ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SPOILER ALERTS]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SPOILER ALERTS]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I’m generally not the kind of person who goes out of his way to brag about his job. That’s usually why I have my friends do it for me instead. The results are generally pretty predictable.
One of my friends will enthusiastically tell somebody something like: “this is the guy I was telling you about who does the New York Times Crossword!” And then I’ll have to clarify: “yes, I definitely do the Times puzzle — everyday even. And I write them every now and again, too.”
But then again, the friend’s statement is also very true. I’m pretty much always doing puzzles. Aside from doing every puzzle in in the Times and The Sun, I’ll admit it, I’m a pretty massive Sudoku nut. I was on a kick for a while where I was tearing out pages from Frank Longo’s insanely hard Sudoku books and carrying them around, filling them in while waiting for the subway to come/latte to be made/Liz to finish shopping/etc. I’m just basically a solving machine.
I guess I always felt a constructor should keep abreast of what the other people in the puzzle business are doing. All of my friends who are writers devour novels, my acting friends just cruise through movies non-stop, and the musicians all have tinnitus from going to too many shows. Makes sense that us puzzlemakers should be doing stuff all the time too, right?
Shouldn’t us puzzlemakers should have interdisciplinary talents as well? A crossword nowadays shouldn’t just be a rote exercise in vocabulary.
I remember one year at a puzzling convention (Yes, we have conventions; yes, they’re not unlike “Star Trek” conventions; and yes, I once had a few too many at a party and attempted to throw a TV out the window), I was chatting with another constructor Liz Gorski. She’s a professional violinist in addition to making some pretty impressive meta-themed Sunday puzles. Anyway we were talking shop, and she said something along the lines of “it’s pretty obvious you’re a voracious reader.”
The statement floored me. Can I talk the paint off the wall about all sorts of music popular and otherwise? Yeah. Probably a little too much, so. All the European capital cities and facts about the Civil war have been replaced in my brain by scores of Guided By Voices lyrics. But do I really come across as literary? I don’t think I’m any more of a reader than the average person.
There was a good chance Liz was just being silly. I’m just hoping that my work represents a total immersion of all my interests, non-puzzling and otherwise.
Okay, that’s it for now. New puzzle on Friday.
Could have done without the clue on BED (I’m a prude that way), but otherwise this puzzle is brilliant.
Fav parts = ACE TEN and BLACKJACK side-by-side, and OCD x/w CK ONE.
rp
holy crap, this is an amazing puzzle. wow. best theme i’ve seen since… i don’t know. a while ago. wow.
I was stuck on Regrets (for No GIfts) and Terra (Earth) too long. Luckily I gave up Golem quickly. The theme was terrific (and helpful). Fewer (any?) current/90’s music references than Monday’s made it easier for me.
Sorry to be dense. I finished the puzzle but don’t get the theme or the references to other clues. Is there somewhere else I should look for that? Can anyone help?
Brilliant theme, Brendan. I’m about to blog it, but I wanted to swing by here first to rave about it. Is puzzle still meta if it refers to itself?
Mary Kay, the read the theme clues again and take special note of the prepositions in the theme answers as they relate to the cross-referenced answers.
“I remember one year at a puzzling convention (Yes, we have conventions; yes, they’re not unlike “Star Trek” conventions…)”
Unless you’re upending the stereotype of what a Star Trek convention is like — in which case, I apologize for my misreading — I have to protest. I am so, so tired of anything intellectual being termed (or implied to be) “nerdy”, and it rankles worst when I see people within that very community doing it.
Yeah, this was a super cool and fun puzzle. Took a little while to catch onto the theme. I kept thinking, “What’s so UNDERGROUND about buying things AT COST?” Then my brain pulled the focus and all was clear. Only hiccup after that was getting a bit overeager with the prepositions and putting BEFORE in place of BETWEEN.
Well played, sir. Well played.
Trip: It wasn’t intended to offend. You should totally know by now I look at the ACPT as one of my many annual family reunions. And anybody who went to my wedding last year can attest that that event was similar to a “Star Trek” convention too.
awesome puzzle man. great fill, and fun theme. liked the clue for BED–this isn’t the NYT, so glad to see the boundaries pushed a little.
just joining the chorus here: fantastic theme today! (my favorite is 26A – the way that comes together at the bottom of the puzzle made me grin.)
I’ve been enjoying all your puzzles, but this one was just brilliant. Well done!
Interesting. I never would have gotten the theme without crosswordfiend’s explanation. My brain doesn’t work that way or something.
beq-
another top notch puzzle.. love the theme. i think this might be up there with the 8/26/08 “hell on earth” onion puzzle (one of my all-time favorites).
GDG: I gotta tell ya, what a bad-ass site you run. A.C. Newman and David Bowie were among the first couple songs. Two of my favorites.
Everybody, go to his site! I added to the Hoi Polloi section: Indie Street Cred.
While I’m here, thanks all for the continued kind words.
I loved loved loved the theme. I was perpetually almost done (missing a letter here and there) and then it hit me. Awesome job.
I can add myself as another solver who completed the grid without having a clue on how to interpret the theme before reading the comments. *shrug*
Even after reading the hints at the theme, I still don’t get it. The puzzle seemed really easy to solve (and I’m a rank beginner), but I only got the theme answers from the crosses and/or figuring out what had to fit in to make complete words.
I also completed the puzzle and don’t get the theme…. even after the comments.
RF and rootbeerfloat, I explain exactly how the theme works here:
http://crosswordfiend.blogspot.com/2009/01/wednesday-17.html
(Scroll to the end for Brendan’s puzzle.) It’s a cool, envelope-pushing theme.
wow, i just found this site via amy’s blog. i always look forward to BEQ bylines and now i get 3 a week! great puzzle, time to go solve all the ones i missed.
I really enjoyed the puzzle, and FINALLY got the theme! Fabulous!
Very witty. I especially like that none of the “spoilers” spoiled anything–couldn’t figure ’em out until I’d finished the thing anyway! I was about to give up and look here for an explanation when *ding* I suddenly saw it.