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Ben Pall author page

5 puzzles by Ben Pall
with Constructor comments

TotalDebutLatestCollabs
511/23/200910/11/20211
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2200100
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21.58142%
Ben Pall
Puzzles constructed by Ben Pall by year
Mon 10/11/2021
CONCHSAMCLOUT
AKIRATIOHENNA
TAKEITORLEAVEIT
EYEDROPENLIST
TOGAGEN
LOVEITORHATEIT
ANISETAGSCUE
LEDETABLEBALM
APENONOFARSI
MOVEITORLOSEIT
OWLKEEL
BOWSERDADBODS
MAKEITORBREAKIT
EARLEWOORHINE
GLASSSEXSTEEP

I'm jazzed to return to the pages of the Times after *nine* years away. A lot can change in nine years. Back in 2012, I was a high school senior who wrote puzzles in between homework assignments and college applications. Today, I'm a 26-year-old software developer who writes puzzles while waiting for code to build ...

Like me, crosswords have also grown up in the past decade. More kinds of people make and enjoy crosswords than ever before, there has been an explosion of indie crossword content, and the subject matter of the puzzles themselves has gotten better at keeping in lockstep with today's culture. It's an honor to make my contribution to this new and improved era of crosswords.

Today's puzzle's journey began when I was brainstorming straightforward Monday themes to flex my constructing muscles. My mind wandered to one of the puzzle's seed phrases and I wrote down as many as I could that followed the pattern. I'm never satisfied with a theme if it's too broad — my rule is that if I can think of 50% more candidate theme entries than I need, I probably need to narrow it a bit or add an extra hook.

To my surprise, there were not a ton of ___ IT OR ___ IT phrases. From there, it came down to eliminating duplicate words and finding matching pairs. I especially appreciated that while the phrase structure is pretty rigid, I was able to write clues that don't feel formulaic and show each theme entry in its own light.

Thu 9/6/2012
ACTEDVEGREAMS
HIRESALIEABBIE
AVANTPIZZAJOINT
BIDROTARY
LEISUREARANTXA
BUNTSAPES
ENSUESSOSIBM
LIENOAHUBARI
LOCKTEENAMEN
ANTPORDABSAT
AHSOBEAKS
EGOTRIPGOESMAD
SPLITSECONDPAW
HAIRSADANO
SAENSKNEEMARCO
ESSAYESTINTEL
Sun 7/10/2011 BODY ENHANCEMENT
HOLLOWCLODATTAINED
EROICAFRODOMOISTURE
COUNTSNOISESANTIETAM
SEAHORSEUTILSCSI
COINLIMPSERVICEFRET
RUNSTOISEEDORA
ENGRABBITPEARSPACES
ECUIDEASEASEKEA
PEPSCHICKENFLINGERS
WORKSHONESDEARIE
SOMEDAYDIVOTGENUSES
EVADEDSALICLEADS
TAKESONTHECHAINSFPD
ATESNEEGRETAROE
TESLABROWNBEATENERI
GINABEAUASSETS
IDOLFACETPOWDEREAST
ROOALLOYYEARLONG
INDICATEPSALMREADERS
SHOWEREDAUNTSSHINES
HONORERSLETSSUNTAN
Sun 12/5/2010 ON A ROLL
QUAFFSOMAHASAPPIER
ANGOLAASEVERINAHOLE
TERRORCUTONBOLDLINES
AVEPARTENSRVSLIME
REEKJESTSONEOFZEN
INDOEBONSAPORIDENT
INVENTHURTEXISTS
NAMAOLBONAIDES
OPENSSHADETHECIRCLES
DONOTOMARVETOLLA
OLDSSEPOYBOOTSLAPD
FLEEOROCASKNOMAD
FOLDALONGDASHESERASE
IVESLINKAGOSON
PEEVESCORDOOLONG
RULERPHOTOONTOASPS
ERESCRAMSHREDGELT
SAVEAIRJAIURNSWAR
USETAPEONEDGESENLACE
MINUTESOHOHOHSIEGES
EASIESTBUSTSSPEEDS
Mon 11/23/2009
RAJDIGINABBEY
ONOIRATEQUOTE
POIPOLEVAULTER
EDNANAMETAG
RETYPESOSIRIS
HELDMANNEST
THESELAICGATE
WANBEATLESDOW
ELALLIESTRIOS
RAVITRYNEON
PSYCHODAMAGED
EARPLUGDREW
AGENTORANGEORE
WORSEOWNEDOIL
LORESSNORTMEL
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