[My submission had square 42 circled.]
My only regret with this puzzle is that it didn't run on August 28 of this year. It's a long shot, having a puzzle run randomly on a given date, but it would have been cool for two reasons: 1) August 28, 2019 will be a Wednesday, the one day I need to complete the NYT cycle; 2) It will be my 42nd birthday. Oh well. It's always cool to have a puzzle published, no matter what the date. What's more, guess what number puzzle this is for me in the NYT -- 36. That's not 42, but it is next to 42 on the multiplication table, so, you know...
I don't have too much to say about this puzzle. Well, actually I do, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'm telling myself I don't. It's like that Mitch Hedberg joke:
I write jokes for a living, I sit at my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen is too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny.My pen is too far away at the moment. Before I go, however, I'll leave you with a hot take: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is overrated and fantasy is a boring genre in general.
Until next time...
[Despite what I said above, this is one of my favorite shirts. It's nice fabric -- durable but soft. Cuts my figure quite nicely, if I do say so myself.]
A few further thoughts after reading some online comments.
I've seen a couple people grouse that THE MEANING OF LIFE is not a technically accurate description of 42 vis-à-vis THGTTG, because in the actual text, Adams writes that 42 is the answer to "the Great Question... Of Life, the Universe and Everything."
To that, I say, c'mon people. It's a distinction without a difference. 42 is very much associated with the phrase THE MEANING OF LIFE. Google them together. You get roughly 50 million hits, and all the top ones (I only looked at the first few pages) are references to THGTTG -- articles, message boards threads, YouTube clips, etc. Here is one of myriad examples using the exact wording in the puzzle:
It's like saying the Night of the Living Dead is not a zombie movie, because the undead monsters are never called "zombies" in the actual film.
I've also seen a couple people grouse about TEHEE. I'm in agreement that it's not great fill. I will downgrade it on my word lists and try to avoid it from here on out. My defense for using it, is that at Merriam-Webster.com it is listed as the primary spelling, with TEE-HEE being the variant.
Lastly, ECOCIDE is totally a thing and a legit word. I don't get the objection (i.e., Rex Parker's objection) here at all.
