ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS FRIDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS FRIDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I’m debuting a new feature on ole’ Brendan Emmett Quigley dot com today. Every now and again on Fridays I’ll be featuring guest puzzles by my friends in the crossword community. I’m psyched to start this feature off right with one from David Quarfoot. He sent me this baby recently, and my jaw fell on the floor. What a killer puzzle. Seriously; this one’s a gem. It’s got all the hallmarks of a DQ puzzle, chock-a-block with capital F Fresh fill. And when I say Fresh, we’re talking every damnfool area has something so nasty, so obvious, you wonder why it hadn’t been done in a puzzle before. And those clues are tough-as-nails, yet completely fair. Phew. Bonus points for hiding his name in there, too.
And when I rank it Hard, I really mean it.
Anyway, it turns out, David’s my new neighbor. He’s just wrapped up a stint out west studying math. “Mostly abstract algebra, real/complex analysis, and elliptic curves,” he tells me, as if I’m supposed to know what any of that means. Sure, I read books about math written for the math-illiterate like me, but that doesn’t mean I understand any of them. Whatever, that’s him up above with his dog Roxie. Let’s do this interview:
BEQ: What have you been up to lately?
David: For the past two years I’ve been working on my masters in pure math at the University of Utah in Salt Lake. This is one reason I haven’t produced much lately – well, that and I’m finally focusing on having a social life. In August I moved to Boston to work at my dream school: Roxbury Latin, so this keeps me pretty busy now.
BEQ: Is there any link between puzzling and teaching?
David: To do either well requires a from-the-gut love of knowledge.
BEQ: You’re predominantly a themeless guy, what’s up with that?
David: I’m sure I would have little trouble reproducing one of the fifty or so regularly occurring themes in the New York Times (i.e. one phrase that means three different themes or the ban/ben/bin/bon/bun idea), but these don’t excite me. If I ever think of something that’s never been done before, then I do it (like my empty square rebus from years ago). I feel like 95% of themed puzzles are rehashes, which I refuse to do, so you should expect me to do these very rarely.
BEQ: What’s the problem with crosswords nowadays?
David: The biggest problem in themed puzzles is boring reuse of the same tired ideas. In themeless puzzles, it is the obsession with low word-count grids and stacks of 15-letter entries. These Always Lead To Boring Phrases And Disgusting Crosses. I don’t know how many more overly inflected white square chunks (-ER, -ERS, -ANT, -ING, RE-, etc.) I can take. I simply won’t solve the puzzles of certain constructors anymore.
BEQ: How’d you get started making puzzles?
David: In college, a roommate and I started solving the NYT as much as we could. After a few years, I had done enough puzzles to see the same themes recur, and one day as a senior, frustrated by yet another cookie-cutter puzzle, I decided I could make one better. My first theme was very strange and too academic to ever be accepted: extending classical composers last names to create wacky anti-musical ideas. The only theme entry I can recall is RACHMANINOFFKEY.
BEQ: I remember years ago when we made a puzzle for the Times, you were hell bent on putting in NHL DRAFT. It didn’t make the cut. Like there’s anybody who cares about hockey. I guess you do, so: who’s winning the Stanley Cup?
David: The Bruins. To say otherwise is sacrilege.
…not if Scottie Walker sucker-punches your season again.
As lame as this compliment is, I do really like the grid layout here, with the longest entries starting and ending in the two corners. Nice fill too.
Sterling. It was challenging but not brutal because virtually everything was, you know, an actual WORD. I got all the crosses I needed for ITASCA (I needed them all) and sort of guessed the final E in OESTE/ANNLEE. I still kinda don’t get Hoy – a place? – but figured that it had to be some form of “east”.
I absolutely agree with DQs opinion of themes. Every now and then there is one with amusing puns (RACHMANIOFFKEY made me laugh) but by and large I feel that the fill suffers from having to work around theme clues that are not worth the sacrifice.
Crosswords seem to be like a drug that once addicted you need stronger and stronger puzzles. This was a very strong puzzle indeed!
The way I do many themed puzzles now is to get the theme entries and not bother with the rest.
great stuff. lots of fresh long fill. EAST, OESTE, and CENTRAL all there, though not arranged geographically.
only clue i didn’t like: 19a. “illegal” as a noun is pretty 56d.
also, welcome (back) to town! looking forward to meeting you.
incredible. loved WASABIPEA, IMAGINEER, and SAYSYESTO, the last because though the letters themselves aren’t that interesting, the S YSY S chunk is strangely beautiful.
Only quarrel–should the clue for 59-across be “Tigers’ Place,” plural?
BRUTAL and awesome. NW and SE corners are just terrific.
More please!
Wow, what a pleasant surprise! Many thanks to Quigley and Quarfoot! (sounds like Harry Potter’s accounting firm.)
The long stacks with no crappy downs is a revelation.
I really really wanted 10A to be PORNS, but the real answer wasn’t quite as funny.
I whipped through it except the NW corner. 15A took me forever because I was stuck on the generic term for a Disney employee, which is, of course, too long. But once I took a stab at 1D, I pulled through.
Lots of good fill there. I quite like 43A, which made me doubt my checks for a second before I got it.
Great stuff, always love a puzzle that when you look at it after its filled, you go why was that so hard?
Great stuff! Clever and tricky, but not downright abusive.
Props to BEQ for starting this awesome idea. Hope the puzzle brought many happiness. That’s what this is all about.
DJQ
Imagine my surprise at seeing a new puzzle on a Friday. This was fun. Not as hard as some of BEQ’s hards(meaning I finished it without help). Started with COOPS for the place with layers and COLFAX down for the VP. As usual for me the 52A SILENT B construction was the last to go in–once I tried SNOT instead of SNOB. Thanks DJQ for a fresh look.
Did you submit a version with “NHL Draft” and Will Shortz changed it to “NFL Draft”? If so, I would love to see the original version.
big thumbs up over here. david: i’ve been a fan since the esopus article and am glad to see another puzzle by you.
Great puzzle! Thanks DQ, I hope to see more like this one.
10:28–really nice stuff here.