A 'Worldie' from Lollapuzzoola

[@wossaaaat]

The fact the page title says *"Connecting... [This might take a minute.]"* is pure evil, haha. Good job Mark. Once you caught on to the trick, you absolutely blitzed it.

[@jkid1134]

"Connecting" of course being dual meaning here - a very fitting title, maybe even inspiring the gimmick

[@jpahk]

yep, and mark did himself a disservice by sizing his window so that he couldn't see the title or blurb while he was solving. knowing those might have made it easier for him to appreciate what the LAG clue was trying to tell him.

[@RickyCruzMedia]

This puzzle was the highlight of this year’s Lollapuzzoola. The best part of the tournament solving experience for this puzzle was Brooke on the Twitch stream warning all the solvers beforehand that “what you see on your screen is what you’re supposed to see”; nothing like that warning to give everyone chills. Also worth noting that Lollapuzzoola has a special “downs-only” division for expert solvers that wanted a restraint; apparently all of those solvers had a significant amount of errors in their round 4 puzzles (wonder why!).

[@terracottapie]

That 71-Across "LAG" clue was very clever, to kind of describe what was going on with the Down clues (especially with the missing ones showing the flashing "..." as sometimes happens online when something LAGS)

[@DubioserKerl]

That... is really smart!

[@vass6888]

I was really hoping to see you feature this puzzle on the channel, so happy to see that you did. :) I was the runner-up in the Local division (the amateur division, basically) at Lollapuzzoola, and something like 33rd overall, which I attribute mostly to this puzzle tripping up even some of the strongest competitors, who up until then had had much faster solving times than me on the other puzzles. But I somehow managed to have it down in just over 12 minutes, which apparently was enough to take me all the way up to 2nd place. It's also fun to see one of you guys take more than twice my time to solve something. That's probably a first.

[@d4r4butler74]

Congrats!

[@chadrknight]

I'm glad you enjoyed that by the end! These kinds of clever clues sometimes frustrate me so much I can't appreciate them by the end, so it was nice to you smiling at the wit.

[@femvoxfan]

Happy to see this fantastic puzzle featured here! I took part in the Lollapuzzoola tournament on the weekend and was lucky enough to get through this puzzle reasonably quickly (a little under 12 minutes) with no mistakes, which really helped my ranking in the final standings. It was a wonderful tournament and I'd highly recommend it to any American crossword fans - this puzzle was absolutely the highlight for me but they were all great! This one certainly creamed a lot of competitors though.

[@mikes_.5_cent]

"lim" is short for limit. In calculus, one looks at changes at smaller and smaller values. So as one looks closer to a point, one takes the LIMIT, which is abbreviated with LIM when writing it in an equation. ;-)

[@mikes_.5_cent]

AP Calc --> High school preparation for college calculus. AP = Advanced Placement.

[@Anne_Mahoney]

Further to AP: it's very loosely equivalent to A-levels. It is a program of exams taken by high-school students, run by a commercial entity. Most American colleges/universities grant placement for a suitably high score -- for example, if you've done well on the AP French exam, your first college French course might be French 4 or French 5. Many also grant some credit, which may allow a student to graduate early. As the cost of the AP exam is a lot less than the cost of a college class, this is considered a good deal. AP Calculus is generally the highest-level math course in an American high school (and students are astonished to find how much math exists beyond that). As for LIM, the usual expression is like "the limit as x approaches zero of f(x)" for whatever function f is, written "lim x->0 f(x)" except that the "x->0" part is UNDER the "lim" part -- hence the clue about a subscript.

[@davidphipps9331]

I got the first bit, but didn’t connect the dots.

[@acidhelm]

Some more explanations: 4 across: "pho king" sounds like you're swearing. 49 across: "Expo, these days" refers to baseball teams. The team that used to be the Montréal Expos is now the Washington Nationals (Nats). 58 across is in fact ATM (at the moment), which Mark said but dismissed. 70 across: "Tip for a Pilot" Pilot is a brand of pens, which is why it's capitalized.

[@mremumerm]

49 across was likely the only obvious one for me, though i disagree with the clue (still bitter, plus the Nats don't recognise their history by using retired Expos numbers)

[@arjc5714]

I always watch the cryptic videos AMAZED at how quickly you put together seemingly impossible strings of nonsense. Then I see you do an American crossword and struggle on things that seem standard for me, and I feel better. Well done, even though this is my preferred style I don’t think I could have finished this one in 10x your time.

[@KalOrtPor]

I struggle at them both, but I think the cryptics are more fun and there's more going on with the multi-layered clever clues. Cryptics feel like chess crosswords instead of checkers crosswords. It's a shame they're not more popular outside the UK as all the historical and local terms make them inaccessible to many, but that style of wordplay is a more culturally British thing to do as with Cockney rhyming slang. I also appreciate how instead of getting stuck on a word I never knew before and will never know as far as being able to solve the crossword, I could still find another way to it through the wordplay instead of having to stop the puzzle.

[@chrisphillips2467]

Distro = Distribution. Typically how different brands of Linux are referenced.

[@stevenwojtysiak6392]

This. In this context "out-of-the-box" literally means "does not come in a box", but instead downloaded from the distribution site.

[@Sh3phrd]

In software out of the box means 'as is' ie, no customisation

[@t71024]

Distribution straight out of the box (could be a big physical retail box with a couple of CD-ROMs inside). The same vanilla app that everyone else has.

[@elainedenning]

That was pho king brilliant, Mark. Your knowledge is astounding. (Pho is one of my favourite restaurants, and is usually pronounced 'fuh'.)

[@ruwisc_]

I winced when Mark said "LIVID. No, VIVID, That's better" I had VIL/LIVID, never thought of VIVID under the time pressure and it was my only wrong letter of the tournament! oh and for what it's worth, Brooke was also one of the co-organizers of the tournament, alongside Brian and Sid as a 3-person team, she just happened to also take center stage for this puzzle.

[@Cloiss_]

its extra confusing because VIV isn't a valid roman numeral either. I expected the answer to be LIV

[@neville83]

@@Cloiss_ The clue is "looks like a Roman numeral but isn't" so it is actually correct

[@Cloiss_]

@@neville83 ah yeah that makes sense

[@DukeBG]

Mark did not appreciate the "LAG" clue in time, it describes the theme pretty literally

[@cycklist]

I occasionally come back to this channel to see if you've done a crossword recently. Thank you for this one ❤️

[@patocat.3141]

Lim is shorthand for the limit which is an operation used all the time in calculus

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

Id like to see more crosswords on the channel!

[@Thebrooky12]

"Lollapuzzoola was held on a Saturday, August 21 (which was a Saturday in August)." is very funny to me

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

AP Calc is calculus taken in high school! And lim is probably short for limit where you would write it out as “ as x -> some value” but I’m not sure why they said “subscript” -American viewer

[@ChrisVenus]

Usually when you write a limit you'll write "Lim" with the "x->0" bit written as a subscript underneath the Lim. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_(mathematics) for examples. Also I believe AP stands for "Advanced Placement" meaning the class is more advanced than most classes taken at that point of time. UK viewer though so I may be wrong on that! :)

[@comma_thingy]

When writing limits (at least here in England) it is written lim_(x->a) where the x->a is underneath the lim

[@lexta13]

In mathematical typesetting, you would write “lim 1/n = 0” with “n -> infinity” below the “lim”, i.e. in a subscript.

[@Tahgtahv]

@@ChrisVenus Yes, in the united states we have regular, honors, and advanced placement classes, for a maximum of 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0 points towards your GPA (Grade Point Average) respectively. Generally available in Highschool (age 14-18, roughly equivalent to Key Stage 4 + A-Levels) and University courses. AP credit in HS can sometimes get you equivalent course credit at a Uni, either as actual credit towards a degree, or just fulfilling a lower requirement in a course series.

[@Wecoc1]

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[@itsyaboi8798]

that was so fun watching your confusion, and then when u get the trick and just smash it haha, awesome work!

[@archivist17]

My family are wondering why I was shouting "Stationary" at my phone repeatedly.

[@johnciolfi5085]

Solved in 10:39 - Holy smokes, what a brilliant idea for a puzzle. If it hadn't been for 29-Down being an apparent "outlier" in the clues, I never would've picked up on the trick. I really wish I could've participated at Lollapuzzoola this year, maybe next time.

[@longwaytotipperary]

"England and America are two countries separated by by the same language" (attributed to George Bernard Shaw) . Mark does much better with these than I do with the Brit version!

[@d4r4butler74]

IKR!! I am not sure I ever would have caught on to the trick, but I still would have done better on this than any of the Cryptics they have ever put on the channel! By that I mean I would have gotten 2 words, maybe 3 on this and the Cryptics I am lucky to get 1. I do understand the clues when the guys go through them, but I don't think I would ever get them without the walkthroughs.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@d4r4butler74 ditto!

[@sunriselg]

I've heard the same thing about Germany and Austria.

[@longwaytotipperary]

@@sunriselg 😀

[@bcimmet]

This was so much fun to watch! Thanks for a wonderful performance!

[@tremkl]

Wonderful video. Was super confused when at 15 minutes he had so little done, but then it all comes together beautifully in the end.

[@simpleman4251]

Always enjoy your crossword solves ^^

[@kea2878]

25:27 for me. As soon as I got LAG I twigged that the "..." clues were appearing (interspersed) later in the list, but it took a while longer to work out that they corresponded to the columns.

[@matthewender3473]

20:20 Yay, Mark finally heard my nudge! ;) Fun seeing an American-style crossword being tackled, given how completely he outclasses my sorry performance on cryptics.

[@159Jamz]

I have multiple restaurants in my area that are called "pho king ___." There's pho king good, pho king way, and odd ones like pho king 1,2 and 3. Great puzzle!

[@acidhelm]

There's a restaurant near Seattle named What The Pho.

[@Nilsg123]

"Sprechen Zie Deutsch?" haha, this man must have been raised on carry-on films and the like! In recent times the geman dictionary has banned the use of all Zeds to make the language less mockable, so zadly this is no longer ze case :D

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

How do you ban a letter?

[@chrisphillips2467]

​@@fulltimeslackerii8229 By deciding that is the way it works I guess... Italian doesn't officially have J,K, W or Y.

[@perladel95]

@@chrisphillips2467 and X, too

[@Jukka70]

it's tough if you don't know German, you would think it's a Z, but yes it's Sie.

[@Pwecko]

I bet the German dictionary has banned the use of the German word for gullible as well hasn't it?

[@gregs2284]

NAT is a baseball clue. The Washington Nationals used to be the Montreal Expos

[@twarnken]

49 across: Expo refers to the baseball team that was in Montreal (Expos). They moved to Washington DC and became the Nationals or Nats for short.

[@jacksontejada]

26:20 to finish! Closest I've ever come to his time in anything. Fantastic puzzle.

[@plusjeremy]

This puzzle was amazing! Wish I had tried it myself.

[@bibliopolist]

Now this is a really nice crossword puzzle. The British cryptics seem to be in a language one has to learn (and wich I don't want to learn since nobody speaks it), while this one seems solvable with some wit and knowledge, like my favourite German crossword in the Zeit newspaper.

[@KalOrtPor]

The foreign and historical terms and British wordplay make the cryptics very unapproachable for those in the US or who aren't used to them, but I do like the intricacies and cleverness of the clues and the fact that you can still find your way to the answer through wordplay even when you have no idea what the word is. With standard crosswords, if you don't know something or understand what the clue means, you'll draw a blank forever unless you did see it before and can make a lucky guess, which is why I've hardly ever been able to finish them.

[@jaymesnorris9260]

I loved this. I would love to see more crossword videos.

[@Jukka70]

I saw him put zie, and I was like uh oh. But let me be the first today, If I could answer 6 questions on this I would have been amazed. I think it's incredible that anyone can do this. Just incredible, I know that we couldn't see down clues. Did he not get them too. I mean, that's insane if he did this with half the clues. It's already impressive that he got all these.

[@jibster5903]

Hello Mark, lim is short for 'limit' which is a mathematical function where you basically write: lim x -> something This is a notation 'as x approaches something' So one could write the limit as x approaches infinity for the equation 1/x as: lim: x --> infinity 1/x = pretty much 0 It's important for some hardcore calculus

[@Stephen-Fox]

Very entertaining watch. I wonder how this sort of American style crossword where the theme is more integrated than the 3-5 very well done across entries you usually see on themed Americans compares to the advanced cryptics you used to occasionally showcase on the channel.

[@davidmiller9485]

that love triangle wasn't much of one, but there goes. Jacob was sent to live with Laban, the brother of Rebekah and Leah. Jacob fell in love with Rebekah and asked for her hand in marriage. Laban said if Jacob labored for him for seven years he could marry Rebekah. After the seven years were up he lied and told Jacob he could marry Leah. His reasoning was that he could give the hand of Rebekah because she was the younger sister. After some arguing Laban agreed to let him marry Rebekah if he labored for Seven more years. He did so and Married her as well. From there the story more or less goes into how he love one more than the other and the results thereof.

[@fyellin]

It seems no one has answered one question yet. AP = Advanced Placement. At the end of an AP class, a student can take an AP exam in that subject, which is roughly the same as an A Level.

[@briannelson605]

Thanks for telling us that saturday August 21 was a saturday in August

[@FirstLast-gw5mg]

I wasn't sure if I should believe it, so I double checked and it turns out that August 21 was indeed a Saturday in August.

[@bradmclean4988]

Lim was the only one that knew.

[@marie-kristinekramer6998]

SO stands for Significant Other which sometimes people call their SO their Boo! lol

[@patricklickman9972]

That was my favourite clue!

[@AlRoderick]

It's almost archaic AAVE slang at this point, bae has basically replaced it be and even that's a bit old.

[@mickeyjupp1]

The three letter words were the hardest: Boo, Nat, Dee, Rep, Pho which are strange to English ears also disagree that "on the Pacific" means has a Pacific coastline. Otherwise quite clever.

[@melpopovich565]

Explanation 35 Across: "AP Calc" is short for "Advanced Placement Calculus", an optional advanced mathematics course available at some US high schools (secondary schools). "Lim" is short for "limit", in this case referring to *finding the limit of some given equation or function as 'x' approaches some value*. Written as part of a problem, you would write "Lim", and then in smaller type (the subscript!) underneath, you write "x→__" (the arrow!); you would then write the actual equation or function to the right of those parameters. (Disclaimer: I'm no mathematics professor, just someone who went through AP Calc a loooong time ago and is trying very hard to remember the lessons 😂)

[@chrisphippen6822]

Distro is short for distribution. There are multiple versions of, say, Linux, called distros 🙂

[@AussieJohnny]

I'll stick to The Times Cryptic crossword. I'm looking forward to trying the one in Mark's video tomorrow (Australian time). I didn't enjoy this one but clearly the comments show that many people did like it.

[@KalOrtPor]

I liked it better than most regular crosswords because of the more cryptic-style parts.

[@davidmiller9485]

Distro is distribution. Meaning the software that is being shipped.

[@inspiringsand123]

Let's get cracking: 02:14 And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Sorry: 7 Goodness: 2 Clever: 2 Secret: 1 Nonsense: 1 FAQ: Q1: How do you do this so fast? A1: I'm not made of flesh and blood, but of sand ... Q2: Why don't you include 'XX' and 'YY'? A2: Please tell me what you'd like me to include and there's a good chance I'll add it! Q3: You missed 'XX' at 'YY:ZZ'! A3: That could very well be the case! Human speech is hard to understand for computers like me, especially British sometimes! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!

[@Taaneria]

If you come across AP (school subject) again that refers to advanced placement classes offered in American schools.

[@Ruddigore]

Wow. I loved this.

[@soremekun]

That was tough!

[@andrewgrant6516]

I got Darth and svelte.

[@mremumerm]

just starting when Mark goes through all the clues. if answer to 49 across is NAT i will be extremely sad.

[@mremumerm]

and i am.

[@margaretmcnarry4298]

Me too! Loved visiting Jarry Park , the Bog O not so much!

[@mariano7107]

I don’t think anyone mentioned it, “distro” means “distribution”. For example, a Linux distro.

[@bristolrovers27]

Great puzzle,

[@grahamfisher307]

Surely 29 is 'Sie', even if the 'S' is pronounced like a 'Z'.

[@FirstLast-gw5mg]

I'd consider putting all of the DOWN clues together and just leaving the solver to figure that out as a rather dirty trick. It's outside the bounds of standard crossword setting and solving. If the rules told the solver what to expect, that'd be different. Variants are fine but the rules should be given.

[@FrankAnzalone]

Ap calc is advanced placement calculus

[@FirstLast-gw5mg]

"held on Saturday, August 21 (which was a Saturday in August)." WHAT?!

[@oliolion]

A bit dissapointed that handheld romances wasn't a thing.

[@elLooto]

"Distro" is short for "distribution" eg "Ubuntu is a Linux Distro"

[@04LightningFan]

I would have only gotten PERU and OREGON. Oregon has a beaver on the reverse side of its flag, but I'm not sure what is on the front. Maybe the state seal, the year they entered the union and OREGON spelled out because the front is so badly designed you wouldn't know which state it was for if they didn't tell you. No offense Oregon, most of the state flags are poorly designed. They should just go with the beaver on both sides.

[@DWestheim]

I learned a lot of new words today. oO

[@mateuszzemojdzin7579]

I think that you should explain a bit more what you are doing. For example I have no idea why 36 across is crit

[@b3z3jm3nny]

Cause “lit crit” is a phrase, short for literary criticism

[@rach6088]

this is wild

[@igronus]

This was the first time I had any change getting a few words (all, set, distro, premises). Still non-natives are here, sorry.

[@beepbop1044]

Excuse me？im having some problem on cracking the case of the roman tragedy’s final act password I finished act 1~9 and I found that jarvis is lying on act 10,but I can’t figure out the password to the final act Can anyone give some hints on the password? Or is something wrong with my routes?

[@bibliopolist]

You should go to the Discord server linked under each video.

[@sotek2784]

Read that act again, more carefully.

[@beepbop1044]

@@sotek2784 which？act 10？

[@sotek2784]

@@beepbop1044 Whichever act it was that you got the liar cage from that you think corresponds to Jarvis.

[@EmilyExplosion27]

I got so annoyed with how east the first few clues were that I stopped watching the video and started doing the puzzle. Took me 24 minutes.

[@FirstLast-gw5mg]

Well you spelled the German word wrong, but I can't really hold that against you.

[@aliahsan7963]

bangladesh.

[@manwithabagon]

Wut

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

@@manwithabagon its where he’s from probably

[@manwithabagon]

@@fulltimeslackerii8229 philippines.

[@Swisswavey]

It's not that clever given it uses nonexistent words. The solve was incredibly clever though.

[@bibliopolist]

Could you give an example?

[@d4r4butler74]

There were no nonexistent words used in the puzzle or the clues. What words *specifically* did you have a problem with? There were some abbreviations and acronyms used, but they are common ones.

[@d4r4butler74]

@Rockscanfly Like the Expos one... Baseball. But I learned that the Montreal Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals (Nats). Learning is good, even if it is Baseball.