Amanda Yesnowitz author page
2 puzzles by Amanda Yesnowitz
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 12 answer words debuted by Amanda Yesnowitz.
| I | S | H | M | R | T | O | A | D | F | E | T | A | ||
| M | O | E | M | O | R | R | I | E | A | M | A | N | ||
| A | L | A | R | M | B | E | L | L | S | V | I | C | E | |
| C | O | L | O | M | B | O | S | O | R | R | O | W | ||
| A | G | E | A | D | E | L | E | |||||||
| A | U | R | O | R | A | B | O | R | E | A | L | I | S | |
| B | A | S | S | O | M | A | T | T | U | L | N | A | ||
| R | N | A | D | A | B | E | S | C | A | S | P | |||
| E | D | G | E | R | I | A | L | A | G | N | U | S | ||
| A | W | E | S | O | M | E | B | L | O | S | S | O | M | |
| S | T | Y | N | E | C | T | U | |||||||
| E | T | C | E | T | C | H | A | L | I | B | U | T | ||
| Y | A | R | N | A | B | P | O | S | I | T | I | V | E | |
| E | X | E | C | M | A | R | L | I | N | R | E | N | ||
| S | I | D | E | P | H | O | T | O | G | D | A | N |
Blood donation is near and dear to my heart (ha). On those days where I feel like I can't do anything right (there are many), at the very least, I'm a red cell-producing vessel (see what I did there?) good for six units per year. Blood types as crossword fill make me smile more than they should, and blood themes often pump (sorry, not sorry) me up.
Matt Gaffney did a blood type puzzle a few years ago that was brilliant. I had been on the fence about his meta-contest series until then, and it hooked me. If you're not a subscriber, you're losing out on incredible fun (and mostly delightful head-desking).
Initialism puzzles aren't my thing, given how overdone they've become in crosswords. Using rare letters (JQXZ) can redeem them somewhat, or a fantastic revealer, or some other layer of creativity. A + B gives a ton of options, though.
So many danger spots — TREO / COLOMBO, AMBIEN / RIAL, STYNE / OTT, OCASIO / CTU. That last one is particularly problematic, exemplifying why Will Shortz is so against not-that-well-known initialisms. If you watch "24," Counter Terrorist Unit might be obvious. If not, better call Jack Bauer. Perhaps that's meant to be meta!
joon sent me a note about this puzzle a few days ago (before Amanda did), and I pretended to sagely understand it, like I had instantly figured out what he meant. Roughly eighty-eleven hours later, I recalled that puzzle Amanda mentioned. Ah! Amanda and Brendan, it all made sense.
Sort of.
Okay, I had to ask joon. There are some neat elements:
- A+B initialisms make a ton more sense now!
- Impressive that Amanda managed to work in such a touching message through the first letters of these clues, without making any sound forced. I usually have great spidey-sense for this sort of thing, so it's a mark of success that she didn't trigger it.
- AMAN + DAB + REN + DAN = a unique way of including the happy couple. I'm not sure why the clues for those four entries weren't starred today. That would have been much better.
Overall, reading joon's note (and his explicit explanation after I failed to figure things out!) made me appreciate the puzzle more than before.
| I | L | L | B | E | P | F | C | S | F | A | B | A | L | T | O | |||||
| T | I | E | R | R | A | D | E | E | R | E | A | C | R | I | M | O | N | Y | ||
| S | E | A | A | I | R | R | E | L | E | E | I | T | A | L | I | A | N | S | ||
| L | A | D | Y | C | H | T | E | R | L | E | Y | S | L | O | V | E | R | |||
| A | B | I | E | S | S | A | K | A | H | U | N | A | F | E | M | |||||
| T | E | N | D | S | A | M | O | K | I | R | E | A | B | I | D | E | ||||
| E | D | S | H | O | R | T | O | N | H | C | H | E | S | T | H | E | E | G | G | |
| A | M | I | P | I | A | F | A | V | O | N | L | E | A | |||||||
| E | T | C | Z | E | N | O | G | R | O | G | G | A | T | E | D | |||||
| M | A | H | M | A | G | A | N | D | H | I | M | O | E | A | T | R | A | |||
| A | L | T | I | M | A | L | E | T | F | A | R | M | I | T | R | A | L | |||
| G | L | Y | N | A | Y | E | T | O | C | A | T | C | H | H | I | E | F | |||
| C | I | T | E | S | D | U | E | L | L | A | C | E | P | S | A | |||||
| A | T | A | C | O | S | T | P | S | I | S | C | O | Y | |||||||
| C | H | T | A | N | O | O | G | A | C | H | O | O | C | H | O | O | T | W | O | |
| O | C | H | R | E | N | R | C | S | T | A | Y | U | S | A | I | N | ||||
| W | H | Y | B | I | O | M | E | S | R | O | O | O | K | L | A | |||||
| A | L | L | S | W | E | L | L | T | H | E | N | D | S | W | E | L | L | |||
| M | O | R | T | S | A | H | L | S | A | A | B | S | O | N | E | S | I | E | ||
| C | O | A | T | T | R | E | E | O | T | R | O | S | R | O | T | T | E | R | ||
| S | O | W | N | E | D | D | L | Y | N | X | B | O | O | S | T |