Hypercross: Sweet!

Best to break out the yoga mat and get limber for this one, folks.

Enh. The first-from-the-top down answer can be spelled a few different ways, only one of which is ruled out by the crossing letter. (For those who don't see it: the second letter is "y".) Add to that the fact that many of these are less than familiar; plus, if my guess about that cat in the last across answer is right, the pronunciation is *way* off. So, overall, enh.

I hate having to identify pictures of celebrities.

salt for the drum one?

I'm concerned that middle bottom down is a regional expression I haven't heard before....or am I being very dense?

Any help on the swamp or the drums?

[6] I'd love to help, but I'm stuck on those two as well.

[4],[6] I think the brand of drums is important, and the swamp one comes from a tree in Indochina... but I'm not sure, since I can't figure out the topmost across.

[8] for the second half think of the band with one less B. Also usually this is followed by melon, I think.

Found the last two - one (drums) was vaguely familiar, the other (swamp) I had never heard of before. At least only two needed a bit of googling to find.

I have all but the swamp(?) + peas one... I'm gonna check for salt at BGG... if anyone has salt for the swamp + peas, I'd love some salt sent to me (tamiwhitsett).

[9] Thanks. That helped. But I apparently still have something wrong. Just don't know what it is.

*sigh* no salt on BGG yet...

[13] Just sprinkled some.

[12] Mistakes I had made:
Middle across - conflated a baked/fried treat with the theme of the puzzle.

My sweetie saved the day again. Finally got 'em all.

I'm having trouble on the cheese, and the swedish pop group.

Any salt?

EDIT: Never mind - I brute forced it.

Obscure fruits and odd pronunciations mixed with unnecessary plurals
Not a lot of fun

I solved it, but I completely don't get how the Halle Berry clue works.

OMG!!! Those toes! They need to be on Cute Overlord!!

Sorry that so many are finding it too difficult.
[18] - some of the fruit IS obscure, granted, but the pluralizations were based on the sounds from the clues- if the clue ended in a plural sound (i.e. "Simmons") then the answer was pluralized. I didn't realize that would be viewed as "unnecessary" or confusing.

*sigh*

That was tough ... I've never heard of some of those. Had to use a crossword solver for the guitar player and his friends since I didn't recognize any of them.

Guitar player is probably not going to be well known around the world. He was runner up in this year's America's Got Talent.

I'm done if anyone needs a push.

I have to say, AwpH, that I think you did a great job. By the time that I worked out the key sounds you were going for within each clue picture I was able to type them in to a Google search with the word "fruit" after it, and even when I had not heard of the specific fruit, Google's automatic correction was usually able to find it.

After [8]'s good salt about the drum brand, I was able to put in one additional letter I had from another crossing word and find it with a crossword helper. Then, of course, I remembered being served that fruit (as a sauce) in Indian restaurants.

All-in-all I would say you wrote a fun one, so please take heart about some of the negative comments — I think the full moon has made people more grumpy lately. :^)

I must confess that feel like writing this in your defence; having come away from probably the most negative comments about almost any puzzle I've seen regarding my Hypercross published yesterday! If you dare try it, you will feel much better about how well yours is done by comparison…

[Caution: Be sure to open Web link in new window or tab or you may loose your puzzle progress!]

http://www.tanga.com/crossword_puzzles/160

Cheers!

freelancelot

Hey--I liked it. The cool thing is that I learned about some things I didn't know before, and it didn't require photo identification of obscure plants.

[26] I second that--I quite liked this one. It was more than mere photo ID, it wasn't stuff that I knew right off the bat, but with a little googling, a little oneacross.com, and a little salt, not a problem. Worth 2 points, but not tedious, in my opinion. :) (I do have to agree, though, that the cat clue is a bit of a stretch pronunciation-wise--possibly another paw would've worked better, or somehow getting the opposite of Ma, or even a nickname for British citizens--Prisoners Of Her Majesty, POM)

Next time, just do a "-s" for the ones that are clued as plural, and you'll be all set. Otherwise, thanks for a fun puzzle!

Any salt on the berry one, I have all but that one dont seem to work here tks........

[28] Well, you've got the berry part, so the other part could more obviously have been clued with a picture of a bird that honks and flies south for the winter. (and if that salt doesn't ring any immediate bells, there are enough key words in that description for you to google and find it rather quickly)

tks....

[29] I agree. I also think finding a clearer picture of the "march" step would do the trick in the same way — though it would be hard to stay in politically correct territory picture-wise…

[Caution: Be sure to open the following Web link in new window or tab or you may loose your puzzle progress!]

PS: Here is a fun — but salty — image: http://www.housetohome.org/fruit/

What the HELL with the Hypercrosses the last couple of days? This one wasn't any more fun than yesterday's. Screw it.

Okay, I'm fine with the puzzle (answers that required thinking, only one image -- the one of the guy with a guitar -- was too obscure, etc). What I'm not fine with is having a completely filled grid and having my answers not accepted. I've tried an alternate spelling of the one with the swamp, and even, in a fit of self-doubt, went and triple-checked all the ones I was "sure" I was right on (and found that I'm still right -- the last across one was where I had self-doubt). But the answers are not getting accepted. I don't know if that's Tanga's fault, or the fault of an incorrect solution, but it's frustrating as hell.

Make sure the middle down one (the one that starts at the very top) has a "Y". Make sure the first one across has a "B" (I had a "V" at first. I'm not sure they're even the same thing.)

Neither of those are problems in my grid.

I actually got fed up and typed every one into Wikipedia, just in case. If there's a misspelling, it's not on my end. I'm suspecting it's a Tanga glitch at this point. Clearing cookies did no good, though.

This hypercross turned me into a strawberry!

Hunh. And now it worked. I blame society. Or the Tangathon.

I now have what I am CERTAIN is a correct solution, and it's still not taking it. Even with ambiguously alternate spellings.

Congratulations, AwpH. You actually managed to lower the bar set yesterday.

[38] feel free to GM me with what you have, if you would like assistance in clearing up what's not being accepted.

True for anyone, for that matter.

With all of the salt posted above, I managed to get them all....However, they wouldn't take it...then I realized I had the bottom-most one misspelled.

*Slaps forehead*