PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ FROM A TO Z]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I love, love, love Thanksgiving. Who can hate a holiday built around eating? Throw in the four-day weekend. Big thumbs, way up. On the docket: lunch with the folks, watching the Patriots hopefully dismantle the Lions, then dessert with Liz’s family in the North shore. Good times. The over/under for slices of pecan pie that BEQ will be consuming today: 2.5 Take the over.
Got two puzzle-related books that I plan to finish this break, and now seems like as good a time as any to mention them. First up: David Astle’s “Puzzled,” a sort of memoir/puzzle book/introduction to cryptics from the Australian setter known as DA. Just throwing out there, “setter” is to Australia, as “constructor” is to the US, as “cruciverbalist” is to elitist assholes. Anyway, what I’ve read so far, it’s pretty damned funny. Like, I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only who forced his family to solve his puzzles as David freely admits he did the same when he was little. So, the book is set up as a walk-through of one (I’m guessing) medium level cryptic. Each chapter is built around a specific clue in the puzzle, how to solve it, and then framed by anecdotes loosely tied to the clue. He’s done a massive amount of research on the topic of puzzles. Deep histories of puzzles on three continents. A cursory flip through the book confirms he got just about everybody who’s anybody in the US puzzle biz. Muy impressive. I know what you’re saying, “Quigley, get to the point: are you in it?” As far as I can tell, only once, a brief passing notice that I was supposedly involved with Games Magazine back in the day. Believe me, that was news to me, too. Anyway, interested parties should get a copy here.
While my unconditional love for Thomas Snyder’s sudoku puzzles has been well–documented on this site, I wasn’t expecting to go cuckoo bananas over his KenKen puzzles. Well, I did. “TomTom” is Thomas’s tongue firmly implanted in cheek/post-modernist deconstruction of KenKen. No, deconstruction is too kind a word. He eviscerates them. I realize that such a tiny portion of you are interested in sudoku, and even a smaller percentage are interested in KenKen, TomTom, or whatever men’s name you wish to double and call it a puzzle. So I’ll keep this unbelievably brief and say that Thomas took the half-baked KenKen form and extended it in that hybrid gonzo style that is his own and in the process made these puzzles feel like you’re doing something other than just arithmetic homework. If you’re intrigued, I’d suggest going here first to see Thomas’s convincing arguments that KenKens are unrealized. Then, hop over here to get the “TomTom” book. Amazing stuff.
Share the puzzle. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. New ones (yes, ones plural) on Monday.
UPDATE: I wrote Today’s Visual Thesaurus. Go get it. Also, I wrote today’s Wall Street Journal. Here tis: [Across Lite] [PDF]
Easy, Fun. Although … I have HEARTY and BRAWNY in my grid. Are they right? I couldn’t figure out a good answer for [Zesty]. But I’m so distracted by Kanye’s new album (spinning now) that I might be missing something obvious.
Thanks for the puzzle,
rp
Brendan: We all have you on our lists of what to be thankful for on this special day. I hope you and your family enjoy yourselves immensely. Be careful not to overeat but drink all you want. You deserve it.
BEQ is open on a National Holiday! Great, looking forward to the puzzle.
Mostly easyish, except I couldn’t guess the name of the movie, and googling confirms that I’ve never heard of it. I guess I’ll need an extra drink or two this afternoon to get over the shame and disappointment. Happy over-indulgence day to all!
Happy Thanksgiving BEQ. Pretty easy for me also. Ditto with BRAWNY and HEARTY, which seem right.
how do I use the check or reveal latter function? When I click it, the screen blanks out, and then the puzzle reappears with no letters. Thank you.
Michael
I’ve always had the same problem. Instead, try opening AcrossLite, go to wherever you want to check in the grid, and type in your answer/guess, or use Reveal. I have to use this strategy more than I’d like, but BEQ is so current and so weighted in areas outside my wheelhouse, that I seldom finish one of his puzzles. Still, his interesting clues make it worthwhile.
What kind of donut did George Washington throw across the Potomac?
Michael,
Unfortunately, the image of this puzzle and associated buttons link only to a PDF of the unsolved puzzle. This is unfortunate because I have no idea about the washing machine or a 2-word synonym for “Quite.”
Maybe some day a solution will be published. Until then, (sigh.)