Andrew Linzer author page
2 puzzles by Andrew Linzer
with Constructor comments
| D | I | Y | T | H | A | T | S | A | F | I | R | S | T | |
| E | M | O | R | E | L | E | A | S | E | D | A | T | E | |
| S | A | G | I | M | A | X | T | H | E | A | T | E | R | |
| K | W | A | M | E | S | T | E | E | L | T | A | M | ||
| J | A | M | E | S | I | E | L | M | S | |||||
| O | R | A | L | M | A | S | T | E | R | K | E | Y | ||
| B | E | T | F | A | C | T | O | R | I | E | S | |||
| H | U | G | U | E | N | O | T | S | ||||||
| W | A | T | E | R | R | I | D | E | B | A | G | |||
| J | A | Z | Z | D | A | N | C | E | G | A | L | A | ||
| B | O | D | Y | S | H | A | Z | A | M | |||||
| R | A | D | S | P | O | T | S | A | B | O | D | E | ||
| O | N | L | I | N | E | P | O | K | E | R | O | D | D | |
| O | N | E | M | O | R | E | T | I | M | E | K | I | A | |
| M | E | D | S | T | U | D | E | N | T | S | A | N | Y |
Thanks to my friend Michael Menz who made a C++ tool that helped fill the center section of this grid! Michael is one of my favorite people to discuss puzzles with and was a big part of this construction.
47-Down is the only country that can be written on one row of a keyboard. Supposedly, TYPEWRITER is the longest word with this property.
| S | P | A | N | M | E | E | K | H | A | L | O | |||
| C | A | M | O | I | S | L | A | A | X | O | N | |||
| A | V | I | D | C | C | C | M | Y | S | T | E | R | Y | |
| L | I | L | P | D | A | S | A | M | E | S | E | X | ||
| L | L | L | M | O | N | T | H | K | I | T | ||||
| B | O | L | O | T | I | E | T | O | D | O | S | |||
| B | R | U | N | E | I | K | O | B | E | O | V | A | ||
| L | O | C | K | S | C | E | N | E | O | M | E | N | ||
| A | S | K | S | E | A | S | A | S | P | I | R | E | ||
| B | A | S | I | C | D | U | S | T | P | A | N | |||
| M | O | M | P | E | N | A | L | A | A | A | ||||
| T | U | G | B | O | A | T | W | I | T | H | A | H | ||
| G | R | O | U | P | T | H | I | N | K | L | A | C | E | |
| I | D | L | E | Z | E | R | O | A | N | I | M | |||
| F | U | D | D | O | M | A | N | O | D | D | S |
So excited to make my NYT debut! I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, and recently moved to Oakland, CA, where I work in healthcare analytics. Outside of crosswords, my passions include board games, basketball, and public staircases.
This idea was inspired by this cool 2015 puzzle by Jacob Stulberg. My main construction challenge was to squeeze in three sets of animals that have relatively recognizable group names. I considered an ESCAPE POD of SEALs for some versions, but ultimately CROW, LION, and ANT proved the easiest to work with. For the revealer, I also considered HERD MENTALITY and the pop band ANIMAL COLLECTIVE.
The PRIDE MONTH of LIONs is my favorite theme answer and I had fun bringing in some longer rebus entries like CROWD NOISE and DOMINANT HAND. Meanwhile, I wish I could've avoided PENAL COLONY, MICROWATT, and ANIM.
A big thank you to Sarah, Mike, and Avery for their great guidance on early versions of this puzzle.
Hope everyone's having a good Thursday!
PS: I also want to shout out this similar Fireball puzzle by Paolo Pasco, which I learned about in the lead-up to publication. It's disappointing to know I wasn't the first to this idea! It also seems highly fitting that the theme for both puzzles is GROUPTHINK (and an honor to be in any kind of group with a legend like Paolo).