Default - 326108 Words
New 04L HOAD
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GEEK (70)
I added the verb inflections of GEEK, usually part of the phrase GEEK OUT, to Notepad. GEEK (OUT) is not included as a verb in MW, but the colloquial usage feels strong. I’ve chose 58 as the standard score for verb forms that are primarily used in verbal phrases and require a “with [preposition]” clue modifier, so GEEKED and GEEKING are both 58.
GOBY (65)
Since I don’t use spacing or punctuation in Default, I don’t need to assign multiple scores to entries with heteronyms; the higher score applies to a single entry with multiple meanings. The 65 score for GOBY is based on the verbal phrase sense (GO BY). GOBY in the sense of the fish would score in the 50s. The entry GOOK appears later in the list. The ethnic slur is not a clue option and the “slimy material” sense is not appealing. The verbal phrase is not stupendous but feels like the best option. The fill score for GOOK (and GOESOK, WENTOK, GOINGOK) is 50.
Default - 326078 Words
New 04L GABE
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FINA (40)
When I was learning to read, I developed a fascination with signage viewable from the back seat of a car. I memorized the street names around Ballwin and catalogued the branding on commercial signs, especially gas stations. I remember when Skelly became Getty, when Derby became Coastal, and the picture I drew in kindergarten based on my family’s trip to Florida did not feature Disneyworld but did feature a Gulf gas station (a brand not often seen in Missouri). My initial association with the entry FINA is the Reuleaux triangle sign outside gas stations owned by the bygone Petrofina company, but Ginsberg does not feature any examples of FINA clued that way; {Michael C. ___} and {“La cerveza mas ___”} are the popular approaches. I decided to score the entry based on the fill-in-the-blank options, and leave {Former filling station name} as an option for ESSO.
FOGO (40)
This entry, the Portuguese word for fire, was scored at 29. That would be an appropriate score range, but the Brazilian steakhouse chain Fogo de Chao is a reasonable fill-in-the-blank option.
GOLDILOCKSPLANET (75)
I’ve known of this term for a while but only added it to Default recently. The etymological reference is cute and I’m interesting in trying more seeds for 16x16 grids.
Default - 326058 Words
New 4L FABI
DOWNLOADABLE PUZZLE: Unthemely #28
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DUCE (5)
This entry has two common clue approaches: the Italian word for “leader” or a reference to Mussolini’s “Il Duce” nickname. The former would be a 30-35-score language translation and the latter an unpleasant reference to 20th-century Fascism. Neither is appealing to me, so I opted for the lower score.
ECTO (35)
The fill-in-the-blank option for this entry, related to the license plate of the vehicle in the Ghostbusters films, is admirable, but I ultimately scored this entry as a prefix.
EEUU (35)
I used to proofread Spanish-language pages as part of my job. I’m far from fluent in Spanish, so I would mainly look for syntactical issues after the text submitted by the translator. I learned the abbreviation EE.UU. for “Estados Unidos,” the equivalent of “U.S.” in Spanish writing, and added the entry to Default. It could be useful in a dire fill situation.
ESSO (55)
I recently visited the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver and enjoyed viewing the paintings of this abstract expressionist contemporary of Pollock and Rothko. A wing of the museum included some of Still’s personal effects, and one exhibit included a stack of road maps published by Esso Petroleum. I studied the exhibit to see if the maps included any interesting cluing avenues that haven’t already been used for this crossword repeater. The “Happy Motoring” slogan has been done, and nothing else revolutionary met the eye. I did recall the moment in 2002 when I attended the NPL convention in Vancouver and I sat in a cab with two distinguished crossword constructors as we sat at a red light next to an Esso service station; there was a palpable, unspoken moment of recognition.
Default - 325804 Words
New 04L DOOB
Default currently contains 7736 four-letter entries, and 6570 of those entries had not been rescored since the Project began. The number of entries is manageable enough that I did not subdivide the list by score, and I even kept in the 29s. I was finish the four-letter entries in a few weeks as a resource for a book project, but I’ve had a lot of distractions this month and, in order to meet deadlines, I will be starting the book before I finish rescoring 04L.
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AABA (35)
For rhyme scheme patterns, 35 seems a proper score. I’ll cover all of these in the A’s.
ACEH (45)
This etnry shows up in CCWIN fill lists periodically, but I’m hesitant to use it because the main claim to fame for the Sumatran region is its devastation in the 2004 tsunami. I checked Ginsberg and found this pre-2004 clue: {Indonesian province that’s the site of a trial of soldiers accused of massacre}. Someone really needs to come up with a cheery association with Aceh.
ASDF (40)
This group of letters can be clued as the home keys for a touch typist’s left hand and…that’s about it (aside from prominent organizations such as Alabama State Defense Force or Association of Synchronous Data Formats). The score of 40 puts it just over my standard minimum, but I won’t jump at the chance to use it. The entry reminds me of the term SHRDLU, the second column of keys on a linotype machine. I learned the term as a theater student and read Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine — SHRDLU is the mother-murdering evangelical in the play — and was so intrigued with the word that I chose it as my nom when I joined the National Puzzler’s League. But, the nom was already taken so I went with T McAy.
BIRO (45)
I’ve watched enough BBC panel shows on YouTube that this word, British slang for a ballpoint pen, feels like a household term. The slang term simply refers to the pen’s inventor, Hungarian Laszlo Biro.
BRAW (40)
In Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris details his enjoyment of the New York Times crossword puzzle and distinguishes between the editorial styles of Eugene Maleska and Will Shortz. In describing an attractive man, Sedaris speculates that Maleska would use the archaic Scottish term BRAW and Shortz would describe the man as a WOWER. BRAW gets no hits in Ginsberg. Perhaps the Pre-Shortzian Project will reveal if the entry was used in a Maleska-era puzzle.
COWY (45)
At my local post office, there is a slot behind the service counter labeled COWY. The slot is for letters addressed to Colorado or Wyoming, as opposed to other parts of the country, but I still chuckle at the bovine reference. Perhaps I am remembering a joke from a children’s book which featured the line “Do you have any mail for Mike Howe?” I believe less wholesome versions of that joke exist, involving a different last name.
DIBS (60)
The concept of “dibs” is familiar and attractive, but the entry is not easy to express in a crossword clue. A definition involving a “claim” of some sort is accurate but tends to miss the childish nuance. Clues such as {“Firsties!”} or {“I call it!”} that use the entry as a stand-alone exclamation seem to work better.
Default - 325743 Words
New 10L 79S LANEBRYANT
I generally don’t mention other sites on this blog, but I am making an exception to acknowledge The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, a kindred spirit of the Autofill Project. The goal of the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project is to convert every New York Times crossword puzzle published from 1942-1993 into digital format. Barry Haldiman started the project in the late ’90s and David Steinberg has recently taken the reins. Steinberg oversees a team of volunteers who review PDF versions of the puzzles and manually input the grids and clues into compiler software. These volunteers, or “litzers,” take on as many puzzles as they wish; some have converted one or two puzzles and others have converted hundreds. If you have Crossword Compiler or similar software and are interested in the data-management side of crossword construction I heartily encourage you to check out the Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project site and to consider volunteering.
I plan on taking another break from New 10L 79S to focus on shorter entries for a while.
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KARATECHOP (80)
My mother has been taking karate classes for about a year. After moving to a downtown apartment, she decided to something to give her a little confidence in matters of self-defense. She confesses that she’s not exactly splitting wooden planks, but that hardly matters; the open-hand martial arts don’t seem as big a deal now as they were in the era of Hong Kong Phooey, Miss Piggy, and Ginsu commercials. I like the entry KARATECHOP but it does feel like a bit of a pop culture relic.
LABORPARTY (55)
This term makes me think of politics in the U.K., though in that case the spelling would be LABOUR. I wondered about places with a non-U LABOR PARTY (as is missing the letter U, not suggestive of the middle classes). Israel is a prominent example, as is Australia. The spelling for the Australian party was “Labour” before 1912, then the U was dropped, possibly due to attempts to introduce American English orthography in Australia in the 19th century.
LAMEEXCUSE (55)
I get a slight “green paint” feeling from this entry, but I see that it shows up in a number of English idiom dictionaries, perhaps to illustrate a seminal example of “lame” in a figurative sense.
Default - 325732 Words
New 10L 79S KAFKAESQUE
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JACKKNIFES (73)
While typing the verb forms of this entry, I checked Default and noticed that JACKKNIVES was not in the list. I added it, of course, but felt embarrassed to find an omission of a reasonably common word. I also considered the fact that my first instinct for cluing the entry JACKKNIFE would probably be the dive, then the semi truck maneuver, and then the knife.
JAZZEDITUP (78)
I think JAZZITUP is the first verbal phrase that I’ve given an 80 fill score. I gave a few other J* verbal phrases 75 scores, including JUMPFORJOY and JUMPTHEGUN.
JIMSONWEED (65)
I learned this term some years ago when I was writing a murder mystery party game and needed a poisonous plant that might be found in a flower shop. My coworker Clint suggested jimson weed — I think he was familiar with it based on his drug culture background. Just before writing this post, I scanned the list of J entries and decided to comment on how the entry might be overscored at 65. Then, before writing this paragraph, I looked the list again and felt that the entry was underscored. Does that mean I got it right?
JOCKSTRAPS (73)
My first reaction to this entry is that it would be inappropriate for a mainstream venue adhering to the Sunday breakfast test. Then I rebutted myself: what’s the problem with a jockstrap? It’s just an item of apparel. I checked Ginsberg and discovered that JOCKSTRAP appeared in the New York Times two years ago. It also appeared in an Ink Well puzzle with the clue {It keeps balls safe on the field}.
JUMBLESALE (45)
This synonym for a rummage sale is my favorite Britishism in this segment of the list. I want it to mean a 20% off event in the puzzle book section of Barnes & Noble.
YOGURTBAR (80)
I’ve been running low on seeds lately. I’ve been working with a grid with a seed based on an old TV show I’ve been watching, but the entry is not yielding interesting parallel entries. The news of Chobani’s recently opened yogurt bar in Manhattan inspired me to postpone the other seed. Just like that rice pudding business, I would be interested to see the store but not compelled to order anything.
Default - 325717 Words
New 10L 79S JACARANDAS
DOWNLOADABLE PUZZLE: Unthemely #27
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INFANTEYES (1)
I see a few instances of this phrase as a title, including a Wayne Shorter jazz composition, but I’m not sure how the entry ended up in the list. The music references aren’t prominent and I’m inclined to mark the entry for deletion.
INONESCUPS (45)
I learned a new synonym for drunk. The phrase looks like a Britishism but it probably originated in colonial America; it shows up in passages by Washington Irving and Nathanial Hawthorne. Aside from the awkward “one’s” construction, it would be a cute trivia entry.
INTRANASAL (40)
When I looked at this entry, I speculated that it might mean “between two noses.” Then I went to watch some old Bert and Ernie videos on YouTube. When you’re going through a long list of I-words, most of which are IM- and IN(TER)-, you tend to look for distractions.
ISUZUOASIS (55)
This Japanese minivan was phased out of production in the ’90s. I wondered if there was a chance that Isuzu (or a significant bloc of drivers) used OASISES as the plural; kind of like Toronto Maple Leafs or Colorado Rockie, when a word becomes a proper name all bets are off. ISUZUOASISES is considerably less popular on Google than ISUZUOASES, so Isuzu did not encourage anything unconventional. I didn’t add any plural to Default.
Added Across Lite files/Notepad
Default - 326652 Words
Transposal: BREASTAURANT / SUBTARTAREAN
SUBTARTAREAN refers to the low levels of Hades, reserved for the wicked. I can imagine an ancient Greek version of a Hooters setting up a location there.
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CHEESESTICK (75)
Street fairs frequently make the news in the summertime, and I made some efforts to find some websites that list some of the classic, and innovative, food confections associated with fairs. I didn’t have luck finding an exhaustive copy-and-paste list, but I jotted down a few interesting finds. SMOREO (70), a smore made with Oreo cookies, was unfamiliar to me, and while it sounds a bit rich for my taste I can see the appear for fairgoers. What are your favorite fair foods?
DESKBELL (70)
Emmy nominations just came out and I copied the list to Notepad to pull entries from. I’m looking at Wikipedia articles to collect character and actor names as well as a couple of other items in the show descriptions. The article for what show yielded the addition DESKBELL, along with LABNOTES (75), MAJORTOM (65), and TAXFRAUD (80)?
Default - 325379 Words
New 10L 79S IAMACAMERA
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HOKEYCOKEY (50)
I’ve heard people use this version of the “Hokey Pokey” song title on British panel shows. The history of the novelty dance is sketchy, and some accounts claim that it was created in the United Kingdom with the “Cokey” title (cokey is apparently a slang term for crazy). It’s a usable trivia entry for U.S. crosswords so long as the C is dependably crossed. The New Zealand version is “Hokey Tokey,” but I didn’t bother adding that.
HOTFLUSHES (38)
A few dictionaries confirm this as a variant synonym of HOTFLASHES. It makes sense on the surface, but I don’t like it as much as HOKEYCOKEY.
HYDEPARKNY (70)
According to my notes, I set 70 as a baseline score for city + state postal abbreviation entries. Hmm…might have to rethink that.
ANASTASIASTEELE (55)
OPHIRAEISENBERG (60)
These seed entries formed a minitheme of “Fifteen-letter names I happened to have on my Wordpad at the same time.” The fact that both name contain an I in position 8 invited the possibility of using both in a central intersection. With the rising popularity of the Fifty Shades of Grey novels, I could constructors who specialize in stacking long entries take an interest in the ANASTASIASTEELE.
Default - 325341 Words
New 10L 79S HEADACHIER
DOWNLOADABLE PUZZLE: Unthemely #26
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HANAUMABAY (65)
My family vacationed in Hawaii when I was 15 and Hanauma Bay was one of the spots I visited. I didn’t snorkel the reefs or dive into the ocean blowholes — I believe I just watched other people having fun until I was sunburned, and then went back to the hotel. I could have used HANAUMA BAY as a theme entry in my Chronicle of Higher Education puzzle about geographical pleonasms, as the “hana” in Hanauma means “bay.”
HARELIPPED (15)
My initial association with the word HARELIP is the old “Would I? Would I?” joke. Then I think of the sister of Mary Jane Wilks in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn who had a cleft palate. Ginsberg tells me that HARELIP has been used in the New York Times with a clue referencing Ellie May Lester in Tobacco Road. Despite that citation, I have no interest to include the term in a crossword.
HAUSFRAUEN (48)
My friend Adam Cohen recently opened a dialogue on Facebook about reference books. The National Puzzlers’ League convention is next week and some attendees take some time beforehand to scour personal libraries for old reference volumes that can be donated to the convention prize table. Adam was wondering what references people held onto in this age of electronic books and Internet answer sites. I maintain a few shelves of reference books, but the general dictionaries are the only ones that I continue to use on a regular basis. Of course, electronic dictionaries have some advantages as in the case of HAUSFRAUEN. HAUSFRAU is an entry in the print edition of 11C, presumably an English adoption of the literal German word for “housewife,” but the print edition does not explicitly indicate the plural. HAUSFRAUS is probably accepted, but FRAU is also an entry with the explicit plural FRAUEN (and not FRAUS) listed. In the CD-ROM version of 11C, HAUSFRAUS and HAUSFRAUEN both appear in the search list leading to the entry HAUSFRAU. The CD-ROM entry doesn’t offer any more plural information than the print version, but the search list, peculiar to the CD-ROM version, indicates that both the -S and -EN plurals are valid. I don’t plan on donating my dead-tree 11C on the prize table, but I’m valuing the electronic version as a more convenient source of certain kinds of word information.