Making the Wall Street Journal puzzle more challenging

Hex have a variety cryptic in this weekend's Wall Street Journal.  As printed, it's very easy.  Want a harder challenge?  Take away the enumerations from the clues and take away the locations of the special squares, and try it that way.

Across

4 Hack a directory for conspirator

10 Fifty equals a number having flexibility

11 Musician is in love with droid

12 Leaped after the leader made the calls

13 Spool of yarn mostly going up and down

14 Mastermind in Greene novel

15 Republican club outside a capital in North Africa

16 Many a standard situationat a fully booked inn?

17 House left empty by mid-October

19 Crackpot toiling over a carving

22 Gang holding a Biblical kingdom

24 Young socialite took in campaign event

25 A bakery choice pronounced wrong  

26 Part Fitzgerald intended for audiences

28 Trial alternative: settlement

29 Crowd circling Oregon swamp

30 Measure all but the stern of Columbian boat

31 Two companies performing a Ron Howard movie

32 In no hurry taking eggs back?

Down

1 Smooth kind of shot by tonsillitis doc

2 Some biscuits I'm baking for an animated cat

3 Snake I call ambitious  

5 Homes for a bard's first poetry

6 Morning test lacking ethics

7 One supporter behind large sign

8 Cocktail time embraced by lounge performer

9 High fashion, in the opinion of a Wild West sidekick

13 Live dance maintaining an unsafe pitch

17 Enron log tampered with part in aircraft construction

18 Line that's painful in figure of speech

20 Three hemming at mutual pact

21 Consider again about skinny kid's face

22 Charted the comeback of actor Johnny America

23 Wild animal urge breaks up laughter

24 GOP foe backing no evil person

27 Kinky item to download in New York

Wall Street Journal hint grid (March 23, 2013)

Below the fold is a hint grid for this weekends Wall Street Journal variety puzzle: a cryptic by Emily Cox & Henry Rathvon titled "What's My Line?"

Each row and column is marked in clear text with its enumeration.  That's the first thing you should be using to try and place your answers, and there's nothing about it you should feel guilty for.

If that's not enough, highlight the spaces above or to the left of the enumerations, and you will see white text telling you which set of clues is used for the corresponding line.

See you at Sunday brunch this weekend!

Epiphany Vespers (Sunday brunch: January 6, 2013)

Today is Epiphany on the calendar of most Christians: commemorating the revelation of Christ to the nations, who were first represented by the Three Kings (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar: who also would make a nice set of theme puzzle entries).

For those of you of a more literary than liturgical bent, this is where Twelfth Night came from.  In Shakespeare's time, Epiphany was more of a feast of revelry than a holy day.

Epiphany is also the setting for one of the most interesting pieces of music I've ever heard: Kile Smith's Vespers (iTunes link).  Originally titled Epiphany Vespers, Kile started with seasonal psalms and chorales that wouldn't be out of place in a 16th century Lutheran worship service, and then added sections to showcase the talents of Piffaro, Philadelphia's Renaissance band, and The Crossing, a small virtuoso choir specializing in new music.  Talking with Kile after the premiere, I made note of the sixteen(!)-part harmonization in "Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn," and he said that if he'd known the choir had twenty voices, he would have written it in twenty parts!  Take a listen while you solve.  Another video about the recording is at the bottom of the post, below the fold.

"Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn," performed by the Virginia Chorale

"Epiphany" is an apt word for us solvers to use, especially when we discover the gimmick in a variety cryptic or work out a particularly challenging wordplay.  There should be several of them for you in this weekend's cryptics.

The New York Times (behind the paywall) has a Puns and Anagrams this week.  I'll post the solution here Sunday.

Wall Street Journal puzzle editor Mike Shenk takes up the pencil himself this week to offer us another of his Spell Weaving crosswords.  Clue 1 is quite fitting.  I find these puzzles pretty easy: would anyone like to try it on a grid with the numbers blanked out?  Look below the fold for a blank grid

Ucaoimhu (Kevin Wald) is overdue for a mention in this blog: he creates variety cryptics that are hard enough for the National Puzzlers' League.  His latest creation is called The Little Marathon Thing.  It's got altered clues, a clue that you need to solve the rest of the puzzle to complete, and a reward for you at the end.  Use the comments below if you want any hints.

The weekly cryptic by Hex is in the National Post.  Falcon has the puzzle and solution for you at his blog: natpostcryptic.blogspot.com.

Below the fold: 

• Interview with Donald Nally about Kile Smith's Vespers
• Numberless grid for Spell Weaving crossword!
• Comments and hint requests

Harper's grid

The December issue of Harpers is out: both on paper and on the web.  Richard Maltby's variety cryptic has a holiday theme, and some red and green rows.  I found that when I printed it out, the colored rows were very dark, so here's a blank grid with lighter shading.  The solution will be posted along with Sunday brunch.