ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS WEDNESDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS WEDNEDSAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I also have today’s puzzle in The Onion which you can download here:
[Across Lite] or [PDF].
Back when I was in high school (you know, the stone ages) I took art as an elective. The reasons were manifold. I had to choose between art or Latin or wood shop. Seeing as I can barely speak English as it is and don’t need to butcher another language, and you don’t want to see me operating a table saw, the choice was obvious. And, apparently, at one point in my childhood, I must have drawn a crude stick figure that must have resembled some kind of human-form and some encouraging teacher felt I had “talent.”
Anyway, our art teacher (you know the real classic so-much-style-that-it’s-wasted/crazy-spooky art teacher) gave us these exercises at the start of every year wherein we were to create with Sharpies black and white designs on pre-cut square sheets of paper. The idea behind the exercise was to emphasize the theoretical: have a focal point (preferably away from the center of the page), allow for movement through the piece, balance the design, etc. Needless to say, half the kids were trying to get high inhaling the fumes of the Sharpie markers. And virtually every composition just looked like swirly scribbles. Which was fine with the teacher. (This BTW was typical of my approach to academia. The I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-so-why-not-just-kowtow-to-what-the-teacher-is-looking-for approach.)
Years later and shortly after my first puzzle ran in the Times, I mailed a copy of the crossword to her and affixed a note saying to the effect: “all those years of doing the black and white designs on square paper paid off.”
When I make a themeless puzzle, I don’t normally design grids first. Usually I’m agreeing to the pattern as I’m filling in the words. (This is not the case with themed puzzles as I have to consider every possibility for entries crossing the theme.) But, as an exercise, I sometimes start with the pattern first, as was the case here. I only point it out today as I think today’s blog puzzle has a striking design. As is usually the case when I do the pattern first, words second, the fill somewhat suffers, but I think I lucked out with this one as well. Hope y’all enjoy it.
Share the puzzle and see you on Friday.
Very easy puzzle for you. Took me only a minute longer than today’s NYT. I knew to be on the lookout for HLG, so that made the bottom a lot easier than it might have been. Solid puzzle overall. Love OUI, MONSIEUR. Had no idea there were INFERIOR PLANETS. Does that mean they’re closer to the sun than we are? Or do they just suck?
rp
I think they’re planets that other planets rip on. Love that HLG factoid, since you brought it up.
ery nice! I also thought it was pretty easy for you. I didn’t have to bang my head against the keyboard like i usually do… had INTERIOR PLANETS for a while though. only one truly nasty piece of crosswordese and the rest was sparkling.
I recognize the grid as a variation on one you ran in the Times a couple years ago (the design was quite memorable). This puzzle’s 99% good. The other 1%? BACILLI are bacteria, which made 1 -Across pretty hard to get for a while even with 4 out of 7 crosses filled in
While I applaud not going the obvious route with 46-Across, I think the clue settled on might be disputed: http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2009/07/mark-steyns-white-pride.html (I don’t mean to drag partisan leanings into this: this page was just the second link I found.)
Looked at the grid and was sure I was screwed but the ‘Oui, Monsieur!” broke the whole thing open for me. Thanks for that gift, Brendan. Loved the clue “Exhausted parts” and the timeliness of Dr. Gates. “Take care of the dishes?” was a wonderful clue for “Spring for dinner.”
Love the “They might be Giants” clue.
Thanks, brah.
I’ll take 99%.
My blog: fair and balanced.
Was pretty proud of the SPRING FOR DINNER clue.
The clue salvaged an otherwise crap entry.
The NW was almost all new words for me; LOGY, CARA, ALPH, BACCILI. Didn’t help that I tried A DUB and DOWN before getting IT IN. What I love is that this themeless, while hard for me, still mixes a wide variety of material, from the 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama to the HLG retroactive nod. Even that tricky NW corner goes from STC to TLC… credit where credit is due. And a nice pattern indeed.
Dude! 1-Across’s clue is 100% wrong. BACILLI are bacteria. Virologists study viruses. Bacteria ≠ viruses.
V. nice 15s, though!
Thanks man
This clue has since been corrected.
Pretty grid + one of the greatest theatrical experiences of my life (ANGELS… at ACT in SF) = 5 stars.
Belated congrats on the century mark!
Thanks dude. I plan eventually on seeing this.
Pretty easy for a BEQ, though I did stumble around in the Bacilli region for a while.
I wonder if some Planets get to feeling so Inferior, like Pluto, they just drop out.
“The Whiskey Ain’t Working”…LOL!! I might have to iTunes that one!
Great puzzle…nice and doable! Now I can go back to working on Monday’s themeless…
Just an okay puzzle for me in terms of the fill, and an easy one at that. Stuff like ‘teer’ is really awful. I know fill like ‘Nlers’ can be found in a lot of puzzles, I’m just not a fan. Henie should probably be clued as ‘legendary skater’ or something similar as opposed to big name in skating. She was big about 80 years ago 😉 I did like the clue for ‘Spring for…’ and ‘Earls’ among others. Anyway look forward to Friday’s offering.
You should start taking submissions for Tuesday and Thursday puzzles! We need more of these edgy, hard puzzles in our lives.
I think it’s something like that.
Thanks.
Fair nuff. Thanks for chiming in.
Leave ’em wanting more, that’s what they say. (I might be convinced to reconsider with filthy lucre, tho.)
Counted as pretty easy for me too–couple of big gimmes there, but those can be fun too. 30A because that’s a great record, 54A because I do a bit of amateur astronomy, and 46A because it brought back fond memories of grad school. HLG was just coming to Hahvahd and gave a talk on something pop-culturish, might have even been specifically about the 2 Live Crew thing, but in any case that ended up being the major topic in the Q&A afterward.
I had a couple of stumbles early on in this one that made it a little more fun too. LAZY for LOGY slowed me up, and was a happy fix, “logy” being a much better word. For a guy who “barely speaks one language” you do okay. And RAITT for TRITT–had the TT, the “I” seemed to confirm it, and not knowing the tune it seemed like a likely enough song title for her. Gotta go hit iTunes now…
Some of the fill left something to be desired, but I,m starting to become enough of an appreciator of the aesthetics of construction (as opposed to rip-through-it speed solving) that it doesn’t really bother me as much any more.
Also, when you can refresh a dead fish like NLERS with a great new clue, well, that’s what sets you apart on my short list of can’t-miss constructors.
Initially put in lazy for LOGY and a conversation ensued about how absolutely “loose” you were getting with the language…
Then I resumed doing the puzzle.
Never mind.
Like Willis Tower, props for the timely Henry Louis Gates! Nice.
XXX (non-spoiler)!!?? Shame on me for not noticing the constructor on the Onion site. I wondered why it was so *clean* today :-)).
Great puzzle today, and your “medium” is usually a “hard” for me, but I’m getting on your wavelength. I don’t post times – it’d be embarrassing.
Did this one from the bottom up, found the lower half filled instantly, but couldn’t get all of the top half over lunch. Thanks for putting 30 in, one of the great albums of all time (saw David Byrne a few months ago in a show and he did half the album!). Last in was ELEVEN AM and LUNT, hadn’t heard of the latter and was scratching to get the former.
Been gone for a while, but I really appreciate the puzzle. Had to give up on BACILLI and HENRY LUIS GATES, and as good as SPHERES is as word, your cluing made it a nightmare for me to find.
This was great, and it all went pretty smoothly! I’ll just have to echo what everyone else is saying, I guess. A bit easier than usual (wayyyy less brutal than Monday’s themeless — sports questions stump me every time) but no less enjoyable. LOGY was a new one for me.
I used to get my news from Comedy Central; now I get them from your puzzles! (you can use that as a testimonial if you want)
Solved each part of this trinity from the bottom up, like walking through a church past the black crosses. This explains how I finished with the Vatican-based bacteria (BASILLA).
Nothing like having 15s as the gimmes in a themeless, which is usually the case when you stack them. Glad you liked it.
See what I said to Will above.
Up-to-date!
Hey now! Are you calling me a sailor mouth?
Feel free to post your times. Everybody on that Leaderboard is a winner in my mind.
I like so many bands that are clearly influenced by the Talking Heads … but they themselves don’t do much for me. Am I an asshat? “Fear of Music” is BY FAR their best record. I’ll never understand why people think “Remain In Light” is the measuring stick.
Sorry, brah.
It’s educational!
Jeez, now you’re telling me I have to keep reading the news and putting those references to it in the puzzles? Okay! Sign me up!
Sunk by Talking Heads…oh the shame. Was convinced that “Fear of Magic” coulda been a David Byrne thing…
I’ve juggled balls, but I don’t think I’ve ever juggled SPHERES. Thanks for the puzzle.
Holy crap, I hit one button and the whole puzzle filled in! Super easy. Either that or I need to figure out how to work that solving software.
Took me a while to get here but, yea, verily, find it diggable.
Welcome Wade, hope to see more of you in the comments.
Do you juggle cubes?
If you’re talking about Whig Presidents, it’s Fil*l*more, two L’s. (I’d figured it was a misleading clue and they must be baseball players or something.)
Loved SPRING FOR DINNER and “They might be Giants”, though!