Note: In this crossword variation, any fabricated phrase that could be clued fairly is game in the grid. Some examples might be {Japanese assassin in a Tarantino movie} would be a PULP NINJA, {“Why are there only Subways to eat around here?”} might clue TOO MANY QUIZNOS, and {People who are always singing “Seasons of Love”} is RENT HEADS. There are a handful of straight clues in order that you might get a foothold in the grid.
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ ANYTHING GOES]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ ANYTHING GOES]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
A while back I asked you faithful readers for suggestions of other puzzlemakers styles that I should emulate. You guys gave me some winners. Matt Jones dropped down a gauntlet, and I accepted. Then … nothing happened. Where were my stabs at the meta/rebus/Zen koan/”big picture”/etc. puzzles that Liz Gorski does effortlessly? Or my attempt at the wide open, symmetry-be-damned themelesses Frank Longo cranks out? Nowhere to be seen.
And I have no good excuse. The fact that you guys are still coming to my site means you’re holding up your end of the bargain. I have not. Until today. I finally got around to fulling one of your requests (the rest forthcoming, I swear). I finally made one of those outrageous “Something Different” puzzles that Trip Payne does oh so well.
Okay, I do have two excuses, and they’re both lame. One, I should never have taken requests right in the middle of the move and a book deadline. That = stupid.
Secondly, the next challenge, after the Matt Jones proposal, that I wanted to tackle was this “Something Different” puzzle. And, frankly, I was scared witless at the prospect. Once a year the New York Sun would run one of these Trip beauties, and they were a joy to solve. The entries were always gonzo, always fairly clued, with a dauntingly wide-open grid, and usually around five or six stunning entries. It seemed like a Herculean task. (If you aren’t familiar with these puzzles, Trip has posted a couple of them on his website: Across Lites here and here, and printouts here and here. Well worth your time, and when you’re done, you might enjoy his cryptic puzzles as well.)
Now in the past I said I really didn’t know where grid construction takes me. Well, in this instance, I really didn’t know where this was going to take me. Once again I started along the bottom with 53-Across (Not going to say answers for this one, so no spoiler alert needed). No reason for that entry other than it sounded interesting. An uneventful one at 51-Across was the glue that held what I felt was the first winner at 48-Across. Threw in the goofy nod to a previous sports hero at 33-Down, and the 13-Down entry makes me think of those Dos Equis ads.
At this point in the construction, I got nervous. It seemed like there was a slight possibility that this grid could be filled in by mortal constructors. 60 words, 18 black squares. Certainly plausible. I shot the pattern over to Longo who said: “no way.” (Phew! Course, now that I’ve said that, Kevin Der will pull this baby off somehow.)
Worked my way up in the 2-Down, 3-Down area. Basically, loads of words could have gone at the beginnings, so I was fairly flexible with how I wanted to shape the top. I was pretty pleased with how the 1-, 5-, and 17-Across entries came out. It almost looked like I started up there first. Also surprised with not only the pangram, but the abundance of Scrabble-y letters throughout.
Cluing took a couple passes. Trip gave his approval before the test solvers got their talons on it. Nancy Schuster, especially. I cannot believe I didn’t think to go that route with 37-Down until she pointed it out!
Okay, so how’d I do? Did this work? Fail? Would you guys like more like this? Inquiring minds want to know! Let me hear it in the comments
I don’t usually like this type of puzzle, because I just don’t have the right kind of brain ( or is that left kind of brain?). I had to google a couple of things to finish. I had TAPES AD in there for quite a while – you can tell what part of the superbowl I like best!
Sure, I could go for more of those. It certainly ups the difficulty, and it’s nice to see a grid with next to no usual filler.
Somehow 33-down came to me instantly, but I was stymied near the top (having TIVOS TD did not help). Of all the entries that seemed like they could be a real word, APTSARI was the best.
As long as nobody busts one of those out at the Competition next year, I’m all for them. Under time pressure, I think it would just make me cry.
I had TAPES AD too, which confused me because I thought it had to be NAFTAsomething. (And FIRM ABS and FIRM BOD before finally settling on the actual answer…)
But I’m really not a fan of random entries. (I’m pretty surprised I managed to finish this at all.) I’d much rather see puzzles anchored in more standard use of the language :}
Duly noted.
The funny thing is, when you’re making/solving these things you sometimes stumble upon totally “believable” entries. Or at least, I talked myself into them being plausible.
Duly noted as well.
Awesome, so glad you got around to it. As I’ve said on various blogs, Something Different/WWW is my favorite crossword variety. Can’t say this one is quite as smooth or LOL-inducing as Trip’s, but it’s still excellent. Faves: 1A (gimme), 13D, 14D (ick but ha!). Didn’t understand 18D until googling “Hera’s priestess”.
I like the instructions too – except “there” is misspelled as “their”, and Rentheads actually exist! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renthead
Thanks: well, what can I say, Trip’s been doing these for years and this was first stab at it. If I ever get around to making another one, I’ll know what to do and what not to do.
C’mon, you don’t think some of these were LOL?
Oh, and the RENT HEADS thing was a little inside joke between Trip and myself. I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you.
No, I LOLed plenty! 13D elicited an actual guffaw. Hope you do try some more of these, you’re probably more suited to it than almost any other constructor…
i like that the rentheads wikipedia article is flagged with “This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience.” then again, i know some rentheads, and … yeah. they’re right.
ULTIMATE JAI ALAI is just awesome. i don’t understand the dos equis commercial at all, but then, i don’t understand most commercials. maybe it’s because i’m no longer in the targeted 18-29 male demographic. in any event, beer commercials are pretty much wasted on me anyway, although it’s true that now i’m slightly more likely to put DOSEQUIS in a grid. or even just EQUIS… looks like a pretty painless way to sneak a Q into a puzzle.
That Dos Equis ad… I mean, I appreciate that it’s funny, and I like that it tells a story. But I can’t tell you why it’s funny and what the story is that they’re trying to tell. So it’s a I-get-it-but-I-don’t-get-it kinda thing.
Don’t put EQUIS in there without the DOS ahead of it.
I don’t know, I must be too old or too young or too dumb to appreciate (or solve) this type of puzzle. I got about 1/3 and gave up and looked at the answers. It seemed nearly impossible to rule out anything, like one would do in a typical puzzle. I understand that that’s the point but it didn’t make for much fun.
I always enjoyed Trip’s “Something Different” puzzles, and I very much enjoyed your take on it here. It’s rare that an answer makes me laugh out loud, but 13D did the trick this time – somehow it’s a great mental image. I would definitely like to see more of these from you.
I didn’t get the answer GBAN; how are hip-hop fans “G”?
Thanks, I loved it. (Especially 13D, natch.)
Proud of my NO L wrong answer for 50A. Yes, I know it doesn’t _quite_ work, but it’s close. Like AS ISIS. Other initial guesses included DVRS A TD, DON LON, ELEVEN CLAMS, and DEPP ON A WIRE.
I tried constructing one of these once, and I sort of just sat there with no idea where to start or what to start with. This one was lots of fun, all the long entries were great. GEV and ULE seemed cheap – I know “anything goes,” but for me backwards words and headless words are a bit too much.
I bet Byron could make a winner.
Fair enough. There will be a more normal puzzle on Monday, you can count on that.
DEPP ON A WIRE turned out to be a correct guess!
Yeah, there’s inevitably some bullshit in every puzzle. This one’s no different.
nobody likes GEV or ULE, of course, but there’s a sense in which they’re both “legit” crossword entries. GeV (giga-electronvolt) is a unit of energy commonly used by particle physicists; it’s roughly the rest mass of a proton or neutron. and -ULE is a suffix, albeit an ugly one. but frankly, if you’re already going wacky, these “words” are far better with wacky clues than with straight ones.
in a way, puzzles like this aren’t all that far removed from a certain “normal” genre where the theme answers are totally made-up phrases that contain a certain implausible letter sequence. but at least with such puzzles, you could imagine where to begin. for the “anything goes” genre, though, i agree with will: i have no idea how these are made.
They’re made with drugs. Lots of drugs.
This is the first time I’ve done a puzzle like this. I pretty much stick to the NYT and LAT, so I haven’t encountered Trip’s “Something Different” grids. When I read the premise I figured I’d be lucky to get half of it. Turns out it was doable with a little help from my bride who gave me DURER and reminded me that Petit was a wire walker who had a documentary up for an Oscar. This was really fun/amazing to work though and if Trip’s are as good or better than this I’m looking forward to them!
this was my first stab at this style of puzzle as well, i think, and i liked it! maybe it’s because i found it pretty easy. i didn’t really hit any snags, although it took an appreciable amount of “working the grid,” as any good challenging puzzle does, to get it done. for me, when a puzzle asks that of you AND pays off by revealing itself to the work that you’ve done, that’s a satisfying experience. too many challenging puzzles don’t get that balance right, and for me, this one did.
I, for one, can’t get enough of these puzzles and you did a great job with it, BEQ. I LOL’d aplenty.
In addition to those already mentioned, my (very truncated) list of favorites: 3-D, 5-D, 20-A, 48-A.
As for 25-A, did you mean to write “crunchy” instead of “gooey”? Smores are gooey but BLTs are crunchy, and the campfire suggests smores. What’s to suggest the BLT? Maybe a “deli’s campfire”?
And I don’t know what BM SPECS means. Do I want to know?
I love DOS EQUIS Dark with my Tex Mex food. Doesn’t DOS EQUIS loosely translate to DOUBLECROSS?
Sharpstown
I thought “two Xs,” but I could be wrong.
Thanks for the kind words. “G” is slang for hip hop fans.
Trip’s are amazing. Please click on the links and see how they’re really supposed to be done.
This is what I want to hear! Thanks scooper. You too should click on the links to Trip’s puzzles and see how they’re really supposed to be done too.
You might not want to know, but a Google search will answer any questions you might have.
Loved the puzzle today! “Something Different” is my favorite crossword variety, and this one was a winner. A notch below Trip’s masterpieces, but pretty darn close.
I filled in I BLEDSOE without any crossings, which was cool. I tried FIRM ASS for 37 D. (That sounds sort of weird.) Love the sound of TULSA THAI. Favorite entry: QUISLING SCUFFLE.
It’s going to take me years to achieve masterpiece-dom, but thanks for the kind words.
I’m with Dan F, in that these are one of my favorite styles; nice first effort there. I need to start up an Ultimate team now, as soon as I learn how the hell to play jai alai. But it’s Ultimate, so it must be good, right?
What I wonder is how many of these non-traditional grid entries have been submitted by hopeful constructors, who convinced themselves that they were legit?
If this kind of puzzle frustrates you, take your time with it, it’s worth breaking through the mental blocks to get the hang of it.
This was the first time I’ve done a puzzle like this, and I had a blast! It was also WAY easier than I thought it would be for some reason, and I think you can see that in my time; I’m not that far away from Amy’s time, when usually I have double her time. I guess letting go of there being any limitations on what the answers could be was easier for my brain.
I LOLed multiple times during this. I especially liked GBAN (I’m sharing that one with a friend of mine who is both a crossword/Sudoku fan and a hip-hop dancer), TULSATHAI, THEFAQ,and IBLEDSOE.
Thanks a bunch for this, BEQ! I hope you make more of these. I’m off to try out Trip’s!
I loved it. Some LOL, definitely. (It’s early in the morning, don’t want to be too loud.) I think there’s a real art in making wacky puzzles that are funny, solvable, and totally weird.
Thing’s are always better with frisbees.
Most definitely don’t miss Trip’s puzzles. They smoke my meager attempt, but it seems that from the comments I should try another one. Way off in the future, though.
Thanks!
I didn’t finish by any means, but I got a massive kick out of solving this as far as I could. I’m surprised, because some things that are too free form I don’t do well on or enjoy, but I would definitely want to do more of these. I laughed often. BM SPECS – I actually got that! I think I’m way too onto your thought process now … Though I had PARROT QUALITIES – seemed right at the time 😉 And ELEVEN CLAMS and FITNESS instead of FIRM END. I even approve of the ULE and the GEV because it forced me to continue to think outside of the box. I wouldn’t want a whole puzzle of that, though. The only way to make any progress on these is to never surrender. I got much further than I thought possible. I’ll try some Trip and see if I continue to feel that way.
I’m kind of happy; I got -most- of this without any overwriting. There were some hangups in the NW corner… I think a little bit more was needed for 25 across. I suppose just ‘sandwich’ was enough to get the first part, but I thought for some reason that I was missing a 3-letter synonym for “gooey” that started with ‘B’
I can’t wait to try out Trip’s puzzles, now. I love the outside-the-box stuff like these or cryptics… it makes for a nice ‘yang’ to the dailies’ ‘yin’…
Agreeing with Spork and Mitch, the clue at 25A clues SMORES. There’s nothing in the clue corresponding to the BLT part.
Can’t say I understand 22A, AUTEE; and 5D, OTIS.
Not sure that a TUB (1D) is a “bathroom vessel.”
Having said all that, I enjoyed this puzzle, though “paging Trip Payne” escaped my lips more than once. I didn’t know this was an hommage to Trip until seeing this blog. Damn good first try.
Dorkily I must clarify, I understand that AU TEE is a made-up phrase that would mean “wearing a tee.” The word “slogan” in the clue doesn’t seem to belong.
I just figured out “OTIS” Very good!
There’s a jai alai scene in the Dos Equis commercial, and it’s played with cestas. I observe further that the commercial features a bunch of self-important assholes. And Ultimate Frisbee is the name they created when they formulated a set of rules for Frisbee. Furthermore, it’s a great entry and a great clue. BUT WHY IS IT FUNNY???! (As said above, I must be too old or too young for this.)
These puzzles from Trip were always my favorite. They exercise a different part of the brain then the typical crossword. You’ve done a great job here.
Also, just to nitpick, when someone says mollusk I think clam, snail, etc. FWIW, I would have used cephalopod.
how can i contribute? these are a great find