ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS FRIDAY] 
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]

PROGRAM: [Java]

PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS FRIDAY]

PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]

Oh, and I also co-authored today’s Wall Street Journal with Francis Heaney, my editor on the Diagramless book. Get it as an Across Lite file or a PDF.

Believe it or not, my original intent for this puzzle was to clue it as a Puns and Anagrams. I figured that the big problem with the lack of “fun” with those puzzles was that the solution grids were stuck in the stone ages, filled with crap entries like REASSESSES and SENSELESSNESS. Why not make it full of all the crazy fun stuff we normally like in themeless puzzles and clue those entries in a P & A style?

Exhibit A why that was a bad idea: 35-Across. Anyone over a certain age is not going to know that guy’s name. It’s misspelled, so that eliminates guesswork. And, to top it off, for those that maybe have heard of him, I was a jerk and used his full name, not the abbreviated version that he is at times referred to.

Outrageous names that practically border on complete obscurity depending on your knowledge base pose an interesting question in today’s puzzlemaking. At the end of the day, an entry like 35-Across is, to an extent, an unchecked entry. If you have to solve that exclusively based on the crossings (or Googling), there’s no way to know if that entry is correct. I’m at times guilty of these kinds of entries. Certainly Karen Tracy pulls this stunt now and again to either great or terrible effect depending on how you feel about these sorts of things. The debate is still going.

How are these name any different from the parade of long-forgotten silent film stars or Senators in outer space that have typically held crosswords together in the past? (For good measure I threw in one of those kinds of actresses at 22-Across.) Anyway, those who know me will know I’ll skew this toward a younger crowd. How will we ever get the next generation on board with puzzles if the cluing skews toward things happening 20+ years ago?

Okay, I’m going to leave you with this. My Puns and Anagrams clue for 8-Down was going to be {Orator, teleprompter operator, audience plants, etc.}

Share the puzzle, everyone.

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