ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ JUST MY TYPE]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ JUST MY TYPE]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I think the weather is starting to mess with my head. Boston has had more rainy days this summer than Seattle. I joke with Liz that it must remind her of home. But at least in England it stops raining every now and again long enough for the sun to poke out, even if it’s only 25 minutes. But’s it’s messing with me. Seriously, I’m afraid once I leave the condo, what happens to that guy in Bill Viola’s “The Crossing” (animated gif above) is going to happen to me. (“The Crossing” is a diptych, FWIW. The fire side is equally insane, it’s the same concept only a guy becomes immolated. Seriously, the gif above doesn’t do this installation any justice. It takes close to ten minutes for this gif to happen. It’s crazy stuff. So anyway, Bill Viola = awesome. One of my favorites.)
I think the weather is making me write nastier, meaner, harder puzzles. At least the primordial versions from what my test-solvers are telling me. Their solving times are up, way up. So hopefully I eased up enough on this one to make it a smoother solve. Let me have it in the comments section.
When I sat down to clue it, I was going to make the whole thing straight. But I realized I forgot to put FONT in the grid somewhere. So, I tried for the ?-cluing approach. Felt pretty good about all the long spanning entries. Might go back to the 78 word count approach with the themed grids. Not sure. Again let me hear it in the comments.
Oh, two last things. One, Patrick Blindauer showed up in my Twitter feed. Somebody posted a video of him demonstrating how to make a crossword and I thought I’d share it here. Two, it’s worth mentioning the bass off-camera in Pat’s demo is Francis Heaney, who I completely neglected to thank for his assistance on Puzzle #98. So: Francis, thanks!
B, shouldn’t somebody have caught INS for “feet ‘in’ the door”? or am I missing something?
Despite that, a very enjoyable puzzle with refreshing clues for SCION, OASTS, AIOLI, ABBEY ROAD (to me, i imagine everybody else knows that), and the double “i” in IINSIST was nicely concealed.
thans so much,
~d
Two things…
1) Much better cluing for Reba. I still didn’t know it, but as opposed to yesterday’s NYT “Show with a character named BJ”, this one was at least unique. I hate to bash on the guys more who made yesterday’s puzzle, but let’s just say I agreed with Rex.
B) I need to learn how to spell Rennnassssiiance
III) Fun puzzle, well done.
When I first moved into the city (Chicago), the Art Institute had Bill Viola as the current exposition. Your diptych was part of it, but it was arranged as a giant screen in the center of the room, with one side water / one side fire. Blew my young mind.
And his other stuff was even more mindblowing.
Tip of the hat to Matt Gaffney for first dropping I INSIST.
Thanks DC
The first Bill Viola installation I saw was “Five Angels for the Millennium” at the London Tate. Whoa! Heavy stuff.
Smooth solve, Brendan. Maybe too smooth with all the 3 and 4 letter words. Liked it anyway.
Sorry to hear you’re floating away in the NE. I live across the Sound from Seattle, and we’ve had no real rain in 2 months. And, it gonna be in the 90’s this weekend…
I got stuck in the NE corner with TOURING BAG as opposed to COURIER, should have realized it wasn’t a font. Otherwise I liked it , it was right down my alley. Loved FALSE GOD and idol cluing.
I haven’t gotten to doing to crossword yet — I just wanted to gloat about how great the weather has been here in Olympia WA
And I mean that weather report from Puget Sound to be a bad thing. We reaaaallyy need the water. I live on what amounts to a sand dune. TMI, I know. Have a nice weekend.
Does the average person know fonts that aren’t Arial, Courier, and Times? I’ve never heard of Electra, Franklin, or Renaissance, so the theme was useless to me there. I was stuck in the NW forever, having no idea what sort of COMPLEX I was looking for.
HENRYLOUISGATES is 15 letters.
I give ’til Friday before he appears in a BEQ puzzle.
Not that that (or anything else) is a challenge or anything.
http://blatherreview.mu.nu/archives/cat_crosswords.html#290118
Oh, by the way, Brenden. You have been challenged.
http://blatherreview.mu.nu/archives/cat_crosswords.html#290118
Damn. I’ve taken the time to repeat myself.
That’ll teach me to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon on a Saturday night.
Update: We had sun yesterday, so I was out all day. And because I’m a pasty white dude, I have a sunburn. Red all over. Hello skin cancer!
Cool dude.
Rub it in why don’tcha?
It was a strange theme, I’ll give you that.
Developing…
Have another one!
Let’s see… Awesome theme idea, 63 theme letters, stacked theme, and it’s, as Lisa said, a LOT smoother than a usual BEQ (at least here you tend to go for broke with all manner of crazy stuff and end up with the odd bumpy patch…) Loved your throwing in ABBEYROAD after Wed’s Beatles discussion, amazed there wasn’t a quote attached to 33D, BTW, as a lot of people have a tendency to quote from that movie… Last to fall “KTWO” – that’s a dirty trick!