Old Sconset Golf (Sunday brunch: September 1, 2013)

Hole #6 is a very short par 4.  I birdied it Monday thanks to an ugly
approach shot that still rolled to five feet from the hole.

One more travel-related post before the summer ends, and another Siasconset peculiarity.

The Old Siasconset Golf Club is said to be the oldest non-municipal public golf course in the nation, though it hasn’t been in continuous operation all that time.  It opened in 1894, and some parts of the original course remain.  Sabers and I get a few rounds on it every summer.

This may be the closest any of us can come today to the golfing experience of a century ago.  No carts, a simple clubhouse, and a golf links in its natural state.

The routing has changed over the years as a result of land sales and such circumstances, but the oddity of three par-3s of 200 yards or more, a couple of par-4s under 300, and a dogleg par-5 where the short shot is the one off the tee speak to this course’s time.  Meanwhile, the winds make every hole play differently from day to day.  From the tee of #8 Saturday with the wind at my back and a firm fairway with very short grass, I hit a three-iron about 250 yards.  Monday, the wind was in the other direction, knocking down my four-iron to where it barely cleared the red tees 120 yards out.

I imagine it’s like Muirfield with long rough waving at you and the wind blowing a different direction every hole.  On paper, it should be an easy course; but if you insist on playing the way you would at home, she will not bend.  The firm conditions and tight lies gave me fits at first, causing me to leave approaches long and chips short, but Monday I resolved to listen to the course.  I kept the ball in the fairway (most of the time), played bump-and-runs, and had a much more successful day.

I suppose you could make an analogy here: American cryptics are the kind of golf courses where yardages are marked on sprinkler heads and you expect balls to stay on the green when they land there. This course and its Scottish counterparts are like British cryptics (and some The Nation puzzles): the clubs, the balls, and the rules are the same as on our side of the ocean, but the land is naturally uneven and yes, sometimes unfair.  You need creativity to conquer it, as well as a sound golf/puzzling game.  

If it’s too rainy for golf and you don’t have a jigsaw puzzle to work on, you could do some of these crosswords:

The New York Times puzzle (behind the paywall) is a themed diagramless by Joe Fagliano.  If you need the solution, it’s posted here.

The Wall Street Journal has a novel variety puzzle by Patrick Berry (who else?) called Belt Line.  Some found it hard, others found it easy.  The starting points of the horizontal belts are shown on the grid, but you’re on your own for the verticals and for all the enumerations.  I didn’t get much of a start from the horizontals (you can place the first and last words in each belt using the given start points), but I had a lot of the verticals, so I eventually just took the plunge and put a few of the verticals where I thought they belonged.  I had to erase a couple of the initial guesses, but it was enough to get a couple more horizontal words, and it was really enjoyable to see the grid fill up from there.  If you’re still stuck, a hint grid is posted, along with enumerations.

Hex’s block cryptic in the National Post is blogged by Falcon.  I didn’t see the theme, but I found it more difficult than the usual National Post cryptic.  Falcon wrestled with it too, and in the process found the theme.

Xanthippe has taken the week off after leaving us with such riches the past month.

Nathan Curtis’s weekly variety puzzle should be up later today.  [update: and here it is...  It’s a puzzle type I haven’t seen before: another variation on the Marching Bands called “Four Winds.”  The good thing about this is that the answers in the spirals are clued in random order, making this more of a challenge than the average Marching Bands.  Drop over and send some encouragement if you liked it.]

Your humble blogger.

Wall Street Journal hint grid: August 31, 2013

Below the fold is a hint grid for today’s Wall Street Journal variety puzzle: “Belt Line” by Patrick Berry.  There are seven horizontal “belts” of continuous words each looping around two rows, intersecting with seven vertical “belts” each taking up two columns.  The published grid gives the starting point of each numbered horizontal belt; you have to figure where the vertical belts start.

My advice is to take your best guess at one or two of the intersecting partials to start placing the vertical belt words.  I had to erase my initial guesses a couple of times, but once I got a foothold (part of the lower left quadrant in my case) it was a real pleasure to see the belts come together.

If you’re still stuck, the hint grid will tell you where each of the vertical belts start (they all run clockwise too).  For those who are completely flummoxed after that, I’ve listed (hidden from casual view) the enumerations in each belt.

Well done, Patrick!

Editors wanted (Puzzle No 3,292)

No, not for Hot and Trazom, who have done a good deal of editing themselves, but for just about anyone else who intends to have someone apply ink to pieces of paper and then sell the resulting product for cash money.  As an editor myself (I’ve edited the train riders’ newsletter in Philadelphia for more than twenty years: a couple thousand pages and millions of words), I cringe at seeing some of the stuff that makes it into print, even in major newspapers.  I sometimes cringe to re-read earlier blog posts and other online publications of mine too, to be honest.

First it was desktop publishing, and then it was blogging.  Each of those reduced the number of steps between the producer of an idea and the consumer.  In fact, the invention of the printing press started the process--before then, written works were either copied out by the reader or by someone the reader commissioned to do it (like inking a Torah).  But it also reduced the number of eyes of people perusing the work and querying the author if s/he really intended something to read the way it does.

So we’re in the same boat with puzzle-related stuff.  We have the great fortune of the Web bringing us many more choices of puzzles to solve.  Twenty years ago, Games magazine and its peers were the main source of new cryptic and variety puzzles in America.  Today there are blogs devoted exclusively to Rows Gardens (as well as to cryptics published in national opinion magazines...) and Games is working hard to survive.  Authors and content have increased: editing resources have not kept pace, leading to books that read like a blog archive and posts where the blogger didn’t realize he forgot to update the instructions from a previous puzzle.

I worked a bunch of the puzzles in Roger Wolff’s new book of variety cryptics while I was in San Francisco and Nantucket.  While the puzzles were enjoyable, there were moments in most of them that I found a bit jarring.  A good editor would have noticed them and suggested revisions.  In a self-published book, the author is in it alone, or mostly alone.  Wolff acknowledges that lack, and thanks the purchasers of the first edition who e-mailed corrections and complaints.  But there are still some clues that don’t work quite right, and some bits of fill that would benefit from revision.  Wolff’s style is clear and steady, most of the themes work well, and the puzzles are pitched at a moderate level of difficulty that should satisfy most solvers.

Worth buying?  Yes.  There’s definitely still a place for paper and pencil (though I would have preferred to get these in Puzzazz and save the printing and mailing expenses) and all solvers ought to have at least one actual books of puzzles to work on when the captain has turned the “fasten seat belt” sign on and all electronic devices must be powered off.  But if something’s worth printing and selling on Amazon, it’s worth paying an editor to look at.

You might wonder if there are errors in this week’s The Nation puzzle, but I didn’t find much of anything to complain about: impressive for a puzzle where there are so many theme- and cross-references.  We’re back to the weekly schedule this issue, and back to school, so Hot and Trazom had no qualms about making this a hard one.

Puzzle No. 3,292

Link to puzzle:  http://www.thenation.com/article/175941/puzzle-no-3292

Hozom’s comment:  “More Unique,” in which Hot and Trazom elaborate on the subject of clues with more than one answer, and remind us of another excellent creation (by Kevin Wald and Guy Jacobson) in the NPL book Hot and Trazom edited.  Like the “Clinton elected” puzzle, this had two distinct solutions.

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): hard, though getting easier once you get the theme figured out.

Themework: lots of cross references.

The adjective that came to mind when I was working this one was “jazzy.”  There are themes and variations (though not “Theme and Variations” as Sondheim and Maltby have each constructed) and I envisioned Hot and Trazom having a good time working on this: each riffing off a particular set of notes.

Comment at will.  But no hints until Monday!

Jigsaw puzzles

The ballpark version of the “40 cloves of garlic”
chicken sandwich from The Stinking Rose.
Seemed to me that the cooks at the Giants game
aren’t able to count to 40. 

[bumped since I finished the Project Sondheim comment]

Something about jigsaw puzzles that you only do them on vacation, and family members who generally aren't interested in such mental exercises get into them to the point where you can’t drag them away.

Double issue of The Nation last week, so no new puzzle for us.  New cryptics for Sunday Brunch this weekend, or work on a few from last weekend: Xanthippe posted four.

Meanwhile, I brought along a couple more Stephen Sondheim originals, and solved one today: “Assemblage Line.”  Discussion below the fold since it includes spoilers.

Siasconset Bookstore (Sunday brunch: August 25, 2013)

If you are the parent of a 12-year-old and a 15-year old, you have to be prepared for awkward questions: “Why is Dad going into the bookstore for a bottle of wine?”

The answer is something of an inside joke, peculiar to Siasconset (pronounced and often spelled ‘Sconset--that's a great entry for the bottom or right line of a crossword by the way, with all the common letters.)  ‘Sconset is a village at the east end of Nantucket Island, where Raydoc and my mother have had a series of summer places and eventually retired to, and where I’ve spent the last week or so of August the last thirty years or so.

You see, as a bumper sticker once said, “Siasconset [is] a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem.”  And since it’s a small village, there’s only a handful of shops.  As long as I can remember, there was the bookstore, which doubled as a “packy.”  And yes, they did have books on a few of the shelves (there are a lot fewer now, but the name remains).  It’s a little sliver of a shop, but the merchandise is very well selected, and you can find something to accompany any meal or any other occasion (there are many such occasions in ‘Sconset).

So one of the more coveted possess--ions of mine is the Siasconset Bookstore shirt, in proper Nantucket red, and collared, so I can wear it to the office in the summer.  

In between sips of a gin and tonic, or a glass of pinot noir, here are some of the puzzles I’m working on:

It’s the monthly two-acrostic weekend: Hex in the New York Times (behind the paywall) and Mike Shenk in the Wall Street Journal.

Falcon is back from vacation (did he have as exciting a time as the Human Cannonball and the other participants in last week’s Hex cryptic?) and blogging the National Post cryptic.  Hex spent their Saturday morning watching cartoons.

Also in the cryptic vein is Trip Payne’s ConTex puzzle.  Proof everything’s bigger in Texas.

Nathan Curtis’s weekly variety puzzle is another Around the Bend.  Just a bit harder than usual, but good for a quick warm-up.

You probably haven’t finished all the puzzles Xanthippe posted last week, but just in case she’s got another for you, and some interesting art to go with it.

Garlic fries (Solution No. 3,291)

Burger and garlic fries (courtesy Yelp)

One reason I'd been looking forward to this trip was the food.  Even a simple hunk of leftover sourdough for breakfast tastes amped up.  My best decision of the day yesterday was to ditch the conference-supplied box lunch and go get a perfectly-prepared burger and a mess of five-hour garlic fries.

Hot and Trazom are residents of the Bay Area and they get to feast on this kind of stuff every day.  Another thing to envy them for.

On to this week’s puzzle and solution...

Themework: I didn’t find any, though I did look to see if Winslow Homer had painted a picture called “Explorations.”

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Easy

Political/musical content: nothing in this department again, but we have theater, art, and literature.

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,291 below the fold.

Mike Shenk (Sunday brunch: August 18, 2013)

Since Mike Shenk constructed the variety puzzles in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal this weekend, let’s give him his due.  Mike is the puzzle editor for the WSJ, and has done a great job there, providing the Java program.  Before that he was one of the editors of Games magazine. He’s known in the NPL as Manx.  Hot looks up to him, which is pretty high praise.

Mike is one of the founders of Puzzability: a content producer that has created puzzles appearing in places ranging from the New York Times op-ed page to Snapple bottle caps.  While they do some straight crosswords along with a lot of non-crossword puzzles, Puzzability doesn’t do many cryptics.  See a sample of their work here, and there are weekly word ladders (very nicely presented) and other puzzles at the Puzzability site.

Mike’s approach is that the value of a puzzle is in solving it: he doesn’t need to seek validation in humiliating people.  That’s good for business, I’m sure.  Clients’ customers feel good about themselves when they get the answer and associate their success with the client’s brand.  He can make puzzles for us tougher customers too though.

Shenk’s New York Times puzzle (behind the paywall) is a “Set Pieces.”  It’s a collection of anagrams rather than a crossword, and is actually a publication of a puzzle that debuted (or at least was play-tested) at the NPL con this summer (the one that Ucaoimhu set that impressive trio of cryptics for).

The Wall Street Journal puzzle is a “Marching Bands.”  Look below the fold for a hint grid, but you really shouldn’t need it, it’s an easy puzzle  Even though it was quick to do (solving was almost as fast as downloading), I enjoyed it: the quality of the fill is excellent.

Those of us who are traveling this weekend, will also have a new Harper’s puzzle (subscriber link) by Richard Maltby, but alas, Erica has not updated her Harper’s blog since May.

And of course there’s the weekly Hex cryptic in the National Post (maybe Falcon ran off and joined the circus?) and Nathan Curtis’s variety puzzle, which he calls “Whirlwind.”  The grid is similar to a Marching Bands.

Xanthippe has four(!) new Brit-cryptics for us, but no PDFs though: you’ll need to copy and print the grid and then view the clues in your browser.

Wall Street Journal hint grid below the fold.