The Big Day, Part 1 of ___

OK, this blog thing is harder to manage than I thought. I couldn’t write at all during the day yesterday, then during Game Night, I took the laptop and did a sort of live running commentary, but of course, the wireless doesn’t extend to this airplane hangar of a banquet hall, and then there was the editing that needed to be done (!), and next thing you know, it’s 9:00 on Sunday morning already, and we’re back for #7, the last of the open-swim puzzles, before the finals . So I guess I’ll try to capture yesterday during the day, then toss up our Saturday night ramblings, and then try to sum it all up, if possible.

Here we are, official folders, name badges, pencils, hats, and Will Shortz on hand (the guy in the blue shirt way back there on the podium). The deal on Saturday is, there are six puzzles, three in the morning and three in the afternoon. These each have different degrees of difficulty, as indicated by the allotted time for completion. So the first was a 15 minute puzzle, which I finished in 8 minutes – stomach knotted & hands a-sweat throughout! Worse than my faint memory of the SATs, impossible to remind self that had willingly spent money this time and that no college admission was actually riding on finishing this motherfracking puzzle. Ten-minute break between puzzles, and then #2, a 25 minuter, and right away, the breathing gets easier & the sweat dries up, because one look tells me I will NEVER finish this thing in 25 minutes, so why try? Now I can just do my methodical Cappy thing: all the Acrosses, all the Downs, back & forth so I don’t miss any boxes, and get as close as you can. Should explain scoring: 10 points for every correct word entered across & down, so partial credit is available! 25 bonus points for each full minute you finish early (and they only count full minutes, not down to the wire seconds), but that bonus will be reduced by 25 points for each letter that is omitted or entered incorrectly, up to but not beyond the point the bonus returns to 0. 150 bonus points for a complete & correct solution.

This is Brendan Emmet Quigley, author of the 2nd puzzle and not looking anything like the tweedy British professor type that his name suggests. As someone here said, “I think of Brendan as my nemesis” and if you’ve ever done one of his puzzles (he’s a regular in the Times), you’ll agree. He SEEMS nice, all I’m-just-handing-out-puzzles, but he’s kind of the devil.