PUZZLE #71 & a quick one

30 thoughts on “PUZZLE #71 & a quick one”

1. I’m definitely in the “who cares? it’s funny!” camp on this one. I’d change the clue for 59-D, which uses one of the words that’s abbreviated in the answer in the clue, but otherwise no nits to pick–lots of fun!

2. Wait, No hat tip, BQ? You’re dead to me. I want everything you’ve ever given me back.

3. Um … it’s never too late. See update.

4. Took me WAY too long to parse aborc!
   Always love your puzzles!

5. woohoo! this has to be one of the best moments of my crossword “career”… even the long Downs are in my wheelhouse.

6. Good F-ing puzzle…
   I was stuck for a while with “PBR” as the “Brown bag staple”…makes sense to me.

7. So… this one will be coming out in the NYT when?

8. Does it make me an alcoholic if it made sense to me too?

9. Fucking May 16, 20-fucking-13.

10. You’re already constructing obscene puzzles…alcoholism’s probably a step up…

11. WTF?

12. I guess this is why I left your site out of the list of free crossword locations I gave my grandmother the other day. Sorry about that.
    I loved it, of course. Grandma doesn’t know what she’s missing…

13. Ditto all the effing puzzle love! Also, if you’ve not seen it, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” is an excellent band doc about the making of an album. Granted, I’m a longtime Wilco fan, back to the Uncle Tupelo days, but even if you’re not familiar with Wilco, the movie is compelling for two main plot developments: 1) the band kicks a key member out and 2) their label drops them because of the album in question, which many consider to be one of the band’s best. Plus, the music, and the album effing rock!

14. Tell yr. Grandma to get with the program!

15. I think as enjoyable as “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” is, it’s a little overrated. Wilco certainly milked the fact that Warner Bros. ended up paying for the album twice to good effect. But frankly, adding sparse “noise” tracks to pop tracks does not automatically make it avant garde. Having said that, starting from “Kamera” on is mostly quality stuff.

16. My grandma would say, “you all think you invented the f word?”
    Great puzzle, as always!!!

17. great puzzle in every regard: LOL theme, great clueing, fun fill. the mehness of I DON’T and IT ISN’T was overcome by the fact that they appeared together. did you try and combine them in some way?
    also, i liked that exactly three X’s appeared in the grid of a puzzle best described as “for adults only”!
    the onion has run some pretty blue stuff in the past (in fact, today’s by francis heaney has a dick joke). did this just cross the line?

18. Naw… I made this one specifically for the blog exclusively because Dan Feyer suggested it in the comments of the 10 Bullshit Themes post. The Onion stuff is always all over the map. Which reminds me, my puzzle is next week!

19. The subtle homage to “The Wire” with WMD made me smile.

20. Somehow I ended up thinking that PINE TAR GATE was a perfectly cromulent name for a baseball scandal. And I remember that game, too. Eff that one, oh well. Such a versatile word.

21. Great puzzle. Again, some stuff that was new to me (e.g. WILCO, ONYX) but still very doable. I’d vaguely heard of WILCO. Remembered Lou ALBANO from the Cyndi Lauper video way back when. Why the “maybe” in 3d? Either Temple offers an MBA or they don’t, or is this something else?

22. Fucking delightful!

23. BEQ, I just want you to know that I love love love your work. I’ve (silently) downloaded and solved (usually) every puzzle you’ve posted here from day one, and I’ve enjoyed each and every one. Completely fresh, up-to-date, and funny fill — just great. I love their ripped-from-the-headlines feeling and the (excellent) music references. In the middle of almost every puzzle, I think, “Oh man, this is going to be the one that breaks me,” because my first pass-through can leave the grid so empty. Then by the end, it’s all filled in. In other words, you’re tough but fair. And you’re the man.

24. How is embedding a scene from “The Wire” subtle? 😉

25. It’s a tragedy really that with all these damnfool words I know, I only use the four letter ones.

26. Temple does offer MBAs; I guess I was hoping for ambiguity. Hoping maybe the solver might think the religious house not the school.

27. People ask me why I do the blog, it’s for comments like this. Thanks, Justin. Glad you’re having fun.

28. ABORC did take me a little while, but what really held me up was saying that xenon and neon were NOBLE instead of INERT, which led me to guess AIEE WHAT A BITCH for 25A. Honestly, I think I prefer my version to yours. 🙂
    Funny puzzle, though.

29. I concur–I think in terms of perfect pop, though, they actually got pretty close with much of Summerteeth (or some of the tracks from Mermaid Avenue). Another weird thing about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is that they borrowed heavily from a strange collection of mysterious shortwave radio broadcasts from an album called the Conet Project, which goes uncredited on Wilco’s CD.
    Mark

30. why not a PayPal site for the tip jar?

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