CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE:
[ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
Every now and then, if I’m away from a computer and Liz buys a New York Times, and it’s an early in the week puzzle, I’ll try and solve the puzzle using the Downs only. I can usually get all of Monday, and I do fairly well on Tuesdays. It’s a fun approach that, for some reason, I only attempt on paper. I’m sure there’s an easy way to set that up that Downs-only approach on one of the online solving platforms, but I don’t know it (If somebody knows how to do it, let us know in the comments.)
Downs-only hones exactly one technique in puzzle solving: “playing hangman” with the crossings. I’ve found it’s come in handy in other puzzles. Most obviously with cryptics. There are inevitably a group of clues that I have no idea WTF? is going on with either the wordplay or the definition, but darn it, it certainly looks like JIGSAW is the only entry that’s going to fit in that entry, so JIGSAW’s gotta be the right answer, right? Fill it in, and move on. Job well done, etc. etc.
I have stumbled upon a complete different approach to solving puzzles. I shall call it The Swiss Cheese method. This past Saturday, I printed out Tim Croce’s New York Times puzzle on an InkJet that is in desperate need of a new cartridge. What happened was as the puzzle printed out, the lighter the clues got, so much so that the last 1/5th of the paper was illegible-to-non-existent. It managed to get through all the Across entries, but one it got to the header DOWN, the ink cartridge said “no mas.” Downs 1- through 6- were completely gone. The first legible Down clue was 7-Down only because it appeared atop the second column. The Downs disappeared again eight clues later in the second column (and in a nice display of symmetry, eight clues were illegible). In the third column, I was missing the last four clues. So, in all told, I was devoid of 18 somewhat random clues, all going in one direction, in no particular place per se. In fact, I was missing a lot of easy foothold entries as more than a few were three-letter entries. I still managed to solve the thing despite missing these clues, all because I leaned mighty heavily on that hangman technique to mop it all up.
Anyway, if anyone has a near-dying ink cartridge who wishes to try the Swiss Cheese method to solve any of my puzzles, let me know how it goes.
Oh, I had the Times puzzle yesterday. Do it here: [PDF] [Across Lite]
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
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