The constructing team of Michael Sharp and his imaginary friend Rex Parker has cranked out two new puzzles:
- There’s a titled themeless available at the Crossword Fiend forum. When I test-solved it, it didn’t feel tougher than a Friday NYT (but I didn’t time myself so there’s no empirical data). This one’s by Rex.
- And they made a themed guest puzzle over at Brendan Quigley’s blog. It’s billed as being of medium difficulty but Joon and I definitely found it hard. I got pinned down in the lower left corner and Googled two things, so if you can finish it without Googling, you trump me. Michael’s got the byline for this puzzle.
Consider yourself trumped! :)
On the Quigley guest star puzzle:
Got the lower-left, but the upper-left and middle squares tripped me instead. Found the left one but couldn’t crack the middle. (Pre-1980 song/film trivia, argh!)
I did like the challenge of cracking the rest of it, though.
So it looks like the Expos win this series, Jeffrey :).
i did time myself on the themeless, and it fell in wednesday-thursdayish time, well under half the time it took to do the other one.
So I need to hope for a Michael Sharp puzzle at the ACPT? A sure sign of the Armageddon.
I’d revel in trumping also, except that the last square to fall for me would be a tremendous disappointment to our lead blogger (hint: the Bobby Vee clue).
Both puzzles were okay, but I thought it was funny that both had a lot of the stuff Rex/Michael harps about in his blog.
Dyer, A Fit, Lurer, Dbl, Xls, Asphalted, Intr, etc.