New York Times, Thursday, June 1, 2017
| Author: | Derek Bowman and Sarah Keller |
| Editor: | Will Shortz |
DEREK: I had submitted several versions of this puzzle to Will and Joel to the extent that they (kindly) nudged me in the direction of finding a collaborator.
I had worked with Sarah previously on a few puzzling endeavours, including a small diorama for a National Puzzlers' League convention event. It has always been very enjoyable working with her, a theme maven who doesn't let me get away with crummy entries, and again our collaboration worked out well.
I was particularly bogged down with chunky groups of black squares for the rays of the SUN, but she streamlined the layout of the whole grid and made everything fall into place.
I am indebted to her for helping make this puzzle come together. Thanks.
SARAH: This is our second New York Times collaboration. I met Derek, a successful new constructor, in 2008, at an NPL convention. We thought it would be fun to work on a puzzle together.
When collaborating, we always choose to work with wordplay themes as well as those that require unusual grids. This astrological theme was Derek's and Derek's alone. In my opinion, he is a grid master. In this venture, he combined circular THE WORLDs along with a SUNny central rebus.
We worked together on some grid manipulation to lessen the black square count as well to make the puzzle more pleasing to the eye. It was fun getting the puzzle publication-ready and is always fun working with Derek.
What a neat visual! Something so pretty about those four diagonals leading out to the four sets of circles. Eye-catching, artistic pattern.
We get THE WORLD circling in four places … that must mean "around THE WORLD"? ... with the SUN in the middle of the puzzle? It didn't all click for me, as I wasn't sure why around THE WORLD was circling … around what? And why were four worlds circling the SUN?
I'm sure my comics-ubergeek brother will clue me in, telling me about some fictional star system with four worlds circling the SUN. It'd be so awesome if it were called ETRURIA or ASASON!
Speaking of those, it's so tough to avoid obscure or esoteric entries when filling around so many circled letters. Although Derek and Sarah have a lot of flexibility in 1.) which way THE WORLD revolves and 2.) where to start it, it's highly likely that exactly zero of the 16 possibilities would have been easy to fill around.
I was all set to say how impressed I was with the NE corner, chock full of BATH TOY, PRELUDE, OODLES, and … ASASON? Oof. You can love someone like a son, you can think of someone as a son, but AS A SON by itself would be a puzzle-killer for me.
These types of heavily-constrained biggish corners tend to need entries with -ER and -EST additions, and/or RE- prefixes. The SW corner is a perfect example. EASIEST is a fine word, but ADORERS and LITHEST are both iffy.
It's common for these biggish, constrained corners to need short gluey bits, too. I don't mind an innocuous (and easily gettable) ESE. Maybe I should have known Jack SOO, one of the few Asian actors of his time? DIECI is … Italian for ten? Herb RITTS? Hmm.
This sort of puzzle with heavy constraints — so many letters fixed into place all over the grid — is so hard to pull off well. All in all, I would have liked a bigger payoff, something that made more sense of the rationale why four THE WORLDs were going around the SUN.
Still, what a great first impression the blank grid made on me.
ADDED NOTE: Astute reader Seth Cohen pointed out that THE WORLD rotates regularly, shifting two spots at each new position ... sort of how our world rotates as it revolves around the SUN. D'oh, can't believe I missed that. That does make much more sense now. I'm embarrassed to admit that I stared at everything for a good 10 minutes but couldn't piece together exactly what was going on.
1 R | 2 A | 3 F | 4 T | 5 S | 6 A | 7 S | 8 A | 9 S | 10 O | 11 N |
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12 S | A | D | L | O | T | 13 S | 14 B | A | T | H | T | O | Y |
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15 E | T | R | U | R | I | A | 16 P | R | E | L | U | D | E |
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17 C | H | I | 18 O | F | T | 19 L | O | W | 20 A | L | T |
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21 L | O | E | 22 W | 23 F | A | 24 L | U | N | 25 O | R | E | S |
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26 U | L | N | A | 27 R | 28 T | I | S | 29 B | L | T | S | |||
30 D | E | N | N | I | 31 S | 32 E | E | 33 R | I | E | ||||
34 E | S | E | 35 T | H | 36 E | SUN | S | E | T | 37 F | 38 D | 39 A |
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40 S | T | E | A | D | 41 M | E | 42 D | I | A | N |
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43 H | 44 M | O | S | 45 S | E | 46 C | 47 R | E | R | U | N |
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48 H | E | R | O | 49 H | I | R | E | 50 D | 51 W | E | G | O |
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52 E | L | M | 53 W | O | E | 54 R | I | 55 O | 56 S | H | Y |
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57 A | D | O | 58 R | E | R | S | 59 T | E | R | 60 M | I | T | E |
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61 L | I | T | H | E | S | T | 62 S | C | A | L | D | E | D |
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63 S | N | O | O | P | Y | 64 I | N | K | E | R |
| Across | Down | |
| 1. A whole bunch : RAFTS 6. How one may be loved : ASASON 12. Pitiful sorts : SADLOTS 14. Rubber ducky, e.g. : BATHTOY 15. Ancient region of central Italy : ETRURIA 16. Lead-in : PRELUDE 17. Universal life force : CHI 18. ___-repeated : OFT 19. Depressed : LOW 20. Lead-in to right or rock : ALT 21. Movie theater pioneer Marcus : LOEW 23. ___ Gong (Chinese spiritual practice) : FALUN 25. They may come with silver or gold : ORES 26. Of an arm bone : ULNAR 28. "___ folly to be wise" : TIS 29. Diner purchases, for short : BLTS 30. Towheaded comics boy : DENNIS 32. Creepy : EERIE 34. Minneapolis-to-Milwaukee dir. : ESE 35. Cowboys may ride off into it : THESUNSET 37. Letters of approval : FDA 40. Home addition? : STEAD 41. Middle of the road? : MEDIAN 43. Med. insurance plans : HMOS 45. Mo : SEC 47. Seldom-reviewed TV show : RERUN 48. Sub : HERO 49. Brought on : HIRED 51. Words after "Here" and "Away" : WEGO 52. The Liberty Tree, for one : ELM 53. Misfortune : WOE 54. El Orinoco, e.g. : RIO 56. Owing : SHY 57. The Magi, e.g. : ADORERS 59. One eating you out of house and home? : TERMITE 61. Most svelte : LITHEST 62. Left a burning impression? : SCALDED 63. Comics character with a big nose : SNOOPY 64. Cartoonist's aide : INKER |
1. Squalid places : RATHOLES 2. Actress Barbeau of the cult classic "Swamp Thing" : ADRIENNE 3. Something bad to come down with : FLU 4. Snow blower brand : TORO 5. Leave nothing behind? : STIFF 6. Composer Copland : AARON 7. Hearty entree : STEW 8. Org. with the Calder Cup : AHL 9. Little of children's literature : STUART 10. A whole bunch : OODLES 11. Nos in Novosibirsk : NYETS 12. Cut off : SECLUDE 13. Occupied, as a table : SATAT 14. Pretty good grades : BPLUSES 22. Washed-out : WAN 24. Opposite of covers : LIESUNDER 25. "___ Buttermilk Sky" : OLE 27. Fashion photographer Herb : RITTS 29. Midge, for one : BITER 31. "Ain't ___ Sweet" : SHE 33. Kind of sleep : REM 36. Like one-star puzzles : EASIEST 37. Place for a poker : FIRESIDE 38. Female issue : DAUGHTER 39. Ticked off : ANNOYED 40. Jack of "Barney Miller" : SOO 42. "Do the ___" (beverage slogan) : DEW 43. Bottled up : HELDIN 44. Detective whose first name is Kentaro : MRMOTO 46. Roll at a counter : CERTS 48. Makes sound : HEALS 49. Equine : HORSY 50. Cinque + cinque : DIECI 53. Boohoo : WEEP 55. Part of the escape route in "Casablanca" : ORAN 58. Density symbol : RHO 60. Jan. honoree : MLK |
Answer summary: 4 unique to this puzzle, 3 unique to Shortz Era but used previously.
Found bugs or have suggestions?