Beginning esoteric livejournal entry.....NOW.

[raybear]

I know this is going to make me sound like the most curmudgeonly, crotchety grandpa that I sometimes am (though I'm much more often a friendly, Werther's original-giving, cheese-carving and seersucker-wearing old man), but I have to let it out:

These new-fangled crosswords are relying too much on obscure wikipedia-type words to make their puzzles work.

Of course, I know this because I'm constantly GOING to wikipedia to check my work (or occasionally just straight up cheat when its late and I'm tired) and the phrase in the clue is practically verbatim from the entry. Ben Tausig, stop the madness.

Though this specific puzzle I'm doing does include one of my favorite words: quetzalcoatl.

< / obscure crossword related ranting >

Comments

[mintwaster.livejournal.com]

I was banging my head on quetzalcoatl. I could see the word, but I couldn't spell it and I froze up on the down words.

I stopped working on the puzzle in Trip Payne's book because of all the obscure words he uses. I'm also keeping track of them, for what purpose, I don't know.

Ben Tausig's not so bad about obscure words (I mean Trip Payne is like 2-3 obscure words per puzzle every other puzzle), what really makes my inner grandpa come out is the fact that I need to have knowledge of !!! or Arcade Fire album names to do his crosswords.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

The puzzles Ben actually creates are never too bad about this -- its ones other people do that he's editing. That's why I blame him for not keeping these new whippersnappers in check. I never have this problem with David Levinson Wilk. Speaking of, I still need to order his second book.

My personal rule is that you shouldn't have your obscure words cross each other, because it seems like the person who created the puzzle stuck themselves in a corner and did some googling to come up with obscure words to fix the problem. This is unfair and lazy puzzling.

[mintwaster.livejournal.com]

Why don't we ever have breakfast?

[raybear.livejournal.com]

Because I forget that you are up early and live in my neighborhood. What time do you leave for work? I'll start texting you more often when I'm up and awake and hungry.

[mintwaster.livejournal.com]

A 7am breakfast would be good.

[mintwaster.livejournal.com]

Oh, and he spelled Macau wrong. I know with asian names you can spell things different ways, but he used an obscure spelling of it and didn't put "var" after it.

[raybear.livejournal.com]

I still don't have "church cushion" or "seat of england?" or "manage a fall fall". This puzzle is doomed for me.

[mintwaster.livejournal.com]

hassock, arse, and rake

hassock and rake

[raybear.livejournal.com]

never mind. finally got it.....just in time for the new puzzle of the week!