Overly Enigmatic.

[tablesaw]

It's a new month, and new-monthy things are happening. The big-ass crossword I mentioned is now available at Today's Cacher. I have a new check, which I shall use to pay my rent. And the new issue of The Enigma is available.

Sometimes puzzles are printed in The Enigma with the designation "KU" (which stands for "Kreweland Unusual"). It's used to mark puzzles that have an element that makes them out of the ordinary. It's usually because they have one or more aspects that make them difficult to research. There are usually one or two in every issue. This month, there are four. And three of them are mine.

Really, is my mind that wacky?

I understand two of them, but I'm kind of sad about the other (KU-4). I worked hard to put in a lot of clues, certainly more than non-KU November #59, and I'd hoped it be a way for more people to find out about CLEMENTINE. Now, I don't know that they will.

Need to leave work, more later.

Comments

[saxikath]

I hemmed and hawed over whether KU-4 should be KU or not, but the testsolving consensus was that it did need that. It does have the cluing, but the non-Google-enabled are going to have a real hard time with it.

And yeah... the four KUs is a lot. One got changed to KU at the last minute, or I probably wouldn't have done that.

[tablesaw]

Are any of the test solvers non-Googlenabled? I ask because I wonder if the Googlenabled are losing sight of how to do topical research without Google. I asked myself the question, with Nov59, "If I didn't have Google, how could I have solved this?" Though I was being rhetorical with myself, I came up with an answer anyway: "I could call a record store." What is the standard for non-Google non-dictionary research?

[saxikath]

There is no one standard, really. Figuring out when something should be KU has been one of my challenges as editor. Pop culture is always especially tricky, because you can't go look it up in a dictionary or other reference book.

I try to look at the feedback for puzzles in GotS and the like and use that to gauge whether I got a KU designation (or lack thereof) right or not. I don't claim to have it perfect, but I do put a lot of faith in my testsolvers' reactions.

[bookishfellow.livejournal.com]

I was Google-lazy, I'll admit it, but I was able to solve the flat without depending on it—I used it for verification though. It probably helps that I'd heard of CLEMENTINE, although it's not something I would have called to mind spontaneously.

[wesleyjenn.livejournal.com]

Really, is my mind that wacky?

Yes.

This is a good thing. :)