Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
---|---|---|---|
181 | 3/15/1994 | 12/12/2018 | 5 |
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
44 | 5 | 12 | 24 | 57 | 13 | 26 |
Scrabble | Rebus | Circle | Pangram |
---|---|---|---|
1.55 | 14 | 21 | 1 |
I've written a number of crosswords for The Times about U.S. presidents, including a Sunday puzzle in 2004 to celebrate the opening of Bill Clinton's library in Little Rock and one just after Obama was elected president the first time. (My wife and I were invited to the Clinton Library opening so that puzzle is especially memorable for me.)
I also spent the better part of 2014 writing a book of puzzles for Sterling (called "White House Crosswords"); that one will be out this October. The idea for Monday's crossword popped into my head during the writing of that book. I guess if I can't be a presidential historian, the next best thing is writing puzzles about presidents!
I get such a feeling of satisfaction when I fill in the last box of a crossword and get "Mr. Happy Pencil." Finishing a word search is more a feeling of relief. I had to scan through the entire grid three times, go through the full list of presidents, scan through the grid an additional three times, and finally go letter by letter with the list of presidents up against the screen. But I found those last two, dangnabit! (Highlighted below in blue and red against the white grid background.)
Pretty clever, the way David hid NIXON and especially TYLER. I originally hadn't thought about words "crossing" diagonal lines of black squares, and then the idea of TYLER crossing TWO of those lines blew my mind. Hopefully most other solvers didn't burn quite as much time as I did. But hey, what an appropriate diversion for Presidents Day.
Overall, I liked the construction. With so many constraints, I expected to see more gluey fill. I also expected that the diagonal presidents would be located smack dab in the middle of those gluey bits. (BOURG helped me locate NIXON, and I was SO sure something had to be hidden around the odd ODORED.) So a good trade-off, packing a reasonable number of presidents into the grid without many compromises.
P.S. DOLE (SE corner) and Robert E. LEE (NE corner)? There is no such thing as a coincidence!
1 E | 2 L | 3 M | 4 E | 5 R | 6 C | 7 H | 8 I | 9 J | 10 O | 11 D | 12 I | 13 E |
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14 N | E | A | T | O | 15 R | A | N | 16 E | A | R | L | S |
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17 T | I | R | E | T | 18 R | A | C | K | 19 S | T | E | E | P |
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20 S | A | X | 21 T | A | C | K | Y | 22 T | E | A | ||||
23 O | I | N | K | S | 24 D | E | R | M | 25 A | 26 L |
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27 A | 28 M | 29 O | U | N | T | 30 M | A | R | S | A | L | A |
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31 B | O | U | R | G | 32 Y | 33 E | A | T | S | 34 B | L | U |
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35 A | R | T | S | 36 P | O | L | K | A | 37 H | O | E | D |
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38 T | E | O | 39 O | A | K | I | E | 40 G | O | U | G | E |
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41 E | N | F | 42 O | R | C | E | 43 R | R | A | T | E | D |
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44 D | O | O | D | L | E | 45 S | 46 A | U | E | R | ||||
47 R | O | E | 48 A | N | I | M | E | 49 J | 50 E | 51 W |
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52 A | 53 U | D | R | A | 54 T | E | M | P | T | 55 F | A | T | E |
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56 P | R | E | E | N | 57 T | A | E | 58 E | L | I | T | E |
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59 B | I | R | D | S | 60 A | D | D | 61 D | O | L | E | D |
Access this site for a full year:
Answer summary: 1 unique to this puzzle, 1 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?