CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
We had a gift from the crossword and comedy gods this past Thursday: noted athlete/bozo Ron Artest applied to legally change his name.
Why is this significant from a crossword standpoint? His new name is 15 letters! And of course you knew that I had to debut it at 8-Down today. (You can thank me for those free 15 letters later.) But even more importantly, Ron-Ron’s new first name (the first 5-letters) is the gift that keeps on giving. All are common letters. All are fluid letters. That is to say, they are beyond perfect for puzzles! Expect to see this one in crosswordese forever and ever (Amen).
I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about this.
Changing gears here for a minute: this is the last week that you can get the bonus 21x themeless. So if you’ve been dragging your feet on this one, you’ve got until the end of the day Thursday and then it’s gone forever. Huge thanks to all who’ve picked it up already, and doubly huge thanks to all who e-mailed me either their solving times and/or their experiences with solving it. Also, huge thanks to all who sent a brief note along with the PayPal payment. All of these have meant a lot to me. Lastly, thanks to Matt Gaffney who plugged this bonus themeless on his website. Matt’s giving away a copy this week and next, so I guess that’s the other way to get a copy. But I digress. Read more about it here. Act now or live with regrets for the rest of your life.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
The 13-Down clue is wrong as it refers to an amendment, not an article. Maybe rewrite it to refer to a state constitution, or the League of Nations constitution?
What’s with these people who decide to give their neonates strange bizarre names (same situation as this character mentioned above who gave himself a brand new moniker)? We have to get the onomasticists on this one. &&&&& This was one hard nutcracking XWP. Didn’t think I could make it. Still the XWP in the 6/25/2011 Chi S-Xs edition had to be the hardest XWP to come out anywhere in several years. Spent 2 1/2 hrs. on it but still managed to make it out alive.
Even completely unaware of the alleged “gimme” at 8-down (I just don’t care about sports!), I’d call this one a Medium at most. Fun puzzle.
Cluing for 61A is wrong. (I immediately put CALEXICO, which would be a correct answer; the 61A entry is not in fact a border town).
Small (but amusing) typo in the 43-Across clue: Think you mean self-TITLED, but Idi’s ego probably necessitated his name to be italicized all the time, so maybe self-TILTED is right after all 🙂
Principle or principal @ 1A? I want the latter, but then I know nothing about rivers or channels or syntax.
Other possible names for the rest of the Lakers players, I do like Shannon Brown’s moniker.
http://lakersblog.latimes.com/lakersblog/2011/06/ron-artests-name-change-.html
One of the hardest in a while for me. Not knowing 8-Down couldn’t help. Putting in MAINLINE, MASTERS, ARTICLEI (like Tuning Spork said, you’re thinking of an amendment, not an article; Article I could sort of work, since it sets out Congress’s limited powers, but that’s iffy), UKES, BROWSERS, and IFINROME didn’t help…
Good thing I just read Ron’s new moniker today. I haven’t reached the point yet where I see a new term or name and think, “BEQ’s gonna grid that soon”, but in this case I should have.
It’s a hell of a lot catchier than Howard, I’d say.
Good stuff today!