This post is for ACPT-goers - if you're going to be there, why not let the rest of us know? Post a comment. If you are new to the tournament and are worried about not knowing anyone, this could be a good way to connect with people beforehand, particularly those in the same position. Xword people are generally very friendly (as I found out last year, when I knew no one). I'm just dead curious about who all's going to be there. So go ahead, announce yourself, even (especially) if you've never commented before.
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Well, duh!
ReplyDeleteCount me in (with a hotel room even! exciting!), trying to decide whether I'm in the B ghetto and whether I'll ever get to the A ghetto.
ReplyDeleteI'll be there! This will be my first time and I'm really excited.
ReplyDeleteThe secret sign is the "air colon," right? So we can recognize each other?
I'll be there. I must be a masochist -- came in 488th last year and not much better before that. But I persevere...
ReplyDeleteHi from a lurker! I'll be there for my 2nd year, and I'm bringing a bunch of Boston troublemakers with me :) A few of us up here are piling into a minivan with Vic Fleming, who's in Boston this week and thought it would be fun to share a ride to Brooklyn with some Boston Cru members. And we've been practicing! 14 people attended our tournament practice session last Saturday, complete with a countdown timer. I'll be at the Cru dinner Friday, and I was pleased to see Ellen signed up. Anyone else going?
ReplyDeleteHey Eric, good to 'see' you again, as well as you other familiar (or more familiar than last year) faces. Welcome to the first-timers, also!
ReplyDeleteI should be there, unless I take the wrong subway line, in which case I will spend the weekend wandering aimlesssly somewhere in the Bronx or Staten Island.
i live in New York and I would love love love to go, but unfortunately I am a poor poor poor intern and cannot afford it..
ReplyDeleteI might try and go to see the sunday playoffs though.. fingers crossed for you guys getting to that stage!!
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ReplyDeleteLooking forward to my fourth tournament -- always a fun event to share with my daughter.
ReplyDeleteJulie vonHaam (AKA Karen's Mom)
I wouldn't use the anonymous button if I could just remember my password!
I'll be there for the first time.
ReplyDeleteYo to all. The name's Natan and unfortunately i won't be able to compete, but i'm looking forward to the friday night festivities. I'll be coming straight from a rehearsal at school, so I'll be the short dark-haired teenager with the backpack. This will be my first crosswordy outing, and i'm so excited to meet other constructors, the bigwigs, and, well, to play pick-up boggle.
ReplyDeleteHi! I've been lurking here for a while, and really enjoy the writeups and comments. This will be my second time at the ACPT - I've wanted to go for ages but finally have the time and energy since I retired a little more than a year ago. I was 463rd last year but I've been practicing A LOT since then. Am struggling how to tell if I've improved - both the attendee pool and the puzzles will be different, so how to compare? (Not that it matters much ... just curiosity). I'm often hampered by my lack of 80s-90s pop culture knowledge, but that's offset somewhat by being a German/French major who loves classical music and opera. I inherited my love of crosswords from my mother - along with her Perle Mesta cookbook. Looking forward to meeting people and having a great time!
ReplyDelete-pat in virginia
Last year I was a rookie at the final tournament in Stamford, and it was probably the most fun I've ever had in a single weekend! I can't wait to come back this year. To all of you first timers coming along - believe me, you'll have a blast! I can tell you that crossword fans really are some of the friendliest, warmest people around.
ReplyDeleteSee you all there, and good luck!
Hi all. I'll be coming out as a rookie this year. Just got hooked on the puzzle in the past year, although I've solved them causally in the past, and decided to turn in some of the frequent flier miles I've earned lately to make the trip. Looking forward to the weekend of puzzling and meeting other puzzlers. I have to laugh at some of the rather curious reactions I've gotten as I've mentioned to friends what I'm doing this weekend, so it should be fun to report back at home.
ReplyDelete-Paul in Minnesota
Er... on this particular post, don't some of you want to give your real names?
ReplyDeleteI'll be there and I'm looking forward to putting some faces to some names.
It'll be my first tournament and, Rocky-like, my goal is to "go the distance" by finishing each puzzle. Anything else will be icing on the cake.
Jim in NYC
I will be attending for the first time as well (tyro, neophyte, abecedarian to the xword pros). I have a surprise about my role though.
ReplyDeleteCool! Thanks, Rex.
ReplyDeleteI'm a rookie, and probably wouldn't have bothered if I didn't live in NYC. But when I discovered the tournament was in Brooklyn - and I wasn't doing a show that weekend - I started training like a madman.
Philly, intriguing...
I'm excited to meet Anonymous 7:51!
Per Patrick Merrell, there are around 640 contestants - down from last year's 698. More punch and pie for the rest of us!
Last year was my first ACPT, and I had a great time. It helped that I knew a lot of NPLers, but I also met a bunch of people, and even if you don't know others there, you'll meet folks and have a blast. I was 588 last year, after doing crosswords less than a year, but I've improved a lot since then. I'll be rooming with a first-timer friend Geir, who will kick my ass! Noam (D. Elkies) tells me he'll be there. Hi, Ellen!
ReplyDeleteBadir (David Moulton IRL)
Hey Rex et al. I'll be there to watch on Sunday. I'll be carrying a tub of OLEO.
ReplyDeletei will be there with all sorts of whistles and bells. though i only started doing crossword puzzles in the last year and definitely am not inclined to compete in the tournament.
ReplyDeleteim just looking forward to being around people who appreciate crosswords. you'll be able to recognize me by my awesome daily crossword drawing tee-shirt, possibly seated behind a giant table of other wares that i will hock at you. prepare yourself. i was raised by carnies.
to avoid hollering and haggling and also guarantee i have your size or the print you want, you can pre-order online through my website.
sorry for the shameless e-hocking.
Hey All:
ReplyDeleteI'll be there as well (pleased as punch to have a puzzle of mine come out on the Thursday before!). Not competing though -- I totally suck at crosswords!
Matt Ginsberg
I'm there; rank 214 last year (and 166 before that), fourth year competitor, my primary goal is to get in the top 30%. If I beat Mom, that's a bonus.
ReplyDelete@ matt
ReplyDeleteTruly a fun puzzle. I can't wait for the comments on the antagonyms.
I'll be there on Sat and Sun with my good friend Brian. We're both rookies and won't know anybody except each other. Looking forward to meeting some fellow xworders.
ReplyDeleteI'll attend for the first time. Expect nothing but the challenge of competing. This will be my first time too so am slightly nervous as will know nobody at all.
ReplyDeleteYou all are free to use actual names and or give people a reasonable indication of what you look like. Might help.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, my name tag will say "Michael Sharp" and my wife's will say "Penelope Harper" (the names we use while working as operatives for the NZ government).
rp
This is my first and I don't know a soul, so please, if you see a dork wandering around with the nametag, "Janet Tadpod" (my travel name, I'm a shrink and I use tadpod cause it's my blogger name), please come up and say hi. Rex, aside from enjoying your blog every day, you've made this a bit easier for me to go there alone and have an adventure.
ReplyDeletei'll be there as a rookie- i decided that since i live in nyc, i pretty much have no excuse not to go. i'm looking forward to my first tournament!
ReplyDeleteJeffrey K from Victoria, BC, Canada will be there if Homeland Security lets me in (Reason for travel to US? Crossword tournmament? Yeah, right, move to the side).
ReplyDeleteNumber 229 as a rookie last year, but only 10 points behind Rex until a final puzzle meltdown.
Hi, this is Morris Pelzel, and I want to wish all of you a fun time this weekend in Brooklyn. I won't be able to go :( but will be playing along online so I can work the same puzzles as you guys. Very much looking forward to Rex's post tournament writeups. Good luck and happy solving to you all.
ReplyDeleteI was so looking forward to this but my MS put me in the hospital this week. It was going to be my first trip but maybe next year.
ReplyDeleteBill Haddick
I will be there for the second time, coming down from NH, and frankly NYC freaks me out so I might be hiding in the hotel bar... :)
ReplyDeleteI look something like this (the taller one that's not Merl):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/436662740_77624a105b_m.jpg
- Pete Mitchell
oh pete!!
ReplyDeleteyou have no idea how much this half finished drawing of abe vigoda mocks me! i swear im not always this flaky. who knows. maybe ill pull through yet.
This will be my first as well.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to it. I am a local so won't be at the hotel. Good luck all.
Jeff
Michael Smith here...I will be there and will be one of the friendly judges. I am writing to Rex with a plan for an id beyond air colons.
ReplyDeleteI'm a rookie with no expectations of a strong showing.
ReplyDeleteTwo ways to recognize me: 1. My nametag will read Eli Barrieau. 2. I will have three day facial growth (gearing up for another exciting annual contest: Moustache Mondays at my high school). What?! There could be other solvers in similar states of slovenliness?! Well, just go by my nametag then. Looking forward to meeting you all.
As I recall, you can pull out the name tag from the plastic casing. If so, I will put a colon on the side to id me.
ReplyDelete(Or add your blog name to the name tag.)
ReplyDeleteIf you see two women in their early 40s who look a lot alike except for their hair color, that might be my sister and me. I'm the blonde and my name is Angela. See you all there!
ReplyDeleteGoing for the first time, still a couple years left to cash in on junior status. Looking forward to meeting you all there.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Eugene Edelstein (Gene), and I live on Long Island, so it's not a long trip for me. It IS a long trip for my son, who's coming from San Francisco to the tournament.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to being a father and son team (he's much better than I am, it seems, at least his times on the NYT puzzle are much faster), we have another distinction; my father (his grandfather) won the Herald Tribune's Worlds Cross Word Puzzle Tournament in 1935. I'm bringing a picture of the silver cup to prove it.
Seeing so many first-timers planning to go strengthens my timorous resolve to go in 2009. See you next year. Meanwhile, best of luck to you all!
ReplyDeleteI see I have company from British Columbia, although I'm from Vancouver. This is my first time at the tournament. I hope I do at least reasonably well considering all the comments I've had from people after I tell them why I'm going to New York for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteJason Feng
Vancouver, BC
Brooklyn never sounded more exciting to this NJ native.
ReplyDeleteWill be one of the 80+ judges, not a contestant.
Look forward to seeing you all.
Ashish
Rex and all ~ Have a great time! Wish I could be there with you, but unfortunately the tournament comes at a super busy time for me at work. (It's also a bit of a hike from Portland..as in Oregon, not Maine). Also--Rex, thanks for doing your site...I'm doing puzzles again after a number a years, and enjoy your commentary (and most everyone else's as well...) It's neat to be part of the community...
ReplyDelete