Everyone's a comedian. Crossword construction covers five major areas: early-week, mid-week, out-of-the-box Thursdays, themeless, and ...
read moreEveryone's a comedian.
Crossword construction covers five major areas: early-week, mid-week, out-of-the-box Thursdays, themeless, and Sunday-size. Many constructors can get proficient at a few areas, some can become an expert at one, but very few can become top-notch in all five. It's my goal to achieve all-around greatness, and I realize I have work to do in the themeless arena.
Starting with the good stuff, I liked how much of this puzzle turned out. PIZZA JOINT brings back memories of the time when I wasn't quite as lactose intolerant (my poor wife), and I find that saying I SCREWED UP comes in handy in disarming people during difficult situations. The wide-open middle sections took me a long time to work through, and I was happy that they came off with just an ETE and HTS as blemishes.
Areas for improvement: I dislike the same entries Will calls out. IN HIS is particularly egregious, being both a five-letter partial as well as an odd one. It feels worse than something like AN ACE ("An ace up one's sleeve" or "An ace in the hole") but I couldn't figure out a way around it. IN HOT was a better possibility, but I couldn't avoid duping HOT (in HOT TO TROT). Hours upon hours of trying hundreds of possibilities and I finally had to wave the white flag. I'd love to hear from other constructors to see if there was something different I could have done.
And my cluing is still a work in progress. I've come a long way from when Will used to change 75% of my clues, but I want to be mentioned in the same breath as Mike Shenk (editor of the WSJ puzzle), who Will gives as an example of someone whose cluing he barely has to touch. I continue to work at building my clue-writing ability by studying great puzzles like yesterday's masterful PB. And a lot of practice.
All in all, I'm making progress but realize I have work to do. Butt in chair, Jeff, butt in chair.