Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Forced Hiatus
I'm sorry to do this, especially the day after I started the new Rex Morgan feature, but I have to go off grid for the next couple of days. I will very likely not be updating this until the end of the week, so no more crosswords. Sigh. I'll explain why when I come back.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Rex Morgan Exclamation Mark Count, 9/1/2009
5! (Wow, that's a bunch!)
Also, 1 question mark and 2 ellipses!
And, the new feature.... The Rex Morgan All-Time Total! Watch as we keep a running count of all punctuation in Rex Morgan! Which mark will win at the end of the month...or the year? We will see!
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Exclamation marks: 5
Question marks: 1
Ellipses: 2
Also, 1 question mark and 2 ellipses!
And, the new feature.... The Rex Morgan All-Time Total! Watch as we keep a running count of all punctuation in Rex Morgan! Which mark will win at the end of the month...or the year? We will see!
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Exclamation marks: 5
Question marks: 1
Ellipses: 2
Crosswords of the Day, 9/1/2009
Two very simple, straightforward, kinda dull puzzles today. Let's do it.
The NYT had a lame but different kind of theme today. The core entry was BY HOOK OR BY CROOK. The other theme entries could, very loosely in most cases, be defined as a hook or as a crook. SHEPHERD'S CANE was by far the worst theme entry, but the rest weren't much better. The surrounding fill was also quite dull, but CHOP SHOP did make its way in there, which is original. But still, second lame puzzle in as many days for the NYT, which is concerning to me. Even though, it wasn't as bad as yesterday; not many are. **, bordering on **1/2.
The LAT was much better than the NYT, though still not very good. The theme seemed really scattered until the very end, when it was revealed to be that the word WILD could precede all of the first words in the theme phrases. The theme entries were so scattered, and not that interesting except for CAT BURGLAR, that the reveal didn't feel like a great payoff. Still, this was a smooth puzzle and had some nice fill like GET REAL and CASH COW. ***.
Winner: The LAT, without much contest. The NYT's quality so far has been really low this week.
Best clue: Man, there really wasn't anything particularly clever or memorable today. I liked "Birdie beater?" for EAGLE.
Worst clue: Also from the LAT we have "Heart and soul" for ALL. Ick.
The NYT had a lame but different kind of theme today. The core entry was BY HOOK OR BY CROOK. The other theme entries could, very loosely in most cases, be defined as a hook or as a crook. SHEPHERD'S CANE was by far the worst theme entry, but the rest weren't much better. The surrounding fill was also quite dull, but CHOP SHOP did make its way in there, which is original. But still, second lame puzzle in as many days for the NYT, which is concerning to me. Even though, it wasn't as bad as yesterday; not many are. **, bordering on **1/2.
The LAT was much better than the NYT, though still not very good. The theme seemed really scattered until the very end, when it was revealed to be that the word WILD could precede all of the first words in the theme phrases. The theme entries were so scattered, and not that interesting except for CAT BURGLAR, that the reveal didn't feel like a great payoff. Still, this was a smooth puzzle and had some nice fill like GET REAL and CASH COW. ***.
Winner: The LAT, without much contest. The NYT's quality so far has been really low this week.
Best clue: Man, there really wasn't anything particularly clever or memorable today. I liked "Birdie beater?" for EAGLE.
Worst clue: Also from the LAT we have "Heart and soul" for ALL. Ick.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Rex Morgan Exclamation Mark Count, 8/31/2009
4!
Also, 3 ellipses and 1 question mark!
Stay tuned; tomorrow, a new feature will be debuted on the Rex Morgan posts!
Also, 3 ellipses and 1 question mark!
Stay tuned; tomorrow, a new feature will be debuted on the Rex Morgan posts!
Crosswords of the Day, 8/31/2009
It's been a while since I can remember having very dramatic reactions to Monday puzzles from the LAT and the NYT, but I sure did today. One was wonderful, the other was horrible. Oh yeah, there was also a really weird BEQ today. Let's get to it.
The NYT was the horrible one. Fred Piscop, the constructor, usually does harder puzzles than what is expected for a Monday puzzle (and in general very good ones too, I should add), and man, did it show today. The theme was completely uninspired (it was just three phrases that started with homophones of the word "for"), and the entries themselves were mostly convoluted. For example, one of them, I'm not kidding here, was FORE AND AFT SAILS. Also, the surrounding fill was a combination of boring AND stuffy. When you have words like LAMINA, MOIRES, and WHIST on a Monday, your puzzles has major issues. This was just icky to do, and had absolutely no payoff of any kind. *.
The LAT, by comparison, was terrific today. Constructing easy puzzles that are also smooth to fill in and have original answers is considered to be one of the hardest things to do for a puzzle constructor, and this puzzle by Norma Steinberg pulls it off as well as any Monday I've ever seen. The theme was very simple but cute (the clues were all "Magician's deception" and the answers were nice answers like SMOKE AND MIRRORS and SLEIGHT OF HAND), and the surrounding fill was great. When you have fill like THONGS, EMOTICON, GRITS, and LONE STAR in your puzzle, AND it's a Monday, you know you're golden. I was honestly surprised to discover I solved this in under 3:30, since it felt longer because I was enjoying it so much, but that only makes it better, because it was perfectly clued to a normal Monday level. ****1/2.
The BEQ was decent, but a very personal puzzle. It was BEQ's wedding anniversary today, so he constructed a tribute puzzle to his wife Liz. I say to and not for because she doesn't really do crossword puzzles. So this was a bizarre hodgepodge of a puzzle, with three random rebus squares that contained the letters LIZ in them, and there were lots of little personal references to her lost on everyone but BEQ and one of his friends who posted on the forums about them. The puzzle itself wasn't great; there was a lot of crosswordese, oddly enough, and not a lot of good fill. The best things were the entries with the LIZ rebus squares, which contained things as diverse as HORSE TRANQUILIZER and LOUNGE LIZARD. **1/2.
Winner: The LAT, by a long shot. One of the best Monday puzzles I've ever done.
Best clue: The second I read this clue, I both instantly knew what the answer was and had a strong feeling it would be the best clue of the day. "Brief briefs?" for THONGS is hysterical and yet a perfectly easy clue. The LAT actually has a bunch of great cluing in it, along with ILE and LIE being directly next to each other in the grid and a bonus theme entry. Again, terrific puzzle.
Worst clue: Lots of candidates from the NYT today. "Mensa-eligible" for SMART might be the worst though, only because it seems really really off. I've never thought of people in Mensa as inherently smart, just really good at logic puzzles and standardized tests. :)
The NYT was the horrible one. Fred Piscop, the constructor, usually does harder puzzles than what is expected for a Monday puzzle (and in general very good ones too, I should add), and man, did it show today. The theme was completely uninspired (it was just three phrases that started with homophones of the word "for"), and the entries themselves were mostly convoluted. For example, one of them, I'm not kidding here, was FORE AND AFT SAILS. Also, the surrounding fill was a combination of boring AND stuffy. When you have words like LAMINA, MOIRES, and WHIST on a Monday, your puzzles has major issues. This was just icky to do, and had absolutely no payoff of any kind. *.
The LAT, by comparison, was terrific today. Constructing easy puzzles that are also smooth to fill in and have original answers is considered to be one of the hardest things to do for a puzzle constructor, and this puzzle by Norma Steinberg pulls it off as well as any Monday I've ever seen. The theme was very simple but cute (the clues were all "Magician's deception" and the answers were nice answers like SMOKE AND MIRRORS and SLEIGHT OF HAND), and the surrounding fill was great. When you have fill like THONGS, EMOTICON, GRITS, and LONE STAR in your puzzle, AND it's a Monday, you know you're golden. I was honestly surprised to discover I solved this in under 3:30, since it felt longer because I was enjoying it so much, but that only makes it better, because it was perfectly clued to a normal Monday level. ****1/2.
The BEQ was decent, but a very personal puzzle. It was BEQ's wedding anniversary today, so he constructed a tribute puzzle to his wife Liz. I say to and not for because she doesn't really do crossword puzzles. So this was a bizarre hodgepodge of a puzzle, with three random rebus squares that contained the letters LIZ in them, and there were lots of little personal references to her lost on everyone but BEQ and one of his friends who posted on the forums about them. The puzzle itself wasn't great; there was a lot of crosswordese, oddly enough, and not a lot of good fill. The best things were the entries with the LIZ rebus squares, which contained things as diverse as HORSE TRANQUILIZER and LOUNGE LIZARD. **1/2.
Winner: The LAT, by a long shot. One of the best Monday puzzles I've ever done.
Best clue: The second I read this clue, I both instantly knew what the answer was and had a strong feeling it would be the best clue of the day. "Brief briefs?" for THONGS is hysterical and yet a perfectly easy clue. The LAT actually has a bunch of great cluing in it, along with ILE and LIE being directly next to each other in the grid and a bonus theme entry. Again, terrific puzzle.
Worst clue: Lots of candidates from the NYT today. "Mensa-eligible" for SMART might be the worst though, only because it seems really really off. I've never thought of people in Mensa as inherently smart, just really good at logic puzzles and standardized tests. :)
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Crosswords of the Day, 8/30/2009
Oh man, was this a crazy day in crossword land. Two of the most complicated puzzles I've seen in ages, on the same day. I honestly didn't have much fun solving either one, but I deeply appreciate both of them, and I kind of wish I hadn't solved the NYT as late as I did, since I was tired and got frustrated more easily than I should have. Also, and I feel really bad about this, but I'm writing this in a state of utter exhaustion, and don't clearly remember good and bad clues from these, so no best and worst clue today. Anyhow...
The NYT had an impossible to explain in one sentence theme. I think the best way to do this is to link to Orange's blog where all of the entries are explained. This almost felt like a cryptic crossword. The forums were completely split about this puzzle; some loved it while others found it to be convoluted. Unfortunately, I have to go with the camp that didn't like it, mainly because the way the excised letters linked to the eventual answers seemed really tenuous most of the time. This could not have been easy to make, and it definitely required some good mental gymnastics to figure out, but the payoff was definitely not worth it. **/12, bordering on *** for how hard this must have been to construct.
The syndicated LAT (the normal LAT was by Sylvia Bursztyn, whose puzzles I refuse to do) had a much less complicated theme, but one where I had no idea what was going on for practically the entire puzzle. Basically, the theme was "organ transplanting." There would be an entry like FELT CONDOLENCES (which had the great clue "Pool hall's 'better luck next time'?"), which has had the word "HEART" taken out of the normal phrase it was based on. Then there would be an entry like JAIL HEARTBREAKS, where the "HEART" from the first entry has been "transplanted" into the second entry. Complicated? Uh, YEAH. :) However, unlike the NYT, these were all really smooth, even if I had no idea what the heck was going on until I stared at it for a while after I finished. This was a fun puzzle. ***, bordering on ***1/2.
Winner: The LAT. Just a smoother experience overall, although quite difficult.
The NYT had an impossible to explain in one sentence theme. I think the best way to do this is to link to Orange's blog where all of the entries are explained. This almost felt like a cryptic crossword. The forums were completely split about this puzzle; some loved it while others found it to be convoluted. Unfortunately, I have to go with the camp that didn't like it, mainly because the way the excised letters linked to the eventual answers seemed really tenuous most of the time. This could not have been easy to make, and it definitely required some good mental gymnastics to figure out, but the payoff was definitely not worth it. **/12, bordering on *** for how hard this must have been to construct.
The syndicated LAT (the normal LAT was by Sylvia Bursztyn, whose puzzles I refuse to do) had a much less complicated theme, but one where I had no idea what was going on for practically the entire puzzle. Basically, the theme was "organ transplanting." There would be an entry like FELT CONDOLENCES (which had the great clue "Pool hall's 'better luck next time'?"), which has had the word "HEART" taken out of the normal phrase it was based on. Then there would be an entry like JAIL HEARTBREAKS, where the "HEART" from the first entry has been "transplanted" into the second entry. Complicated? Uh, YEAH. :) However, unlike the NYT, these were all really smooth, even if I had no idea what the heck was going on until I stared at it for a while after I finished. This was a fun puzzle. ***, bordering on ***1/2.
Winner: The LAT. Just a smoother experience overall, although quite difficult.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Rex Morgan Exclamation Mark Count, 8/29/2009
2!
Also, 1 question mark, and a new record, 4 ellipses!!! Unbelievable!
Also, 1 question mark, and a new record, 4 ellipses!!! Unbelievable!
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