I just sent a puzzle to Tribune Media Services. Hoping for a bite soon...
― jaymc, Thursday, 10 April 2008 17:00 (sixteen years ago) link
The theme fills on Up All Nite are terrific (the second one in particular). (And the fourth one in particular.)
― nabisco, Thursday, 10 April 2008 18:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Thanks! I liked those, too. The third is a bit of a stretch, I know. B.T. said the puzzle "didn't quite work" for him, so I'm not sure if it's worth shopping around or not.
― jaymc, Thursday, 10 April 2008 18:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I did Up All Nite, I really liked it. It was more challenging than some of your earlier ones. The only one I thought didn't quite make sense with the clue was 43A, but it's cute and was one of the first theme answers I got anyway.
Keep at it, dogg.
― Jordan, Thursday, 10 April 2008 19:08 (sixteen years ago) link
I wanted to make a puzzle called "KKK Meeting," in which all of the fills would have three Ks in them. (Alternate title: "Three Strikes, You're Out.") I came up with an extensive list of possible fills (NEWYORKKNICKS, KNICKERBOCKERS, RIMSKYKORSAKOV, KICKBACK, KAKIKING, KANKAKEE, KNOCKKNEED, KICKTHEBUCKET, KIRKPATRICK, LIKECLOCKWORK) but couldn't get the grid to work. Problem is, once you introduce all those Ks, you have to go the other direction with them, too. (Fun fact: four Ks = KNICKKNACK; five Ks = KNOCKKNOCKJOKE.)
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 April 2008 15:30 (sixteen years ago) link
Actually, I may have spoke too soon. I think I know how I could make it work now.
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 April 2008 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link
If you're going to call it "Three Strikes, You're Out", then you can use fills like NEWYORNICS, RIMSYORSAOV, ICBAC...
― Casuistry, Thursday, 24 April 2008 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh oops xpost unless you just noticed that.
― Casuistry, Thursday, 24 April 2008 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link
That's not what I was thinking, but that's a fantastic idea.
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 April 2008 15:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Goddammit, I just wasted the whole day making that puzzle.
― jaymc, Thursday, 24 April 2008 20:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Mmm... well, I won't tell your boss if you don't.
― Casuistry, Friday, 25 April 2008 01:11 (sixteen years ago) link
tausig's "theme theme" puzzle this week was fun.
― Jordan, Thursday, 29 May 2008 17:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I just did that this morning.
― jaymc, Thursday, 29 May 2008 17:36 (fifteen years ago) link
I need to make some more puzzles, but themes come to me so sporadically.
Okay, here's a general question. Sometimes you'll see a clue like "Is crooked" and the fill is CHEATS. Would it be appropriate to turn it around, though? -- i.e., the clue is "Cheats" and the fill is ISCROOKED? I can't remember ever seeing something like that as a fill before.
The alternative would be to turn ISCROOKED into a fill in the blank, like if there was a song called "Everyone Is Crooked" and the clue would be "Everyone ________" -- but I'm under the impression that fill-in-the-blanks of longer than 5 letters are generally frowned upon.
This might be better off asked on the Cruciverb listserv, but I'm sort of intimidated to post there.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 19:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I think your best bet would be to write a clue with a similar grammatical structure as the fill, right? Bad example: clue ISCROOKED with something like "has been known to cheat."
― nabisco, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 21:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Actually a better example for ISCROOKED might be "takes bribes"
― nabisco, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 21:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I like that better, too, although there are a number of fills I can make starting with IS, so it doesn't have to be CROOKED necessarily. I've just rarely seen that construction in a puzzle before, so it seemed a little weird.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 22:18 (fifteen years ago) link
I can't recall seeing IS in an NYT puzzle, but I'm almost certain they'll use constructions that are essentially the same thing -- HAS something, WAS something, etc.
― nabisco, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 22:24 (fifteen years ago) link
The answer is: This is highly frowned upon. If you have a phrase for a fill, it should be a phrase that occurs naturally (exception: you know, special themed puzzle answers where breaking the rules would be appropriate), not just some sentence fragment. So, ISCROOKED is a really bad fill -- but the fill-in-the-blank clue is probably the best way to clue it.
― Casuistry, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 22:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Don't think I've asked this before - it may be simple but I'm terrible with cryptic crosswords. There is a book called "Landscape Painted With Tea", which is apparently a crossword clue. Does anyone know the answer?
(Note: I haven't read it for years so the answer may even be in the book at some point, and if so then please excuse my extreme denseness.)
― emil.y, Tuesday, 1 July 2008 22:59 (fifteen years ago) link
There's a whole other thread for cryptic xwords. Does the title say the number of letters (as such clues traditionally do)?
― Casuistry, Wednesday, 2 July 2008 04:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Ah well, this is all moot, anyway, as I've discovered that I fucked up my grid. This after staring at the thing for like three hours yesterday -- somehow it didn't occur to me that that square in the middle was only part of an across fill, not a down fill. Usually my software program picks up on errors like that. Oh well. Back to the drawing board.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 2 July 2008 15:14 (fifteen years ago) link
lol @ slate
http://www.slate.com/id/2198171/pagenum/all/#page_start
― Jordan, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:39 (fifteen years ago) link
I resent the conflation of crossword puzzlers with sudoku solvers.
Btw, I just got a rejection e-mail from Will Shortz's assistant. :/
― jaymc, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:42 (fifteen years ago) link
keep at it, maybe the next one will be from shortz!
― Jordan, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:42 (fifteen years ago) link
It was actually a nice e-mail: "Will did appreciate seeing your work, tho."
― jaymc, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:43 (fifteen years ago) link
what a shitty article
― max, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Mention a frequent obsession of puzzle people, the NPR "news quiz" show, Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me! (Or, as I call it, "Wait Wait ... Please Kill Me!")
i know that wwdtm is pretty corny but dont show your hand and reveal yourself as the corniest motherfucker on the planet with a joke like that
― max, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Sorry: Doing puzzles reflects not an elevated literary sensibility but a degraded letter-ary sensibility, one that demonstrates an inability to find pleasure in reading. Otherwise, why choose the wan, sterile satisfactions of crosswords over the far more robust full-blooded pleasures of books?
i was just thinking a few days how even though i read books all the time, that doesn't usually force me to make connections, remember information, and think creatively like xword puzzles do. totally different things, not mutually exclusive (duh).
― Jordan, Thursday, 21 August 2008 19:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Also books don't get me to think about an EWER or Myrna LOY nearly as often.
― Abbott, Thursday, 21 August 2008 23:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Also also finishing a book feels pretty pedestrian next to the triumph of finishing an xword.
― Abbott, Thursday, 21 August 2008 23:48 (fifteen years ago) link
Sorry: Doing puzzles reflects not an elevated literary sensibility but a degraded letter-ary sensibility
...says the guy who just made a pun. Also, by "elevated" I think you mean something like "bourgeois"? But I haven't read the article.
I have long said that there is more poetry in the NYTimes xword than in the average poem.
― Casuistry, Friday, 22 August 2008 00:00 (fifteen years ago) link
There were like 10 really bad puns in that column. And I usually care for puns!
― Abbott, Friday, 22 August 2008 00:03 (fifteen years ago) link
i always mix up myrna loy and mina loy
― Jordan, Friday, 22 August 2008 06:11 (fifteen years ago) link
(if the latter was a little more well-known i bet her name would be in a lot of crosswords)
Q: Should I start a crossword blog, in which I post crosswords I've made? (Submitting to newspapers is a drag.)
― jaymc, Thursday, 20 November 2008 18:14 (fifteen years ago) link
Y
― some know what you dude last summer (Jordan), Thursday, 20 November 2008 18:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I was thinking I could post the puzzles in iPaper so they could be easily printed out.
― jaymc, Thursday, 20 November 2008 18:20 (fifteen years ago) link
If you did this, it would have the added bonus of finally making me set up RSS feeds, which I am starting to feel like an old man for not having bothered with
― nabisco, Thursday, 20 November 2008 18:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Also, I wanted to say that despite doing Tausig puzzles every week for a couple years now, I still can't remember whether Mr. Kweli's first name is TALEB or TALIB.
― jaymc, Thursday, 20 November 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
39A in the av club puzzle today, the clue was "characteristic of some raunchy humor". i had RA_INESS and i really wanted to put RAPYNESS (RAPINESS?).
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 15:39 (fifteen years ago) link
Puzzle fans should take a look at yesterday's NYT. It's pretty impressive from a construction standpoint. I'll send you a .puz file if interested.
― total mormon cockblock extravaganza (jaymc), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 15:42 (fifteen years ago) link
i was having a lot of trouble w/ it for a tuesday! but yeah its a good puzzle
― eman cipation s1ocklamation (max), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 15:43 (fifteen years ago) link
sweet, i will do it. i'm the only one at work today. :D
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 15:53 (fifteen years ago) link
i kind of hated yesterday's NYT puzzle. :/ Mondays was tough, too.
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 24 December 2008 15:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Some of the fill was lame, but the gimmick made up for it.
― total mormon cockblock extravaganza (jaymc), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 16:47 (fifteen years ago) link
i finished it. as i was doing it i was like "i don't know guys, i really don't like some of these clues/answers, what's so great here..." and when i had a couple of spaces left i cheated and looked online for the theme. then my brain exploded.
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link
In the end, it's yet another "Look what I DID! (64A)" puzzle, where we are meant to admire the constructor, not enjoy ourselves while solving. Why not build a crossword museum and hang the completed grid on the wall? Then everyone can ooh and aah, and we can bypass the agony of having to fill the thing out ourselves, under the mistaken assumption that it might be entertaining.
^^^kind of agree with rex the crossword guy's take on it
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 24 December 2008 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link