ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ NO KIDDING]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ NO KIDDING]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Heads up, I have tomorrow’s New York Times puzzle that I co-authored with my homie: Joon Pahk. I’ll post it here for those who don’t already do that puzzle religiously. I know who you are. It’s cool. UPDATE: Here ’tis: [Across Lite] [PDF]
Now how about that contest? Sure: we got 103 entrants, the same as last time. When was last time? Try October 23 of last year. How’d we go so far without a contest? Beats me. Note to self: write more contest puzzles.
Since I like clilffhangers, lets go over the contest puzzle before I announce the winners. After solving last Friday’s puzzle, you got the riddle: WHAT CAPITAL IN / EUROPE IS MADE OF / TWO CONSECUTIVE / MEN’S NICKNAMES? The answer, if you haven’t figured out already with the picture I posted, was London. And just to drive the point home, the answer to 2-Down {Chaney of horror movies} was LON and the symmetrically opposed answer at 57-Down {___ Nelson who on 4/7/10 became the NBA’s all-time coaching leader in victories} was DON. LON + DON. QED, BEQ, PBR me ASAP, etc.
Pretty much everybody got that one right, however, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention two other alternative answers. David Plotkin writes, “my friends Priscilla and Martina reminded me that the capital of Kosovo would be an acceptable answer if a similar riddle was made regarding female nicknames.” Alas, I’m not going to make that puzzle. Now, if I were to award points for dropping super-obscurities, Mike McCormick would win in the meta-meta reference department. He writes, “German footballer Klaus ‘Lis’ Lisiewicz and big-balled singer [AC/DC’s] Ronald ‘Bon’ Scott want a little honorable mention love.” Consider the honorable mention mentioned.
I almost considered running a picture of Bon Scott instead of London, whatever.
So, without further ado, here are your five winners: Bunnee Butterfield, Edward Gurowitz, Rod Odlehoeft, Hollie Schmidt, and Scott Weiss. They’ll get either anything they want from the BEQ.com store, or anything I don’t want from my condo. Congrats to all.
Share the puzzle. Times puzzle later on today. New one on Friday.
Having missed the misdirect of “capital = money” in every one of the last 47 puzzles in which it appeared, I thought I had FINALLY learned my lesson with this one. “Dutch Frank” seemed SO right to me…
Best puzzle title ever.
Loved the reveal. Had NO idea what you were getting at and then BAM! It’s like a joke that’s set up perfectly and timed just right.
why didn’t we use this one at the BCPT?
Got the theme fairly quickly… Nice one: simple, elegant. Actually forgot about title til after puzzle – LOL classic. Bet PULLOUT was a lot easier to fit in the theme than ONANISM. Found top mostly quite easy, bottom a lot tougher… Wish I saw KANJI more often, can’t explain why, but I like it.
Loved the theme.
Didn’t love 40A — “pull out all the stops” is the phrase I;m familiar with, and I hadn’t seen in this form before.
i signed on just to post my appreciation for 40A. didn’t like it when i was filling it in, but payoff was huge!
I was rolling until 48A, I really wanted to put LCDTV in, but I talked myself out of it since LCD was in 31A. I stared at it for like 5 minutes.
Hand up for best punzzle title ever. Very hard for me, needed a couple of googles to finish, but the laughs were worth the effort.
Fav clues were 1A “Maker of a certain hole” and 38D “Throws Scott around”. Non-fav clue was 70A “Broadcast” = STREW. I can’t broadcast rose petals.
@Eric Maddy, I had the same reaction to 40A PULL OUT [ALL] THE STOPS. The phrase comes from organs (of the musical persuasion, excluding skin flutes) which have to have some of their stops pulled out or they don’t make any sound at all.
@BEQ, I think you inadvertently overlooked a theme answer in your write-up. Isn’t 33A ORALS a form of birth control? And the symmetrical 44A ERATO would also have worked if it started with AUTIC, making it another birth control activity.
Kudos for the puzzle title, and also for 60A. An all-time favorite musician of mine and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in an xword before. Same goes for the Zappa references I’ve seen a few times of late. Makes up for any number of tight ends, NL MVPs and rap stars I’ll never recognize.
you can, in fact, broadcast rose petals. it’s more commonly used with seeds, but it means to scatter by hand, which is pretty much exactly what STREW means.
a better objection would have been “i can’t STREW a TV feed.” but the clue and answer don’t have to be equivalent in all senses, just one sense.
i’m not a big fan of some of brendan’s straight-from-the-thesaurus clues (see: “sticks” for TOWN), but this one was just fine.
So, BEQ, I’m still trying to figure out if I did the contest puzzle correctly or not. You disabled the check button and I was never really sure what your Chemistry grade was. Had to be either an “A” or an “F” I figure to go with the “an.” But that crossed A_TS for “Ad Times” and I can’t understand if it’s AATS or AFTS.
Ad Times? Help, please.
Cute theme got the “protectors” but didn’t get the punchline until I got to the boottom. Needed a couple of Googles to finsih the bottom where I had some “mistakes”.
Hi Bob, it’s AFTS. It’s how you’d abbreviate Afternoon in a Want Ad if you were trying to save letters. Kind of antiquated clue in these days of Craigslist. I guess Chemistry wasn’t Brendan’s best subject :-).
Oh, thanks, Al. I see it now. Actually, I was pretty sure Brendan wouldn’t be bragging about his Chem grades in a puzzle and guessed the “F” correctly but just didn’t know why it was right. Sometimes it works that way.
Sometimes the mind gets stuck in the wrong rut.
I had FLEW for 4D (which seemed perfectly good for “Blasted (through)”)
Then I stared for a good 30 sections at the unfortunately result for 4A (FAGGY instead of BAGGY for “Hanging loosely”) until I realized my error.
Jbeck, I’m sure you meant the Brits use of the word fag to mean a cigarette. Hanging loosly from one’s lips. Of course. Honest mistake.
huge props for the LCD soundsystem clue.
Loved the puzzle. It should be posted on the Planned Parenthood web page.
Very enjoyable NYT puzzle. A bit tougher than the usual Wednesday fare.
I started with FLEW at 4D, then realized 4A didn’t work, so changed it to SLEW/SAGGY. Wrong answer.
I had to read 61A about three times to figure out the theme. Kudos.
argh
I got ALL of this puzzle EXCEPT the NE corner. I took out OKIES (which was right) and even had JAPPA in the margin, but tried HAIFA/JAIFA…RUBBER BAND B___S? Boats? Had CHAIN at one point, realized it had to be a plural noun. Finally gave up. Rats! You got me TWICE today, BEQ!
I’m off to plot vengeance.
Finished the puzzle yesterday, but didn’t have time to post a comment on the blog. Absolutely loved the puzzle. LMAO at the “AHA” moment. Like Karen, I had to keep reading 61A, before it helped me finally solve. Got everything right without help for the second puzzle in a row. I won’t say how long it took me though. You’re starting to build my confidence level Brendan. Oops! Better keep my mouth shut. Tomorrow will probably be rated “HARD” with half the clues relating to pop culture.
Today I learned that BRAH means FELLA,and SUNRA at 60A. Also remembered KANJI from another BEQ puzzle, and unbelievably enough, the motto for the USN. I was in the “Silent Service” for 4 years. Our motto was quite different. Lol.
Great puzzle in todays NYT Brendan. Kudos to you and Joon.
I too was stuck on what seemed to be the obvious HAIFA or JAIFA spot for ages. Finally googled. Ack.
Best. Title. Ever.
Hold on, let me check the archives to make sure … yup, best title ever. The puzzle was fun too.
Got a challenge for you…
I know you like to work current events into your puzzles soon after they happen.
How soon until we see “Eyjafjallajokull”?
@PeteRimkus
Aha. My daughter read and reread a children’s book about two children and their ponies, set in Iceland. Said ponies were ‘Hekla’ and ‘Jokull.’
Ah, Iceland. Bring it on!