Nathan Hasegawa author page
2 puzzles by Nathan Hasegawa
with Jeff Chen comments
| S | L | O | T | C | A | R | M | E | S | S | I | P | L | O | S | I | V | E | ||
| R | E | W | R | O | T | E | I | V | I | E | S | R | A | N | A | W | A | Y | ||
| S | I | L | E | N | T | M | D | E | N | I | S | A | N | E | M | O | N | E | ||
| S | M | A | S | H | I | N | G | S | U | C | C | E | S | S | ||||||
| H | A | S | A | B | L | A | S | T | M | E | A | T | H | E | A | D | S | |||
| F | E | N | N | O | E | S | R | I | O | T | E | T | A | |||||||
| A | R | I | A | Y | E | T | S | P | A | E | C | G | G | L | U | T | ||||
| C | O | S | M | O | P | A | L | P | I | T | A | T | E | T | A | I | N | T | ||
| T | I | T | E | R | Y | E | N | T | L | M | I | L | N | E | ||||||
| O | Z | O | N | E | H | G | O | W | H | H | O | G | M | C | U | L | E | S | ||
| R | E | N | D | C | O | I | N | S | E | U | R | O | S | S | O | R | T | |||
| B | A | R | N | O | A | T | R | A | K | E | ||||||||||
| Z | I | P | C | A | R | S | F | U | R | O | R | R | I | C | H | A | R | D | ||
| E | F | I | L | E | D | N | O | T | E | P | A | D | N | O | O | G | I | E | ||
| E | S | A | U | S | I | X | T | A | U | M | E | M | E | |||||||
| B | L | A | C | K | H | H | I | N | O | N | E | |||||||||
| S | E | A | S | H | O | R | E | D | O | T | S | I | D | E | S | L | I | P | ||
| I | N | S | C | A | L | E | M | U | R | A | L | T | E | A | T | I | M | E | ||
| D | O | P | E | S | W | H | A | C | A | M | O | L | E | R | A | S | P | S | ||
| E | L | E | N | A | S | E | N | A | T | E | B | I | D | S | T | L | E | O | ||
| B | A | N | E | M | E | T | E | R | E | D | E | E | L | S |
| C | A | M | O | C | L | A | R | A | F | R | A | |||
| R | A | M | E | N | S | E | W | E | R | L | E | T | ||
| O | P | E | R | A | P | A | R | T | B | A | G | O | ||
| B | O | N | E | W | E | A | R | Y | O | R | M | A | N | |
| H | O | N | T | R | E | B | L | E | ||||||
| M | O | T | R | I | N | S | A | Y | S | N | O | |||
| A | B | R | A | M | H | E | L | P | E | Y | E | S | ||
| L | O | A | M | L | A | M | B | O | W | A | L | E | ||
| T | E | M | P | E | L | I | A | M | E | N | S | A | ||
| P | A | I | N | T | S | T | A | R | T | A | R | |||
| A | D | O | R | N | S | F | E | E | ||||||
| D | E | L | T | S | H | E | R | E | W | E | A | R | E | |
| D | W | I | E | L | A | T | E | E | C | R | U | S | ||
| T | E | N | C | O | U | N | T | S | H | E | E | P | ||
| O | Y | E | T | A | T | A | S | T | O | A | D |
Debut! I sheepishly must say that I wasn't sure what COUNT / SHEEP indicated at first. Looking at the long Across answers — usually, the entries containing the theme — I did notice that there were a ton of EWEs. Ah, there must be twelve EWEs!
Only six?
Maybe we're counting ewe eyes?
I figured I must have missed some diagonals. Backward diagonals, even. Ah, Nathan must have counted EWEs that take a turn! The middle letter of FEE, for instance, is a starting E. It then travels diagonally southeast to get a W … and then forms four different EWEs, by heading any of four directions to pick up a final E!
I've been doing too many P&As.
Jim Horne gently pointed out that there are other sheep words: LAMB and RAM. Altogether, there are six EWEs, four RAMs, and two LAMBs. Where they are exactly, I'll leave that up to ewe. Not because I'm too lazy to circle them below. It's for your own good. You know what they say, feed a man a sheep, teach a man to sheep …
Such an incredible amount of theme density, those twelve hidden SHEEP packed in everywhere. To escape with minimal short glue is impressive, especially for a debut constructor.
At first, the grid seemed to lack color, with BONE WEARY and HERE WE ARE fine but not that exciting, and RENEWER taking up space. A second look made me remember MAE WEST, though, plus RAMPART and ON A WHIM. And that clue for INSECT, one putting out literal feelers. Great stuff.