I didn't mention this in my write-up, but crikey! The Times puzzle could pass for anything from Thursday to Saturday. It's hardly Wednesday fare!
Orange | Homepage | 07.15.08 - 10:28 pm | #

TAKING LIBERTIES no doubt was Joe's first entry in the grid. Nice touch, and an excellent puzzle all around. Well done!

- john
JJF | 07.15.08 - 10:57 pm | #

may not be typical wednesday fare, but fair game it was. great fun indeed. and those *8* 15s -- beautiful!

;-)

janie
jlsnyc | 07.15.08 - 10:58 pm | #

The note on the theme in the NYT says (in some order)...what is the order? I can't see it. Also, couldn't read all of the nicknames which made this one extra tough. Still fun
guelon | 07.15.08 - 11:29 pm | #

Orange said it already, but still... does Will know what day it is? I guess surprising us is a good thing. On my screen only the constructor's first name was visible - but I could sure guess which Joe was responsible.

HOURI? A word I've never remotely heard of, in a Wednesday! (She's only appeared one other time in the online Shortz era.) Anyone else not like the word "me" in a clue for MOI?
Dan | 07.15.08 - 11:45 pm | #

M A
O L
MT TN
KS UT
O M
R E

Does this mean anything?
I found the puzzle went pretty quickly, but the state abbreviations were not clued in the applet and I checked Across Lite and only three show up across the top. Did that help anyone? I liked the puzzle but I guess sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
PhillySolver | 07.16.08 - 7:15 am | #

For quite a while it seemed that unconventional puzzles ran mainly on a Thursday. I was surprised when Will suggested this might run on a Wednesday -- I figure he decided to start mixing things up.

Thanks to those who have chimed in so far for being so receptive to the idea and the overall construction. My goal is to delight you, not torture you. (Sorry about HOURI, Dan... it was a tough corner to fill).
-Joe
Joe Krozel | 07.16.08 - 7:32 am | #

Hey, Joe, I was fine with HOURI. And if more difficult and unconventional puzzles are expanding their turf into Wednesday, that's great! I'd need to adjust my expectations of an easyish puzzle, but instead expecting a Thursdayish puzzle would improve the quality of my Wednesdays. So, the particular state abbreviations don't come together to mean anything, right? They're just a cohesive set of 2's to facilitate the stacked 15's?
Orange | Homepage | 07.16.08 - 7:40 am | #

One other thing... the state abbreviations don't rearrange to spell anything. The idea was to clue them up as a set and have the solver figure out where they go. (I thought this might add further legitimacy to having 2-letter entries).
-Joe
Joe Krozel | 07.16.08 - 7:43 am | #

Looks like I zipped through this one, relatively speaking. Mainly concentrated on getting the long clues, other stuff fell into place. more or less. HOURI doesn't seem obscure to me, but maybe it's crosswordy... Spectacular grid, btw-- I'm sure I spent more than a moment or two just getting over feeling disoriented.
Matt | 07.16.08 - 7:58 am | #

I'm suprised, with all the attention suicide bombers get, that anyone would not heard of Houris.

I was hoping for a tougher than normal Wednesday and got it, thank you. I wonder if the rest of the week is going to escalte accordingly.
rick | 07.16.08 - 8:07 am | #

I posted before I read Orange's last comment. The 2-letter postal abbreviations actually constrained the choices of 15-letter entries rather than facilitated them. Effectively, I limited myself to a set of 50 possible 2-letter entries (from which those particular 8 arbitrarily emerged). I figured that constraint lent legitimacy to the 2-letter-entry concept.
-Joe
Joe Krozel | 07.16.08 - 8:12 am | #

Two very interesting puzzles today--I solved the NYT using the applet and only saw the note that the two-letter entries were state abbrs., but that really didn't help much in the solving department. Felt more like a Thursday/Friday to me, but I'm ok with harder Wednesdays, too.

That middle down rack of H's in PB's NYS revealed itself very slowly to me--I solved both of the outer edges and had a smattering of H's crossing that center down. Then I started to realize that the entries I was missing could also have a H there, and I was off to the races. Reminded me of Pat Merrell theme entries like HHHHCLUB, or KKKKKKRACE...
Evad | 07.16.08 - 8:49 am | #

I think it's a Wednesday puzzle because it's a Wednesday-level gimmick. It's a fine one, I like it, but it's different than what you normally get on a gimmicky Thursday.

The grid is more open than a normal Wednesday, especially with the eight 15s, but my time was just on the long side of an average Wednesday.

I wouldn't guess this is the beginning of a trend to make Wednesdays harder. I think it's just a judgment call on when to run a particular puzzle, and it felt right to me.

- john
JJF | 07.16.08 - 8:49 am | #

THREE MEN IN A BOAT, an [1889 Jerome K. Jerome comedy novel] I'm not familiar with.


Do you take suggestions for your reading list? Connie Willis is one of the funniest, smartest SF writers around. To Say Nothing of the Dog is delicious, and may have you itching to read Three Men in a Boat as well.
Ed S. | 07.16.08 - 10:14 am | #

Don't forget that the other theme entries in the Sun are also shaped like an H!

(And I second the "To Say Nothing of the Dog" recommendation.)
dave glasser | Homepage | 07.16.08 - 10:41 am | #

there's a ninth kind of saw, and it's in the CS puzzle: RIPSAW. i'm sure there are interesting phrases that start with RIP. (RIP-OFF ARTIST, maybe. RIP HAMILTON, for the sports-inclined. RIP TORN, for a shorter entry.) and i wonder if it'd be considered clever or cheating to have an implicit SEESAW as part of the theme.

today's klahn was probably my least favorite klahn ever, which is not to say that it wasn't good--just that it wasn't great. the theme was a pretty blah quote, and the clues seemed to be lacking their usual klahn bite. some of them i thought were just plain obscure, like [High-hat] or [Cat's-paw]. can somebody explain why [Runaway elephant] is ROGUE?
joon | 07.16.08 - 10:57 am | #

joon

Rogue elephant has its own definition in some dictionaries and is a descriptive term. It refers to a male elephant ostracized from the herd. Their behavior is usually marked by aggression and they are considered dangerous. Over 50 people a year are killed in India by rogue elephants.
PhillySolver | 07.16.08 - 11:35 am | #

I don't have anything more eloquent to say to Joe K. than HUZZAH! Thanks for that masterpiece, Joe.
Scott Atkinson | 07.16.08 - 1:03 pm | #

I found today's Wednesday NYT to be normal or even easy for a Wednesday so I was surprised to see the long times. I regretted having gotten out of my habit of doing it online right away since I might have had my first top 5 finish. The key for me was that all the long clues except THREEMENINABOAT came easily and HORTONHEARSAWHO was an absolute no help needed gimmee.

Patrick's NYS once again leaves me in awe of his cleverness and construction skills.
barrywep | 07.16.08 - 1:33 pm | #

I'm glad you liked the NYTimes puzzle and found it more challenging than most Wednesdays (I'm assuming that, based on your time.) Non-constructor and non-mathematician that I am, it had never occurred to me that getting those eight long answers placed where they are absolutely necessitates the two-letter answers. Pretty neato.
Wade | 07.16.08 - 5:08 pm | #

Thanks for the kind comments.

Bonus points to d. glasser for noticing something I thought nobody would notice. I initially wanted to shade the non-H theme sqs, but in the end I'm glad they weren't shaded/circled. It seems to me the less "something's amiss" the more surprise is automatically built in.

Oh, and if you're in the NYC area tomorrow, grab the Sun for the puzzle and today's answer grid, which features a fully-realized ladder. Thanks to PG for going the extra mile.

Best,
PB2
pauer | 07.16.08 - 7:06 pm | #