ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
“Sports Illustrated” columnist Peter King wrote in his Monday Morning Quarterback column today: “My goal in life is to be a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle. I’ve never told anyone that, but it’s true.” It seems like an odd goal in life. You’re already a premier sports reporter and TV personality, Peter. Aren’t you already famous? At least, well-known in the sports market? Is the crossword infamy really necessary? It would be fleeting fame at best.
Let me share a story.
The management for my old band, The Campaign For Real-Time, was this lovely husband and wife team. Now, Gail was a huge crossword fan, and we’d talk puzzles in between band stuff. She told me once that she was thrilled to find her daughter, Christine Elise, was a clue in a Times puzzle by Manny Nosowsky. You see, Christine’s an actress, best known as Emily Valentine on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Manny’s clue reflected this, so Gail framed a copy and sent it to Christine. Fast forward a couple years: The Campaign’s out in L.A., and Christine’s having us over at her house. I asked her about said puzzle, and she went off to get it. If memory serves, it was at the bottom of a waist-high pile of assorted stuff covered in a inch-thick layer of dust. The moral? The “fame” as a crossword clue/entry is fleeting at best, and almost guaranteed to become quickly forgotten.
Then again, Christine’s not much of a puzzle person.
Let’s reflect back to this puzzle. My wife was front and center in that puzzle, and a grand total of nobody has stopped her on the street because of it. (Oh, speaking of Liz, Happy Birthday!)
Anyway, Peter, if you should stumble upon this blog, we’re getting on it. You’ll probably be a clue in a puzzle on this blog first. Just saying.
Share the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.
What a great puzzle today! Any puzzle that starts with SIR MIX-A-LOT and proceeds to a stack including POPEMOBILE and GOOGLE MAPS is AOK in my book…
Great puzzle. I found it pretty difficult, but that may just be because the software doesn’t run well on my system.
37D threw me for a loop. I had KILLIANS (a red lager) for a long time, and would never have gotten the correct answer, since by definition, an ALE is not a LAGER. Something like “Smithwicks, e.g.” would probably make more sense as a clue for that one.
More information on this than anyone needs to know: http://www.realbeer.com/library/beerbreak/archives/beerbreak20001130.php
I found the top 2/3 reasonably easy but the bottom right very tough. With the G as the first letter, I thought 69-across would start with GPS, and thought 48-down would be SLALOM.
Brendan, have you ever thought about posting these at night, like the NYT, instead of in the AM? I would give them more time but I start to feel guilty if I don’t start working, so I give up and look at the answers. (Of course, I could just delay starting the puzzle until the evening, but I have terrible self-control.)
very solid puzzle. felt bigger than its dimensions, which i take to be a reflection of the diversity of the cluing and the answers and the fact that it was bursting with entertainment value.
one question: isn’t an irish ale…an ale? (ie, not a lager?) didn’t trip me up too bad, but still felt off.
Just to chime in about ale. As a homebrewer, I make a lot of ales but never lagers. Ales are top fermented (much easier to brew at home) while lagers are bottom-fermented. (Need greater temperature control). For what it’s worth, all mass-produced American beers are lagers.
So yeah, that clue tripped me up a little. An example of too much knowledge sometimes making things harder!
I had a similar experience that I found the top easier and the bottom more problematic. I had the right sport but wrote in SKIING for SUPER G. I also thought Nasser’s first name was ABDUL for some reason which really mucked me up.
‘Actress Annabella’ along with the clue about Paris Hilton’s boyfriend just wrecked me. I don’t follow that stuff, so no chance here. The rest of the puzzle? Crunchy, chewy stuff. Well done.
*David* – same SUPERG issue here.
Matt M. – Seconded.
Same here about Irish ale being clued as a lager.
Kinda like cluing BEATLESFORSALE as “1965 Rolling Stones album”. Not really, but you know what I mean.
Same thing here, David. ABDUL. Had SKIRUN first then, with the G in place, SKIING.
Also, had ILLTREATS, then MALTREATS ’til finally MISTREATS.
The word POPEMOBILE always makes me smile for some reason.
I plodded merrily through 3/4 of the puzzle–ooh look, XEROX! POPEMOBILE!–until I hit the bottom left, and left in MALTREATS for too long and just in general slowed down, especially hitting dead spots with the beer and the boyfriend. Great puzzle overall.
I think Abdul was his middle name. What an odd thing to remember.
Anyone taking 60 seconds to Google “Irish Ale” would see that Irish Red Ale is a name given to a certain style of beer, and ironically enough, some of them are….drumroll, please……LAGERS!!
So, 37D is valid after all…but even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t have bothered me (and I’m a bartender!). What did bother me was the ugly short fill (OPAH, meet YMA… YMA, meet OPAH)…but to have such lovely triple stacks, on a Monday no less…I’ll ignore them!!
ASKER … NIPPIER … fail. That is, *I* fail. Puzzle seems just fine.
rp
Medium for me. Problems with spelling SCIORRA, and, like Rex, tried NIPPIER but was able to recover. Great puzzle with some really fun fill!
can we focus less on the puzzle and more on the fact that BEQ met emily valentine… an integral part of possibly the best story line ever in 90210 which involved her “dosing” jason priestly with the designer drug U4EA which was sold to them by a bouncer wearing a shirt with the name of the drug in large letters on it ( hey must have skipped past the guys with the “heroin” and “crack” t-shirts..) all of this ultimately built up to her setting fire to the gangs homecoming float… up there with the “how can you talk to an angel” dude pushing tori spelling down a flight of stairs and kelly getting a lesbian stalker (… her constant choice of overalls was supposed to clearly demonstrate that she was gay) who set fire to her apartment… great show. so many wasted hours of my life….
Haha… I’ve never seen the show. But I can vouch that Christine is awesome. A throwback to the old Boston hardcore scene.
I’m not particularly a Peter King fan, nor do I particularly follow this blog (though I do appreciate your work as a constructor). But I had to comment on this post to say that I love it, love it, love it when the Times puzzle shows a bit of humanity and levity. Fantastic puzzle on 10/25/09, sir. Thanks!