Crossword: 21:28
Oof, pretty brutal.
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Monday, March 5, 2018
Crossword 7:45
I'm not sure, but I think at the beginning of the week, at least, I would go faster on paper. The way I use the computer to enter is probably slower. With my right hand on the arrow keys to move between boxes, I often end up typing words by pecking with my left instead of typing. Not so much slower when I'm filling out some missing squares, but bad when I know the whole answer. It's the sort of thing I should research, but I'm not going to start buying the paper - that's a habit more expensive than smoking.
I'm not sure, but I think at the beginning of the week, at least, I would go faster on paper. The way I use the computer to enter is probably slower. With my right hand on the arrow keys to move between boxes, I often end up typing words by pecking with my left instead of typing. Not so much slower when I'm filling out some missing squares, but bad when I know the whole answer. It's the sort of thing I should research, but I'm not going to start buying the paper - that's a habit more expensive than smoking.
Crossword 30:05
Decent puzzle. A half hour is maybe a little easy for the Goldilocks zone. It might have been easier if I'd picked up the full theme. The first word of each theme answer had an extra letter, turning regular phrases into wacky ones. What I didn't notice, since I finished them out of order, was that it was one word, getting longer one letter at a time: IN-SIN-SING-STING-STRING-STARING-STARTING-STARTLING.
Oh my god, I just realized further interconnectedness!
The first theme answer is "In thought as much," with the N extra. The second is "Sin some small way," with the S. The next is "Sing of omission." But look - The IN of the first actually goes with the second phrase, as SIN goes with the third. This holds through all the theme answers, and isn't forced at all. OK, upgrading to great puzzle. In theory, studying the theme as it unfolded would have made the theme answers even easier, and if I had seen that, I might have gone so fast, I'd be annoyed. But it's very cool to realize in retrospect.
Decent puzzle. A half hour is maybe a little easy for the Goldilocks zone. It might have been easier if I'd picked up the full theme. The first word of each theme answer had an extra letter, turning regular phrases into wacky ones. What I didn't notice, since I finished them out of order, was that it was one word, getting longer one letter at a time: IN-SIN-SING-STING-STRING-STARING-STARTING-STARTLING.
Oh my god, I just realized further interconnectedness!
The first theme answer is "In thought as much," with the N extra. The second is "Sin some small way," with the S. The next is "Sing of omission." But look - The IN of the first actually goes with the second phrase, as SIN goes with the third. This holds through all the theme answers, and isn't forced at all. OK, upgrading to great puzzle. In theory, studying the theme as it unfolded would have made the theme answers even easier, and if I had seen that, I might have gone so fast, I'd be annoyed. But it's very cool to realize in retrospect.
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Friday 51:38 (3 Google, numerous mistakes)
Saturday 14:28
Another brutal Friday? At least I was backed up by Rex Parker, who called the puzzle very challenging, Saturday challenging, like double-my-normal-Friday-time challenging. So it's not just me. (Rex Parker is semi-pro. His Friday time was over 10 minutes, and Saturday was just over 6. My ratio was...different). This one was co-authored by Rachel Maddow as part of their celebrity series, which is probably why it showed up on a weekday instead of Saturday, but they could have clued some things a little easier. ASNER got clued as seven-time primetime Emmy award winning actor. The problem is, more than one person has done that, and seven isn't even the record. I had to google quite deep to find that one (also used to find the 1928 Olympics site and a 1965 Michael Caine movie). But god damn, look at that Saturday time. Might be a PB for Saturday, though really, this should have been the Friday puzzle, and Maddow's today. You might say I used Google once. One clue was "Kid with a moving life story?" I had AN _YB_ _T, and immediately thought "oh, the Toy Story kid. What's his last name?" So I looked it up. And it was BOOT, which fit well. But I couldn't get the words around it to work. Eventually, I checked squares. The N was wrong (it was a guess, but seemed educated), and the answer was ARMY BRAT, which is, to be fair, a better answer (nice clue, too). So the Google may have actually hindered me. I had wanted the M for the cross, but that made ANMY, which isn't going anywhere. If I had rechecked and doubted the N, it would have been much easier to see ARMY and I would have saved time (that was the last clue to fall).
I did 3-0 FNM for the second week in a row, and didn't need a broken mythic rare to do it. In fact, my deck had zero synergy other than a good curve and decent (but not overwhelming) removal. Good old Black-Green tribeless. I looked over at the other 6-man draft and there was a guy with two Merfolk Mistbinder and the unblockable 1/1 Merfolk by turn 4. In the 6-man. No Merfolk drafters in my 8-man pod; no Mistbinders, I saw Shapers of Nature 7th pick, a last pick 2/1 that can fly if you have a Merfolk. So sad.
Saturday 14:28
Another brutal Friday? At least I was backed up by Rex Parker, who called the puzzle very challenging, Saturday challenging, like double-my-normal-Friday-time challenging. So it's not just me. (Rex Parker is semi-pro. His Friday time was over 10 minutes, and Saturday was just over 6. My ratio was...different). This one was co-authored by Rachel Maddow as part of their celebrity series, which is probably why it showed up on a weekday instead of Saturday, but they could have clued some things a little easier. ASNER got clued as seven-time primetime Emmy award winning actor. The problem is, more than one person has done that, and seven isn't even the record. I had to google quite deep to find that one (also used to find the 1928 Olympics site and a 1965 Michael Caine movie). But god damn, look at that Saturday time. Might be a PB for Saturday, though really, this should have been the Friday puzzle, and Maddow's today. You might say I used Google once. One clue was "Kid with a moving life story?" I had AN _YB_ _T, and immediately thought "oh, the Toy Story kid. What's his last name?" So I looked it up. And it was BOOT, which fit well. But I couldn't get the words around it to work. Eventually, I checked squares. The N was wrong (it was a guess, but seemed educated), and the answer was ARMY BRAT, which is, to be fair, a better answer (nice clue, too). So the Google may have actually hindered me. I had wanted the M for the cross, but that made ANMY, which isn't going anywhere. If I had rechecked and doubted the N, it would have been much easier to see ARMY and I would have saved time (that was the last clue to fall).
I did 3-0 FNM for the second week in a row, and didn't need a broken mythic rare to do it. In fact, my deck had zero synergy other than a good curve and decent (but not overwhelming) removal. Good old Black-Green tribeless. I looked over at the other 6-man draft and there was a guy with two Merfolk Mistbinder and the unblockable 1/1 Merfolk by turn 4. In the 6-man. No Merfolk drafters in my 8-man pod; no Mistbinders, I saw Shapers of Nature 7th pick, a last pick 2/1 that can fly if you have a Merfolk. So sad.
Friday, March 2, 2018
Friday nights stretch long for me. If I didn't do the puzzle Thursday night, it might not get done until tomorrow, which is the reason I've skipped Friday posts the last couple of weeks. Other things to do become unlocked Friday nights, like the Wall Street Journal variety puzzle. I just hope it's not an Acrostic. I don't hate the NY Times Acrostics, but mostly because the Times has a sweet HTML app to do them with. They are tedious as fuck on paper, and harder to edit if you get a clue wrong. I lean pretty heavily on the "check puzzle" button, but I feel ok about it. I also dropped by the library and got the March Harper's puzzle. I was doing reasonably well, but when Magic started, I just flipped it over to keep score with. And then I obviously threw it away, forgetting there was a puzzle on it. Oh well. It's easy enough to reconstruct, as the clues are hard enough to be memorable if you solve them. When I was on a diagramless kick, I did all the ones in the Times archive, dating back to 1997. I did one of those old ones again yesterday, and while some clues rang a bell, I didn't remember anything about the theme or the grid shape (which is the hard part anyway). My recall on cryptic clues is much, much better.
To make art, topless isn't incorrect. (5)
PAINT (to make art) - P (topless) = AIN'T (isn't incorrect)
I solved this backwards, of course. Getting to "paint" from just "to make art" is very hard, but the "isn't incorrect" is a sometimes crossword clue, often "Isn't wrong?" I've also seen "Ain't right?" for ISN'T. Question marks help those clues, to tip off the reader to something a little off about the clue, but in cryptics, you just sort of assume it's there all the time.
To make art, topless isn't incorrect. (5)
PAINT (to make art) - P (topless) = AIN'T (isn't incorrect)
I solved this backwards, of course. Getting to "paint" from just "to make art" is very hard, but the "isn't incorrect" is a sometimes crossword clue, often "Isn't wrong?" I've also seen "Ain't right?" for ISN'T. Question marks help those clues, to tip off the reader to something a little off about the clue, but in cryptics, you just sort of assume it's there all the time.
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Wednesday: 11:07
Thursday: 21:52 (but distracted by X-Files)
Last night's X-Files was a fun one. Reminded me quite a bit of Black Mirror, but with a more humorous spin. Mulder and Scully are tormented by their smart phones/homes/cars and an army of drones after declining a tip at an automated sushi place. The interesting thing is that there is almost zero dialogue. Mulder and Scully are apart for much of the episode. As that makes the show very visual, it distracted me from the crossword. But there's a deeper subtext too. That our technology, which promises to keep us connected, actually alienates us from each other. You can learn and grow so much more from a conversation than another BuzzFeed listicle.
Thursday: 21:52 (but distracted by X-Files)
Last night's X-Files was a fun one. Reminded me quite a bit of Black Mirror, but with a more humorous spin. Mulder and Scully are tormented by their smart phones/homes/cars and an army of drones after declining a tip at an automated sushi place. The interesting thing is that there is almost zero dialogue. Mulder and Scully are apart for much of the episode. As that makes the show very visual, it distracted me from the crossword. But there's a deeper subtext too. That our technology, which promises to keep us connected, actually alienates us from each other. You can learn and grow so much more from a conversation than another BuzzFeed listicle.
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