NYT article about puzzles disappearing from newspapers:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/fashion/12puzzle.html
Oddest quote:Dunn Miller, a 64-year-old librarian from Oakland, Calif., who was attending the National Puzzlers League convention in Baltimore last week, spoke of losing The Puzzler in terms usually reserved for the breakup of a favorite band, like the Beatles.
“It’s like, why are they murdering us?” she asked. “We’re losing one of our stars. It’s like if some great athlete, Dennis Eckersley, were told by the manager he had to leave early and he couldn’t play for anyone else.”
Dennis Eckersley is the first example that comes to her mind of a great athlete??
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 July 2009 12:55 (fourteen years ago) link
(Oh, I notice now that she's from Oakland. Still.)
― jaymc, Thursday, 16 July 2009 12:57 (fourteen years ago) link
I for one will miss The Puzzler. Hopefully Henry and Emily will find an outlet somewhere else.
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 July 2009 19:21 (fourteen years ago) link
Hey look.
― jaymc, Sunday, 9 August 2009 16:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, but you saw what amateurist said about him.
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 9 August 2009 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link
I have now.
― jaymc, Sunday, 9 August 2009 17:20 (fourteen years ago) link
yes
― amateurist, Sunday, 9 August 2009 17:26 (fourteen years ago) link
I made a crossword puzzle for Marbles: The Brain Store, a local chain that sells educational games and toys. It's a pretty easy one, I should think (especially since the site gives a hint about the theme).
― jaymc, Friday, 18 September 2009 15:46 (fourteen years ago) link
nice! the linked down clues are good ones.
― nabisco, Friday, 18 September 2009 18:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Anyone notice the glaring factual error in this week's Ink Well puzzle?
― jaymc, Thursday, 29 October 2009 21:13 (fourteen years ago) link
ha: is it worth making a point of doing the puzzle later?
― oɔsıqɐu (nabisco), Thursday, 29 October 2009 21:21 (fourteen years ago) link
Sure. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Tausig just needed to have changed "won an Oscar" to "nominated for an Oscar" in the clue.
― jaymc, Thursday, 29 October 2009 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link
the warren beatty one?
― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Thursday, 29 October 2009 21:27 (fourteen years ago) link
xp
Yeah.
― jaymc, Thursday, 29 October 2009 21:59 (fourteen years ago) link
OOXTEPLERNON!
― O-mar Gaya (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 13:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Good article in Slate by Matt Gaffney about how easy it is for crossword constructors to duplicate each other's themes.
― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Wednesday, 2 December 2009 14:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Do you do Matt Gaffney's puzzle, jaymc?
Just saw this article for the first time: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/fashion/12puzzle.html?_r=1
― O-mar Gaya (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 December 2009 01:03 (fourteen years ago) link
I used to, but I got too busy to keep up with it. After he published this puzzle a few months ago, he posed a challenge to readers to come up with a 15-letter theme fill that contained no vowels other than U. The best I could do was "BURNSBURNSBURNS" ("What Johnny Cash's ring of fire does), but it did inspire me to write this poem. (The winning entry was "CRUSHCRUSHCRUSH," which I guess is a Paramore song.)
― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Thursday, 3 December 2009 01:16 (fourteen years ago) link
Nice. I think you might have done an embryonic version of it on this thread: Me Need Help! ( A Spelling Thread)
― O-mar Gaya (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 3 December 2009 01:45 (fourteen years ago) link
Wow, I don't remember that at all!
― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Thursday, 3 December 2009 01:56 (fourteen years ago) link
The NYT was very, um, challenging today. I gave up and looked at the blogs before I finished it.
― O-mar Gaya (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 4 December 2009 02:36 (fourteen years ago) link
While we're at it, the Marbles: The Brain Store puzzle I mentioned upthread has turned into a monthly assignment. You can do my September through December puzzles here. They have to be printed out, but I'll e-mail .puz files if anyone's interested. Also, I tried to make them solvable for a general audience, so there's nothing too-too clever. Just so you know.
― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Friday, 4 December 2009 16:56 (fourteen years ago) link
(P.S. Ignore the bit under the September puzzle, which makes it look like that's the only puzzle I created. That was put up when that was the only puzzle on the site, and they haven't taken it down yet.)
― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Friday, 4 December 2009 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link
I liked this comment from Rex Parker today: "Theme answers then lend themselves to preposterous cluing of the sort that adds much-needed thorniness to the typical Sunday solve."
― Borinquen C (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 December 2009 15:17 (fourteen years ago) link
OK, jaymc, I did your September and October puzzles and like you said, nothing too difficult but they were nicely clued. Did somebody edit them for you (although I can't imagine that) or was it all yours?
― 35 Millimeter Memes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 8 December 2009 13:52 (fourteen years ago) link
No, it was all me, although occasionally I look for inspiration here. Thanks!
― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Tuesday, 8 December 2009 14:06 (fourteen years ago) link
(Actually, I feel like my cluing could be a lot stronger, because the sort of punnish wordplay that's inimical to good crosswords simply doesn't occur to me that often. I do try to avoid straightforward definitions, if I can help it, in favor of secondary meanings or synonyms.)
― Nuyorican oatmeal (jaymc), Tuesday, 8 December 2009 14:22 (fourteen years ago) link
I've been ramping up again recently so I'm used to the punning, but sometimes I find it tiresome and I bet your intended audience for that puzzle would too
― don van leet (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 00:04 (fourteen years ago) link
RHETMENTATEE!
Do you ever do the Brendan Emmett Quigley puzzle, jaymc? Themeless Monday is hard!
― Tlön, Uqbar, Morbius Tertius (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 14 December 2009 15:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Aaargh!
― Cage, Trintignant, Sheen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 December 2009 16:47 (fourteen years ago) link
If you haven't been doing Merl Reagle's Sunday puzzles, today is a good time to start.
― Cage, Trintignant, Sheen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 December 2009 17:15 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.sundaycrosswords.com/ccpuz/MPuz.php
― Cage, Trintignant, Sheen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 20 December 2009 17:17 (fourteen years ago) link
RIP Dan Naddor. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-dan-naddor7-2010jan07,0,3697756.story
― nico anemic cinema icon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 8 January 2010 14:50 (fourteen years ago) link
Today's LA Times puzzle is one of his: http://games.latimes.com/index_crossword.html?uc_feature_code=tmcal
― nico anemic cinema icon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 8 January 2010 15:01 (fourteen years ago) link
i enjoyed tausig's triple crossword in the mcsweeney's newspaper thing
― an american hippie in israel (Jordan), Friday, 8 January 2010 15:45 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't, but he just added me on Facebook!
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Still trying to decide whether to attend the ACPT next month. Guess I'll look into flights to NYC.
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Will you be in the rookie category?
― lex submerge (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah. I don't think the Marbles tournament I competed in last year counts.
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:12 (fourteen years ago) link
i think i might do it, as the hotel is about a 15-minute bus ride from my apartment
― louis malle-rat (donna rouge), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:25 (fourteen years ago) link
also it is the last possible year for me to enter as a 'junior'
When is the last day to sign up?
― lex submerge (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:42 (fourteen years ago) link
dunno when the deadline is but if you register online you get $10 off the registration fee before feb. 13
― louis malle-rat (donna rouge), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Airfare is pretty reasonable. Think I'm gonna do this.
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 20:02 (fourteen years ago) link
nice
― an american hippie in israel (Jordan), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 20:08 (fourteen years ago) link
i am registered for sat/sun only
― louis malle-rat (donna rouge), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 20:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, I dunno about the Friday night thing.
― lex submerge (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 20:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh tell me you haven't wanted to hobnob with Andrea Carla Michaels.
― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Tuesday, 12 January 2010 23:28 (fourteen years ago) link