ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ LIGHT IT UP]
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PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ LIGHT IT UP]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I think I’m a pretty good solver. I’m not like Tyler Hinman fast, but I can hold my own. We’re talking 3:30-4:30 on a Monday and maybe like 15:00-ish+ for a Saturday. Totally respectable numbers, but nothing lights out.
There is one constructor who is routinely the death of me: Bob Klahn. I just simply cannot get on Bob’s page. He peppers erudition throughout whistle-clean grids and then serves them up with a heaping helping of never-before-seen clues. You will never ever see ALAI clued as {Jai ___} in a Klahn puzzle when a bit of trivia about the Alai Mountains would do just nicely. There are virtually no gimmes. Every entry, hell every square is a workout.
Allow me to butcher a baseball analogy. Solving Bob’s puzzles is probably not unlike going up against Sandy Koufax. Koufax couldn’t disguise his pitches and the batters knew it was either going to be a four-seam fastball or an overhand curve ball. Didn’t matter that the pitch was being telegraphed. You were not going to hit him, end of discussion. Bob’s the same way, you look at his clues, you get a sense you know what he’s trying to go for. Doesn’t matter, you aren’t going to get it (for me at least).
Bob had the Times puzzle two days ago and it wasn’t pretty. I thought at first I might have pulled out a victory as I was granted a whopping six “gimmes,” although one turned out to be completely wrong. All those supposed gimmes didn’t matter. A half hour later, deflated, dejected, pissed off, bruised, humbled and a few other -ed words, I was vanquished. Another unfinished Klahn puzzle. Bob, I know you read the blog every now and again: you own me.
Let’s start up a dialog here: are there any other puzzlemakers out there who flat out destroy you? Share you answers and/or Bob Klahn pwning stories in the comments.
Share the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.
Amy is on Klahn’s wavelength. I *feel* like I am too, but simultaneously I feel battered. Like … I will go the full fifteen with him, and win the decision, but feel like I need a month’s rest or so to heal. Klahn and Walden are the greatest of the tough guys. There are some constructors whose work occasionally rivals theirs in toughness, but none who can beat me up while simultaneously making me like it.
Your puzzle … nice. Had trouble all along the western seaboard, esp. in and around BOURSE, CATRIG, and SHIT TALK. Finally remembered Uncle TUPELO, and things started to give up there. Last thing I had was change LIP / ALPA to LID / ALDA. Nice to have the central 15-letter Down be a flat-out gimme.
rp
brad wilber. his recent offerings haven’t been quite so brutal, but i remember a few 2008 saturdays taking me an hour-plus, or just defeating me outright. TOUJOURS GAI, anyone? the CURATE’S EGG?
i used to be kl4hned on a regular basis, but i think i’ve gotten somewhat used to his cluing style. i would have done reasonably well on saturday’s puzzle if i hadn’t inexplicably tried to make LUC____ into a girl’s name (LUCETTE, LUCILLE) for {“doctor faustus” character}. um, hello, it’s about making a deal with the devil? dumb joon. but i credit that to the mystique of klahn; your first thought usually isn’t the right one.
Um, that would be Bob Klahn. I had read a post from someone (Dan Feyer?) that this Saturday’s was beyond brutal, and then I looked at 1A which was a relative gimme and wasn’t too worried… then I got to the rest of the puzzle. Ah yes. Though I am glad you mentioned his quality as well, since that is a hallmark of Klahn. In this puzzle, other than 5D (didn’t like what I perceived as a slight agreement error between the clue and entry) and 5A (neeeeeever heard of it), it was squeaky-clean if I remember correctly. I took 30 mins, 2-3x my usual Saturday time.
Really, where Klahn kills me is in the tournament – I won’t bore you with the 2002 story I have told a million times, but that was when Klahn’s otherwise innocuous Sunday puzzle kept me out of the C finals due to 4 errors when I could have gotten in with 1 or 2 errors. (OK, I guess I did tell the story.) And his puzzles usually trip me up a bit.
That Saturday crossword made me want to crawl into a corner with a blanket and do nothing but Mondays the rest of my life. If I find out Bob Klahn is a pseudonym for Marquis de Sade, I won’t be surprised.
I have nothing to add to the constructor conversation since anything Friday/Saturday is still a challenge for me (but I am improving). I will say that after hours of research and plugging away on the Saturday puzzle it did feel good to finish.
Liked your puzzle today very much. Like Rex the CATRIG, BOURSE area was the only section that made my ponder for longer than the rest, although I did want SHIT TANK initially but then realized you weren’t talking about a garage receptacle.
Not a smoker – never knew there was a brand called MORE. The rest were familiar enough. As with everyone else, the East fell quickly, and the West fought me tooth and nail. Having LEE for REA had me scratching my head – finally figured CATRIG looked better than CETRIG, even though it wasn’t a term I knew.
TUPELO should’ve been a gimme for me – I do have an Uncle Tupelo album – but the name just wouldn’t come. I had four crosses before it clicked.
Good puzzle. Thanks, BEQ.
Klahn still kills me most of the time, but I feel an immense amount of satisfaction when I do finally complete one of his. Brad Wilber gives me trouble occasionally, but not like Klahn. And, for some reason, I never have an easy go of a John Farmer puzzle.
On the other end of the spectrum, Quigley, Quarfoot, and Nothnagel are probably my three favorites of the “new generation” of constructors. Manny Nosowsky, Patrick Berry, and Fred Piscop are probably my three all-time favorites.
wait, MORE is a cigarette brand? does that mean that MERIT is, too? it did not occur to me that those were part of the theme. KOOL and SALEM i knew. WINSTON i inferred from the fact that it was 16 letters.
saturday’s klahn was totally demoralizing, and i received no small amount of consolation from reading your post. like you, i finally threw up my hands in defeat, something i almost never do. boredom, yes, occasionally, but defeat almost never. i hope someday to be worthy of his grids.
WHen I started doing the BEQs, I always had problems. I was truly not on your wavelength. Even today crossing SHITTALK/TUPELO is a classic WTF scratcher for me even with seeing TUPELO before. I definitely feel better as time has progressed, since there has been a noticeable improvement on my BEQ solving. This puzzle other then a couple spots actually flowed.
Matt Jones puzzles are the smoothest solves consistently that I have, total mind meld.
My nemesis is Karen Tracey. I got half of the recent Klahn, and I can usually get most of a BEQ (though rarely 100%), but Tracey just kills me.
Speaking from the shallow end of the pool (I’m still running most of ten minutes for the Monday NYT), my list is pretty much the phone book. But about today’s puzzle…got 10D instantly, and wrong. I teach “The Crucible” (apologies to other English geeks–can’t do italics on this interface), and confidently entered “McCarthy Hearings”. Quickly fixed with the solid fill in NE, but then SO hoped that 3D would have the same clue–would be a nice pairing. If you ever retool this one…
Bob Klahn is definitely up there in the killer constructor department. I also find I have trouble with Bob Peoples sometimes. At the other end of the spectrum, I love Manny Nosowsky. I just seem to be on his wavelength. I think the only time I’ve been under 10 minutes for a Saturday was on one of his a few years back. I was resorting to Googling last Saturday, and even with that I was well over 30 minutes.
I hung in there on Saturday past the 99:59 that AcrossLite allowed and ended with 4 wrong squares. But then I seldom put down a book i’m reading even if i hate it. But i didn’t hate that puzzle…i was in awe. But Klahn is not my worst nemesis. If I’ve done 20+ puzzles of someone (on AcrossLite) these are my worst percentage solving stats:
37% Ben Tausig (15 of 41 puzzles)
52% Matt Jones (15 of 29 puzzles)
57% Matt Gaffney (17 of 30 puzzles)
61% BEQ (59 of 97 puzzles)
72% Barry Silk (18 of 25 puzzles)
The rest I’ve got 78% or better. But take out the part about the numbers and correct solving. There is the subjective enjoyment of a clever clue, an unexpected answer, a gimme that isn’t a gimme for most people. Put it with a good cup of coffee and the day is a good one.
Klahn is definitely one of the toughest, although Byron Walden usually gives me more trouble in general. Brad Wilber leans a bit heavier on the arts and culture, which I unfortunately have a shortage of, so he’s always a good challenge.
The stuff that kills me in Klahn’s puzzles are the obscurities and those “twelfth definition” clues, where an otherwise ordinary word is clued by its most seemingly obscure dictionary-valid definition possible. I tanked (I think) one of his puzzles some time ago for a corner containing the answer BARGE, clued straightforwardly as “Lighter”. (Wha?!?) Learn something new every day.
(Your Klahn moment in this one was definitely CATRIG.)
Klahn is the killer for me. I was at a pool in Vegas on Saturday with some mates who know I solve at least a couple puzzles a day. So, I settle in, fold the paper in fourths, and am ready to strut my stuff. Upon hitting wall after wall and seeing Bob Klahn’s name, I conveniently spilled my beer on the paper.
Nice to see Uncle Tupelo in the grid, a band that cleaved into one solid and one excellent spawn.
Mark
Paula Gamache usually kills me! I’m not sure what it is, I can just never mind-meld with her.
Oh, and Joon, your most recent Saturday NYT was pretty brutal, too — lots of chances to put to wrong answers in (and I thought I was so smart for getting GOLGI BODY off of just one letter!)
Brendan, any reason you put the theme entries vertically rather than horizontally this time?
Well, BEQ usually gives ME a hard time…all of the current-culture clues, rock bands, and such. I didn’t pay much attention to bands when I was young, and now that I’m Really Old….
I permit Googles with your puzzles, though these do not always help me; with most puzzles/constructors, I only Google if I have given up. CATRIG, for instance– Googling did not help; I think it should have been HOWDYDO, and KOOLANDTHE GANG were last to go in. Worse, when I click for Solution, I get only a blank box on my screen, so I can never be sure I’ve really solved.
Yep, I’d say YOU are up there next to KLAHN. Of course, you include words that won’t make it into the NYT…
I can’t believe no one has mentioned
stan Newman (or one of his alias by-lines). Some of his Saturday Stumper’s give me fits, but they’re always great puzzles.
Ditto, BEQ. Klahn is my daddy. I took his Saturday around with me for a few days before finally giving up yesterday (Monday), still with a few empty spots. Some constructers I “get”: you, Nothnagel, Quarfoot, Tracey, Berry. I got nothing on Klahn (although I’m working on it). The Koufax analogy is beautiful.
A close friend of mine “gets” Klahn and I’ll never forget one Saturday morning when we were both at a recording session (we’re both musicians) and had the NYT Klahn in front of us while we waited for the drums to be miked. Ten minutes later, my friend is done, and I’ve got like three words filled in. SO depressing. I don’t think I finished that particular puzzle until Sunday night.
Klahn definitely! I did a backdoor google on the Sat. puzzle and I don’t google. I really wanted LOLA ALBRIGHT for the Gunn girl so I googled her name to see why she wouldn’t fit. Turns out she was the actress that played EDIE HART. Took me a couple of days to finish that one.
That said, Henry Hook has a tendency to throw in one or two WTF crosses in his Sun. Globe puzzles just to let you know who’s the boss.
And, on the last cruise I took on Holland American, there were three Sun. puzzles on plexiglass tables in the library. The BEQ was the only one I tanked. (I suspect you didn’t get any $$$ for that one Brendan).
Are ya kidding me? I got so much royalty money from that I used the legal tender to start the fire in the fireplace!
Is anyone still here?
That would be Klahn for me too, gave up on Sat. after 45 minutes, also fought tooth and nail to get as far as I did, despite long gimmes at ODALISQUE, NANCYDREW and ELDORADO… Was left with 16 blocks unfilled in the top-left MAAS/ONME then FROT/YAZO with DION and ITSA… filled in. Kind of embarrassing couldn’t get 1D or remember 2D, the rest of it OMG. Now if 1A was “Tasty fermented milk drink” maybe… But as I said elsewhere, Klahn is still my favorite clue writer… he just does things his own way, guess that’s what makes ’em so hard too.
This crossword: Only Winston of the 5 cigarette brands is AFAIK available here in S.A. Not that I smoke, but got enough friends / relatives who do. Common brands here: Peter Stuvesant , Marlboro, Camel, Mills, Lucky Strike, etc. I think most are American, I guess just not all of the brands make it here.
Very interesting Bob Klahn interview from Zhouqin, including his clue-writing mojo: http://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/2009/08/interview-with-bob-klahn_24.html
Stan Newman. When he’s in full-on “Saturday Stumper by S.N.” mode, I’m as good as dead. Senor Klahn’s NYT Saturdays are not as hard for me — I can usually get at least *one* quadrant of a Klahn Saturday and be reasonably certain I nailed that one quadrant. Not so with Newman!
Ah, thanks for all the love, Brendan and company! It =is= love, isn’t it? 🙂
Some of you may be interested in my new book, “The Wrath of Klahn Crosswords,” which comes out in less than a month, and can be pre-ordered now. There’s a link to it at my ancient Web site, http://bobklahn.home.comcast.net . As I wrote in the book’s intro, “You should find [my puzzles] tortuous but not torturous. They should double your pleasure, not trouble your leisure. They may seem diabolical, but should not threaten a single follicle. And they should be enjoyable without being too … ‘Oy!’-able.”
One caveat: If you’re a regular solver of my puzzles, you will probably recognize some of them.