New York Times, Thursday, January 15, 2015
| Author: | Herre Schouwerwou |
| Editor: | Will Shortz |
I am thrilled to make my NY Times crossword debut today. I live on beautiful Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
Crosswords have been a part of my life for a long time now but only recently have I taken a more serious approach to puzzle construction. There are three women who I want to thank: my mom for buying crossword books and letting me fill in a few, Jenni for introducing me to "Wordplay" and suffering through my early constructions, and Nancy Salomon for mentoring my first few submissions.
Today's theme came about while I was cluing my first accepted crossword (that first "Crossword — Yes!" email put a grin on my face for days). I wasn't too sure if Will would accept a quote puzzle but I loved the quote and its required punctuation (with an emphasis on 'pun'). And as luck would have it, it split perfectly into 4 long symmetrical entries.
Fortunately, Will liked it too but asked me to revise the fill since it had quite a few undesirable entries. I like that he works with constructors to improve the fill if he likes the theme. My original crossword had the author's name split over 2 entries and it was suggested to remove the name to allow for cleaner fill. After a few email exchanges, Will gave his grid approval and okay to clue. The final result is so much better than my original grid.
This has been quite the learning experience and I am grateful to Will and Joel (and Paula and Anna) for their feedback on accepted and rejected puzzles. This may be my first puzzle in print but it won't be my last.
And you can quote me on that!
What a nice debut. I'm normally not a fan of quote puzzles, as they became overdone a while back, but this one amused me. I like a laugh or a bon mot in my crossword, so who better to quote from than the witty Ogden Nash? I was plus-minus on it all until I got to the last line and its clever use of the hyphen in BALTI-MORE. Very amusing.
In many ways, I found it hard to believe that it was a debut. It's well laid-out, does a nice job of adding in long fill, and keeps things relatively clean. Sure, there's an EER and an ESTOP, an AERO and an AGHA, but those are all pretty minor. It's not quite to the point where I felt like it was super-smooth – that usually happens if there's maybe only two gluey bits – but it's darn close. Even more impressive considering Herre chose to use the difficult "parallel downs" arrangement in MOON BOOT and ART TATUM. So often this requires a lot of paste to hold everything together.
How I loved seeing one of my favorite pianists, ART TATUM, in the puzzle! Now, I personally tend to avoid proper names in long fill, preferring colorful phrases instead, because if the solver doesn't know the person, it's kind of a waste. That's likely the case today, as I doubt many people know or appreciate ART TATUM's brilliance. (Shame on you, infidels.) I did worry a bit when I saw the ART TATUM, DORY, DARYL crossings – three tough entries crossing each other – but ultimately I think they're all gettable, if not inferable.
Fun use of the hyphen, both as a play on words, and as a crossword rule-breaker. Hoping to see more from Herre.
1 C | 2 U | 3 L | 4 T | 5 S | 6 E | 7 A | 8 S | 9 T | 10 T | 11 S | 12 A | 13 R |
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14 A | T | E | A | M | 15 U | G | L | Y | 16 O | L | G | A |
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17 N | I | M | B | I | 18 C | H | O | P | 19 M | E | E | T |
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20 I | C | O | U | L | 21 D | H | A | V | E | 22 B | E | D | S |
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23 T | A | N | 24 E | E | R | 25 E | S | 26 T | O | P | ||||
27 L | O | V | E | 28 D | N | E | W | Y | O | 29 R | 30 K |
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31 U | 32 N | 33 P | I | N | 34 A | L | T | O | 35 V | E | E |
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36 H | A | I | L | 37 M | 38 A | R | Y | S | 39 P | E | N | D |
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40 U | S | E | 41 D | O | R | Y | 42 S | O | R | T | S |
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43 H | A | D | 44 I | N | O | T | L | 45 O | 46 V | E | D | |||
47 P | L | A | N | T | 48 K | I | A | 49 C | 50 A | 51 M |
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52 B | 53 A | I | L | 54 B | A | 55 L | T | I | - | 56 M | O | R | E |
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57 R | E | P | S | 58 O | T | O | H | 59 D | I | N | G | Y |
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60 A | R | E | A | 61 O | U | S | E | 62 O | N | C | U | E |
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63 G | O | R | Y | 64 T | M | E | N | 65 O | T | H | E | R |
| Across | Down | |
| 1. Some worship groups : CULTS 6. Sports division : EAST 10. Bygone monarch : TSAR 14. Starters : ATEAM 15. Hardly fair : UGLY 16. One of Chekhov's "Sisters" : OLGA 17. Rain makers : NIMBI 18. Ax : CHOP 19. Assemble : MEET 20. Beginning of a quote by Ogden Nash, with punctuation included : ICOULDHAVE 22. Kings and queens : BEDS 23. Shade from the sun : TAN 24. Always, according to Shakespeare : EER 25. Block, at the bar : ESTOP 27. Quote, part 2 : LOVEDNEWYORK 31. Loosen, in a way : UNPIN 34. Many a Vienna Boys' Choir boy : ALTO 35. Lead to victory? : VEE 36. With 37-Across, desperate attempts : HAIL 37. See 36-Across : MARYS 39. Remain in limbo : PEND 40. Put into action : USE 41. Flat-bottomed boat : DORY 42. Triages, e.g. : SORTS 43. Quote, part 3 : HADINOTLOVED 47. Deliver, as a big kiss : PLANT 48. Soul producer : KIA 49. Web ending : CAM 52. Trust fund? : BAIL 54. End of the quote : BALTI-MORE 57. Some elected officials, briefly : REPS 58. However, in a tweet : OTOH 59. Not bright anymore : DINGY 60. Flat figure : AREA 61. Sussex river where Virginia Woolf tragically ended her life : OUSE 62. At the perfect moment : ONCUE 63. Gruesome, say : GORY 64. Ones on the money trail, informally : TMEN 65. What's not included : OTHER |
1. "Not another peep!" : CANIT 2. Empire State city : UTICA 3. One of the original Life Savers fruit flavors : LEMON 4. Perfume that's off-limits? : TABU 5. Shower with good fortune : SMILEON 6. Bamboozle : EUCHRE 7. Ottoman honorific : AGHA 8. Disheveled : SLOVENLY 9. Prepares for printing : TYPESETS 10. Girl who challenges stereotypes : TOMBOY 11. Perfect night for a pillow fight : SLEEPOVER 12. Put in for extra time? : AGED 13. "Shoot!" : RATS 21. Patel of "The Newsroom" : DEV 26. Tango number : TWO 27. Teeny-weeny : LIL 28. Musical Hall : DARYL 29. Full of tears : RENT 30. Classic canvas-top sneakers : KEDS 31. "Not gonna happen" : UHUH 32. Booster org. : NASA 33. Leading folk figure : PIEDPIPER 37. Fashionable 1980s item resembling a bit of astronaut's attire : MOONBOOT 38. Nearly blind jazz great : ARTTATUM 39. Milkweed feature : POD 41. Code used in many court cases : DNA 42. Popular recreational watercraft : SEA-DOO 44. "You're darn tootin'!" : ILLSAY 45. "Sounds good!" : OKTHEN 46. Hour on a grandfather clock : VII 49. Seashore souvenir : CONCH 50. Thrash out : ARGUE 51. "The Host" author Stephenie : MEYER 52. Exhibit some immodesty : BRAG 53. Streamlined, for short : AERO 55. Bow (to) : LOSE 56. Where money is made : MINT |
Answer summary: 7 unique to this puzzle, 1 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?