CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE:
[ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
Before this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament I had said that we’d have to put in ink that Dan Feyer would be in the Finals. And then, get back to me when we know who the other two are before I make a prediction for who was going to win it all. But I knew it’s always was going to be Dan. Heck the only person who was probably going to beat Dan was Dan himself. And what do you know, for a short time, it looked like “Steely” did in fact eliminate himself with two rookie mistakes (one blank square and a flat out wrong one) in puzzle 3. I was the judge who was grading his paper, and I’m not going to lie to you. I found those errors, well, shocking.
Hey, I’ve misunderestimated him in the past. I wrote off the legend of this speed-solving demon as just exaggeration four years ago. All he did was hold onto first place in puzzles 1-6 only to end up in a four-way tie for first on the outside looking in after #7 because of being overly cautious. Lets face it, Dan would have won it all outright that year. I was a fool then, as I am a fool now. When I saw those two mistakes on puzzle 3, I wrote Dan off, again. Out of the picture entirely. In fact, he was just beginning. The ease in which Dan overcame a six minute deficit in only three puzzles boggles the mind. I’d say it was his most impressive win thus far.
Gotta give a little love for second and third place finishers now: Tyler Hinman, was the only finalist with a clean slate. All eight puzzles, solved crazy fast, totally accurate. Applause, my man, applause. Also, an extra curtain call for Anne Erdmann, please. On Sunday morning, she had requested to have an incorrect letter that had been appealed to be judged correct return to its incorrect status. It dropped her to fourth and forced her to beat David Plotkin outright in Puzzle 7 for the last finalist slot. She’s a Class Act.
How were the puzzles? Overall quite good. They’re available for order, if you should care to take your hand at them, and you should probably stop reading now. And now, a few quick words about them: Patrick Merrell had probably the most impressive puzzle, “Boustrophedon.” Now that’s a $10 word, so he gave you the definition as well: “having alternate lines running from left to right and right to left.” And the answers did just that, with almost half the grid running backwards. Patrick Blindauer had the #5 bitch mother, which, to me, didn’t seem as crazy hard as #5s have been in the past. Oh, it was plenty hard, though, with hidden ANTs going diagonally throughout the puzzle linking split up theme answers. There was an in character 21x by Mike Shenk, mostly funny theme answers adding AT to the ends of phrases to make such winners as MAMMOTH CAVEAT and SANTA FEAT, plus you know, lots of fun fill and misdirection in the cluing. It also had an uncharacterstic duplication of TAP as an answer, which, well, was as shocking as Dan’s two mistakes.
As always, the best part of the ACPT is meeting all of you, so a quick thank you to everyone who came over and said how much they liked my puzzles. It means a lot to put names to faces and meet the fans. See you all next year.
Did you judge puzzle #6 also? I’m wondering how many other people made the same error I did–putting a W instead of an E in a certain person’s name.
Even I didn’t know KAKAPOS. JILT is an act, not a thought. I had BALK there. Otherwise, fair and BALANCED.
Yeah, eew, eww. What kind of a name is Ieoh?? Only slightly worse than Iwoh.
And the lesson for me was: Read the fine print. Unbelievably, I slid right over the definition of boustrophedon, and it was downhill from then on. And not in an ant tunnel.
Getting this XWP finished off actually hinged on one word: 1D. I initially thot it was FLEE. Had I not gotten JILT and then 1A (JOCKITCH), I don’t think I’d ever get this completed. I’d be stuck with less than 1/3 left of the grid filled in.
i bet you really enjoyed introducing tabitha to so many people.
I made the mistake on IEOH as well. I think I had even seen it before but EEW didn’t look right so I put the extra ‘W’ in as well. Somebody said he got it by thinking of Michelle YEOH. If only I had worn my lucky BEQ Reckoning T-shirt on Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday.
As far as this puzzle goes I did all right except in the NE where I had LARGEBOX, INSURER and SIDESADDLE, from which I did not recover.
Count me in as yet another member of the EWW/IWOH club…I would’ve been 7 for 7 if not for that.
And I’m also a member of the “got to meet Tabitha” club.
(I’m much happier to be a member of that club)
I solved #5 online with no errors (in 13 minutes, or about 2.17 Feyer), and until I read this blog entry, I had absolutely no idea the diagonal segments were all ANTs.
We don’t get access to the puzzle blurbs when solving online… was there anything antsy about the tagline for this one? All I had was the title “Going Underground,” and the diagonals alone seemed sufficiently thematic for that.
Yup, that cross ruined my perfect seven too. Did you meet Tabitha, did say hello to Brendan and take one of his buttons off the gimme table.
Hm. Just scrolled through the scores for That Puzzle and if I read them right, looks like Joon had an error too. Wonder if it was the same one.
Great weekend all through, to see BEQ & the whole family crew. (And the little one too!).
It made my Annual Stupid Puzzle Mistake(Patent Pending) much easier to take :).
Oh yeah, was too tired to solve this one here. Maybe will try again later this week when I’m fully conscious.
– HB
KAKAPOS was my lone gimme up there, the rest of that corner took me the same time as the rest of the puzzle!