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CROSSWORD #517: Themeless Monday

Posted on by Brendan Quigley

THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF] 
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]


PROGRAM: [Java]

On the same day that the Academy gives out its Oscars for (ahem) excellence in movies, the folks over at “Diary of a Crossword Fiend” give out their Orcas to acknowledge the best in puzzling. Get it? ORCAS anagrams to OSCAR. Pretty clever, huh? Anyway, all the obvious candidates were given awards. Best Crossword went to Ben Tausig. Merl Reagle nabbed Best Sunday-sized Crossword. So, imagine my surprise when I read that I was the winner of the Best Freestyle Crossword. I was shocked, truly. Even though the awards were announced at noon, I felt it wasn’t too early to pop open a bottle of bubbly. So, captured for all to see, here I am seconds before the celebration began (roughly 12:15-ish Sunday afternoon).

For those who might like to do this award winning puzzle, here ya go. And for those missed my acceptance speech, the full transcription is here:

Wow. This is an honor. “Best Freestyle Crossword.” This is going to look great on Tabitha’s changing table. You know, it’s funny, when I started off, puzzles without themes were called “Themelesses.” But now Matt Gaffney, who I liberally ripped off when I began making puzzles, has been spearheading the movement to call them “Freestyles.” Nice bit of symmetry there.

Okay, I’d like to thank my test solvers Nancy Schuster, Tyler Hinman and Joon Pahk. I’d like to thank Amy Reynaldo who also gave some last-minute notes on this puzzle before it went live. I’d like to thank two of the Crossword Jesuses: Frank Longo and Patrick Berry who listen to many of my half-baked clues before I put them in the crosswords. Ditto to Francis Heaney. I’d like to, uh, thank my lawyer Don Bixtler. My life coach Gil Falcone. Everybody who ever went to BEQ.com. And to my girls, Liz and Tabitha, you’re the reason I get up every morning and the reason the sun shines so brightly. I love you.

Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.

P.S.Who’s up for the latest Bawdy Crossword?

11 thoughts on “CROSSWORD #517: Themeless Monday”

  2. Your award notwithstanding, there is a common theme in that all your puzzles are a joy to solve. Congratulations.

  3. Hey, your SMILE is missing! Congrats–I remember that puzzle (because of the cute Tabitha picture), and it WAS super.
    And it’s time for a Tabitha update plus a shot of her first taste of champagne, right?

  4. For this 2/25/13 BEQ, I thot 53A was ERINGRAY (wonder what she’s doing now). 55A was THEFBOMB, obviously. Same with 46A, OVINE and 36A, CASES. 44D was RESOD. Clues I have to think slightly different on are 52A, 54A, 3D, 4D, 7D, 13D, and 29D. Best clues were 35A, 43A, 14D, and 34D. I don’t get 26A. Naturally this was a very difficult puzzle to proceed on.

  5. Re the Bawdy. The Directions: I just happened to glance at the directions after doing the XWP and I noticed “Bawdy Crosswords come in 3 different flavors. 1st should be easiest.” I got upset cuzz I want to do the most difficult version, but then I release what they were talking about. This BAWDYXWP starts off easily then I run into probs, esp. with the SQPDL slots (the longest words in the grid). 33D is the best clue. 60A A Sug: “SLIM CHANCE” would be another great misleading clue. 44A For this significantly overused name, a sug: This musician’s middle name was____ _____ ____ ____ ___ ____. I can’t remember what it was, so you have to look in up on WIKIPEDIA. 15D: Thot this was ITSASMALLWORLD. Then ITSABRANDNEWWORLD. I don’t know anything about recent Disney. 37A Thot this was SILOED. This is just as good but won’t help with with the third SQPDL. I spent 5 or 6 minutes on that one and finally got it.

  8. Well-deserved prize. Also, just to let you know: I’ve been working my way through the Sex, Drugs,… book and liking it a lot. “Dance Dance Revolution” was preposterous and fun.

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