ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
At the ACPT two weekends ago, a reader of the blog came up to me and said that his coworkers routinely solve the Themless Monday puzzles using only the Down clues. He told me that they tend to get the shorter answers first, which are usually standard crossword answers, and then play Hangman to guess the Across entries. Since the theme of the ACPT was all about speed solving, I was half-expecting to hear they blast through it, but (whew/surprise) it takes them a while.
Nevertheless, I was pretty blown away by this feat. I mean, I try to make these a bit on the challenging side, not only in terms of cluing but also by using words/phrases that you are pretty much guaranteed not to see elsewhere. So I decided to be a bit of a troublemaker for this one and make their lives a living hell this week. Since it’s harder for them to break into the puzzles with long answers, I flipped the grid so all the long entries go down, and all the short entries go across.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
19A kept me from getting anything done up top…but the rest of it was tasty…
But the longest Down answers are easy! One of your easiest themelesses to date, too.
Couldn’t finish. Easy everywhere but upper middle. No hope. Never heard of: IRAIL, NIC, AMY, REIGN IN BLOOD, BANBURY, don’t know why OXEN are ex-bulls … completely different puzzle from the rest of it.
What Rex said about upper middle and, for me, the NE as well. (Rondeau!) Should have had that one. Might have been the entry I needed.
I finished with help from every possible available direction, including randomly putting in letters and then using “check.” How can I learn about the music you love to use without listening to it or reading about it??
28A and 29A are just wonderful. Still trying to guess the 19A/20D crossing.
I’m with Rex.
Felt pretty good about myself until crashing in the upper middle (and I even had AMY Ryan to help.
What didn’t help is that GREENALE and IRISHALE share that pesky R from RANSOMNOTE. Especially since I was convinced that a GROIN could be the part of the track that gets laid down (although I was pretty sure that BEQ would find a cleverer way to clue GROIN if that had been the entry…)
Thank you for introducing me to 1D!
First one I put in was 19A! So glad I was right. Got started with that and 2D, but it still took me a while (didn’t help I had to stop a few hours in between).
To Rex’s unanswered OXEN question, I add why does Pitchy=JET.
BTW, I think one of the most helpful aspects of these blogs is to get an explanation of a clue/answer, even if there is is a high “doh!” factor in the results.
Pitch and jet refer to coal. 🙂
I don’t get the OXEN = {Ex-bulls?} clue, though. 🙁
Couldn’t finish the top-middle here. Nothing I could possibly get, including 19-A, unfortunately. Didn’t know Gary Glitter’s town, fortunately. The rest was a blank mess of ungettables. Loved the rest, but nothing more I could do here. Didn’t know AMY Ryan.
16 blanks for a new epic fail record. You win this time, BEQ! 🙂
1-down, love it!
another great puzzle.
Re ex-bulls, think castration and geldings. That one took me a while, as did the JET/pitchy black.
I hit Rex’s trouble spots also. Ended up with the town of Banfurd.
A minor got me for a minute or five. Also you can’t lose with Slayer’s best-known album and Ransom note. You may not solve but you can’t lose. Well worth the wait.
DNF for me too. Upper middle also got me. Plus I’ve never heard of a SPORCLEQUIZ. Going to google it now.
Also oloroso is not really rojo, or at least, none that I’ve ever had. They’re a little more moreno.
SLAYER! \m/ \m/