This is the crossword puzzle thread

Do you do Matt Gaffney's puzzle, jaymc?

Just saw this article for the first time: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/fashion/12puzzle.html?_r=1

I used to, but I got too busy to keep up with it. After he published this puzzle a few months ago, he posed a challenge to readers to come up with a 15-letter theme fill that contained no vowels other than U. The best I could do was "BURNSBURNSBURNS" ("What Johnny Cash's ring of fire does), but it did inspire me to write this poem. (The winning entry was "CRUSHCRUSHCRUSH," which I guess is a Paramore song.)

Nice. I think you might have done an embryonic version of it on this thread: Me Need Help! ( A Spelling Thread)

Wow, I don't remember that at all!

The NYT was very, um, challenging today. I gave up and looked at the blogs before I finished it.

While we're at it, the Marbles: The Brain Store puzzle I mentioned upthread has turned into a monthly assignment. You can do my September through December puzzles here. They have to be printed out, but I'll e-mail .puz files if anyone's interested. Also, I tried to make them solvable for a general audience, so there's nothing too-too clever. Just so you know.

(P.S. Ignore the bit under the September puzzle, which makes it look like that's the only puzzle I created. That was put up when that was the only puzzle on the site, and they haven't taken it down yet.)

I liked this comment from Rex Parker today: "Theme answers then lend themselves to preposterous cluing of the sort that adds much-needed thorniness to the typical Sunday solve."

OK, jaymc, I did your September and October puzzles and like you said, nothing too difficult but they were nicely clued. Did somebody edit them for you (although I can't imagine that) or was it all yours?

No, it was all me, although occasionally I look for inspiration here. Thanks!

(Actually, I feel like my cluing could be a lot stronger, because the sort of punnish wordplay that's inimical to good crosswords simply doesn't occur to me that often. I do try to avoid straightforward definitions, if I can help it, in favor of secondary meanings or synonyms.)

I've been ramping up again recently so I'm used to the punning, but sometimes I find it tiresome and I bet your intended audience for that puzzle would too

RHETMENTATEE!

Do you ever do the Brendan Emmett Quigley puzzle, jaymc? Themeless Monday is hard!

Aaargh!

If you haven't been doing Merl Reagle's Sunday puzzles, today is a good time to start.

http://www.sundaycrosswords.com/ccpuz/MPuz.php

RIP Dan Naddor.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-dan-naddor7-2010jan07,0,3697756.story

Today's LA Times puzzle is one of his: http://games.latimes.com/index_crossword.html?uc_feature_code=tmcal

i enjoyed tausig's triple crossword in the mcsweeney's newspaper thing

Do you ever do the Brendan Emmett Quigley puzzle, jaymc? Themeless Monday is hard!

I don't, but he just added me on Facebook!

Still trying to decide whether to attend the ACPT next month. Guess I'll look into flights to NYC.

Will you be in the rookie category?

Yeah. I don't think the Marbles tournament I competed in last year counts.

i think i might do it, as the hotel is about a 15-minute bus ride from my apartment

also it is the last possible year for me to enter as a 'junior'

When is the last day to sign up?

dunno when the deadline is but if you register online you get $10 off the registration fee before feb. 13

Airfare is pretty reasonable. Think I'm gonna do this.

nice

i am registered for sat/sun only

Yeah, I dunno about the Friday night thing.

Oh tell me you haven't wanted to hobnob with Andrea Carla Michaels.

BEQ puts an Avatar clue in every one of his puzzles now. I may have to go see it just to get those.

also it is the last possible year for me to enter as a 'junior'

― louis malle-rat (donna rouge), Tuesday, January 12, 2010 2:25 PM (5 days ago)

Still on the fence about signing up. Part of the thing is hand-eye coordination: can't physically write the clues in or move my eyes around the grid fast enough even on easy Monday puzzles. So I might sign up but am gonna leave it to jaymc and donna rouge to shoot for the Rookie Prize.

In case you didn't know already, Cox and Rathvon, aka Hex, monthly variety cryptics are back here: http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/

. Part of the thing is hand-eye coordination: can't physically write the clues in or move my eyes around the grid fast enough even on easy Monday puzzles.

I have been practicing with a book of NYT puzzles, and I'm definitely trying to improve in this area: e.g., looking at the next clue while filling in letters, skipping between Across and Down when appropriate (I generally due all the Across clues first, then all the Down clues, rinse, repeat -- but once at least half of the grid is filled, this can be really inefficient), etc.

You've been doing a NY Times book? I've been doing a NY Sun book, which has the advantage of having stars to tell you the level of difficulty to expect.

The NYT book has that, too. I'm assuming one star = Monday, two stars = Tuesday, etc.

Hm. Maybe NY Times books we had were kind of old.

Maybe I should get one of those instead since, although the Sun puzzles are very enjoyable, obviously it's Will Shortz who is running the show and editing the puzzles at the contest.

i have an LA times book but there's all sorts of weird fill in their puzzles

I generally due all the Across clues first, then all the Down clues, rinse, repeat

oh, really? i start in the NW corner and try to fill it all in, and work my way through the puzzle that way.

If it's easy enough, I do it the Jordan way, if it's not I do it the jaymc way.

Did I really type "do" as "due"? Wow.

fake jaymc

jaymc vote in my movie poll. *throws subpoena at you, runs out*

OK, I will. I need to think about it carefully, though. Probably this weekend.

I hope they ask about "Live Free Or Die Hard" director Wiseman. I think I've got that one down.

In the book I've been going through, that's clued as "Author Deighton" (or similar) in no fewer than three puzzles.