THEMLESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]
PROGRAM: [Java]
Probably my favorite moment while solving puzzles is the exact second when I think “No way! There’s No Way this puzzle can be solved.” Sometimes it happens midway through a quick cursory look at the grid, after say a handful of “gimmes” are entered into the grid, and that’s it. Sometimes, when solving a variety cryptic, I hit the “No way!” moment immediately after reading the instructions. No matter how you get to it, you’re usually met with a massive swatch of daunting white space, with no hope of ever filling it in. It’s my favorite moment because, if it’s a well-designed puzzle, there is a way to get through that wall, up that hill, and round that curve. And there’s nothing more satisfying than that journey from “impossible” to possible.
Today’s puzzle is pretty wide open (62 words), with a couple fun misdirections in the clues alongside some fun trivia. In short, like almost all the other Themeless Mondays, only a little more wide open. Hope you enjoy it.
Who’s up for my latest WSJ puzzle? It’s co-written by Narayan Venkatasubramanyan, and that made our by-line two lines long! Damn. Click here to do it.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Great puzzle. Lots of false starts and tricky clues. For a change, the longer ones broke things open and the shorter ones followed. 29A was a big help, although now I’ve got the thing trapped inside my head.
Too hard with too much esoteria.
Anthem for 13A crossing Annan. Feat for 8D. Ouchouch for 10D. Monitors for 28D.
That pretty much made the north impossible. Got most of the south, so my ego is only half destroyed.
New to this site and finding it fantastic. Have done all the easies and some of the mediums. Maybe after finishing the hards I’ll be ready for another beast like this one.
Hand up for Anthem…first BEQ DNF in a while so yeah, really hard.
Pretty much impossible.
Spoiler alert…
I did OK for a BEQ Hard, but I take issue with a couple of things: Boil over = agitate?
Foxy = sapient? You’re usually better than that.
Maybe when you feel good about thinking that nobody can solve a puzzle, it’s because it’s poorly clued.
I’ve never called (or heard anyone else call) 26 Down what you call it. Is that really a thing?
Topham –
This was definitely a thing in my younger days of going to movies in theaters and I remember my parents always talking about getting them when they were little and went to the movies a lot. I don’t know if they are still around, but at one time, at least, they were widely available.
http://www.thedarkslayer.net/2010/02/jujyfruits-ultimate-movie-candy.html
Too many mistakes (Annan/anthem, pvt, tinged) plus too many names, titles, or other things I didn’t know resulted in a major DNF – had only the SE quadrant and a few adjacent entries solidly filled in. Liked getting JUJYFRUITS.