ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ FIREPLACES]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ FIREPLACES]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
There was a handful of perceptive solvers out there who came across my unannounced hidden message in Monday’s puzzle (click here if you wish to look for it before I just give it all away). I was trying to go with a subliminal message, and perhaps it was just a little too subliminal, or entirely lost altogether. Damn it! Note to self: you might want to announce hidden messages next time
Or, make the hidden message sexier. Subliminal lascivious messages. I shoulda known that one too. I’ve been forced by Liz into watching “Mad Men” too. Peggy knows sex sells, even if Don doesn’t buy it. Note to self #2: put more “sex” in the puzzle next time.
So anyway, running along the middle of Monday’s puzzle in consecutive entries (37-, 38-, and 39-Across) read the message: TIP / IF YOU CAN / PLEASE. A couple others felt that two other entries ANYTIME (33-Across) and IT’S EASY (57-Across) were additional come-ons. Not intentionally, but we’ll take it. Tip of the hat to Charles Hull for being the first to discover the message (and to follow through on the request).
So, with that being said, if you liked the puzzles this month, and you have a little bit of extra money, please consider a tip donation ($10, $20, or $30). Like I have said before, I will never charge for the puzzles, ever. But there are costs to keeping this running smoothly. Any contribution helps.
As an added thank you, I will hide the first and last names of one randomly selected donor in a puzzle next week. Just like I hid the message Monday. So if you want to make my life a living hell, and your name is Zbigniew Brzezinski, you know what to do.
Share the puzzle. (Oh, BTW. After messing around with the idea for this one, and eventually settling on this gimmick, I realized it was similar to some work that La Liz Gorski does time and again. So here it is, my stab at a Gorski-esque puzzle, months after I said I’d do it. So there.) New one on Friday. (But if you wanna help me make it, go on Twitter, now.)
very nice! fun. Of course Liz would have had some insane puzzle where in addition to the HOT corners, two of the black square sections would have represented crossed logs in a fireplace AND if you drew lines between all the circled letters in the puzzle (which spell CRACKLING FLAMES when read in order right-to-left and top-to-bottom) you would have gotten the outline of flames in a fireplace–but it’s close enough to a Gorski special to pass. 🙂
Easy. Too bad there were multiple SHOTs for the HOT corners, but that probably couldn’t be helped, and MR. BIG SHOT is a great answer. I thank the crossword gods for giving me passing familiarity with DER ALTE.
I actually had APROW and then APOOP (!?) before I had APORT.
rp
Enjoyable puzzle. Since I solved it without any cheating I’d have to agree it was easy.
SALINGER + BRUCELEE + rebus love = 5 stars! Thanks for another great puzzle, Mr. Q!
Wish I had some extra ducats this week to throw your way…but the ex took them all! =) However, the band has a big show this weekend…I’ll definitely be doing some R-rated advertising for ya!
So if you want to make my life a living hell, and your name is Zbigniew Brzezinski, you know what to do.
LLOL. what about norfleet pruden, the LAT constructor everybody assumed was an anagrammatic pseudonym?
Agree with @Joon Zbigniew Brzezinski = awesome name. Loved the rebus!!! RIANT is a really good word. Also, no has said anything yet, so I guess I will…Dump assistant??? Ew.
I liked the puzzle and the rebus layout, and I’d say this is more an EASY for you than a MEDIUM, but you killed me with a few. RIANT and BRNO were the last to fall, and that was from brute forcing M _ _ GSHOT. Your trap also got me with HOTBUTTON for HOTPOTATO, which did absolute wonders for me getting down OCEAN instead of TOSEA and NABBED instead of ONTAPE. But those are my fault, not yours; nice puzzle. Thankfully, the downs told me I was wrong really early on.
I feel like a broken record, but a roan is not a brown and white horse! A roan is any color base coat horse, with white hairs evenly distributed throughout the coat. A black horse comes out looking slate grey, hence the name blue roan. A strawberry roan has bay or chestnut base coat.
Otherwise a very enjoyable, but more on the easy side, puzzle.
( Oh, and like Whitney said, EW!)
Easier than Mon. for me. Only tricky corner was SW. Fun puzzle. Thanks!
Am I right in assuming that ‘hot corner’ means third base? I’ve never heard this term before. And don’t check out the urban dictionary on this one. But the puzzle moved around smoothly. 6D made me laugh when I finally got it.
4.5 Stars (rounded up…)
Actually this puzzle reminded me more of: http://crosswordfiend.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=285 by Sullivan/Reynaldo, the gimmick is nearly identical… Than a Gorski…
Unusually transparent as rebuses go, and the rest of the puzzle was mostly quite easy, but no less beautiful… There is a TON of long stuff and much of it consists of gorgeous long and medium phrases, many of them spoken: ITSWAR, ITSAGIRL [no I don’t care a darn that there’s 2 ITS’], NOTONLY, NOWAIT. There are “old friends” like RIANT and ENURING, but that’s the way it goes.
BTW I read Wikipedia’s articles on Baseball positions fairly recently – and actually remembered the phrase!
Oh, where’s the sex? 13D? Oh, wait there it is 1A, I’m blind!
I was even pleased by old saws such as BRNO and thanks for cluing ANG someway other than director lee. This might be the easiest (non-easy) puzzle. Just a romp.
I think the Gorski Brendan is referring to is this one:
http://is.gd/3QIYB
(XwordInfo solution: http://is.gd/3QJ3s)
I don’t want to horrify Brendan, but I actually solved this one, no cheating. I’m sure that’s one sign of the apocalypse.
Let’s hope the son of Billy Graham recently in the news (Tullian Tchividjian) isn’t a crossword fiend! Given that he leads a evangelical megachurch in Florida, doubts are he visits unless he’s preparing for his next sermon.
oops, skipped a generation there, Tullian’s the grandson of Billy.