Friday, 7/31/09

NYT 3:45 ... LAT 3:08 ... CS 1:51 ... ND 2:32 ... WSJ 6:31 ... BEQ 3:49 ... MGWC (p) 9:40

Thursday, 7/30/09

NYT 3:13 ... LAT 2:26 ... CS 1:46 ... ND 1:43

Oops, I see this didn't post last night. I'm going out of town for a wedding this weekend, so the Sunday update will be late...

Wednesday, 7/29/09

NYT 1:52 ... LAT 1:41 ... CS 1:39 ... ND 1:37 ... BEQ 3:29

Tuesday, 7/28/09

NYT 2:14 ... LAT 1:43 ... CS 1:52 ... ND 1:43 ... BT 2:22 ... TO 2:31

Monday, 7/27/09

NYT 2:04 ... LAT 1:48 ... CS 1:40 ... ND 1:22 ... JON 2:32 ... BEQ 4:14

Sunday, 7/26/09

NYT 7:03 ... LAT 4:22 ... MR 5:06 ... BG 4:07 ... ND 3:37 ... CS 2:46 ... P&A dnf

See Wordplay for my annoyance at the minor racial slur in the Puns & Anagrams puzzle.

Saturday, 7/25/09

NYT 4:11 ... LAT 2:44 ... CS 2:00 ... ND 5:53

It's not often that the NYT Saturday themeless is the day's least interesting! Great to have Adam Cohen contributing to Newsday, and I wonder if it was MALTLIQUOR or DAU that disqualified Brad Wilber's awesome LAT puzzle from NYT publication... answer: neither - faulty premise.

Friday, 7/24/09

NYT 3:35 ... LAT 2:44 ... CS 2:15 ... ND 2:33 ... BEQ 3:02 ... CHE 2:52 ... WSJ 8:04 ... MGWC (p) 6:53

Feeling sluggish with today's puzzles (as opposed to last night's). The WSJ theme is one of my least favorites in a long time - some of the long answers barely make sense, and none of them amused me. [note: I've parsed them all now, and am moderately amused.] Actually, if you don't count Patrick Berry's gorgeous NYT (and the missing CHE), it's a subpar set of Friday puzzles overall.

Thursday, 7/23/09

NYT 4:01 ... LAT 2:32 ... CS 1:40 ... ND 1:46

I didn't get the theme in the NYT until afterwards, but it's one of those where I clearly could have saved some time in the long run by figuring it out during the solve. The 16-letter key fell so early that I'd mostly forgotten about it, and most of the strange clue-answer combos seemed close enough for Thursday! Very impressive theme, so much so that Shortz allowed a staggering 85 words in the grid (or 82 if you prorate to a 15x15, still almost unheard-of). No mention of the statistical anomaly yet at Wordplay (or Fiend)... And the LAT combines two of my favorite things: the "reverse-clue" theme, and Dan Naddor.

Wednesday, 7/22/09

NYT 2:37 ... LAT 1:54 ... CS 1:57 ... ND (p) 2:06 ... BEQ (p) 4:31

My health is much better, but my computer's is much worse! I was hoping Vista would heal itself before I had to do anything drastic, but that doesn't seem to be panning out...

Tuesday, 7/21/09

NYT 1:56 ... LAT 1:34 ... CS 1:58 ... ND 1:36 ... BT (p) 4:05 ... TO (p) 3:57

Monday, 7/20/09

NYT 1:59 ... LAT 1:50 ... CS 1:46 ... ND 1:24 ... JON 4:07 ... BEQ 2:54

I've discovered the secret to encouraging blog conversation - go away for a few days and your readers will have to talk to each other! I had a great weekend in Vermont, and didn't look at a single crossword, except for a cryptic Sunday morning in bed with my honey.

I'm a little under the weather today, but I'll try to get caught up on the weekend puzzles - backdated posts will be below this one. Hey, I can solve backwards (Monday-Sunday-Saturday) and get the perfect steepening of difficulty!

Sunday, 7/19/09

NYT 8:00 ... LAT 4:58 ... ND 4:45 ... BG 4:44 ... MR 5:59 ... CS 2:14 ... Acrostic 6:20

Fast Acrostic, slow NYT puzzle.

Saturday, 7/18/09

NYT 3:38 ... LAT 3:02 ... CS 2:21 ... ND 5:25

Happy birthday to me! Sweet bunch of puzzles today, even if I'm enjoying them three days late. Two themelesses, Doug? You shouldn't have! Plus a typically terrific (and atypically fast) CS by Bob Klahn, and one of Joe Krozel's most impressive NYT grids to date. A 58-worder with no horrible entries?!? I was lucky to get footholds relatively quickly in each quadrant, making for a smooth solve.

Friday, 7/17/09

NYT 4:43 ... LAT 2:19 ... CS 1:46 ... ND 1:48 ... WSJ 5:16 ... BEQ 3:45 ... MGWC 5:10

Going away for the weekend - it's my birthday tomorrow! - and likely won't be posting Sat/Sun/Mon times before Monday. I don't even think I'm bringing my laptop.

Meanwhile, I finally joined the NPL, where my cutesy nickname shall be "Delayer". It's a shorter version of the incredibly apt anagram discovered by my friend Pete: Fine Delayer.

Thursday, 7/16/09

NYT 3:14 ... LAT 2:16 ... CS 1:44 ... ND 1:52

Wednesday, 7/15/09

NYT 2:31 ... LAT 1:54 ... CS 1:51 ... ND 1:44 ... BEQ 2:48

Another winner, Joon! I could definitely have been faster because there was so much stuff in my wheelhouse, but I got a little finger-tied (like tongue-tied, but with typing).

Tuesday, 7/14/09

NYT 1:51 ... LAT 1:43 ... CS 1:45 ... ND 1:41 ... BT 4:03 ... TO 3:04

Now that's a reason to go to a supersized grid! Happy Bastille Day!

Sorry, I haven't gotten to any typing tests, too busy almost finishing my first (old) Atlantic Puzzler, and a couple of Kegler's bar cryptics...

Monday, 7/13/09

NYT 1:53 ... LAT 1:34 ... CS 1:47 ... ND 1:34 ... JON 2:26 ... BEQ 4:49

Sunday, 7/12/09

NYT 4:55* ... LAT 5:30 ... MR 4:51 ... BG 6:03 ... ND 3:24 ... CS 3:04 ... Diagramless 9:40

I'm posting this almost 30 hours after solving... how's that for quality blogging? Returned home tonight and had no energy to finish Sunday's or Monday's puzzles. I'll report back on my WPM tomorrow!

I hit the applet Saturday night at exactly 6pm because I had to get to dinner afterwards -- apparently I clicked in a bit too soon, because the puzzle wasn't coming up, and I had to back up and click in again to get the grid. So I'm claiming back the 20 or so seconds that were on the clock when I started solving.

update: Newsday once again provides my personal-best 21x21...

Saturday, 7/11/09

NYT 4:04 ... LAT 2:35 ... CS 1:49 ... ND 4:55

What a great week of NYT puzzles - it could have been legendarily so if Paula Gamache's Monday from last week were swapped with this Monday... I was just wondering when we'd get another Saturday from Karen Tracey, and here she is tonight with one of my favorite actors smack in the middle!

Coming to you tonight from a bench in the backyard, with the stars and the fireflies keeping me company. I can't see the letters on the keyboard, but as you might guess, I'm an excellent touch typist. Thanks Mom for giving me that old typewriter and typing excercise book when I was what, 8 or 9? Wonder how my WPM compares to other speed-solvers - there could be a small but measurable advantage there... :) Back to New York on Sunday night!

Friday, 7/10/09

NYT 4:19 ... LAT 2:25 ... CS 1:41 ... ND 2:11 ... CHE 2:07 ... WSJ 6:06 ... BEQ 4:39 ... MGWC 2:45

Thursday, 7/9/09

NYT 2:43 ... LAT 2:31 ... CS 2:05 ... ND 2:01 ... AB 2:51

We got DRJEKYLL in the CS, and MRHYDE in the Newsday...

Been on a bit of a cryptic binge lately, because one of the only books I brought to NH with me was 101 Cryptic Crosswords, which I've nearly finished. These easy New Yorker puzzles now take me about 5 minutes, and I timed one at 2:52. Clearly it's time to move up the difficulty ladder.

Any recommendations for the next step up? I'm going to try the online offerings of Ron Sweet, Trip Payne, Atlantic Monthly, and the old NYT Cru, as well as the NYT Second Sundays. Am I missing anything?

Wednesday, 7/8/09

NYT 2:36 ... LAT 2:04 ... CS 2:03 ... ND 1:33 ... BEQ 2:21 ... jp 3:36

Slowed down a bit in the NYT applet because I was marveling at the gimmick. Very cool!

Tuesday, 7/7/09

NYT 2:19 ... LAT 1:45 ... CS 2:03 ... ND 1:40 ... BT 4:00 ... TO 2:36

Nice to see Tyler in the applet, reminding me who's the five-time champ! Opening night of my show tonight, then I'm back to my normal work schedule - three hours a day.

update: Unusual for an Onion puzzle by Byron to be so much easier than the InkWell...

Monday, 7/6/09

NYT 1:27 ... LAT 1:29 ... CS 2:53 ... ND 1:27 ... JON 2:31 ... BEQ 5:07

Sunday, 7/5/09

NYT 4:47 ... LAT 4:54 ... ND 4:02 ... MR 4:06 ... BG 4:11 ... CS 2:32 ... Acrostic 12:15

Hooray for Amy "Orange" Reynaldo's NYT debut!

Saturday, 7/4/09

NYT 4:15 ... LAT 3:08 ... CS 2:02 ... ND 6:27 ... TPP 3:08

Dan Naddor and the LAT win today's holiday-themed-themeless showdown in a unanimous decision over the NYT! (Unanimous in my house, I predict bloggers will agree.) Mr. Naddor, please make more "themeless" puzzles! Spent at least 30 seconds finding my NYT error, which was SICKRACE/IRIS... if the god wasn't going to be ARES, surely it would be something else recognizable like ERIS or IRIS, right? Finally looked at the down clue and submitted... ARIS? Okay.

Loved Trip's trivia puzzle - I knew all the honorees without using crossings, except for the Emmy winner.

Friday, 7/3/09

NYT 4:46 ... LAT 2:09 ... CS 1:53 ... ND 1:53 ... WSJ 5:24 ... BEQ 2:39 ... MGWC 2:35

Sweet NYT themeless by Kevin Der. The stack of SWAZILAND/TAXEVADER/EXTREMITY is one of my favorites recently. (But will Stan's ever be topped?) Ran into a brick wall for a while in the SE corner with nothing but BLOC and OBTUSE. But I don't blame myself for the erroneous KMART, which slowed me down at the beginning. I conducted IVES's "The Unanswered Question" in college, but at the concert, the ringer violinist (from the real university orchestra, not the JV squad I was conducting) entered at the wrong time, taking the whole section with him. Fortunately, being modern music, it didn't sound that bad even though the first violins were one bar off for the entire piece.

Thursday, 7/2/09

NYT 2:49 ... LAT 1:47 ... CS 1:48 ... ND 1:26

Wednesday, 7/1/09

NYT 2:38 ... LAT 1:54 ... CS 1:56 ... ND 1:38 ... BEQ 3:28

That's one hell of a fast turnaround for the NYT tribute...