ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ HAND JIVE]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ HAND JIVE]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Cluing isn’t much fun. For me at least. I guess I wouldn’t be a very good cryptic puzzle writer.
In the odd chance you didn’t already know this, the grid is made first, then the clues. Not the other way around. Also, future clients, take that information and mull it over before asking me to make a puzzle based on the clues/answers you’ve given me. While I’m here, I cannot make a New York Times-esque crossword wherein every entry has something to do with your product. Can’t be done. Stop asking. You wouldn’t like it if I told you how to run your company either.
Sorry about that. I had to get that off my chest. Where was I?
Now, say you get lots of fun stuff into a grid, then it’s fun to clue. Sort of. Well, at least those fun entries. It’s just those damnfool repeaters, the vowel heavy stuff that is in every crossword … how in God’s green Earth is there a clever new fresh way to clue OREO or AREA?
For me, I usually try and go as low as I can word-count-wise, when making a puzzle. Lower word count means less cluing, and also, more open spaces to jam fun stuff into it. Having said that, the old tired entries that nobody wants to see ever again are inevitably in the fill holding it all together.
But let me tell you something, I simply cannot imagine doing cluing before the Internet. Obviously, it had been done, but I’m just dumbstruck. If you need a new clue for ERIC today? Hit up Wikipedia. Unsure how that entry is used in everyday speech? Google it and read the results. Baseball stats? Song lyrics? Facts about States? Just a couple clicks away. Simply amazing. Previous puzzlemakers must have had libraries dedicated to this stuff. And even those books must have went out of date fast.
Still doesn’t mean I enjoy doing this cluing stuff.
Postscript: Hat tip to my father-in-law who gave me the idea for this puzzle. Wait, not the idea idea. You see, he gave me a book of lists of curiosities about music, thinking I could use it to make a book of music puzzles, and, oh dear. I’m going to just shut up now before I make it worse.
Funny to see a theme that flusters even you, Mr. MALE ORGASM. 😉
Well, made it about 3/4 of the way through without cheating. No Cyndi Lauper?
Jason, SHEBOP would need another 6-letter song to balance it out in the grid, or it’d have to be split into two 3-letter chunks, or the grid would have to be an even number of squares wide to allow SHEBOP to be centered in the middle. And two of the answers are perfect 15’s, so the standard 15-square width is perfect. It would have been cool to have SHE where SHY is in the upper left corner and BOP in the opposite corner, but five theme entries is already plenty.
You could, of course, clue CYNDILAUPER as “She bops?” This might be seen as disharmony or a pleasing variation, depending on your musical taste.
What does it say about me that this was my fastest of your puzzles?
Don’t answer that.
The answer to 57d didn’t seem to make a vast difference.
Couldn’t you have balanced out “She Bop” with “Beat It”? Don’t tell me you think Jacko was singing about gang violence! =)
9:54. Strangely, the Buzzcocks ref took me the longest of all the theme entries.
How about Pink’s recent U + UR HAND? Be nice to find a crosser for that plus sign.
Here you go:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15114_15-best-songs-that-are-totally-about-masturbation.html
i’m going to start calling brendan “mr. male orgasm” from now on.
Your quote in 48A is off. I googled it to check and rather than “…but I say…” the Internet tells me it should be “…but I figure…”
http://www.google.com/search?q=it's+true+hard+work+never+killed+anybody,+but+I+say,+why+take+the+chance%3F&btnG=Search
I echo SethG when I say this was one of your easier ones for me, and I’m mildly ashamed of myself for it.
Now that is a touching puzzle.
@Howard: It was hard. I could have used a manual.
AREA
[“You ___ Light” (Pavement song)]
OREO
[Clarence Thomas, according to John McLaughlin]
Oh, and then there’s Bernadette Peters’ 15-letter MAKINGLOVEALONE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNmhhWFWzQk
@ TuningSpork: Love the Pavement reference.
@ Howard B: that was one of the original titles bandied about.
@ Flavin: one of my test solvers checks the facts and confirmed that’s the way the Gipper said the quote.
@ Matt Gaffney: thanks for the link.
@ Evad: Not a bad suggestion.
@ Mike F: for shame! You taught the history of punk rock. BTW: you’ll like the new leaderboard feature I’m adding tomorrow.
@ Jimmy D: I had thought of those after the fact, but this grid was tough enough to make before addding two more theme entries. FWIW: “Beat It” was a working title.
@ Karma Sartre: you knew that clue was inevitable.
@ SethG: I wasn’t curious enough to ask the question.
@ T & Jason: Hey guys.
I’m perplexed. Three of the answers (20, 35 and 54 Across) obviously fit the theme, but I honestly don’t see how 28 and 46 Across do. Are these euphemisms I’ve just never encountered? (Considering my long and depraved history, that’d be a little hard to credit.)
Yes, apparently they are euphemisms.
it’s not so much that the titles are euphemisms, but rather what the songs are about.
The Femmes song includes the lyric “Body and beats, I stain my sheets, I don’t even know why.” The Vapors song, according to Wikipedia, fits thusly:
“The song’s lyrics mainly consist of the singer talking about the picture of his love. …The song reflected how singer/songwriter Dave Fenton was meant to have felt whilst separated from his love. In the U.S., the song was believed to euphemistically refer to masturbation.”
wow! shows what i know 🙂