Anne Grae Martin author page
2 puzzles by Anne Grae Martin
with Jeff Chen comments
| S | A | S | S | Y | A | R | M | S | T | A | S | H | ||
| C | U | T | I | E | L | O | A | W | O | W | I | E | ||
| A | D | U | B | A | A | W | A | R | E | N | E | S | S | |
| R | E | N | H | A | N | D | M | A | D | E | ||||
| E | N | T | R | Y | W | A | Y | S | E | D | G | E | S | |
| O | O | O | M | P | S | O | A | T | ||||||
| O | B | D | U | R | A | T | E | E | D | G | E | |||
| U | C | L | A | D | R | E | A | M | M | O | L | T | ||
| T | H | A | N | S | E | T | A | D | A | T | E | |||
| A | R | I | P | I | E | M | R | I | ||||||
| H | E | R | M | A | N | C | O | B | B | L | I | N | G | |
| A | U | T | U | M | N | A | L | T | A | O | ||||
| Y | O | G | A | P | O | S | E | S | A | B | S | I | T | |
| A | L | I | C | E | E | R | E | C | R | O | A | T | ||
| M | A | N | O | R | D | E | T | K | O | N | D | O |
The iconic yoga pose, DOWNWARD DOG, is represented perfectly in the grid. I love crossword art that features shapes made of circles — Joanne Sullivan's inspired me to collaborate on one about National Parks.
Having tried yoga twice and failing both times — it's too slow-paced for my taste; yes I know that that's part of the point — I didn't recognize any of the other poses. CHAIR in particular got me wondering, how is it possible to contort the human body like that? Led to an entire rabbit hole of yoga pose investigation. Aptly, there's even a rabbit pose!
The other poses besides DOWNWARD DOG didn't seem like the Wikipedia entry pictures. Perhaps COBRA pose varies from a 45 degree angle to 90, depending on ability?
So many circles in fixed patterns cause a ton of constraints. Anne did well to fill carefully around poses. Deft gridwork around CH/AIR, for example, the offset chunks potentially perilous. RODAN might be tricksy for non-sci-fi fans, and OBDURATE isn't an everyday word, but I like this set of trade-offs, given that this is a mid-week puzzle.
I love grid art circles, but it'd have been great if more of the arrangements gave me a stronger visual link to the actual poses.
| R | B | G | G | R | A | D | P | U | S | S | ||||
| U | R | L | A | P | L | U | S | O | N | E | U | P | ||
| B | O | O | K | S | M | A | R | T | E | D | I | C | T | |
| I | N | B | O | X | A | A | S | E | Z | R | A | |||
| O | X | E | N | H | E | N | B | E | R | R | I | E | S | |
| A | C | A | I | C | A | P | N | |||||||
| A | B | C | H | U | G | O | S | H | A | G | A | R | ||
| S | C | H | O | O | L | H | O | U | S | E | R | O | C | K |
| S | C | A | N | S | T | H | R | E | E | N | E | O | ||
| R | E | E | F | G | A | M | E | |||||||
| W | A | G | O | N | W | H | E | E | L | L | E | F | T | |
| O | V | E | N | D | E | V | I | S | U | Z | U | |||
| W | I | D | O | W | L | I | T | T | L | E | R | E | D | |
| S | A | U | N | A | P | L | I | N | K | O | R | E | ||
| S | P | E | X | S | E | T | S | S | O | S |
I'm impressed by this puzzle. At first glance, it's a "words that can follow X" theme, which Will Shortz and most other editors have put the kibosh on. However, there's always room to push boundaries.
If you asked me to fill in the blank, [Little red ___], I'd plunk down HEN. Then if you asked, are you sure? Is there another option? Maybe I'd come up with Mao's Little Red BOOK.
Perhaps if you prodded and poked me further, there's a miniscule chance I'd have landed on little red WAGON. And we have a red wagon in our garage!
Add in the quaint little red SCHOOLHOUSE, and that makes for a tidy quartet. I'd have never guessed that so many disparate nouns could fill in that blank, making for a much sharper a-ha moment than with a run-of-the-mill "words that can follow X" puzzle.
But that's not all! Finding that foursome isn't good enough, because often, there's no way to incorporate the key words into in-the-language phrases. Sure, BOOK and WAGON are easy, but SCHOOLHOUSE … ah, SCHOOLHOUSE Rock, a classic from my childhood!
And HEN does start some phrases, but what comes up in searches … HEN PARTY, HEN PECKED … ugh. Not phrases I'd strive to use in a crossword. HEN BERRIES, on the other hand, is wonderful use of fun diner lingo.
Solid grid execution, not a single entry that editors would universally call out as subpar. Some editors flag pileups of abbreviations, like ABC / BCC / FWD, but these three are all so common in my email-heavy existence that I don't mind a bit.
I think Radio RAHEEM crossing the old HAGAR the Horrible could be tricky, but they are from different walks of life, decreasing the chance that a solver won't know at least one of them.
I'd love to see Anne push herself more next time, seeing if she can incorporate an extra set of long downs — trying for another set in the NW / SE corners, for example. Overall, though, excellent debut. It's so rare to see a "words that can follow X" theme that has merit.