ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ OW AARGH]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ OW AARGH]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
In case you haven’t noticed yet, my Twitter feed has suddenly become a very-solvable puzzle. Starting today, on the days that I’m posting a puzzle and spiel, I will begin tweeting, in sequential order, the clues to the puzzle that I will post the next time. Consider it a slow-trickling diagramless crossword for those who might enjoy a stiffer challenge. (Please direct your attention to the feed at the bottom of the middle column).
I got into the whole making (proper) diagramless thing a couple years ago when Will Shortz dropped me a line asking if I could make one for The Times in like a few hours. Will’s got a sixth sense for commissioning stuff from me and/or running puzzles of mine when I’m at my most financially troubled, and I applaud him for that. Though I appreciated the assignment, I was slightly disappointed as I looked forward to solving them the every six weeks or so that they appear in The Times. Who knew that making a proper diagramless turned out to be just as entertaining as solving them?
From a solving perspective, it was intriguing to see where the grid’s (most-likely) bizarre shape was going to end up. Top-flight constructors know damn well that since it’s already a nontraditional puzzle, why not make them in nontraditional grids? And that variety makes for a very satisfying solve. Especially when the constructor pulls off a themed puzzle whose grid is shaped similarly to the puzzle’s theme. But from a puzzlemaker’s standpoint, the same intrigue was there as well. I noticed I was asking myself, is there any way I can make the puzzle even wierder? Twistier? Can I pull off not only this coffee themed puzzle, but also pull off this coffee cup shape?
A little over a year ago, Pat Blindauer sent me a PDF of a variety puzzle he called a “Diagramless Downword.” He had taken the Monday easy puzzle Stan Newman edited for the Creator’s Syndicate, and given me nothing more than the title of the puzzle, the clues to the themed entries that went Across, all of the Down clues and a blank grid. What a workout. You have to realize there are seasoned solvers (I call them showoffs) who can solve the very easiest puzzles using only the Down entries. Pat took it a step further with removing not only the unessential Across clues, but also the black and white pattern. Pat’s offering was a surprisingly solvable puzzle, and a fun one to boot.
Then again, Pat’s always Franksteining together two puzzles that probably have no right to be put together in the first place, and making them fun to solve. So Pat, consider the Diagramless Downword as a direct predecessor to my Diagramless in a Twitter Style feature.
As always, enjoy the puzzles. New one (in a traditional format) on Friday.
How did the old bat of a nun from St. Mary’s get among the adult winos’ S and M?
Awesome corner.
Nice to see NATE next to OINK, pork being another huge Iowa export. I particularly liked the play on the Ipod housing Country. Nicely done!
You and Patrick are creating some dope puzzle mashups–what will be your “Grey Album?”
Campesite: I haven’t the faintest what the next mashup would be. I’m going to see Pat tomorrow, maybe we could figure out something.
If we did a musical one, I dunno what that’d be like either. Pat likes Yanni, BTW.
BROMANCE? that definitely deserves a “YOU WHAT?!?”
i loved BAAL MOVEMENT, too. in the simpsons episode explaining april fool’s day, they definitely say (roughly) “ball”; but in “the destruction of sennacherib” (one of my favorite poems; linked in my name) it rhymes with “wail.” of course, byron’s also the guy who rhymed “don juan” with “true one” so maybe he doesn’t know how to pronounce foreign names. anyway, who are you going to trust–lord byron or the simpsons? to me, the choice is pretty clear.
LOVED “bromance”. AMFAR/RITTS is a killer cross man–I had to guess at the “r” until across lite told me it was right.
nice puzzle man
Minor quibble: One can be thin without being underweight. Underweight to me suggests scrawny or anorexic or possibly skinny, not merely thin.
Twangster: fair enough.
See, who told you you never learn anything with crosswords?
‘it comes from a pen’ for OINK is great. i had INK and was confused until i read the across clue and got THURSTON.
‘country “house”, maybe?’ for IPOD confused the hell out of me. and i applaud BROMANCE.
How nice to have a “Thursday” puzzle on a Wednesday!
You rock!
Don’t really know what Twitter is(in fact the whole first paragraph of your blog today is foreign to me), but I’ll try to do the extra puzzle anyway.
Yann?! Well, I shouldn’t judge as there’s a fine line between his whooshy new-age schmaltz and some killer dreamy ambient drone.
I’m lucky enough to be able to solve these with a diagram!
I’m lucky enough to be able to solve these with a diagram!
The lower corners of this puzzle killed me.