ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
If there are any inspired musician fans of the BEQ.com out there (“Steely” Dan Feyer? Brian Cimmet? Somebody else I’m not thinking of?), I’d really love to have a “Behind the Puzzle” theme song. I’m imagining an unholy combination of the theme from “Entertainment Tonight,” a dash of something funky like “Apache,” and, oh what the hell, a little Captain Beefheart-ish skronk for good measure would be amazing. Get to it, folks. I have faith somebody can pull that off. You guys floored me with the creativity with the R.E.M. puzzle contest. Call this an on-going contest with prize-to-be-determined until we find the “Behind the Music” theme song winner.
Let’s get to the puzzle self-analysis shall we?
I stumbled upon 8-Down recently, and voilà! 15 letters in length means it’s going in a puzzle. Thought about a triple stack, but after a couple two three stabs, nothing fancy was forthcoming. So, it found its home down the middle. The grid’s shape was pretty much dictated quickly thereafter, as I wanted to have four standalone mini-puzzles to allow for four more never-before-seen entries. Only two were able to make it: 1-Down, and 33-Down. For a while, 20-Across was going to be TEABONICS, but the crossings in that 4×6 intersecting a 4×7 corner wouldn’t allow for it to happen. I had already made the SW corner by this point and I guess TEABONICS could have stayed but then I’d have had to add a cheater in square #33. It was a weighing between which new entry was more entertaining, and I went with 33-Down (I’m shocked this guy hasn’t appeared in a puzzle before. As annoying/famous/annoyingly famous as he is). Anyway, the moral, as always: keep it clean.
Cluing felt pretty good. I was in “must emulate the Washington Post mode” whilst cluing, and I hope that it came through all right. Particularly proud of 46-Across, 1- and 9-Down’s clues. So help me God, I hope to never clue 36-Across ever again, but I know that’s an unlikely story. Needless to say, I liked what I came up with.
That’s all I got. Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Uh, what? I had INTERFRIENDT-ON and didn’t know it. TOON? That answer is not approved. First page of searches mentions Lindsay Lohan a lot. Boo.
Enjoyed rest.
FRESNO in the house!
rp
I had TEABAGGER for 20A, which messed up the NE corner for me for awhile. Even when I knew it was wrong I wanted to leave it in anyway.
Nice, reasonably challenging puzzle. Thanks.
Good puzzle!
(I think it’s “interfriendtion”. New word to me, but I kinda get it…)
I would tend to steer clear of anyone who used the word INTERFRIENDTION.
Great puzzle. In my day, dime bags weren’t all that small…usually 1/2 ounce.
I’m with Rick on teabagger. That stopped any footholds in the NE. DNF
friend + intervention = interfriendtion. Is this some kind of new portmanteau word construction? Usually a portmanteau word is formed by combining the first syllables of two words (Brangelina) or the first and last syllables (spork).
Nice! Resorted to guessing to finish the NE — the N of NHRA seemed plausible, but didn’t know SNELLS or LESTOIL, so was left wondering mightily what kind of OIL comes from a LEST, and why it would be suitable for cleaning bathrooms. Eventually the penny dropped…
One question: how is ‘went to heaven’ RISEN? Gone to heaven, yes, but if you say granny went to heaven you would have to say granny is or has risen to the Lord etc. I don’t see how to parse this.
Re 9 Down clue: You’d think after solving elevnty-jillion crosswords, including several jillion by Stan Newman, that I’d be on to entries of that genre. But sadly, you’d be wrong….
The father of 33D is infinitely superior in every way.
Hey Brendan, DIMEBAG is not quite a never-before-seen entry, as Frances Heaney used it in his October 4th, 2006 Onion puzzle. Clued as [Joint purchase?].
Bob
I may be a musician, but in no way “inspired”… my composing skill is dwarfed by my crossword constructing skill, which is nearly nonexistent. I suspect there are plenty of potential theme writers out there!
Never thought teabagger on 20A because BEQ would have clued that fill in a very different way.
Yeah, the clueing on this one rocked. Especially liked 47D “Fender marking” (knowing that you’re a musician helped on that one) and 9D “Start of ‘Civil Disobedience'” (when oh when will I stop getting caught by that type of clue!!).
40A was a stumper. “Picasso? Nah, too long. Ok, Manet or Degas, wait for crosses. WTF?…”
My response to 29A was “Ni-i-i-ice!
Only question I had was an editor sort of furrowed brow at the verb tense in 27D “Went to heaven”. “[She] went to heaven” seems to want “She AROSE”, which I started with. “[She has] gone to heaven” wants “She has ARISEN”. A helping-verb nit, of course, as it was gettable. Just sayin’.
I am expecting VUVUZELAS is the Thursday puzzle. There is no way you let that one slide by without being the 1st!
Too late. Matt Gaffney used “vuvuzela” in his IPhone puzzle today.
Some great clues in there. I find the difficulty of the themeless puzzles correlates very heavily with how well you know those ‘new to puzzles’ long answers. In this one, an 8-Down wouldn’t have helped. Nasty, nasty word there. Plenty of other great stuff to overcome that; drowned my sorrows in 46-Across. Top-right was particularly tough going.
Didn’t know the painter at 40-A, but loved the title of the work.
FYI, Urban Dictionary has a completely different meaning for 8-Down:
When you need to have an intervention with a shitty friend to make them a better one.
“Gary is such a shitty friend. We need to stage an interfriendtion.”
Never heard of 8D, but was pretty inferrable. Liked the clue for 1D too (next time it’s gonna be about Pantera right? 7D was also a nice entry. Lot of “Who?” answers for me, but I’m used to that by now – need to go out and meet more people I guess…
2D: Am I the only one who put OUTORIN down immediately and took it out when it didn’t seem to fit and then didn’t immediately think to just reverse the order??? Headslap. Other amusing mistakes: WAYRAD for OHYEAH and had ?OEBUCK and decided the most likely letter was an “R” which made 33A RAPERS…
Am I the only one who doesn’t recognize who that is holding the Troutmask CD in the pic? A Dixie Chick maybe? Can someone clue me in? One of my all-time favorite LPs. Have to see what I can do on that theme song…
Me too on the SOFT-C thing. Damn, why does that one *always* get me!
@DrBB, thanks. I figured I was the only one who didn’t recognize the Trout Mask Replica CD that Paris Hilton is holding.
A fine tough but doable puzzle. Liked the cluing but had the same problem that others had with RISEN. Plus, don’t we usually get a “?” with stuff like 9d?? Just sayin…