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.
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.
