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April 05, 2010

CROSSWORD #208

ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY] 
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]

PROGRAM: [Java]

PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]

Eleven months ago, I tried my hand at duplicating a grid that Matt Jones made for his weekly syndicate. It had an absurdly wide-open middle section, I felt the need to see if I could do it. It's up for debate who made the better puzzle. I never really thought of it as a contest, even if I did title the puzzle "Take That, Matt." Anyway, the reason I bring that up is that today's puzzle's grid was inspired by Matt J., again. The starting basis for my puzzle was Matt's grid from last week. It's not an exact duplicate, but the healthy 4x10 corners in the NE and SW inspired me to give it a go. Hope you like it.

If you think about it, this is really just five mini-puzzles clumped together: the four corners plus the middle bit. So, for those who like to care about these sorts of things, there were four distinct seed entries. I'll leave that proof up to the reader as to where the starting points were for each quadrant.

Got a crazy busy week lined up. Going to see Thom Yorke with Liz on Thursday. Going to see Pissed Jeans on Saturday. My sister's up for some yoga conference thigny so she'll be bopping around. But you don't care about that crap. Where's the puzzle stuff? Right: The Boston Crossword Tournament is this Sunday. For those Bay-Staters, or those insane enough to make it a road trip, you have no excuse. Selling points: puzzles from me and Joon Pahk, appearances by Will Shortz and Ryan & Brian, stuffy dark Harvard auditorium. What are you waiting for? Go register now!

Also, thanks to all who were able to contribute last week. The randomly selected donor who receives a copy of "Diagramless" is Lee Sammons of Denver, CO. Congrats, Lee.

Share the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.

Posted at 08:42 AM in Hard |

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