Brent Sverdloff author page
1 puzzle by Brent Sverdloff
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 3 answer words debuted by Brent Sverdloff.
| O | L | A | V | O | F | A | R | T | S | H | A | H | ||
| S | O | L | O | N | I | M | E | S | C | O | S | A | ||
| H | A | L | L | O | F | F | A | M | E | A | N | T | I | |
| A | T | F | G | O | T | T | O | C | L | E | R | K | ||
| H | E | L | L | O | H | O | W | A | R | E | Y | O | U | |
| M | O | E | T | B | U | D | ||||||||
| O | P | A | L | S | T | R | U | M | R | E | P | |||
| H | I | L | L | S | T | R | E | E | T | B | L | U | E | S |
| O | N | E | T | H | I | E | F | E | L | L | A | |||
| A | A | A | P | A | N | E | ||||||||
| H | O | L | L | Y | W | O | O | D | A | C | T | O | R | |
| A | R | E | A | S | V | I | O | L | A | F | I | R | ||
| S | I | R | S | H | U | L | L | A | B | A | L | O | O | |
| T | O | O | K | S | L | E | E | T | B | A | J | A | ||
| E | N | Y | A | T | E | R | S | E | S | W | A | N |
Debut! Brent and Michael bring us a vowel progression theme with the HxLL pattern. I love the term HULLABALLOO, an all-too-familiar description of a house with a 6-mo. old and a toddler who can now reach just about anything.
I've heard some folks say they're dead tired of vowel progressions, and I do think they are going by the wayside. But that's just the natural course of any standard theme type. Constructors have to figure out ways of doing an overdone theme type better, more elegantly, a little differently for it to stand out. A shame that this one is so similar to the one Brent and Michael pointed out.
ACME told me that vowel progressions are like poetry — I liked that sentiment. The sound of HALL to HELLO to HILL to HOLLY to HULLA ... some might holla that it's hella pretty.
(Don't worry, the poetry police just revoked my license.)
Five super-long themers are no easy feat. The overlap between HALL OF FAME and HELLO HOW ARE YOU causes all sorts of problems, for example. Check out where GOT TO sits — there are so many down answers that need to run through that section, and that causes strain. Inelegant to get OF ART at the very top, and that NIMES / AMATO crossing is a killer. Toss in REMOW, and that's butting up against my threshold for crossword glue for an entire puzzle.
Considering HELLO HOW ARE YOU is just so-so in my eyes, I'd rather have seen something shorter, like HELLO THERE! matched with HOLLY BOUGH or the like.
Nice bonuses in ALL FEMALE and RULE OF LAW; hard to accomplish within such a theme-dense puzzle. A few years ago, I spent some time in the Gambia with an NGO, and I came back with all sorts of ideas how to help. One of my former econ profs suggested that what he'd do would be to find ways of strengthening RULE OF LAW, for, without it, any other effort will be close to meaningless. Fingers crossed for a smooth transition of power in the Gambia.