saxikath

According to Box Office Mojo, Wordplay ranked 20th in terms of overall gross take last weekend. And that's for a film showing in only 45 theaters; of the films above it in the list, the one at the fewest theaters is Poseidon, with 337. In terms of money per theater, Wordplay comes in just behind Click and Waist Deep and a couple of new films that were debuting at single theaters.

Just think about that for a second. The 20th most popular movie, on a summer weekend, was a documentary. About crosswords.

It was fun to see it in a theater on Saturday. There were a bunch of us puzzle folks there, but it was great to see and hear an audience of people who didn't know the featured people, and didn't know how it turned out react to the movie.

Hell of a ride we're on, ain't it?

Been a while since I updated. Some random things that have happened, tidbits I learned, and general braindump:

• Damn, but that was a long, tough Mystery Hunt. There were some brilliant puzzles and we had a lot of fun... but 67 hours? Sheesh.
  
• Damn, but ACRONYM rocks. We came within a couple hours and a few puzzles of winning, despite having not worked together as a whole group before. Nice job, guys.
  
• Quote of the Hunt, for me at least:
  Me: "Oh my god, it's a phonetic cryptogram."
  M/W: [makes flabbergasted face]
  tahnan asks what the face means, is it fear, or what?
  M/W: "That's my brain leaving out the back door while my face distracts you."
  
• Commuting by car is going to get old in a hurry. About an hour and a quarter each way. Manchester's a nice city, though, maybe I'll get to know it some.
  
• Things I learned: Don't leave liquid laundry detergent in the car in the winter. I swear there were bits of ice in it.
  
• I don't know that I've ever before today woken up to the radio telling me it was 3 degrees in Boston.
  
• I had my first-ever personal training session at the gym tonight. The trainer taught me a bunch of free-weight exercises and how to use some equipment I hadn't used before. And I have one more session to go. (Christmas gift from mom.)
  
• I'm sorry I missed Sweeney, it looks like it was cool.
  
• lj's servers are being annoying tonight.
  
• I need to start doing lots of crosswords to get ready for Stamford. My brochure came yesterday; quite glossy this year!
  
• I hope my first issue of The Enigma comes out okay. *twitch*
  
• I still haven't seen Two Towers. Or Chicago. I need to go to the movies!
  

( And, to round things out, a quiz... )

And one for you all, swiped from thedan:
1. What do you call me?
2. What song makes you think of me, and why?
3. If you could give me one present, what would it be?
4. What one thing/event do you associate with me?
5. How well do you think you know me?

"We can beat any other country in crossword puzzles."
U.S. men's soccer-teach coach BRUCE ARENA, on the fact that college is seen as a hindrance to developing soccer talent in America.

This is apparently a quote from Newsweek. davehogg or otherbill, do you know anything more about this? A crossword list I'm on is debating whether this is a dis to the crossword-lovers among us or not. :)