This is the crossword puzzle thread

Ha, Ben T. put his phone # in his crossword book and invites solvers to call him with any questions. Nabisco should take it to the source next time!

Wait ... what?

do you want his digits?

Oh, sorry, I thought you meant that he put his phone number in one of his crosswords, and I was trying to figure out how that was possible.

Haha, it could still probably be done! The theme of this puzzle is: MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.

You can have numbers in squares (in .puz/Across Lite format, anyway -- the NYTimes has certainly run such puzzles). (You also can do multiple letters in a square, such as the typical puzzle where some boxes have colors in them or whatever.)

I've seen numbers, but not multiple letters!

Also, spelling out numbers is fine, but I can't stand the crossword convention of spelling out letters (CEE, VEE, etc.). Weak.

NYT does multiple letters a lot -- especially if you count symbols standing in for letters (like, I dunno, NON+SED). There was a Sunday trigonometry theme just last week that had single squares containing SIN, COS, and TAN.

There was ILX discussion at some point of the puzzle that had COM, ORG, EDU, and NET in single squares

(ha, but sadly no discussion of the one where certain down clues ran upward, minus the word "up" -- like UPWARD would just be WARD, running up)

jaymc, I couldn't get your latest puzzle. "This photo is private."

Check your e-mail.

Oh wait, the e-mail I have for you doesn't work...

OK, that link should work now.

Thanks!

My Bellsouth email is dead and gone. I've emailed you from my working address.

If it's a B3n Taus1g puzzle, you may be disappointed with a couple of the theme fills this week.

-- jaymc, Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:10 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

oh yeah, what was the theme this week? i think i felt the same way, but i've been finishing up the book of tausig puzzles so it all blurs together.

The title of the puzzle was "Duh!"

SPOILERS AHEAD

So one clue was "Murderer's graffiti?" and the fill was DEFACEOFAKILLER. Which doesn't make sense, since DEFACE isn't a noun.

Also, "Prohibited from buying cosmetics?" was DEBARREDOFAVON. Here, "from" would make a whole lot more sense than "of."

The other two were good, though: TURNOUTDELIGHTS and PUTSDECEITDOWN.

Yeah, I hear you.

I was stuck on the bottom one for a little bit because I had RZA instead of GZA, lol.

someone explain this clue/fill from an old Tausig puzzle, pls: "expensive game box = LOGE"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loge The last definition?

must be

Chris and jaymc and anyone else interested in American cryptics should check out the current Harper's puzzle by Richard E. Maltby Jr., entitled "Score Sheet." In the March 2008 issue.

Will do. It just came yesterday, so.

Have you been doing it all along?

Well, looking at it, occasionally trying one of two, but not exactly finishing it...

http://imgplace.com/image_bin/3912/f8a0b804f24b2895f8fdc83f7b187198.bmp

I'm still making crosswords, btw, I just haven't put them online yet. I've been submitting themes to the New York Sun and getting only rejections so far, which makes me less motivated about finishing the cluing (even though I'm only submitting themes, I have to at least do the grid to make sure that it works). But hopefully there are some other venues that might be interested in those puzzles.

Submitting to the Sun? You think you can start at the top?

I was advised to send stuff there because P3t3r G0rd0n responds very quickly (like within a few days), and it's true, he does, and usually he also explains why he's taking a pass. So that's helpful, and better than waiting for months to hear from W. Shortz. But I also don't really know where else to submit. My goal was to get printed in the AV Club until Ben T. told me that it's a rotating group of eight constructors and he doesn't take outside submissions.

The problem is I don't even do any puzzles besides Tausig and the AV Club and occasionally the Tribune, so I don't know where else my puzzles would fit. I think the Trib might be a little too conservative for me; their daily puzzles at least are always really boring.

I made a pretty good themeless one the other day, actually, with a stack of three seven-letter words in each of the four corners.

Maybe you should some of those Sun puzzle books and see what they're after.

Maybe. I don't think I've seen a Sun puzzle book. In fact, I don't think I'd ever even heard of the Sun until a few months ago.

I have some and I like doing them. I think a lot of insiders think it's the best puzzle out there.

do they have cryptic crosswords much in the U.S.? My understanding of the NYT one is that it's "quick", a enormous vocabulary are much more important than having a certain kind of mind and a lot of general knowledge.

OK, wow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptic_crossword

Like it says in there, mainly Harper's and The Atlantic.

Puzzle on page 13 of my New York Sun Crosswords #15 is by your man Tausig. First puzzle is by Trip Payne.

I'm doing this one here, Ease Out, i suppose it's Tausig? Anyway, I am completely boggled by one of the clues. I have the answer, because i have the crossing words, but the solution/clue make NO sense to me. Can anyone shed a light? 24 down.

Well, no, not if you don't tell us what the clue and answer are...

Yeah, I didn't get that one at all, either.

"What L may stand for" = LGE

I did that puzzle today, and also didn't understand the answer (after getting it w/crosses).

I wasn't sure what the rules were for spoilers or whatnot, heh.

Now that I am looking at it again, lge = large = L stands for it on t-shirts, etc?

Yeah, that's the only thing I can think of, too -- except I've never seen "lge" as an abbreviation for "large" before.

If that's it, it's a terrrrible clue.

Results 1 - 10 of about 615,000 for lge large.

i think i have seen it before on t-shirt order sites and such, sml med lge, but wheneveri see "lge" i think "lg electronics"

Google agrees with you.

aww @ this week's av club puzzle

Funny, too!