Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Puzzle - WSJ 20181229

https://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/2018/12/28/bar-hopping-saturday-puzzle-december-29/

Solution for previous – WSJ 20181201:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/PuzAnswer12082018.pdf

-----------------------------------------
The solution is usually available a week after the puzzle.
Save the puzzle link above & check back in a week.
-----------------------------------------

As always, for best results download & save the file, then open it & print.
(In Preview mode check if the Fit button provides a larger grid)

Previous puzzles & threads can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/pyvfuwg

-----------------------------------------

If you need a fix, browse the site.
http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/

They have daily regular crosswords; variety & math puzzles Friday, Saturday.
Cryptics are not always tagged as such.

-----------------------------------------

Syzygy, thanks. I don't think I enjoyed this very much! It looked interesting, but wasn't.

No kidding. What was that ? Pfft !

However, I can't quite parse 32A. Fictional ?
No knowledge about US ball teams.

I'll see if I can find a more challenging one in my archives.

Sygzyy, I too have no knowledge about US ball teams - and I wasn't sufficiently intrigued to investigate. My answer fitted, my answer looked as if it could be a team - and the entry could be Luke's pal (in the Bible? in an American show?). It could well be wrong!

Not encouraged to cudgel brains! Are there any more based on honeycomb shapes, syzygy?

Rosalind, Sygyzy, sorry - I didn't mean to put anyone off! What suits one solver might not suit another. Others might really like this one. Maybe my expectations were too high!

No worries. That was far from being their best, to put it politely.

Unfortunately, there are several problems with finding puzzles without a specific link.
The links I have saved don't have a consistent structure, so I can't build a link even if I know the title.
The Search does not work for puzzle titles anymore.
Their Puzzle page is one long file with no offsets. That means you can't jump back to a puzzle, or even a year, but have to tediously load at the bottom.

I'll think of something.

Re 32A - figured it out.
http://www.ncsarts.org/guys-and-dolls-character.pdf
That is the fictional (Nathan) Detroit.
the ball club is the NATS
& of course, Luke's pal is HAN Solo.

Don't worry malone, I read the instructions and thought, well maybe it would be more fun to do the washing up! I'm actually quite grateful to be told it wasn't much fun anyway. I'm off to a panto tomorrow, whcih will be. Oh, yes it will!

Syzygy, thanks for the parsing for Nathan - good to have it all tidied up.

Rosalind, you really haven't missed out here. Enjoy the panto.

Thanks syzygy, other than a couple of clues, pretty straightforward but enjoyable nevertheless.