Neil deGrasse Tyson author page
1 puzzle by Neil deGrasse Tyson
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 3 answer words debuted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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| M | U | L | E | I | T | S | A | L | A | U | R | A | ||
| I | M | O | N | R | U | B | Y | L | O | G | A | N | ||
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| R | E | D | D | W | A | R | F | G | O | O | D | S | ||
| H | E | A | V | E | N | L | Y | B | O | D | Y | |||
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★ Neil deGrasse Tyson! Fanboy SQUEEEE! (Sorry for breaking your eardrums.)
Huge fan of Tyson's — Jill and I watched all of his "Cosmos" remakes. In a time when science gets dismissed by all too many people, I love Tyson's efforts to educate and make change with humor. What a pleasure to get an amusing astronomy theme from him and Acme.
I had heard HEAVENLY BODIES before, in this [Total hottie?] sense, but the others felt fairly fresh. I particularly liked the more esoteric terms like STAR CLUSTER and GAS GIANT, showing off Tyson's depth in astronomy.
Did you understand the clue for RED DWARF? [Bashful?] refers to Bashful, one of the Seven Dwarfs — the one who frequently turns red. Concise, amusing, spot-on. Perfect!
There were a few rough aspects to the grid — the north, in particular, felt clunky. AIRE (suffix), ITSA (partial), AS BIG (quasi-partial) all in one area is not good. Adding a cheater square up there, perhaps at the A of AIRE, might have helped, while still allowing for PAYPAL. The overlap of LITTLE DIPPER and GAS GIANT does make things slightly tricky, but a section that unconstrained ought to be smoother, especially when it's so close to where most solvers start a puzzle.
At 80 words, this is over Will's usual max of 78. I don't mind that, if I get some nice bonuses in the fill. But aside from PAYPAL, there was only PUMICE, TWEETS, PSYCHO that added to the quality of my solve — not enough for my taste. No doubt that the grid construction is challenging, especially with five themers and a central 11-letter entry splitting up the puzzle, but I would have liked to see what happened if the three black squares after KNEAD were removed, allowing for a long down answer where AFAR and HOOVES are right now. Would have required moving around a ton of black squares, but even getting a single pair of great bonus entries can add so much.
That all said, when a theme shines, I don't mind grid flaws nearly as much. So happy to get this concept that's so appropriate to Tyson. Well done to Acme for bringing him into the NYT constructors' fold!