Year 1 recap

A little bit of a story... I spent a large amount of 2007 sitting in hospital rooms while my partner was battling cancer (a battle ultimately lost). I had a lot of time and needed to keep my mind going, so I worked harder on being able to solve crossword puzzles. The Listener was a great one for passing long periods of time in sterile environments, but even with all that time I was a terrible solver. In 2007 I solved three completely (3918: Factory, 3953: Resolution and 3959: Inflation), and got very close on four others (3934: Surprise, 3935: Two Down, 3936: Convert, and 3961: Invitation).

So to go from three to 27 is pretty stunning. And it's been fun and a huge eye-opener blogging the experience and finding there is an audience for write-ups, bad jokes, and success and failure. And also to find that crossword setters and solvers are a forgiving and fun bunch - I was really anticipating some backlash, and got none.

Special thank you to setters who have read, commented and emailed - I am in awe of your efforts. Samuel, Homer, Phi, Ploy, and a component of Mango have all given me some pointers and are always a fun email.

Thanks also to the regular commenters, it's nice to know I'm not alone in struggling with some puzzles.

Here are a few Top 3s...

My 3 favorite puzzles that I solved.

3963: Carte Blanche by Homer - No way did I think I was going to get this... no gridlines, extra words, the sort of puzzle I would have given up on a few years ago. But clue by tiny clue I just got more and more and eventually had it.

3989: Key Cutting by Lavatch - Fear of Letters Latent overcome! Another piece by piece solve (I finished it the night before I wrote it up).

3965: Solitaire by Xanthippe - I never thought that scissors would be used in solving a crossword. I should have taken a picture of myself with all those little bits of paper.

My 3 favorite puzzles that I didn't solve.

3977: City Tour by Mango - I got close on this, but really loved how it worked

4006: We interrupt this programme... by Phi - Phi sent me an email saying that I shouldn't have gotten so much thematic material without solving, and then gave me some hints and pointed me at where to get better at solving his style of clue. Can't thank you enough!

3986: Terminal Suspension by Schadenfreude - I made a real mess of this in the end, took a wrong turn at Alberqueque and it was downhill from there, but I liked the puzzle a lot.

So now to year 2... I'll be keeping up my little blog - the bar has been set and the target to beat is 27. Feel free to add your tally, your comments, and anything else you like or dislike (I promise to not use that ghastly yellow paper I have a pile of anymore). See you next week for the first puzzle of 2009, hope you've got your new Chambers - according to amazon, mine has made it to the US and is in the hands of DHL.

Without Solution

The last crossword of the year, "Without Bars" by Elgin. The preamble is pretty daunting - most answers are entered normally (but there's no gridlines ), four are jumbled and partially entered and they're all acrosses, so if I spot a down entry, I can confidently write it in.

So rather than go top to bottom, I looked at clues on the right hand side of the grid, since these should be down clues and entered normally.

These are tricky clues.

I mean really tricky.

I got a little bit of a start using the right-hand side first method, helped along by 13 across FOU(r) - a very nice clue. In between scanning this and writing the blog, I realise that 17 down is OVERPAINT, so HAMLETS must be jumbled and RAGWORM goes down. 28 probably ends in an H from the jumbled HAMLETS.

But I am well and truly beaten on this one, so the year ends with a crashing failure. I am really curious to see what I missed (by my watch the answer will be posted within the next five minutes, so I'll find out soon enough).

Victory to the Listener Crossword! Final tally: Listener 25, George 27. Very close, but a satisfying end to the year.

I'll be posting a year-end review next. Two nights ago I was watching a little late-night TV and heard that one of the US cable channels (G4) is going to air "Chaser's War On Everything" which is a terrifically funny Australian show (these were the guys that made international news a while back by getting a guy dressed as Osama Bin Laden into the G8 summit). Here is their crowning glory, the darkly funny and not 100% safe for work "Eulogy Song"

Slipper found!

I'm on the road, so this is going to be a quick report, and without a grid until I get back home.

My first two thoughts as to what the game could be (since there were other children preventing things having to be done) were MUSICAL CHAIRS and BRITISH BULLDOG, the latter maybe being too violent for a Listener? The second letter in 1 down coming out as a U gave me hope for removing chairs from answers, but those hopes were dashed with 16 not being cot.

The rest of it was fun, and I solved it without having Bradford's or Chambers available (I was in Texas), though googling was needed to find the quotation, which ended up necessary to finish the lower left corner of the grid (apropos for Texas).

Took a little shoehorning to get the title SLIPPERY CUSTOMER since I was looking for some form of COBBLER (I jumbled the letters and tried to make it SUPREMITY COBBLER) in there to the point of inventing a boy's name starting with B for the letters that gave SEBASTIAN... then I realised I didn't have to jumble the first letters of the names and the answer was sitting in front of me (just like it was last week but I managed to get the last bit this time).

Last puzzle for year one coming up next week, but I scraped in success in trying to get half of the Listeners out for the year... current tally: George 27, Listener 24. Current streak: George 1.

The Tally: updated

My counting got messed up with those two puzzles that I thought I had completed, but I had made a few mistakes in and errors propagated. A glance back through this year, and the tally is George 26, Listener 24 (so at least a tie is guaranteed).

And I'm still kicking myself over missing the quote from 4012.

Still some explaining to do - what did Caesar say?

Happy New Year (though not the end of last year for George v Listener, that'll come in two weeks time). This week we've got Explanation by Lato - a pretty quick turnaround for Lato, who gave us "Yes" six months ago, which I managed to scrape a finish out of despite missing something from the preamble.

There's a wish granted in the perimeter, expressed by an unclued guy in the middle (dramatically), four clues have wordplay but no definition. OK... looks like we're dealing with real words and normal clues for the most part, let's get solving.

Things were off to a pretty brisk start, though there was a lot of chambersing involved in finding the words - I got more from the wordplay than definition here, but there were some that eluded me

Acrosses:

9) HIE,LAND - from wordplay, checked it in Chambers
10) (MATURE,U) - used the Chambers anagram solver to get TRUMEAU
12) One of my (still) unsolved... --R-RTS - was hoping to find the perimeter to get a grasp on the first letter
13) MALIC (nice easy anagram)
14) Not 100% on this, I think it's YEAH being E in HAY reversed
15) From wordplay again, anagram of RED in THINK making THE DRINK
16) DUN? Double definition?
18) I had DOE before I got this, so AGENT is DOER - checking DO-ER in Chambers shows that DOVE is a Scots word for stun
20) (g)RIMY
22) T in REAR reversed and D gives RETARD, which I'll be feeling like at the end of this
24) SHY (double meaning)
25) Hmmm... I have AE so I think it's AERO from definition?
28) Had -CE, I think it's ICE from the definition, can't see wordplay
29) RA,T(i)TLE - nice clue
32) A in NOH = NOAH
34) OAR (sounds like or)
35) Cute clue - PELE reversed, HAN,T
39) ARES - R in SEA reversed
41) I was relieved to find VAKAS was a word
42) STRETTI (I knew this one without having to hunt for the pretty obviously-clued anagram)
43) (l)ITERATE - another nice clue
44) I think this is one of the four without definition... BEECHAM with F for C would be BEEFHAM

Downs
1) No idea... I was thinking BIS for not once (but twice), with X, Y or Z inside, but can't come up with a solution
2) R in REAN gives RERAN
3) HARED (sounds like HARED)
4) INTRODUCTION (anagram of RUCTION,ED)
5) (p)ITCH - stations identified by their frequency?
6) FREE - FRERE without R, thanks Bradfords
7) IMARI (hidden, reversed)
8) Now I'm writing this, I'm having second thoughts - I had RAINY as IN in RAY
11) ELI(te)
17) Hmmm... now this could be one of the undefined. COBALT without CO?
19) CHARACTER would work from "sign" as a definition, can't see wordplay
21) I suspect another one without definition... E in MAT
23) And this one, probably A,NUT backwards to give TUNA
24) SCOOT - another double definition courtesy Chambers
25) ASTI(r)
30) I saw this same clue in another crossword recently, but liked it both times - PLATO(on)
31) SPAR,D
33) E in HARM gives HAREM which is also a spiritual place, apparently
34) OR,THO
37) Definition would give ANTE?
38) NE(v)ER
40) ETA-????

So the clues weren't that difficult, and this gave me -U--USCA-SA- for the middle, which means it should be JULIUS CAESAR (actually I got that before the A from CHARACTER or S from TENSE came in). 30 and 15 aren't defined either, but P-S- TE--- looks like it should be PAST TENSE

So what did Caesar wish for?

I've never seen the play or any of the films based on the play. I remember something about wanting ears, but looking it up, it was Antony that wanted the ears, not Caesar.

Good news! Caesar himself only appears in three scenes and doesn't have that many lines. One of them must be a wish or "hey guys, wouldn't it be great if..." stuff. I read his bloody lines five times and apart from wanting Olympus to be hoisted, he didn't as for much, and certainly not much that contained anagrams of BEEFHAM,MEAT, TUNA and possibly BALT.

Is it his dying words? ET TU BRUTE THEN FALL CAESAR? Maybe he was asking for a salad? Is it a recipe for Caesar salad, croutons, parmesan, worcester sauce and a fried egg? Nope.

Blazing away at this, even though there's no M's in it, removing the letters in BEEFHA(m),(m)EAT,TUNA,BALT leaves LETTERSCUR. Something to do with LETTERS?

Last gasp... write out the perimeter and look for something. I can make SETTERS from the extra letters, looking on the left hand side there would be room to put DUCK, HOMER, MYNOT, MR E, and then I draw a blank. Since some of those read this occasionally, I'll leave in my unfinished grid their names as my last attempt.

And stuck! Victory to Lato and the Listener Crossword and with two to go, this may well end in a tie. Current tally: Listener 23, George 25. Current streak: Listener 1

The math doesn't seem to be right here, aren't there 52 puzzles in the year? I'll go back and check later, after figuring out I missed here.

Re-solved

Hope everyone overindulged yesterday and are feeling as good as I am this morning!

I was looking forward to a bash at this, since Listener 3806, "New Year's Revolution" was one of my extremely rare solves a few years ago and a really fun puzzle to boot. And I've been on a bit of a roll lately, so let's see what I can make of Conflict Resolution.

Lots of clashes, symmetrically places (one of the first things that struck me was the extra symmetry of the grid, we have 90 degree symmetry as well as 180). 12 normal clues, 12 with misprints in definition, 12 with misprints in wordplay (we are going for the symmetry), and a method for resolving clashes.

Clues time: I did pretty well the first time around and spotted some clashes quickly. Since there's only 12 clashes, and no more than one per word, confidently write in the rest of the letters. I found the bottom half of the grid easier than the top here, my first clash was 31ac SA,LI,CLAW (misspelling of sEx appeal) and 22 down (CANULA, anagram, misspelling of Narrow tube). Now if the 90 degree thing comes into play, then there is a clash where 17ac (LEAN-TO, misspelling of Power failing) meets 14d (which I didn't know), where 10ac (didn't know) meets 3 down (YOU BET, misspelling of undeNiably), and where 24ac (OPINED, misspelling sAid ones piece) meets 9d (LEASOWED, anagram with misspelling of leo Sawed).

This is looking probable, and means I only have two other clashes to find... NANNYISH at 1ac and ETHYLENE at 4d means there's one where 15d meets 18ac, 33ac meets 16d, 8d meets 21ac, and my last clash is 29a IMP,AWN (misprint of Hock), meets 26d (AMIE, misprint of uS).

At this point I had a mostly full grid, and the correct letters gave

S-MOF---SHESANDMISP--NTS. Sum of clashes and misprints! Seeing the message got most of the last clues, and at this point I had the grid above.

OK, let's add up the clashes and misprints. And to make sure there's no mistakes, let's do it in a spiral-bound notebook



The message looks like it's going to be MOVE ALL WORDS. It's a jigsaw! That's why things are so symmetrical, to keep the clashing/crossing pattern so close. Time for a fresh grid and a completion of the jigsaw...



The starting point here was the top right corner, looking for a four-letter word where the first two letters were also the first letters of six-letter words and then the last letter was the first letter of an eight-letter words came down to two possibilities, but once I saw where NACHOS could fit with AECIUM, ROSETREE and SAHIBA, I took the plunge and was done... almost.

I still had an empty entry at 19down (now at 27 across), and with no help from the movement (since anything that was unchecked before remains unchecked now). I don't have Collins, but they have a 9-day free trial on their website - no end of googling possible combinations gave me a suitable word, so I took the plunge on the trial and found ZILPAH. Sorry to take advantage of your generosity there, Collins.

Fun puzzle, Kea, and even better, a victory for George and a very late charge at the end of the year, might be able to end on a new high! Current tally: George 25, Listener 22. Current streak, George 4! And with only three puzzles left in the year I'm guaranteed at least a tie, woohooo!

Euclid's calculator-button mashing

We're on to the last numerical puzzle of the year, and it's something I haven't seen before, a circular numerical puzzle. Aedites has given us one circular puzzle this year (the first circular I had ever solved), and after my boast earlier in the year that I can usually do numerical puzzles, I have only finished one of the three (and I didn't get Big Holes either).

First thing, I thought something had gone wrong with my printer when it spewed page after page and most of them looked blank. When I print off the Listener, I usually limit it to two pages (I print on American letter size paper, so it's a bit shorter than A4), but since numericals typically have fewer clues, I didn't bother. And here come the pages!

All entries are 5-digit integers who only have single prime factors 2-79, no factors repeated. Intriguing... trying to do them from memory, I write down the primes from 2-79 and completely miss 41. I'm off to a great start...

Each clue is the common factors, if there are none, there's no clue. Intriguing... so next step is to write out the list of definite factors for each letter and each number. This may not give all the factors (in fact in 24 and C it appears there's no factors in common with anything), but it gives some juicy starting points. I know some have six factors...

Y = f a r t n l (heh, fart)
17 = f t w n k u (heh, ftw)

A bit of poking and prodding on the calculator shows that there has to be 2, 3, 5 present to have six prime factors and still be a five-digit integer. So several pieces of good news... f, t and n have to be 2, 3, and 5. Anything with these three factors is going to end in 0 (multiple of 30), so I can confidently write in a 0 at the end of anything that has f, n, t as factors. Which is only T and Y (and 17-21 that cross Y), and 30. Three whole numbers in the grid!

Now 19 doesn't have f as a factor - so f has to be 3 (otherwise it couldn't end in 0). One of n and t is 2, the other is 5.

So let's see - the five digits of Y...

first digit crosses 1-4 which have n but not t
second digit crosses 5-8 which has neither n nor t
third digit crosses 9-12 which has t but not n
fourth digit crosses 13-16 which has neither n nor t
fifth digit is 0

So look for combinations of those last three factors that give a number that goes...

even - odd - five - odd - zero

or

five - odd - even - odd - zero

30 x 7, 13, 19 gives 51870, but that won't work as 30 x 11, 23, 29 is out of range for 17

30 x 11, 13, 19 gives 81510 for Y, so that makes 17 30 x 7, 17, 23 = 82110 and we have our first two full numbers in!

This means n is 2 and t is 5, so any entry with t in it ends in 5. l a and r are 11, 13, 19 and w, k u are 7, 17 and 19.

Z now looks like -50-5 and has factors l,a,r (don't know what they are but know what they come to as a product), t and k, so 13585,w means w = 7 and the entry is 95095.

And we are off! Most of these were filled by getting the known factors and looking for multiples that worked with the numbers that I knew. I only used the "cross-checking" of making sure the remaining factors didn't cross a few times, notably in getting C (factors of 29, 31, 37).

This was a single-sitting solve, rare for me. Didn't check the time, but it clocked in at a few hours of hunting and pecking. I didn't use a spreadsheet, but I used one of those dinky old calculators that will repeat the last function if you press equals. I'm glad it printed on four sheets, I actually needed to spill over to a fifth to get all of my notes in. Here's how things looked at the end...



What looked like a daunting prospect turned out to be a pretty nice exercise in logic and patience - I had fun with this one. And a victory to George! With just a few crosswords left in the year I've stuck my neck out again, one more completion guarantees me at least a draw.

Current tally: George 24, Listener 22. Current streak: George 3.

If you're doing the holiday thing, have a safe and drunk one! I'll be in Houston next Friday, I'll have internet so I should be able to do the blog, but I may not have any images up, taking the scanner on the plane sounds like a bad idea.