04.24.07 -- A-OrtiZZZZZZZZZZ!

Puzzle by Brendan Emmett Quigley

This little "letter-love" lulu from Quigley runs the gamut from A to double Z without a Q, an admirable display of modesty for a puzzler who’s last name begins with the letter Q.

Nevertheless, beware! January 30th of this year 2007 A.D., Nancy Salomon constructed a Tuesday “letter-love” puzzle which included no less than 17 Z’s, “Fuzzy Wuzzy“, “Huzzah Huzzah“, “Razzle Dazzle“, “Pizza Pizza” and one crossing down “Grizzlies“, which triggered a stampede pre-Stamford and resulted in the great PFUI controversy in addition to rabid critical abuse from a noted puzzlee, quote-- (the) "Z" fetish sort of did this puZZle in” -- See THE GREAT PFUI CONTROVERSY. One week after Ms. Salomon's fine creation on Wednesday, February 7th of this year, puzzler David Kwong did the typewriter scale with "qwertyuiop", “asdfghjkl“, “zxcvbnm” and escaped without the wrath of the academia puzzlees, who were probably still blogging pfui! Kwong’s letter-love puzzle was very much liked by those who had learned to type rather than hunt and peck. Perhaps due to the week before, all of the steam had left the kettle. I do hope Brendan Emmett Quigley does not catch hell here as this is a genre of puzzle (or puZZle, if you prefer) that is much beloved by the general population, especially on a Tuesday, and this particular construction is a delight! O pfui, sayest thou? Yea, verily, hast thy humour been stiffened by Viagra! Five double Z’s, four double O’s, four double N’s, three double E’s, one triple S, two double S’s, and one double each for X, T, L, F - plus double D initials for DIZZYDEAN, double O for OZZIEOSBOURNE, and double J for JAZZYJEFF. Perhaps the debate will be over whether IZZY, UZZY, OZZY, AZZY was intended or maybe the ZZY, ZZY, ZZY, ZZY angle -- but it will be analyZZed and categoriZZed and perhaps set aside as the puZZle that had only ten Z’s -- well, pfui! Nancy had 17 -- ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Salomon Puzzle

Kwong Puzzle

Quigley Puzzle

NOTICE: As of this posting, The New York Times Crossword in Gothic will no longer carry a full copy of the puzzle due to receiving notice from a representative of The New York Times which states in part: “…you've included each day's puzzle (clues and all) on your blog, which violates the Times' copyright. Theoretically a reader could print out the puzzle from your blog rather than subscribe to it online… remove the puzzles you have posted now and refrain from posting any others.”