Alex Rosen author page
5 puzzles by Alex Rosen
with Constructor comments
See the 19 answer words debuted by Alex Rosen.
| A | D | H | O | C | A | R | A | B | I | B | E | T | |||
| T | E | A | M | O | C | O | D | E | S | D | O | L | E | ||
| R | E | V | E | R | S | E | E | A | C | H | R | U | L | E | |
| A | M | E | N | R | A | M | A | I | N | I | T | E | M | ||
| S | E | G | A | L | M | F | A | S | |||||||
| D | A | H | C | A | B | A | R | E | T | S | B | A | M | ||
| A | T | E | A | T | B | R | A | E | X | C | U | S | E | ||
| N | E | I | L | T | R | I | P | O | D | S | C | A | N | ||
| C | A | S | P | A | R | A | I | G | S | I | K | H | S | ||
| E | M | T | B | A | T | T | E | R | U | P | S | I | A | ||
| D | I | S | H | R | E | S | I | N | |||||||
| T | O | G | E | T | H | E | R | S | N | I | F | F | S | ||
| U | D | O | N | T | W | O | W | O | R | D | C | L | U | E | |
| B | O | B | S | V | I | S | O | R | L | E | A | R | N | ||
| E | R | I | E | Z | E | K | E | E | R | N | S | T |
A few more clue ideas that didn't make it into the puzzle:
[Al Green] GORE
[Horse chestnut] ROAN
[Firm up] PIXAR
[Shower door] MONTYHALL
[Swiss miss?] GOVEGAN
[Great beyond] ACE
[It smelt!] ORE
| M | P | G | A | R | C | S | L | O | W | E | S | |||
| A | H | A | N | A | O | M | I | O | V | A | L | S | ||
| D | I | S | C | I | P | L | E | S | C | U | T | I | N | |
| A | L | T | A | C | A | L | L | T | I | M | E | |||
| M | I | R | R | O | R | T | E | A | R | N | S | |||
| S | P | O | R | T | E | D | S | C | R | U | B | U | P | |
| T | W | I | N | T | O | P | E | K | A | |||||
| P | A | L | E | O | P | A | Y | T | I | D | E | S | ||
| O | L | I | V | I | A | B | E | T | H | |||||
| H | O | M | E | I | C | E | T | A | K | E | O | F | F | |
| L | E | O | E | X | O | S | O | P | H | I | A | |||
| R | A | I | S | I | N | E | T | E | G | G | S | |||
| F | L | I | N | G | S | T | R | I | K | E | O | U | T | |
| G | O | D | N | O | T | O | T | E | S | O | R | E | ||
| S | W | E | A | R | P | E | R | U | D | E | N |
I call this one "Following Instructions."
My original submission was trickier. Each of the "following" entries needed to be chopped up in order to be understood as instructions:
LIMERICKEY / PULLEY
RESUPPLIES / TAKESUP
ARTHOUSES / STEALTH
REVERSAL / STRIKERS
For example, you needed to interpret PULLEY as instructions to "pull EY" from LIMERICKEY.
So I was trying for maximal trickiness, but the Times crew rightly suggested that they're not so consistent, and they asked me to try again. The set we ended up with feels more elegant and pleasing, I think. I was sad to see LIMERICK/LIMERICKEY go, but overall I'm really happy with the improvement.
A few more clues for MIRROR, from the cutting room floor:
- Where an engineer may see TIM on their sweatshirt
- Where mom is still mom
- WOW — it's the same in one of these!
| W | I | N | E | S | N | O | T | I | N | I | F | W | E | P | H | I | L | ||||
| A | N | O | D | E | A | M | I | G | O | S | N | O | O | P | R | I | D | E | |||
| S | P | O | U | T | S | I | D | L | E | P | A | R | E | I | D | O | L | I | A | ||
| P | U | N | C | T | U | A | T | I | O | N | M | A | R | K | C | O | T | T | O | N | |
| S | T | E | A | L | S | N | O | D | I | C | E | N | E | S | T | S | |||||
| T | E | A | E | G | G | S | L | E | A | P | F | R | O | G | |||||||
| V | I | C | E | S | I | R | S | S | O | B | A | A | A | T | E | A | M | S | |||
| E | M | O | S | E | A | I | T | S | A | B | L | U | R | H | E | N | |||||
| R | O | N | S | M | I | M | O | S | A | R | E | E | S | E | H | A | L | L | |||
| B | U | G | A | B | O | O | H | A | M | R | O | T | N | O | M | ||||||
| S | T | A | L | A | G | H | Y | P | H | E | N | A | T | H | O | M | E | ||||
| L | E | G | M | M | E | A | R | I | E | X | H | U | M | E | S | ||||||
| S | H | I | M | C | O | O | L | S | T | R | E | B | L | E | M | E | L | T | |||
| P | A | N | L | O | W | L | I | F | E | S | I | V | S | N | E | E | |||||
| F | L | E | A | B | A | N | E | N | E | D | M | O | I | A | F | T | E | R | |||
| N | E | W | S | R | E | E | L | W | A | S | S | A | I | L | |||||||
| P | H | A | G | E | C | A | L | A | I | S | C | R | E | T | A | N | |||||
| E | U | G | E | N | E | R | O | T | A | T | E | C | L | O | C | K | W | I | S | E | |
| S | M | I | L | E | Y | F | A | C | E | O | N | A | I | R | I | O | N | I | A | ||
| T | I | L | E | E | D | G | A | R | N | E | R | F | S | S | U | G | A | R | |||
| O | D | E | S | S | A | U | R | E | R | A | T | O | S | T | E | M | S |
I felt lucky that this puzzle worked out. Three things all needed to be true:
- The English word for the symbol ")" has to be long, and have an odd number of letters in it.
- The word for "-" has to be medium length.
- And, the word for ";" has to be exactly 4 letters, followed by exactly 5 letters.
I really wanted to make the clue for HYPHEN be some clever double-meaning clue. Something like [Smiley-face component... in more ways than one, in this puzzle], if SMILEY FACE wasn't also in the puzzle. But I couldn't come up with anything that actually worked and wasn't too awkward.
Some alternate clues for SPACE BAR:
- It split "the atom"
- Literary device used to split "the infinitive"
- It can make books hop, if used incorrectly
| B | F | F | S | P | E | P | S | I | S | U | M | P | ||
| O | R | E | O | A | V | I | L | A | E | P | E | E | ||
| P | E | T | U | N | I | A | P | I | G | A | T | R | A | |
| S | E | A | S | O | N | P | O | L | L | O | C | K | ||
| E | V | E | R | S | O | I | P | A | ||||||
| D | O | T | S | O | W | N | S | U | P | E | R | |||
| I | R | E | A | C | T | A | O | P | P | O | S | E | ||
| S | I | N | D | R | I | B | B | L | E | I | T | E | ||
| C | O | N | R | O | Y | B | O | A | R | N | E | D | ||
| O | N | I | O | N | O | I | L | I | T | R | Y | |||
| S | C | I | R | E | D | B | U | D | ||||||
| J | A | C | K | S | O | N | A | R | I | O | S | O | ||
| E | V | A | C | P | A | D | D | I | N | G | T | O | N | |
| L | I | M | O | A | T | E | I | T | I | T | A | L | ||
| L | A | P | D | L | E | A | P | S | T | O | R | Y |
ALEX: I'm no art expert, but Jackson Pollock's rule-breaking style seemed like a good excuse to do something different. The first idea I sent to Brad was to have P-A-I-N-Ts appearing diagonally, in random spots, going in all directions. But this was too constraining when constructing the grid. I gave up.
Then we thought about hiding D-R-I-P in some answers going down, but that wouldn't simulate his actual technique: laying the canvas on the floor horizontally, not vertically, and dribbling paint down onto it from above, so it goes in all directions. When we arrived at our final plan, I liked it because it's not common to see words hiding in multiple directions. I wrote a little code to find entries that would interlock in the right places while including P-A-I-N-T going once in each direction. (It seemed important to have each direction represented exactly once, even though doing that to show haphazardness doesn't seem very logical...)
My fantasy was to make it even MORE Pollock-like. If he created a crossword puzzle, would he arrange his theme answers symmetrically? Probably not. Maybe he'd even use a freeform grid. It was fun to think about; maybe the Jackson Pollock of crosswords could pull it off (whoever that is).
BRAD: Pollock's name was enough of a revealer, perhaps, but that 7-letter word in the middle called out for a "bonus" entry. As I recall, we tried a couple of different verbs (SPATTER?) before DRIBBLE really worked.
| C | P | A | S | A | S | A | H | I | H | U | G | O | ||
| H | E | L | I | D | Y | S | O | N | O | V | U | M | ||
| I | C | E | T | O | N | I | O | N | T | A | N | G | ||
| C | A | R | B | O | N | O | F | F | S | E | T | |||
| A | N | T | A | C | I | D | O | A | S | E | S | |||
| C | C | S | S | P | I | N | K | I | C | K | ||||
| W | O | N | K | A | E | L | E | V | E | E | L | Y | ||
| A | G | O | M | O | N | O | N | Y | M | N | A | P | ||
| S | L | U | E | R | I | B | S | A | B | A | T | E | ||
| T | E | N | Y | A | R | D | S | M | I | A | ||||
| E | D | S | E | L | S | A | N | D | M | A | N | |||
| M | I | N | E | M | I | N | E | M | I | N | E | |||
| R | A | F | A | A | M | O | N | G | O | L | G | A | ||
| O | N | U | S | T | I | N | G | E | V | E | E | R | ||
| B | A | N | K | O | T | T | E | R | E | R | R | S |
ALEX: Our original idea for a revealer was ONE NAMED SINGERS. But when we added EMINEM, we weren't sure if he'd be considered a singer. Brad suggested MONONYM, which is more interesting and also avoids this categorization problem. Luckily, either potential revealer was a happy length (since 7's and 15's are the easiest to work with in the center row).
Theme entries from the cutting room floor: TRAGIC HERO, CAMDEN YARDS, GRADE LEVEL, TRUST IN GOD.
Editorially, the team had to get rid of some of our trickier clues to shape the difficulty level for a Tuesday, but I like the replacements. And, after several rejections, I'm happy to have made it in.
BRAD: Surely by now, some NYT puzzles have gone to press that were submitted using the online portal. But this dates back to the snail mail era; Alex and I actually worked on two puzzles together over the December holidays of 2019 and sent them in separate envelopes. Fast forward five months. To our surprise, they were both accepted on the same day, a few hours apart (watch this space for No. 2). "This may never happen to either one of us again," I said.