ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
If there are any inspired musician fans of the BEQ.com out there (“Steely” Dan Feyer? Brian Cimmet? Somebody else I’m not thinking of?), I’d really love to have a “Behind the Puzzle” theme song. I’m imagining an unholy combination of the theme from “Entertainment Tonight,” a dash of something funky like “Apache,” and, oh what the hell, a little Captain Beefheart-ish skronk for good measure would be amazing. Get to it, folks. I have faith somebody can pull that off. You guys floored me with the creativity with the R.E.M. puzzle contest. Call this an on-going contest with prize-to-be-determined until we find the “Behind the Music” theme song winner.
Let’s get to the puzzle self-analysis shall we?
I stumbled upon 8-Down recently, and voilà! 15 letters in length means it’s going in a puzzle. Thought about a triple stack, but after a couple two three stabs, nothing fancy was forthcoming. So, it found its home down the middle. The grid’s shape was pretty much dictated quickly thereafter, as I wanted to have four standalone mini-puzzles to allow for four more never-before-seen entries. Only two were able to make it: 1-Down, and 33-Down. For a while, 20-Across was going to be TEABONICS, but the crossings in that 4×6 intersecting a 4×7 corner wouldn’t allow for it to happen. I had already made the SW corner by this point and I guess TEABONICS could have stayed but then I’d have had to add a cheater in square #33. It was a weighing between which new entry was more entertaining, and I went with 33-Down (I’m shocked this guy hasn’t appeared in a puzzle before. As annoying/famous/annoyingly famous as he is). Anyway, the moral, as always: keep it clean.
Cluing felt pretty good. I was in “must emulate the Washington Post mode” whilst cluing, and I hope that it came through all right. Particularly proud of 46-Across, 1- and 9-Down’s clues. So help me God, I hope to never clue 36-Across ever again, but I know that’s an unlikely story. Needless to say, I liked what I came up with.
That’s all I got. Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
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