ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ BLANK EXPRESSIONS]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ BLANK EXPRESSIONS]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
This is the third year in a row I’ve been a judge a the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (if memory serves, I’ve done it five times but I’m not sure. Too much partying, kids). For me, it’s a blast. Sure, I love solving puzzles, and obviously that’s a massive part of the ACPT, but really, to have an opportunity to hang out with so many great constructors who are also judging is where it’s at.
Speaking of the puzzlemakers, it takes them probably four to five hours to make the puzzle that the top solvers are going to fill in in less than five or six minutes. The judges get to pore over each and every square to make sure they’re filled in accurately. I guess it’s probably not unlike correcting papers for those who are teachers. Though, since these things are filled in so quickly, the handwriting has often yielded some brand-new-never-before seen characters, and for that matter, never before seen words. I guess that’s where the “judging” comes into play. You might ask your fellow judge, “What letter do you think this is?”
“You mean that cuneiform-looking scribble?”
”Is this entry even written in English?”
”Looks like it says GFESDES to me.”
The killer puzzle in the tournament is always puzzle number 5. It separates the contenders from the pretenders. That one is designed to not be finished. It also makes the judge’s job a living hell. There’s probably a pretty good chance that the grid is riddled with wrong letters, cuneiform and otherwise. Basically, nobody can speed through correcting that one.
The first year I was a judge in 1998, god-among-puzzlemakers Mike Shenk made number 5, and it is in my humble opinion the greatest puzzle I’ve ever seen. It was called “Landslides” and the gimmick was that in the long entries any letter combination that spelled out the name of a country swapped places with either the entry that appeared just above or below it. So the answer to one of the theme entries SCUBA DIVES since it had the letters CUBA in it, those letters were swapped with the entrry HILT that appeared below it. So the theme entry correctly filled in appeared in the grid as SHILTDIVES. Clear as mud? Even if you got the thing filled in correctly, the whole grid looked riddled with inaccuracies. Great times. Just about everybody at the Tournament hated Mike for that one.
21 D clue would have been more accurate as “pullup” or “chinup”. Good puz, thanks!
I second the above on 21D. (My 21D is sore from lugging my 25# baby all over town yesterday!) Otherwise, fun puzzle. 54A had me squinching up my forehead for a bit…
17:14. I was hoping 20-A was ‘Schwab’.
I concur with 21D. curl or even pull up would have been much better. as it is i think its inaccurate even.
I’m wondering if the punctuation on the first and last Across clues can be switched…I’m used to seeing 64-A in square brackets.
OMGROTFLMAO
Since everyone loves Mike now, that means that Puzzle 5 hatred ebbs away. Good to know.
Just to be a little nitpicky, I don’t think the grp. in 7-Down was ever secret. Its cousin with a similar abbreviation used to be secret, but I’ve seen them advertise for way too many positions in recent years for me to really think of them as secret any more.
“_____!” GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAXLayoMKI
I had the fill easy enough, but never quite grasped the theme. But I think my brain is fried from work. I could not get Gaffney’s meta this week either. Both will become clear as a bell Wed while doing something inane.
good puzzle. but it’s triceps that do most of the work in push ups. looking forward to seeing you on Friday! and trying to decipher endless variations of handwriting in the judges’ room. I’ve always enjoyed studying the different sorts of hand-waving in the competition room when people are done. there’s your almost demure wavers, your ramrod-straight arm in the air types, and your frantically thrashing the air in the air like you’re having a heart attack peeps….
@Ethan: yeah… should be a blast again this year. Looking forward to it.
@Byron: you make so many hard puzzles that I think you’ll be hated for pretty much ever (wink). BTW: loopy grid in last Saturday’s Times.
Everybody: I adjusted the BICEP clue.
Dug the puzzle, as usual. I’m with everyone who loved 54A: as soon as I started getting it, I was all smiles.
If I can recognize you at the Tournament, I’ll buy you a drink. Least I can do after all this great free stuff you’ve given us over the past few months.
Isn’t Trebek really the guy with all the questions?
@Martin: I don’t have the beard any more, but pretty much look the same (might have lost a little weight). Just look for the dude surrounded by throngs of sycophants. Looking forward to meeting you.
@Jannie: the contestants on “Jeopardy!” ask the questions.
@MikeF: Thanks for posting your times. I encourage everybody else to post their times as well.
I’m sure you’ll get Google hits for “bicep,” you can get hits for anything, but the word is “biceps.” The “s” does not make it plural.
Any elucidation of “Beck blew up” and “1111!11 [etc.]” would be appreciated.
I confess I don’t see the theme. Omitting random clues except for punctuation?
Help…I’m old…49…Explain 54 across!!
I got the answer (sorry I didn’t time it but I will try to remember in the future) but what does it mean????
johnson, I’m older … it means “oh my god, rolling on the floor laughing my ass off.”
Now if someone would just explain the 1’s and !’s in the clue, and the blowing up of one Beck, life will be good ….
“Blow up” is youthful talk for “became famous” or “took off, career-wise,” so the answer is the decade in which Beck (the musician of same single name, not Jeff Beck) first came to prominence.
The !!111!!! thing signifies “this will be an Internet-related clue”; originally a result of folks typing super rapidly, conveying excitement with a lot of exclamation points that were mis-typed as 1’s, it is now most often an affectation.
The most incredibly annoying people out there will render all of their online communication in a so-ironic-its-not-ironic form of language, littered with purposefully mangled terms like “i pwned teh n00bz!!!11!!!!”. It’s better not to ask what that all means, really, as knowing won’t improve your life one iota.
Martin Allen & johnson, i feelz ur paYnez … !!11!!11
Brendan: You might contact Dave Sullivan. He created a feature on Amy’s blog that allows people to post their time for the Times and the Sun puzzle and give you your ranking with other puzzlers who submitted times.