THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]
In a rather dominating performance, New York City's Paolo Pasco took home the trophy for the 46th ACPT. (No spoilers in this post, everybody. For those who'd like to do the puzzles, you can click here and get yourself a copy.) That's him in the yellow, mobbed by adoring fans, being congratulated by this year's Finals constructor, Sid Sivakumar. All together now: I know these guys, they're okay. Anyway, it was a rather impressive performance, beating not only perennial contender David Plotkin (second) and this year's (shuffles papers), uh rookie of the year (wrinkles brow) Will Nediger (third). It was a thrilling finals. Will certainly looked like he had it, but man, once Paolo gets a foothold in a corner, forget it. The whole thing just fills itself in. Watch Ben Zimmer's video of the event here. Pretty exciting stuff.
I should say that this weekend was a particularly moving event. As you may or may not have heard, Will Shortz had a stroke this past February. Well, Old Ironsides wasn't going to let a thing like that get in the way of him participating in the ACPT, his baby. I'd be lying if I didn't say that there were numerous Kleenex being used when Will gave opening remarks on Friday night, and again on Saturday morning. To say nothing of the behind the scenes work (ably giving final say to the already stellar editorial work done by Joel Fagliano). Easily the performance of the weekend that didn't involve a trophy.
So how were the puzzles? Mostly really good. If I had to give my favorite, it would be Mike Shenk's devilish #5. That's typically been the "heartbreak hill" of the tournament. The brutal one that's designed to murder the room. But for me? I just love wild and wooly puzzles with left-of-the-dial themes, and this one had 'em both. A bravura performance, if you stop to think about how it was made. Close runner-up goes to Anna Shechtman's elegant offering (slightly on the hard side of things, but has a simple elegance you'll notice upon completion) and following up that is Kevin Christian's #4, which demonstrates you don't have to kill people to make a satisfying solve. Golf claps all around, everybody.
So how was my weekend? I was assigned the job of co-hosting the pairs division with Byron Walden. I would have preferred a co-host, but really, he was in one room, and I was in the other (there were two rooms of pairs solvers). I think it ran pretty well for the inaugural run. No hitches. Not all of my jokes landed, one in particular referencing "Squid Game" landed with a thud. But you know, the only way is up. Next year, I'll promise to do better. By the way, the power duo of Peter Rimkus and his daughter Claire took first, to the surprise of nobody.
As always, it was great to meet new friends, to see old ones, and to meet you solvers. It went by all too quickly, so until the next event, we'll leave it there.
Looking for more puzzles? The Hub Crossword (Sunday puzzles by me and Joon Pahk) and Marching Bands year eight has begun. So if that To Do list needs even more puzzles, you know what to do.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
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.
Call (617) 2-999-BEQ or click 
