The hardest puzzle of the year for me. Super write-up, Amy. My first entry was DACTYL because all my children and I share a common trait: CLINODACTYLY--the little toe hooks slightly under the second toe.

OCHLOCRACY is a word that I discuss about 50 times a year in connection with explaining the difference between NIHILISM and ANARCHY.

Even with those dare I say toeholds, it was still a monster.

Steve
Anonymous | 12.29.07 - 3:11 am | #

Puhhp! How obscure can one be? I am rilly at the end of the obscura ropoid. Hayelp, git moi outta here. This has become the least beastiallity place to come and this is a reference to the NYT CWP. Salut yamor and all those Perpetrators of this ordeal and angst can jips go on to those hammers of hell oops hail. Sue me.
moi-meme | 12.29.07 - 5:01 am | #

well anonymous are you knot schmartter than moi. steve or who. very forschlippen good on you.and at least you admitted it. poop.
moi-meme | 12.29.07 - 5:05 am | #

This is the first puzzle in a long time that I have not been able to complete. Did ok everywhere but the southwest. Puzzled over that last quadrant for a couple hours before I finally admitted defeat and came here to get the solution. Had BOOKLEDGER, and kinda sorta thought that made sense. No idea on the mountain sheep ARGALI. Or HOBART. Whew, whupped my butt.
kratsman | 12.29.07 - 5:21 am | #

pour moi it was rilly that southeast bit. I do like to have a clean sweep. This was knot one of those. poop.
moi-meme | 12.29.07 - 5:37 am | #

Je suppose qu' l Orange elle est encardo de todo.
moi-meme | 12.29.07 - 5:40 am | #

Well, I finished it. But... yikes. Just about every entry was a head-scratcher, too many to list. Each of the quadrants took me about a half-hour-- and that little diagonal strip down the center... But it all does actually fit together at the end.
Matt | 12.29.07 - 8:12 am | #

Holy Shortz.

Same here - between the clues and answers, I quickly counted, at minimum, fifteen words I have never seen, read, or heard anywhere before. Gotta get myself some more education, I suppose. Satisfying to finish, but not on my best day could I get near Orange and the others at the top - too obscure for me (Great job on the puzzle, by the way - days like this I'm thankful I'm not a blogger).

With the obscurity comes new and interesting facts and trivia, however, so it's a nice tradeoff there.

I'm kaing a mental note to learn the order of US presidents, obscure feline species, literary terms, opera, variants on ancient Greek names, and bizarre Scrabbly words and places - (XERES?!? I confidently had JEREZ and then JERES in there at first, and it killed me).
Howard B | 12.29.07 - 9:16 am | #

I'm glad someone liked this puzzle. When all was said and done, it was just fine...but getting there was no fun at all for me.
Linda G | Homepage | 12.29.07 - 9:35 am | #

An ancient Moorish spelling of an obscure Spanish town crossing an unused and incorrect (if the Greek alphabet is to be considered)spelling of Socrates' (supposedly) demanding wife. With an X no less. My first 1 hr+ solve since I have been timing myself. Happy to have avoided the Google temptation, though.

I hope this doesn't represent a PERIPETEIA (????) in my enjoyment of crosswords. I feel like I have just been subjected to a mental wedgie.

JK, it's all good.

Question for those who have competed in ACPT. Is this the level of challenge presented at the tournament? I was thinking of competing for the first time, but...
Scott (atkin1u) | 12.29.07 - 10:38 am | #

What can one say? While I struggled with this puzzle, my XANTIPPE put on her BRASSARD and headed for XERES. In a PERIPETEIA, she nearly perished in an OCHLOCRACY, and luckily returned home safely on an ARGALI--only to find me still working on the puzzle.

Hope we never see one of these again. The most fun I had was writing this post.
jim | 12.29.07 - 11:49 am | #

Wow, my typing was horrendous in my earlier post ('kaing' = making). Sorry 'bout that.
As far as tournament puzzles, a puzzle of this difficulty might only appear once in the set of puzzles. I'm sure Amy and others who have been there more than I have could give a better idea, but my impression is that there is usually one Saturday-level puzzle (or higher) in the mix. Otherwise, it's a good mix of difficulties and sizes (15x15 daily to 21x21 Sunday sizes). Don't think you'd go and find yourself faced with a bunch of puzzles this hard.
Howard B | 12.29.07 - 12:20 pm | #

Steve, hooray for dactylic toeholds!

Moi-meme, you are truly deranged. If you're using the same spelling and vocabulary in the crossword grid, this could generate some added difficulty.

Linda, sorry you didn't have fun. I think you were not alone!

Scott, I want to remember your term, "mental wedgie." I like that! At the tournament, puzzle #5 is the much-feared toughie, a mid-sized puzzle with a tough theme and beyond-Saturday cluing. This year, though, Merl Reagle's puzzle #5 was a fun diversion rather than a brain-busting challenge. Maybe 2008 will return us to the killer #5? We'll see. The other gnarly puzzle is the finals puzzle, a themeless, but only the nine A, B, and C division finalists compete on that one, and only the A finalists have the hardest set of clues. The rest of the puzzles are not out of line with the difficulty level of the NYT crosswords throughout the week.
Orange | Homepage | 12.29.07 - 12:53 pm | #

Klahn is back to being Klahn. This was the hardest puzzle for me since Byron's puzzle #5 at the 2006 ACPT. No gimmees for me except for TOYSTORY. A handful of words I've never heard of (more if you count the ones in the clues). Couldn't solve it last night even with a little cheating. Woke up this morning and finished it pretty easily. Should have known Grant was EIGHTEENTH but fell into the NINETEENTH trap.
barrywep | 12.29.07 - 2:09 pm | #

I just looked up "catawampus" at answers.com and here's the sidebar:

People who read this also read about:

• cupule
• gasconade
• Hophni and Phinehas
• margay

I think the search engines are getting quite a workout today.
JJF | 12.29.07 - 3:29 pm | #

Scott -- GO. This was tougher than Byron's #5 from 2006, and maybe 10% of the ACPT contestants finished THAT one. Your NYT times are very good, and you'll do very well on the other six puzzles. You may even surprise yourself on #5 should it return to super-tough status.

Did anyone else have COTERIE instead of CORTEGE? Not that it would have helped me in SW, but it would have made the SE fall much faster if I'd had that one right...
Brent H (floridaqqq) | Homepage | 12.29.07 - 7:56 pm | #

"L'orange, rest assured that moi-meme only spouts the vernacular when in extremis. That would be most of the times that I post here. Sheer frustration and confusion and angst. I admire you and your coterie and the cortege, of which you have plethorae and more power to you a young mother brilliante. I am oldt a grannie and cannot take too much tweaking of the last synapses left in the brain. So lettuce have some rope for those of us who are not within your scope. Thanks for letting this moi vent.
moi-meme | 12.29.07 - 9:34 pm | #

In looking for help with today's puzzle, I was pleased to find this web site. Since moving from NY to Tucson (where the NY Times is now being delivered!) I'm on my own with the puzzles. I also was amazed how many words I had to look up, and was glad to see that I share my list with several others: McKinley's VP, golconda, margay. But I think he really took liberties with Jerez. Thanks for peripetoia - really a new one for me. I enjoyed reading your comments!
Nancy | 12.29.07 - 11:54 pm | #

retired grannies need their own blob about the nyt cwp. Keep it real for those of us who are still in the process of losing all the 13,000,000,000,000 synapses that oui start with. I would have a hit squad on mrshortxzizx if I had my druthers. Everything has become away and away and way out of control in the CWP dept at NYT. I have friends on the east coast who are still shriven by the arribbissimo of senor short-pantz. We are of another age. However, we are not aged. We are just not as quick on the trigger as the rest of you young bux and does. poop. and hear- hear and salut, santee viva and etc & amperdsand to Nancy, and welcome aboard the sinking ship. heh.
moi-meme | 12.30.07 - 12:28 am | #

In the Newsday puzzle, which was overwhelmingly easier than the NYT, I thought Key-Lock Creation was a great clue for UPPERCASE LETTER. Also Rooter's remark for OINK. That one had me for a long time.
Gene | 12.30.07 - 4:42 pm | #

By far and away, the toughest puzzle of the year. It's almost New Year's eve and I'm still struggling through it.
BobS | 12.31.07 - 12:28 pm | #