Yes, it's true. I'm one of the few crossword bloggers who dares to take on the deep epistemological issues of our time. But first, the Wednesday crossword and some other loose ends.
The February 20 puzzle (answers) seems to be the NYT debut for Mr. Chuck Hamilton. Bravo. It must be fun to see your name in print next to Will Shortz for the first time. The DOUBLE theme was fine and there were a couple of clues I particularly enjoyed. What are matches made of? It's hard to imagine in only four letters. I had to get two of them before SETS came to mind. Tennis, anyone? What about "Offerers of arms"? I got completely sucked in to the military mindset but the answer is ESCORTS. Of course depending on the service, arms may be just part of the offer.
I mentioned in a previous post that constructors for the NYT don't know the publication date of their accepted puzzles. Constructor Ed Sessa wrote to tell me there might be a way after all. In his admittedly minimal experience — he has only one published puzzle — the date on the check corresponded with the publication date in the paper. Coincidence?
Mentioning Mr. Sessa gives me an excuse to point out his debut puzzle too which appeared just last September. It was before I started blogging but I remember it very well. Click the link and take a look at how elegant and even beautiful it is. Right across the middle of the puzzle is NOTES OF THE SCALE and then using circle pairs in symmetrical theme answers he lists their solfeggio names in order. All this while making it Monday-easy. I'm looking forward to hearing more from both of these new constructors.
Ah yes, but what about The Almighty? I've been asked what my favorite post is so far, and by far it's The Crossword Puzzle Moment. That little essay describes why this nerdy sport works for me. At the end of that post, I speculated idly on whether God enjoys crosswords. This began a fascinating discussion with someone who will remain nameless since, given the conclusions he comes to, he is going to Rot In Hell. I'll summarize his Crossword-based God Nonexistence Proof.
- God is omnipotent. He can do anything.
- God is omniscient. He knows everything.
- As such, he will never have a Crossword Puzzle Moment because he'll know all the answers immediately, or even sooner.
- Since the Crossword Puzzle Moment is the essence of the ability to enjoy crosswords, God is incapable of doing so.
- Therefore God cannot do everything which contradicts statement 1 and God disappears in a cloud of logic.
QED.
