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 3 Wrap-up
8 solvers (out of 27) submitted the correct answer to the third meta, but only one can win. By random selection, this week's winner is Tanya Gevaert. Tanya wins the chance to request a clue and/or answer for an upcoming Cross Nerd puzzle. Big ups, Tanya!
Miscellaneous Xword News
Cross Nerd (and every puzzle you throw at him) solver Erik Agard has constructed a series of 14 new puzzles, available free on his website, the wonderfully named "Anoa Place (where we can go)". I've only solved a couple so far, but I like what I see. You'll probably like them too: they've got tight themes, snazzy entries, and - my favourite part - delightfully playful clues. Give 'em a solve!
This Week's Puzzle
This week I have for you the final puzzle of the Month of Metas series. That said, it's likely that I will run more metas or puzzles of a meta-like nature (don't know about another contest, though). Themeless for next week, however, since we're long overdue for one of those.
As I mentioned last week, I unfortunately had to swap week 3 and week 4. Hope no one minded too much. Last week's puzzle turned out to be about as tough as I had intended when it was week 4, so that's something, but I do feel bad about weeding out so many solvers on, technically, week 3. Sorry, still working out the kinks here at the Cross Nerd.
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).
Week 4 Instructions: This week's contest answer is a famous character of literature and film. This is week 4, but this puzzle was originally conceived as week 3, so it's a bit easier than last week, but no walk in the park. 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 15.
More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday.
ALERT: I've discovered a small, stupid oversight I made in this puzzle, which may slightly affect the solving experience. I'll try to change it as soon as possible, but my hands are tied at the moment; at very latest, it'll be changed by supper time. You may want to wait until it's been updated.
Puzzle: The Digital Divide
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.
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contest. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)