Lots more themed puzzles in the roundup this month than usual, which is a development I welcome! Though of course, excellent indie themelesses are still being published at an astonishing rate.
April 1: [post title here] DO NOT PUBLISH EARLY (Paolo Pasco, Grids These Days)
April 9: Think Twice (Sid Sivakumar, The Juggernaut)
April 10: #Repeal (Finn Vigeland, These Puzzles Fund Abortion)
April 15: The Cruellest Month (Chris Piuma, Wordgarbler)
April 15: Stuck in Traffic (Sara Cantor, Crosshare)
April 21: Untitled (Quiara Vasquez, The Atlantic)
April 22: Knock Knock! (Adam Aaronson, Aaronson)
April 24: Well, Whaddya Say? (Kevin G. Der, American Crossword Puzzle Tournament)
April 26: Untitled (Brooke Husic, Boswords)
April 26: Themeless 7 (Mollie Cowger, Crosswords from Outer Space)
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
[post title here] DO NOT PUBLISH EARLY (Paolo Pasco)
Probably the single funniest puzzle published this year that's not by Et Tu Etui (who is, of course, a real person and not a pseudonym for a prominent indie constructor). The theme is FIRST DRAFTS, where words for wind have been moved from the end to the beginning of common phrases: SELF-DISGUST becomes GUSTSELFDIS, SPARKLING ALE becomes GALESPARKLIN, and BE KIND REWIND becomes WINDBEKINDRE. But the real fun is in the clues, which are written as if they're a first draft which was decidedly not meant to be published yet. There are lots of indie constructors who are very skilled at the technical aspects of construction, but few who can hold a candle to Paolo when it comes to the pure entertainment factor.
Think Twice (Sid Sivakumar)
Sid hasn't posted much on his famous blog recently, but he's been busy: he's the editor of the new crossword for The Juggernaut, focused on South Asian culture. Sid performs a pretty impressive feat here - the wordplay mechanism of the theme (a progression from quarter to half to full to double) has nothing to with South Asia, but all the theme entries have a South Asian tie-in. We've got the cricket term QUARTER CENTURY, HALF SARI, FULL MOON, and DOUBLE KA MEETHA. Not only that, the four long down entries in the fill (SESAME OIL, COWHERDS, ROSE MILK, and SCIENTIST) all have relevant clues, too. The puzzle has a ton of resonance for South Asians, but it's still solvable by anybody, which is not an easy task.
#Repeal (Finn Vigeland)
Every puzzle in the These Puzzles Fund Abortion pack is good, but my favorite is Finn's, with a theme about repealing the Hyde Amendment. Words and phrases with the string HYDE (HYDERABAD, PHILOSOPHY/DEPARTMENT, and PACHYDERM) have the string "repealed," so that the down clues only make sense if you ignore those letters (but are legitimate crossword entries either way). I especially like the wackiness of splitting the HYDE in PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT across two entries. (And yes, I realize I've highlighted a lot of puzzles with this type of theme gimmick in these roundups! I guess if you're angling for a spot in one of my writeups, you know what type of theme to go for.)
The Cruellest Month (Chris Piuma)
In honor of National Poetry Month, Chris has created a puzzle absolutely packed with poetry - both in the fill and in the clues, many of which are written in a poetic style instead of straight prose. Admittedly, as someone who's a fan of many of the poets featured in the grid, including HARRYETTE MULLEN and BERNADETTE MAYER, I was predisposed to like this one, but I also just love when constructors write puzzles that really dive deeply into subjects they're passionate about. If you're not into poetry, you'll find this one difficult, but still very much worth your while.
Stuck in Traffic (Sara Cantor)
This puzzle has three unchecked, unclued squares - how are we supposed to be figure out what goes in them? Well, the first thing that jumps out is that there in a pattern of black squares that looks like a traffic light. But still, that doesn't narrow it down to one possibility - there are a few sets of words you could use to describe the three segments of a traffic light. There's a beautiful aha moment, though - the squares aren't really unchecked, since the words that you have to enter combine with the words to their left and right to make legitimate entries. For example, the top square is between GOB and PER, and entering STOP gives you GOBSTOPPER; similarly, SLOW goes between CAN'T and DOWN to make CAN'T SLOW DOWN, and GO turns CAR and BAY into CARGO BAY. One of the most original mechanisms I've seen in ages.
Untitled (Quiara Vasquez)
Usually The Atlantic only does 15x15 puzzles on Sundays, but this Wednesday puzzle is a special Earth Day-themed offering from Quiara. The theme is simple enough - our revealer, GREEN NEW DEAL, hints that the theme entries contain anagrams of GREEN - but there's an extra layer of elegance here, as all the theme entries are given ecological clues. ENERGY SECTOR is [Target of carbon taxes], RENEGOTIATE is [Talk new terms, as with the Paris Agreement], and GENERATION Z is [Greta Thunberg, et al.]. I love it when a constructor takes a theme idea with many, many possible themers and adds an extra constraint to narrow it down.
Knock Knock! (Adam Aaronson)
An elegant theme based on the memetic phrase FBI, OPEN UP. In the theme entries, the letters FBI "open up" - first they're consecutive (in DATE OF BIRTH), then separated by a single square (SOFT-BOILED), then two squares (FLY-BY-NIGHT), and finally three squares (FREEBOOTING). As an extra nice touch, there are no other occurrences of F, B, or I in the theme entries.
Well, Whaddya Say? (Kevin G. Der)
A devious theme for the notorious Puzzle 5 at the ACPT. Pairs of consecutive across answers have to be phonetically reparsed to make sense. For example, [Friend of Harry Potter] and [Mexican state bordering Texas] clue RON and CHIHUAHUA, but those don't fit in the grid - instead, you have to enter RAUNCHY and WAWA. Similarly, MANIC + INFERS = MANNEQUIN + FIRS, SCENT + ORCHESTRAL = CENTAUR + KESTREL, ZEE + BOOMERANGS = ZEBU + MERINGUES, and OWE + CRUSTACEAN = OKRA + STATION. Beautifully tric ky, and Kevin managed to find some beautiful pairings, all of which have significant spelling changes.
Untitled (Brooke Husic)
This puzzle is a perfect encapsulation of what makes Brooke's themelesses so great. We've got a broad range of cultural and demographic references (HIAWATHA BELT, CODE RED clued as ["I need a tampon" euphemism]), fresh cluing angles even for the common short fill ([Dancer's pivoting aid, for short] for ACL, ["So ___!" ("Delish!" at some luaus] for ONO), and diagonal symmetry that allows for intersecting great long entries (SHE/HER PRONOUNS, I SHOULD HOPE NOT, VINTAGE STORE) without compromising the short fill.
Themeless 7 (Mollie Cowger)
I've liked every themeless that Mollie's posted on her site so far - they're always clean, full of fun fill, and packed with clever clues. This one accomplishes all that with just 64 words, including stacked seed entries of CERTIORARI and SAOIRSE RONAN, plus stuff like CHIWEENIES and SPACE TOURIST. The cluing might be this puzzle's strongest point - coming up with a clever and original clue for something like RAS isn't easy, but [They're generally given singles] fits the bill. Ditto [Chart-toppers?] for CEOS (think org charts). But my favorite clue is surely [Thumb between two fingers, allegedly], which made me take my fingers of the keyboard briefly to figure out that the answer was NOSE.
No comments:
Post a Comment