ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THINK THICK]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THINK THICK]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I haven't forgotten about all the penaly/requests you've given me. According to my records I still have three to go: an anything goes-esque puzzle in the style of Trip Payne, a Liz Gorski puzzle-as-art-as-metapuzzle-as-zen-koan puzzle, and now a how-many-bullshit-themes-can-I-feasably-fit-into-one-15x? puzzle. (If I've forgotten any, let a brother know, okay?) All I can say is those babies are coming. Please bear with me and keep the pitchforks and effigies at bay. Thank you.
So it seems that the themelesses get the audience ecstatic, ergo, today's lovely 68 worder. I'd been looking back at my previous work and I realized I hadn't done this sort of shaped grid yet for the blog, so I went at it. For those who are playing "guess which entry Brendan started with" and guessed WELL ANYWAY, you're wrong. CRAIG'S LIST was the entry point. (C'mon, all the regulars know I'm moving and Craig's List is the site to go to sell shit you don't need!) Well anyway, I did try CRAIG's LIST down at 55-Across, but I didn't like any of the crossings, so after a couple two three blah efforts in the NE quadrant, I found the home at 22-Across. JAWAS at 5-Down was next partially because of the Scrabbly letters and partially because well, c'mon, it's "Star Wars" and two and a half of those three movies are fucking incredible (in my opinion "Return of the Jedi" is mostly a toy commercial and those prequels never happened).
Wierd side tangent: I'm kind of enjoying packing as I've stumbled upon things I never even knew we had. Specifically: Liz has this great book she never knew she had either: Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary: or why can't anybody spell?" by Vivian Cook. It's a wonderful little book mostly lists of types of misspellings, and a somewhat pop psychologist approach to why. Cute stuff. One section was all about the strange English phoentic spellings of aliens in science fiction, which I think will be a theme once I get around to that one. I think I had aliens on the mind, ergo JAWAS.
WELL ANYWAY, JUDE LAW and (after a couple two three attempts) JAIL BAIT came next, and I thought that was a decent SW corner although we had the dread verb + TO at 48-Across, the awkward plural at 50-Across, the variant spelling at 41-Down, and who dat? at 45-Down. Budding crossword constructors take note: leave yourself an out whilst making wide-open grids: 45-Across could go loads of ways in the extending in the SE quadrant: RADAR BLIPS, RADARRANGE, RADARSCOPE to name a few.
Oh, I'd be curious to see how many people were stumped at the 3-Down/28-Across crossing. Admittedly, 3-Down is a whuzzat? kind of entry, unless I guess, if you're an expert in ornithography. Two of my test solvers guessed SWATCHES incorrectly at 28-Across. I mean, I guess I could see that becuase we're putting some paint samples on the wall. Please, let me hear it in the comments section.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Get yer Zappa out on Sunday.
Brendan Emmett Quigley creates custom-made puzzles for all occasions: birthdays and bar mitzvahs, anniversaries and retirements. You name it. Need a puzzle for your website or your publication? He can do that, too.
Brendan's custom work clients have included The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, BeerAdvocate, Boston Magazine, De Beers, The Decemberists, ESPN, The Improper Bostonian, Lollapuzzoola, McSweeney's, Phish, Reflexive, The Smithsonian Magazine, St. Martin's Press, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, and Andrew Weil.
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