ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Paste Magazine has started running my puzzles. I will be updating this blog later on when they tell me the puzzle's gone live on their site. Check back later. UPDATE: Might be a couple more days. When I know, you'll know. Meanwhile, Grizzly Bear is still boring.
And by "spoiler space," I really mean "record review."
So Sonic Youth's "The Eternal" is pretty damn good. Shocker, right? You know that that's not really much of a surprise. You know they're reliable. You know the record's gonna be at the very least half-amazing. Well it is. Course, these guys back-load the entire record (I start with track 6: "Calming The Snake"). Does track order even mean anything nowadays? Anyway, it's kind of hard to believe that, this is, what, like their 17th record? Has anybody put out a good 17th record? I can't imagine that's true, but I'll listen to anybody's argument. As usual, Lee gets all the half-assed beat poetry jangle, Kim gets the WTF? jams, and Thurston walks away with all the "singles." I must have been listening to too much auto-tune lately because Kim's anti-singing was jarringly refreshing. And if you don't think I already approved this one, please note "Sacred Trickster" and "No Way" caused me to break out into some air guitar paroxysms. Play it loud at the beach this summer and watch all the uncool kids clear the fuck right out.
As for the puzzle: I had only a half-conceptualized theme that was supposed to run today, but I felt it should go back into the incubator. Ergo, another themeless. I wanted to make sure I was the first one to use SOTOMAYOR. That's the glory of the blog: immediacy. We all know those letters are easy to work with along the bottom edge of the grid, nothing new there. Figured I might as well debut GUYLINER as well, so it went on the other edge. Had a really tough time deciding how the grid was going to be shaped. I had a couple ideas/fills, but they were a little bland. It was only after I got the AL D'AMATO and SADR CITY corner that I felt good about it.
IPHONE APP went in next at 1-Across. Nothing special about the fill, I don't think. But that's not a bad thing at all. At the test-solve stage, 19-Across was BAD and 3-Down was HAND OVER ... until Tyler Hinman said he had BAG/HANGOVER for a short while (adding: "no comment"). I liked those entries better so I went there. Really like that clue I had for HANGOVER too {Morning sickness?}
EPROM basically sucks, but alas, it holds together an other wise wild NE corner. Where else but in crosswords can you have Greek mythology (EUMENIDES), thrash metal (MEGADETH), and chain stores (GAP KIDS) living in perfect harmony?
I was pretty happy to get a J and a Q in the SW. I really wasn't trying for it, it just sort of happened, and miraculously, it doesn't look all that forced. Usually, when a constructor adds a J, we get that lame entry AJA. Look, I love Steely Dan, but unless AJA is the glue holding together something eye-popping going the other way, please stop using it just so you can add a J. Thank you.
I aimed for slightly easier clues that the latest themelesses. Let me know if I got that difficulty correct. Hope you enjoyed it, and look for a new puzzle on Wednesday.
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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