ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ BOX SEATS]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ BOX SEATS]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
UPDATE: I forgot about the Visual Thesaurus puzzle which was posted today! D’oh. Go here for all subscribing and interested parties.
Slight spoiler alert! I’m not giving away anything per se, but astute solvers might infer the theme and other such fun stuff after reading the post. Come back later, okay? Consider yourselves warned.
The rating system for this site is probably going through a wee bit of some growing pains. I fully suspected this puzzle was a medium, and was confirmed by one test solver (who inexplicably didn’t get the theme at all!? Yet, still deemed it a medium. Go figure.). Test solver #2 said it was so beyond brutal it was practically unfair. And test solver #3 said it was about half medium, half hard. Lovely. I’m going with a rating of hard and will probably regret I didn’t stick to my guns and rate it medium.
The gimmick came first, then the title. Really wanted to represent the theme twice throughout each entry, but in the end only was able to do it twice. I will leave that exercise of more entries that incorporate the trick more than once to the readers.
Due to the amount of theme I put in there, not too much fun stuff in the fill, though I do like 30-Down. Favorite clue in the batch — couldn’t make the cut! Damnfool Across Lite said I went overboard with the letter count. 10-Down was going to be:
Book that begins “On August 28, 1948, at about twelve-thirty on a hot, windless day, some peasant women with firewood on their backs were descending a steep path above the Greek village of Lia, a cluster of gray stone houses on a mountainside just below the Albanian border.”
Two quick thoughts before I wrap up this quick post. So it seemed that the cryptic was a success. Or, if there were more dissenting voices, they were drowned out by the din of “more please!” I’ll see what I can do before the end of the summer.
Also, if in the odd chance you aren’t already going to his site, I cannot recommend enough Matt Gaffney’s awesome blog. I just finally got around to doing all his puzzles on the blog, and they’re great. Really some gonzo stuff. For crying out loud, one of the puzzles final answer’s was Matt’s cell phone number, and you were instructed to contact him. Brilliant. I feel like such a chooch for not doing them earlier, and I really have no excuse. Especially since I liberally ripped him off when I started off. Anyway, go there next, please. He’s posting a new puzzle today.
Okay, that’s it. Enjoy this one. See you on Monday.
That puzzle kicked my ASS. As if it wasn’t sore enough after the NYT… Really suck at rebuses (want to see what those doing it on paper drew, lol) mostly cos they’re so rare and I don’t get much practise, was only after 10 min that it dawned on me it WAS a rebus. Mostly cos I put in Christmas Turkey… But I really enjoyed the fun of “where are these blasted squares”. Blass and Glass Menagerie was a meanie though, hadn’t heard of either…
I’ll get to the cryptic when I have more time, lots more! I’m slooowww with Cryptics… In the mean time re TYRE and COLOUR, welcome to my world!
P.S. had SHITLIST for 30D. Was that an intential dupe?
Hmm… “The Glass Menagerie” is a really popular play here in the states. Usually for high schools and regional theater. I can understand “Assassins” as being mean-tough. Now that’s an obscure musical.
SHITLIST is a great entry! Might make a puzzle with that word in there!
Had ALL OUT at 3D: Invariably … which was wrong. But then 31D came along. So Weird.
Copped theme early and didn’t think it too hard. I even took the time to do the clunky “insert letters” thing in Across Lite. BERGSON / POTASH region gave me fits til the end, and the two ASSes in ASSASSins were my final squares.
Valiant as the new clue for AMAS is, I didn’t like it. SPASSKY was hot. really great.
rp
Definitely “Hard”! I got the theme pretty quickly but it still went down like a Saturday. ASSASSINS is one of my favorite musicals. “Czolgosz, working man / Born in the middle of Michigan …”
Yeah, well, sometimes when you’re going for the brass ring with a new clue for AMAS, you end up flat.
It’s a weird musical. As I clued it that way, I thought, “Steely” Dan Feyer knows this one.
Bill BLASS and GLASS MENAGERIE gave me the rebus straight away. And then ASSASSINS confirmed it.
There might be an age-related difficulty factor. RATTAIL has always been a type of comb to me; never knew those “pony tails” had a name.
Funny coincidence – I was just trying to put SIROCCO in a Cryptic (just playing around) with a clue that had Agnew driving a VW…too funny.
I felt like this one was a good challenge, but I’d have to take off style points for the 40A/31D crossing entries using the same word (SEEK OUT/ALL OUT) and neighboring a clue at 30D that also has the word ‘out’ in it.
Considering that I got the trick immediately with Glass Menagerie and Assassins is my favorite musical also, I really should have finished faster.
Plus, while I love Brooklyn Ale, I was really pulling for Brooklyn Zoo. Ah well…
I thought it was pretty medium, myself. As soon as I couldn’t fit THE GLASS MENAGERIE, I knew we had a rebus somewhere. Picasso clinched it. The hardest one for me was the GRASSY/PASS FAIL CLASSES crossing entries because I had no clue that “grassy notes” was a wine characteristic and had “GRAY” for a while, and I was originally going for POTASSIUM somehow instead of POTASH. Once I twigged to that, I was able to clean everything up pdq (or is it beq?).
I sort of like the clue for AMAS — not too many Billy Joel references these days! I’ve never heard of ASSASSINS, but got it pretty easily just with the crossings. Great puzzle — I love rebuses!
Spassky revealed the theme for me … was struggling until then. Great puzzle!
Yes, definitely medium. I meandered around for a short while my subconscious worked out THEGLASSMENAGERIE and whupped me upside the head. After that my biggest problem was trying to stick my ASSes in where they didn’t belong.
Definitely hard. Not too many gimmes for me.
I have to give you a little shit for doing a Stan Newmanesque clue for ELENI: [Girls name that means “torch”]? Nobody’s gonna know that. However, if you wanted to go with [Name that means “beloved”] for AMY, go right ahead. Everyone knows that one, right? Cognate of “amour”?
I could’ve slapped George Lucas for giving young Anakin a weird RATTAIL. Just when the hairdo had been banished to the hinterlands, suddenly little boys are wearing it for Halloween.
As the saying goes, BEQ, you really put the “ass” in “class”!
It was a tough one. I screwed up the time/rating gadget, so my time doesn’t show, but it was a little over 10 minutes. Even when I had the theme, I kept stumbling. Knowing Bergson helped a lot. Not so helpful: deciding that the Conservative emblem was an ELK at 60-Across.
Great minds think alike.
Wasn’t too pleased with that myself, but I figured, I really liked SICK LIST so, it stuck.
Brooklyn ZOO would be a great entry.
Like rebuses, good to know.
Spassky is always giving it away.
Well, I panicked after my clue didn’t fly in Across Lite (see post).
Putting the “ass” back in “class” since ’74.
This one was kind of tough, definitely deserved the hard rating. Although, if you were really ASStute the really clever title might have given it away. I figured out the gimmick relatively early with The Glass Menagerie and it was cemented with Picasso. I nailed assassins remembering my copy of Sarah Vowell’s ASSASSination Vacation. I got tripped up though in the middle when marge simpson’s beehive distracted me from rattail, and totally missed bergson and potash. I also was thinking Chris Berman on the home run call I was thinking going going gone or back back back etc.
By the way, there are so many musical options for Stay outside of the Loeb standby. You have at least a basic Def Leopard reference even though I would like to see it clued via U2’s Zooropa.
As always, stay clASSy BEQ
PS. your picture reminds me of this http://www.amazon.com/Nuns-Having-Calendar-2009-Calendars/dp/0761150064
I’m in the medium/hard range. Knew we had a rebus early on, but props for concealing them so deftly. Pass/Fail Classes took me forever to see – even got Assassins first, and I’d never heard of that musical before. Go figure.
I just knew 30D was going to be Shit List – so disappointed that it wasn’t. Fikink and I must be of the same age – rattail says “comb” to me, not a hairdo.
Didn’t get to the cryptic until yesterday – really enjoyed it. Hope to see more of them.
I instinctively entered SHITLIST because I expected that from a BEQ puzzle.
An opportunity for an L7 reference at the very least. Which reminds me–thanks for the Pixies reference at 39D. Being as it is a great song, but also containing within itself an entirely apt line for this puzzle. Oh kiss my a**, oh let it rock!
Nice!
The Lisa Loeb hit was a bit forced, but seeing as I know she’s now coming to the site, I wanted to at least acknowledge her the next time I could.
Part of the reason I chose that clue for “Assassins” was that people (hopefully) know who Czolgosz was, and that might help you out.
Another yes vote for rebuses, though it always takes me too long to recognize them: I knew GLASS MENAGERIE immediately, but couldn’t remember whether it was A GLASS or THE GLASS and miscounted letters for THE and so put in A and had all sorts of trouble until finally P[ASS]FAIL… got it through my thick skull. Should have been medium, but I made it hard.
Cool, I should have never underestimated the Cavalcade of Stars that is the BEQ blog
Well, for some reason I had it in my head that today’s was supposed to be a themeless so I wasted a lot of time before noticing the title and realizing I was wrong about that, woops. But the second I realized it was themed I knew what it was because 39D had been bugging the heck out of me–a gimme, except the name didn’t fit and I’m making up excuses for BEQ like, well, maybe he just wants the initials for the Amherst campus, which is the one in the song (“full o’ pioneer”) but dammit–and then most of the rebuses popped out in a few minutes. So aside from being a dumba** to begin with, I’d rate it a medium.
Here’s a suggestion: how about a widget that lets US rate the difficulty? Might be interesting to see how opinions on that average out overall, given how contradictory opinions on that can be for a given puzzle.
The kicked my ass joke has already been taken, so I’ll sign up for the laughed my ass off joke instead. Laughing when I wasn’t cross-eyed from beating my head on the table for lack of answers.
Thanks for the entertainment, Brendan!
ASSASSINS started me off on this one, rolled through nicely without too much of an ass-kicking, until the GRASSY clue. Short of knowing that wine with a twist-off cap in a brown bag likely didn’t win any awards, I’m oeno-clueless, so that one tore me up nicely.
Oh yeah, the Pixies clue stumped me too. I need to listen to that now, get some new musical info.
BadASS puzzle! Tough for me as I’ve never heard of The Pixies, BERGSON, ABACAB, and AMOS. Took a while to catch the rebus, but in the end, like most of yours, doable. I’m still chewing on the cryptic having never done one before. Had to look up “rules” for them on Wiki.
hello from somerville! trying to catch up on 2 days’ worth of puzzles which piled up while i was moving. this one was actually my favorite of the bunch (and that’s like … 12 puzzles?). awesome stuff. great theme, great title, great theme answers. knew GLASS MENAGERIE off the clue but it Would Not Fit whether i put THE in or not. i should have realized the rebosity right then and there.
ASSASSINS is great. we went to go see it on november 22, 2008. sondheim is so weird, but he is an amazing lyricist and a pretty darn good composer too.
i appreciated the effort.
i liked this puzzle a lot. i am a fan of the rebus in general, and it’s always a joy when i don’t recognize one straight away. i started this puzzle late at night when i was pretty fried, and i read through the clues very quickly until i found something i didn’t have to think too hard to get, which ended up being way down in the SE corner. a lot of great fill, actually so consistently fun and surprising that i hesitate to call it fill. the middle area around BERGSON/USAF/POTASH/MOUNTIES gave me a lot of trouble, partially because i (stupidly) had LOOK OUT instead of SEEK OUT (it was late!) and UMS instead of UHS (i lost that coin toss). i also couldn’t get OREGANO for some reason (partially because of ELENI — cruel!); if the clue had been “Pizza herb” i would have gotten it instantly, but then that wouldn’t have been this puzzle. i got SICK LIST easily enough but didn’t like it all the same: not a phrase that comes to mind as a *phrase,* even after it suggested itself. (same goes for ART LAB…whuh?) RATTAIL took too long to reveal itself but i was forced to concede that it was very much an ’80s hair style, most often seen, by me, at the alameda county fair in pleasanton, ca, where i’d go every year in junior high and high school. four and a half stars.
i had this for far too long.
Actually, I knew the name meaning ‘torch’ right off the bat, though I entered its English form first. Of course, I may have an unfair advantage 🙂