Bill Clinton author page
1 puzzle by Bill Clinton
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 2 answer words debuted by Bill Clinton.
Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States. He was featured in the film Wordplay.
| M | I | S | H | M | A | S | H | A | N | E | M | I | A | |
| A | L | O | U | E | T | T | E | D | O | R | A | G | S | |
| D | O | N | T | S | T | O | P | U | S | M | I | N | T | |
| M | I | N | H | U | R | E | L | E | A | N | O | R | ||
| A | L | E | G | K | E | N | T | S | M | R | I | |||
| N | O | T | I | C | E | C | O | S | D | E | E | D | ||
| B | A | L | L | O | U | A | R | N | I | E | ||||
| T | H | I | N | K | I | N | G | A | B | O | U | T | ||
| C | H | I | L | E | N | O | H | E | L | P | ||||
| A | R | A | L | G | E | M | R | E | I | N | E | D | ||
| N | E | W | T | O | N | Y | S | T | E | R | R | |||
| T | E | A | S | E | T | S | E | A | R | A | R | A | ||
| A | T | T | H | A | T | T | O | M | O | R | R | O | W | |
| B | O | H | E | M | E | S | U | I | T | A | B | L | E | |
| S | N | A | P | O | N | O | L | D | S | T | Y | L | E |
I'm digging this celeb series. I particularly like when the celeb puzzle reflects something about the person — very cool to get "It's the ECONOMY, stupid!" I vividly remember that phrase (or something like it) from the Bush Sr. / Clinton race — what power those four words had.
I was surprised that DON'T STOP didn't get clued in relation to the Fleetwood Mac song, one I associate strongly with Clinton. Maybe that would have made it too easy?
Fun to see GI BILL too. Made me think of a President Clinton action figure, in a box set along with Duke, Snake Eyes, and Sgt. Slaughter.
Did I miss any Clinton references? It was enjoyable to scour the grid and clues, searching for any Easter eggs like DON'T STOP.
A couple of good feature entries too, like MISHMASH crossing MADMAN. Along with MAIN MENU, I wondered if there was an M* M* mini-theme somewhere in there?
There was more crossword glue than I like holding the grid together, though. It's common to get some ALEG, TSO, ARA, AER, COS — these are fairly minor. DRAWEE … it is in the dictionary, but I'd guess that a large majority of constructors (and solvers) would prefer not to get entries like this. And ILOILO is a common constructing crutch, given its favorable alternation of consonant / vowels.
All in all, too much iffy short fill and not enough great long fill for my taste — I have very high expectations for themelesses these days. But it sure was fun to search for those Clinton-specific references. It would have been great to get a few more entries like BUBBA (perhaps clued as [___ Gump Shrimp Company] to hide the reference to Clinton's nickname), TENOR SAX, FOLKSY, etc.
ADDED NOTE: Judge Vic clued me into the mini-theme (highlighted below). How neatly those split up into crossword symmetry! I wish those had been hinted at though, or shaded — apparently all four of Judge Vic's test-solvers missed the connection, too. I fear that the five of us won't be the only ones.