Change of Heart

THURSDAY’S PUZZLE — O.K., here’s the thing: I watched a lot of people solve this puzzle — or try to solve it — at Lollapuzzoola last month, and the results made even the judges grading the puzzles weep. So if you’re still wondering what just happened to you, this is the guy (below right) you should be mad at. And yes, I totally get the irony of my having taken his photograph with a lit light bulb over his head. Only someone as devious — sorry, I meant only someone as creative as Mr. Blindauer could have come up with a puzzle like this.

I kid, of course. How could anyone be mad at Patrick Blindauer? He’s one of the nicest guys in crossword puzzledom. Just because he lulled you into a false sense of security with the Across entries and then freaked you out because the down entries changed a letter — hence the addition of the puzzle title on a Thursday, because we’re not barbarians, after all — doesn’t mean that he has a mean bone in his body.

Are you still struggling? Let’s forget about piddling topics like abbreviations and partials and cluing for today, and just look at what Mr. Blindauer hath wrought.

On the face of it, this seems like a fairly straightforward puzzle, with easy cluing. That should be your first hint that something is up. It’s Thursday, my friends; nothing should be what it seems. Second, there’s a title. When was the last time you remember seeing a title on a weekday puzzle? We’re supposed to have a “Change of Heart,” as the title suggests, and I don’t think that Mr. Blindauer and Will Shortz are hinting at perhaps abandoning crossword solving and finding another hobby. They want us to change something in the grid.

So we’re going to go slowly on this one, because it’s easy to get yourself into a tizzy about which letter to change and when. The trick is to remember that only the Down entries are correct, and that skipping around the grid in this puzzle may not be your smartest move. Because — and I say this from experience — you will mess yourself up but good.

Let’s look at the northwest. It’s pretty obvious that the answer to 1 Across is MOUSE. But then we get to 3 Down, and I’m sorry, but I don’t know any three-letter trees starting with the letter U. This is where we have our first change of heart. Did everyone get that? The middle letter in some of the entries — the heart of the entry — will change. 3 Down is OAK, so MOUSE becomes MOOSE.

At 17 Across: The clue “Dismantle” is pretty easy. That would be TAKE APART. So far, so good. But we’re going to have a change of heart when we get to 5 Down. The “Cow in Borden ads” is, of course, ELSIE. Hey, wait! There’s an A where you’re supposed to write that S. There’s your change. Write the S over the A and then help yourself to a piece of chocolate. No, leave the bag out. You’re going to need it.

Your job is to find these changes and make them appropriately, so that you wind up with the Downs as your final answer. At Lollapuzzoola, there was a group who had a decided advantage for this one puzzle, because they had charged themselves with the task of solving using the Downs only as an extra challenge. Talk about serendipity.

Oh, and speaking of irony: the change of heart in the southeast — where people seemed to have made the most mistakes, probably because of exhaustion, is from FIRE EATER to FIRE WATER, which everyone could probably use after solving this puzzle. Sometimes, even chocolate is not enough.

Let’s check in with Will Shortz:

Will Shortz’s Notes:

This year’s Lollapuzzoola tournament was the first one I’ve missed in its seven-year history. On the day it was held, I was flying to London for the World Puzzle Championship. Patrick and Brian visited me before the tournament to borrow some supplies, though, and they told me about some of the cool things they had scheduled, including this. I asked if I could run it in The Times. But for when? It didn’t feel wacky enough for a Sunday variety puzzle, or open enough gridwise for a Saturday. So I scheduled it for a Thursday (today), which is typically the hardest theme day. I know this hybrid of a crossword/variety puzzle is not to everyone’s taste. I’m prepared for the “hate” comments! Still, solvers who love this will probably really love it, so I think it’s worth running.

By the way, I changed a few of the tournament clues to make them slightly easier and less trivia-oriented than the originals. For example, not all solvers may know that “Pinky or the Brain, e.g.” (Patrick’s clue at 1A) is a MOUSE, or that “Guitarist Saul Hudson of Guns N’ Roses, familiarly” (28D) is SLASH. These would have been stumbling blocks for many solvers. So I tweaked the puzzle here and there (not much) to make it more accessible.

Meanwhile, I’m just happy to introduce Lollapuzzoola to a wider audience.

And let’s hear Mr. Blindauer’s explanation:

Constructor’s Notes:

As the blurb on this crossword says, it was used during the most recent “Lollapuzzoola” tournament in New York City, which I co-hosted with Brian Cimmet. It was our dreaded Puzzle 4, meant to be the trickiest puzzle of the day (like Puzzle 5 at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament), though looking at the standings just now, I see that Andrew Feist solved it perfectly in 6:45. Nicely done, Andrew! Some got stumped until they were allowed to use their Google tickets (our sanctioned method of “cheating”), and some solved it, but put two letters in each of the key squares, which we had decided to count as incorrect (sorry!) Also, two solvers had an odd advantage: They chose to compete in our Downs Only Division for the day, so they didn’t have the Across clues to throw them off. As such, Joon Pahk solved the puzzle correctly with only the Down clues in 4:41. Wowza. If anyone had noticed this and done some lateral thinking, it might’ve been a big help in deciphering the puzzle’s diabolical secrets. Special thanks to Will for his support of the tourney these last seven years and for sharing my puzzle with a much wider audience.

Next year’s ‘Zoola is already scheduled for Aug. 8, 2015, so save the date and join us for a day of cruciverbal silliness in a church basement on the Upper West Side (or in our At-Home Division through the magic of the Internet). Most of the puzzles aren’t nearly this cruel, I swear!

No, but they are highly inventive, and the most fun you can have with a sharpened pencil on a Saturday in New York City in August. If you plan to be in the New York City area next summer, I highly recommend dropping by.

Your thoughts?