ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Before I get to the post, a quick question for all y’all. Are you more of a fan of the themeless puzzles I run on this site or do you prefer the themed puzzles? Please leave your answer in a comment, or if you’d prefer, you can email me. Thanks ahead of time.
So I thought for today, since it is Columbus Day, I’d better run a photo of Christopher Columbus the latest BEQ.com fan of the moment: Barry Franklin of Parts Unknown. Well, one things known for certain, Barry’s not in Parts Unknown in that picture. Sure looks like he’s in the Holy See. I should know, when Liz and I were in Rome, out hotel overlooked the entrance. But I digress. Take it away Barry:
Friday, October 8, 2010, in the Cortile Ottagono portion of the Vatican Museum, [Barry Franklin] struggles to come up with PILER (“One doing laundry, often”) in Brendan Emmett Quigley’s Friday NYT puzzle (International Herald Tribune edition), looking for inspiration from assorted statues of emasculated gods, imagining Chrissie Hynde singing “The Great Pretender”, and (while quietly prepping his neck muscles for the Sistine Chapel), wondering why anyone would paint a ceiling, hoping they have a rent-a-guerney business, silently questioning why the tub directly behind him contains fake water, and, for some reason, losing track of the tour guide’s ramblings on the headset.
That’s my kinda guy. Bringing puzzles whilst sightseeing. A++. And spending $3.40 for a hard copy to solve the puzzle. How quaint! Heck, since Europe is where all the history came from, why not solve the puzzle in an antiquated fashion as well? Anyway, for his bravado, Barry will receive something of his choice from the BEQ souvenir shop; here’s hoping it goes along with his Pope Benedict XVI action figure.
Keep those fan pics coming in. Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
UPDATE: Difficulty has been adjusted to Hard. Thanks!
I like 1 freestyle and 1 themed per week
kthx
I definitely prefer themeless.
In a themed puzzle, once I’ve figured out the theme it’s like someone’s whispering hints to me…and I want to say “stop!”.
I enjoy them both, but I’d vote for themeless as my preference.
I totally love the themeless puzzles — I don’t know why — maybe because I am afraid that the themes you would choose would all be indie bands and obscure films and other oddities.
With themeless, I have a chance of approaching from various directions!!!
How about a meta-theme? Both types of puzzles could be used to generate a quote by David Cross. First convert the quote to ASCII and then to a stream of 1s and 0s. A 0 would correspond to a themeless and a 1 a themed or vice versa. Whichever type of puzzle corresponds to the 0 will appear the most so I prefer that the themeless be the 0.
Medium? If you say so. I mostly blame myself – I couldn’t remember how to spell EUCHARIST or GARO, I know nothing about basketball and I eat PASTASALAD as a main dish for dinner. I also had DAMNYANKEES at first – hey, the clue just said “fans” – it didn’t specify which team. Furthermore to me, (The) HOLD STEADY is a band and EZIO is a video game character. Last but not least, as a lapsed chemist, for me INORGANIC just means it contains elements other than C, H, O and N. In that sense lots of things, like granite for example, are inorganic but not man-made. :/ Despite my self-inflicted struggles, I really enjoyed the puzzle and was pleased to finish with only one error.
I far prefer themeless. I think it allows constructors to be more flexible in the overall fill and thus include more fun and interesting words/phrases.
Judging from Al’s time and mine, this was no Medium but an unqualified Hard.
I’m not a big fan of boring easy themelesses, but you don’t make those. Interesting and challenging? Keep ’em coming!
Can never get too many quality themeless puzzles.
I like the mix of themes and themeless.
I had to look up Lebron and six. Either it refers to his jersey number, or his shoe.
I had 4D pegged as someone who tats, which I should have known that they don’t use needles.
I had more difficulty with this than some recent puzzles tagged as Hard.
I like having both a themed and themeless each week. BEQ comes up with some fun stuff you don’t (won’t?) see in the NYT.
I prefer themeless, although I do enjoy the themed puzzles that are too quirky/pop-culturish to fit into the Times.
Count me in for themeless.
SPent almost half my time in the NE. Woulda been less if only I’d paid closer attention to the sports page this weekend. I noticed that the new #1 tennis player was someone I’d never heard of…but that was the extent of my notice.
Huh, just looked back at the puzzle and realized it gave me a “congratulations” message even though I had an error (ANDRES/SOZNIACKI. Whoops.) How would that happen?
Definitely hard for me — got hung up in the SW, mainly because I had the same difficulty with INORGANIC as the Hag, above. Is TRUEYANKEE a real phrase? Seems kinda arbitrary to me. I wanted DAMN first, too.
I prefer themeless, as a rule, unless the theme is super-duper clever rather than groanworthy or annoying. Of course, your and my and everyone else’s idea of what’s super-duper clever is going to be very different — so safer just to stay away from the themes.
I, too, like both. I enjoy your early in the week tough (sometimes impossible for me) themelesses and the themed on Thursday is great too!
I like a mix of themed and themeless, especially since I always enjoy your themes.
Didn’t much care for 26D clue today — too cute, even for a sports fan like myself.
“true yankee” is, of course, not a real thing, but it’s an in-the-language expression because of those yankee fans who want to distinguish between jeter/rivera and a-rod/vazquez. anyway, google “true yankee” sometime. the results are fairly hilarious, although many of the hits are outright (intentional) satire.
I enjoy both themeless and themed puzzles. I do get disappointed, though, when I see a puzzle marked “easy.” I understand that simpler puzzles do have their place, but isn’t the audience for this blog beyond that?
Not necessarily. I do get a lot of private e-mails asking for Easy puzzles, and I’m more than happy to comply.
I like the long entries in your themeless puzzles, but generally prefer themes.
I definitely prefer the themeless, but mostly I like the hard ones however they come. Not that I’m any kind of genius or anything, but the daily puzzles just don’t last through lunch anymore and I don’t like the idea of having to talk to my coworkers.
I haven’t finished the puzzle, so I haven’t read the other comments. My take–as someone with limited (meaning, Zero) knowledge of popular rock bands/singers/songs– is that I almost never get all of a themeless puzzle. When there is a theme, it gives me a leg up, so to speak. Sometimes I finish those; (Thursday’s was labeled Easy, and I did finish it with no trouble despite never having seen more than half of the shows that were featured.) I am probably the lowest common denominator in terms of your solvers… I really enjoy your clever cluing, and admire that you are doing it without an Editor.
Themeless are great. That said, the quotes you use for your quote puzzles are worth the solve, and the themes are also fun whether or not they’re within a mile of my wheelhouse.
So mix ’em up. Just like it works for Chex and nuts.
Love having a hard themeless at the beginning of the week, when other puzzles are so easy. Then a fun themed puzzle later in the week. So my vote would be to keep it like you’ve been doing it.
Yes please mix them up I have gotten used to Monday being thermeless Hard day which means at least a couple of Googles to finish if I’m lucky. Thursday is a medium/easy that I typically finish. It would be nice to hit the site and get something unexpected.
Definately like the mix of themelesses and themeses.
Brendan, your puzzles are terrific. I also love to read the comments because your readers are also quite entertaining and today’s topic has brought some great responses. For myself, I just don’t know how to choose between Freeform and Themed puzzles.
I’m reminded of the great quote from Brillat-Savarin when asked by his hostess if he preferred Burgundy or Bordeaux. “Madam,” he responded, “I have such a passion for examining into the matter, that I always postpone the decision a week.”
I like the mix. Would hate to see one way either way.
Slight preference for themed puzzles. Love both types!
Every time I see a Themeless puzzle I automatically print it. I love the open grids. They also tend to be more difficult to solve, so that’s another point in their favor.