Apologies, Elegies, Voting Methodologies

Geez!

I expected to have the Aaron Sorkin pastiche here for you today, but there were a few other items I felt the need to cover. For one, the ballot for voting in the ORCAs crossword awards is now available, so if you’re the kind of crossword fan who has opinions on such things, head on over and make your voice heard!

Another contest announced its bittersweet result this week—memorial ambigrams for John Langdon from ambigr.am, a website the ambigram master himself frequented in his later years. For a fuller appreciation of the winning entry below, bounce on over to that ambigr.am link and click on it. The second and third-place finishers are also worth a look.

The reviews are in, and “Making Connections” #5 was just too, well, pointlessly quirky for its own good. I thought the common endings would make the blue category stand out, but I might’ve been kidding myself there. And was “Ed” too stretchy in the purple section? (Ward and Ed, both short for Edward?) Perhaps.

The biggest problem was the sum of its parts. Instead of the usual spectrum of easy-yellow to hard-purple, this was more of a “four purples” kind of puzzle. My apologies to anyone who chased this too far down the rabbit hole: going forward, I’ll be testing these a little more before release. Live and learn!

Next Wednesday will include two MCs, a “new” #5 and a #6, at which point I’ll remove this one from my collection.

Sorkin tomorrow. Between now and then, take care of yourselves…