ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Like teachers said to me time and time again while I was taking standardized tests back in high school: “there are correct answers, and there are more-correct answers.” This was the case of Puzzle #96.
Dutiful solvers (or those who just cheated and looked at the answers) found the long message to read “ON WHAT COMMON / OBJECT WOULD YOU / FIND THE LETTERS / C, D, E, F, L, O, P, T AND Z?” (FWIW: I rated this baby a “hard” because of the alphabet soup that was that last entry). 83 contestants chimed in with various answers: “telephone/cell phone” and “beer/coke can” were the most common wrong answers. Even got a couple “keyboards,” though I’m assuming they meant computer kind, not the Moog/Casio kind.
But no, the only answer that I was going to accept was the Snellen Eye Chart. Common? Sure, I mean, it’s more common than a unicorn or a turkey (in bowling, not the bird, the bird’s common). Let’s look at two lovely e-mails that sum it all up better than I ever could:
Cole Kendall writes: “Who knew? But shockingly enough after trying to work through the obvious anagrams (fl. oz.) if you google the letters the eye chart links come right up.” Indeed. There’s nothing more frustrating than confirming a crossword entry by typing in the clue verbatim and then getting Rex Parker’s and Amy Reynaldo’s blogs as the 1, 2 punch. Typically, you type in the clue, and the first result staring back at you is the entry your supposed to put in. So thanks Cole for the Q.E.D.
Speaking of Amy, she opines: “I didn’t have a clue about the meta, but I ran it by my husband Rene last night. He thought about it for a minute and said it was the letters on the eye chart and sure enough, that’s the first four rows. The ‘Now where have I seen that?’ tagline–wow, that didn’t help me at all!” Ah yes. When in doubt, read the instructions/blurb/title. I deliberately phrased the blurb as such that the more-correct answer had to be vision-related.
My Sunday was nearly ruined when David Rosenberg tweeted his correct answer and posited: “isn’t there an N in that too? or is that a play on AND?” I could just imagine the horror of doing a “Snellen Eye Chart” Google image search and seeing the N staring right back at me. Even the Wikipedia page lists N as a character on the chart. [gulp] Anyway, I rechecked the fact in the book where I got the idea for the puzzle in the first place: no Ns. Whew. Then a Google search confirmed it. Double whew. The fact that there’s no Ns on the chart might contribute to the fact my presecription is near Mr. Magoo-levels. I guarantee I’ve guessed Ns whilst looking at the chart. I guess every letter on the chart, but you get the picture.
Huge thanks to all who tweeted/Facebooked/started a class about puzzles and put my blog as part of the curriculum/hired a skywriter/forced people at gunpoint to do the puzzle/etc. Much appreciated. One contestant, Jimmy Dale writes: “I have attached some pics of me onstage wearing my BEQ shirt…we played for a crowd of 50-60 people that night, so hopefully that qualifies me for the 10 times bonus!” Fuck yeah it does. And kudos for Jimmy for getting one of the limited edition R-Rated t-shirts. Here’s the evidence:
Jimmy’s band, The Lords of Hawthorne, was apparently ripping up their cover of Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” at the time the photo was snapped. Good times. Though careful observers will note this pic was taken one month ago, I say: “whatever.” This whole section segues nicely to an announcement:
ANNOUNCEMENT: Heretofore, if any crazed fan of this here blog wishes to snap a picture of themselves in one of the t-shirts, drinking from one of the coffee mugs, or doing one of my puzzles (preferably in a cool setting; extra bonus points for an overseas snap or historical landmark, extra extra bonus points if the picture involves a celebrity), not only will I run it here on the blog, you’ll get either your choice of any book I’ve written or my choice of something from my condo I don’t want anymore.
Anyway, that picture underneath today’s puzzle is me with the bowl with the names of all the contestants who got the answer correct. Without further ado, the winners are: Tim French, Jenny Gutbezahl, George Heard, Lon Heuer and Stewart Levine. Shoot me an e-mail and we’ll update the blog with your swag choices later.
Okay, back to normal. Hope y’all enjoy this themeless. See you on Wednesday.
Nice beard.
BALLETOMANE = F#$@$%#$#!
Never heard FUN-EMPLOYED. Interesting.
And WILLIS TOWER … man, you took that challenge right up. Awesome. Still waiting on … that other word in the news. The UI- word that *isn’t* UINTA.
rp
Hello! when did you start the face fungus man?
nice.
Yeah, you gave me one starting point, and my sister gave me the other one. FWIW: one of the first things one of my test solvers filled in was BALLETOMANE.
What does “F#$@$%#$#!” stand for? F-sharp something?
Uh… I dunno. I decided to keep the beard after I saw “The Hangover.”
Also: I have a beard in the “ABOUT ME” pic!
also never heard of the WILLIS TOWER but man that was the easiest monday you’ve tossed down in a while. fun!
Nice copy of Infinite Jest on the shelf behind you. Now, a puzzle filled with THAT vocabulary–THAT would be a HARD puzzle.
You’re just showing off.
Lord… Indeed.
Today I was apparantly on your wavelength. Had a real good time solving it! The Willis Tower, Is that the building with the crazy slanted glass roof they used in “Adventures in Babysitting??
Have to add my respect for timely WILLIS offering. That just happened!
Also griot/ORALHISTORY was very satisfying…and FUNEMPLOYED, like wahmbulance and trampstamp continues my education.
thanks.
I didn’t think it was hard either…until I got to the bottom. I left Chicago 30 years ago to pursue a warmer clime but still I thought I knew it well enough to answer anything about its skyline. Apparently not. I guess it hasn’t been mentioned during any of the broadcasts of my beloved Cubs.
Probably not. The Sears Tower became the Willis Tower last week.
You got it!
Almost made the CHI clue something about town under the “Curse of the Billy Goat.”
fwiw, i didn’t know about the willis thing either. in fact, i (mis)guessed the vowel at WILLIS/SHARI; I was actually my fourth attempt, after E, A, and O.
This is the VERY first BEQ hard themeless that I’ve finished on my own without any ‘help’ from the net. Either it’s rated a little harder than it is or I’m just really smart today.
Since I’m sitting here on my bed in my 26th week of Unemployment, this puzzle was just a little too much up my alley. I freaking loved it though, especially having been introduced to the word FUNEMPLOYED a few weeks ago. One of those lucky puzzles where everything I threw down was correct.
And, after the Infinite Jest comment above, I fully expect to see INCANDENZA make it into a puzzle soon.
Could be a little bit of both.
Jeez. Can some fan of the blog get DC a job here?
Your Tee, Union Jack with Greece? Please ‘splain.
I think it speaks for itself.
LOL! That would have put me on Chicago a lot faster than the Pitchfork Music Festival…the only pitchfork I remember there is the one at the Art Institute in the farmer’s hand in Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.”
No tripSweet HomeChicago is complete without a visit to the Billy Goat Tavernfor a chezborger and some attitude.
You mean after I’ve been sending copies to Peter Gordon of his books vacationing in places like Samarkand and Timbuktu, I should have been sending photos of YOUR books to YOU??? Who knew??? Well, now I do!
Anne, who has gotten lots of entertaining comments while snapping photos of Peter’s books in said places
Doesn’t have to be a book, per se.
Seperated at birth: BEQ and ‘Khartoum’-era Jandek.
yes, an easy hard or I’m smarter today too.
I skipped the Pitchfork Fest this weekend (timely!), first one I didn’t attend at all. There was only one band I was itching to see (Jesus Lizard, and not because of David Yow), and I couldn’t convince myself that festival prices made it worthwhile. That being said, both 56-D and 63-A made me smile. Some good fill all around.
There’ve been only two previous Pitchfork Festivals, I think, so it’s not a household word yet, like Lollapalooza.
As the official barometer of someone that can’t finish a Hard BEQ; I did finish this one ergo it’s a Medium. I did have a couple of errors in fill but if I can finish it then its not Hard. On Friday I was one Google away from finishing that one as well. I think these are ego boosters.
On a business board I wrote about funemployment and the concept of people that have lost their job but have severance and want to live life a bit before they find a new job. The recession has provided them a raison d’etre but some mentioned that they were moving in with their parents, go figure.
I guess I’m FUNEMPLOYED! Though I can’t even ride a bike to the corner, let alone to California. I got the TOWER off of W-L, despite not having seen Rex’s challenge… what a great bottom-row seed entry!
Iiieeeeee waaaahhhhhhnted toooo diiieeeeee!
Huzzah.
Saw the Jesus Lizard twice in the 90s. Both times my face was ripped off. Awesome stuff.
That’s just depressing.
Jeez. Can some fan of the blog get Dan a job here?
Just saw your tweet about MCA — you totally need to do a Beasties themed puzzle now. I’ve been thinking of that as a theme and now there’s a reason.
the “hard” rating could be my fault. i was unable to finish this one at all. after pounding it for about 15 minutes, large sections of the NW were either blank or wrong, and i couldn’t find my way out; i’d never heard of FUNEMPLOYED, BALLETOMANE, LFO, or YEAN. after my griping, brendan eased up on tough clues for UMA and OTT and what i’m pretty sure was a factually incorrect clue for NOL. probably makes a big difference. on the other hand, the rest of the puzzle took me a long time, too, and i did have that error at WILLIS/SHARI. so maybe it just wasn’t up my alley.
I’m with Joon — this took me longer than most hard BEQ puzzles. BALLETOMANE stumped me for a while.
And — I gotta say it, even though I suspected this would be a BEQ entry at some point soon — “Whatcha talking ’bout, WILLIS TOWER?”
Aah, I was funemployed about 16 years ago. Got laid off and took all of the severance/profit sharing/retirement funds with me and had a ball for three months.
Now I’m unemployed (collecting) but still working, au gratis, to help my buddy’s business stay afloat during this downturn.
Why am I telling all this to you turkeys (the bowling coup, not the bird)?
Not just you, everybody else felt it was brutal.
BALLETOMANE is kind of a tough word, but it is a word. Maybe a spelling bee word. Is our resident spelling bee partipant Mike Nothnagel here?
Developing …
Jeez. Can some fan of the blog get Tuning Spork a job here?
The closest I’ve come is seeing Tomahawk in a small divey bar, or hearing Scratch Acid play a different stage while I watched Man… or Astro-Man? setup at a Touch & Go anniversary festival.
Interesting when I learn actual news via the puzzle. I figured out WILLIS TOWER but was WTF? about it. How could I not have heard of a tower bigger than Sears Tower? Googled it and found out what’d happened. That’s crazy – I wouldn’t give naming rights to anyone these days, given the likelhood of any corporation going up in smoke. But whatever. Great fun puzzle, but haven’t gotten a few answers and still can’t open the javascript to get the solution, Brendan.
Loved FUNEMPLOYED, even though I’d never seen it. I had some hitches in the SE because I kept wanting GATEWAY ARCH, but after I figured out which city you wanted it fell easily 🙂
Oh, and I agree that this one was a medium. Finished it without sweating.
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