I have been meaning to make this thread for a few weeks now, since Jordan and I have been derailing the Chicago thread lately with commentary about the Ben Tausig's Ink Well crossword (syndicated in a variety of alt-weeklies) and the Onion AV Club crossword, which Tausig edits. You can find both here.
Additionally, I have been constructing my own crosswords, which I've put up on Flickr. I just spent most of my weekend working on my first puzzle to utilize five theme fills (previous puzzles used only three theme fills or else were themeless).
Feel free to discuss the NYT puzzle, too. I wanted a thread broader than this one, but since that's the premier puzzle in the U.S., it surely belongs here, too. (I have to admit that I don't actually do the NYT one, but that has a lot to do with the fact that you have to pay to do it online.)
Anyway, go forth and tell me about your frequent encounters with "Sea eagle" or "Actress Skye."
― jaymc, Monday, 24 December 2007 03:32 (5 years ago) Permalink
Recently I picked up a copy of the Oregonian in order to do the NYTimes puzzle and I kept it aside for weeks and then finally did it -- it was a Wednesday puzzle and I had a few minutes to spare -- and it was all Latin themed clues, which was nice, and was almost enough to make be believe that divine providence had caused me to hang on to it, almost.
Also while cleaning up I found the enormous bag of old GAMES magazines from the 80s that my friend gave me and which I have yet to explore. Rah!
The difficult part about crossword making is the clues, of course...
― Casuistry, Monday, 24 December 2007 03:43 (5 years ago) Permalink
it was a Wednesday puzzle and I had a few minutes to spare -- and it was all Latin themed clues, which was nice
omg ysi?
― anatol_merklich, Monday, 24 December 2007 03:50 (5 years ago) Permalink
Yes and no. I mean, it takes me several hours to create the fills and usually I'm so relieved to be done that I can rush through the clues in mere minutes. But it's a challenge to make really good clues, ones that will make the difference between an easy and a (more interesting) difficult puzzle. For instance, I like to put a lot of pop-culture references in my puzzles, but a lot of times these are hard to create ambiguous clues for; some end up just being fill-in-the-blanks.
― jaymc, Monday, 24 December 2007 03:54 (5 years ago) Permalink
(xpost)
Re: YSI: Oh uh I did it and then recycled it. It might still be in my recycle bin though. But it'll have the answers.
― Casuistry, Monday, 24 December 2007 04:01 (5 years ago) Permalink
Har, no worries Casuistry. Are we talking about cryptics or non- here btw?
― anatol_merklich, Monday, 24 December 2007 04:04 (5 years ago) Permalink
Cryptic thread is another one, mostly UK posters, but jaymc and Casuistry show up too.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 24 December 2007 04:10 (5 years ago) Permalink
i can do ny times up through wednesday 80-90% of the time with a fair amount of ease, thursday closer to 50-60% (usually with some help), friday almost never, and i dont think ive ever finished a saturday ny times x-word
― max, Monday, 24 December 2007 04:15 (5 years ago) Permalink
Oh. I have. Either I get hopeless stuck on a Saturday (30% of the time?) or it takes about 45 minutes. Or, it did when I was doing them all the time.
― Casuistry, Monday, 24 December 2007 06:31 (5 years ago) Permalink
last week's sunday ny times crossword i did in less than an hour (this is not usually the case for me).
i cannot, under any circumstances, ever finish a cryptic crossword
― impudent harlot, Monday, 24 December 2007 06:37 (5 years ago) Permalink
New crossword from me.
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 16:25 (5 years ago) Permalink
Haha "what johns do."
The school clue is super-great, too!
I was momentarily thrown by two spellings not conforming to the way the NYT would render them -- and then in both cases yours seems more Korrect, and theirs seems more of the variEnt.
― nabisco, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:43 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm pretty sure I know one of the two you mean. Is this the other? Because I think that's always spelled like that, even though a word that contains that word has a NYT-preferred variant.
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:51 (5 years ago) Permalink
Nope, two different ones -- 9 across and 48 across.
― nabisco, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:53 (5 years ago) Permalink
And actually, funny though it may be, I'm kind of annoyed with "what johns do," just because it's a bit of a stretch, even for a Tausig-type puzzle. Really hard to work with five theme fills, though!
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:53 (5 years ago) Permalink
Ah! I had originally used the variant for 48-A until I looked it up in Wikipedia and saw that that was a common mistake.
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:54 (5 years ago) Permalink
my pops schooled me on that holiday sunday NYT puzzle. :(
i got ben tausig's book and i'm about halfway through it, although his cluing seems to have gotten harder as he went along.
― Jordan, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:55 (5 years ago) Permalink
I think you can get away with one giant stretch per puzzle, so long as it's , you know, funny.
― nabisco, Thursday, 27 December 2007 19:56 (5 years ago) Permalink
Try to be a little sneakier with the clues, maybe? "When Romeo dies" -- the present tense gives that one away far too quickly. Make it past tense, so there's at least a chance that I'll panic for a moment trying to figure out if we know the year -- or, better, "Where Romeo died", and I might think you're going for "GENOA" and realize that won't fit and wonder if I am misremembering the story -- or, maybe even better, for a good Thursdayish clue, find some other character who dies in a similar place, but whose name does not immediately ring of Shakespeare, and I'll be mystified for a while, but it will eventually come to me. Because it's that sort of strip-tease, right?
"What johns do" is nicely phrased for sure, though.
― Casuistry, Thursday, 27 December 2007 20:13 (5 years ago) Permalink
That's a fair point, Chris. My thought process for that clue was basically, "I need something that happens there ... Oh, well, obviously: Romeo dies ... Is that too easy? ... What happens in Othello? ... *reads Wikipedia article about Othello* ... yeah, not really feeling that ... I should probably be working right now ... All right, 'When Romeo dies.'"
― jaymc, Thursday, 27 December 2007 20:35 (5 years ago) Permalink
That's sort of what I meant about the clues being the hard part. But you saw the movie, right? How Will Shortz basically rewrites half the clues for the puzzles he accepts?
Anyway I'm not trying to discourage you, of course. I just want more awesome crosswords to do.
― Casuistry, Thursday, 27 December 2007 23:58 (5 years ago) Permalink
Speaking of Tausig puzzles: the numbering of the clues in the Onion one this week (the sports issue) is completely off!
― nabisco, Saturday, 29 December 2007 22:37 (5 years ago) Permalink
Haha, rly? It was correct online.
― Jordan, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:06 (5 years ago) Permalink
Yeah, it's bad enough that 1/3 of the down clues are sometimes randomly deleted; this time I was like, "Yeah, that's not gonna work."
― jaymc, Saturday, 29 December 2007 23:17 (5 years ago) Permalink
Another new one. Title is exactly the same as Ben Tausig's Ink Well puzzle last week but with a different interpretation.
― jaymc, Monday, 31 December 2007 17:32 (5 years ago) Permalink
I think this is your hardest one yet, for sure.
― Jordan, Monday, 31 December 2007 19:28 (5 years ago) Permalink
Good!
― jaymc, Monday, 31 December 2007 19:35 (5 years ago) Permalink
Do you have .puz files?
― Casuistry, Monday, 31 December 2007 20:15 (5 years ago) Permalink
Wow, jaymc, that last one is really good.
I used to want to make my own crosswords, and looked for books on how to construct them, but never could find any. Are there such things, or do you just get in there and figure it out?
― Rock Hardy, Monday, 31 December 2007 20:45 (5 years ago) Permalink
Most books about crossword puzzles seem to have an obligatory section on making them, I think. I read Eugene T. Maleska's book, and boy was he proud of the awful crosswordese he used to drill into his puzzles, but I'm pretty sure it had a chapter on making puzzles.
― Casuistry, Monday, 31 December 2007 20:53 (5 years ago) Permalink
No, I don't have .puz files. I need to look into that. Also crossword constructors are always talking about a software program called Across Lite?
And thanks, Rock. I just sort of figured it out through trial and error. All you really need to know is the basic rules for what the grid needs to look like: no words shorter than three letters, diagonal symmetry. But any good software (like Crossword Weaver, which I use) will help you make sure you don't do anything irregular.
When I started out doing themeless puzzles, I would just start at the top-right and work my way around the puzzle intuitively. With themed puzzles, I do the theme fills first and then work outward from the middle.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 15:57 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm still a little wtf over this Tausig one from the other day (I'm working through his book). The clue is "Good Buddy" and the answer is "CBER". I assume it's CB radio, but still doesn't quite make sense to me?
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:04 (5 years ago) Permalink
cockblocker?
I'm guessing that someone who uses CB radio is a CBer, in the same way that Tausig uses the clue "Recipient of 'You've got mail' message" for AOLER.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:06 (5 years ago) Permalink
just "CBer," as in one who does CB? seems ok to me
xpost dang it
― n/a, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:06 (5 years ago) Permalink
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:08 (5 years ago) Permalink
Yeah guys, I know that CBer is one who does CB, but how do you get that from "good buddy"?
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:18 (5 years ago) Permalink
that is CB slang, they say stuff like "ten-four, good buddy."
― n/a, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:21 (5 years ago) Permalink
Across Lite is the program that you use to enjoy .puz files, and you can get it from the NYTimes website, and they distribute their puzzles to online subscribers in that format. Someone you know might have a year's worth of such .puz files, but he has perhaps already worked through them all.
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:50 (5 years ago) Permalink
Also, you're supposed to have no more than [a certain number] of black squares if you hope to get published by the big-leagues, and certain black-square formations are frowned upon (full 90 degree right angles -- basically anything Tetris-y).
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:52 (5 years ago) Permalink
I think it's 17% black squares, or 40 squares in a 15x15 puzzle. Though Tausig had one that was 46 recently.
certain black-square formations are frowned upon (full 90 degree right angles -- basically anything Tetris-y).
I didn't know this.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 16:57 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm not sure it's as hard-and-fast a rule as the percentage one, but on those rare occasions when I see such a puzzle, I'm always a little startled by it. I dunno, I should flip through one of my NYTimes books to make sure I'm not fooling myself about it.
Diagramless puzzles, of course, are all about that.
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 17:00 (5 years ago) Permalink
http://www.cruciverb.com/index.php/articles/htmlpages/120
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 17:01 (5 years ago) Permalink
A++ for "Paris's friend," Jaymc -- actually took me a while, with excellent payoff
― nabisco, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:09 (5 years ago) Permalink
Total pro-level theme on that one, too!
Ha, I sort of wrote that one with you in mind, N!
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:10 (5 years ago) Permalink
The "Paris's friend" clue, I mean.
I had to look that one up after I got the answer, I don't watch that show.
― Jordan, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 19:13 (5 years ago) Permalink
help me understand this clue + answer from this week's Inkwell puzzle (SPOILER i guess):
12D Getting it on demand = HARDER
― keef qua keef (Jordan), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 20:00 (4 months ago) Permalink
oh i get it, duh. it's a 'getting it on' demand. i kept separating the phrase into 'getting it' 'on demand'.
― keef qua keef (Jordan), Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:30 (4 months ago) Permalink
Me too! I just did that this morning and was baffled.
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:31 (4 months ago) Permalink
glad it's not just me!
― keef qua keef (Jordan), Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:36 (4 months ago) Permalink
ugh latest gaffney is something about chess and i hate it
― #guy #guy fieri #poop #hallway (zachlyon), Saturday, 26 January 2013 00:51 (4 months ago) Permalink
oh NO
― steaklife (donna rouge), Saturday, 26 January 2013 01:05 (4 months ago) Permalink
i'm going to spend all weekend trying to figure out how to chess move the circle spots and it'll be completely wrong
― #guy #guy fieri #poop #hallway (zachlyon), Saturday, 26 January 2013 01:15 (4 months ago) Permalink
yup this is driving me crazy, if we all put "C." at the end of our names can we work together
― #guy #guy fieri #poop #hallway (zachlyon), Saturday, 26 January 2013 23:52 (4 months ago) Permalink
ha.
― Leopard Skin POLL-Box Hat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 27 January 2013 00:23 (4 months ago) Permalink
There was some kind of Fireball contest this week that I completely forgot to do.
Anyone going to ACPT this year? I am, but I am not feeling it yet.
― Leopard Skin POLL-Box Hat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 January 2013 01:39 (4 months ago) Permalink
i'll probably do crosswords LA again
seriously stumped on the gaffney meta
― steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 28 January 2013 04:49 (4 months ago) Permalink
Haven't really tried the meta but I guess I still have a day and a half.
― Leopard Skin POLL-Box Hat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 January 2013 04:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
i have a juicy lead and nothing to do with it. i think. i can share my notes if someone else wants to try, i'm probably not getting it
― #guy #guy fieri #poop #hallway (zachlyon), Monday, 28 January 2013 05:39 (4 months ago) Permalink
AHAHA
i spent hours on this and got nowhere, went down rabbit holes and wrote on papers that looked like the shack in a beautiful mind, and then gave up and guessed elton john because "daniel", and "gravity" reminded me of rocketman, and he wore a lot of rings. couldn't figure out virgin but apparently he feuded with madonna last year.
and it ends up being right. i'm a sham.
― #guy #guy fieri #poop #hallway (zachlyon), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 21:01 (4 months ago) Permalink
i thought first that RAMA I and CROWN being in the center of the board (along with "CENTER OF GRAVITY" cluing us in) meant that the middle "M" was like a king and you had to get him in checkmate by moving the circle-knights, which was ridiculous ("checkmate" being "the last word")
and then i found that if you take the circled letters and look at the letters surrounding them via the knight moves suggested by the black block formations (2 left 1 up, 2 left 1 down, 2 right 1 up, 2 right 1 down) you get words: OASIS, SAND, SNOW, STIR, ONO, AEIO. well not the last one but i thought the lack of a U could also be a clue. ONO being so close to VIRGIN made me think they were connected (Two Virgins) but i couldn't make any more connections. desperately i applied this key to every single letter in the puzzle and wrote down any words that came up, hoping to find something hidden.
― #guy #guy fieri #poop #hallway (zachlyon), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 21:19 (4 months ago) Permalink
(i hate this puzzle)
― #guy #guy fieri #poop #hallway (zachlyon), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 21:20 (4 months ago) Permalink
wait elton totally crossed my mind too!!! wtf
― steaklife (donna rouge), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 21:36 (4 months ago) Permalink
I just watched the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road episode of Classic Albums and had no idea it was Elton John. Maybe if Dee Murray had been in the grid
― Leopard Skin POLL-Box Hat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 January 2013 01:32 (4 months ago) Permalink
I have actually been trying to learn to play chess properly recently and didn't want the puzzle to confuse me so I didn't try too hard.
― Leopard Skin POLL-Box Hat (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 January 2013 01:33 (4 months ago) Permalink
i had attempted some kind of cryptic reading of the grid (i.e. "SCREWRINGS...uh...GRINS?") but that fell apart with 40-y/o virgin and "jack" not really having any meaning i could ascribe to it
― steaklife (donna rouge), Wednesday, 30 January 2013 02:17 (4 months ago) Permalink
One month until Brooklyn
― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 16 February 2013 02:57 (4 months ago) Permalink
Will Shortz is a a cratedigger! Well, sort of: http://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/2013/03/flashback-monday-and-q-a-with-will-shortz.html
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 March 2013 13:50 (3 months ago) Permalink
Missed you guys this weekend. John, I finally bought the Penguin Classics book off of Ben T, after trying to finagle a freebie from here or there for the past year.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 17:38 (3 months ago) Permalink
Oh, cool.
I'll make it back to ACPT one of these years -- crosswords aren't an especially big part of my life right now. I used to enjoy doing the print version of the AVClub puzzle on the train and haven't yet managed to incorporate its online-only successor into my weekly routine. Cancelled the NYT puzzle subscription, too. So the only one I actually still do regularly is Ink Well.
To be honest, the thing I regret most about skipping the tournament this year is missing the opportunity to kibitz about Learned League with fellow participants.
Any notable run-ins, K? And how'd you do?
― jaymc, Tuesday, 12 March 2013 18:52 (3 months ago) Permalink
I came in in the mid-70s, and got on the Solving Perfection list, but I think I may have had a mistake that I forget to fix and that they didn't catch. It was impossible to tell from the scan. I felt a little guilty so I emailed them to check but I haven't heard back.
No big run-ins. I don't go to the events on Friday and Saturday nights since I live in town so I don't really know everybody, although since I've been going for four years and to Lollapuzzoola for the past two- where it is a lot more relaxed as you might imagine- so some people sort of recognize me. I actually got off the train at the same time as the champ on Saturday morning but I didn't talk to him then out of some kind of superstition, not to rattle him or be rattled in return, before the contest had started. Later I saw him after the second puzzle and explained this to him and he laughed and said something about how now we could be sure that this wasn't going to be that fateful day when we turned over the page and looked at it and said "Oh, no, I forgot how to solve a puzzle."
I don't know much I like solving the things right now, probably could be doing better things in my spare time, feels almost like a compulsion, but I feel like I started doing it and I've gotta stick with it a while longer.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 19:46 (3 months ago) Permalink
One thing I noticed this time was that it was much more interesting to do a post-mortem of solving a puzzle in that context with somebody where you could get into the nitty gritty of how you or they had a mistake or a tough time in one spot but then managed to fix it. Reading the blogs can be pretty useful but sometimes it ends up "I didn't know this- how do they expect me to know it!- but I knew THAT from doing a bundle of xwords." Although I guess that is pretty much the same thing as overhearing somebody else's conversation and not participating in it.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 March 2013 19:59 (3 months ago) Permalink
11 correct answers on the gaffney meta so far
― This is called money bags. (zachlyon), Sunday, 31 March 2013 06:23 (2 months ago) Permalink
Couldn't even finish the grid this week!
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 31 March 2013 11:25 (2 months ago) Permalink
I had to google to fill it in. (LVOV, really?) I'm not seeing any meta there.
― abanana, Sunday, 31 March 2013 12:41 (2 months ago) Permalink
Hah, had another city ending in 'V' before switching to that one.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 31 March 2013 12:46 (2 months ago) Permalink
there's still one square i can't figure out despite googling every possibility
probably not gonna try the meta
― This is called money bags. (zachlyon), Sunday, 31 March 2013 18:16 (2 months ago) Permalink
i had no problem filling it in, can't figure out the meta for the life of me tho. completely missed last week's, too
― steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 1 April 2013 06:34 (2 months ago) Permalink
Good work on the latest Gaffney meta, zachlyon.
― Retreat from the Sunship (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 14:44 (1 month ago) Permalink
lol sarcasm?
― infirm neophytic child (zachlyon), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 18:50 (1 month ago) Permalink
Sort of.
― Retreat from the Sunship (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 18:53 (1 month ago) Permalink
I think I need more chart knowledge for this month's muller meta. The only songs I can think of are all by Journey and they don't fit with the grid's clue.
― oxygenating our wombspace (abanana), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 19:29 (1 month ago) Permalink
haven't done the xword puzzle yet but one song immediately came to mind from the meta description...
― Salt Mama Celeste (donna rouge), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 19:30 (1 month ago) Permalink
Guys please don't talk about it too much until it's over. Was pretty happy that I was the sixth one to get it, as you might be able to see on the leader board.
― Retreat from the Sunship (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 19:32 (1 month ago) Permalink
i've hardly looked at it, i think my meta game's off, but i can't imagine there are too many songs that fit the bill
― infirm neophytic child (zachlyon), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 20:11 (1 month ago) Permalink
ran across (ha) this debate about crossword-ese in the Crossword Fiend comments, and i would totally read a book about it from BT:Ben Tausig says: May 8, 2013 at 9:55 am
I’m looking forward to writing about this very subject in the book I’m working on now for Race Point. Specifically, I am interested in what passes for common knowledge in the universe of crosswords, and how that has changed over time and why.
I agree with Martin that fill decisions are not a moral imperative. But I also think it’s a mistake to fully relativize the question as a matter of taste. There are reasons for trends in filling that have to do with how we value different kinds of knowledge, as well as with how we police the gates of intelligence. AFAIK, no one has ever written or spoken in great detail about those reasons.
If anyone wants to chime in, either with specific information or conjecture, I would love to hear from you, and will gladly cite your name if you offer something substantial.
― precious bonsai children of new york (Jordan), Friday, 10 May 2013 15:27 (1 month ago) Permalink
It's an interesting topic, fer sure.
― Retreat from the Sunship (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 May 2013 15:31 (1 month ago) Permalink
Neither Matt Gaffney nor Tyler Hinman solved the MMMM this week.
― Retreat from the Sunship (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 May 2013 10:26 (1 month ago) Permalink
neither did donna rouge
― Salt Mama Celeste (donna rouge), Monday, 13 May 2013 17:04 (1 month ago) Permalink
oh...i see the answer now. brb, dunking my own head in the toilet
― Salt Mama Celeste (donna rouge), Monday, 13 May 2013 17:08 (1 month ago) Permalink
Oh yeah, I see you on the leader board now.
― Retreat from the Sunship (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 May 2013 18:09 (1 month ago) Permalink
a nice contrast: this month i got the muller meta before i even finished the puzzle
― Salt Mama Celeste (donna rouge), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 16:50 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
Did you send it in? I don't see you on the board.
― Roddenberry Beret (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 16:55 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
i did but only a few minutes ago
― Salt Mama Celeste (donna rouge), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 17:01 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
Oh yeah, of course.
I got it pretty quickly but only after finishing the grid. As opposed to the latest Gaffney where I couldn't even do that.
― Roddenberry Beret (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 17:08 (2 weeks ago) Permalink
OK, there you are.
Nice to get this one quick because sooner or later most people are going to come up with it.
― Roddenberry Beret (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 4 June 2013 17:38 (2 weeks ago) Permalink