I'm not sure what to make of today's Wednesday pangram by Patrick Merrell (answers) which seemed to set me up for something amazing without giving me quite the expected return.
The pangram part is important because in the end I'm supposed to be able to spell my name by circling letters in the grid, some of which are highlighted for reasons that still escape me. (I'm sure my readers can elucidate.) Since all 26 letters of the English alphabet are represented and I spell my name in English, I'm a winner. Greeks, Russians, Martians, and "Artists formerly known as" don't fare as well.
The teaser "it works for nearly everyone" was what eventually disappointed me. What amazing feat of alphabetics was about to astound me? If you're editing this puzzle you can't really leave off the disclaimer even though the vast majority of people solving this English crossword would have names that required no other letters. It wouldn't be quite accurate and there would be letters. I guess there are letter order issues and the problem of multiple letters to worry about too so that cuts out Miss Mississippi and some others.
Fun puzzle. I realize we never covered the QUAVER in my music theory post, but now you know.
Pretty clever of Patrick to provide me with my own birthday card today. I wanted QTRS to cross with quarter note, but that v belonged and I had a vague recollection of QUAVER. What should I guess when starting Ireland with an E? I tried 'erin' first.
The Solver formerly known as ¥
Posted by: PhillySolver | April 01, 2008 at 09:47 PM
I've always spelled my real first name, Hen4ry, as H-E-N-4-R-Y. The 4 is silent. No happy birthday for me.....
Posted by: KarmaSartre | April 01, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Last week I bragged on this site about beating my previous best Saturday solving time "by almost twelve minutes".
To be fair, then, I should also note here that this puzzle took me almost sixteen minutes longer than my best Wednesday, eight minutes longer than the Saturday did.
um, ugh.
Posted by: SethG | April 02, 2008 at 07:27 AM