CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE:
[ IN LOVING MEMORY]
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ IN LOVING MEMORY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ IN LOVING MEMORY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
Masses will be held for the late great 20-Across on Saturday at 9:00.
Spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, or the church of your choice.
New puzzle on Monday.
Let us also kill off the following: Elo, Ese, IRS, Awe, Ene, Ere, Ajar, Eno, Ono, Erin, SSN, IRA, Ewe, Olla, Stat, AWOL, (A)Eon, Ale, Ell, Ire, TSE, Ore, Ess, Asti, Eton, Ole, Eve, Alas, Este, Ogre, Aloe, Roe, Inre, Stet, Ova, Alou, Eli, DDE, Erat, Aron, Ella, Ave, Tee, Noah, Erie, Rah, Ago, Ion, Eden, Est, Aerie, Int, Essene, Ness, Caen, Aver, Oar, Ile, Era, Etta, Esai, Ade, Esau, Ene, St.Lo, Abe, Ern(e) Aar(e), Essen, RUR, Ebb, RBI, NRA, Etc. Et alia, (them too). All CrosswordESE. Many are monopolized answers. Nice knowing you. Now Go RIP.
Will the mass be in the apse or the nave? I hope the priest wears an alb.
That said, I might also mention that I am enjoying working my way through David Kahn’s “The Grim Reaper”, a collection of crosswords about dead people.
Oh SNAP!
Based on the title and post, I was expecting this to be a puzzle about Qwikster…
Oh man. I had no idea about the “Grid Reaper.”
David! Come back to the fold. You make amazing puzzles. All will be forgiven.
At least it wasn’t another Steve Jobs 20-Across. Having made a few of them for my state-themed books, I can’t say that I want them to disappear forever. But they serve more for filler than anything else. Like Kahn’s tributes teach us, you can do a tribute well by incorporating a trademark of said person into the theme (the Hirshfeld NINA puzzle is an obvious example). Straight-forward tributes should be discouraged, however, for the reasons you give in this puzzle. Good work.
Cross-posting from CrosswordFiend…
To: Matt G.
Re: BEQ
“Commemorative fact-finder” is, I admit, a clunkier term than “tribute puzzle,” but I suspect it’s more accurate and useful in a serious critical discussion. Surely there’s nothing wrong with an imaginative puzzle that just happens to use a current event (even a sad one) as a jumping-off point. Matt Gaffney’s Steve Jobs tribute puzzle had a solid wordplay theme that just happened to use familiar words from Jobs’ life as the connecting thread (I, SAFARI, MAC, STEVE, JOBS and APPLE). That would be just a timely camouflage, as far as I’m concerned.
What I think you’re actually bemoaning is a commemorative fact-finder, a puzzle that uses no wordplay spark for its theme, only trivia questions about something timely. That’s a narrower focus that’s extremely difficult to represent in an orderly fashion. Kevin Der’s Steve Jobs tribute fits that genre.
Apparently this thing strips out my links, and I forgot to edit away “To Matt Gaffney” at the top of this post. Oh, well. Brendan, if you get a moment between diaper changes, I’d love to get your read on http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2010/12/23/the-commemorative-fact-finder/ as related to this critique.
Har. A tribute puz to the tribute puz. Mobius strip-iness! Thumbs up, dude. Does this mean no trib puz from the Quigster, when I pass? 🙁
Fave clue: Hard to single out, here. But, I’ll go with: “Apple on iTunes”. Shout out to joon “the dood” pakh was primo, tho.
Fave fill: BEARCUB, ENDUE(?), the REFI/HIFI twins.
Whooops! PAHK. Dood!