with such a tightly regimented puzzle any frequency at all adds a new variable to consider
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 02:00 (4 years ago) Permalink
new puzzle!
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:09 (4 years ago) Permalink
"kenken"
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
semi-hilarious article from will shortz explaining the new puzzle where he seems barely able to hide his disdain for sudoku--or looked at from another direction where he seems to be desperately trying to justify why the ny times never introduced sudoku
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:11 (4 years ago) Permalink
"unlike sudoku, kenken requires arithmetic, you see, which makes it far superior, and more appropriate for the new york times reader"
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:22 (4 years ago) Permalink
lol. i havent done it but it looks like that puzzle where you have to get each row and column as well as the diagonals to add a given sum i.e. like boring math work
― it amuses and intrigues throughout (Lamp), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:25 (4 years ago) Permalink
hasnt will shortz made serious $$$ out of sudoku? or am i thinking of someone else
― t_g, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:25 (4 years ago) Permalink
Never got into sudoku, but did the new example puzzles today and enjoyed them.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:26 (4 years ago) Permalink
yeah he has made dough off sudoku--really im just writing shortz fanfic in my head
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:29 (4 years ago) Permalink
i think the new puzzle is more interesting than sudoku but i guess its just geared a little more toward the way i think & process logic puzzles. still doesnt touch a good crossword.
― max, Monday, 9 February 2009 17:31 (4 years ago) Permalink
Nope. That reminds me, new Atlantic puzzle finally came out.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:34 (4 years ago) Permalink
i still like sudoku but yah crossword is best
― it amuses and intrigues throughout (Lamp), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:43 (4 years ago) Permalink
Looks like WS put out some Kenken books last year.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 February 2009 17:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
I just did the first KenKen puzzle, 4x4. Pretty fun!
― I shall always respect my elders (Z S), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:27 (4 years ago) Permalink
The word puzzle goes in the Arts section; I think any numerical puzzles should really go in Science Times or Business Day
― nabisco, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:41 (4 years ago) Permalink
By the way, if anyone did the Thursday puzzle a few weeks back where certain squares were filled with the letters HEAD, what did you mark into those squares while working? Because I enjoyed drawing tiny little heads in there.
― nabisco, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
GEDDIT?
― i'm shy (Abbott), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:49 (4 years ago) Permalink
Its creator is kind of sexy:
― i'm shy (Abbott), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:50 (4 years ago) Permalink
ok in the spirit of the thread here is a complaint about kenken: it prevents me from folding my paper into a perfect rectangle a quarter of the original page size.
― max, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 15:12 (4 years ago) Permalink
My complaint is that I never until today heard the phrase "play hob with."
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
Yeah, some of the phrases are pretty outmoded. The other day the clue "wolves" yielded the answer "mashers." Has anyone been called a masher since 1930-something?
One that really pissed me off recently: clue = vacations, answer = RANDRS. Plural acronym!!! Rest and relaxations???
― Dan Peterson, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
holy shit -
http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:40 (4 years ago) Permalink
Both "masher" and "RandR" I learned in my youth from extensive watching of Bugs Bunny cartoons.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:43 (4 years ago) Permalink
this is really common ny times style!
― max, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 16:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabbit_Twouble
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:07 (4 years ago) Permalink
I've seen RANDR before, but don't recall RANDRS. As noted above, NYT often invents plurals. I'll leave it to any former military (or Bugs Bunny) as to whether they've ever used "we went on three r-and-r's last year" in a sentence.
― Dan Peterson, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:11 (4 years ago) Permalink
What are you holy-shitting about? That it exists? If you like Rex's blog, check out Diary of a Crossword Fiend, whose author does not only the NY Times every day, but also a half-dozen other papers and even more puzzles syndicated online or in nontraditional venues.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:12 (4 years ago) Permalink
i check rex's blog every sunday--if he says the sunday puzzle is easy or medium, i'll do it. otherwise, i won't bother
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:13 (4 years ago) Permalink
Ha, a couple times I've felt awesome about having solved a Wednesday fairly quickly and then found that Rex rated it uncommonly easy.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:16 (4 years ago) Permalink
i still can't really get through a thursday puzzle :/
― Mr. Que, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:16 (4 years ago) Permalink
the answer for "bush not seen much today" is pretty o_O
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:17 (4 years ago) Permalink
That's one of those clues that cleverly exploits the convention that all clues start with capital letters (thus misdirecting the solver into thinking it's a member of the Bush dynasty), but I agree that "bush" is sort of a weird word to use in that context.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 17:23 (4 years ago) Permalink
Today didn't know what a "dabbler" was until I looked it up.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:06 (4 years ago) Permalink
I'm really liking Ken Ken. The six square one is requiring me to xerox it to figure out the possible permutations.
― My new tackling, kidney punching, helmet slapping celebration (forksclovetofu), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:33 (4 years ago) Permalink
or rather today's friday one is. I was gold until today.
― My new tackling, kidney punching, helmet slapping celebration (forksclovetofu), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:36 (4 years ago) Permalink
Ha. I usually do them on line. Today at lunch I took the restaurant newspaper and did the regular crossword and the 4x4 and had to get back so I didn't too much of the 6x6. But I screwed up the 4x4 and had to redo it and felt like an idiot because of the all the inky scribbles.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:38 (4 years ago) Permalink
I originally messed up the little three square El where it was supposed to add up to 7. I had a block on one of the ways to do it.
But it is definitely an enjoyable puzzle. Exercises a fun part of the brain, doesn't feel like just cranking through an algorithm.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:43 (4 years ago) Permalink
Wait, I totally did the one with the "Bush not much seen today," but I can't seem to remember what the answer turned out to be!
― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 19:45 (4 years ago) Permalink
it was AFRO i think
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
Yup.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:47 (4 years ago) Permalink
Oh right! Yeah, that was annoying, mostly because ... by the logic of clues, "bush" should be a clear substitute for "hairstyle," and I don't think I've ever heard it used that way. I mean, a descriptive noun just doesn't fit clue-logic there.
― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 19:50 (4 years ago) Permalink
Right. Have rarely if ever heard it used that way. Much more familiar with the terms "wig" or "rug," particularly this last as used in the phrases "rug rethink" and "the old concern of Rug & Gut & Gum" in Martin Amis's Money.
Are you guys familiar with the fact that in Webster's Tenth Collegiate Dictionary under "Afro" there was a picture of a man with an afro, but in the Eleventh it became just a picture of disembodied hair?
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:54 (4 years ago) Permalink
To avoid confusion with "Afro-" as in the Afro-Websterian person beneath the hair?
― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 19:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
maybe the clue was referring to afro-styled pubic hair
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Friday, 13 February 2009 19:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
In my copy of the 11th, there's still a face attached, but it's a woman rather than a man.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 20:07 (4 years ago) Permalink
Mine too.
― nabisco, Friday, 13 February 2009 20:14 (4 years ago) Permalink
I mean, obviously
OK, my bad. I have the Tenth in front of me but not the Eleventh. I just spoke to mr finewine, who first pointed this out to me, and he reminded me that there was another change between the Ninth and the Tenth, that between nine and ten the guy's afro was trimmed down and his skin color was blanched.
― lemmy tristano (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 February 2009 20:55 (4 years ago) Permalink
I just e-mailed my brother to see if he could send me a copy of the interview he conducted a few years ago with Jeffrey Middleton, the Webster's illustrator.
― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Friday, 13 February 2009 20:58 (4 years ago) Permalink
Your family sounds awesome.
― i'm shy (Abbott), Friday, 13 February 2009 21:03 (4 years ago) Permalink