This is the crossword puzzle thread

Yeah, I always do the Stumper and I agree, although I'd say it is even harder than the Times because the cluing is so brutally deadpan and nondescript.

Guess this month's guest constructor on Gaffney this week.

Got almost nowhere on the stumper today. Mindbogglingly difficult.

Got the SE corner but otherwise ugh, this one is brutal

Have you tried the Washington Post Puzzler on Sunday, Joe?

haven't done one of those in awhile - i have a crossword app that used to bundle them in but they don't anymore i guess? i liked them tho

Another snarly stumper today

Never got anywhere with that.

To do the Washington Post Puzzler, you have to go here: http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/download/, Do a "Save As" on the appropriate link, changing the extension to ".jpz" and then open using Puzzle Solver. Kind of a pain.

date and venue announced for crosswords LA - i live even further away than i did last year so idk

Lollapuzzoola's waiting.

And the express division winner is - Al Sanders.

*applause*

Puzzles were great. I urge you to do the home version this week.

How'd you guys do on the MMMM?

I thought it was easy -- I got the Dave Brubeck clue right away and the solution flowed naturally. Didn't even look up the Marley and Rice songs.

I also won the Gaffney contest last week yay!

i got it

the fleetwood mac one is the only MMMM puzzle i haven't gotten yet in this round (and i'm still kicking myself for that one)

I also won the Gaffney contest last week yay!
You mean you finished the month of August?

I did that too, but I mean I won the draw for the week -- I am A___ T_______

Cool. Good for you. I didn't do any crosswords the second half of August. The third one about Yahtzee looked easily googleable, didn't even glance at the fourth one.

two people got the mega-meta already??

Really? Man, I am still on my xword vacation. Didn't even try to do the presumably easy Gaffney this weekend. But I guess I should take a crack at the mega-meta before October. But I don't want to spend the hours.

At least we can safely eliminate "American Pie" from the running- or can we?

feel like i wouldn't even know where to begin with the mega-meta

I don't think I've ever gotten one. I've subscribed to a few of those packages, Kickstarter and otherwise but by the time I drag myself over the finish line of doing the grids and trying the regular metas I got nothing left. Actually I did finish the one in the NYT that one week.

oh yeah that was fun. i think i finished them after the contest had ended though

i have never heard of 'ol' red' OR 'violet hill' and so i did not get this MMMM

also was led astray by the ten-letter words and at one point went down a weird rabbit hole based on not-super-famous songwriters (e.g. abe OLMAN)

I had not heard of them either but I still got it. "crush" in the second position gave it away for me.

The month-end Gaffney (#278) on the other hand, I had no clue about.

Gaffney has new blog: http://gaffneyoncrosswords.com/ You can go there and hear a young Merle Reagle singing in psychedelic rock band if you want.

crosswords LA was on saturday, but i didn't compete

Saw that. One guy won a trip to the ACPT.

Muller Monthly Music Meta finally defeated me.

I didn't see any unusual fill at all.

Does that mean you solved it easily?

Or that you couldn't find a way in?

Read Gaffney's blog post and he got it right away based on unusual fill , maybe that's what you refer to.

Didn't solve it.

tbh, I kinda hate when he repeats artists within a given series, feel like I've already dealt with and dispensed with them for the given year.

solved the puzzle, didn't immediately get the meta, forgot about it. that's a nice meta

in unusual situation of having got an answer - i guessed it was this early on and every clue filled in just confirmed it - but NO idea how to parse it

"one intriguing old spanish gentleman" = caballero

but WHY? whyyyy? i can't even begin to see how to parse it

This is the American crossword puzzle thread, lex.

But perhaps we can help you anyway.
Cabal = intrigue, maybe there is a bad joke that "caballero" is one who is involved in an intrigue.

one intriguing = caballer
old = o

Of course.

OHHHHH

i knew "cabal" but never made the connection, "caballer" is a v odd word

Thought so too but, as expected, it is in Chambers.

Who up in this borad is doing LearnedLeague, apart from me and jaymc?

good lord, this last MMMM

he's wrong in the explanation btw - ESTELLA isn't in "ironic", it's in "all i really want", which was like the sixth single from 'jagged little pill' that probably nobody remembers unless they owned the album

and no disrespect to the indigo girls but c'mon, RASPUTIN belongs to boney m forever and ever