I could look at this as a disappointment
but I won't.
Anyway, if you look at the stats, I crashed and burned. I didn't make the top ten (though at least I stayed in 12th -- I thought after puzzle 7 I might have slipped, as I was a bit slower than the pack).
ennienyc beat me out for the NYC crown. This is the first year that I haven't beaten my rank from the previous year. I made a mistake (three mistakes, actually) in puzzle 5 (I told Byron he should have his name legally changed to "Fucking Byron Walden!"), and it cost me dearly.
This also, however, is the year in which I was the only person to finish a puzzle first, both by absolute time count and by number of minutes (puzzle 2). It is the year in which I ran with the pack and knew I was running with the pack.
I've learned a couple of things from the tournament. Number one is that I indeed have the speed to win this (and believe me, I want to and I will!). Number two is that in order to do that, I need to deal with puzzle 5 differently, particularly if it's by a constructor I find more difficult than most Friday/Saturday guys. (I have a special mental block where Byron is concerned, I think more so than others in the top 10.) That is -- given that I have the speed to win, if I am having a tough-ass time with a puzzle, chances are, so is everybody else, and it's definitely worth that extra minute or two to do a thorough search-and-destroy for mistakes. See, I noticed I had some time left in the minute, and I did a check of my acrosses, which did not reveal any mistakes. Had I checked the downs, I would have noticed, if not PIAVU (it was PIAVE, an Italian cheese -- might as well have been unclued), that THE NUNS was a weird answer for "Something to spread." (THE NEWS was the correct answer, but Byron tells me I mightily amused the judges with the dirty-sounding connotations that "spreading the nuns" calls to mind.)
I'm not going to post a full recap, but here are some random observations:
testitest and I had dinner last night at Grand in Stamford. I was a little leery of making a reservation there at first because it seemed kind of pretentious (if you click on the link, you'll notice that they spell their name g/r/a/n/d, and the space looks trendier than restaurants I normally frequent), but the menu looked interesting and I got some OpenTable points, so I went ahead and reserved. Dave's salad was good, and so was my lobster fettucine (although so rich that I woke up this morning with nasty stomach cramps), but he got "The Vegan" and it was downright awful. It sounded so promising, too -- I love a good grilled portobello mushroom. But the thing must have been marinating in soy sauce for DAYS. Seriously, it was like eating congealed soy sauce -- I love soy sauce, but not when it whacks you in the face like that! So, for future tournaments, I'm not sure I can recommend Grand (I refuse to do the stupid lower-case and slashes thing), but who knows -- maybe that was just the one bad spot on the menu.
So, to wrap up my tournament talk...next year, man! I'm a Phillies fan, so I'm used to saying that. ;)
Oh yeah, and my boss quit on Friday. Rough times ahead!
Anyway, if you look at the stats, I crashed and burned. I didn't make the top ten (though at least I stayed in 12th -- I thought after puzzle 7 I might have slipped, as I was a bit slower than the pack).
This also, however, is the year in which I was the only person to finish a puzzle first, both by absolute time count and by number of minutes (puzzle 2). It is the year in which I ran with the pack and knew I was running with the pack.
I've learned a couple of things from the tournament. Number one is that I indeed have the speed to win this (and believe me, I want to and I will!). Number two is that in order to do that, I need to deal with puzzle 5 differently, particularly if it's by a constructor I find more difficult than most Friday/Saturday guys. (I have a special mental block where Byron is concerned, I think more so than others in the top 10.) That is -- given that I have the speed to win, if I am having a tough-ass time with a puzzle, chances are, so is everybody else, and it's definitely worth that extra minute or two to do a thorough search-and-destroy for mistakes. See, I noticed I had some time left in the minute, and I did a check of my acrosses, which did not reveal any mistakes. Had I checked the downs, I would have noticed, if not PIAVU (it was PIAVE, an Italian cheese -- might as well have been unclued), that THE NUNS was a weird answer for "Something to spread." (THE NEWS was the correct answer, but Byron tells me I mightily amused the judges with the dirty-sounding connotations that "spreading the nuns" calls to mind.)
I'm not going to post a full recap, but here are some random observations:
- Congratulations,
rpipuzzleguy! Not that I thought you were a fluke last year, but ya done good.
- Ken Jennings would make a great replacement Jeopardy! host once Alex Trebek has to step down, if he can manage to speak a little slower. In the meantime...good god, if he comes back for more crossword tournaments, he's going to be nipping at my heels soon enough!
testitest should have come to the Friday-night festivities. The trivia contest was very cool (including more in-depth math and science than one sees on Jeopardy!), and unlike me, he might have at least managed to finish more than one of the three Sudoku Smackdown puzzles.
- If I couldn't win NYC, I'm glad
ennienyc could.
- Also glad to see Kiran in the final.
- Totally cool to see Wordplay again, and with the crowd most appreciative of it anywhere. Can't wait for it to come out nationwide so I can see it for the FOURTH time!
- Can't believe the asslunch at Stamford now costs $45. I'm not even going to think about what $45 buys at Osaka, or Mesa Grill, or any number of restaurants in NYC, because it's too depressing to think that I paid that much for the downright terrible grub at the Stamford Marriott.
So, to wrap up my tournament talk...next year, man! I'm a Phillies fan, so I'm used to saying that. ;)
Oh yeah, and my boss quit on Friday. Rough times ahead!