CROSSWORD #953: Themeless Monday

THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF] 
PROGRAMS: [Across Lite] [Adobe Reader]

I was at a park yesterday with a bunch of family friends and such, good times. But, like all good times, they’re not constant. And so, when a moment of “dead air” arises, I pull out a puzzle (or two) from the pocket and I go to town until an activity draws me back into the crowd. ABP, baby. Always be puzzlin’. Anyway, so yesterday I was going through an old Henry Hook cryptic puzzle (respect is due), and it didn’t take long for one of the other dads at the event to not-so-subtly sidle over towards my direction and look over my shoulder at said puzzle. Anxiety, of course kicked in. Dammit! This is my sovereign space, thank you very much, and please leave me to my solving. But then, when no words were spoken, I calmed down a little bit. Because, yes, I realized that it was highly unlikely that he was going to be able to contribute to the solve. It was a cryptic after all, and the total US population of cryptic solvers is roughly 65 people, plus or minus 10. But eventually, the pause was just too great and the dreaded question came: “Do you hate it when people tell you what the answer is? 4-Across is YODA! or something.”

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! Inside, I died a little. An internal rending of garments and lamentations kicked in. How dare you! This is my puzzle, dammit. Yes, yes I hate that. And of course, now that you just mentioned that, I just had to look at 4-Across in this cryptic just to make sure that the answer wasn’t YODA. Thanks a lot! Now I’ve got YODA on the brain even though it can’t possibly be YODA, YO+DA, or even anything remotely “Star Wars”-related in this puzzle. Sheesh! And you call yourself a puzzle solver?

Cooler heads prevailed. After a brief explanation that I didn’t like that, as well as how cryptic clues worked, I took the lighthearted question as a sign to put the puzzle away. Good times.

Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.