This is the crossword puzzle thread

tausig & matt jones puzzles are usually pretty tight (and forgiving) imo

it was ENISLE and ALERS

94A: Strand: ENISLE
91D: Yanks and others ALERS

still don't get the Yanks thing?

Yanks = Yankees = members of the American League = ALers

ALers

ah. gotcha. thanks! sometimes i get so stuck on my first definition of a clue, i can't think of others. in this case i thought ALERS was a collection of people who make/drink beer

Heh, in that same Rex Parker post I linked to earlier, there was this comment from Joon Pahk about ALER:

one of my earliest puzzles included ALER with the clue [Brewer before 1997, e.g.]. everybody who solved it said 1) ugh, ALER; and 2) what's the 1997 doing in there? they thought i was using ALER to mean one who makes ale.

except for that Sunday's was pretty satisfying

Ha, jaymc, did anyone mention ALEGAR in that link which I can't see right now?

Anyway, I'm finally used to ALER, but I too hated ENISLE.

i haven't been following this thread but i have a complaint to crossword creators everywhere:

EMAG and EZINE aren't real words. not even salon editors use them. please stop putting them in your puzzles. thanks

I agree with you about EMAG. However: EZINE is in Webster's.

loved this week's inkwell, esp. "song they played over and over at this jamaican resort my wife and i went to" and "improve the taste of, generally"

Haven't done it yet, but ha: he just got married in November. Must've been on their honeymoon.

You know something I don't even do Tausig's puzzles that often so I don't know what I'm talking about, maybe I'll sign up for that group and have them emailed.

Here's a blog post I wrote about last weekend (purposely not hyperlinked):
www.britannica.com/blogs/2010/02/dispatch-from-the-american-crossword-puzzle-tournament

loved this week's inkwell, esp. "song they played over and over at this jamaican resort my wife and i went to" and "improve the taste of, generally"

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Tuesday, February 23, 2010 3:32 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I enjoyed this puzzle too.

I'm trying to get back into doing crosswords regularly. When I worked at the office, I'd do the NYT puzzle (usually with coworkers) most days. I've been lazy about it since working at home, plus no access to the NYT.

I finally did the puzzle and enjoyed it as well. Although I had a few errors in the top center: I had CAT for "Swinger?" and misspelled the Chinese guys name with a 'Z' so the arcade game came out NCAZAM. (I thought it might be some kind of Snoop Dogg expression). Maybe if I had actually read the clue more carefully and seen the word "basketball" I would have figured it out.

Ha, already forgot about "Flower's Bud."

Friday Times seems to be not too hard after pre-puzzle craziness.

jaymc, I read your blog post again when I saw it linked to, along with your friend's blog, at the official tournament site. Very nice.

i've lost the ability to do cryptics again. just when i thought i was getting the hang of it.

What cryptics are you doing exactly? There are some easy ones in the Fraser Simpson New Yorker books or, surprisingly perhaps, in the Mensa cryptic books by Cox and Rathvon, puzzles which were originally in a Canadian newspaper.

jaymc, I just looked at the scoreboard again and noticed that you finished exactly eight places behind Ben Tausig.

Hi Jaymc, (don't know KL's alias), et al.

I wrote a lengthy recap of last weekend's Brooklyn tournament that you can check out here.

The link is: http://benbassandbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/02/2010-american-crossword-puzzle.html

That is all.

Already read the that when I saw it linked on the official tournament page but thanks, b.

Take back what I said about winning the D. Even to win that you've got to do really well, considering that the first and second place finishers in D were 56th and 66th overall. If he had been in D instead of C, new poster beyond, who did quite well, would barely have taken third place. Competition is stiff.

Apropos of which is Ryan Hecht's blog post for today http://bemoresmarter.squarespace.com/blog/2010/3/2/ryan-solves-the-nyt-tue-3-2-10.html

Hmm, looks like I dropped a single place.

Me too. Man, I really enjoyed going to that contest. Can't believe we have to wait a whole year. Guess I'm gonna have to try to go to this year's Lollapuzzoola.

wait a whole year for the next one.

Latest Inkwell 43-Down made me think of ilx.

jaymc, I have an idea for you: next March 15, you should write a puzzle with the word "IDES" hidden in it all over the place.

or just IDE

Oh yeah, what max said.

Has anyone figured out how to submit today's NYT puzzle when using the ap? Completing it leaves a blank space(?), so 'submit' does not accept the puzzle.

Ah, did it on paper so did not have this problem. Actually I remember them saying something about the blank space, but don't remember having one. Let me check the blogs.

Um, where is the blank space?

Dead center, unless it requires a 7-letter rebus fill-in.

I don't know what you have there, but this guy, for example, has the solution: http://www.crosswordmanblog.com/

I swear I tried it with an 'H'. Hmm. Maybe something else is screwy. Tnx!

Yep. D'oh!

Overcoming Dictionary Resistance

Merl Reagle's clue "Morlock menu mainstays" made me chuckle this weekend.

Maybe even better than the classic Sun Crossword clue "Barbecue buttinskis."

i got my ACPT refund check in the mail earlier this week, endorsed by mr. shortz himself! they enclosed the puzzles as well - i aced the first three so far...

Wow, did he deduct anything for sending you the puzzles?

yeah, it was a partial refund

NY Times this Sunday had a clue reading simply "muff". People in the cafe LOL'd. Not actually doing the puzzle myself, I never found out what that was all about.

Did that puzzle, don't remember what that answer was.

jaymc is never coming back to thread now that he is Jeopardy superstar.

I'm here! I just haven't been doing very many puzzles lately. Mostly just the Tausig ones, because they're in free newspapers that I pick up for my commute.