ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I knew this was going to be a huge event (my team Palindrome, for instance had membership well into the 40s), but I didn’t realize the M.I.T. Mystery Hunt was that big. Indeed. The above picture is just a fraction of all the team’s members ready to find that missing coin. (That’s me in the red circle above catching up with puzzlemaker, all-around nice dude, and Setec Astronomy member Dave Tuller.)
The gimmick for this years hunt appeared to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Hunt, only it really wasn’t the 30th anniversary, more like the 29th. No matter. The gimmick was thrown out the window fairly quickly as after solving the first meta revealed we were celebrating 300 (fictional) years of the hunt. There was something about time-travelling and in doing so various events throughout history were changed (which were the answers to metas). Believe me, it made sense at the time.
The Hunt started off (for me at least) on an encouraging note: the first puzzle I stumbled upon was built around the Charles River running map, a map I know all too well from using it while training with Liz. The breadth of the puzzles, and knowledge required to solve them, was amazing. Just a small sampling: we had to decode pages written in lorem ipsum, manipulate famous paintings in Photoshop, make our own zero-budget remake of a famous movie, and play poker wherein the entire deck (save three cards) represented different cards than what their faces showed. Not surprisingly, I stuck (mostly) with the word games. One particularly satisfying puzzle was one unholy mash-up of a diagramless puzzle whose theme was a “SUB” rebus. Only, when that grid was done, the puzzle became four overlapping battleship puzzles. Yikes!
It was with great disappointment that when I woke up on Sunday to hear that the Hunt had been completed that morning by Francis Heaney’s team, no less. (Astute readers of this site know him to be one of my friends and puzzle editors.) I had enjoyed what little I was able to contribute to the team and I guess I was expecting it to continue well into Sunday afternoon. Whatever, I just want to say I was awed the ingenuity of some of these puzzles. There are times I feel like the word game has all been done before, yet some of these metas blew holes in that theory coming up with crazy making new interpretations of the old standards. Granted most of the material is for the 1% of 1 of the puzzling community. If I posted anything that complicated here on this blog, the traffic would cap out at 3 unique visitors. No matter, they were inspirational from a puzzlemaker standpoint.
On a strictly personal note, the hunt ended with my own satisfying discovery. At the explanation of all the puzzles on Sunday night, I met Andy Arizpe of Austin Texas.
Andy wrote later: “I forget if it was Tyler [Hinman] or Eric Berlin that turned me on to your blog, but I’ve been following it avidly pretty much since it debuted. As I mentioned, I’m a video game programmer living in Austin, and working for Disney on the new Epic Mickey game for the Wii. It was a real pleasure to meet you – my wife got me your t-shirt for Christmas, and I’ve been wearing it proudly and sharing the puzzle at every opportunity.” For Andy’s bravado, I’ll be sending him some junk from my condo I don’t want anymore.
NOTE:I was hoping to end this post with a link to a really rewarding puzzle by Craig Kasper, but they haven’t archived the Hunt yet. When it does go live, I will link to it here (as well as the next day I post).
UPDATE:The Craig Kasper puzzle is here.
Share the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.
Extra points for D’BRICKASHAW.
Ok, extra points for D’BRICKSHAW but negative points for LIEUP.
LIEUP is a non-starter for me. BERCEUSE was nice, though, and of course I have a soft spot for 2D-ENID.
Enid —
I didn’t like BERCEUSE (because I didn’t know it), but what’s wrong with LIE UP? “I lie up at night fretting about D’Brickashaw’s future.”
BERCEUSE comes from taking piano lessons when you’re a kid.
LIEUP doesn’t feel semantically right as “dread”, but I just realized I’m paying too much attention to that. Your example suits me okay.
I’m new to BEQ’s puzzles and I suspect I’ve got Will Shortz too much in my head. You know: polite, midwestern, over 45. Gotta invoke my inner Brooklynite.
Wow, this one was a slam dunk. I haven’t done these early enough in the day where I could actually time myself and was surprised that I tore threw a “hard” one so quickly. It makes sense because there was great fill all over and distributed throughout the grid. I’ve set a new goal for myself to get a themeless puzzle published and after doing this one I’m going to need to head back to the drawing board. Five stars no-question.
Five stars simply because of 1-Across. I was at the gym the other day and the selection on the TVs was so poor that I forced myself to watch that tripe on MTV. Absolutely hilarious! And I wake up on Monday morning to get rewarded by Brendan Emmett Quigley. AWESOME!!!!
Never heard of SKIRR, but I had taken care to BESURE of the other letters in this word (and elsewhere, i.e., DBRICKASHAW). So I ran through the alphabet until I got the congratulations pencil.
Because I had MESSY, I had LIEE_ for a while until the ISP revealed the correct answer. LIE UP is okay for me.
Oh, like Mr. Arizpe, I’m from Austin. I’m always on the look-out for another BEQ t-shirt.
@Matt, perhaps those who didn’t like LIE UP (including myself here) were actually fine the the phrase, which is perfectly legit, but (like me) thought the clue was a real stretch.
BTW, is that @whoever thing a typical blog posting protocol, or something I’ve picked up from Rex’s NYT/LAT blogs?
Brendan, welcome back! Sounds like you had quite an adventure. And another hand up for “Hell yes, we know who the hell BEQ is in Austin!”
I feel afraid when I see you use the HARD word, but this one I’ll file under “mard”. I guess my definition of “hard” is being forced to google and/or check all. Slooooow I can live with for a good puzzle like this one.
Filled at half an hour, but no Mr. Happy Pencil. Dang. So I check my acrosses and downs. First thing I spot that doesn’t look right is 28D ICEBOXCARS crossed by 23A WTF. ICEBOX CAKE? Fine, OK. New one on me, as well as was that Michel fellow, but learning new stuff is good.
Still no Mr. Happy Pencil, so I continue checking my downs and find 22D SKIRR and 35 35D LIEEP. All SKIRR’s crosses looked solid, and LIEEP just *could not* be a word, even in the puzzosphere. So I went with LIE UP as I couldn’t think of anything else, though I’d never seen the adjectival form of MUSS before. Finally, Mr. Happy Pencil.
Would someone please explain for me how D’BRICKSHAW crossed by SO SAYS I isn’t a natick? And a question for constructors: is the repetition of “chip”/CHIP in the clue/answer for 33A legal? Also, while I recognized Russ Stanton’s name, isn’t the publisher of a paper the chief executive rather than the editor?
Best self-inflicted bad clue of the day was misreading 19A as “Proofs OF purchase”. Doh! Actual clue was actually really good misdirection, it would seem. My other favorite clue was 49D, though IMHO it ought to have read “You embarrassed me with this puzzle”.
Nicely challenging puzzle, but I have to call foul on OCTETS, since Octomom’s kids are one single octet, not multiple sets of eight. “Nadya Suleman’s litter and others like it” would be appropriate.
Puzzle did very little for me. I found it had unusual fill but not particularly interesting. OBRICKASHAW almost saved it for me but then I had BESURE/BEGET with LAT above and MUSSY to make me want to end it sooner rather then later.
Can I ask what a “natick” is? I live north of Boston, so I know where the town that Doug Flutie is from is. How did it become a puzzler’s common noun?
I am too lazy to explain it myself. But here is the link in all glory as to what is behind The Natick Principle.
http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-jul-6-2008-brendan-emmett.html
Fun solving with you Brendan. History will bear me and my love for “Challengers” out.
I feel like I just wondered aloud, somewhere, about when I would see D’BRICKASHAW’s name. . . and here it is. BERCEUSE / SKIRR area was wicked for me, but the rest flew. 1A was great but just too easy 🙂
Thanks. I vote “Yes, it’s a natick.”
1A was an easy but fun answer. Bonus D’BRICKASHAW D’points. BERCEUSE and SKIRR both just wrecked me on the rocky Jersey shore, though. That and the opera clue in that nasty bottom right, along with the Guv’___ clue. When I finally called it quits and looked at the answers, I realized that I was toast, and never, ever would have solved them. Not a clue.
Ya got me good on this one, Quigley. The masochist in me will be back for the next one, though :). Looking forward to some more freestyle themeless goodness.
Drat! Missed it by one square. Had DBROCK… knowing neither the player nor the single. In retrospect the O was a poor guess but still a definite Natick for me. And, SKIRR???? Not in my dictionary. Good challenge, with the top half being pretty easy and the bottom very hard.
SKIRR and DBRICKASHAW = both ick.
FWIW, you walked by my friend and me a few minutes before that picture was snapped, and I pointed you and Tyler out as “crossword folks I know”.
Anyway, I guess I now have photographic evidence of my presence at the Hunt. 🙂
Yeah who the hell he is, haha this is funny, I like the shirt though.