THE CROSS NERD: 2012

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Thanks for comin out, folks, to the final installment of the first Cross Nerd series. Sincere gratitude and big ups are in order for all of you solvers out there that were kind enough to give my puzzles a try, offer insightful feedback, and generally be awesome and interesting people to meet.

I'll be taking a bit of time off from puzzle making for what's shaping up to be a busy December full of festive season parties, musical engagements, and settling into new digs. Cross Nerd will be back up in the new year, albeit with a different format. Until then, amuse yourselves with the fine indie puzzle sites in the sidebar, or dig into the older puzzles here if you missed 'em. I particularly liked this one, this one, this one, and this one.

As for next year, I'll be posting aperiodically and less frequently. Keeping to a weekly schedule accomplished exactly what it was supposed to: I was motivated to keep up with constructing, I became efficient at turning vague ideas into finished work, and I was forced to make firm decisions about fill and theme entries rather than hemming and hawing indefinitely. However, I have found that making the weekly puzzles takes up just about all of the time in a week that I can/would be willing to devote to construction, and sometimes more. I want to be able to work at a more leisurely pace (which also means I'll be able to tackle some more adventurous constructions), and have a little extra time to spend on some of my other hobbies that I've been neglecting. Also, it will be nice to start submitting some puzzles for publication, now that I kind of feel like I know what I'm doing. Lastly, I'd like to focus some time and energy on doing puzzle-related work rather than solely making puzzles. Aside from the weekly puzzles, my intention with this blog (which I really didn't think out for very long before it launched) was to offer reviews and analysis of interesting puzzles, discuss the nuts and bolts of constructing, and produce and share software tools for constructors and other interested parties (notice the "For Nerds" page? Notice that's it's never been updated?). So, basically, stay tuned for interesting stuff in the new year. Either check back periodically, or join the Google group to stay in the know.

I struggled a bit with finding the right kind of puzzle to write to conclude the series. Was thinking an extra large themeless at first, but I did a themeless for the penultimate puzzle and also I had a busy work week and then moved into a new pad all weekend. Being short on time, I also knew it would be risky to try and pull anything too adventurous (I want to focus on weirder stuff once I'm free of the weekly commitment). No, the best bet was a straightforward daily-sized number with a tight and fitting theme. The theme came right away, thankfully. I would be surprised if it hadn't been before (kind Chronicle of Higher Education-y, I think), but I can't actually remember having seen it. Tried to make it nice and breezy; perhaps I'm feeling a bit sentimental.

More words, crossed and otherwise, coming soon...

Puzzle: Famous Last Words
Rating: XW-PG13
Difficulty: Gentle
Downloads:
PUZ
PDF

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Move It On Over

Yikes, only one puzzle left after today! I'm of course hoping to make it extra special, but then I don't really have any good ideas as to how I'm going to do that yet. Plus, I'll be moving into my new apartment next weekend, so time will be tight. Super stoked on that; I've been living in houses with roommates for the last 4+ years, so it will be nice to have my own space for a change.

Just another freestyle this week. Quite tough, if you ask me.

Parting words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Freestyle #23
Rating: XW-PG
Difficulty: Quite tough
Downloads:
PUZ
PDF

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Fortnight nightie-night

Just a pair of weekly puzzles left after this week! Don't worry, puzzles will continue, though at a slower and less regular rate. However, there will also be more puzzle-related stuff (ramblings and half-baked ideas, mostly) posted periodically, so I do hope you'll stick around.

But for now:

Every time I write a themed puzzle, I'm convinced that I've used up the last of my cruciverbal creativity and that I'll never be able to think up another theme. And every time, just when I need a new one the most, one materializes out of thin air (you may have noticed that I pretty much post whatever kinds of puzzles I feel like posting; however, I hate to go too long without a themed puzzle, and every few weeks a new one seems necessary). Such was the case this week. I was recording a new album with my band Ink Road, and didn't think I'd have to time to crank out a solid full-sized puzzle, so I figured a 13x13 would have to do. The challenge was coming up with a theme that felt complete using little grid real estate. Jeffrey Harris said once that "if I solve a puzzle with three theme entries, I want that to be not because there was no room for a fourth entry, but because there is no fourth entry." Good advice to constructors, I think, and I wanted to heed it. Miraculously, just this afternoon while running errands and fretting about still having to write a puzzle and get some shut-eye for work in the morning, a theme idea came to me for which I could think of only 3 short entries plus a revealer. The rest was just the proverbial 10% perspiration (I believe the original quote referred to "genius"; I don't think this puzzle is ingenious, for the record). Actually, even the third theme entry doesn't quite belong, in a way, but I think it gets the job done.

On a related note, my backup idea was a freestyle with a mini-theme, the gist of which I'll present to you in the form of a puzzle:

I'm thinking of a pair of 2-word terms, both of which have the enumerations (5, 5) (i.e. 2 5-letter words each). They can both be clued as follows: [It might be listened to as a sleeping aid]. The first words of each can be paired to form a new term clued as [Metaphor-heavy sea beast of literature]. The last two words of each original term can also be paired to form a term clued as [Avant-garde genre for Sonic Youth, at times]. What are the terms? I have no idea if this is difficult or not, but they were going to be the seed entries because I thought it was neat.

Answer: WHITE NOISE and WHALE MUSIC, which can be repaired as WHITE WHALE and NOISE MUSIC. (highlight to view)

A more elegant puzzle would have the pair rearranged to form terms related to the originals (the holy grail would be all four terms sharing a single clue), but I couldn't think of any.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

ps That link to my band above is hilariously dated, as is most of our web presence. Only 2 of 5 current members were on the last album, and some pictures out there have like 4 extra people in them.

Puzzle: Sack Attack
Rating: XW-PG13
Difficulty: Mild
Downloads:
PUZ
PDF

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Keeping Austin Weird

After a short but action-packed vacay in TeAustxas, I'm back in business. Hope the double-header from a fortnight ago and the many brilliant puzzles available at the sites listed in the sidebar tided you over. I was excited to share some stories, but:
a) it's no longer fresh in my mind,
b) the whole trip was kind of a blur while it was happening anyway, and
c) it's 2:37am local time and I have work in the morning.

In lieu of stories proper, here are some miscellaneous highlights: Napalm Death (whose drummer ran offstage to barf, and came back to play the fastest song in the set), Between the Buried and Me, wearing sandals in the mosh pit like a boss, Deerhoof, lots of free beer, feeling oddly like a millionaire riding around downtown in pedicabs, Saul Williams, sticking a dollar bill on a girl's arm with a staplegun (that was her way of busking - Austin's a weird place), travelling across the continent to meet new friends that live in my home town, Deathfix, lots of tacos, and many more.

Today's puzzle went through a number of revisions and one complete rewrite. Had the grid about half-filled on Sunday. I jumped on the computer Monday morning to finish it up, but opted to tackle BEQ's themeless first, which I was shocked to discover contained one of the 11-letter entries I had used in one of my stacks. It's been used before, but it's distinctive enough that I couldn't bring myself to use it only a day after BEQ, and since changing it would have necessitated a nearly complete rewrite, I shelved the puzzle and started anew (in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not dropping the entry in this write-up so that I can use the puzzle for a future post).

Oh, and you'll see a name you may not recognize in the byline. That's my buddy Drew, a fellow cruciverbal enthusiast and Cross Nerd solver, who helped with the cluing (and contributed 30-Down, probably the best clue in the puzzle).

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Freestyle #22
Rating: XW-18A
Difficulty: Fairly torturous
Downloads:

PUZ
PDF

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Hello I Must Be Going

Sorry about the delayed post. Not skimping on the puzzles, though; for your solving pleasure I've got a themed double-header to cover this week and the next. I'll be kicking it in Texas on a bit of a holiday. Plus, seeing as I've been doing this for nearly a year now, it seemed high time I got myself a week ahead.

The puzzles are complementary, yet distinct. Either can be solved first.

Oh, and no online versions this time (not sure if anyone uses them anyway), since I don't want you to see both puzzles at the same time.

More words, crossed and otherwise, two Tuesdays from now.

Puzzle: "Out of Season" and "Consider Yourself Blessed"
Rating: XW-PG13
Difficulty: On the easy side
Downloads:

Out of Season PUZ
Consider Yourself Blessed PUZ

Out of Season PDF
Consider Yourself Blessed PDF

Coming soon...

As promised, the post is late this week. However, also as promised, that's because I've got a double-header lined up for this week. Still putting the finishing touches on them and I'm stuck at work for the rest of the day. Should be up later tonight. Before Wednesday morning for sure.

In the meantime, amuse yourselves with any and all of the wonderful puzzle sites listed in the right sidebar. Both Erik and Neville are running contests this week, so get on those tout suite.

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Yee Hah

Off to Austin, Texas next Thursday for the Fun Fun Fun Fest. To be honest, I couldn't name five out of the hundreds of acts that are performing there, but that's not for their lack of popularity. I know Run-DMC are going to be there, as well as David Cross from Arrested Development and Saul Williams. I scanned the list a little while back and remember being impressed. Really, though, my interest in the music is secondary to my interest in flying to Texas to stay in a small house and dig some live jams with 13 other people (most of whom are friends of friends I've never met).

Oh, by the way, I just googled some of the acts: Girl Talk, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Explosions in the Sky, Santigold, Deerhoof (how could I forget!), Refused, Tomahawk (hells yeah), Against Me!, Fucked Up, Converge, Air Sex Championship (wut? actually, that's on the spoken word/performance art stage. I don't think that's a band).

Anyway, for next week, the plan is to release a set of two puzzles, which will cover the next two weeks. They might go up a little later than usual, but they'll be 15x15 complementary, themed puzzles so hopefully they'll be worth the wait.

For this week, I promised you a theme, so here's a theme. Actually, I promised you a cool theme, but you'll have to settle for mediocre but kinda cute.

Grid was a bear to fill, I was surprised to find. It necessitated bumping the black square count a little high and settling for some bleh fill. I guess this kind of theme entry arrangement is not to be taken lightly, although I'm sure Patrick Berry could have done it in a 36/76 without the cheater squares.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Squares Away
Rating: XW-14A (for tasteless puns mostly, rather than actual adult content)
Difficulty: Tried to make it measium and cute
Downloads:
PUZ
PDF

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Bitch, bitch, bitch

Thanks to all who gave feedback on last week's vowelless for giving feedback on last week's vowelless. It was my first one, and there are definitely things I'll do differently next time. For starters, I'll try not to underestimate the difficulty of even slightly misleading clues in a vowelless puzzle. Straightforward clues for straightforward answers in a squeaky-clean grid is where it's at, I'm learning.

As for this week's puzzle, it's yet another freestyle (read: stand-in for a theme that I couldn't think of). Not terribly happy with this one, but mostly because of a few Natick-y crossings. Too much paintballing and watching movies this weekend and not enough constructing, and I guess tackling a 66-word grid with less than a day before it goes live was a little too audacious. Although I was happy with most of the individual entries, I didn't pay enough attention to some of the crossings in the grid. For instance, the already-difficult 25-Down crosses a few difficult names, so sorry about that. I erred on the easy side for the clues, to try and balance things out a bit. Some fun entries in there, but I tried to keep the cluing relatively sane. Overall, though, this puzzle lacks the consistency and structural integrity that I look for in a good freestyle grid. I'll come up with some cool theme or other to make up for it next week, or something.

Oh, and lastly, just in time for Tuesday, see "Looper" immediately if you haven't already. It's astonishing.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Freestyle #21
Rating: XW-14A
Difficulty: Some tough words, but not too much trickery
Downloads:
PUZ
PDF

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

What this is ... or, the number of used car lot gorilla mascots on the sidewalk?

For the answer to clue above, read on. For now, happy belated Columbus Day, Canadian Thanksgiving, or plain old Monday, depending on your situation. I spent the long weekend getting fat by driving to Edmonton and Grande Cache and stuffing my face with lasagna, a couple Grandma feasts, and fast food. No Turkey this year; I approved.

Grande Cache is about 12 hours from Regina. Luckily, my new shipment of puzzle books arrived last week. I picked up Bob Klahn's "The Wrath of Klahn," BEQ's diagramless book, and Frank Longo's vowelless book. I'm especially digging the vowelless; so much so that I made my own over the weekend. I liked working with the format a lot. It's kind of like what I wish constructing a themeless were always like: tons of long entries, and the fun stuff can be plunked in with alacrity because there are few if any worries about the shorter crossing fill. Since you fill in only the consonants and omit the vowels, many of the shorter entries can be expanded into several different words/phrases so you can avoid initialisms, abbreviations, and awkward partials, generally. No longer are SDS, MSS, and RBS arcane abbrevs. Now they're I SAID SO, MEIOSIS, and AIRBASE. What's more, there are fewer possible entries of any given length (since we're working with fewer letters) but more acceptable entries. Also interesting is the difference in lengths between original and devoweled entries, so I tried to play this up a bit in the puzzle. As an aside (SNSD), here are some stats: in my wordlist, the greatest difference between lengths is 13, for both TDNTMNTHNGFTNTGTTHTSWNG and PRLDTTHFTRNNFFN, and the greatest original/devoweled ratio is exactly 3, for DDDDD, RNDN, BGWG, WKPD, NMTP, and RPRP. As a hint, the 2 long ones are songs, and DDDDD can be 2 different songs (original entries (highlight the following text to view): IT DONT MEAN A THING IF IT AINT GOT THAT SWING, PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A FAUN, I DO I DO I DO I DO I DO/DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO (an ABBA hit and a Rolling Stones hit subtitled "Heartbreaker," respectively), EERIE INDIANA (a TV show), BOOGIE WOOGIE, WOOKIEEPEDIA (a Star Wars wiki), ONOMATOPOEIA, and EUROPA EUROPA (a German film)).

This is all constructing hedonism, really, but the process wasn't entirely as smooth as I just made it out to be. I may have gotten overzealous with a few of the sections, as a few entries are weak, and one in particular (29-Across) is almost, but not quite, made up. It seemed legit at first and a quick Googling confirms its existence outside of this grid, but on closer inspection it doesn't really work in any conventional grammatical sense and seems restricted to a fairly specific area of kinesiology. Sorry about that; I tried to make the surrounding clues as straightforward as possible.

One thing I noticed is that the grids in Longo's book tend to be nearly homogeneous with straightforward-sounding entries that you've heard maybe a handful of times in your life and certainly have never said yourself. Whether that's by design or a consequence of Longo's terrifyingly open fifty-something-word grids I can't say for sure; it's likely both. Although they may not be everyday phrases, nearly every entry makes perfectly obvious sense, once you parse the bizarre consonant strings, which is definitely helpful in a wide-open vowelless puzzle. Whereas guys like BEQ, Peter Gordon, and Matt Jones (all of whom create great themelesses) tend to write puzzles that require you to be alternatingly erudite and hip to crack, I lump Frank Longo in with themeless mavens like Todd McClary, Brad Wilber, Doug Peterson, et al. whose grids are full of crazy entries that are nevertheless very inferrable (with the right clue, of course). I tend to prefer the latter types of grids; when you can infer an off-the-wall entry you feel a sort of deja-vu-like familiarity with it, which produces a unique feeling of pride in one's perspicacity, IMO. While it may be fun to uncover from the crossings, a cryptic-looking entry from an unfamiliar avenue of pop culture doesn't quite elicit the same response.

Back to vowellesses. Although this one is a themeless puzzle, I think the vowelless format offers up unique new theme opportunities. I haven't done too much brainstorming yet, but right away I liked the idea that one entry can be two or more different phrases. For instance, the answer to the clue in the post title could be (highlight to show): PST TTL (Post title, or Apesuit total). That's a tricky one, but what about ["Say something, Ms. Middleton" ... or, "Be very quiet, musicians"?] for: PPPPPP ("Pipe up, Pippa" or a hypothetical sextuple-piano score marking). I'll work on developing a themed vowelless for a future post. Constructors, in the interim feel free to steal and run with the idea. I'd rather inspire someone else to do the hard work than do it myself, naturally.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Oh, if you're new to vowelless puzzles here's the skinny:

Enter the answers as you normally would, except only write the consonants.
Use every white square; don't leave blanks for the vowels.
To eliminate some ambiguity, no entry, original or vowelless, includes the letter Y.
Watch for common short words with one consonant. N can be ON, IN, ONE, etc., F can be OF, and T can be OUT, TO, ATE, etc. It's tricky at first, but it comes easier with some practice.
If you want some hints, the enumerations (number of letters/word in the entry) are provided in PDF format below. Commas denote spaces between words, while hyphens denote hyphens.
Good luck!

Puzzle: Vowelless #1
Rating: XW-18A
Difficulty: Mostly gimme clues, but some tough entries and it's a vowelless, so pretty difficult
Downloads:
PUZ
PDF
Hint sheet (enumerations)
Full answers

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Rider Pride

Sorry about the missing write-up last week (assuming anyone actually reads these). Finished writing the puzzle at like 2am and I didn't have it in me to come up with anything to write. I came up with the theme entries a few days earlier and shelved them, then on Sunday afternoon suddenly and inexplicably became interested in trying to make a Marching Bands puzzle. Having never made one before, I had no idea what to expect in terms of time input, so I came up with the brilliant idea to just spend the time writing a PERL script to fill one using my wordlist. Since I was already working with a puzzle format that I was almost entirely unfamiliar with, I guess it seemed like a good idea to try and codify the construction rules using a language I'm just learning. Not surprisingly, the whole plan went down in flames. It turns out that the Marching Bands format presents a challenge not encountered when writing a crossword-filling program (which I've done in the past): there's no way to know in advance how many entries will fit in each band, or where the entries begin and end in each band and row. While certainly not intractible, this problem proved a little too difficult to solve in the very limited time I had left myself. Actually, I got it mostly working, but there were a few bugs that I didn't have time to squash. So, I busted out the theme answers I had prepared earlier at 6:30 Monday evening and got to work filling the grid and writing close to 100 clues. Turned out surprisingly ok (and props to Drew Lawn for inspiring the theme when by dropping the last theme answer in conversation a while back). I doubt I've learned my lesson for good, but this week at least I finished in a comfortable amount of time. And expect some Marching Bands in the future, though, Gods willing.

Oh, and one more thing about last week's puzzle. I received an e-mail about an error in one of the clues, but I sort of anticipated that I would, so I figured I'd clear it up. 8-Down read [Sting wanted his, in "Money for Nothing"], which clues MTV. But wait, wasn't Mark Knopfler the songwriter and vocalist for Dire Straits? In fact, and I just learned this while cluing the puzzle, Sting was a guest vocalist on "Money for Nothing." He sang the falsetto "I want my MTV" part during the intro (notice that it sounds almost identical to the refrain from "Don't Stand So Close To Me." This was by design). I struggled a bit with that clue, since Mark Knopfler actually wrote that line before Sting got involved, and I anticipated that no matter which one I went with some solvers would think I had made an error. In retrospect, I should have just taken a different approach to the clue, but I thought it was a fun bit of trivia. Oh, and here's a good source for all of this, btw.

In news not about me, Neville Fogarty's Friday puzzle was ___ing outstanding. Hats off, Neville. Humbling to see this caliber of stuff being put out by other young indies.

Plain-Jane 15x15 freestyle this week. I'm happy that I was able to fill this grid reasonably cleanly, but I feel it's lacking in the sparkle department. Maybe crossing my two seed entries in a difficult spot was ill-advised. 24-Down is a plug for Cross Nerd OG Parker Lewis, who selected the entry as his Month of Metas prize. If you've found your way here, you're most likely a crossword junkie and have probably heard of it. If not, take note. I was inspired to put 35-Across in there while watching the riveting Riders-Lions game on Saturday night. I worked a few summers as a groundskeeper with 35-Across, and his brother Chris, who's now a slotback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, was one of my frequent homework partners in 1st-year Engineering at the U of R. He was on the Riders' roster for their '07 Grey Cup win, which was the same year that his brother played with the Stanley Cup-winning Ducks. These sorts of things mean a lot in a city the size of Regina.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Freestyle #20
Rating: XW-14A
Difficulty: Tough

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Brought to you by audacity and poor time management

**Puzzle's up now -- write to follow once I've had some sleep**

Puzzle: Magazine Inserts
Rating: XW-18A
Difficulty: Gentler than usual, but with some trickery

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Puzzizzle

My man Parker Lewis has been working with the folks over at Puzzazz on a brand spanking new app for crossword lovers, through which you can solve puzzles from 29 different collections by 17 different constructors. Serious constructors, too: BEQ, Vic Fleming, Parker Lewis, Michael Wiesenberg, T Campbell, David Steinberg, Ian Livengood, Wayne Robert Williams, and Carla Frechette & Marya Doery, as well as cryptics by Mike Selinker, Todd Rew, Brian Greer (from The Guardian), and Wayne Robert Williams. Take a peep at what they've got. Also, if you're a constructor that's been itching to get some of your work into a published collection, hit 'em up for that too.

On to the puzzles. From the feedback I got, it sounds like people dug the weird puzzle last week. Glad to hear it; expect more. This week, though, I have for you a plain ol' freestyle (well, it's 12x17, but nothing special otherwise). Had to rush to fill the grid again this week, though amazingly not due to procrastination. I started a completely different grid with one of the seeds in this one and sunk a solid chunk of time trying to fill it. May have been too ambitious of a grid, though, because in the end there were far too many compromises in the fill for my liking. Scrapped it and whipped this one up in a rush this afternoon. A couple rough spots, but overall it's an improvement. Played it safe with the clues and tried to skew easy, but there may still be a natick-y square or two. Let me know what you think. Oh, and I'm starting to prefer "Freestyle" to "Themeless," so I'm making the switch.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Freestyle #19
Rating: XW-14A
Difficulty: On the easier side, for a themeless

**Update: Looks like the PDF download was broken this morning. Not sure why, but it should be fixed now.

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Monday, 10 September 2012

A Couple 6-Packs to Go

Holy moly, we're 40 weeks in already! In case you didn't know, the Cross Nerd series was intended to be a series of 52 weekly puzzles, which means the last scheduled puzzle will run on December 4th. After that, well, I still haven't totally worked that out yet. There will certainly be more puzzles, but it's unlikely that I'll run a new one every week. Rather, I'll probably focus on quality over quantity - posting less often, but offering more interesting, ambitious, and well-crafted puzzles. I instituted the weekly routine to a) force myself to keep at it for practice and b) build up a bit of a solver base. However, now that I'm somewhat more conversant with the nuts and bolts of puzzle making, I'd really like to play around a little more and attempt some more adventurous constructions (like this week's puzzle). The weekly deadline -combined with work, friends, bands, and life in general- leaves little time for experimentation, alas (not only that, but I do this without a net; I have, and have always had, exactly zero puzzles in reserve), and as of late I've been finding myself resorting to the same old tricks and falling back on themelesses rather than trying new approaches/theme types/etc. just to get a new puzzle out each week. I love doing it, but it's nearly time for a change.

Plugs from the cruciverse: if you missed the big unveiling of Erik Agard's Glutton for Pun site last Wednesday, check it now. Great debut puzzle chock-a-block with wit and wordplay; looking forward to see what he serves up tomorrow! You know what else is awesome? Neville Fogarty's puzzle blog is what. He's a couple months in now, and shows no signs of slowing down, thankfully. Last week's had a nifty theme, I thought. Keep 'em comin'!

On to the puzzle. So, remember what I said above about getting stuck in a constructorial rut due to the weekly schedule and wanting to experiment more? Forget all of it; this week's offering is more of an experiment than a puzzle proper, truth be told. It's kind of neat, I think. Maybe you'll hate it, I don't know. Either way, it contains a few things that I've never seen in a puzzle before, and if it inspires another constructor or results in a bit of contemplation and/or discussion then I'll consider it a success. I have no idea how difficult it will be to grok what's going on with the theme, so I erred on the side of too easy with the cluing and obfuscation (especially since it seems I buggered up the difficulty of last week's puzzle a bit). I'm interested to hear your feelings on this one, positive or negative, so don't be shy!

Title is a Will Weng quote, according to Will Shortz.

Oh, and this one would be easier on paper, only because Across Lite won't accept any correct answer you give it. You can solve it but you won't see Mr. Happy Pencil even if your solution is correct. That, and the web app can't seem to fit the whole puzzle without scrollbars. See the "Special Solutions" tab for the full answer and a bit more discussion.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Greeting Card -or- "It's your puzzle. Solve it any way you want"
Rating: XW-14A
Difficulty: Easy breezy clues, but theme may be tricky

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Strictly Business

Just a 72/30 themeless today, with nothing too fancy in there. This week I was further behind on puzzle making than I've ever been. Didn't really start this one until Monday morning, but it didn't put up too much of a fight, thankfully. A couple hours on the grid, and maybe 5 or 6 for cluing (I'm a slow cluer, mostly because I get easily distracted when I start researching the entries). There are, of course, a few knots that I could've massaged out with a little more time, but I'm not unhappy with how it turned out. I worry that solvers may be stumped by a few Natick-y crossings, but I've tried to make everything as inferrable as possible.

Oh, and the clue and answer at 1-Across were provided by Peter Gwinn, one of the Month of Metas winners.

Lastly, I'm excited about a new indie puzzle series that drops on Wednesday, but I won't say anymore (mostly because I don't know much more) before it does.
***UPDATE: It is here and it is glorious. Congrats to Erik Agard on becoming the latest in the welcome wave of self-publishing indie constructors.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Themeless #18
Rating: XW-14A
Difficulty: Moderate, for a themeless

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Polka Your Eyes Out

Not much to report this week. One of the highlights of the weekend was hitting up a Ukrainian Festival down the road from my house. I was curious when I heard what sounded vaguely like the Tetris theme on my front step. When I decided to investigate some time later, the band was actually playing the A Music from Tetris as part of a Weird Al-esque polka medley (or whatever the Ukranian variant of polka is. I should know this; I am somewheres around half Ukranian).

In crossword news, happy (belated) 60th birthday, Will Shortz!

Today's puzzle is 15x15 and themed. I considered offering it as a print-only puzzle because no electronic form can portray the solution exactly as I envision it. But, since I know that printing is a pain in the ass and/or ecologically objectionable to some solvers, I'll just strongly recommend that you solve the print version but offer you both. See the solutions page for the grid as it was meant to look. Also, if you think the clue for 30-Down sucks, well, you'd be right, but know that I struggled for a while with that one. Another example of hey-I-found-a-great-entry-not-in-my-database-that-bails-me-out-of-a-tight-spot-but-how-the-hell-do-you-clue-it. If you have a better idea I'm all ears. Lastly, I hope you'll forgive me for yet another Game of Thrones clue. I'm currently obsessed (just started the fifth book, which is bittersweet because I know that I'll devour it and then be left hanging for God-only-knows how many more years before the series is concluded). Oh, and of course I know that the book series is called "A Song of Ice and Fire," but I wager that more people know it by the TV series name.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Inflexions
Rating: XW-14A
Difficulty: Moderate/kinda tricky

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Those Cultured Moose Javians

I like sleep a lot, but I rarely get enough of it during the week. So, on Friday, I fell asleep reading A Feast for Crows (that would have never happened if I was still on A Storm of Swords. That shit was gripping to the point of addiction, but the story's kind of in a slump now. Fellow Throne-philes, tell me it picks up again!) after work and woke up at midnight. Since I wasn't about to go out at that point and didn't feel like going back to sleep, I stayed up the whole night filling this week's grid. That was fortunate, really, because I don't know when I would have done it had I gone out carousing on Friday like I intended. The rest of the weekend was jampacked. Show with my band Ink Road on Saturday out at the beach, along with our BFFs Indigo Joseph and Fur Eel (indie rock fans, check 'em out. Barring implosions and/or "creative differences", both bands are poised to take over the world, and deservedly so. Indigo Joseph play intelligent and zany indie rock, while Fur Eel keep it tight and funky with grade-A chops. Where that young whippersnapper Travis Reshaur learned to play bass with such taste and maturity I'll never know). Camped out at the beach after a fair amount of whooping-it-up, nursed a hangover all morning, and then caught the matinee performance of Pirates of Penzance in Moose Jaw, of all places. It was extremely well done, and I've still got the "Modern Major-General" song stuck in my head. Capped off the weekend with a couple sets of tennis with my buddy Donnie. We're pretty evenly matched (i.e. he's almost as lousy as I am. Sorry Donnie), so it's always a good hit.

Oh, and thanks again to Erik Agard for the interview and guest puzzle last week.

On to today's puzzle. I seem to recall promising a themed puzzle for this week, but, to be honest, I've had a bit of writer's block lately. I'm having trouble coming up with solid and innovative theme ideas, and, once Friday rolled around and I still had nothing, I got to work on a themeless. Of course, any of the tried-and-true workhorse themes would do in a pinch, but my goal with this series is continual improvement. If I'm going to do a themed puzzle, I want it to be more original and clever than the last. If you'll permit me to toot my own horn for a minute, I think I've whipped up some neat themes here and I want the next one to be even better. While falling back on a themeless may seem like kind of a cop out, I also want the themelesses/freestyles to improve, so don't go thinking I've been slacking. It's a 15x15, believe it or not (17 themelesses and this is the first 15x15), with only 66 words (my first sub-70!). There are a few questionable entries, but nothing too dodgy and overall I'm pretty darn happy with the fill. Wish I could have avoided the "helper" squares and squeezed one or two of the meta contest-winners' entries in this one (god knows I tried), but neither were happening. Oh, and this motherfucker is tough, and a little saucy too boot. Don't say I didn't warn you.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Themeless #17
Rating: XW-18A
Difficulty: Brutal

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Regarding Agard

How do ya like that? I didn't even have to write a puzzle this week and I still barely have the post up before 2 in the morning. Ladies and gents, today's Cross Nerd puzzle is an offering from Mr. Erik Agard. As welcome an addition to the cruciverse as you could ask for, 18-year-old Erik came into prominence earlier this year by snagging the B Division bronze at the ACPT and has since solidified his place in puzzledom by demonstrating his formidable construction chops. For starters, you may remember him from week 4 of Guest Constructor Month over at MGWCC. Furthermore, his Anoa Place mini-series of 14 witty puzzles is not to be missed. The themes are tight and amusing and the grids ably filled, but the hilarious clues are the piece de resistance, IMO. But what do I know? Let's hear a little from the man himself:

Peter: What got you into puzzles, and how long have you been at it?

Erik: My math teacher from high school, David Stein, is a puzzle genius and ACPT-goer. I’ve kind of been doing puzzles my whole life, but it was his class - about 4 years ago now - that got me really hooked.

P: Aside from (American-style) crosswords, which other sorts of puzzles do you solve?

E: I do the occasional Rows Garden (Andrew Ries is amazing). My grandfather is big into acrostics, so I try those. But I’m a bit of an idiot savant, even within the puzzle world - really only good at the one thing.

P: Where have you been published?

E: One LAT puzzle. One Week 4 puzzle at Matt Gaffney’s Weekly Crossword Contest. More to come.

P: After such an impressive debut showing at the 2012 ACPT I’m willing to bet you’ll be back for 2013. Improving on this year’s performance would be tough; how do you think your chances look? Got any other tournaments/prizes in your sights?

E: Wild horses couldn’t keep me away. Well, they could, really, but I’m not anticipating that being a huge problem. I’ve gotten a bit faster since March, but also a bit stupider, so if (big if) I can manage to stay error-free, I like my chances.

P: Do you do any sort of training for solving (recording your times, purposely filling in knowledge gaps, etc.)?

E: I have a spreadsheet of my LAT times. But I don’t really do anything with it, so I haven’t quite figured out how it actually helps. As for the latter, I would never do anything like that. That sounds too much like studying. Ask any one of my classmates how I am about studying.

P: I really enjoyed the Anoa Place mini-series, and it sounds like I’m not alone. Can we expect another installment any time soon?

E: Appreciate that. And I like the term “mini-series,” I may just have to steal that in future. A lot of the puzzles on Anoa Place started out as NYT/LAT rejects; at the moment, I’m working on getting more puzzles rejected so I’ll have stock for a sequel.

P: Whose work do you admire as a constructor and enjoy as a solver?

E: Not sure I can separate my constructing, solving, and editing perspectives anymore. I got a lot of love for a lot of constructors in the game, but my top 5: Gaffney, BEQ, Norris, Gordon, Tausig.

P: What are your thoughts on eye-catching/wide-open grids, convention-shirking themes/gimmicks, etc.? Is it all about the solver, or do you think that grids and gimmicks that push the boundaries and challenge constructors are important as well?

E: It is vitally important for the evolution of crosswords that people keep doing new, cool shit. Convention is made to be shirked. But - with the odd exception - not in the newspaper. Put it in a book or something.

P: Tell me about your approach to construction. What tools do you use, what do you do with a deadline and a lack of ideas, what qualities do you look for in a seed entry or long fill, etc?

E: I am very, very dependent on autofill. It is my life support system. But I write my own clues wherever possible. I’m not really a deadline-meeting kind of guy, but in the vein of one of my favorite writers, a bath always helps.

P: What sorts of crosswords do you wish you saw more of in the cruciverse? Less of?

E: More indie constructors. Less Oreo centennial puzzles. I’ve done at least 5.

Thanks for the thoughts and the puzzle, Erik. But especially the puzzle; my weekend was gloriously free of clue-writing. It was Folk Fest in Regina, to which I have obligations as a volunteer, beer- and music-consumer, and soaker-up of sun.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Not Now...

Rating: XW-PG

Difficulty: Medium-hard

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

It's OK to Pick Your Nose if it's Sunburned and Peeling

Spent the entire long weekend (for some reason, yesterday was "Saskatchewan Day," so we all had the day off) up at Good Spirit Lake with my best mates. Weather was perfect: sunny and hot for the most part, but it rained just enough for me to dust off my old boy scout skillz and whip up a shelter out of a few tarps, some twine, and the trees. I love camping, but it's one of those things that I never think to just go and do, so I only end up doing it when it's planned as an event like this. The best part about camping is that, although you may not do that much in a day, all of your routine tasks takes a lot longer than you're used to and they feel like huge accomplishments. Preparing an edible meal and cleaning up afterward, brewing coffee, shaving and freshening up, getting in and out of bed, etc. They all get their moment in the sun when you're camping; for that one weekend they're not merely requisite chores to be grudgingly performed, they're all of a sudden sources of struggle, challenge, achievement, and personal satisfaction. If you're up and active with a breakfast in your belly and caffeine in your brain by 10am, it's already been a successful day.

Whilst kicking it by the fire, I also had the pleasure of double- and triple-teaming a good number of Martin Ashwood-Smith's Triple Stack Crosswords with a few of my puzzling buddies, which same buddies also inspired and offered a few ideas for the clues on my puzzle for this week. Give it up one time for Drew Lawn, Steven Buchan, and Keegan Downie, everybody.

Can't wait to sleep in my own bed again, so I gotta go.

More words, crossed and otherwise, along with a guest puzzle, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Themeless #16

Rating: XW-PG13

Difficulty: Sorta difficult, but not as tough as last week

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Let The Games Begin

**NOTE: There is nothing about the Olympics in this post. I just needed a title.

Once again, not much to report. It's late, and truth be told I've not been in much of a puzzle mood lately. I swear I do have some interesting musings to share regarding things cruciverbal, but it always seems that come Monday night, once I've frantically rushed to finish the puzzle before midnight, I run out of time to properly articulate them. One of these weeks when it's not so darned nice outside... Rode lots of bike this weekend, and played a nice afternoon gig as well. First show with a newish jazz quartet; went much better than expected, but I got a bit turned around in the middle of our crazy salsa rendition of "Caravan." I have very little jazz -especially latin jazz- experience, but I'm learning fast (it's all sink or swim when it comes to playing, for me. I like to get in way over my head with new musical outfits and learn as I go, faking it till I make it).

In puzzle news, I must tip my hat to Joe Krozel, whose Friday NYT set a new record for fewest black squares (17!!). You could fill any wide-open grid with junk, of course, but I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the fill in this one. Plus, that 92.44% white grid is absolutely terrifying when you first see it as a solver. This puzzle deserves to hold the record, IMO.

Neat grid today (12x17 and asymmetrical), but no real pyrotechnics. Tried for a smooth, solid, knock-down-drag-out themeless. Lots of wide open whitespace, with reasonably clean fill at the expense of spicy entries. Started with 13- and 14-Across stacked, and filled the top from there. Originally had a symmetric grid with a wide-open middle, but I couldn't get good enough fill in the bottom stack, so I tried moving 13-Across' other half to its current vertical position on a whim, and it worked. Plus, I got to play with both the fat corner and the 3 and a half stack in the top. I have a strange fondness for themeless grids comprised predominantly or entirely of straight horizontal lines of squares, so I was happy that the top stack filled so well with that arrangement.

Oh, and 14-Across is courtesy of one of the Meta winners. Name on the solutions page.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Themeless #15
Rating: XW-G, believe it or not
Difficulty: Very difficult. This one's got teeth.

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Monday, 23 July 2012

Tuesday already?!

This summer's starting to heat up. Aside from being sweltering and humid most of the time (and storming when it's not), this next month is going to be crazy busy. Folk Fest is coming up (I volunteer there every year so I can come and go as I please, and I always end up spending the entire weekend either laying on the grass absorbing the music, working and absorbing the music, or whooping it up till all hours of the night (there's music then, too)), as is a camping trip to Good Spirit Lake (smores, bitches), and a few gigs with a few different bands (haven't been playing much this summer, aside from practices, so it'll be good to shake the booties again). As for puzzles, I'll still be posting one a week, of course, but maybe don't expect anything too adventurous for the next month. I won't let the quality suffer in favour of heavy-handed cracks at half-baked, underdeveloped ideas or ridiculous grids. I'll save those for cooler weather.

Kind of a weird puzzle today. 15x16 grid, for one, and with unconventional symmetry. I originally developed the theme to work within a more typical layout: 4 long theme answers, symmetrically placed. Theme development is by far the most time-intensive part of constructing, for me. Although filling and cluing the puzzle took only an afternoon or so once I had everything in place, I let this one percolate for a few weeks after devising the initial notion of it, and eventually I decided to add another layer to the theme (hopefully it doesn't come across as unnecessary clutter). This necessitated a left-right symmetrical grid, however, and shorter theme answers, since I couldn't find any longer entries that worked nearly as well, and couldn't find a matching 16-letter entry for the one on the bottom. Interesting, I thought, that shorter theme answers yielded a more rich theme. At just 40 theme squares this puzzle's a little on the light side by the numbers, but I think it packs a bit of a punch. Maybe you'll hate it, though? Let me know if you do!

P.S.: 49-Down: do you Americans know this song? That shit's everywhere at the moment, here in Sask.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Really Packing It In
Difficulty: Not too terribly tricky, I don't think
Rating: XW-MA

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Back to reality

Month of Metas Wrap-up

15 solvers out of 26 submitted the correct answer to the fourth meta, but only one can win. By random selection, this week's winner is Alex Jeffrey. Alex wins the chance to request a clue and/or answer for an upcoming Cross Nerd puzzle. Congrats, Alex!

Now, what you've all been waiting for...the grand prize winner of the Cross Nerd Month of Metas contest! Believe it or not, just two solvers submitted correct answers to all four puzzles. However, only one can win, and the coin fell in favour of Brandon Hensley (the solver who submitted the ingenious Befunge implementation of the second puzzle). Brandon will win an as-yet-undecided-upon puzzle book (we're in talks) and possibly some additional swag, Regina SK souvenirs, etc. Now, I would have been chuffed to bits to have anyone at all solve all four metas, and I was chuffed to smithereens to have two perform that feat, so I felt I would be remiss to not honour the other solver. Howard Barkin of ACPT solving fame was the other solver that went 4 for 4, and for his efforts he will receive an additional weekly prize (the clue/entry selection). Congratulations Brandon and Howard!

Many thanks to all the solvers who took time out of their undoubtedly busy schedules (especially if it's a busy schedule of other puzzles) to solve and submit answers! I received an unexpected amount of interest and positive feedback about these puzzles, so I'd say this was a success, despite the few hiccups along the way. I'd like to run a few more metas at some point, but it is a fair amount of extra work and we're heading into festival/camping season here so don't expect them for a month or two. In the meantime, I'll keep preparing themed and unthemed weekly puzzles for y'all. Hope you can join me.

This Week's Puzzle

Today I have for you a 13x13 themeless. Small puzzle, and only 48 words. Cluing was refreshingly breezy and quick, but the grid put up a bit of a fight. I actually set out to make an asymmetrical grid, or at least a grid that could be completely dictated by the entries that worked the best. Started with 18- and 19-Across stacked, threw them into their current position, and started building. The top came pretty easily, and I had a great grid-spanner in 8-Down. After a ton of promising but ultimately fruitless starts in the bottom, I discovered that the symmetrical grid worked best. I'm sure there's a great bottom half somewhere in a better wordlist, but the combinations of entries and black squares that I tried gave me nothing as clean as the final product (admittedly, there are still a few rough patches). The most difficult part of making this puzzle was deciding what to use as a seed or bridge entry into the next section, since there are so many long answers that depend on one another. Practice, practice, practice.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Themeless #14

Rating: XW-MA

Difficulty: Quite difficult

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Peter Fucked Up

If you missed the update added to the meta 4/4 post earlier today, here's the Coles Notes version:

I made a small but significant oversight when constructing puzzle #4, and didn't catch it in time. So today was pretty agonizing, as I was stuck at work knowing that the puzzle was flawed (but easily fixable), yet unable to do anything about it. The upshot is that I've had all day to dwell on it and figure out the best way to handle this awkward situation. My initial reaction was to repost the puzzle with the mistake corrected, but, since a number of visitors had already solved the puzzle and submitted answers, doing that would mean that solvers are competing for the same prize but solving different puzzles. I can't have that, so I'll just have to suck it up and accept that it's a flawed meta.

However, things could be worse: a few solvers have already submitted the correct answer (and have proven that they fully comprehended why it's the correct answer), so, flawed as it is, the meta is still demonstrably solvable. Because of that fact, I'm going to leave the puzzle as is and continue on like normal, with one exception:

If, once you see the solution and the error that I made (to be posted Sunday night, after the contest closes), you truly believe that you would have gotten the answer but for the error, send me an e-mail to let me know. I'll trust you and count your solution as correct. If it messes up the proper selection of a sole winner, I'll compensate with additional prizes.
Sound reasonable? If you have a better idea to make it fair, let me know.

Month of Metas 4/4

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Month of Metas 3/4

NOTE: For the sake of solvers who may have missed last week's contest, the solution is on a separate page (see the tabs above). The write-up below gives nothing away about the puzzle or meta answer.

Week 2 Wrap-up

So week 2 may have actually been easier than week 1 for most solvers. I'm going purely off of solvers' comments, since the numbers don't really tell me anything. The correct : incorrect ratio was slightly (but not much) higher this time, but the sample size is pretty small in both cases (it's late and I don't really feel like doing stats, so let's just assume that the difference is not significant). Also, I noticed that a number of solvers that submitted answers for week 1 did not submit for week 2, while a number of new solvers showed up after week 1, so our populations are different (and certainly not randomly sampled - last week most came from crosswordfiend, while this week most came from MGWCC). To hell with the stats, let's get to the winner:
56 solvers out of 59 submitted correct answers this week, but only one of them can win. By random selection, this week's winner is Peter Gwinn. Congrats, Peter.

A huge thanks to Matt Gaffney for directing a lot of new solvers my way. Throughout the past week I had the pleasure of chatting with a number of puzzlers whom I had never met before as their answers rolled in. Y'all come back now!

Miscellaneous Xword News

I've just joined the team of "Litzers" for the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project. The goal is to digitize every NYT puzzle since the dawn of time (February 15, 1942, in this case). Currently, every puzzle from the Shortz era (beginning in Nov of '93) is available in digital form for analysis and perusal at XWord Info, but the best we've got are PDFs for the considerable pre-Shortzian catalog. The project was started back in '99 by Barry Haldiman and fizzled out after a number of years, but has just recently been revived by David Steinberg. If you'd like to get involved, hit up the site and drop David a line.

This Week's Puzzle

So I've decided to swap around weeks 3 and 4. The main reason is that I felt I needed to revamp the week 3 puzzle this weekend, and haven't had time to finish it yet. Plus, considering it's Canada Day long weekend here, the title of this puzzle made it too appropriate to not run it. This means that you'll notice a significant increase in difficulty from the last puzzle (which seems to have been too easy for a week 2 anyway). Don't worry, though, the next one will be tricky as well; no more Mr. Nice Constructor.

Meta Contest Overview: There will be four metas in total, one each week. Each week, one winner will be randomly chosen from the list of solvers with the correct answer to the previous week's puzzle. They will win the opportunity to suggest an entry and/or clue for a future Cross Nerd puzzle, and will bring honour to their family and their country. At the end of the four weeks, any solvers that answered all four metas correctly will be entered into a draw to win untold riches, most likely in the form of a puzzle book or two (haven't decided yet, but seriously probably something around a $25 value).

Instructions: This week's contest answer is a brand of alcohol. This is week 3, but this puzzle was originally conceived as week 4, so it's a bit of a toughie. Send an e-mail with the answer in the subject line to peter.bananarchy[at symbol goes here]gmail[dot]com by 11:59pm CST on Sunday, July 8.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Take the Day Off and Get Stoned
Rating: XW-MA

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Monday, 25 June 2012

Month of Metas 2/4

NOTE: For the sake of solvers who may have missed last week's contest, the solution is on a separate page (see the tabs above). The write-up below gives nothing away about the puzzle or meta answer.

Week 1 Wrap-up

23 solvers out of 27 submitted correct answers this week, but only one of them can win. By random selection, this week's winner is Parker Lewis. Congrats, Parker. Parker is not only a skilled solver but an innovative constructor as well. In fact, his NYT debut partly inspired today's puzzle (no spoilers, really, so you're safe to follow the link).

From the sounds of it, solvers generally found this puzzle slightly more difficult than I had intended, although almost all were nevertheless able to work out the answer. Looking back, it's certainly a bit tougher than a typical Matt Gaffney week 1, but then my intention was not so much to try to hone in precisely on his difficulty levels, but more simply to gradually increase the difficultly each week a la the MGWCC. Since it sounds like solvers found this to be around a week 2 or maybe 3 on the Gaffney scale we'll call it a "week 2.25." This week's should be about a week 2.75 or so; maybe a full-on 3. Either way, I think you'll enjoy it. At least I hope so - I sweated blood making this one.

A big thanks to Amy over at crosswordfiend for directing a bit of traffic my way. Throughout the past week I had the pleasure of chatting with a number of puzzlers whom I had never met before as their answers rolled in. Hope to hear from y'all again this week.

Miscellaneous Xword News

In other crosswording news, the last few days have been particularly good to solvers. There was George Barany's stunning Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle (which, based on the star ratings, is a serious contender for puzzle of the year over at the fiend), a new Todd McClary "unthemely" puzzle, and three consecutive days of brilliant NYT puzzles (a tremendously impressive debut by Caleb Emmons on Thursday, Josh Knapp's crackling Friday grid - another contender for the annual Oryx awards, and Laura Sternberg's smashing Saturday puzzle). And all of these from either unknown or underhyped constructors (why is Todd McClary not a household name yet?). Also, speaking of the Chronicle, I think I'm going to start brainstorming some ideas for a submission. Having lost my NYT virginity, I feel more inclined to start submitting to other, more "modest" venues, and I've long felt that the CHE provides a unique outlet for puzzles that delve a little deeper into their theme subject or deal with topics outside of the arena of "common knowledge." Plus, George Barany, in his comments about this week's puzzle, had nothing but good things to say about working with editor Patrick Berry, so that's appealing too.

Lastly, I think I actually solved Matt Gaffney's meta this week, which makes it my first correct week 4! Unfortunately: a) I totally forgot to do week 1, so I can't say I'm 4 for 4 (stupid!), and b) it's not a real week 4 because there are 5 Fridays this month. A small victory nonetheless.

This Week's Puzzle

Anyway, good luck with this week's puzzle, and don't worry if you're not a computer person - I promise you can still get it!. Deets are as follows:

Meta Contest Overview: There will be four metas in total, one each week. I will be trying my best to consistently increase the difficulty each week, but, hey, I'm new at this. Each week, one winner will be randomly chosen from the list of solvers with the correct answer to the previous week's puzzle. They will win the opportunity to suggest an entry and/or clue for a future Cross Nerd puzzle, and will bring honour to their family and their country. At the end of the four weeks, any solvers that answered all four metas correctly will be entered into a draw to win untold riches, most likely in the form of a puzzle book or two (haven't decided yet, but seriously probably something around a $25 value).

Instructions: This week's contest answer is a superhero. This is week 2, but it's more like week 2.75 or 3 on the Matt Gaffney scale. Send an e-mail with the answer in the subject line to peter.bananarchy[at symbol goes here]gmail[dot]com by 11:59pm CST on Sunday, July 1.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Programming Camp
Rating: XW-PG13

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Month of Metas 1/4

First off, if you missed last week's interview with puzzler Jeffrey Harris, you should probably peep it now by visiting the slick navigation bar to your right. On to business. As promised, it's meta time at The Cross Nerd. What's a meta? Let me explain (if you're familiar with metas such as Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest, you can skip this, as the standard rules apply):

A meta, short for meta-puzzle, is a puzzle within a puzzle (technically, I guess, a meta-puzzle would be a puzzle about a puzzle, but cruciverbalists are of course not known for their linguistic acumen). Basically, you first solve the crossword puzzle like you would any other, and then you try to extract a single, final answer. This answer can be suggested by the theme answers (if there are any), other answers in the solution grid, the clues, the grid design, the title, a combination of some/all of the above, or anything else within the puzzle itself (it's worth mentioning that Matt Gaffney has hidden solutions entirely outside of the puzzle before, but I won't be doing anything that underhanded). Also, the answer to a well-constructed meta will be the only answer that makes sense, and should be obviously correct once you get it. If it seems ambiguous or ill-defined, either you or the constructor (hopefully you) missed something. Ok, great. So...how do you find this answer? Well, that's for you to figure out, and, in fact, therein lies the fun. To avoid spoiling anything, I won't give you any examples, but you might want to check out some of Gaffney's old solutions (there are a few hundred, and he explains them very clearly). What I will tell you is how not to find the answer. The answer will almost certainly not actually appear as an entry in the grid. Metas are much more sophisticated than plain word searches. However, if while solving you notice an entry that seems to have something to do with the general "theme" of the meta (maybe it relates to the title or the answer category), make a note of it, as it may tie in to the theme to lead you to an answer. Then again, constructors like to toy with solvers, and sometimes toss in entries to deliberately throw them off the scent. Oh, one last thing: googling is encouraged, and may be needed for some of these puzzles (depending on the solver's background, of course). Check your hang-ups about "cheating" at the door: although the crosswords themselves are often solvable by any capable solver, many metas have even the best puzzlers hitting the net to piece the whole thing together. Of course, you'll still have to have enough of an idea about the nature of the puzzle to know what to search for...

Enough preambling, let's play. Here's the deets:

Meta Contest Overview: There will be four metas in total, one each week. I will be trying my best to consistently increase the difficulty each week, but, hey, I'm new at this. Each week, one winner will be randomly chosen from the list of solvers with the correct answer to the previous week's puzzle. They will win the opportunity to suggest an entry and/or clue for a future Cross Nerd puzzle, and will bring honour to their family and their country. At the end of the four weeks, any solvers that answered all four metas correctly will be entered into a draw to win untold riches, most likely in the form of a puzzle book or two (haven't decided yet, but seriously probably something around a $25 value).

Instructions: This week's contest answer is a medical procedure. It's week 1, so I've tried to make it easy (though maybe not as easy as a MGWCC week 1). Send an e-mail with the answer in the subject line to peter[dot]bananarchy[at symbol goes here]gmail[dot]com by midnight on Sunday, June 24 (and for God's sake please don't discuss it in the comments). Limit one answer per solver.

One last thing: I got an exciting phone call this week. You can read about it at 64-Across (this isn't part of the meta, BTW).

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Contest Puzzle #1 - Dim the Headlights
Rating: XW-14A

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen, Jeffrey Harris

As you might have guessed, this week we'll get to meet puzzler par excellence Jeffrey Harris. Jeffrey is not only a deadly solver, but a fine constructor as well. He's been at it for close to a decade now, has been regular contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Sun (RIP), and has been published in the NYT and Wall Street Journal as well. Jeffrey has been in touch a number of times lately to provide feedback on the puzzles (mostly in the way of reporting grievous errors, which is always appreciated) and chat about his brand-spanking-new book, Sit & Solve Pop Music Crosswords. 42 mini-puzzles (10x10 mostly, I believe. Dimensions I've never worked with, but you know I love the minis), and at an unbeatable price, if you ask me. There's a sample of one of the puzzles that didn't make it in to the book (so the ones that did must be even better, right?) at Jeffrey's site. Don't be fooled by the diminuitive proportions: cramming that much thematic material into a breathable 10x10 grid with 2 themers could not have been easy, and it's a silky smooth solve nonetheless.

Anyway, I caught up with Jeffrey for a Q&A over the weekend; let's see how it went down:

Peter: Congratulations on your first book! What can solvers expect from it in terms of themes, puzzle styles, difficulty, etc.?

Jeffrey: As they’re only 10x10, most of them have only a pair of theme entries. There are a few puzzles with more, but they’re the minority. Also, there were some pairings I found that were just too nice to worry about pesky concerns like grid symmetry, so the last eight or so puzzles are nonsymmetric. I tried to keep them easy, but only solvers can really say how difficult they are.

P: Tell me about your approach to construction. What tools do you use, what do you do with a deadline and a lack of ideas, what qualities do you look for in a seed entry, long fill, or theme, etc?

J: I use Crossword Compiler with a hand-ranked wordlist, though I have made grids by hand and sometimes still do, if I feel like it. I like it when themes feel “complete”--if I solve a puzzle with three theme entries, I want that to be not because there was no room for a fourth entry, but because there is no fourth entry. As for long fill, no surprises--give me a multi-word phrase with interesting letters and I’m happy.

P: Whose work do you admire as a constructor?

J: Oh, that’d be a long list. Patrick Berry, Trip Payne, Frank Longo, Mike Shenk, BEQ, and Merl Reagle would probably be on everyone’s list; in addition, there are a number of constructors including Todd McClary, Eric Berlin, and Adam Cohen who I don’t see as much buzz/chatter about but who are definitely talented puzzlemakers who I try to emulate.

P: What are your thoughts on eye-catching/wide-open grids, convention-shirking themes/gimmicks, etc.? Is it all about the solver, or do you think that grids and gimmicks that push the boundaries and challenge constructors are important as well?

J: As a solver, I love being able to look back at a puzzle and marvel at the effort and skill put into the construction--this includes, however, the effort and skill needed to keep a puzzle clean. Quad-stacks are impressive, but if they’re filled to the brim with partials, abbreviations, dupes, and bogus phrases they become less so. And it’s not like these things are necessary! Patrick Berry, Frank Longo, and most recently Matt Jones have all made quad stacks that are much cleaner than the ones that have been published in the Times these past few months, and to me, those are exponentially more fun to solve and to admire after the fact.

P: Where do see your puzzling career going? Do you have any specific construction or publication goals that you’re aiming for?

J: Not beyond “making enough puzzles to keep a roof over my head” at this point, heh. I’d like to have a non-pocket-size book at some point, but that’ll be a long way off I think.

P: How do you think that the existence of a puzzle blogging community has affected the quality and/or style of puzzles, if at all?

J: I don’t know. It’s certainly made puzzle solving a more communal activity, which is a good thing.

P: I understand you’re a pretty shit-hot solver (a Lollapuzzoola champ if I’m not mistaken?). Which puzzle outlets do you hit up for a solid challenge? Other than traditional crosswords, which sorts of puzzles do you enjoy?

J: For challenge, both the Washington Post themeless and Fireball are hard to beat. I also do Matt Gaffney’s contest...week 5 puzzles can sometimes be even tougher than Posts or Fireballs. If you know how to solve cryptic crosswords and are looking or a real workout, I recommend the cryptics of Kevin Wald and Mark Halpin.

Thanks for the opportunity to be interviewed, and I look forward to solving more of your puzzles as you post them!

Pleasure's all mine, Jeffrey. It's always nice to get acquainted with other puzzlers, and so you can expect more interviews in the future. Feel like you've got something to share with the literally tens of adoring Cross Nerd fans? Hit me up and we'll shoot the shit.

On to today's puzzle. Dug out a bit of an oldie this week. I devised and polished the theme with the intention of whipping it into a NYT submission. Didn't even get as far as filling the grid before discovering that a very similar theme was done back in '06. Although none of the same entries are used, the idea was similar enough that it didn't seem worth waiting 6 months for the almost certain rejection, so I shelved it. Glad I did, though, because I needed a ready-made themed puzzle stat (too many themelesses recently), since I've been spending any and all of my free puzzling time working on both my submission to the 20 under 30 contest and my upcoming month of metas. Wait, what? That's right, you heard right: a month of metas. Between Trip Payne's jaw-dropping "Remote Possibilities" extravaganza, Pete Muller's (so far) excellent Muller Monthly Music Meta, and the usual dose of MGWCC puzzles, I've been more than a little inspired to try my hand at a meta-puzzle. After a little brainstorming, I've come up with what I think are four solid puzzle ideas, which I'll be running in the fashion of a month's worth of MGWCC. And there will be prizes! (mostly things of no monetary value). Tune in next week for more details.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: How Goes It?
Rating: XW-PG

Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Hot Cross Words

So it's been too nice here to stay cooped up inside slaving over a hot crossword. Shame, really, because I've got a lot of neat theme ideas cooking, but haven't had time to whip 'em up. I go into red alert mode when Thursday or Friday rolls around and I still don't have a fully fleshed out theme idea, and in those cases I'll usually end up digging out a seed entry or two from spice rack and tossing together a themeless. They're not necessarily easier to make, but they're safer. I always worry with new themes that I haven't let them simmer long enough and that I might be overlooking some deal-breaking detail or have missed an opportunity to add another layer of elegance. Plus, I'm guessing that at least part of the reason you solvers keep coming back is because I try to keep things interesting around here, so instead of resorting to a recycled theme I've prepared you a 17x17 themeless this week. Watch for upcoming themed puzzles if that's your thing - I've got some gooders in the works, as well as perhaps a meta contest. Stay tuned.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Themeless #13
Rating: XW-PG13
Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Like space, without the stars

Not much to say this week. Did an overnight cancer fundraiser on Friday, and then came home Saturday morning to learn that cancer had claimed the life of the legendary and estimable Doug Heller. So it goes. I didn't know Doug personally, but to all of you who did, you have my condolences.

Tuesday snuck up pretty fast this week, and I only had time for a 13x13 themeless (I guess you could say it has a mini-theme, as about 1/6 of the letters are within the 2-part long answer, but it plays like a themeless). Maybe next week I'll do something different and make a 15x15 themed puzzle, but no guarantees.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Mini Themeless #12
Rating: XW-14A
Download the PDF file here and the PUZ file here, or solve or download the Across Lite puzzle and/or software from the embedded app below.

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Grids? Where We're Going, We Don't Need Grids

I'll keep it brief in the "miscellaneous crossword happenings and musings" section. Started working on my speed-solving a bit for seemingly no reason at all. I've been posting my times at Dan Feyer's blog, but it's embarrassing so you should also post your times if you're not the greatest speed-solver. Really, though, I'm hoping that posting my times and being embarrassed will help me to get better. I'll keep you posted.

Today's puzzle is the first diagramless of the Cross Nerd series. I actually rarely solve diagramless puzzles these days, truth be told, but I grew up solving the ones in the old Dell magazines during the summers at the lake (if you saw my skin, you wouldn't be surprised that I shunned the beach for puzzles as a kid). Come to think of it, I don't really remember solving any of the regular crosswords. Who made those anyway? None of the constructor bio blurbs I've read have mentioned Dell, if memory serves. I'll have to check out some of the bylines in them the next time I'm out at my parents' cabin. Anyway, I hadn't really intended to make one but I had a neat grid design in mind and I thought it might work if carefully clued. The theme is really loose in this one. Some might say inelegant, but my stated goal was to use the entries to sort of paint a picture of the thematic idea (I'll try to keep the background non-specific so as to not give anything away, but skip this paragraph if you're really spoiler-paranoid). I tried to cram a lot into the grid and imposed a number of constraints to solidify the delivery, but I'm afriad I may have shot too high and eschewed the WWPBD (What Would Patrick Berry Do?) approach a few too many times. This was certainly the most difficult grid I've tried to fill (in the end, though, there's nothing in the grid that makes me cringe - so-so stuff en masse, mind you), and I struggled right till the end with tying the thematic stuff together in the clues and making sure I had satisfied all of the constraints. I caught a few biggies that necessitated substantial rewrites, but in the end was still left with one irreparable and grievous transgression. So, I added another equally grievous one to offset it, and highlighted them in the clues, as a another nudge to the solver. Also, I thought of another layer to add near the very end, but realized that comprehensively executing it was infeasible given the time constraints, if not impossible altogether without a complete do-over. So that's kind of left dangling in the puzzle, but I don't think it will be very evident at all to the solver. Anyway, this is kind of a different one. It's hard for me to know, but as a solver I feel that I would find a good satisfying challenge in this puzzle, but I'm sure some of you will hate it. Let me know!

For tyros:

Solving a diagramless crossword is like solving a regular crossword and a jigsaw puzzle at the same time. Maybe a bit like solving one of those murder mystery jigsaws. I think I had a Sue Grafton one at one point; "P is for Poison" or something like that. You know, one of that series that has given us 26 ready-made entries such as JIS, XIS, IIS, etc. Anyway, here are some tips for working a diagramless:

Don't be afraid; deep knowledge of construction or common grid layouts is not required. The grids are often unusual to trip you up, anyway. You will need to know 2 things, though:
1. The puzzle be symmetric in any number of ways, or not at all. Rotational symmetry (flip your paper 180 degrees and it looks the same) is the most common, but symmetry about either of the diagonals, the N-S axis, or the E-W axis are possible as well. Although you can't always be sure (without using the hint, at least, which is not "cheating" so don't feel bad), it's helpful to watch for it.
2. You'll also need to understand the numbering scheme. It's easy. If a white square is below and/or to the right of either a black square or the border, it gets a number. The numbering begins with 1 in the upper-left, and proceeds consecutively from left-to-right, top-to-bottom (incrementing only on the squares that should be numbered). If you're still confused, take a look at another puzzle (there are several on this site, for instance) and the scheme should become apparent.
Speaking of numbering, the big gimme is the length of 1-Across. Every puzzle has a 1-Across, but the number of the second clue varies depending on the length of 1-A. This is true of every entry, in a way, but here we can know what that length is because every letter in 1-A must be numbered (because we know they all abut the border of the grid). For instance, in this puzzle the 2nd clue is 8-Across, so we know that 1-Across is 7 letters long. As a bonus, we know that the Xth letter in 1-A must be the first letter of X-Down, which will help us get a solid block of letters in place, hopefully.
If you do manage to get a block of letters, look at the next few across clues and try to find answers that will cross that block. Beyond 1-A you can't always be sure of the length of any entry based on the numbers alone, so you won't know which should fit, but if you do get a couple of acrosses in place and notice that there are extra acrosses that won't fit in the block, you know that there is another open space at another position on the corresponding row.
If you get stuck working outward from 1-A, look for pairs of across and down clues that share a number. You can be sure that they also share first letters, and any crossings are helpful at this point. If you get a bunch of these in one area, you can start connecting some of them.
At least in this puzzle, every row and column has at least one entry (i.e. no row or column is entirely blacked-out)
At least in this puzzle, the clues are fairly easy to make it fair. Don't be afraid to take your best guess at a clue!

You'll probably want to use some or all of the hints. Knowing the symmetry or lack thereof is par for the course, so check that for sure unless you're hardcore. Often, the first square is offered as well. I figured that knowing the location of the last entry might help as well, so I've given you that (note that me saying this reveals nothing of the symmetry. There is no pair of first and last entries such that you can determine the axis of symmetry (or if the grid is asymmetric) just from their first squares. Think about it. While you're at it, can you think of a case where you could determine the symmetry if you also knew the lengths of the entries? There's at least one)

Hints (highlight the white space after the title to view):

Symmetry: The grid is asymmetrical
Location of 1-Across: Top row, 18th square from the left
Location of 80-Across: Bottom row, 6th square from the left
Grid hint (mild): The grid layout is meaningful and thematic
Grid hint (severe): The grid depicts two well-known and related symbols.

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.

Puzzle: Diagramless #1
Rating: XW-PG13

Print-out only this week, as Across Lite doesn't support diagramlesses, to my knowledge. I'll look into Crossword Solver for the next one, though, as I think it supports these wacky puzzles.
**UPDATE** as of Tuesday morning: stay tuned for the electronic version! As Dan pointed out in the comments, AL V2.0 does indeed support diagramless. I remember seeing that in their documentation as well, but I must've forgotten. I guess my real point is that Crossword Compiler doesn't export diagramless puzzles to PUZ format, but again I could be wrong. Anyway, I'll whip up the PUZ later today (probably after work) and post it for y'all. Thanks Dan!
**ANOTHER UPDATE** I've added a dl link for the PUZ file. See below.

Download the PDF here and get a blank grid here. Or, you can download the Across Lite file here. Note that you won't be able to solve it in AL without revealing the grid, but it does offer a convenient printable format. V2.0 only.

Pages

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Tuesday, 9 October 2012

Tuesday, 2 October 2012

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Monday, 10 September 2012

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Monday, 23 July 2012

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Month of Metas Wrap-up

This Week's Puzzle

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Monday, 25 June 2012

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Tuesday, 22 May 2012