Surprise, another slow crossword solve (40 minutes) and fast meta (2 minutes).

Logging this kind of solve isn’t as interesting (I fear) as the more aha-heavy puzzles I normally do. Hopefully I’ll try some Mystery Hunt puzzles this week to prep for the upcoming Hunt.

The original puzzle is here, and my solving log is after the cut. My answer checker should work (although there’s a tiny bit of ambiguity in the final answer, for me).

Log:

0:00:00

Opening puzzle (.puz this time)

0:00:49

got 59D. worried about solving this one.

0:01:56

finished bottom right

0:02:57

49 is MAE/MAZES?

0:04:04

got 50D and 64A and stuck on that corner.

0:04:32

27A SALEM?

0:05:05

27D SAVE, 42A ENDIVE… so slow. I hope this is because I’m sick.

0:06:04

ok, SALEM,AMOR,VERN,ENDIVE, crossed with BERNIE all look good

0:06:28

wow, I knew 23A and D standalone. Missed them earlier

0:07:10

VOLLEYS are illegal in ping pong? That can’t be right.

0:07:49

29D, my first theme, is LORD PEEWEE…

0:08:09

oh, 55D LIRR, finished that corner.

0:10:09

does 12D ANDOR cross 26A ORS (both guesses)?

0:11:28

35A TEXMEX? cross OXTEAM and XERS?

0:11:49

ooh! EPEE!

0:12:52

I wish I knew what ganef was.

0:14:07

AURIC, SLICKBILL, ULNA, INASEC recently

0:14:39

45D should be PROMOTER, not PROMOTED, I assume, to give FLACKED

0:18:10

stuck-ish

0:19:24

guess 11D starts DOCTOR

0:20:17

puts a CD in 19A… unless AND/OR is wrong. guh

0:21:19

DOCTOR out, ANDOR back

0:23:25

ganef looks like PILFERER if I end 11D with MARK

0:24:42

52A TRAM, 31D COUPE (I have other answers I haven’t mentioned here, too. but still only 16A in 1-22A. also missing 30,33,39A and one letter each 65A 68A.

0:26:00

maybe 4D is cot… so 1A is NAACP?

0:26:29

5d is PRESUME?

0:26:57

top left is done… WHITE… what?

0:28:32

6D, a key one, is JOANJETT, looks like

0:29:40

40D, DISTRI??… must be wrong somewhere?

0:31:51

maybe it’s DISTRICT. I don’t know.

0:32:11

duh, needed the first E added to get ?C?E?O? (level) as ECHELON. sigh

0:32:53

OMG, how long did 21A take me? sigh.

0:33:14

for 17A I have WHITE?ANE and no clue. that’s not good

0:35:03

oh, WHITE JANE. duh

0:35:19

Can’t stop the xword, still need 11D: currently ?O??ONMARK.

0:35:50

wait, 40D must be DISTRACT. why do birds get SLACK BILLS instead of SLICK BILLS? weird. or is that important?

0:37:18

maybe it’s ORPHAN MARK? …will try it. means 16A and 26A are wrong.

0:38:18

I don’t like it for now.

0:38:34

let’s try ANDOR/ENDOR/LINDA

0:38:46

PALE ALE for 9D? ok…

0:39:30

duh, 11D is LONDONMARK

0:39:49

ok, done with puzzle. probably/possibly correctly. now the meta.

0:40:01

4 names, 4 adjectives. WHITE, LONDON, LORD, SLACK

0:40:25

there are JACK LONDON and JACK WHITE…

0:40:55

and JACK LORD (googled to verify vague recollection)

0:41:47

the other words are BILL, MARK… oh those are RUSSELLS, we’re done, it’s a JACK RUSSELL