ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ YOU’RE SOLVING … WITH WHAT?]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ YOU’RE SOLVING … WITH WHAT?]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
SPOILER ALERT: As the title of the posts says, I will be talking about some of the puzzles for this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. So, if you were planning on solving them, please consider going here to order them. Only $20. Totally worth your time and money.
You can also read my other write up at the Visual Thesaurus here and here.
I should also mention today’s puzzle was Puzzle #5 in the 2010 ACPT. So for those who did last year’s batch, it’s a rerun. For those who have never competed, this should give you a sense of how tough the “bitch mother” puzzles are. That is to say the ones that separate the contenders from the pretenders.
Now, onto the recap.
I am still exhausted and more than a little bit puzzled-out after another stellar ACPT weekend. Even though I retired from the competition end of things, it’s still an all-puzzles (that’s either talking or solving) getting no sleep ultramarathon for me. Well, duh. Where else am I going to dork out about puzzles? So yeah, right now I feel a as bad as Charlie Sheen looks. Bi-un-winning.
Speaking of bi-winning, “Steely” Dan Feyer won his first back-to-back ACPT. Just going to throw it out there folks: he looks unbeatable. It’s scary because Tyler Hinman looked unbeatable for a long time, and the beast that finally beat him is “Steely.” I cannot imagine what the person who will eventually beat Dan will look like. Cuz right now it looks like the only way it’s happening is (a) someone is going to have to take on an even more insane training regimen, say solving something like 60,000 puzzles a year or (b) assassination. Though I’m pretty sure Feyer would win even if he took a bullet and started bleeding all over the place Mr. Orange in “Reservoir Dogs”-style. He’s that good.
Puzzle of the Tournament, IMHO, was #5. Surprise, it was by Mike Shenk, one of the Crossword Jesuses. “Crossover Hits” was a stellar test not only in the theme department: eight songs whose titles literally crossed over a black square and into either the previous or next consecutive answer. But also the cluing was insane. Mike told me the version he sent to Will Shortz was intentionally too hard and that Will would dial it back to what was ACPT-appropriate. Very little was changed. So clues were so unhelpful and trivia-laden that solvers essentially had to guess which tired proper noun that usually appears in crosswords went with which new never-before-seen clues. A crazy solve.
Close second was Ashish Vengsarkar and Narayan Venkatasubramanyan’s 21x: “Kangaroo Phrases.” I’m not a big fan of puzzles with circles in them, but I’ll take this one. The eight themed clues were essentially blank as the the circled letters was the “answer” to clue that was the longer answer. Ashish told me that Narayan’s last name contains his first and that was the impetus behind the puzzle. While I’m talking about Ashish, while were out pulling pints with “Miracle” Matt Gaffney, Ashish casually dropped when he was a teenager he played World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand to a draw (to be fair Vishy was a teenager too). Why I didn’t know about this mind-scrambling fact until this past weekend is a mystery to me. If that were me, I’d put that on my business card.
As always the big joy of the ACPT is seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I’ll throw out one: Andrew Ries of St. Cloud, MN. Andrew’s been doing some quite impressive Patrick Berry-inspired Rows Gardens on his own site, so if you’re not already going to it, I suggest you do.
Also, thanks to all who came over and said how much you like the site. And if there are any photographs that are worth sharing (more than a few were ruined by my uncanny knack for looking very uncomfortable in every photograph), please send them on.
Now, back to bed. Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday. Though don’t quote me on that. I might do a rerun.
Thanks for an old nemesis!
PIE? Sales Pitch? Nevermind. Just got it.
PIE was one of the ‘beatdown’ answer and clue last year – it took down several competitors. So if anyone struggles with that, do not feel bad.
BEQ, great to hang with you and the rest of the puzzle peoples again. I miss it already.
how awesome would it have been to have veNkAtasubRAmanYAN as one of the theme answers?!? insane and yet totally fair, what with his name being right there at the top of the page.
I thought I was just having a bad morning. When I finally read the post about it being a “bitch mother”, I felt better.
the thing that i will remember most, probably, about this year’s ACPT was roberta strauss catching my eye and her saying “you’re the guy who had the nightmare!” BEQ, you have made me famous! I am willing to give signed pics if you are interested…
Had Buck EWING at 23-Across for way too long. Was he a real ballplayer or did I imagine his existence for 20 minutes?
This guy!
Nice puzzle! It separated me neatly, right into the pretenders category, though.
actually i was tempted to suggest that we do that and clue it as “LOOK UP … for the theme” but a few things got in the way:
1. that would have been the height of conceit.
2. to be honest, i merely ride ashish’s coat-tails — he does all the hard work.
3. we thought this puzzle would go into the times. i’ve noticed that, although the names of the constructors appear in the times, other papers that carry the same crossword — the herald tribune, for one — don’t give the constructors the same level of recognition. (on my recent visit to china, i noticed that the “china daily” didn’t have even will’s name above the grid!) imagine the reaction of those solvers to the clue: “up? where? what the ….?!”
i saved the best reason for the last: ashish’s “cirCLed sqUarES” was a beauty!
I was one of the few who got lucky on this one. When I tell people how it’s the clues, not the words, that make a puzzle hard, I have actually used “Dessert with a crust (3)” vs “Kind of chart (3)” vs “Sales pitch? (3)” as an example. I saw the clue on one of Stan Newman’s old UltraHard Crossword books years ago and always remembered it.
Now, I wasn’t as lucky as Doug and Sam and Amy, who had lunch at a restaurant where the recipe to the Brooklyn egg cream was printed on the glass, but I still felt lucky about Sales Pitch.
Well, that last answer was one that I especially enjoyed, as its meta-reference wonderfully tied everything up. Thank you Narayan and Ashish, for both of your contributions. Hopefully one day we can thank you in person for it (I was able to thank Ashish for both of you, by proxy).
More on puzzle #7:
The name was the inspiration, but Narayan’s seed entry was:
mAHatma gandhI’s MeSsAge (21)
which Will rightly thought would be obscure to the solving majority, but that inspired answer got us going on the other theme entries.
Ben Zimmer pointed us to several past write-ups on “Kangaroo Words”, which led to our title, and the shout-out to him at 1-Across!
Also agree that the #5 from Shenk was a beaut – definitely the best of the tournament. Amazing that he found those perfectly matched entries to crossover!
I opened the puzzle before reading what it was but recognized it from the rains, which was my last fill last year.
Pat – That was very nice of you to say. It was good to talk with you. And to Greg (if you are out there), get from BWI to LGA next year. Same spot. I’ll bring the Snickers.
is it sad that i did this puzzle last year and STILL am stuck on the theme…
I thought Puzzle 7 was brilliant. The one from Marquis de Shenk was a bit much for me.
Overall, it was a great experience. Looking forward to next year.
This theme is genius. Love it.