THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]
Another solid weekend of ACPT-in’ in the books, and as such, there will be some light American Crossword Puzzle Tournament spoilers herein. So if you’d rather not read it, I won’t blame you. Click here to get a copy of the play at home version. All right? Shall we do this? Yeah, let’s do it.
My man Erik Agard, he of the capital B-Boss haircut up above, held the pole position from puzzle one and never relinquished it. I dunno what’s crazier, a sub three two-minute solve on the first puzzle, or the detonation of the finals puzzle in under five. (Watch Ben Zimmer’s video here). The puzzle was basically one nearly impossible corner and the rest was, uh, well, demanding but not nearly as tough. So when Erik got that nearly impossible corner done first (and second and third place finishers Dan Feyer and David Plotkin had none of it), that pretty much solidified the win. Sam Ezersky (the other guy in the picture) made said puzzle, and it was a beauty, no doubt, even if there were some, how shall I put this, wild answers (ATOMIC GAS and GRINNY anyone?) and one First-Ballot Hall-of-Fame Four-Star Garbage clue {Male vocalist who earned a lot of cash in the 1980s} for EDDIE MONEY. But the positives, namely {Railing posts?} for TWEETSTORM and {Fishing rights?} for STARBOARDS, are indisputable. But back to Erik. He’s my friend and I routinely IM him asking if he has three minutes to test solve one of my puzzles. His reply is usually something like “I only need two.” And he’s mostly right, taking about 124 seconds or so to get back to me. It’s wild stuff. But yeah here we are. This is the new bar that must be leaped over. Good luck everybody next year, you’re gonna need it.
So what does the ole’ BEQ do at the ACPT? Well, you know, catch up with everybody in the puzzle family, for sure. But it is a job, and that job entails grading all the contestants papers. If they’re clean, judges don’t do anything. If there are mistakes, you color in squares with markers. I believe the carpal tunnel syndrome that came about after coloring in numerous puzzle number 5 sheets of paper has only finally begun to wear off. Like I always say about judging this weekend: come to inhale marker fumes while coloring in contestant’s papers, stay for the leathery inedible roast beef. Anyway, this year’s 5 will live on in infamy. Basically, that puzzle’s role is to thin the crowd out, this year’s mode by Joel Fagliano crushed people’s will to live. In order to solve the puzzle correctly, if you could swap the two digits in the clue number and that gave you a valid number of an entry, say, change 17-Across to 71-Across and there is in fact a 71-Across, swap the two clues. Brutal. Anyway, maybe like 70-ish contestants finished. That meant a lot lot lot lot lot of puzzles that needed to be colored in to be marked wrong. It was like a forced extended session of kindergarten. Only one laced with profanities.
For my money, the best puzzle of the event was #4 by Damon Gulczynski. A lovely concept of reminding everyone to LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING, not only the road, but also for the puzzle itself. Four ambiguous crossings were in the puzzle, and to clarify which was the correct one you had to make sure one of the directions wasn’t a vehicle of some sorts. A+ concept. A+ execution.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
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