ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
We’ve reached the century mark. And they said it would never last! Harrumph! Okay let’s get busy.
Uh, no. Wait. One more small point before I go into the nitty gritty. Kevin Der, you made a great puzzle for the Times yesterday. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I had thought about making that same theme. So there’s a tiny bit of sour grapes, but no matter. It happens more often then we’d like to admit. And you did a great, great job. Please make more, will you? I know you only work at Pixar, there’s got to be plenty of time to creatively loaf at that job.
Oh, yeah, I forgot. (So I guess that’s two points) I will not only be attending Lollapuzzoola in Queens next month, I have a puzzle in said tournament. Lollapuzzoola, for those who don’t already know, is the (now) annual “other” crossword competition run by the inimitable blog celebs Ryan and Brian (I did a podcast with them a couple week ago). It’s on August 22, and you can read more about it, and sign up, here. Hope to see you there.
Loads of stuff I wanted to debut in a puzzle (1-Across, and 3- and 42-Down specifically). Thought I was the first with 45-Down, but my boy Natan Last said he’d already done that. Bastard! Gotta wake up especially early if you want to beat the youth at their own game. Anyway, the grid shape wasn’t something I would have set out to fill in. It’s kinda homely and it’s got a few too many sections and/or three letters. I think it’s fairly solid construction, on the whole. The SE was a little on the dodgy side. 57-Across at one point was going to be Amiri BARAKA, but I wasn’t in love with the threes going down. 35-Across is a little hairy too, but hopefully the crossings are cake (26-Down might be the trickiest cross). As for cluing, my favorite was 37-Across, though I do love the quote I found for 18-Across.
Hope you enjoyed it. New puzzle on Wednesday.
Yesterday’s NYT puzzle was the best in weeks (no lame pun-theme, for one), but there were way, way, way too many movies in the puzzle. I’m plenty OK with cultural references of course, but film is one cultural medium, not the *only* one…
(Plus side: No Harry Potter!!)
Happy centennial. For 35-across, you were right in thinking the crosses were no problem. I got slowed down at 1-across putting TIMESUCK for TIMESINK (I think some others will probably do the same thing) though. Quick nitpick: I always think of CRUSH as an Orange drink (or maybe its REM controlling my mind) and not really a cola.
Favorite parts of the puzzle: EN GARDE reminds me of “Most Dangerous Game”, money quote at 18-across, ultra-timeliness of 3-down, the clue for 47-across (Intentionally or not, whenever the Zappa children are alluded to, it is an awesome puzzle), and ZAPATA Viva la Revolucion!
Krushed by middle of this puzzle. ETAILER. Fuck. I hate that word even more now. Had EOS for the Homer island, and thus kept trying to make EL CID work where ILIAD was supposed to go (nice Homer/Iliad connection, btw).
Had SPEED for [It’ll keep you up].
Agree that Crush is not a COLA, and wonder why TIMESINK clue wasn’t singular. BUEHRLE was a nice gimme, so thanks for that.
rp
Per Wiki, Crush had a cola flavor. From the ’70s to the ’90s. In Kuwait. My gift to you on your 100th.
Considering I’d never seen TIMESIMK or CHILLAX before, and that I echo the oblection to the cluing of COLA, I think I did all right……
CREEL, SCONCE, GHIRARDELLI’s: my kind of puzzle!
and “Moon unit” only brings Zappa to mind so wonderful misdirection for me!
We used to laugh our heads off at “et cetera” in Elenore.
As usual, enjoyed this more than NYT’s offering today.
Much love for this one Brendan. MANCAVE and CHILLAX have crept into my vocab this summer. Thought the cluing was just right, especially liked SEASICK and QUAYLE quote.
Guess I need to read the sports page more closely, I had BUEHRLI and ELINORE.
Love CHILLAX and TIMESINK and the chocolate.
I call foul on 38-Down, though. APNEA doesn’t “keep you up,” insomnia does. People with apnea can sleep through the night, but wake up feeling unrefreshed. I have edited way too many sleep medicine papers not to call foul on some of the APNEA clues people come up with. CAMASH is wildly unfamiliar, and the song could just as easily have been ELENORA, and I don’t quite like [Moon unit]/END—nobody says they’re baring their “end” when they moon someone. So I had AP*** and some confusion until it clicked.
some really, really great fill (too many to list!) with a few real unfortunate crosses (TITI/ILKA, SHANA/CAMASH) that made this puzzle more frustrating (for me) than it should have been. agree with the chorus of nay-sayers on Crush not being a COLA. SODA would have worked, but his name isn’t Buehrdle now is it? also don’t see why 1A was made plural, though it didn’t prove too much of a hurdle once i got NEONS. four stars.
Agreed. I’ve had it up to here with the Potter.
Thanks dude.
Crush is a cola, dammit! *grumble*
Where I’m from cola is the same as soda is the same as pop. And my head test solver agreed that COLA was just clued as {Crush, e.g.}
TIMESINK?
Thanks dude.
Not one second after he threw the perfect game, a friend texted me, requesting I put him in a puzzle.
Hey now!
I’ll take four stars.
11D. “Ready to get off, say”
I had the C from CHET, so swiftly filled in: ISERECT. Sadly, I was wrong. At least I knew it “could” have been a plausible answer!
Also, wanted 47D. “Moon unit” to be CHEEK, but again, I was denied. Feel like a real perv today, and won’t comment on 1D. Oh, what the hell: Potential clues:
– “Either Pamela Anderson asset when seen in profile.”
– “Pimply teen’s name for first rocket.”
– “Titus Jr.’s father, to good friends.”
OK, time to get serious again.
I meant TIMESINK, but the point is I’d never seen it. I had TIMESUCK entered early on and it took me a while to figure out the right fix.
I had ****SINK and filled in TIMESINK but, yeah, it’s always been “time suck” where I come from. (Which is the internet, of course.)
And “soda” does not equal “cola”. Nope. Maybe in Boston but not in Bridgeport. Cola is a flavor.
As for Amy’s comment above, this is why I’ve never asked her to critique one of my puzzles. She is one hard to please woman. 😉
Never heard of MANCAVE or CHILLAX but, with some crossings in place, they made perfect sense. And I learned two new words. (Unless MANCAVE is two words. In which case I learned three.)
As for Turtles song, it counldn’t be “Happy Together” or “It Ain’t Me Babe”. “Elenore”? Funny, I’ve heard this song my whole life and never knew the name of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZofFpizK04
The top half of this puzzle hit the spot, then I reached the bottom half and…CAMASH? Also, though I hate to fault the appearance of rare letters, but two in this puzzle appear in three letter words (ZEP, REX). Boom, there goes 50% of their solving value (X is redeemed by TAX EXILE, but ZAPATA…for a themeless, it was just too easy to get that Z).
Brendan, regarding the clue for 2D (ICal), the current version now displays the day’s date all the time, not just when you have the program open…
Having once, long ago, played a World-of-Warcraft-esque like online RPG, I can say that I nailed TIMESINK quicker than I care to admit. BUEHRLE, MANCAVE, etc. were fun bonuses in there as well.
When you get a bunch of those moments while solving where you’re surprised that your first (slangy) instinct is actually *correct*, that’s kind of cool.
Happy 100th, BEQ. Been a hell of a ride so far.
ZEP was a total gimmee, ktd! At least to us chilldren of the ’70s.
In Texas everything is “Coke”.
I confidently filled in BUS STOP, confusing the Turtles with the Hollies. Screwed up the whole corner 🙂
Oh I just realized the Jul 17 icon is still the default in the “about” screen. My bad.
More men should have a BATCAVE. Agree with above dissenters about APNEA and COLA. My favorite clue is 15A. And 11D.
About a month ago, I visited Natural Bridges National Monument and saw a KIVA. Stunning place, really. Stunning. But the point is that these are real words, people. BEQ is not making this shit up.
X-ings of CAMASH/SHANA and GHIRARDELLI/KIVA were beyond evil for me… Maybe I’m a minority… But MANCAVE, CHILLAX, MRCOOL and plenty others do redeem things…
[It’ll keep you up] – Am I the only one with mind in gutter who immediately thought: VIAGRA, only to have a letter shortage!
MANCAVE = TIMESINK, sometimes…
KIVA is also a great company that helps organize donations to various international projects of all sorts. Very selective contributions to schools, companies, etc. around the globe.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to immediately put SPEED in for “It’ll keep you up.” I thought it was a sign of my misspent youth.
This one nearly killed me, Brendan. But it’ll make me stronger. Thanks. Can’t wait for the next hundred.
I won’t get too much into the semantics of soda v. cola. I’ve had this discussion many many times, especially when in college I met people from all ends of the nation. Apparently there are even places where any carbonated soft drink is referred to as “coke”, and when ordering you have to specify what kind of “coke” you want — even if it’s Pepsi. And even though I’m in the heart of the midwest, I really don’t like calling it “pop.”
But I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Crush being referred to as cola. For the record, though, Jones -does- make an orange cola. Here it is: http://www.myjones.com/store/on-sale/12-pack-of-jones-soda-orange-cola.html
“SHANA, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into — I say, let ’em crash.”
Belated congrats on 100 puzzies (sic).
Now this is what I call a hard puzzle. SE especially. Ghirardelli is one of those words that, even when I knew it was the answer, took me a long time to figure out how to spell, hence, it was a weird non-helper.
Onto the “With a name like that” puzzle. I think after that I’ll be caught up with your back catalogue.