Words
Awareness of the outside world. American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, April 1st to 3rd, 2022. Virtual is planned. [Let The Boxes Begin ACPT 2021]
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Last week was hard, for no obvious reason. I mean other than … waves hands around in circles. So, here’s one from the vault.
Six months of horses in The NY Times Crossword, July thru December 2021.
11 July 2021. 1A Art of riding and training a horse. DRESSAGE.
17 July 2021. 11D “Whoa, ___!”. NELLIE
20 July 2021. 54D Equine color. ROAN.
21 July 2021. 37D Speckled coat. ROAN.
13 August 2021. 34A Bay ___ (certain horse). ROAN.
18 August 2021. 16A With 26-Across, game that uses a blindfold. PINTHETAIL/ONTHEDONKEY. 17D Centaur’s foot. HOOF.
22 August 2021. 115A The Trojans lacked the FORESIGHT to turn this down. GIFTHORSE.
04 September 2021. 47D Margeno, for Napoleon. STEED.
05 September 2021. 11D Got ready to ride, with “up”. SADDLED.
06 September 2021. 4A On the ___ of the moment. SPUR. Non-equine usage with equine origins. To do something in haste, as if one has been spurred.
07 September 2021. 53A Spoke hoarsely, like a blacksmith. RASPED. A pun no less!
17 October 2021. 40D Horse of a different Color. ROAN.
22 October 2021. 11D Quartet in Revelation. HORSEMEN.
26 October 2021. 7D Flowering plant also know as horsemint. BEEBALM. 51D Shrek’s companion in “Shrek”. DONKEY.
9 November 2021. 40A Long part of a horse, short part of a giraffe. MANE.
13 November 2021. 38D Word with talking or horse. SENSE.
20 November 2021. 4D Part of an equine bloodline. SIRE.
23 November 2021. 33D Horse for a knight. STEED. 60A Blacksmith’s block. ANVIL.
24 November 2021. 1A Blacksmith’s waste. SLAG.
28 Nov 2021. 13D Get off one’s high orse? DISMOUNT.
1 Dec 2021. 2D Swordsman with a horse named Tornado. ZORRO. 29D Hey, for horses? NEIGH. 35D “Whatever ___ wants, __ gets” (“Damn Yankees” lyric). LOLA. [Lunching With Lola]
4 Dec 2021. 53D Printmaker? HOOF.
5 Dec 2021. 16D Napoleon’s famed war horse. MARENGO.
7 Dec 2021. 37A Close follower of the “horserace” POLITICAL JUNKIE.
13 Dec 2021. 26D Gait for a horse with a buggy, TROT.
Extra
25 July 2021. 94D Clear, as crystal. BUS.
This one took me a minute when I solved it and then again when I retrieved it for posting. What? Why did I save that? Oh.
24 July 2021. 14A One might be off the hook. HOMEPHONE.
Gives you an idea of the puzzle’s demographic.
17 September 2021. 55A Cheese whose name is a semordnilap. EDAM. What a wonderful word. “The semordnilap differs from the palindrome in that the reverse reading is not necessarily identical. All palindromes are semordnilaps, but not all semordnilaps are palindromes … Note: semordnilap is the word palindromes read backwards.” Semordnilap Generator
27 Nov 2021. The book of number. YELLOWPAGES. Another one for the demographic. Do young people even know what these are?
Links
XWord Info Finder says DRESSAGE, which got me started on this, has been used 17 times between 1967 and 2021. HORSE has been used 273 times since 1942. EQUINE has been used ??? times. Looks like you get a few free chances and then they paywall. More power to them. If I used it more often, I would.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
I hope things are easier now.
Spring is coming.
Love this/hate crosswords and word searches. Thank you for semordnilap (you spelled it wrong in the first line), a word that reads from both ends. I would have loved sharing that one with students.
Fixed. Thank you.
I kind of miss the yellow pages. Do you remember wooden phone booths, with a ledge under the phone for the phone book, and a seat to sit on whilst you make your call? These only existed when I was very young. These days you’re out of luck if you don’t have a cell phone.
Remember the Superman movie when he couldn’t find a place to change?
Oh, yes. Of course you have to remember phone booths to know why it’s so funny.