ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SHUT UP AND PLAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SHUT UP AND PLAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
For whatever it's worth, I really enjoy making quotation puzzles. Talk about a great exercise. In addition to trying to find one that even splits up symmetrically, you're pretty much locked in the order of the quote. That is to say, with other themed puzzles, if the fill isn't becoming one way, just swap two entries and you can hope for the best. I guess you could do that with quote puzzles, but then the meaning gets all cubist.
Quick side bar: somebody just sent me this video of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra's show at AS200 last month. While we're here, allow me to indulge in a little shameless self-promotion and point out we're playing the Megapolis Festival in Cambridge on Friday. Hope to see some of you there.
Finally, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't chime in on the new issue of "Wired." It's a puzzle issue. Supposedly, "Lost" creator J. J. Abrams "edited" the whole issue. I haven't really had a chance to read the articles yet, so maybe there's some "big picture" stuff happening that I haven't stumbled upon yet. The whole issue to me feels like some veiled money grab for Conde Nast and some crass cross-marketing for Abrams's new "Star Trek" movie, which, at least in the previews looks to me like a massive headache. I mean, wasn't the whole point of "Star Trek" to be a thinking-man's science fiction filtered through the optimism of the hippie-dippy 60s? I mean, was Spock ever supposed to be flying through the air all ninja-style kicking ass? That seems like a big fat EPIC FAIL.
Anyway, as for the puzzles themselves in the "Wired" issue: couple titans in the mix (Will Shortz and Martin Gardner), as well as some of the geniuses behind the MIT puzzle hunt (Mike Selinker and Dan Katz), so from that perspective, it's a winner. For me, the best thing about the issue was that it reminded me of the couldn't-lose streak "Games" magazine had going mid-'80s to mid-'90s. If any ambitious readers of this blog would be interested in pooling together to do an-online free-for-all puzzle site in the spirit of "Games," call me up and let's get it started.