THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
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Lollapuzzoola 10 is in the books, and Andy Kravis is your winner. Looks like Andy will be making a puzzle in next year’s tournament if the pattern of “win tournament then retire to work backstage” holds. And if that pattern held, it would have made for interesting puzzles had either second and third place finishers Eric Maddy and Glen Ryan won instead. I think both of those upstanding gentlemen have made exactly zero puzzles between the two of them. Anyway, Andy laid waste to a finals puzzle by Mike Nothnagel and Doug Peterson. And since I’m gonna talk shop about the puzzles, why don’t I put a spoiler alert here and then say if you were thinking about solving them, why don’tcha click here and get yourself a copy. Okay? Okay.
So how did the ole’ BEQ do this year? 40th place out of about 240-ish. Which for me, is pretty good. Might have been a couple spaces higher had I not tripped on Francis Heaney’s puzzle (one stinking error). But hey, it happens. The puzzles themselves were pretty good, with my favorite being Erik Agard’s. Actually, now that I think about it, two of the puzzles (Erik’s and Joon Pahk’s) had very similar themes involving answers that went in different directions through the grid. C.C. Burnikel had another typically great easy puzzle offering (she is really something in that department). Paolo Pasco rounded out the set of puzzles everybody solved.
Now, about that finals. So first off, the theme of the tournament was The Olympics, which I guess would have made more sense maybe three years from now? But hey, it’s Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer’s tournament and they can do with it what they want. Anyway, so there were flags everywhere, even the Olympic rings one above the stage. Why is that important? Well, the finals puzzle wasn’t a themeless as most tournaments typically are, but instead themed. A themed double rebus where there were exactly 5 O’s in the grid, and going the other way were the colors of the Olympic rings in their respective positions. So, hey, that’s kinda cute, the solution to the puzzle is right above your heads, guys! The thing that kinda killed it for me is that those are RINGS not O’s in the flag. So, a very strong like, not quite a love love. Regardless, I applaud Lolla’s efforts to push things in different directions. Is it August 2018 yet?
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
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