Saturday, April 2, 2016

Special Report from Stamford - 39th A.C.P.T.


It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. Horace and I are here at the ACPT hanging with our peeps, the Word Nerds. We often feel like we don't fit in with the rest of the world - often having to make an effort to seem like a normal - but here, we might just be in our element. We have met some amazing puzzlers and some very entertaining puzzle constructors. However, despite a quantity of excellent advice, and my best efforts at puzzing, I still made rookie mistakes and my score is currently in the bottom 100 of this year's participants. I don't mind. Well, not really. :) I'll get them next year.

~ Frannie

And for my part, I'm another year older but not, apparently, another year wiser. Not wiser enough, anyway.

I, too, made rookie mistakes, despite being a sophomore. But I was cheered up a bit by doing much better on Puzzle #5 this year. I didn't finish it, but I did "get" the trick, and I feel that given another ten minutes or so, I would have finished it. Alas, they didn't give those minutes.

But you know what? I'm still having a great time. Did I mention that Frannie is here with me this year? (Oh right, she wrote that first part...) She and I are installed in the hotel bar enjoying adult beverages, and we're just about to head in for the evening program, none of which will involve us doing a crossword puzzle. For once.

- Horace


2 comments:

  1. Awesome! Enjoy your adult beverages. Maybe next year I'll be able to join you guys as well.

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  2. My scores on the first five puzzles are as follows: 1030, 1115, 1110, 1130, 880. I was SO close on that 5th one. Like you, I had it figured out, but a little too late in the game. And when it was over, of course I thought how dumb I was not to get certain answers. Also, the third puzzle really should have been at least 100 points higher; I had serious technical difficulties trying to do it on Internet Explorer (It doesn't work at all on Chrome). For the last two I was on Firefox and had no problems. Colum, I think you could be a serious threat to gain a podium spot in the Rookie class.

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