ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SORRY, WRONG NUMBER]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SORRY, WRONG NUMBER]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I’ve been wrapping up the manuscript for next years Oprah’s Book Club-approved book “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Crosswords.” I nearly had a heart attack as I thought that I’d reused one of the themes from one of my old Time Out New York puzzles for another puzzle that ran in the Times. They were similar in that it was ad a letter, but TONY’s was just add the letter straight up and the Times had a new spelling after the letter was added. Whew. If you rip somebody else off, that’s called “plagiarism.” But if you rip yourself off, that’s called “style.”
But you wanna know who’s got style? Why the following folk who stepped up big in my tweet-along-with-me-while-I-make-Friday’s-puzzle-marathon: Sean (No last name given), the tastefully-named Brendan Sullivan (thanks for spelling it the right way), Francis Heaney and Ben Zimmer. Thanks everybody. The fruit of our labors are up above. Follow these folks, fokls.
While I’m already linking to other people, the new Kurt Vile record is amazing. You can and should listen to it (for free) here.
Lastly, I just wanted to thank all who were able to contribute some funds to the blog. It costs a little bit to keep the site running smoothly, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you haven’t given already, and you liked the puzzles this month, and you have a little bit extra in your piggy bank, contributions of any size would be greatly appreciated. And as a thank you, I will put the full name of one lucky donor in a puzzle next week. Even if you can’t give, you can help me out by telling five new people about how awesome this site is. (C’mon, three free crosswords a week? Plus I’m tipping you off about all the hip bands before every else is? Who’s your daddy?)
Speaking of that: Share the puzzle! New one on Monday. It’ll be themeless, and I’m going to try and make it mind-bogglingly hard. And I promise to rip off my own style with it too.
I soo had it, from the bottom up, but got kilt at “casually looks”. When I finally revealed, and re-read the clue, someone said ‘you bastard’ (mighta been me).
Fun solve. Dunno TWOA. Almost gave up in “Focus”, all I had was ___OIN.
I’m surprised 36a wasn’t clued with a Pavement reference
fun puzzle but felt uneven: top was easy, bottom was medium. i notice this with a lot of your blog puzzles, as if you set out to make it one level, and then halfway down the grid you think, i’m not making this hard enough. anyway, not complaining.
I had about ten scattered squares that were medium-hard, and the rest of the puzzle easy-medium. Rate that! Thanks for the puzzle.
Despite (essentially) knowing the theme, I still had trouble with this one! Fill was tougher than expected. Kudos for that phenomenon.
@anna It’s Wowee Zowee, tho…
Same here. (I think it didn’t help that I had “zoom in” instead of ZERO IN, but I almost got stuck in the SW. Got it eventually but with a time so pathetic I ain’t posting it. :))
Re: Fireplaces puzzle….as a 73-year-old mother of six and grandmother of twelve, I’m almost ashamed to admit I laughed out loud at six down…(ExLax). Note I said, ALMOST. Thanks for a fun puzzle. MK
Ok, I’m not getting the theme, is it that leaf, man, and foot (and louse, and die) are acting as verbs instead of nouns?
Great clues: “Fly to the midpoint?” and “Mouth guards?”
@JQuigley, yes, the verbs in the entries could also be nouns, but if they were, they would be written in the “wrong number” (see the title). That is, LOUSES should have been “lice,” etc.
I’m amazed and delighted to learn that Mt. Fuji can be seen from Tokyo in good weather.
I don’t understand how THO (53A) is “Kind of, rough?”.