Don't Cross Words with Me about Crosswords

 The average solver might not know this, but crossword fans do--crossword puzzles have certain conventions, both to make the puzzle fair and to make it look better.  The primary rule is that every letter must be "checked," that is every letter in a white square must be part of both an across clue and a down clue.  This is done so that a solver has two chances to get an answer.  If they don't know the answer to one clue, they might know the answers to the intersecting clues, and thereby get the answer to the first clue.  Secondly, every answer should be at least three letters long.  This is done to not only make sure that each letter is checked, but also to allow a greater range of answers.  Even today, there are only so many two-letter combinations that make sense.  Re-using the same ones in multiple puzzles would leave a solver bored.  There is no maximum length except by the size of the puzzle, but because of other rules, there would have to be at least two more and as many as five more of the same length to remain a legal puzzle.  Lastly, crosswords have a radial symmetry.  Basically, if you turned an unsolved puzzle upside-down, the pattern of black and white squares would look the same.  Occasionally, a reflective symmetry is used instead, meaning the left and right sides match each other, except reversed, as in a mirror.  There are other conventions, but these are the major ones.  I bring this up because a major national magazine has recently made changes to its crossword puzzle.  So much so, that the puzzle should no longer be called a crossword.  This magazine is TV Guide.  Traditionally, their puzzle has never been one of the harder ones. When it went from digest to tabloid size years ago, a began doing the puzzle every issue.  I never had too many problems with it, unless the name of an unfamiliar actor or a character from a show I never saw came up.  Sure, there was an occasional offbeat answer and many clues weren't connected to television at all, but it was a nice diversion. Then, back in August, the magazine made a big change in the puzzle.  Many clues became unchecked.  Quite a few answers had only two letters.  The grid was unsymmetrical.  The puzzle broke all of these rules.  There wasn't even a theme tying many of the answers together.  Now, not every puzzle had a true theme, but the current configuration pretty much prevents that.  Also, the puzzle often has a sponsor who takes out a two-page spread including the puzzle, as well as a clue that refers back to the sponsor.  I'm sorry, but this no longer makes the puzzle a crossword.  Yes, some places and people would still call this a "crossword," but I am not one of them.  I guess it is easier to make a grid such as this, but it doesn't really work for me.  Solvers don't always like "easier."

Not Your Parents' Metrics System

 Do you know what was the number one song in the country las week?  Unless you are a chart-watcher like me, you might not.  It was "Way 2 Sexy" by Drake.  I, for one, have yet to hear it on any local Top 40 radio stations.  That isn't that strange, as my favorite rarely plays hip-hop/rap records unless they get very, super popular.  Then again, they have been known to randomly play songs that are fifteen, twenty years old out of nowhere.  In fact, the only time I might have heard even a snippet of it may have been when I was scrolling through SiriusXM radio in the last days of my free trial.  Drake didn't just have the top song, but nine out of the top ten.  In fact, every song from his latest album debuted in the top forty, and many people have never heard it on the radio.  This begs the question, how can all those songs debut so high without radio airplay?  Let's review the history of Billboard magazine and its chart.  Billboard started out by charting the sales of sheet music over a hundred years ago.  Yes, it is that old.  When recorded music and radio started out, they began to chart those as well.  In the 1950s, Billboard combined various data into a single Hot 100 chart, which is the primary chart used today.  Throughout most of the chart's history, the criteria for appearing were simple.  The song had to be played on the radio and available as a commercial single.  That second part was very important.  Even if a song was played non-stop on the radio, unless there was a way to buy it, the song couldn't chart.  At first, it was as a vinyl single, transferring to cassettes and CDs by the time I was a teenager.  Then, in the 1990s, a number of artists had very popular songs on the radio, as well as videos on MTV and elsewhere, but the songs were never available for individual sale.  Billboard initially tried to solve the problem by creating two sub-charts, on e for radio airplay and one for commercial, physical sales.  The airplay chart was close to the Hot 100 with a few outliers, but the sales chart looked nothing like it, as more and more songs were leaving physical sales behind.  Ultimately, Billboard had to allow all singles on the chart, as commercial sales were going digital, such as iTunes.  As part of this transition, Billboard switched how it weighed some of its metrics for determining the chart positions.  Where airplay and sales were once equal in standing, the metrics were changed to favor digital sales, streaming, and social media sharing.  What this means is that if a fan streams each single from an artist's new album, or purchases the singles individually instead of the album as a whole, each instance would count more for the chart than a single time a song is played on radio.  This is why Drake, and many other artists, debut an entire album on the charts when it first comes out, but rarely have the songs make a lasting impression unless they are released to radio.  This week, only two of Drake's songs stayed in the top ten, with "Stay" by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber climbing back to number one.  "Way 2 Sexy," or another song, might return to the top spot, but this is highly unlikely.  For example, Taylor Swift debuted at number on with "Cardigan" when her first new album of the year debuted.  However, it was the only song from that album to do so.  Not only that, but "Cardigan" quickly dropped out of the top ten and barely placed in the year-end charts.  Artists are gaming the system to get the coveted number one slot, but it is skewing how the charts work.  It is getting close to the point where being number one isn't so big of a deal any more.  Unless a song can show widespread airplay, or if fans keep a song steady on streaming (BTS fans, I'm looking at you for "Butter" being a success.), then it really isn't a great number one song. Just look at the charts, and question if they really reflect what is popular.

Anti Social Media Presents

     So, in my quest to start a secondary career as a social influencer, I wanted to make sure I had at least a minimum amount of media coverage.  I know that I need more, but I'm not sure what exactly I need and where I should be.  Obviously, I'm on Blogger, otherwise how could you be reading this post.  Unless you are some sort of telepath reading my mind, which, knowing me, could be entirely possible.  And, I do have two other blogs, my literary blog which I just started back on, and my store's blog which I haven't had an actual post on for over a year.  I have a channel of sorts on YouTube, since it is part of the Google suite of products.  I haven't done as much with it as I could be, but I have had one person follow me for a while, and two people commented once, but I think they were talking to each other.  Maybe.  I am also on Facebook, but so is practically everyone.  My store, Booknotes, is also on Facebook.  I post links to both Blogger and YouTube there.  In fact, more people probably see this from the links than by actual searching. Beyond those, my scope begins to thin out.  I'm on LinkedIn, but is rarely use it.  I'm just not that geared towards business at the moment.  I could use a lot of help there.  For instance, I messaged someone there recently on their birthday, but they never replied.  However, I just got a notification that they added new contacts to their profiles.  They interacted for one that, but not a message.  Okay.  My lack of a mobile device prevents me spreading my influence even farther.  So, no Instagram or Snapchat for me, just yet.  I have looked into Reddit quite a bit, but I have to officially join.  It just seems to confusing for me.  Then, there are all of these video fee channels going up, like Twitch.  I am still not sure exactly what that is.  I tried looking in on it a few times during a recent online convention.  Unfortunately, the only times I could look into it were when nothing interesting was happening, so I never could figure out what to do there and how to interact.  Besides, I think it is connected to Amazon, who is a direct competitor of mine, so I try not to go near it.  I have no idea what Pinterest is, beyond being some sort of online mission board, which doesn't interest me.  There are streaming services for various interests, such as Discord, but I am not sure if that is the way for me to go.  I just joined my first streaming service last week, for goodness sake.  I chose the free tile, can't afford upgrading at the moment.  So far, I've only been able to find the time to watch one program.  I'm too busy with other things online.  Such as my school assignments, regular business duties, and somehow becoming a world champion level Candy Crush Saga  player.  Really.  King emailed me saying that I have achieved a level only 0.5% of player reach.  I'm not sure I believe it, but it is an ego booster

Have a Piece of American Pie

Firstly, I tried to contact the second with a birthday song list this weekend.  Unfortunately, he has a very  low social media presence.  To the best of my knowledge, his birthday was never acknowledged, anywhere, unless it was super private, or I had the totally wrong date.  Either way, I have yet to have a response.  I might need a greater/wider social media presence myself, but that is, again, another topic for a later post.  This week, I am going to present a very weird series of connections, almost a conspiracy, but not quite.  This linchpin to this series is the song "American Pie" by Don McLean.  A magazine I looked at over a year ago felt that it was the quintessential rock song.  It is fairly long with lyrics that are difficult to figure out.  Supposedly, it is about the so-called 'day the music died,' but almost any and all events from the 60s could fit in quite applicably.  'The day the music died' involved a plane crash that killed three budding rock musicians in 1959:  Bill Haley, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens.  Strangely enough, "American Pie" was number one on the twelfth anniversary of that crash. Richie Valens was only on that plane because he won a coin toss.  The loser of that toss was Wayland Jennings, who would later have a long career as a famous country singer. He is also known for his lengthy partnership with Willie Nelson, as well as both having tax problems.  (Remember this; it's important.)  McLean has had other songs, but none as big of a hit.  Supposedly, McLean was also the inspiration behind the Roberta Flack hit "Killing Me Softly with His Song,' written after seeing him perform, which songs unknown.  "Killing Me Softly with His Song"  became Flack's second number one hit a year after McLean's "American Pie," as well as her second consecutive Grammy for 'Record of the Year.' In the mid 90s, a hip-hop trio from New Jersey would cover that song and it too became a hit, even though it was never released as a commercial single and therefore ineligible to chart on the Hot 100 list at that time.  The trio were the Fugees.  The group fell apart soon after their only real hit, for the possibility of individual success.  Wyclef Jean would become more of a producer or guest for others, most notably with Shakira on her biggest hit "Hips Don't Lie." The group's female member, Lauryn Hill, would go on to have the biggest success, for a short time.  Her solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill became a Grammy winning smash.  However, she has yet to score another hit, as she hit multiple problems of the years, most notably tax evasion charges.  So, through this bizarre series of connections, one could say that Wayland Jennings and his legal troubles are the reasons why Lauryn Hill got into legal trouble.  Yes, the ties are very tenuous, but the argument is fairly sound.  Hey, I find all of this very interesting, otherwise it wouldn't be the topic of this post, now would it?

I Did It, It Was Me Who Done Song

I really hate making title based on puns of DMB song lyrics, but I have hard time trying no to.  Anyway, a few weeks/post ago, I reported that I was going to be trying something new with birthday notifications on social media.  I was going to post the number one song from the day/week the person was born, with further suggestions from throughout their lives.  I was finally able to so yesterday.  It took me about an hour to compile the list of songs, mostly from interference from pop up ads.  Also, I has another friend whose birthday was a few days later that I was also researching.  There was about a 25% difference in songs, so I had to include a second song for some years.  I started out by messaging my friend a video clip of the song from the year he was born.  It was basically home movie footage set to the song, no real relation between the two.  I should have chosen the lyric video.  Well, I thought I sent it.  I have yet to receive any acknowledgement on his part for the message.  Second, I posted on his page my birthday wishes to him, as well as the entire top ten list for his birthday.  This, he did comment on, so I proceeded to the next step.  In the comments, I place a list of other number songs.  I chose so of the cheesiest and corniest ones, as a sort of a joke.  So far, no comments on them.  Maybe he was celebrating a lot last night.  If there had been comments, I would have had the list of good songs--The Emotions, The Knacks, Eurythmics, Mariah Carey, Eminem, two each from Boyz II Men and Taylor Swift, The Black Eyed Peas, The Chainsmokers, and Drake.  Maybe today.  This was the closest I could get to making an actual mix tape for him.  I don't really have the technical knowledge or clearances to do much more than that yet.  I'm hoping I get something for my birthday, as it has been years since I had a party or even a real gift, but I digress.  Perhaps someone will do the same for me next year.  I believe I actually have more groaners than my friend had listed.  At least I have a great rock song as number one for my birthday, and I actually do like it.  It's "American Pie" by Don McLean.  Next week, I will be posting some interesting facts and connections about this song, as well as how my second birthday tribute for this week goes.  I'm not sure how this will work, considering my friend's limited social media profile, but I can be up to the challenge