Carter Cobb author page
2 puzzles by Carter Cobb
with Constructor comments
| S | O | P | H | O | M | O | R | E | S | L | U | M | P | S |
| T | H | R | I | L | L | A | I | N | M | A | N | I | L | A |
| A | M | O | D | E | S | T | P | R | O | P | O | S | A | L |
| C | A | N | E | S | B | O | O | K | S | N | Y | T | ||
| E | G | G | S | M | A | P | L | E | K | A | R | L | ||
| Y | E | S | B | A | S | E | L | S | A | M | O | A | ||
| S | E | V | E | N | W | E | R | E | O | K | ||||
| S | P | A | T | T | E | D | T | H | A | T | S | M | E | |
| O | R | L | E | A | N | C | H | I | T | S | ||||
| L | O | A | M | S | P | R | E | S | S | M | P | G | ||
| A | P | C | S | C | L | U | N | K | G | A | I | A | ||
| R | E | A | P | H | A | S | E | C | U | K | E | S | ||
| C | A | R | O | L | I | N | A | R | E | A | P | E | R | S |
| A | C | T | I | O | N | A | D | V | E | N | T | U | R | E |
| R | E | E | L | T | O | R | E | E | L | T | A | P | E | S |
I'm pleasantly surprised to be back in the NYT so soon after my debut! This puzzle was submitted in mid-November and accepted in mid-January.
Something I've learned as a constructor is that black square staircases running in the NE-to-SW direction are your best friend. Each white square along the top of the staircase is the last letter of an across entry and a down entry, so using a common terminal letter like S in any of those squares gets you double the bang for your buck.
This was my first real attempt at triple-stacked 15s, and I think I got lucky with how quickly the grid came together. The only section that gave me trouble — and the last to get filled — was the middle region on top of the central staircase (between 19A and 43A). After struggling with it for a while, I tried brainstorming some more possibilities for the 8-letter slot starting with OAT. Happily, OAT-BASED ended up being just what I needed (appropriate enough for a nut-allergic vegan like myself).
Hope you enjoyed this one!
| J | U | M | P | S | C | A | R | E | S | P | L | E | B | |
| P | H | A | R | A | O | H | A | N | T | D | A | V | E | |
| G | O | C | O | M | M | A | N | D | O | A | R | E | A | |
| S | H | E | M | I | S | T | A | K | E | G | N | U | ||
| B | I | C | N | E | A | T | E | S | T | |||||
| M | E | D | I | C | R | I | G | T | E | S | T | Y | ||
| E | A | R | T | H | T | O | N | E | S | A | C | E | R | |
| T | R | A | M | A | L | F | R | E | W | A | V | E | ||
| A | L | G | A | B | L | U | E | W | H | A | L | E | S | |
| L | Y | M | P | H | A | N | D | A | R | E | N | T | ||
| P | R | O | S | A | I | C | T | R | E | |||||
| L | I | T | S | N | I | F | F | E | D | H | U | B | ||
| A | S | H | Y | A | G | O | R | A | P | H | O | B | E | |
| T | E | E | D | P | A | R | A | S | A | I | L | E | D | |
| E | R | R | S | P | R | E | T | E | N | D | E | R | S |
This puzzle started with the grid layout — I really like the look of 90-degree rotational symmetry, and I figured the relative separation of the four corners would make it easier to fill each of them independently. The top left stack was the first one I settled on, and I worked my way through the rest of the puzzle from there.
If I were remaking this puzzle today, I'd probably try harder to replace some of the more boring, neutral long entries like LARGE-SCALE, METAL PLATE, and ENDANGERED. I also wish I had been more mindful of space limitations when writing my clues. Still, I'm happy with this as a first effort, especially DRAG MOTHER, BEAUTY REST, and GO COMMANDO.
Lastly, I want to thank my mom and my sister for test-solving. Hope you enjoyed!