ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ PROGRESSIVE THINKING]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ PROGRESSIVE THINKING]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
There are definitely going to be a few spoilers, so consider this a warning. Turn back now. You’ve been warned!
So, I was a little disappointed to hear I didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize today. You’d think with all I’ve done with this here blog, with my international rabid following, I could have sworn I would have been a shoo-in. Well, there’s always next year.
But let’s face it, I really just wanted to talk about prog rock. I sent out a request for some suggestions of prog rock I should be listening to, and the following friends stepped up big time: Phil Grenier, Geoff Hayton, and Amy Reynaldo. You thought you were just telling what to put on the iPod? You should know better than that! Besides, I already had most of that stuff. Except for Hawkwind. The jury’s still out on that one.
Fun BEQ-related prog rock fact #1: my parents’s first date was at a Yes concert. The “Close to the Edge” tour. This probably tells you all you need to know about me and my upbringing.
Fun BEQ-related prog rock fact #2: I was kicked out of a NYC bar for singing Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” at some punk rock karaoke nigh. (Rush was punk rock? Who knew?) Apparently there was a no-Rush policy implemented by the party who had put together the karaoke night. If you sang Rush, you had to buy everyone in the bar a drink. I was unaware of that bullshit rule, sang the song, and when I refused to pay up, was asked to leave.
Thanks to all who helped me compile seed entries for this puzzle. And thanks to David Wild for his prize-winning donation during last week’s drive. Miraculously, his name was friendly enough to hide in the grid. (4- and 9-Across)
Share the puzzle! There will be a post on Monday!
OK, the first two letters of 47A knocked me out. [Yankees broadcaster], (something) NETWORK? How the hell should I know what the Yankees broadcaster is called? 47D: [Montana has 40,551: Abbr.] killed me. I was thinking of the state (RDS.?) but that was wrong. 48D: [It’s the same as an F], (something) SHARP, gotta be in A through G, but I don’t know which letter is right because musical notation is so far out of my wheelhouse, I don’t even know the way to that wheelhouse. RGS NETWORK? Er, no. I stopped the clock and went to Brendan’s Facebook post to see what bands people suggested, looking for 3-letter names other than ELO. Still didn’t see the answer. Eventually it dawned on me that Montana = quarterback Joe, that 40,551 would be too high a number for TDS, and the answer was YDS. Y*S, duh, YES NETWORK. Which I still don’t know anything about. Why would I know that? Hmph. Also? I don’t have a place in my head where I store members of the set “prog rock bands.”
35a is an awesome entry, and causes me to think of some possible puzzle themes:
– minimal vowel words: hrbek, borscht, knopf
– repeating letters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_with_uncommon_properties#Many_repeated_letters
indignation noted. on the other hand, i don’t think you can really profess surprise that sports, sports, music, and music clues are intersecting in a BEQ puzzle.
for future reference: sharp means higher, flat means lower. higher than E means F.
This has been one of my favorite BEQ puzzles. I really liked all the theme entries (including my additions of QUEEN and DAVID [I’m counting that as Bowie]) and any mention of one of the Zappa progeny is an automatic 5-star rating. But, it is the subtleties of the crosses that makes it for me. AUDIO crosses BOSE, YDS crosses RUSH, WHOLE foods over RINDS, Henry James entry crosses DYNAMO, you also get MOP and SPILL in the same grid but that’s not really the same thing. I don’t know if any of those are intentional but it was cool finding them while looking over the grid.
YES Network = Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network… learn it, live it, love it!
Had no idea about the Montana clue til I read this… double D’OH!!
Let’s go YANKEES!!!!
I am strangely comforted to have had a very similar experience as Amy. Except that I had two other miscues: the first time around I convinced myself that Sonic was a GENESIS NAME (which prevented me from getting Mr Happy Pencil while screwing around with RGS NETWORK); and my mnemonic for remembering the chess rating system at 36a is the band ELO, but somehow I put this in without connecting it to the theme, which might have helped me with YES NETWORK. My bad(s).
Could somebody please explain the theme to me?
@Conglo: the first words of the long entries are the name of progressive rock bands: Genesis, Traffic, ELO, Yes, Rush. Such bands were known to have a weakness for flute solos, hence the subtitle.
And don’t forget the bonus QUEEN at 58-Across. Though I don’t recall ever hearing a flute in either a Queen or a Yes song.
Flutes did someone mention flutes? Where’s Jethro Tull well I guess they aren’t prog rock. My problem areas were the QBS/BINET and EMO/KNOPA crossings. I got the theme so once I got NETWORK, I looked for a 70’s rock band and then Montana clue made sense.
Thought ELO was ELP, the kings of progressive rock self indulgence. Great puzzle!
I don’t think Queen were prog. No concept albums, no weird instruments.
I loved this puzzle, though I, too, got stuck at the crossing of YESNETWORK and YDS and had to guess (fortunately, I got Mr. Happy Puzzle!). Excellent fill and cluing.
(And I actually finished, without errors, which is more than I can say for many recent BEQ puzzles. :} Probably it would help if I got more sleep, of course.)
Was Eric Burdon prog rock? “Spill the wine” was the first flute I ever heard in a chart song, and even tho it was several decades ago that riff is burnt in my brain.
Cool theme. Didn’t make *any* sense to me until my final letter: the Y in YES network.