Ben Tolkin author page
2 puzzles by Ben Tolkin
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 13 answer words debuted by Ben Tolkin.
| T | A | T | A | B | O | K | E | H | ||||||
| H | U | M | A | N | P | Y | R | A | M | I | D | |||
| N | A | T | I | O | N | A | L | A | N | T | H | E | M | |
| O | O | Z | E | S | A | G | I | L | E | A | C | E | ||
| W | R | Y | E | S | T | I | N | S | S | T | A | R | ||
| L | U | I | S | A | C | N | E | A | I | S | L | E | ||
| E | S | P | P | R | O | G | A | N | G | |||||
| T | H | A | T | D | O | G | D | O | N | T | H | U | N | T |
| O | F | T | R | O | D | S | N | A | E | |||||
| R | E | S | T | S | B | F | F | S | A | M | P | S | ||
| I | S | L | E | W | A | R | O | C | C | U | L | T | ||
| N | S | A | M | A | T | E | O | L | U | T | E | S | ||
| D | A | Y | S | O | F | O | U | R | L | I | V | E | S | |
| Y | E | A | R | E | N | D | B | O | N | U | S | |||
| D | Y | E | R | S | S | I | T | E |
| S | O | I | G | A | T | H | E | R | E | D | ||||
| D | A | N | C | E | R | O | U | T | I | N | E | |||
| L | E | T | T | E | R | T | O | S | A | N | T | A | ||
| C | L | A | S | H | B | I | L | K | G | I | L | |||
| T | H | O | R | E | P | I | C | S | T | I | R | E | ||
| H | E | Y | D | R | O | L | L | Z | O | N | E | R | ||
| R | E | D | W | O | O | D | E | A | S | T | ||||
| U | R | S | U | L | A | U | N | E | A | S | E | |||
| R | E | D | O | S | T | A | M | M | E | R | ||||
| D | R | E | S | S | U | P | T | O | P | B | A | G | ||
| O | O | R | T | S | T | R | A | P | E | U | R | O | ||
| G | M | O | C | O | L | E | I | P | A | S | S | |||
| B | A | T | S | A | N | E | Y | E | L | A | S | H | ||
| E | N | I | G | M | A | T | O | L | O | G | Y | |||
| D | O | C | T | O | R | S | N | O | T | E |
We've seen plenty of pyramid blocks in themeless puzzles, but Ben gives us the Great Pyramid(s)! A full 10 black squares apiece, they sure do draw my eye. (And draw down my printer's toner.) Distinctive look.
The usual pyramid shapes ease the filling process tremendously, and I imagine that these big boys amp that factor by an order of magnitude. Usually, you'd have to worry about intersecting three horizontal 15s with 3 vertical 8s, so not just nibbling but chomping away at all those crossings is so useful. A stack like SO I GATHERED / DANCE ROUTINE / LETTER TO SANTA is something to write Santa about. Ben's on the nice list!
The naughty side is that you take away precious long slots (8+ letters), thus reducing your ability to spice up a solve. There's nothing wrong with THRU / CHEER / LLOYDS, but none of them will get you a checkmark in an editor's scoresheet.
ENIGMATOLOGY, ha! Will Shortz has said that he would never feature his name in a crossword, but featuring his undergraduate degree is something different. Although it's insidery, it's a fun kind of crossword-specific terminology that appeals to the inner circles.
Fantastic cluing all over; impressive to see a new constructor take so much time and care in this area. My favorite category is wordplay that doesn't require a telltale question mark, so DEALER holding all the cards and [Bat signal] as SONAR stood out.
Although there wasn't as much pizzazz within the grid as I expect in a themeless, I appreciated the novel grid design, and Ben made up for a lot of the lack of long slots by making his cluing shine.