ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Bring me the skull of Dr. Eugene T. Maleska! It’s time to drink ibex blood from it and intone the sacred text “ESNE, ANOA, ATIR ADIT etc.” to appease Ooxteplernon, the god of bad crossword fill. You see, this is what us judges at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament do when we get together. It’s sort of the initiation rite/welcome back routine done in the style of a Skull & Bones/Bilderberg Group thing. Trust me, you wouldn’t understand.
Probably should mention that today’s puzzle was mine from last year’s contest. For the uninitiated it should give you a taste of what to expect in Brookyln. After all, I have one of the puzzles in this tilt. Anyway, if wish to know more about this puzzle, I wrote about it here.
CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT: My brother-in-law’s father-in-law is competing at the ACPT this year: Stuart White of Great Falls, Montana. So be on the lookout for him (or for that matter his lovely wife Helen). All you gotta do to enter is send me a photograph of yourself with Stuart and one randomly selected contestant will receive either anything from the BEQ.com store (your choice) or some crap I don’t want any more from my condo (my choice). Deadline for the contest is end of the day Monday. Good luck.
To all regular readers who will be in Brooklyn, please introduce yourself. I’d love to put names to faces. See y’all soon.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
Oh sure. Remind me of last year’s “BASIK” mistake on the eve of the tournament.
I suppose if one took a vote about today’s puzzle… the ayes would have it. 🙂
I should note that I had not yet read the blog entry about this puzzle before posting the above pun. Oh well… that’s what I get for not doing the research. 🙂
Very bummed about breaking my attendance streak this year. Still trying to decide whether to solve online, and knowing there’s a BEQ puzzle on the roster pushes me further toward the “yes” side of things…
I remember this from last year! But of course I couldn’t remember the gimmick until I almost finished the sucker. Why is it that having done a puzzle doesn’t necessarily help you when faced with the same puzzle again…?
Brendan, I look forward to seeing you today or tonight. If I miss you, stop by the Word Sweep table to say hi.
Best,
steve smith
(sps)
p.s. BTW, last year, this puzzle was a totally fail for me as I didn’t do a check at the end and inadvertently had Les for Wes Anderson…Grr.
Actually thought this was a pretty solid Medium for a BEQ. I kept anticipating I was going to hit a big roadblock but they mostly fell pretty steadily. I guess it’s having been in ACPT explains the lack of rude clues and indy band references but AXOLOTL was some compensation, a word I only know from Mad Magazine, weirdly enough.
On another topic: cruciverb.com seems to be hosed again, and this time I can’t get any inside pages either. Anyone know what’s up? And an alternate source for the LA Times xword in AcrossLite format in the meanwhile?
I remembered the theme perfectly-my favorite puzzle from last year. Of course even so, my time just about equaled Tyler’s time from the tournament even though I was in essence starting with all the theme entries filled in.
and solving on a computer instead of by hand.
damn he’s fast.
If I go next year, Brendan, I’ll yell “Fuck You” when they announce your puzzle. My gift to you.
That AXOLOTL is a weird looking thing. Kinda cute, kinda creepy in a non-evolved way. Link here: http://www.bountyfishing.com/blog/images/axolotl.jpg
An abundance of two word answers held me up in places, esp. TWOROW, PIEEYED, WHIPSAW and DANDD (3 words? one word, two letters?). Other than that, the theme is really great. Figuring it out helped with the solve. Still had to look up a few things, though, which I’m assuming you can’t do at the tournament 😉
@Brendan, I linked to your discussion of the puzzle’s creation before writing this up, so nothing to add about the extremely cool theme except “Good job!”
Funniest moment of the day was jotting “reeeally wanted 17A to be EIEIO” on my blog notes, and finding out later that it actually was. Deja moo!
Made a grand start in NW with SNORT for SNEER, SHAME for STAIN, and CONDOM for…well, not really, but I reeeally wanted it to be. C’mon, I’m not the only one.
Later on, BET for TAP, BALI for CALI, and, Worst of Show, TRAIN at 20A. After I got tired of staring at blank squares for 6A and 17A I hit Check All and saw what had derailed my solving.
@Brendan, want to comment on clue fav’s as usual, but knowing Will was involved makes me wonder how much, if any, he meddled with them (just recently saw Word Play, which was most enlightening).
Anyhow, FWIW, loved the 72/73D side-by-sides, “Not Standing” for AD HOC, and “Spirit of Russia?” for EVERCLEAR. Best of Show goes to “Big tier?” for WTF? Stared at it. Even after I had TW_NE and went through the vowels and was sure it had to be “I”. Tick tick tick. Fiiiiinally read the clue correctly, and felt a great sense of relief that I wasn’t standing in front of a big room full of solvers…
@DrBB, me too re Mad Magazine (a seminal influence on my young mind).
OT – Do you know why Cruciverb is down?
I think I have an issue with your calling this puzzle a hard one… I usually have trouble finishing your mediums completely. And I actually finished this one!
It’s been a year since this puzzle came out, and I still have yet to see KENKEN in a puzzle beside this one.
Good luck everyone!
Enjoyed the puzzle…altho I got stuck in the middle
DrBB – you can go directly to the LA Times at http://www.latimes.com and go to the bottom of the front page. There’s a games link there, and I got into the crossword from there.
I’ve been having horrible withdrawal pangs thanks to the cruciverb meltdown. To heck with the Taliban; please go after the hackers!
Thanks for the LAT link tip.
I did this puzzle last year and remember how much I enjoyed it. I seldom click so well on a BEQ puzzle, but this one I finished well within the time limit. Happily, when you are old you forget stuff, so I worked the puzzle again and enjoyed it all over again!
Great puzzle. (Natch.)
I got stuck on the first letter of 65A.
I sent a TELEX once. It was when I was a youngster in Peru in the late 80s, to make a hotel reservation in the next city, and seemed a novelty to us even then.
Cruciverb is back up! Yay!