ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Ah, I’m back, rested, refreshed and all the other re- words you care to throw my way. Nice to get away from the grind just a little bit. And it’s great to be back on-line. Jesus, I just had no concept of how much stuff I was doing on-line lately once my phone/wifi was taken away. But anyway I covered this already. Back to the puzzle grind (and also, back to the rambles underneath puzzles).
Took somewhat of a vacation from crosswords last week. I say “somewhat” because I’m defining “crosswords” as solving the two Times puzzles (New York and L.A.), the Onion and whatever puzzle is tossed over my transom by whoever wanted me to see something. (I guess to a lesser extent, “crosswords” could be defined by reading the blogs too. When I was catching up with the older puzzles yesterday, I was wondering what Rex might say.)
I did not, however, have a puzzle-free weekend. I am an addict, and like all addicts, I have to have my fix every day, dammit. I start itching if I haven’t solved a puzzle. If I know I’m going overseas and I’ll be screwed because it’s either mots croises or crucigramas or nothing (or cryptics, if Liz is buying The Guardian), then you know damn well I’m packing a couple two three puzzle books. I’m an addict, and I need my puzzles. And let’s face it, I never know when the jones is coming down, so I’m walking around every with them constantly. My pockets are constantly stuffed with puzzles to solve. Not to make, but to do. (People always assume I’m making a puzzle when I’m quickly filling in puzzle on paper. Why is that? I’m an international man of leisure! Why do I want to carry work with me?)
Even last week, while my family was admiring the (admittedly) jaw-dropping beauty of the Redwoods, I would occassionally sneak a peak and fill in a few squares here and there. And since you asked, I was working on Frank Longo’s “Vowelless Crosswords” and Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon’s “Atlantic Cryptic Crosswords” collection this past week. Both are great.
I guess this is really nothing new. Liz says she wants to step out for some shopping for whatever, and that usually means I need to grab a couple two-three puzzles to do whilst she touches everything in the store. I was relieved to see that when Liz and I met up with Tyler Hinman for brunch during our abbreviated San Francisco visit, Tyler had managed to bring a whole damnfool puzzle magazine to pass the time. But then again, when you’re a genius and you’re the fastest solver in the U.S. five years in a row and counting, you probably need a whole magazine to keep you occupied for ten minutes. Us addicts are everywhere.
A quick couple things: thanks for all the comments from last week. I’m just getting around to them now. Belated congratulations to blogger extraordinaire/women’s suffragist Amy Reynaldo for putting her money where her mouth is and getting her very-first crossword by-line. More please. And lastly, R.I.P. Steve McNair.
You’re not alone. I rarely go anywhere without carrying along a clipboard of unsolved puzzles. You never know when you’re going to have an extra few minutes to kill (a line in a post office, going through the car wash, etc.).
I recently retired my old clipboard (my companion for over twenty years) and got one with a storage compartment for the puzzles – as well as an extra compartment on the bottom for my erasable pens. Now I can carry four pens without looking like a total nerd. Oh wait – I still have the clipboard…
Dude, this is probably my favorite BEQ yet. The NE corner kicked my ass.
There’s a fine balance to clue a themeless so that it’s difficult enough that people agonize over it, yet clever enough that the solver gets several “a-ha — oh, of course” moments as things fall. You nailed it.
brutal. absolutely brutal. but great puzzle. like two Saturdays in one week. WAHMBULANCE is new but made me laugh!
This was more agony than aha for me. One problem was I had ICANTAKEIT crossing SATS.
Hated canister for recyclables … let’s see, I’ll take out the bottles, cans, paper, plastic … and canisters?
I checked the standings before I did the puzzle since it was labeled “hard.” Woo hoo! Take that! (She says boastfully, waiting for the inevitable Feyeresque comeuppance.) Credit goes to my trainer Tony, who always calls the wahmbulance when I get too whiny at the gym. And thanks to whoever quoted that cheese shop bit about really runny cheese last week—I’d never have gotten that otherwise.
Thanks for a Roman numeral clue I could actually figure out, Brendan.
By today’s header, I thought this was going to be another challenge puzzle in our postponed game of HORSE. 🙂
Whenever I get around to doing laundry and I stumble upon old finished folded up crosswords in my back pockets, I realize I have a problem.
Cool dude. Thanks.
Only one of my test-solvers hadn’t heard of the WAHMBULANCE (I won’t mention any names if it’s okay with Tyler Hinman).
Obviously, you haven’t seen my recyclables.
Tip of the cap to Joon Pahk for that Roman Numeral clue.
Haha. Am I the one who’s dropping the gauntlet next? BTW: we were just as far north as the Redwoods. Though Liz’s brother lives in Portland, so next time we’re in for a visit we should grab a beer.
What he said.
Gah! That is a nice RN clue. I see “Roman numeral” and I just flip to “get it from the crossings” mode…I coulda saved myself some time by actually solving that one.
Fun one today, toward the stiffer end of a Sat. NYT to me, though I never felt totally stuck. I actually found the SW corner hardest, though as one who delights in all manifestations of the terpsichorean muse I was SO pleased that my guess for 26D panned out.
“Venezuelan beaver cheese?”
“Not as such.”
Yes, definitely–let me know when you’re in town. And I guess it is your move next…
Loved the reference to the Monkees movie, Head (written by Jack Nicholson!)…it made me feel great about my esotery!
Too hard for me to finish as I ate my lunch, but I still really enjoyed it!
This is precisely the type of puzzle which draws me to your site on Mondays when the NYT is not the challenge I need to jump-start my brain. Unfortunately, it was more like a kick-start and I ended up spending time I had not allocated reveling in new insights. Nowhere else would I have seen the WAHMBULANCE of the urban dictionary paired with the ESCARP of the Maleska era.
In the same vein, looking for something like “turophile” for 26D, JOHNCLEESE got an audible from me.
What a trip! Thanks for a good time, B.
Great puzzle. And welcome back. All the areas were fiendishly hard (except not to the Fiend) but none were impossible… Did feel like there were things missing letters, like ESCARP(ment), ALUMIN(I)UMCAN (that’s me spelling foreign again), ESOTERY(vs ica). ITSAMIRACLE and CLEARASMUD are just beautiful. And thanks too for the workable RN…
OT: was watching the Rays playing the Rangers on ESPN. Am trying to work out baseball. Am failing.
Southwest corner – brutal. NABE? Bleah.
Ohmygod was that brutal. ESOTERY? That last letter took me an age. [whimper]
(I, too, would like to quibble about CANISTER. I rarely see canisters made of recyclable anything.)
I feel better reading the comments because I needed about six googles to finish this thing. The NE section kicked by bottom and I started second guessing myself. I had ESOTERA and knew that wasn’t a word and kept on erasing it.
Hey BEQ, any way to add a star to a submitted entry?
I puzzled ’til my puzzler was sore, and somehow hit the wrong radio button at the end of it all.
I owe you a star next time around, or a drink or something. My bad, but I’m not calling the wahmbulance about it.
i think amy just thanked me twice! you’re welcome.
The EMTS in the wahmbulance appeared and granted you another star.
I usually get destroyed by your medium puzzles, but this “hard” was no trouble for me. Weird.