ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Weird morning, so far. First and foremost on my list of concerns is the fact that Liz claims I was singing this song in my sleep last night. Because of my sleep-singing, she is now stuck with it her head this morning. … And, I got nothing else. This whole paragraph is beyond humiliating. Let’s move on.
Big ups to Tyler Hinman for pointing out one of the entries in the above puzzle. If you aren’t already following Mr. Five Peat himself on Twitter, you’d better get on that posthaste. You may just learn a thing or two about speed solving.
Speaking of speed solving, it’s official: I’ve come out of retirement. I’m, ahem, back, baby! I’m like the Brett Favre of the crossword world, except, I uh, haven’t won anything. Wait, no, I came in second in the E division back in 2000, so I got some cheap-ass trophy around here somewhere. Yeah, big frigging whoop. Fine, let the record show: it’s been four years since I came in the completely improbable slot of 123 (out of 498) at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
A lot has happened since. Mainly, I’ve been making puzzles for these tournaments instead of competing in them. But, then again, I’ve been solving substantially more puzzles thanks to Alex Boisvert’s brilliant and free (with a suggested donation) program Crossword Butler. Couple things going against me, though: I’m over the hill now, and the playing field has suddenly sprouted up Speed Solving Terminators like Dan Feyer and Howard Barkin. So once again, I’ll be aiming for that upper middle quarter-ish section.
Where am I competing you might ask? Lollapuzzoola. Three weeks away, folks. Get psyched. Get ready. Noo Yawk Sittay, here I come!
More stories about my training to come later. Watch this site.
As always, I would like to remind you that if you enjoyed the puzzles from this past month, a small donation of $10, $20, or even $50 will help the site chug along smoothly. As a means of saying thank you, I will send a t-shirt of your choice from the Gift Shoppe to one randomly selected donor. Thanks again.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
More medium than hard for me…
I disagree with 46A: Oppenheimer got his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his doctorate from Goettingen in Germany. Then he returned to the US supported by a research fellowship, which he divided between Harvard and Caltech. So he was never a student at the latter. Alma mater refers to a place you got a degree from, nicht wahr? In which case Caltech doesn’t qualify.
OK, OK, I double checked — J Robert’s baby bro Frank got his PhD from Caltech. Very sneaky…
Guess who’s not competing at Lollapuzzoola? Dan Feyer and Howard Barkin. The field is wide open for you, BEQ…
once quigley posts the montage of his training regimen (with “eye of the tiger” pumping in the background, of course… well, either that or “the neverending story”), the rest of the field will be too intimidated to stand in his way. so look out heaney, reynaldo, ripstein, delfin, newman, et al (sanders). there’s a new sheriff in town.
Wow, for those of us not so golf-savvy, 58-A was 15 letters of pure whoop-ass. Well done. (Although I did read that name in the sports page, it didn’t stick in the old cranium like it should have).
Now let’s see if we ever hear of that name again. My bet is unless he gets attacked by his wife with a golf club in his SUV, no.
See ya in Queens. good luck!
I missed the crossing of the golfer and the Brazilian president. I hope the latter sticks because I can sense that one becoming crosswordese. I predict the golfer will go down with U15 (Markku Uusipaavalniemi) as sports champions with unspellable names.
Let’s not overlook the fact that ALBERTO CONTADOR also has a 15-letter name …
Thanks for the plug!