ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS MONDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
Straight to the mailbag. I received a handful of e-mails all roughly saying the same thing, so let’s use the letter from the anonymous-sounding Steve Smith of parts unknown as an example:
BEQ,Ya know, I’ve been wondering all week when someone would actually print the name of the Icelandic volcano that’s been screwing everything up in Europe. Finally found it in today’s Globe: Eyjafjallajokull. I kid you not. Think you could get it in a puzzle (a 16×16)? Think you can pronounce it? How about with a Boston accent?
Funny you should ask. I did make a 16×15 with EYJAFJALLAJOKULL right smack dab in the center of what was intended to be a themeless. Thing was, it went over like a fart in church with the test solvers. Normally, they have a threshold for BEQ-BS, but not with that one. I mean, to be sure, EYJAFJALLAJOKULL wasn’t the only thing dodgy about it, plenty of other craptacular variant spellings to make it work. Calling it rough would be an insult to roughness. Having said that, I believe it will appear in the next Washington Post Puzzler Karen Tracey writes.
As for pronouncing it with a Boston accent, I’d say it sounds like “Mosi Tatupu.”
Share the puzzle. New one on Wednesday.
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