Many of the answers in this crossword are one letter too long and won’t fit in the spaces provided. Each of these answers will either begin or end in the gray square immediately before or after it. When the puzzle is done, all the gray squares will have been used exactly once, and the letters in them (reading left to right, line by line) will spell out a quote by Chris Rock.
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ GOING TOO FAR]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ GOING TOO FAR]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Eric Berlin is a lot of things: puzzlemaker, Kickstarter-visionary, and leader of my M.I.T. Mystery Hunt team to name three. He also currently has cornered the market with these “Going Too Far” puzzles, so I wanted to ask him if it was okay if I took a crack at what I deemed “his territory.” Eric gave me the thumbs up on this attempt, but also informed me that none other than Mike Shenk, one of the three “Crossword Jesuses,” came up with this form. (How’m I not surprised by this? Are there any word games Mike hasn’t made? Boggling.) Anyway, when you’re done with this give Eric’s handiwork a shot.
Heads up: if you’re planning on solving this in Across Lite, you might want to set the printing feature to change the black squares to be something much lighter. Also, thanks to Joon Pahk for the PDF.
Share the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.
Felt like a Sunday….nice to have a different “second puzzle” offering on a Monday.
Not having crosses always makes these a little tougher. The N in STEEN was a guess, although an educated one. My son, who owns a recording studio, has a spare organ in our garage.(There is definitely something wrong with that sentence!) Luckily it has not spawned a band around itself.
On a personal aside, Brendan, my sister tore through her birthday puzzle in ten minutes! She loved it.
the quote spelled out in the gray squares is there to avoid the “not having crosses” problem.
Didn’t even see the quote! That just makes it that much better. Thanks! Is that always the case? I’ve never noticed.
Yep, that’s always the case. I’ve done maybe five of these puzzles, and only once have I remembered to use the quote along the way to help piece things together in the grid. Maybe next time I’ll remember! Totally forgot that today.
Well, that was fun. I see I am in exalted company, here…and I am looking forward to more of these types of puzzles; it does add an extra zip. But: oil paper? really?
if it wasn’t for using the quote i never would’ve finished this. PDQ BACH, NIPSEY, and ALMANDINE were all new to me.
Loved it, and for once I can add to these posts in a timely way. I just about went blind trying to read everything I had written in (did it on paper). I had to draw lines everywhere two entries were separated to be able to read it. I’d think it’d really be tough doing it in across-lite. Thanks.
Enjoyed the puzzle but wouldn’t
have had a clue on how to proceed
without having just done a similar
NYT puzzle – I believe the second
Sunday puzzle a week ago.
Just a couple of specifics:
“Bayes Theorem”, not “Theory”.
And the consequence of default should have been “Foreclosure” not “Foreclose”.
I don’t usually read any of the blog before downloading the puzzle. Sure glad I read this one (at least the instructions that appear above the picture). I would have been totally lost if I’d just printed the puzzle and tried to solve the printed page!
Well, I know that I can’t quite speed-solve these things, nor do I want to. These are just fun to claw my way through, and the fill here is just about as much fun as the quote.
Thanks to you for creating this, Eric Berlin for all of his creations, and Mike Shenk for even thinking these things up in the first place.
Not for me, it seems so sloppy and difficult to keep in order as you are doing it. I finished it and it looked like a Sudoku fill. I don’t even know what I put in there.
Really cool. Thanks for introducing these! More of these (& some more diagramless ones too) please. 🙂 PS Is it finally time to buy the NYT Crossword subscription? I guess so.
I enjoyed it a lot. And I used the quotation to get ALBOM and STEEN. And SISAL which I knew but couldn’t think of. More please! Is it much more difficult to construct than a standard crossword?
Holy crap, Brendan, you totally kicked my ass with this one. But what an interesting challenge.
@Larry, only the second one for me too, and you’re right about the word form called for by 41D’s clue.
I think I’m missing a blog-technology point here. Was there any way to do this one online? Across Lite wouldn’t even print the solution with letters in the gray squares. And if there’s a way to solve using the interface that shows on the blog, I would very much like to know how.
Postmortem, too many stumbles to recount. Starting with LOUISE for AMELIE ( I’m a total trog when it comes to French or Italian artsy cine), NOBLEST for BALDEST, DOLES for LOANS, and PALIN off by one square because I misspelled LOYE kinda sums it up.
Gotta cry Natick on ALBOR. A major “Who?!” with no cross to check it. And “Garage band instrument” seems misleading. How many garage bands can afford a Hammond B3? And those that can’t generally have a SYNTH, no?
Hit me again right there.
Yes! These are my second favorite Second Sunday puzzles, right after diagramlesses. (I hope Mr. Berlin hemorrhages out a book of these some day.) Thanks!
I liked it. And it introduces a new kind of quote symmetry.
it’s mitch ALBOM, and yes, there was a crossing word: COMEDY, from the chris rock quote.
Thanks. I should have realized that, knowing that the grey square would end up containing a letter. Couldn’t see the solution grid in Across Lite, so I never got the quotation.
@Justin
NOT KNOW PDQ BACH? Quick, you must find a record, tape, or CD soonest! (There is even a biography out there.)
I struggled with Eric Berlin’s for a long time, and I think did not finish it entirely; I did not realize there was a quote!! Even so, I had most of the puzzle grid completed.
I wondered why a picture of cute little Chris Rock was on this puzzle blog! Well, someone had to be the last to know. Really liked this type of puzzle and hope for more…but NEVER MIND about the diagramless ones!
@Elaine
Well, not quite “last” I’m afraid. I managed to get the puzzle done in Across Lite, but I too had no idea there was a quote in the black squares until coming back here for the wednesday and checking comments. I’ve just spent 20 minutes trying to get the quote without printing the thing out w/gray squares, but it was hopeless so I went ahead and did it the easy (easier) way. Couldn’t tell if “ALBOM” was complete or not, now I know.
Great puzzle BEQ, and I’m with you Elaine on the great Professor Shickele. Ever see him play piano and bassoon at the same time? His “real” music is awfully good as well.
Am I the only one who doesn’t understand “taleng” in the 29D clue? What is it?