ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SWINGER’S PARTY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SWINGER’S PARTY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Today marks another episode in the “Behind The Puzzle.” So for those who may be new to the blog and don’t want an spoilers like why I clued NANCY PELOSI in that scandalous way, you might want to save this read for some other time.
(That joke about spilling the beans of fictional entries never gets old.)
Okay, so last Friday’s puzzle, if you recall, was a gauntlet dropped down by Matt Gaffney. He wondered could he make a puzzle if he was given an entry (that was supposed to be part of the theme) provided by a third-party. He also asked me to do the same experiment. Rex Parker provided the seed entry HATCHET MAN and we were off.
Okay, BEQ, we knew this already. We did these puzzles last week. What’s the deal? Well the deal is the puzzle I posted above was supposed to be the gimmick I used for my HATCHET MAN puzzle.
I had a bitch of a time trying to figure out what to do with Rex’s suggestion. I knew I simply could not, and would not, use phrases beginning with synonyms for knives. (Incidentally, Matt’s first pass at the puzzle involved that gimmick. Totally fair, totally fine, but we were both wanting some sort of “juicier” puzzles.) But try as I did, I just couldn’t drop the cutting implement idea. Tried some free writing, and that didn’t get me anywhere. Even listened to Slayer’s “Reign In Blood,” to try and get me into that HATCHET-esque mood. Nope, I was still stuck on blades.
Until I thought: hey, you have to swing a blade, or HATCHET, in order to use it. Why not have a list of people who use the activity of “swinging” in some form or another and call it “Swinger’s Party?” My stubborn mind was reprogrammed, and dammit, that was what this puzzle was going to be. Had to be.
Except, HATCHET MAN is a metaphorical term. There’s no actual hatchet involved, and certainly firing somebody doesn’t involve swinging at all. Panic hit me once again. Now the stubbornness meant I couldn’t reject that concept of the “swingers” party. It wasn’t until I brainstormed with Liz and she who came up with (a) the wonderful idea that HATCHET MAN sounded like a superhero and (b) with the equally-funny HIGH FIVE crime-fighting team. The moral, as always, is, when you’re stuck with something, ask your wife to do it.
But, I still felt the “swingers party” gimmick was worth pursuing, as evidenced above. I substituted LUMBERJACK for HATCHET MAN (as that was what I really meant when I came up with the gimmick in the first place) and went ahead with that theme as planned.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
I would rate this one as medium myself. I got the answer APE before Tarzan and was hoping to see the Great Grape Ape, but it didn’t fit the other boxes. Plus he was more of a climber than a swinger.
I really liked LALALAND clue. I got stuck on LINDY HOPPER. Also, what’s an L bar?
First time commenter (I think), but I did this one early so no one said what I thought yet…
Absolutely loved the clue for FIN. It had the perfect amounts of WTF-ness while I was staring at F_N, then as I ran through the alphabet to get the crossing WII (which was in itself excellent) I still didn’t get it until afterwards, when I thought “That’s brilliant!”
Great use of interesting clues but no impossible trivia or very lateral clues crossing each other. I’d call this a moderate, especially compared to the last few of yours I’ve done. But still, five stars. And LINDYHOPPER, excellent inclusion there.
Also, kudos on keeping the three-letter extensions of 24-Across as symmetric theme entries. People notice that.
I had the FI_ and also had to run through the alphabet to find my ABE synonym.
Didn’t realize the full beauty of the FIN clue until reading the comments; I knocked that out with the crosses (but I did relish immediately starting 31D with “WINE…”; the BEQ sensibility is starting to become more automatic.)
Loved cluing for WII.
I can’t be the only one who entered MONKEES for 25D initially.
And I can’t find L-BAR in a quick Google search, so that may be a bit too obscure to be fair.
I took LBAR on faith. Liked this puzzle a lot. But in 7 flat, felt more Easy-Medium (isn’t it annoying when commenters spend so much of their time questioning your difficulty rating? Isn’t it? Huh?).
Nice modern cluing on LUNA and ARCTIC. ALICIA too. Why I managed to see through the (nice) “cabs” trick so quickly, I don’t know. Dumb luck. Still, left me only with WINE … as BAR and TASTING wouldn’t fit, I had to wait.
My daughter loves everything “ARCHIE.” We are awaiting the 5-issue arc this fall where he proposes to (marries?) Veronica.
rp
Great puzzle, and I agree with the rating. That Roman numeral clue gave me fits. I kept coming up with 1400 and thought you’d transposed the LX. I knew you were going for the band the B-52s, but the puzzle had me convinced they were from some Ohio town (I couldn’t shake XENIA, which I think was in one of your recent puzzles.) First rate.
I at first had TBAR as a gimme which naturally meant the crossing had to be TEENYBOPPER, an entry I can’t ever recall having seen in a puzzle before. I was sure that Brendan was on the cutting edge of freshness. You got me good.
Never Mind. Wrong crossing. But I still liked TEENYBOPPER.
Off the L in 35A I guessed LOONYBIN for 35D; no such luck, but the idea left in my head served me well for 39D. Also somehow had ZENDA at 50D, until I realized that NUMBERJACK doesn’t make sense.
I believe that the basis for the clue for 1D was also just used in Who Wants to be a Millionaire – sometimes my junky TV watching pays off.
Nope, you weren’t the only one.
Speaking of CORNBINs, it is that time out here in Iowa when grilled corn and ale stand in for all the shrinks who vacate during the month of August. Between the corn and your puzzles, hardly anyone lifts their heads.
This was a fine one with the Abe-FIN and cab-WINEPARTY correlations mentioned.
Also, haven’t “necked” in years, so that was a nice jog.
CHINUP and HARDNOSED were good to see together, too – addled my workout!
you know, the thing about the WINE PARTY clue is that it makes perfect sense if you think of cab = taxicab. i mean, you’re planning to imbibe, so you don’t want your car there because you won’t be driving home. right? that’s how i took it, anyway. i also saw cab = cabernet, but then i kind of wondered if there was a way to combine the two into one übermetaclue.
Wow, I had the exact same experience with LOONY BIN and NUMBER JACK. I didn’t get the ZELDA/LUMBERJACK crossing fixed until I was done with the rest of the puzzle
For some reason, I too thought they were from Ohio. And, having just seen the Breeders last night (awesome!), I instantly thought of DAYTON. I resisted filling it in, as I was earlier trapped by an overzealous fill of MAD MAX for 46-D.
Not so fond of RESAW or AOLER, but that’s just nitpicky.
I loved this puzzle! But to touch on Rex’s point…I had to sit and wait somewhere for like 30 minutes, so I printed out a nice “hard” BEQ and brought it along with me…I finished that sucker in 10 minutes flat! (and I’m slow!)
And I was looking for NANCYPELOSI too, lol!
It did give me 20 minutes to admire the great fill in this one (ATTILA / MATILDA…WII / OUI)…and even the couple of clunky words (AOLER / RESAW) were clued so smooth that I got them without any crosses. Great job!
Loved the Oxygen clue. I only hesitated because I rarely get chemistry in my crosswords. ENOL does not count, that is just rote to people now. And right next to that clue was 6D which I also just wrote in instantly. Must be catching on to the BEQ cluing. Oh wait, I wrote in PEACH for 50D and was ever so confident too. Damn.
I do not get 34A… A little help? Are was talking about drugs, or the thing you cook in?
Since I mentioned last puzzle that “Wire” references were an automatic five-star, I thought this might be pandering…nah, still an automatic five-star, plus bonus points for Zelda. Fin didn’t throw me at all though…I feel like I’ve seen that clue, or ones of its ilk, quite often.
Still, fun puzzle, really enjoyed it.
I killed this one!
Not really. Another humbling, but fun, exercise. In fact, your “Hard” rating may have understated it for me. Maybe next time . . .
Once I caught on to the theme, I was hoping for “arborist” in there somewhere. Maybe next time . . .
I would have liked the RESAW answer better if it had been clued via lumber, which actually does get resawn sometimes (though spellcheck disagrees). Maybe next time . . .
thanks, as always
You sit when you watch The Wire?
enjoyed this puzzle thoroughly. i have exactly one quibble: you need some other kind of clue for HYPHENS. double-hyphens often are used when an em-dash is called for but not available (as in email when everything’s ASCII, or simply because the typeface doesn’t include the character). an em-dash is not, however, for that, “made up” up hyphens.
There is an ATHENS, OH, and like ATHENS, GA, it is also a college town (Ohio U.).
Hey Steveo. Thanks for sharing, and hope to see you more in the comments section.
When I originally made this one, it was mad tough. Probably way tougher than it eventually became. I’ve been noticing that the first pass is decidedly way too hard and then eased up. I’ll try and get it right.
Glad you like the modern stuff.
Absolutely love the Breeders. One of the truly great underrated/sadly ignored ’90s bands.
I have NANCY PELOSI in a half-finished crossword. May/may not finish it. Oh well.
I’m totally known for cheap “Wire” refs.
Re: RESAW, gotta try something new now and again.
They were at one point. Oh well, everything can’t be modern. 😛
Excellent puzzle and nifty behind-the-scenes revelations.
The whole question of ‘fictional bands’ is interesting (Max Frost and the Troopers, Gorillaz, etc.) The Archies, however, remain the gold standard.