This is the crossword puzzle thread

Another new one. Title is exactly the same as Ben Tausig's Ink Well puzzle last week but with a different interpretation.

I think this is your hardest one yet, for sure.

Good!

Do you have .puz files?

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

just "CBer," as in one who does CB? seems ok to me

xpost dang it

http://www.filmaffinity.com/imgs/movies/full/31/317347.jpg

Yeah guys, I know that CBer is one who does CB, but how do you get that from "good buddy"?

that is CB slang, they say stuff like "ten-four, good buddy."

http://www.impawards.com/1977/posters/smokey_and_the_bandit.jpg

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.

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).

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.

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.

http://www.cruciverb.com/index.php/articles/htmlpages/120

A++ for "Paris's friend," Jaymc -- actually took me a while, with excellent payoff

Total pro-level theme on that one, too!

Ha, I sort of wrote that one with you in mind, N!

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.

At first I thought it was going to be some Trojan warrior. But I saw the show out of the corner of my eye enough when my wife was watching it to figure it out.

I alread e-mailed this to jaymc:

Haha, on your crossword, I initially had CLASH OF THE TITS (crossing with CUTS DOWN)! I know it's CLASH OF THE TANS and GUNS DOWN now. It works with the theme, though!

Derived from CLASH OF THE TITITS?

Suddenly I feel like Jordan knows some way of spelling "titties" that I don't

Ha. Well, that was the first theme answer I got and I thought the theme was maybe just removing two letters.

Yeah, it does kind of work both ways! If only there were an old book about fashion trends and female body shapes, entitled CLASH OF THE "IT" TITS

Just finished this week's Ink Well puzzle. Jordan, let me know when you've done it, because I want to complain. :)

Do you guys do the Harper's crossword puzzle too? Cause I always look at that thing in wonder.

That's on the other thread The official bored-at-work cryptic crossword pass it on thread.

Also just found this in the archives Favorite Oldschool NY TImes Crossword Clues

Was I drunk that day? How did I miss that thread. Gah.

Maleska thought he was making the world a better place by getting people familiar with variant spellings of AERIE. If he didn't preserve such knowledge, who would?

eagles

Don Henle y

Yesterday's NYT theme was gay.

I did a new puzzle and put it in Across Lite (.puz) format. I think it's pretty tight. I can e-mail it to anyone who's interested. Download Across Lite here first, if you don't already have it.

Or I can put it up on Flickr, too -- just give me a day or two.

E-mail it to me! My first name, then my last name, then @gmail.com. Or whatever address you have for me.

Generally assume you can/should e-mail them to me.

Sent.

All I can recall from my crosswording era is that any clue regarding sea eagles has the answer: erne.

Aimless, see the link about a dozen posts up.

The local syndicated easy one has the classic "fruity drinks" clue every other day.

I spent the last few days of being sick solving a book of dumbed-down xwords that the man got for me from the dollar store. Perfect way to pass the time without really having to think.

Dude but now looking at the other thread it had hell of ASTA and ESAU solutions. And some four-letter word for a water pitcher that started with EW but never bothered to look at the finished word once I'd filled in all the other clues. Another frequent one: tipple = SOT.

Well I eventually got through it via crosses and deduction, but still. It felt tougher than a lot of Saturdays.

I liked today (Thursday). I've made a habit of starting with downs because they often seem easier than the acrosses, but thankfully I didn't do that for this puzzle.

Yeah it was fun

very clever! I didn't finish the revealer until the end of the puzzle and didn't understand it until after I finished, so did the whole thing knowing the first two letters were missing but not that the letters were at the start of the clues. so it took a while.

Tickled that YASSIFY made it into yesterday's puzzle.

Ya that was a good one.

Also great crossword today (co-constructed by Nick Offerman!)

Very clever theme today!

Yes indeed! It took me until the very last theme answer to clock what was really going on. Felt satisfied that we still got it done in below average time despite it being quite difficult at first.

Yeah, enjoyed today's a lot, fun theme. Only started doing the NYT regularly a month or so ago, didn't realise there was a thread here.

Welcome, ailsa!

ONE OF US

minnesotans no doubt v. confused about the revealer to monday's NYT puzzle

idgi

I gather they call it something else there

Duck, duck, gray duck

They should’ve made an alternate version of the puzzle

My yeart is gladdened by things like "o no guvna, in these parts we calls it piggytinkle."

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQU9Wfa9XzmND-VwLJv1gWv9Wmrib_Sgf16A5lEX5zQTtq4h0sqVsB3D_A&s=10

* heart

Not a regional variant I swearsies

don’t knock gladdening your yeart till you’ve tried it

Is it banned in the Scottish Highlands?

Types of clues I can never answer without guessing: time zones, directional ('Tulsa to Wichita'), Korean directors.

xp - they have the white walkers up there - that their military training is remembered as children's games further south provokes a disgust they do not always conceal.

Thought maybe the thread bump was for Saturday's 52A: jazz guitarist Montgomery (3), who is NOT Roy.

I enjoyed today’s theme, even if we did find it on the easy side.

I don't think I've ever heard of a criss-cross puzzle