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


2 comments:

e.a. said...

impressive. though i had to time travel back to AP Comp Gov and ask myself for the answer to 25-D.

Howard B said...

Ah, it's just another one of those themelesses puzzles with a slightly Middle-Eastern / porny tinge. Those are a dime a dozen, right? ;)
I dunno, I had fun with much of the fill here. Thanks!