Tournament Time: Part Two

One day and six puzzles later, I have proved once again that I am soooooo not a speed solver! My ranking in the competition, out of 684 registered contestants? A solid #630. Which proves you don't have to be good at it to love it.

We started off with an easy-peasy lull-you-into-complacency puzzle, got into the nitty gritty with puzzles #2 and #3, broke for lunch, and came back to reasonably challenging #4, then an impossible #5, followed by what I expected to be a smooth #6 -- which turned out to be a little tougher than I'd expected.

I don't expect puzzle #7 -- served up for breakfast at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow -- to advance me any in the rankings. Not that it matters, mind you. No, no, it's really all about the experience of being among fellow puzzle fans. Yessiree. That's what it's about. ;)

That and entering the raffle for a NYTimes puzzle-related prize (I'm going for the cookie jar); seeing Jim Jenista with his pants down (see him in his fine regalia in Nancy Shack's tournament photos gallery); discovering the clever puzzle-related artwork of Emily Jo Cureton (I bought a "Visibly Blank Expression" tote that called to me for some unknown reason but, really, I wanted to own them ALL); and did I mention meeting and chatting with tablemates between puzzles?

And now I have to go rest up for tomorrow's challenge. And the piece-de-resistance, the final three at the big board!

Tournament Time: Part One

I arrived at the Brooklyn Marriott for the 32nd Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament tired and wet (I'd been working all day ... and it was raining).

I hadn't intended to ... and didn't ... attend the opening night festivities, interested though I was to hear what the more famous crossword bloggers (they have been at it for quite some time, after all, and I have only just begun) had to say about online experiences. To do that, I'd have to: 1) stay awake; 2) either eat a very late dinner indeed or go without; and 3) arrive home in the wee hours of the morning. So, alas, I missed the blogger talk, the appearance of KenKen inventor Tetsuya Miyamoto and the "Pick Your Poison" contest (I probably would have chosen the cryptic in Round 2).

Never fear, however: I have my spy, who has orders to report back.

I picked up my registration packet, however, gathered up the puzzle goodies on the goody-table, and found my friend, rookie tournament attendee Ellen, happily chatting with others at a table near the registration desk. After registering (there were constructors put to work manning the table), I joined the group at Ellen's table for some pleasant anticipatory chit-chat. Indeed, the atmosphere was, as usual, one of cheerful anticipation. And, of course, we were surrounded by the truly great joy of this tournament: the world's nicest, friendliest people.

So I startled a couple of folks by taking my leave. Once home and properly fed, I looked over the goodies in the registration packet with the ones I'd grabbed from the desk. First up: "The World's Hardest Crossword" from, apparently, a 1965 issue of Esquire magazine. It came with the promise of a $100 prize to "one person or team, selected at random," who manages to correctly solve & submit the puzzle by Saturday at 8 p.m. It's a 23x23, and I managed to fill in the grand total of two entries. There is no doubt that I will not be winning that Benjamin!

Looking for easier fare, I found a puzzle by Todd Gross, which I put aside for later. Then there was a copy of Friday's puzzle from the Times, which I appreciated as I hadn't picked up Friday's paper. Joe DiPietro had put two stacks of fifteens in this Friday challenge, but I've confronted those before and sometimes managed to solve them, so I wasn't too intimidated. I should have been intimidated. Heh. Or maybe I was just too tired. So it proved to be a solving pleasure to move on to the much easier but still interesting "Bonus Puzzle by Puzzazz.com." This one posed a question that was to be answered by anagramming circled letters in the puzzle; however, I got the answer from the question and the number of letters in the answer alone before I even put pen to grid. Well then of course I still had to solve the puzzle just to be sure I was right. Right? Right! Yes, Ellen, I was right, and yes, the puzzle was still fun to solve, and, no, it was not too easy, either: I still have the lower right corner to fill.

Also in the packet, should one be so inclined *and* have time and money to spend: a flyer for Will Shortz's Wonderful World of Words at Mohonk Mountain House November 13-15, and a flyer for Stan Newman's Crossword University 10-Day Southern Caribbean Cruise January 14-24, 2010.

Oh, my goodness, don't I wish! I've been to Mohonk Mountain House and just did not want to ever leave (warning: it's expensive). And what could be a better excuse to indulge in a cruise than 10 days' worth of crosswords? Especially at the prices listed in the flyer -- now, that's a deal!

Well, I'll just sit here and dream a bit. Meanwhile, the 32nd Annual Tourney awaits -- time to shower, get some breakfast, and be on my way to greet the day at the Brooklyn Marriott.

It's A Pangram

When I see a "series ender" XYZ in a puzzle, I immediately start to scan for the appearance of all the rest of the alphabet in the grid. Sure 'nuff, constructor Kevin G. Der gave us a bonus: the ever-elusive pangram. We also got some "bonus" letters -- that's the theme, folks -- hinted at in the old street cry (think newsboys back before any of us was born) at 57 across. And an added treat for this sci-fi movie / TV fan: references to both Star Trek and Star Wars. Neat!

I solved this one in two spurts: half on the commute in to work and half on the way home from work, which included its own "bonus" stop-off at the Union Square Barnes & Nobel to visit the 2nd floor offering of puzzle books.

I wanted something different. Hence, the rows and rows and rows of Will Shortz publications just seemed ... sad. And I already had the two Fraser Simpson New-Yorker-style cryptic books ... these are such a delight, I was hoping for a third. I do hope another is in the works! I rejected an offering of ... ahem ... adult ... themed "dirty" crosswords, not that I mind, particularly, I'm just not in the mood.

And then I spotted the orphan: one lonely copy of the Mensa Big Book of Acrostics, Vol 2, by Michael Ashley. One hundred Acrostics that I figured would be good practice for the every-other-Sunday Times Magazine offering. So I brought it home with me and settled down at once to #1, which I ended up solving in its own two spurts: half before bed, the other half before breakfast. I needed to look up only one entry, the 4-letter answer to "Author of Buddenbrooks" and probably didn't really need that if I'd been a little less impatient.

New to me, from this puzzle, is the name "Old Scratch" for Satan. The American Heritage Dictionary explains that the term was used in New England (so I should have known it) but now is mainly a US Southern expression (which explains why I'm not familiar with it). "Old Nick" also apparently refers to Satan. Good to know. They're sure to turn up in crosswords some time.

Double Trouble

Alas and ALACK, Tuesday brings us broken hearts and on Wednesday, we GRIEVE (unless of course we incorrectly filled in ROI instead of REI for the "King, in Portugal," clue, in which case we spend some downtime wondering what it is to GRIOVE ... yes, yours truly did that!

The theme is all about shifting gears, for all you licensed drivers out there, and there is quite a bit of shifting to do. If the clue is "nada" and you're already entered ZI for a 5-letter word, you'd naturally think of ZILCH, wouldn't you? I would and I did. Sorry -- think again! Likewise, the three-word entry for "For Shame!" is not TSK and the 3-letter "monk's title" is so not FRA. Think a Jaguar is a CAR, especially in a driving-themed puzzle? No, no, no. Likewise, gnats are not PICKY (that would be nits, not gnats), even though 3 of those 5 letters are correct. Given _ A _ E R, would you say a "hoops player" is a LAKER? Nahhhhh, too specific!

Keep your hand on that gear shift while you go for a ride in this puzzle, a NYTimes debut, I believe, for constructor Susan Gelfand. I'll be keeping my eye out for that name -- 'cuz in spite of the grieving and that Dickensian cry, this puzzle was *fun* !

Heart of my Heart

I was feeling the romance as, just after Valentine's Day, I watched HEARTs form in the theme entries in Tuesday's Times puzzle. There was even a HEARTH in the midst of "richearthtones" which made me feel all warm and cozy on a chilly February morning.

And then ... and then ... came the explanatory theme entry: broken hearted! Awwwww, such a downer. And there I'd been thinking of love newly found in unexpected places. Darn. But at least these broken hearts have been mended, stitched together to make whole hearts once again. Or so I'd rather think of it anyway.

And, on the way home, thinking these thoughts, an old forgotten song came to mind ...

Heart of my heart,
I love that melody ...
Too bad we had to part.
I know a tear would glisten
If once more I could listen
To that gang that sang
Heart of my heart ...

Author, Author ...

I took today's puzzle very appropriately, it turns out, to breakfast (at Starbuck's) to solve. I even had cereal -- albeit oatmeal, rather than the cold-cereal subject of the puzzle theme.

But 'twas a double-themed puzzle, as not one, not two, not three, but five fiction authors and one poet popped [ahem] up in the fill. One pair of authors shared a clue (as opposed to an entry), and a pair of sisters -- both writers -- shared an entry.

The choice of authors had nothing to do with the theme, that I'm aware of, but it was a nice extra bonus hunt for a lazy Monday holiday.

Puzzling in the Digital Age

A couple of weeks ago, juggling time and dollar considerations, I finally subscribed to the NYTimes premium crosswords online. AcrossLite, far from something to avoid, is a marvel to be embraced: put the grid and clues where they work most comfortably for you on the screen, and solve away with abandon and no fear of eraser crumbs or ink blots. No disappointment when the newsstand has run out of the Times, or waiting until the newsstand opens -- solve the day's puzzle at 4 a.m. if you'd like and be on your way ...

So the theory went, anyway. In practice, I was beginning to wonder if all I'd done was waste the $40 annual fee. In two weeks, I'd used the site once, and scrambled for the paper version the rest of the time. It was nonsense. I'd spent the money. I felt guilty about trees dying to supply my habit. And, even if I missed getting the paper, I still did not log on to get my solving fix.

Sunday's second puzzle was the expected Double Acrostic, which I've challenged myself to solve from now on, since Ellen recently broke the spell of my never managing to finish them. I found this one, as I usually find them, a bit of a rough go and took several wrong turns in my determination to get further than a word or two into it. I was using pen, not pencil, absolutely a mistake, but I really don't like pencils, especially on the slick paper of the Times magazine.

I needed to go online anyway to look up a couple of references in the puzzle, so, looking at the ink-blotty mess the Acrostic was quickly becoming, I logged into the premium crosswords for some onscreen solving. I filled in the few entries I already knew, looked up Maine's state tree, realized what event it was other than childbirth (much on my mind what with the Valentine's Day arrival of my 3rd grandson) that involved an umbilical cord, and used the Visual Thesaurus resource to help figure out the heavy useless burden clue ... and, voila, had the Acrostic happily solved sans crumbs and blots.

I still did the Monday puzzle on paper ... but I can see I'll be doing the Acrostics online from now on ...

Decisions Decisions

Lately I've been getting the Times either later than usual or, a couple of times, not at all ... I could subscribe, and did, for many years, but as part of paring down on a number of things, including all that paper going to recycling ... well, I'm still not going to resubscribe. So I've spent the last few weeks considering subscribing to the Times puzzle online and today -- running late, no time to pick up the paper -- I decided to succumb to the digital age finally and do the puzzle onscreen in Across Lite instead of on paper with a pen. The cost is $39.95/year, a bargain I'd say, especially since digital subscribers get a bonus puzzle thrown in as well as access to the "cru"-written cryptics.

I subscribed this afternoon but had to save the solving experience until tonight. I've used Across Lite before, but that was several years ago, and I must say the program has grown up in those years. There are all sorts of options: you can choose where the clues are displayed (if at all) in relation to the puzzle, what fonts you want used, how you prefer the mouse jump from square to square, and so forth, all easily and intuitively configured. And you can easily get rid of the timer that displays automatically on first opening the program, which is a good thing because I found the timer to be particularly annoying. I really don't care how fast or how slow it takes me to solve a given puzzle and don't want, much less need, a timer nagging away at me.

Nevertheless, even though I care not one whit how long the solving takes, the end of February will find me hunched over the puzzles of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, being held this year February 27-March 1 at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Brooklyn. I don't do it for the prizes -- of which I'll win not a single one -- I do it for the cameraderie of like-minded folks. And, this year, my friend Ellen plans to attend, too, so I'll actually know someone there. Woot!

So that's decisions 1 and 2. The third decision was to put the Harper's puzzle aside for a few days to regroup. I've filled in more spaces, and discovered a few of the "upgrades," but still the majority of the entries totally elude me. Ellen gave me a bit of help by naming one of the upgrades but I still didn't get the crossing for it. I am, in fact, completely stuck, totally frozen ... absolutely ready to cry Uncle. Ellen, meanwhile, has long since completed the whole thing, although she tells me there is still one upgrade that eludes her. Wow. I'm impressed.

I will say that this is the furthest I've even gotten with a Harper's cryptic, and the first time I've ever managed to figure out the added twist, so I'll be looking forward with some eagerness to next month's challenge.