ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Couple quick hits for the day, let’s do this:
- If you were thinking about giving a personalized BEQ crossword for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Pagan Festival of Lights/etc. to your husband/wife/fiancé(e)/neighbor/boss/son/ daughter/grandmother/etc. and you still haven’t hit me up yet, please drop me a line this week. We’ll still have plenty of time, but I’d like to plan out the rest of the month. Thanks.
- Stumbled upon Caleb Madison’s puzzle for his high school newspaper this weekend. I know, I know, that sounds like it’s going to be shit, but you’d be wrong if you believe that. When I was Caleb’s age, I’m not sure I could successfully pick my nose let alone even attempt solving a puzzle (much less make them). As I’ve said before, the puzzling world is his oyster. Don’t believe me? Do it here: [Across Lite] [Java]
- Also, I was unaware that the last BEQ Fan du Jour (Tuning Spork) wrote and posted some puzzles himself. If I had known, I would have linked to it last Friday. No matter, better late than never. Go now.
- Too many puzzle links? I think not. Two more: Matt Gaffney’s contest puzzle from last Friday might be one of the nastiest, hardest metas I’ve ever seen. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Do it here. Also, would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the pretty relaunch of Amy Reynaldo’s blog. Good stuff.
- Lastly, if you haven’t seen this already, there’s a pretty amazing documentary about the “Press Your Luck” game show “scandal” detailing one contestant’s cracking of the supposedly uncrackable-code used in the big board round. Simply fascinating. Part 1 (of 11) starts here.
Share the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.
This one’s beautiful (and I say that as someone for whom that middle answer was a total mystery). Slightly easier than “Hard,” but still a workout. WAX ON WAX OFF! Wish that had been harder, because it would have made a great “AHA” moment, MR. KOTTER.
rp
Glad to see 38A wasn’t just a mystery for me! Just lovely stax, all 4 of them. 54- & 65D were great “Stumper-esque” one-word clues! Initially was extremely grumpy, couldn’t get a toehold anywhere, was convinced nothing was “in my wheelhouse”, gradually got into it and slowly went from really “gatvol” (look it up) to pretty darn delighted, though there still quite a bit of short crap, but that is par for the course.
Just wondering how many other people went through multiple answers @:
57A: AIMSA to HAVEA to HOLDA to HELDA
41A: MGS to TTS to GTS
really fine themeless all around. a note about the cluing for the 57A/58D cross, though: the latter is an obscure sports figure with an uncommon and uninferable name, and the former works with either HOLD or HELD = kind of mean.
*Magnificent middle*
The middle/bottom killed me but in the top I believe that MONS is singular (and MONTES would be the plural).
Great puzzle, but I had a little trouble because I was sure 60A was SWEEP THE LEG.
I tried NEEDA for a few seconds too!
I second that one. Olympus Mons is one mountain. Threw me for a while b/c I couldn’t think of any other sense of extraterrestrial peaks than the literal one, and Mons shouldn’t have fit.
[Note to webmaster: I wrote up my post, clicked “Post” and poof, it apparently got tossed back into the bit bucket. Known problem?]
[Cue dirge] A postmortem of my Monday. After two quick across/down passes (NW quickly disabused me of my usual, more methodical approach), I had, for me, a reasonable number of answers including all of the center. I’m feeling optimistic.
30 minutes in, I’m still staring at 38A, _ANQUIZZ RODGERS. Who?! I take a cheat, which gets me SW, though it killed my unintentionally ironic NOT A CLUE at 40D.
45 minutes in, I click the Check button, causing Xs to rain down upon me.
60 minutes in, I stop the guilt-mongering clock and take a cheat on 67A, which gets me S/SE. Then I take a cheat on 12D, which gets me NE. But I’m still staring at 1A, _LI_A__GA__. Tick tick tick. F-i-n-a-l-l-y I see it, and I’ve got NW.
Way hard puzz for me, but I love it. Only cluing quibble was 13D. Seemed needlessly misleading, and it doesn’t seem as though “TV teacher” would have made it a gimme. Looking forward to Wednesday.
I have heard from others about the comments section problems. Looking into it.
i want to give a shout out to caleb for his puzzle and i don’t know where else to do it. great job, caleb!
Thanks, scooper! Glad you liked it.
And thanks, Brendan, for the shout-out. I’m glad you like it– it’s an honor to be mentioned on a site I basically worship.
I got WAX ON WAX OFF with no crossings, but that probably says more about me than about the puzzle. 🙂
Nice one, BEQ.
like doug, i put SWEEP THE LEG in there before i had any crosses. but WAX ON, WAX OFF is a better answer, so i was pretty pleased when the W emerged.
I started off fast and finished with a whimper. Had problems in the NE getting a grip needed some sizeable help to get through there with IRENECASTLE.
Great themeless really enjoyed my half hour work-out.
Awesome puzzle. I just watched the Civil War this weekend, so JACQUIZZ RODGERS was a total gimme.
One thing, though – it wasn’t ATTILA, but Genghis Khan that they kidnap in Excellent Adventure.
You’re worshipping at the right altar, Caleb. Kudos.
Climategate? I must be talking to the wrong scientists. Or anti-scientists, as the case may be.
WAX ON WAX OFF, which helped correct my mistakes at 49 and 50D, was a gimme for me, as well as ARIZONA. I wish we could all do away with daylight savings.
Evil clues for easy French words.
I had EITHER for too long at 3D. And I had HOLD A gun.
Thanks for the puzzle, BEQ.