Madeline Kaplan author page
1 puzzle by Madeline Kaplan
with Constructor comments
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The version of this puzzle I originally submitted to the Times had five theme entries and only one movie title for each clue. The editors thought just one title might be a bit too tough, which I think was the right call. They also asked if I could try a version without TRADE SHOW ["Freaky Friday"?], the weakest themer of the original set.
I went back to the drawing board (thesaurus.com page for "movie") and was very happy to realize FLICK OF A SWITCH could work — not only as part of a 14-letter symmetrical pair, but with the exact same clue. Losing TRADE SHOW also meant losing my favorite entry, CLING FILM ["Free Solo?"], but what can you do.
As far as the fill goes, I'm happy about MILE TIME and ZIP TIE. I can't decide if the (unintentional) repeating letter stack in the NW corner is fun or distracting, but it's a bit late to worry about that now. I'm just psyched for this to be published!