ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ INSIDE JOBS]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ INSIDE JOBS]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
All the top solvers who already frequent this site (and by my count, that’s just about everybody who comes here) probably already know the theme for this puzzle just by reading the title. That kinda pisses me off. I mean, I know I’d have to wake up pretty early to try and pull the wool over all y’all. But really? Just reading the frigging title is going to tip my hand? Seriously? Am I giving away too much information by signaling hidden entries with the word “INSIDE” in the title? (This, by the way, is the reason why you’d want to play poker with me. Not only will my eyes light up when I see I’m holding three jacks, I’ll probably ask some dumb question about all the “one eyed” face cards while we’re betting.)
For me, puzzles of this ilk are of the “where’s the theme?” kind. Yes, there is a connecting thread running through the entries, but the entries themselves are all over the map, with no apparent connecting thread, it may as well be a themeless puzzle. Okay, so it’s not really a themeless, as the word counts way too high, and has way too many 3-, 4- and 5-letter entries, and we’ve already gone over what the gimmick is. But hey, that’s cool, right? I mean, everybody chimes in when I’m running a themeless, right?
The one variant of the “where’s the theme” ilk I don’t get at all is the random-letters-circled-in-a-longer-entry-that-when-you-read-those-letters-from-left-to-right-spell-out-some-kind-of-theme theme. To me, that gimmick seems like there isn’t enough parameters to warrant a theme proper. While I’m here, a bright young up-and-coming talent Caleb Madison had a puzzle in yesterday’s New York Times with the circled letters theme that I’m carping about now. Lack of theme excitement aside, the kid’s grid was incredibly broad-based and jam packed with lively entries and trivia covering just about every category on your standard Trivial Pursuit pie. He’s just getting his feet wet, so look out when he’s got his stride.
To prove my point of the arbitrariness of the random circled letters hidden theme, let’s apply that gimmick to today’s puzzle’s concept. All ya gotta do to get those kinds of entries is run a couple boolean searches over at One Look. A quick search shows that PATERNITY TEST holds PRIEST, ACT INVOLUNTARY holds ACTUARY, and THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD holds ENGINEER. Big whoop, huh? Are those entries any better than the ones I ran in today’s puzzle? It just seems the harder/tighter a theme is defined, the more entertaining the puzzle is. (Okay, did I use a boolean search at One Look to get my entries for today’s puzzle that I ran? Yes. Yes I did.)
Okay, enjoy this one. New one on Wednesday.
Before I get ten posts/e-mails about it, 40-Across is fixed. Thanks.
I reasoned that since the post title was about “where’s the theme?” puzzles, that it would be very difficult to determine anything from the puzzle title, so I solved it as a themeless and only figured out the theme afterward.
Feel better?
Enjoyed the puzzle, but PRIEST in PATERNITYTEST is awesome. Clued as “It shows the father” you’d have a very interesting meta-meaning. That would be a superb use of the circle gimmick.
BEQ,
Quality rant — i’m anti-circles in grids myself. Can’t really back up my position with logic, but they just rub me the wrong way.
Yeah, I am feeling better. I thought I had swine flu all weekend.
…
Oh, you meant about the puzzle?
I just typed up a response and after re-reading it, I feel like that should be expanded to a whole post in and of itself. Stay tuned!
Sweet puzz today! Haven’t even figured out the theme yet, but the solve was a delight. Two in particular brought a grin: 62A (a gimme for me–more music theory clues! less sports!) and 21A, which deserves some kind of a monument somewhere. You have an amazing ability to wring new juice out of the oldest xw cliches.
Re circle: guess I find ’em tolerable enough in a Sunday puzzle but kinda gimmicky for the weeklies, would be my feeling. Looking forward to your post on that.
Very flattered to get a mention, and great puzzle. I only really embraced the circle theme when I saw that over 50% of CASHTRANSACTION was CARNATION, and I tried to make the other flowers as much of the answers as possible.
A compliment for the fill means the world coming from a constructor such as yourself! Thanks!
-Caleb
Hola, amigo — 13:04 for me, but a couple of flubs. I had Mona up there at 21A where I figured Tommy Lee might have had a thing for da Vinci’s work (didn’t check the cross — Doh!). Loved seeing Huey Lewis in there. Sports is a great record, and it reminds me an adventurous and tattoo-intensive decade. I would have had more trouble, I suspect, with 62A if not for Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which talks about minor falls and major lifts and fourths and thirds, etc. I’m not musical, but I listen to lyrics. Also, AZO was new to me, as was Mr. del Toro, so that last vowel was an educated guess. Finally, stop beating yourself up over the theme; I didn’t get it until I came here and had that “oh crap I’m dumb” moment. Nice one! (and am I allowed to be psyched to have my comment RIGHT NEXT to Caleb’s? That’s cool.)
I was just thinking the whole “when doubled” thing is kinda bullshit. Why not “with X-Across” instead? Glad you liked it.
Dude, go here http://tinyurl.com/djcw2y and feast your eyes at the crappy first couple puzzles I made. You’re clearly further along in the puzzlemaking-ass-kicking department than I was after 7 seven puzzles.
Of course you’re allowed to be psyched. Glad to stir up some tattoo-intensive memories.
more sports! less music theory! 🙂
Mention of Huey Lewis’s “Sports” took me back to my 1984 graduation party, where that album was being blasted on the stereo as dozens of us partook in a massive squirt gun/water balloon war.
Thanks for making me smile. Cheers.
Remember when the big controversy with “Sports” was due to the fact that Huey Lewis didn’t actually have the balls to say “I Want A New Drug” was about drug use?