Oh yeah, I had heard of that one.
Amy R is always pushing .jpz (no 'u' sorry for earlier misspelling) http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2011/04/18/tuning-spork-jpz/. You need to use a different program to solve with called Crossword Solver aka Puzzle Solve). Most of the speed solvers don't like it because it doesn't have certain convenience features AcrossLite but it seems there is some legal and financial reason constructors have been switching over.
― I heard her POLL my mayne (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 9 September 2011 14:15 (1 year ago) Permalink
Huh, I will check it out.
― *ter jacket (jaymc), Friday, 9 September 2011 14:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
Here's a post by Tyler about this http://www.tylerhinman.com/blog/posts/316which links to this post by Amy http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2011/04/05/see-im-telling-you-make-peace-with-puzzle-solver/
― I heard her POLL my mayne (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 9 September 2011 14:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
Man, Friday and Saturday puzzles both killed me this week.
― Agent Double O POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 10 September 2011 04:34 (1 year ago) Permalink
Today's puzzle had a nice gimmick that wasn't too hard to get. People did end up talking a lot of crap about it.
― Agent Double O POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 12 September 2011 00:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
I've always wondered, when constructors are creating a puzzle, they mostly work horizontally and try to munge the vertical words afterwards, right?
― Leee, Lord of Wtfomgham (Leee), Monday, 12 September 2011 03:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Theme answers are always placed first, and those tend to be mostly (but not always) horizontal. Otherwise, I work one section of the puzzle at a time, placing both Across and Down words before moving on to the next part of the grid. It's hard for me to imagine there being any value in working in only one direction, without knowing if the crosses are viable.
― *ter jacket (jaymc), Monday, 12 September 2011 14:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
There is some explanation of this in Patrick Berry's Dummies book, I believe
― Agent Double O POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 12 September 2011 14:37 (1 year ago) Permalink
Full title: Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies. I see it recommended all the time as the book to read about puzzle construction. Seriously.
― Agent Double O POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 12 September 2011 15:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/how-will-shortz-makes-a-new-york-times-crossword-puzzle/244733/
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 14 September 2011 02:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
Fascinating.
― America's Test Hitchens (jaymc), Wednesday, 14 September 2011 12:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
Really? I wanted more.
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 14 September 2011 13:05 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wait, I just clicked through to see the mark up more clearly. Pretty interesting.
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 14 September 2011 13:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
What do you think of this? http://ericberlin.com/?p=4101
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 15 September 2011 04:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
I've never done the USA Today puzzle, only know it by its poor reputation. That post is fairly damning!
― America's Test Hitchens (jaymc), Thursday, 15 September 2011 13:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
Never did it either. There is a funny quote about it from Jon Stewart in Wordplay
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 15 September 2011 14:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
lol at that divided grid (linked from that eric berlin post)
― hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Thursday, 15 September 2011 15:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, that was even worse than using the answer in the clue.
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 15 September 2011 15:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
Today BEQ mentions the Patrick Berry book and posts a link to a video of Mike Selinker giving a talk about crossword construction.
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 15 September 2011 16:18 (1 year ago) Permalink
One of these days I'm finally going to study up on my NA and European rivers.
― Leee, Lord of Wtfomgham (Leee), Sunday, 18 September 2011 19:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
Which river missed you up?
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 18 September 2011 20:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh, nothing in particular, just something that I've always been meaning to shore up. (ARNO? ELDO? EHRE?)
― Leee, Lord of Wtfomgham (Leee), Sunday, 18 September 2011 22:29 (1 year ago) Permalink
ELDO? Do you mean EBRO?EHRE? That's the German word for "honor," don't know the riverAs for ARNO, I think the most important thing about it is not to confuse it with Thomas ARNE, composer of "Rule, Britannia!"
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 18 September 2011 23:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
Today's Jonesin' puzzle, "Juggler's Blues," is awesome: http://groups.google.com/group/jonesin-crosswords
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 14:57 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah nice! thanks for the recommendation!
― symsymsym, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 15:54 (1 year ago) Permalink
nice. i always do jonesin' in my local free weekly, but the puzzles are consistently 2 weeks behind the online version (or whatever gets posted at crosswordfiend).
― hardcore oatmeal (Jordan), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 18:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
This week's Jonesin' wasn't bad either.
― When I Stop Meming (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 15:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Joon Pahk is everywhere!
― An Outcast From Time's Feast (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 15 October 2011 02:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
OK, Patrick Berry's contest this week in the NYT? Pretty amazing.
― A Lip in the Blandscape (jaymc), Saturday, 22 October 2011 18:45 (1 year ago) Permalink
Didn't even try the metapuzzle until a few minutes ago. Pretty cool.
― An Outcast From Time's Feast (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 October 2011 21:14 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wow, lots of people entered that contest. http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/drawing-contest/
For the record, we received 4,763 entries in the contest, of which 4,576 were correct.
― An Outcast From Time's Feast (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 13:49 (1 year ago) Permalink
Here I will admit that, before I figured out the "fill in the circle" bit and just had a bunch of scrambled letters, I thought the "leader" was "Justice Scalia."
― A Lip in the Blandscape (jaymc), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:09 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ha, before I did that my first guess was "Judas Iscariot" but I couldn't figure out how that was going to play and couldn't think of anything else.
― An Outcast From Time's Feast (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 25 October 2011 14:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
jaymc, I have an idea for you: for November 11, 2011 you should write an "eleven" themed crossword. oh wait
― Miss Piggy and Frodo in Hull (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 12 November 2011 03:06 (1 year ago) Permalink
Sorry.
I did the Patrick B. puzzle package that come out end of last year but never got most of the metas. Have until Valentine's Day I guess. Have since taken a break from doing regular-style crosswords and have focused on cryptics instead but I probably need to switch back soon.
― I Don't Believe You've Met M. Bébé (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 15 January 2012 18:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Just did this month's Patrick Blindauer puzzle which had a good twist.http://www.patrickblindauer.com/play.html
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 4 March 2012 20:53 (1 year ago) Permalink
So I wrote a tiny search engine for The New York Times crossword - spanning 15 years worth of clues and answers as a little weekend project. There are 432,205 clues from Oct 23rd 1996 to the end of 2011.
http://donohoe.tumblr.com/post/18789743183/nytimes-crossword-search
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 6 March 2012 00:39 (1 year ago) Permalink
http://gawker.com/5890676/new-york-times-crossword-puzzlemaster-updates-his-definition-of-ill
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 00:41 (1 year ago) Permalink
wtf at SEXT being an answer to a clue to a recent Sunday puzzle.
Also been wondering, is finishing a puzzle in say under 10 minutes something that becomes achievable through practice alone, or do specific techniques have a significant impact on one's time?
― Nude Gingrich (Leee), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 05:52 (1 year ago) Permalink
To do a weekday puzzle, an early in the week puzzle? No special technique, just practice, and eventually you can do a Monday puzzle in five or maybe four minutes. To get to three, maybe two minutes now that's when people are using the hand-eye
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 10:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
Well, I guess this is not physical technique per se, but one thing that helps is to be aware of the kind of words that are always in puzzles, to try to be thinking of the answer from the letters in the grid before you even look at the clues
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 10:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
aargh. Just did yesterday's and today's puzzle and made stupid mistakes in each.
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 11:36 (1 year ago) Permalink
Wonder where that guy got his NYTImes database from. Also, just had to donate to xword info to get access.
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 11:43 (1 year ago) Permalink
Don't need to log in on iPhone yet though
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 12:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Um...http://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder
― Cuba Pudding, Jr. (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 13:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
Yeah, exactly. Wonder if that's why registration is now required
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 13:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
Oh, I had no idea registration was required -- haven't used it in a couple of weeks.
― Cuba Pudding, Jr. (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 13:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
I just noticed it today, don't think it was there last week
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 14:33 (1 year ago) Permalink
Maybe Tumblr dude created his own database as a reaction against Xword Info going registration-only?
― Cuba Pudding, Jr. (jaymc), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 14:46 (1 year ago) Permalink
Maybe. But I suspect he might have been one of the "screen scrapers" mentioned in the Xword Info FAQ.
― Why Does Redd People Never Want To Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 March 2012 14:56 (1 year ago) Permalink