ACCENT WALLS: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]
Another puzzle theme ripped from real life. For you see, I was given the (unenviable) task of repainting Tabitha’s room the other day and it was during that job that I got the inspiration for today’s puzzle. And no, that’s not her bedroom up above, thanks for asking. I would have run a picture of her room, but it’s not finished yet; we’re still waiting on some new furniture. And well, the color is something, let me tell you.
Okay, fine, let me tell you. So, when you ask a four and a half year old what her favorite color is, you get the answers: purple and pink. All right. If both colors have to be represented, it looks like we’re going to have to have one accent wall. So, off to Home Depot to get the paint. And sure as shooting, the two hues she chose are so freaking similar, it’s hard to really tell them apart. The only thing you really need to know is both the purple and the pink are so freaking loud, bright, and practically the same color. I got a headache doing it, as I thought I was lost in some nightmare ’80s technicolor horror show while applying the paint. Regardless, she loves it, and well, if it’s her choice, who’m I to judge, really.
So, thanks again, Tabitha, for inspiring me to make a puzzle.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
Good one. Accent walls are hard.
I can’t find a way to insert accented letters in Across Lite, so had to use the reveal. The letter crossing 21D and 37A came out wrong. It should be an acute accent, not a circumflex.
Oh, and the clue for 36A was a killer. Had “toke” at first.
One more thing. At the same time Tabitha was providing inspiration, the French Academy might also have been doing so by mandating changes in orthography – notably the removal of the circumflex over the letters I and U. Tearing down walls, so to speak.
The clue for 27A should be plural.
Why would it not accept É as correct? I do not know how to get the other accents, so I can’t tell if they would be accepted. I tried copy and paste, but that did not work either.
I see that the accented letters occur at a spot where the three strange down entries break between the first word and the second word (pain/ennui; doe/ATM, ague/naps. But, is there any other idea in play about these down entries that they all share in common?
@Jack F., the accents are providing “walls” between two plausible answers for the clues, thus conforming to the title “Accent Walls”.
As previously noted, the clue for 27A should have been the plural “Hurricane aficionados”.
The answer for 37A is wrong in Across Lite, insofar as the E should be acute É not circumflex Ê.
To type the capital letters required by the puzzle in Windows, the following keystrokes work:
Ä alt-0196
Ê alt-0202 (although this should have been É alt-0201)
Ñ alt-0209
Was able to solve (except across light doesn’t like accents) without getting the hook but now that I read all your comments. ooooooohhhhhhh The light went on.
Solved without the accents, but now that I read the comments and understand the cleverness of the construction I’m duly impressed.
I have a corrupted download into my Crosswords app on the iPhone. I thus cannot determine if some of my answers are correct or not, although I am being as creative as I can muster. I was hoping to be able to see a solution here, as I couldn’t get the app to register “BRO” as a correct 57D.