ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ I BLACKED OUT LAST NIGHT]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ I BLACKED OUT LAST NIGHT]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
“Transparency” is the middle name here at BEQ.com. So, with that in mind, let’s look over my resolutions from last year and see how I did. Let’s do it:
1. I promise to continue to boggle your minds with these puzzles.
I feel pretty good about this one. Next.
2. I also promise to do more outrageous and more left-of-center puzzles. You know, the ones you won’t find in your father’s newspaper.
So far, so good. 2-for-2. Next.
3. Somehow, someway, I will finish one of “the big three books” I’ve tried repeatedly in the past to read, but gave up for various reasons. The novels in questions are (in no particular order) “Ulysses,” “Moby Dick,” and “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
Okay, now we’re getting into the not-so-hot territory. All three went untouched this year. Yeah, no real way to wiggle around this one; epic flop. But, hey now. I did read Pynchon’s latest book (“Inherent Vice”), so that’s gotta count for something, right? And I did download a copy of “The Art of War” to the smartphone. Old habits die hard, I guess. That old habit being BEQ acquires copies of “great books” and never reads them. Okay, so since I at least read a Pynchon book, I’ll give myself a D- for this one. Next.
4. Loads more duplicate Bridge this year. My Bridge partner, Ned, and I kick mucho ass in the Nationals this year and we gotta keep it going.
If by “loads more duplicate Bridge” I meant “one game,” then by all means, mission accomplished. Just didn’t happen this year for loads of reasons. The blog became all-consuming this year, plus the whole buying the house thing, the months of ACPT lead-up, the sports books, so my schedule wasn’t accomodating. Ned, well, he was wrapping up his Masters degree so he was swamped too. However, we’ve reupped the commtment this year. So, another D- for this resolution. Next.
5. Will I stop talking about becoming an amateur photo-realist painter, and start becoming one? Signs point to “definitely maybe.”
Complete F- here. Didn’t even look into this one. Strict fantasy. I’m embarrassed about this one. But not nearly as embarrassing as this one:
6. This is the year I’m going skydiving. I swear to God.
Another F-. This one is another humiliating fantasy. God. The moral, as always is, if you don’t really believe something, don’t publish it on a blog.
So where are we now, then? I’m renewing the commitment on the blog and the puzzles. I’ll reroll the dice with the big three books and the Bridge. But instead of the painting/skydiving combination, let’s swap them out and go with these: I plan on making more bread from scratch. And, I plan on losing 25 pounds.
Gonna leave you with this: I’ve been humbled with all the show of love in the tip jar department. If you liked the puzzles this month/year/whenever, it’s never too late to show your support by keeping the blog independent. As an incentive, I will give whatever you want from the BEQ.com store to one randomly selected donor. Even if you can’t give money, you can help me immensely by telling 5 friends about this blog. Thanks again.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
Fantastic puzzle. Ingenious theme. I didn’t know what to put in the rebus squares to get Across Lite to give me a happy pencil, but figured it out quick enough. I’d rate this as a Medium – I sussed the theme fairly early on, which was the hardest part.
The TAE/BEANE cross was purely a guess, though in retrospect, TAE should’ve been a gimme. Also, best clue for MIR I’ve seen.
My resolutions for 2010:
1) Get a crossword of my own published somewhere
2) Run a marathon
3) Turn 40
I’m guaranteed to go, at worst, 1-for-3 on these (or be too dead to care, I suppose).
Nice one. I’m a sucker for a good rebus theme.
Deducted a star for the 14A clue (Billy is the GM, not the owner)
Loved it! It must not be a true BEQ hard puzzle, because I was able to finish it fairly quickly. Thanks for a good year of puzzles. Tip on its way!
Ditto, Victoria. When I see “Hard,” I’m thinking an hour or so, at least.
I initially thought PONY EXPRESS, but too many spaces. Finally, came back to it after figuring out ANTHONY EDWARDS, a gimme.
I liked the resolutions. My daughter gave me a “coupon” for a skydiving trip for my birthday this year (no. 52). I think the coupon just means she’ll pay for it, but I haven’t taken her up on it yet. No time, not no guts. BEQ, I’ll take her up on it, and we can compare experiences. If we both live through it.
Wow! I don’t recall ever seeing a puzzle where a rebus square contains two different rebuses depending on whether it is traversed across or down. Take care of that brain of yours. It is amazing!
Great puzzle!
Sweet puzzle today. It had me seriously wondering whether to spell it QUEENYESRYCHE, haha. I was confused by the 54-Down clue; should it be “Band’s recording …” instead of “Bands recording” ?
It would be great to combine resolution #3 with #2, which would of course satisfy #1 as well 🙂
They’re rare – but you see them from time to time. There was a NYT puzzle last May where the symbols drawn in the four corners represented different words going across and down. And I remember a Henry Hook puzzle from the 1980s where the rebus character was the digit 8 and represented the letters ATE in the Across answers and OO in the Down answers!
Somehow I got completely stuck on 28D. That was a head-thump when I figured it out. I just couldn’t get TAIL out of my mind for following. Great rebus.
What about the resolution to write an entertaining blog three times a week? You got an A on that one too.
Wicked easy…but wicked awesome!!!
Just got here, haven’t started the puzz, but gotta respond to your resolutions. Re your Big Books,IMHO as an English geek:
“Ulysses” is terrific, but much more accessible if you’ve got a copy of Stuart Gilbert’s study close at hand. He wrote it in cooperation with Joyce, and it’s very helpful.
Only way to survive “Moby Dick” without hating literature is to skip every chapter that’s about cetology. The rest is pretty good, and half as long.
Why on Earth would anyone willingly inflict “Gravity’s Rainbow” on themselves? I got through it because I’m awed by Pinchon’s command of the language. But its content and its intentions on its reader are utterly mean-spirited. Don’t get me wrong–I love postmodern novels. But try something by Don Delillo instead. “White Noise” is very much a postmodern novel but is also fun to read. If it’s a Big Book as such you want, try Delillo’s “Underworld”, which is similar to “Gravity’s Rainbow” in scope and novelistic technique without inducing existential nausea.
FWIW. Now on to the puzz.
I found the May Times puzzle. It was a Gorski where hoop/circle were rebuses in two corners and zero/ring were rebuses in the other two. The theme answer was “rounds the corner”. Thanks for pointing this out.
OK, back from the puzz. WOW!! Never seen a rebus like this before. Hard, yes, but what an adventure! Gotta PLEAD once more–never use your powers for evil, Brendan.
Got to 20A THE PO[NY E]XPRESS fairly quickly, but my brain almost caught on fire when I worked 8D JET[WTF?]. AcrossLite wouldn’t let me space between or stack the words, so I plugged NYEBLACK. AcrossLite was happy, so off to the races (though I never got the usual “Atta boy!” at the end, which worries me a little).
Immediately went to 52A, looking for the next (last? second of n+1?), and was rewarded for all those years of watching ER. And 53D would have given away the rebus to me in any case if I’d gotten there to begin with.
Hardest task remaining was the center. Where was/were the rebus(es), if any? Expected one dead center at cross of 35A and 28D, but no. Worked out BOR[N YE]STERDAY and [BLACK]EN, but was puzzled at the absence of a symetrical rebus at the cross of 35A and 30D. Gotta adjust my expectations about this 180 degree symmetry thing, I guess.
Learning opportunity of the day: RSS feed. Never heard of it, but gotta get up to speed on that stuff so I can embed an avatar and the occasional video clip in postings, like the People Who Know Stuff do over on Rex’s blogs. Thanks for the puzz. Looking forward to Monday.
weird. last year i read ulysses, moby dick, and gravity’s rainbow…in that order. (full disclosure: i’m still reading gravity’s rainbow; couple hundred pages to go.) imo, unless it’s for bragging rights, you can safely skip ulysses: gr is the same book, more or less, written for a late twentieth century audience instead of an early twentieth century audience.
Another truly awesome rebus is a Joon Pahk that appeared in the last year of the NYS… Googling informs me 6 Feb, title “Transmutation.” Scratch that, it’s my favorite rebus ever. Or least favorite one I can think of.
Oh this puzzle? Only got how the down words crossing the NYE rebus squares worked when went to Amy’s blog… Would’ve given it 5 if… NYE was an abbr. I was more confident about as an actual phrase as opposed to just Bill the kiddie-pleaser… But still always very very pleased with any puzzle that breaks out of the standard crossword mold and it’s that ability (among others) that keeps us coming back here for more!
I thought the same thing – but Billy became a co-owner with his last contract extension. That’s part of what kept him with the team… fat lot of good it’s done us A’s fans!
A beauty. I experienced actual joy solving it. Don’t know how you do it.
Vino es roso.
Point taken after a bit of research, but I still don’t like it.
Describing someone with a 2.5-percent stake as “owner” is IMHO more a mischaracterization than clever. The Green Bay Packers have 4000 “owners”, but it certainly wouldn’t be legit to clue them like that.
@Eric L. — that puzzle rings a bell. (Zeroes a bell?)
Am I the only one NOT familiar with the Booth Tarkington novel crossing the obscure typeface designer and the ETA/ETD trap?