11A) I got in with buddy in the 'hood for life (4)
  I + (buddy in the 'hood = BRO) = BRIO

Didn't go for ELAN this time. Went for zippity-zip puzzle'ese synonym number two, BRIO. A'ight. BRO makes us thinka dis:

“I am Broseidon, lord of the brocean.”

• 2D) Provide man cave with a fork? Say you didn't do that (4)
  (man cave = DEN) + (fork = T) = DENT

Uh ... as in:

“Did yeh do dat?”

“I dent, mama! I dent do dat!”

Cuz ... No.
Per Brother Steve below, woops it's DENY. “fork” = Y. Yah. More sense makes.
WE SAW WHAT WE WANTED TO SEE
DENT WE

• 26D) Jumbos or squirts (4)
  JETS (double syn.)

Squirts. Gross. What is this, a misguided marketing campaign for the MS Zune (RIP)??

• 6f/25A) Repeatedly, drops in first indications of rain easily show eventual excessive saturation
  rain easily show eventual excessive saturation = RESEES

Ew.

• 6i/14D) He prevents a pass. Can the Queen?
  (Can = SACK) + (the Queen = ER) = SACKER

ER or Er may refer to:

[...] Elizabeth Regina, the Latin form of Queen Elizabeth II

From Wikpdja

We always forget and think that “Regina” is her middle name but nah. It's for Lady Rex. Always gonna feel snooty about these -ER words. Restrict the -ER words to the Scrabble game, where they belong! Keep them out da puzzle!

sidenote: a couple years ago for our grandmother's birthday, our aunt wanted us to Photoshop grandma's face onto a banner-sized image of Queen Elizabeth II. Which was strange because 1) grandma is French-Canadian and 2) also not particularly interested in Queen Elizabeth. But our aunt was like, determined. Which then got sidetracked into explaining why a 200x200 jpg was not of adequate resolution to support a 6'x6' banner. And ultimately we avoided having to do it at all. But only narrowly.

This aunt also visits a psychic on a regular basis, and a couple years ago she texted me

ERICA, i visited my medium and he wants to know that there are people on the other side who are watching you

[2nd text]

they want you to know you WILL reach your goal! he named you SPECIFICALLY

which was pretty cool. And still is. Just to be able to jack into that kind of certainty in things working out, and love and support unseen but still there. What we're saying is: we love our aunt. We're still glad we didn't have to participate in this QE2 Photoshop project.

• 6l/15D) People encouraging a heartbreaking novelist?
  EGGERS (double syn.)

Mmmf. More of this -ER word nastiness. Also, Dave Eggers: part of a discouraging new generation of painfully self-conscious detached writers. cf Sheila Heti. We're not a fan. We made it through about 100 pages of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and then threw it across the room. And then eight years later, an acquaintance said that our writing reminded him of Dave Eggers's and the acquaintance meant it as a compliment but we were like, “noooooooooooooooo!”

If you agree that this blog is Egger-ific, please never say.

“What is the What” is supposed to be good though. So.

The Tacky!

Two this month, making up for the zero last month:

• e/14A) Woman burned up about her husband's death? Tut! Sadly, look around (6)
  (TUT + (look around = SEE)) * anagram = SUTTEE

Ugh no! This is bad, you guys! This is bad. Not a cool* pun.
*“cool” used here is not, itself, meant to be a temperature-related pun, further escalation.

Suttee turned out ok for Daenerys. Not for a lot of ladies, tho. Violent murderous misogyny. Some real woman-hating bullshit.

• 23D) After the princess got offed, did it to me, too! (5)
  ((princess = DI) removed from DID = DI) + (T) + TO = DITTO

Ai! Princess Di! Beloved! Too soon! It's been 18 years and guess what: in another 18 years it'll still be too soon. The heart still tender.

Also weird double DIs. Right? Super weird!

Nice congruency with the earlier QE2 reference, tho.

Sincere question for the comments:

About how many people do you think solve the Harper's cryptic every month, id est, how steep is the competition, how vast and deep our community? We're guessing it's somewhere between 10^3 and 10^4. Sound right to yeh?