Acrostic, 12/2/2023

[iggystan]

No one seems to write about these but me, but I really enjoy them. I didn't get as many of the answers right off the bat, but always seem to have enough to start on grid words that then help with the rest of the answers.

[KayW]

I do as well. And this is the only variety puzzle format (so far) that I solve online rather than on paper. It eliminates transcribing - or, more specifically, MIS-transcribing - letters from the clues to the grid. Much more better to leave that drudgery to the machines.

[woozy]

I love them. More than crosswords. But dang, it's hard to find a good regular source for them. (Do not get me started with NYT taking them off their puzzle web page....)

[iggystan]

I do as well. And this is the only variety puzzle format (so far) that I solve online rather than on paper. It eliminates transcribing - or, more specifically, MIS-transcribing - letters from the clues to the grid. Much more better to leave that drudgery to the machines.

I always print them out, but I do make transcription mistakes, so maybe I should switch to solving online.

[KayW]

I do as well. And this is the only variety puzzle format (so far) that I solve online rather than on paper. It eliminates transcribing - or, more specifically, MIS-transcribing - letters from the clues to the grid. Much more better to leave that drudgery to the machines.

I always print them out, but I do make transcription mistakes, so maybe I should switch to solving online.

I tried it once and was immediately hooked. My local paper (Chicago Tribune) has a quote-acrostic edited by Linda Preston every Sunday but they don't offer an online solving option. Now that I've been spoiled by the WSJ, I usually find that one just too tedious to complete.

[woozy]

Solving them online has the advantage of changing them from an all engrossing hour long endeavor to and interactive ten minute knock em out puzzle. The experiences are very very different. There's something interesting and organic about persuing it in the depth of chewing on each clue and each letter as you get it so I'm not going to always give up doing that be hand but the doing it on line we can do the scattershot big picture much more effectively[1].

Of course the mechanical act of filling the grid *is* very tedious.

I had a few accrostics I wrote about a decade ago on the web somewhere. May I should see if I can recover them.

[1] [Hmm, of course any individual solver can solve any puzzle to his or her personal philosophy of the time. Maybe I think about that sort of thing more than most.]


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EDIT: Found the raw data of my six acrostics but the software to display them (which I wrote myself and would be totally incompatible with any other [dang I was a hacky programmer-- completely irreducible]) is long inoperable. Does anyone know of any software to construct acrostics? I'd like to bring these back to life.

[ChrisKochmanski]

I used to somewhat dread doing an acrostic on paper — due to the tediousness referred to above — then finally tackled them online, where I found I really enjoyed them. These days it’s the WSJ acrostic roughly once per month — and that’s all. @#$&%!* New York Times!