I've Bitten the Apple...

Recently the Mrs. and I enjoyed our second viewing of Wordplay, an outstanding documentary based around the institution that is Will Shortz and the cruciverbalist droves that populate his annual crossword puzzle tournament (formerly in Stamford, now in NYC due to numbers). The film is fun for any fan of crossword puzzles, especially the portions that show various celebrities (Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, the Indigo Girls…strangest list of names ever) solving a puzzle.

 

The main scene that caught my interest this time through featured puzzle creator Merl Reagle demonstrating his creative process by entering the title of the movie into the center of a 15x15 grid and spontaneously building an intricate and punny puzzle around it.

 

Alright, I know he’s an expert, but I can totally do this. I breeze through the Metro puzzle during every commute and am a fair hand up until about Thursday in the NY Times. I know how important oleo and oreo are, not to mention the T-bars and I-beams…I’m going to do it.

 

Thus I signed onto the rules as outlined by Mr. Shortz in the film:

 

1.)   The puzzle should have two-way symmetry (it looks the same upside down).

2.)   No more than 1/6^th black squares

3.)   No secluded areas (solvers can work from one spot to all other parts of the puzzle)

4.)   Words have a minimum of three letters

5.)   No bodily functions (The Sunday breakfast table test)

6.)   Every square has a cross

 

Cut to 3:00 am, me sitting alone at the kitchen table having started and restarted at least five times and struggling to find a way to work “Alliance” into my first line (the effort failed). The trickiest parts for me were areas where I needed multiple five/six letter words to run parallel and also form words of at least three letters in the crossings.

 

After crashing in the wee hours of the morning (and feeling nerdier than ever before), I awoke and set myself back at the table. I managed to finish the puzzle with the majority of my selected clues and puzzles (Regrets to “rebel,” the aforementioned “alliance” and “it’s the clap”). The only rule I slipped on was the number of black squares, drifting a bit closer to ¼. Yet, in the end I enjoyed it and will likely try again soon.

 

My advice to others trying to do the same:

1.)   Pick a theme early and place all your long words to scaffold the puzzle.

2.)   Be open to changing/dropping words that, while fun, are not central to the theme.

3.)   Be prepared to lose sleep trying to figure out small corner areas.

4.)   The website oneacross.com, although designed for solvers, is invaluable.

5.)   Stick with what you know.

6.)   Find a good tester to double-check for errors even after you do (Thanks wife).

I’m slow to start another so soon, but hopefully I will. In the mean time, I recommend Wordplay to all, its quite fun.

Here are the puzzle clues (use the image above) e-mail for a better copy. 

Across:

1. Abraham's sacrifice

6. Complete a common operation

9. Recently flooded ND county

13. Southern US city

14. Aquatic defense

16. Marking of Buddha

17. Stormy spirit

18. Modicum

19. Shepherd's welcome

20. Puzzle star on purse handle

22. The basics

23. Might

24. Paired winter item

25. Forlorn cry

27. It should be raised

30. Honest fellow

31. Rabbit, bear and fox

32. Biblical priest

33. Wing-like

34. Star of the puzzle

37. Type of steel

38. Call at home

39. Wrestler’s goals

40. He shot first

41. Approves

42.Some organic compounds

43. Entry exam

44. Dangerous salt

45. Staple of southern cuisine

47. Puzzle star at Talladega

53. Construction material

54. Darn!

55. Swears to

57. Shakespearean plotter

58. Gutter site

59. Malformed fetus

60. College sport

61. Each

62. Consort of Bert

 

Down:

1. Give __ __ chance

2. Fashionable Indian attire

3. Only me: I __ __

4. Imitates comically

5. Fried Appetizer

6. Chief Brody's town

7. The way out

8. Hacker's goal

9. Embargo target

10. Saudi's side dishes

11. Bowling alley fixtures

12. More flippant

15. Form of dance

21. How to start a fight in the Hundred Acre Woods

25. Vehement anger

26. Integral Apollo components

27. Asteroid locations

28. In a manner similar to

29. Most wealthy

31. Presidential watering hole

33. Can do

35. October Sky rocket

36. Fee for gorillas?

37. Full of upheaval

44.Alma ___

46. What ducks are in, at times

47. One of Caesar’s last day?

48. Puzzle star's discovery

49. Keep for later

50. Assert formally

51. Ear

52. Sir Alec's river

56. Aircraft bearing

Congressional Addresses: Now with Less Pain!

I'm a firm believer that part of being a good citizen is staying informed and listening to our leaders when they want to address us. That being said, it has been a long 8 new millennium. It was incredibly hard to sit and listen to the horrible policies, the fake promises and the nails-on-chalkboard-esque giggle wink of President Bush. Compound this with the constant ovations (some all-inclusive, the more fun ones partisan) and poor oratory skills and this part of citizen never felt like such a burden.

All that in mind, it was exciting to see a new face at the podium and unified colleagues standing behind him. .Yes it was still dull, the ovations too frequent and the policies a bit too dull (he's just a man!) Yet, I feel that Washington was stuck in a rut for a long time and at last there's been a bit of shaking up. Certainly these are not original ideas, but its something I hope strongly not to lose sight of in the coming weeks, months and years. 

This is a new generation coming to power and that is something that I will never see again in my life until I'm no longer a part of the group that made it happen. Seeing the approval numbers for Obama and his stimulus package demonstrates that the people are behind him and that they trust him to right this ship. 

One final partisan note would be how hypocritical the republican house members still appear...refusing to rise for the ovation about the Stimulus Package all while sliding the money of their states into the pet projects they love. I most sincerely hope that they come around and start playing the game by something other than the old rules, but if not it will be nice to see them get their walking papers in the coming years. 

But I don't mean to be bitter (yet another lingering effect of the eight year doldrums). I see our country with its best years ahead of us, and hope only that I can live long enough to see its full return to grandeur. We've finally elected the best man for the job instead of the lesser of evils...mabe we'll finally learn that elitism isn't such a bad thing in choosing the leader of the free world.

(Image from cnn.com)

 I am in fact genetically engineered to love this movie,but even I was surprised of the extent to which I loved it: this is my cinematic soulmate, thus a brief review to get you fine readers to the theater soon:

Having followed the long circuitous route this movie has taken to theaters, I was quite relieved when the film finally got released in Cambridge (our fair city). This truly is the love letter to Star Wars and all things Lucas-ian (or in many cases, all things late 90s...mmmm tub-thumping). The dialog is littered with constant references to the holy trilogy and the types of trivia contests and debates that have acted as geek handshakes for 30 years now (What is Chewbacca's home planet? How didn't Luke know that Leia's his sister?) that put even the richest Kevin Smith movies to shame. 

The movie's ostensible plot is the road trip of four geektastic friends on a cross country journey to steal an early cut of the Phantom Menace in the Fall of 1998. The journey, in the hands of uberfan director Kyle Newman, becomes a wonderous odyssey of self-discovery and friendship not entirely different from other mainstays of 80s childhood like The Goonies or Stand By Me.  While the comedy is not flawless, the jokes are so rapidfire that the rough ones disappear under the funny ones and even the funny ones pale beside the hilarious ones. Throw in a huge number of cameos (Star Wars and not), some good down-home Trekkie bashing and Kristen Bell as the cutest fangirl ever (gold bikini: check) and you'll never believe how far the ride takes you in a mere 90 minutes. 

It may not be a brilliant film, and it probably won't ever even see wide release, but if you have the oppoortunity to throw yourself back to the moment when you saw Star Wars back on the marquee for the first time in 20 years and have a damned good laugh, absolutely do not let it pass you by. 

If you listened hard enough, you might even hear the beflanneled one's beard. 

(Reprinted from another blogger project)