I have been now just doing only the Monday through Wednesday Puzzles as the rest of the week get me stumped, I know I have to pass the Thursday – Sunday Hurdle to get good.

But what I wanted to ask is how to build up the ability of the deciphering the clues. That is what really stumps me sometimes, it gets to the point where I really have to think and think and then use the play on words as I get really stumped sometimes. I have been referencing several other sites as how to read the clues and have been trying to build up my vocabulary as to antonyms and synomns and it has helped as I can read some of the puzzles as to the puns and themes. I think I really like the theme ones but I see that they can get real tricky.

To all of you great lovers keep up the good work, I was even thinking of going to the next tournament just to meet other solvers and try my hand. Hope to see you there

As an old con-report writer (for the badly missed GOTS), I will say that yours is great. I especially liked the steam blowing out of Peter Gordon’s ears, the idea that Trip’s portrait might be the inventor of the letter Q, and the question of whether typical reporters could grasp the concept of a “C” division.

I found #5 the hardest puzzle I have ever encountered in 11 years of competition, and the only one where I ran up against the time limit. Every area of the diagram was difficult, and I was left so shell-shocked that by about the 28-minute mark I had forgotten that the last line contained the author’s name (I had “ierce” filled in).

Saphir, alas, I believe documentaries are excluded, so none of us get Bacon numbers…

I was one of those people who got GHAZI correct (good guess). A bad crossing definitely does not a heart-ripping puzzle make.

What I want to know is: since I don’t appear in the film, but my name does, do I still get a Bacon number?

I thought all of the contestant profiles were particularly well done and compelling. And the photography as well. Perhaps because I’m an artist, I found the Jon Delfin profile especially nice and even moving. I’d agree with Trip that the movie could do just as well without the Q bit. It seems a random musing that is either somewhat forgettable or inspiring of the thought, “What’s with this guy and the letter Q.” (Nothing would be my answer.) I guess I was expecting to see Ellen doing her baton twirling in the Idol contest, rather than in Central Park. Is that something you do often? (I’m guessing not.)

Overall, one thing I liked about the profiles is that they show the diversity of people involved in crosswords. That’s one thing I find particularly interesting, the intersection of people from all walks of life and with a wide variety of professions and lifestyles that form this unique little world of crosswords — and its once a year microcosm, the ACPT.

Along those lines, I’d agree it would have been nice to have included some mention of Jeremiah Farrell, who constructed the Clinton/Dole puzzle. If nothing else, I think it adds an interesting element to the story — a math professor out in the midwest who came up with the idea and started the whole thing.