August 11, 2005

A Ben Tausig sneak preview

I mentioned in the NYT forum that I was looking forward to Ben Tausig's Ink Well puzzle becoming available online via the Village Voice. As it turns out, it's already online through the SF Bay Guardian, with one of those pesky not-the-NYT applets. Go ahead and do that one; I'd call it roughly Wed./Thurs. level in difficulty.

I picked up the August 5 issue of the Chicago Reader today and did the Tausig puzzle entitled "Wait There's More" (presumably the same as last week's SFBG puzzle?). The theme entries include "Around the clock and then some?" = TWENTYFOUREIGHT and "Mutant Ebert's high praise?" = THREETHUMBSUP. As an example of how Tausig's content skews, let me share a couple notable entries: "Drummer/divorcee in a noted duo" = MEGWHITE of the White Stripes, and "Moon units?" = ASSES.

I'm hoping that the Ink Well puzzles will become available via Across Lite (or maybe printable PDFs at one of the newspaper sites). They're not for everyone, but the folks who wish the content in the Sun puzzles was even edgier will enjoy them.

SFBG 5:08 in the applet I don't know how to maneuver around
Chi Reader 4:40
CS 4:35
LAT 4:03