Wednesday, September 4, 2013

MORTAOISM

Well, I guess it's time for my annual update to this blog.  My puzzle will run tomorrow in the New York Times.  It was accepted a month or so ago, which I think makes it the NYT puzzle with the fastest acceptance-publication turnaround for me.  It's nice when that happens.  My least favorite part of the publishing process is the publishing process.  I don't even mind the rejections (well, I do, of course I do, but I have thick skin).  It's the submitting and then the waiting for a response and then the waiting for it run.  Too much waiting.  Although, maybe that makes the rejections easier.  You don't feel the same emotional investment in a puzzle a year after you make it as you do when the ink is still dry on the last clue.

Speaking of publishing.  I've started a website where I post puzzles on a regular (approximately weekly) basis.  The site is ostensibly a sports blog (mainly about the Seattle Seahawks), and some of the puzzles are sports-themed, but I also have some good other-themed and themeless puzzles.  Also, it's got a great name that probably only people who are fans of the Seahawks, over the age 35, and knowledgeable in graduate-level mathematics will get.  (You know, gotta target the key demographics.)  You should check it out.

jimzornslemma.com

I wrote blurbs about this puzzle for XWordInfo and the Wordplay Blog, if you're interested in knowing a little bit more about it.  I won't rehash them here, because you can just click on them, but I will say that I particularly like my line about being "the Rob Deer of the New York Times Crossworld".  Mainly that's because I like pretty much any reference to a mid-'80s baseball player.  If speeding tickets came with a "Fun Fact" about the 1987 baseball season, I wouldn't mind getting them.

Your speed: 83, The number of RBI by Kevin Seitzer in 1987   

Anyway, I suspect this puzzle won't be the big hit that my last few were (Rex Parker doesn't really like it), but that's OK.  Even Rob Deer mixed in a few bloop singles.


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