Anne Flinchbaugh author page
1 puzzle by Anne Flinchbaugh
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 6 answer words debuted by Anne Flinchbaugh.
| B | O | T | T | L | E | S | S | I | D | E | B | E | T | |
| E | V | A | S | I | V | E | P | R | E | G | A | M | E | |
| E | U | R | A | S | I | A | R | O | L | O | D | E | X | |
| F | L | O | R | A | L | P | R | I | N | T | M | R | T | |
| E | A | T | S | G | L | E | N | S | D | O | G | E | ||
| D | R | S | C | R | A | F | T | T | R | U | E | D | ||
| P | A | I | N | E | C | H | A | T | S | |||||
| R | U | N | N | E | R | S | H | I | G | H | ||||
| H | O | P | E | S | E | W | E | R | S | |||||
| S | I | L | A | S | S | N | E | A | D | L | A | D | ||
| I | T | L | L | S | A | D | A | T | M | A | G | I | ||
| T | H | E | L | U | N | A | R | C | R | A | T | E | R | |
| P | O | D | C | A | S | T | J | O | S | H | I | N | G | |
| A | M | R | A | D | I | O | A | D | V | A | N | C | E | |
| T | E | S | T | E | E | S | R | E | P | L | A | Y | S |
Wonderfully smooth 66-worder! I'm usually quickly aware of a themeless having a low word count; all sorts of compromises popping up to bog me down. I didn't even think to check afterward, since it solved like a squeaky-clean 70-worder. Impressive work for a new constructor. (Not a surprise for an Agard joint, though!)
I'm often wary of themelesses that don't have many long slots since it's hard to squeeze juice out of mid-lengthers and shorter. I understand why Erik and Anne loaded up on the 7-letter entries though — think about how much harder the construction would be if they had shifted the black squares in rows 1-3 to the right. Instead of a 4x7 space in the upper left, you'd have a 4x8, which is maybe an order of magnitude tougher to fill.
Even though there are only ten long slots (of 8+ letters), they're used so well. RUNNERS HIGH is a great phrase, and referencing "rush" in two ways makes it even better. Similarly, SWEAR JAR's clue elevated it, amusingly using comic book-style punctuation.
Even REFERENDA is interesting, what with the non-S pluralization. So much pizzazz out of these ten long entries.
Some of the mid-lengthers were colorful, too, EURASIA, PODCAST, ROLODEX, SIDE BET, in particular. However, entries like ADVANCE, BOTTLES, EMERGES, TESTEES aren't going to win any prizes.
I found this puzzle more of a Saturday experience, mainly due to the cluing. There were so many that totally didn't go over my head (okay, maybe they did). Here are a few:
- "Mare" is the Latin word for "sea," used to describe LUNAR CRATER.
- Helpful word in solving cryptograms is THE? But aren't cryptograms those puzzles with the funny pictures that stand for words … never mind, I'm an idiot. They're the tricksy enigmas where one letter substitutes for another, and the frequent instances of THE in the English language often serves as a toehold to get started.
- PRE-GAME warm-up shots are NBA shoot-arounds … and … taking liquor shots before parties? Snapping pictures? Not sure.
- TRUED refers to "trueing" something, i.e. fixing something that's skewed.
I did get one of them right away! [Mount Sinai people] refers to Mount Sinai Hospital, not the actual mountain. Yes! I like it when a puzzle allows me to feels smarter than it.
Overall, a pleasantly smooth and piquant solve — albeit making me feel sheepishly stupid one too many times.