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CROSSWORD #250

Posted on by Brendan Quigley

ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY] 
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]


PROGRAM: [Java]

PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]

PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]


Very abbreviated post today.

First things first, whilst reading the comments on Peter Gordon’s latest Fireball Crossword on Amy Reynaldo’s blog last Thursday, I was struck by “Steely” Dan Feyer’s observation:


I wonder why we don’t see this freestyle grid design (four stacks of 7s, two marquee answers connected by a central Down) outside of Peter’s Fireballs… he sure makes it work well.

To my beloved audience, I offer my humble attempt at said grid, above. Enjoy. And if you haven’t already, I strongly urge you to check out Peter’s site.

Speaking of going to other sites, Pat Blindauer, (also known as: Blindy, The Peeb, That Guy From “Strangers With Candy,” The Smoke Monster, to name a few. Kid’s got more nicknames than I do, and that’s saying something) has launched a puzzle website, so I strongly urge you all to check that one out, too. Just throwing it out there: I co-authored the puzzle with Pat that had the ELP clue that elicits untold amounts of vitriol from otherwise normal people, like my mortal enemy (ahem, Jared Hersh). Now that Pat’s on-line, feel free to call him a jerk, too.

Finally, thanks to all who were able to tip. This month’s randomly selected winner is David Broad of New York City.

Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.

13 thoughts on “CROSSWORD #250”

  1. Very enjoyable solve, though I’d consider it a medium. Nice dual shout-out to bands from the late 80’s/early 90’s. My favorite was 27A which I had to think about even after I got it on the crosses. One quibble – because I always have one – Bizarro World is where things are opposite to Earth, not just a little off.

  2. It is great to see your name in all the puzzle places!! You always have that certain something — a twist — a slant — it’s whacky!

  3. Nice! I opened it up and said, “Hey, that’s a Fireball grid.” Enjoyed this one even if it wasn’t quite Hard. (And nobody answered my question… does this look too much like a themed puzzle even though it’s 72 words?)

  4. Corinne was a singer too far, for me, so I Googled. Once I got rid of the answers that fit nicely in every sense, except that they were wrong, this went in nicely. A lot of great clues. Lego dioramas about the Bible, eh?

  6. Definitely on the Medium side for me. Don’t get 27A – maybe glad I don’t. What’s with you and sternums lately? I know, you’re going to say the Sunday NYT was submitted long ago. (Cue the Larry David questioning stare.)

  7. Looking for another Linux distribution for 11d. “Red Hat” put me squarely in the world of Linux which I finally had to leave. A less devious clue would have been “Linux alternative”. Another devious clue was “Non contrary”. Since contrary is English, I wasn’t looking for a French word. Would “Non contraire” have been too easy?
    Overall this was a Medium for me.

  8. Knowing too much about the Linux biz was a liability for me on 11D. Did anyone else have WIND RIVER? That slowed me down for a while. That was made up for by the fact that I attended the game referenced in 5D :-)!

  9. Yes, I thought WIND RIVER crossing ROUX, but I didn’t write it down. US TEN and TIES TO cleared up that part. Last to go was the LEGO/SEGO crossing. But completed in good time with no Googles, so pretty good for a BEQ “hard.”

  10. I was staring at WINDOW_NT for a while, wondering if there really were a Window Ant. Finally parsed the Non clue correctly.
    Also, never heard of Texas Leaguer before.
    Parts were easy (NW and central), parts were quite hard.

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