ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SIDELINES]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SIDELINES]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
This isn’t news, but it bears repeating: Bob Klahn’s puzzles kill me. I mean, no other puzzlemaker comes remotely close. His themelesses are my kryptonite. I’m done. Maybe at this point I’ve been whupped but good too many times by Bobby Dazzler that just by reading his by-line causes me to freeze in terror. But then again, any puzzlemaker who has the chutzpah to clue BUBBLE BATH as {Modesty preserver, in some films} is either (a) insanely clever or (b) a supreme dick. Possibly, and probably, both. And yeah, that one still bothers me two years later. Thanks a lot, Bob!
Another Klahn vs. Quigley story goes like this: I can’t remember what year it was, but at one of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournaments Bob had puzzle #7, that’s the Sunday-sized one that’s done, appropriately enough, on Sunday morning. Puzzle’s gimmick was a rebus with the letters “TV” in one box. Cute and clever. The formula for how that one played out went as follows: Bob Klahn’s byline + his clever/dickish cluing + early Sunday morning + undercaffeinated, dehydrated and hungover BEQ = unfinished puzzle + BEQ too damn frustrated at the whole situation leading him to immaturely write “FUCK YOU” in massive letters across the puzzle’s grid. Needless to say, I think I came in toward the end of the pack that year.
So why the Bob stories again? Well, the good folks at Puzzlewright Press sent me a copy of his latest anthology: “The Wrath of Klahn.” 72 themeless puzzles from the guy who makes me recoil in horror means this one is probably going to go untouched, thrown across the room half-completed and/or with immature comments written in the margins right? Wrong. I’m not sure how this played out, because the puzzles in this book aren’t easy, but Lord knows they aren’t ruthless. But don’t we want them hard? Isn’t that the Klahn trademark? Yes, but this book is worth mentioning because it champions Bob’s technical wizardry (no unnecessary black squares, no partials, no plural proper names, rather wide-open grids to name a few) that I think sometimes gets lost in his effort to be the most dastardliest crossword guy out there. A definitely recommended title.
Share the puzzle. New one on Friday.
What is VAN WITH A VAN? VAN WITH A MAN? MAN WITH A VAN? I’m guessing the last one is right, but ???
5:01
Worst part: blanking on KIM WILDE for a few seconds. That’s bread-and-butter for me. . .
LAURA / LEVI cross felt mildly iffy, since many will know neither, but that “L” is inferrable.
rp
Title is cute. I actually drew the V with the little extensions on the top of my paper. (I think the NYT puzzle today brought out the kid in me.) ATCO raceway is a 1/4 mile dragstrip in my neck of the woods. Made it hard to think of 1/4 mile as a lap.
MIAMI MICE reminded me of the great Sesame Street recurring skit by that name. And then we got ANIMAL as a bonus at the end. I’m with Rex – never heard of Man with a Van(?)
I assumed it was a band that I had never heard of but Google indicates that it is a moving company in NYC. Liked the Feedburner clue.
Are the Klahn puzzles new for the book or reprints? Thanks for the heads-up…
Ditto on Rex’s confusion on the last theme entry, but a nice puzzle all around.
I’m about 30 puzzles into the Wrath of Klahn myself, and am only slightly disappointed that they’re not as brutal as his puzzles can be. (I’m thinking especially of the 2007 stumper where he crossed ANGALI, GOLCONDA, and PERIPETEIA with XANTIPPE!!). I’m sure he left the insanely hard ones for the end, but I definitely recommend it to any serious puzzler, that’s for sure.
In that picture, Klahn is solving my Brooklyn-themed crosswords from 2008. It’s Eric Berlin week on BEQ’s blog!
Thank you, Rex (et al)! When I test-solved this one for Brendan, I had the Same Exact Reaction (I think I went through the possiblilties in the same order, even!). As I told Brendan, I just thought I was dumb. Oh well.
MN
Just a tidbit: ALE is not an “alternative to porter.” Porter is a style of ale. All beer is either lager (like your beloved PBR) or ale. From there it gets more interesting.
NW
This one’s a keeper. Had fun and finished in 23:56, which says a lot about the construction and nothing about my solving skills. Or lack thereof. Lots of stuff here that I didn’t know, but all gettable from the crosses once the theme was apparent. Which didn’t happen for me till MIAMI MICE (good thing I already had IDIOM in place, to save me from LICE), while I was still scratching my head over _IN_E CARTER.
Hoping when I read the comments, someone will have explained the theme for me. At first, seemed to be a straightforward M for V substitution 18A, 23A, 55A) but then MAN WITH A MAN (“man with a plan”, I’m thinking) was M for PL. And, whatever the case there, I don’t get the theme answers’ relation to the title. Not a complaint—I just don’t get it.
We gotta come here for real-world clue/answer pairs like “Eff you!” = EAT ME, instead of whatever white-bread-with-the-crust-cut-off parallel universe big-media CWs are constructed in. Also though “One no Trump?” was one of the best clues I’ve come across. LOL.
Anyone else start to key in WHITETRASH for “Southern Florida vermin? Hope not.
Back, just read the other comments. @Brendan, 61A *was* supposed to be MAN WITH A MAN, right? Makes sense with the clue, and Mr. Happy Pencil approved. What more could a guy want? Except to understand the shift from V = M to PL = M.
@Nanpilla, I don’t understand your “I actually drew the V with the little extensions on the top of my paper”. I think I’m having multiple senior moments today.
I thought MAN WITH A VAN was a fairly in-the-language phrase about “movers for hire.” I guess not.
Matt, they’re reprints of his CrosSynergy puzzles. The nice thing about Klahn is that with a gazillion ways to trick you in the clues, it’s likely that the clues can still stump you even if you did the puzzle a few years ago.
No idea about the VAN WITH A MAN or MAN WITH A VAN, but I love-love-love themes that play with how letters are drawn. They’re so rare, but/and I always seem to appreciate them.
Yup, “man with a van” escaped me, but at my age many things do.
Otherwise, nice puzzle!
Please to ignore my mental lapse down in my comments re “the V with the little extensions”. Caffeine hadn’t kicked in yet.
@lit. doc If you draw a V, then add two downward lines(extensions) from the top of the V to the line, you get an M. See?
Measy puzzle for me, picked up on the theme pretty quickly and there were minimal problems. CABANA/ATCO/ABE was probably my only real snag area. KIM WILDE brings back great memories.
had to problem with it but i’m in new york. then again i was just in san francisco and saw a moving company called that there, too, so….
Was it intentional or just karma to have Dr. Laura hovering over Man With A Man? Here anti-gay diatribes are legendary.
http://www.fair.org/media-beat/000224.html
Cute. Even more so now that I get the title. I’m with the pack on MANWITHAMAN.
I had no problem with it at all. Don’t think of it as a company name but as a generic expression for any guy(s) who can be called upon to move you, with or without a shingle. In my neck of the woods we have an outfit called Two Men and A Truck (they moved me once, very nicely).