Christopher Adams author page

Five years ago, I was hanging out with a bunch of crossword folks, and one was gushing about this musical called "Hamilton." Everyone seemed to be agreeing with her, so I innocently asked, "What's Hamilton?"

After the derisive laughter died down (three months later), I figured it was better to keep my mouth shut in these situations.

So it was with trepidation that I asked Jim Horne, "What's KINKY BOOTS?" Thankfully, he was gentle, explaining that it won the Best Musical Tony Award and that his band plays a cover of a KINKY BOOTS song. Then I asked, "Is winning the Best Musical Tony Award a big deal?"

I had to get a new phone after Jim's howling laughter cracked my speaker.

In cryptic crosswords, there are hundreds of words that indicate anagramming, and KINKY or "kinked" is one of them. (Don't ask me why.) Thus, all the sets of circles contain the letters B O O T S in some random order.

After tending to my ruptured eardrum, I asked Jim why pairs of circled letters crossed. It had to be some insidery reference to the musical. Or they were meant to look like kinked-up boots, like my kids do after they sit on them and swear that someone named Yehudi did it? (Again, don't ask.)

Would you believe that the sets of black squares at the bottom of the grid look like two boots? Made for walking, perhaps?

The pairs of crossing themers made for such rigid grid constraints, that I struggled through the results. Starting off debating if it was Jaromir JEGR and Inter ELIA or JAGR / ALIA led to another pause at Donna KARAN … or was it KERAN? I had a reasonably high degree of certainty for each cross, having seen all these in crosswords several times. Might be tougher for newer solvers, though.

I would have preferred fewer themers or stronger boot-like visuals generated by the crossing pairs. I did enjoy getting a reason to hear Jim, a professional musician, talk in detail about something he knows a great deal about. Totally worth the trip to the otolaryngologist.

"867-5309/Jenny" got air time when I was back in high school. I even I tried calling the number once. I waited until our land line was free, picked up our rotary dial phone, and plugged away at it. I had to restart a few times because the darn dial kept slipping halfway around, as it always did, so when I got the "your call must include an area code" automated message and my mom picked up the other line to scream at me to stop using the phone for nonsense, I figured I'd have better luck waiting for Jenny to call me.

That song debuted in 1981? Forty years ago? Yikes! I'm curious to see how many Gen Y and Millennial solvers (besides Adam!) will be baffled today.

Audacious to tackle seven(!) themers, along with JENNY, even with that extra column. Neat observation that none of the numbers repeat, which would have make this theme a no-go, due to the rule of no duplications within a grid. Some top-notch craftsmanship to put together something that knitted together so well. The NE corner is particularly challenging, with two stacked themers having to flow into the central FIVE GUYS. Brilliant to work in INNUENDO, such a great word filled with … well, innuendo.

I also appreciated Chris and Adam's care in making proper names unambiguous. If you didn't know Bud SELIG, Ted CHIANG, or the ENIAC, it'd be an uphill battle to argue that any of those letters was a trap. Perhaps if you're vegetarian, FIVE ?UYS might seem better as FIVE MUYS, a Spanish chain? And maybe you could argue that baby animals are MUTE, but I would say "huh?" or maybe HUNH (probably not) to you.

Some puzzles are geared toward the young and hip, so one could argue that there should be some for the rotary dial crowd. I'd prefer to have puzzles that aren't so divisive, with some people overjoyed and some people feeling shunned. Hard to please everyone, though.

ELVISH LIVES! I haven't been so amused by a letter-addition themer in ages. Take a colorful phrase, change it to generate a hilarious image of Galadriel and Legolas in upswept pompadours? Yes, please!

I've seen PARIS to PARISH and IRIS to IRISH many times, but TENNIS to TENNISH delighted me. Quite an accomplishment, given how many letter-addition puzzles I've done over the years. Bravo!

Chris is a grid master, so it's not surprising to see him tackle one of the toughest challenges in all griddom: the 72-word themed puzzle. It's easy to make a themeless at 72-words when you're freestyling, i.e., you have no constraints. Fixing four long entries into place while staying at 72 words is another story completely.

Much of Chris's work is successful, in that he gives us nice bonuses in DERIVATIVE, VIBRATED, I CAN'T NOW, SELTZERS, DITHERED. (STEVE YOUNG elated this Niners diehard, but he might do nothing, or less, for non-sportsball fans.) Additionally, there are barely any gluey bits — it could be argued that TBEAM and ACA are (more than) fine to some.

However, there's a disconnect between the simplicity of the theme and the complexity of the fill. The puzzle played wildly difficult for me:

• NIECY / NASH crossing ACA almost did me in since I remember ACA only as Obamacare.
• I vaguely remembered that cosine is the DERIVATIVE of sine, but I shamefully put in DERIVATION. I've turned in my nerd card.
• I couldn't remember if it was KERI or TERI Russell, and Erik Satie appears in crosswords enough that I thought SATI was the writer. And I call myself a writer!

Even though I enjoyed two of the themers immensely, having to fight at a Friday level of difficulty clashed with the early-weekness of the theme. It's like reading an alphabet book from ACA to ZOYSIA.

It's tough to impress me with a letter-addition, but I might have considered this for the POW! if it featured easier-breezier 76-word fill.

Beautiful triplet in MEAN STREETS, BURNT ORANGE, FASHIONISTA, all entries I'd strive to use as themeless seeds. Combining them so smoothly, that's a work of art. Speaking of art, Jim Horne and I still have our entertaining weekly COVID-19 check-in calls, and I appreciated learning from him that BURNT ORANGE is not just a team color for UT, but also that "burnt" hues are important in the world of fine arts.

I don't watch college football, but I would totally tune in for man-to-man painting.

PANTS ON FIRE is already a fantastic marquee answer, but that clue! Pure genius to use such an evocative phrase for one's lowest truthiness rating. Chris is right about RESTRICTIVE, but you're doing something right when five out of six featured entries sing.

As a solver, I appreciate grid flow. "Stair stack" themelesses often segment their corners off, causing bottlenecks. I like how you can work your way into each corner through multiple routes today, cutting down the possibility that you'll get stuck.

This does create construction difficulty, though. It's much easier to maximize a corner's color and cleanliness when it's isolatable. Take the NW, for example. LAICAL isn't a great way to start a puzzle. I also hitched at IM NOT OK, an entry somewhere between okay and not okay. It'd be much easier to use those two slots more snazzily if the corner didn't have to flow downward into the IE of MAMIE. That restriction might seem minor, since there are a lot of five-letter words that end in IE, but the reduction of flexibility is huge.

Similar results in the SE. I did enjoy the J and X of JINX, but EVACUATE, ETHANOL, plural SONARS, that's not going to raise many pulses.

A constructor's job is rarely easy. Chris could have closed off those corners to get more juice, but someone would have complained about grid flow. I like the way he balanced those factors, giving us a fine level of both smoothness and snazz.

I've seen a lot of crosswords based on "people whose last name are (some category of thing)." I even remembered two with CLARICE STARLING (the one Chris mentioned plus another) — my stupid long-term memory ruining crosswords for me.

Amazing that there are so many LADY BIRDs, i.e., females with last names that double as a bird. Whoda thunk it? I didn't immediately recognize SIGOURNEY WEAVER as a bird, but the rest are strong.

Ah, APOLUNE. I remember when Kevin Der used that in an ACPT puzzle, and I swore something was seriously wrong with the answer key. It's funny that it hardly registers as esoteric now that I've processed and seen it a couple of times more now. As a constructor, it's useful to remember and internalize one's own initial reactions, as other solvers could have the same unpleasant feeling of "that HAS to be wrong."

Overall, I like the application of the tight LADY BIRD concept to the tried and true theme type of "people whose last names are X." Neat that there are so many examples, too, and that the puzzle featured so many memorable women! However, those elements weren't enough to keep my attention for an entire 21x21 puzzle. It'd have been much better to downsize this to a 15x15 weekday — maybe focusing on just real people or just fictional characters. The straightforward concept would have felt much more powerful that way.

We've seen a ton of "mixed-up letter" themes, but how many have used strings of nine letters? As a constructor, I'm in awe of that possibility — I wouldn't have even considered exploring it.

If you're still baffled as to today's theme, we've highlighted the strings of letters below to make it crystal clear.

Still confused? That's okay. The highlighted letters are (M E T A P H O R S) in no specific order.

I appreciated the theme tightness. Five minutes of coding showed me that there aren't many other possibilities. CAMPHORATES, HOMER A THOMPSON, SWAMP HORSETAIL, and they're all boring or esoteric.

As a solver, it's more a curiosity than a brilliant find, though. Almost an afterthought; a "huh moment."

Thankfully the grid is well-done, giving solvers a lot of bonuses while keeping short fill smooth. The deluge of delight, PAX ROMANA, KARAOKE BAR, BLANK STARE, EARMARKS, SKYMALL, ROYAL WE, etc. gave me the sense of solving a good themeless puzzle. Chris is such a pro.

Maybe ditching the theme and just making it a themeless would have been better?

Or cutting out MIXED METAPHORS, and making it a contest puzzle? "What common phrase do the five themers hint at?" You could give the letter enumeration (5,9) to make it easier.

How about using a variety of other MIXED ____ phrases?

• CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE [Writer with mixed metaphors inside?]
• ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT [Song with mixed emotions?]
• SINGLES BARS [Places that come with a mixed blessing?].
• CAT AND MOUSE GAMES [They might come with a mixed message?]

A ton more if you open it to other "mixed" synonyms.

BTW, feel free to email me if you have a theme idea that requires some coding assistance. Happy to help out gratis if it's easy, or share a byline if it's not.

Even having seen SLASHER FILM used in a crossword in the same way, I still appreciated today's theme. I liked that Chris found three solid movies that used slashes in their titles. It took a while to recall that FACE/OFF indeed contained a slash, but it triggered a funny thought: that ridiculous flick (about two guys who trade faces) was the very definition of a SLASHER FILM.

Perfect use of mirror symmetry. It's a constructor's nightmare to come up with a clever concept, only to discover that the themer lengths don't match up. 15, 11, 11 ... 8? Groan, bang head, curse at Crucivera (the god of crosswords)!

Then the constructor's a-ha … wait for it, wait for it … the 11's can match vertically, with the 8 vertically in the center! That's divine intervention right there. All praise Crucivera!

Did you get Chris's explanation about the 8 presenting a challenge? It's much different than with normal symmetry since, with mirror symmetry, there's no way to break up the answers on either side of the 8 (you'd create 1-letter words).

It gets even trickier considering you need to work around another fixed constraint: a crossing themer in AM/FM. But Chris is a skilled constructor, well up to the challenge. I wondered if DR ROMANO had staying power, but what else in that stack would someone hitch on? To top it off with RED FLAG running through the stack is a bonus.

Hardly a dab of crossword glue, too. Such care taken throughout the grid. Longtime solvers might roll their eyes at AREOLAE and LOESS (HIE too, perhaps), but despite their potential foreign feeling for some solvers, they have merit as real words.

Fun clue for RETINA. I often wish I were the holder of many (ice cream) cones. I suppose my optical cone cells will have to do.

If there had been more novelty for me — if my OCD brain hadn't immediately remembered the 2013 puzzle — this would have been my POW! A tidy theme, tight set of three examples, a fun wordplay revealer, and great craftsmanship.

How apt — teams playing the NATIONAL PASTIME to be wearing red, white and blue! Made me wonder — why do any teams NOT wear red, white and blue? Ye scurvy traitorous turncoats.

I was curious enough to look up all the team colors. Were there others that only wore red, white and blue? If not, Chris's would be a super-tight set; a delightful find!

Alas, I only had to get to the Chicago Cubs to find a counter-example. Oh well. And there are a ton of teams who use red, white, and blue, but they also use other colors, like silver.

OMG, I waste a lot of time.

ADDED NOTE: Jim, a big baseball fan, noted that Chris actually did use a tight set — AMERICAN League teams in red, white and blue! I stand corrected. And I sort of remember that there is such a thing called the American League. It's still confusing, since the Yankees logo is red, white and blue, as is the Twins, Angels, and Rangers. And the White Sox logo doesn't actually have red in it.

ADDED ADDED NOTE: Maybe I just don't get baseball.

Mostly good gridwork, although I think ISSA RAE crossing ENERO is a no-no. I get that ISSA RAE is becoming more famous, but is she at the point where a great majority of educated, newer solvers ought to know her? Maybe in a few years, with a few more big roles. And ENERO is a tough Spanish word (for "January") that many regular crossword solvers will know … from doing crosswords.

Given that early-week puzzles have to be friendly to newer solvers, I'd have sent the puzzle back for rework on that square alone.

I'm obsessive about early-week puzzles, which must feel fair and fun for newer solvers. A single square can ruin the whole experience.

But overall, some good fill, GOOD EGG a really good egg, and I liked Chris's usage of mirror symmetry to work in BOSTON / REDSOX. It's a rare debut that goes past the usual rotational symmetry grid layouts, so I appreciated that.

ADDED ADDED ADDED NOTE: I'm officially a moron.

Jim had to explain to me that the three teams were indeed a tight set — team names featuring the colors RED, WHITE, and BLUE, in order! (He added highlighting to make it obvious, even to us meatheads.) The theme is much more impressive now that I actually see what's going on. Not sure how I so badly missed the real theme.