CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE: [ URGE OVERKILL]
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ URGE OVERKILL]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ URGE OVERKILL]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
Last Thursday, I gave you a contest puzzle wherein I asked you to tell me what the theme was. The long entries (BREAKING NEWS, SCRATCHING POST, GRAFFITI BRIDGE and RHYMING SLANG) were all phrases that begin with the four elements of hip hop culture (further signaled by “Elementary” in the title, and “Hop” in the blurb). There was some slight confusion as to whether or not solvers caught on to the correct answer as “four pillars” is just as common as “four elements.” Me? I’ve always heard the phrase as “four elements.” But for the purposes of the contest anything with either hip hop, four elements or four pillars or any combination of were accepted. For those interested on the topic, Wikipedia does a nice job.
Now, onto the creative entries. The runner up (alas, no prize), Jonathan O’Rourke of Parts Unkown, sent in his entry in a crossword, get it here: [PDF] [Across Lite]. What a find at 37-Across, too. But our winner goes to Neville Fogarty of Brooklyn. Somehow, someway, he managed to not come across as a complete doofus in this video (okay, a partial doofus, but he didn’t go complete doofus). Still, the internal rhyming was on the technical side of impressive. No surprises there; Neville knows his way around a puzzle.
Our randomly selected winner is David Rosen also of Parts Unknown. No, not the David Rosen who was the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament legend. It’s the other David Rosen. Congrats to both, they’ll receive a copy of The Penguin Classics Crossword Puzzles, (get yours by clicking on the link). Thanks to all for playing.
Oh, speaking of the ACPT, the latest edition of the webcomic “Faans” takes place at an ACPT-ish convention. If you look carefully you’ll find me in there along with other crossword cognoscenti.
Two more bonus puzzles: I had yesterday’s Onion crossword, which you can pick up here: [PDF] [Across Lite]. I also co-authored today’s New York Times puzzle with Ian Livengood. Here ’tis: [PDF] [Across Lite]
Phew. Okay. Share the puzzles. New one on Monday.
Skooze me for saying so, but yesterday’s NYT XWP (coconstructed) by you nearly did me in. 1st quadrant to be exact. I had no problem with this XWP until I got to the last qtr of it. Still worthwhile to spend abt. 10 min. on it (with no refs. or any help at all, I got stds, you know).^^^^^^ Now today’s XWP, still more of that BEQ lunacy that I’ve come to love. White room? is jt. lovely. My trouble spot had to do with the sesquipedalian answer involving the 50s senator. I see I got some homework to do here.
Had some trouble with the names, but I did the top pretty easily and caught the theme, which made the rest a lot easier. Neat!
I thought that the contest’s long entries had Eastern vases in the middle (Ming,King,Ching & Tibri) made “Middle Eastern Vases” a great answer.
This medium was much tougher than several recent hards.
What a great theme idea! 🙂
After finishing this one, I think I need some air!
I was thinking this was a themeless…now I see it. Tough NW corner.
Am I the only one who gets a blank screen whenever I try to print out the NYT puzzles from BEQ’s links?
Glad to see what came out of the Facebook posts of the week. The gimmick came right away, but the puzzle got progressively harder from top to bottom. Easy to freaking hard – what a range!