ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ TO YOUR CORNERS]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ TO YOUR CORNERS]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Believe it or not, I got a big fat unequivocal “F” in the classroom portion of driver’s ed. I completely and utter bombed in the filmstrip watching/test-taking portion of it. So while my classmates were ushered along to the behind-the-wheel classes, I was forced to stay behind. This mind you was an elective course, a summer school thing I voluntarily signed up for. Correction, my folks were like: “you’re going to driver’s ed, and you’re going to like it!” So yeah, I was forced to stay behind. Call it “summer school for a summer school class.” Good times.
The teacher, some nicotine-stained curmudgeon, believed if you write something down, you write it in your brain permanently. So the only way to move on from this classroom portion was write some sort of “punishment essay” about the Smith System of Driving. Some five-page drivel I should have learned the first-time around. I think I just copied the text verbatim from the handouts we were given. Miraculously, he never read it, reiterated the whole “write it down/write it in your brain” axiom, and then proceeded to tear my punishment paper up.
That axiom, unfortunately, was the only thing I remember from those classes. (Certainly not any of the Smith System of Driving.) I am about to prove the axiom wrong.
I was doing a little cleanup the other day, partly because the in box and desk in the offices of BEQ.com were overflowing with junk mail and scraps of puzzle printouts. Also, I’m finally making the switch to Win 7, so I had to start backing up files from the hard drive as well. Spring cleaning, ladies and gentlemen, a whole couple seasons behind schedule. Insert climate change joke here.
What’s been amazing is uncovering all the half-baked ideas for puzzles I’ve jotted down in various random places: on printouts, backs of envelopes, as computer file names, etc. (Yeah, I know, I already covered that I carry a moleskine around for ideas. But sometimes I forget to bring it. And now with this new smartphone, I’ve taken to e-mailing ideas to myself. Yay, technology!) So you’d think this archeological discovery of ideas would be a boon, right? A wealth of untapped ideas to draw from. Well, not exactly.
I remember writing some of these down, and I remember the reasons why I wrote these ideas down. But I haven’t the faintest idea what any of them mean. A small sampling:
- “The Smiths” (I remember writing this down when I was going through the band’s catalog last year. Whether I had a gimmick around them or not, beats me. MORRISEY BOULEVARD?)
- “Oh The Places You Go” (Never read the book. Can’t imagine where I was going with this.)
- “How To Disappear Completely” (This one came about after reading a crazy article in “Wired” about starting a new life. Not the Radiohead song. Was this a drop a letter theme? Hopefully not.)
- “Atom” (That’s it. I just wrote down “Theme idea: Atom.” Must have been some theme.)
If anybody has any idea where I was going with these ideas, feel free to e-mail me. In the meantime, share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
oh, the places you’ll go: maybe add an O to a place name?
and ATOM might be an A-to-M letter sub.
At 5-ish this was Easy, but KRONUR OMG. Thank god for the theme. Never seen that plural.
Interesting (new to me) clue on ERNE.
rp
I guess there was no technical reason this had to be true, but I solved the NW corner last and expected its four letters to go clockwise like the other three corners did. Pretty fun anyway.
“and ATOM might be an A-to-M letter sub.” Ditto, and my second thought was a grid using only the letters A through M.
that exact theme, with that exact title, has been done recently. not to say it couldn’t be done again.
now, combining the letter sub with the restricted alphabet into a single puzzle… that would be something special.
THE SMITHS: Possibly a rebus: ADAM SMITH, SMITH AND WESSON, EE SMITH, ANNA NICOLE SMITH, AGENT SMITH, MR AND MRS SMITH, SNUFFY SMITH, WINSTON SMITH, SMITH MAGAZINE, BLACKSMITHING. If that seems dull, try transferring SMITH to the clue side, i.e., “Smith who copied himself” (AGENT), “Smith of Hootin’ Holler” (SNUFFY).
OH THE PLACES YOU’LL GO: This title is so vague it could be half-a-dozen ideas. My favorite is a lot of seemingly unrelated words bound by “place” clues, e.g., “Place for splinters” (HOSPICE), “Place to wear one’s best suit” (COFFIN).
HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY: Sorry, man, that sure sounds like a drop-a-letter theme. And I don’t really see how that works in crosswords unless you’re permitted to drop three letters at a time. Or maybe drop a syllable?
ATOM: If it’s not A to M, then maybe it’s a soundalike? ATOM ANT, UP AND ATOM? That doesn’t really thrill me, but mix in some other atomic terms like ION and ELECTRON and you might have something. Alternatively, you could get a triple-crossing by circling letters on a 15×15 grid to approximate the familiar shape of an atom, with several electrons shown in orbit around the center.
Hmmph. Didn’t use my Albert Collins clue for F minor. A bit hurt about that but I’ll survive.
13-minutes flat on a BEQ rates it as an easy in my experience. I like this one very much–all kinds of cool stuff (though I don’t really know what Four Square is.) The Soprano clue was awesome. Didn’t know the Red Grange trivia. I’d have thought he died in the forties. I went to law school with Slingin’ Sammy Baugh’s granddaughter.
So what did you think of the Smiths’ catalogue?
Great singles band.
lol at the ORE clue.
I knew I had seen this theme before:
http://is.gd/4ZLt6
I think Todd will be rather flattered that you came up with the same idea he did. I like your version better simply because you spell out exactly what the theme is, for people who’ve never heard of FOUR SQUARE.
“How to disappear completely” might be removing the letter ‘HOW’ from various phrases … not that I can come up with any good examples …
Jeez. I never saw Todd’s. Goes to show no matter how hard you try to come up with new themes, somebody out there probably did something similar somewhere. Upon looking at Todd’s now, it seems a little unfinished, in my opinion. Whatever. Different theme, different puzzle.
I missed one letter in 19A. I could not get ASTRONAUTS out of my head, and after going through the alphabet letter by letter I still had a brain freeze. Pretty breezy otherwise I got 4SQUARE almost instantly. It was one of those games we all played until we were old enough for kickball to take over.
I enjoyed the puzzle. Figured it was foursquare as soon as I saw the picture of the grid and was glad since it made it a quick (for me) solve. Thanks.
This post gave me an idea. I liked your challenge with Matt to include HATCHET MAN into a theme. Another idea might be to take an arbitrary title and make a puzzle with that title. Just a thought …
Oh the Places You’ll Go could be a rebus with place names with a GO on the end – rather than adding a GO like @Joon suggested…Pago Pago, the Congo, etc. The Smith’s? Perhaps something along the lines of Mr and Mrs Smith (famous Mr’s and Mrs’ such as Patti, Emmitt – hey that’s like your name!, Anna Nicole, Samuel, et al)………..
As for this puzzle, MUNG is cool word (until one looks it up in the Urban dictionary then it’s just gross). Finally, KUMQUAT should probably be in every puzzle ever made.
Found this medium on the easy side as opposed to Wed.’s medium which was on the hard side for me (needed my bride for the French year spelling). Fun puzzle! Didn’t know what four square was. My bride said there were courts (?) all over the playground at a school she taught at for a while.
As I said in the post, this was the first puzzle I ever made public, and I was very much a beginner at the time. A year or so later, I’m still learning what it takes to make a good puzzle. At least I’ve had a couple published.
Speaking of which, let me apologize that my first LA Times crossword was an unadulterated #5 on your Bullshit list. I tried submitting puzzles with more interesting themes, but he didn’t bite.
Knew I’d seen it somewhere! Remember thinking at the time “so it’s not just a South African schoolkid’s game!!!!”
Still a way fun solve with some crazy corners!
Found 52D incredibly funny, because I’d just watched the “sitcom” with my brother’s friend’s daughter (yes that sounds absurd and possibly a little creepy, moving along) and vowed to memorize the names, as I was sure they’d be appearing in crosswords soon – prophetic. Could only come up with Joe though…
Can’t believed you managed to restrain yourself and not clue 16A musically BTW…