Philip Wolfe author page
1 puzzle by Philip Wolfe
with Jeff Chen comments
| A | B | R | A | B | A | R | B | S | O | F | F | S | ||
| B | R | O | T | I | N | U | R | E | W | R | I | T | ||
| Y | O | U | O | N | L | Y | L | I | V | E | L | I | V | E |
| S | I | G | N | A | L | E | D | E | N | V | E | T | ||
| S | L | E | E | P | Y | E | R | A | T | O | ||||
| D | E | B | T | S | S | C | O | L | D | S | ||||
| A | S | P | O | A | K | S | T | R | O | U | T | |||
| B | L | I | N | D | B | L | I | N | D | S | T | U | D | Y |
| L | A | S | E | R | I | T | O | O | S | E | X | |||
| E | M | C | E | E | S | S | T | O | A | T | ||||
| O | R | A | T | E | F | L | I | M | S | Y | ||||
| E | L | S | M | A | T | H | U | P | T | A | K | E | ||
| G | O | O | D | Y | S | H | O | E | S | S | H | O | E | S |
| G | L | U | E | I | N | U | S | E | E | R | I | E | ||
| Y | A | R | N | S | O | R | T | S | D | I | N | S |
My latest YouTube obsession is the Takedown Twins, a pair of New Englanders who ingest massive amounts of food. I've tried to convince my identical twin that we should start a YouTube channel, but Alex has a peculiar aversion toward Feats of Abomination. Doesn't he know the real-time streamers' motto, YOU ONLY LIVE (rhymes with "give") LIVE (rhymes with "hive")?
Feels like there's a crossword theme in there somewhere …
"Repeating word" themes go back for decades, and editors don't take them much these days because they can feel a tad (warning: pun alert) repetitive. (Double) AGENT alone showed up again in 1999, then a third time in 2001.
However, I like Philip's effort to distinguish his execution, incorporating the repeats into longer phrases. YOU ONLY LIVE (TWICE), (DOUBLE) BLIND STUDY, GOODY (TWO) SHOES are all excellent base phrases. Nice touch to have one implied word at the beginning, one at the end, and one in the middle, to help make the trick a tad bit harder.
With just three themers, I expect a ton of great fill and a squeaky-clean grid. PISCO SOUR / BILLY BOB / DOOFUSES / FRIVOLOUS does the trick for the first criterion. Smoothness wasn't as DREAMY, though.
Kicking off the northwest corner with BROT is a toughie. Given that Will Shortz has never allowed it during his era as editor, I'd have guessed it'd be on his list of "puzzle-killers." It's a shame — the other ETHNO, NEER, EST, STET material would have seemed minor, but BROT brotens them all. Perhaps a black square at the S of SLEEPY would have allowed for a cleaner product.
It's difficult to distinguish yourself when in "repeated words" territory, but I appreciated Philip's attempt. And it was great to get a couple of clever clues, especially ROUGE making you (literally) blush, and a VET as a "pro who calls the shots."