Claire Rimkus author page
7 puzzles by Claire Rimkus
with Jeff Chen comments
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| H | O | L | Y | T | O | L | E | D | O | P | O | O | H | |
| U | P | A | N | D | L | E | A | V | E | I | O | W | A | |
| D | E | N | T | V | E | N | I | B | A | K | E | D | ||
| W | I | T | S | C | A | N | T | Y | ||||||
| A | N | T | M | A | N | L | O | R | D | I | O | N | ||
| L | O | H | A | N | O | R | A | L | T | U | E | |||
| P | R | E | G | N | A | N | C | Y | P | I | L | L | O | W |
| H | E | R | A | M | O | K | A | G | E | N | T | |||
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| A | T | H | E | N | A | G | U | S | ||||||
| E | T | H | O | S | P | O | O | R | J | E | E | P | ||
| L | I | E | S | M | E | L | L | O | Y | E | L | L | O | |
| M | O | R | E | L | E | G | O | P | E | R | S | O | N | |
| O | N | E | D | S | P | A | W | E | E | K | E | N | D |
PREGNANCY PILLOW across the middle provide such support. When Jill had one, I may or may not have stolen it from her in the wee hours a few times. Don't look at me like that — they're comfy!
Great color sprinkled all around, from HOLY TOLEDO to I OWE YOU ONE to SPA WEEKEND to THERE THERE. With this sort of standard themeless layout, those four stacks in the corners have to be filled to their maximum potential. Triplets of snazzy, multi-word phrases like MELLO YELLO / LEGO PERSON / SPA WEEKEND is the opposite of a TRAGIC FLAW.
I remember the first time I encountered ONED. It had to be wrong. Tragic flaw in the puzzle! I've mello yello'ed since then, but I still despise this sort of thing. Same with TENK, though AONE never bothers me. I never said I was consistent!
So much of this is subjective, with some constructors and solvers loving the oddity of only-seen-in-crosswords entries like MANDMS. For some inexplicable reason, I can't stand that one, but PBANDJ is perfectly fine.
Holy Toledo, I wouldn't blame those who decide to UP AND LEAVE my overanalysis.
Incredible clue for BETS. I couldn't figure out [Plays favorites, perhaps] even after getting all four letters from the crosses. That's "plays (the odds-on) favorites (at the sports book)." Wickedly clever. I would have loved more along this wordplay line, instead of the incredibly tough stuff like having to know that Sauron was a LORD.
I know, I have to turn in my dork card now. Tragic flaw, indeed.
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| L | A | T | E | R | A | L | L | Y | T | E | M | P | S | |
| T | O | A | D | T | I | V | O | I | I | I | ||||
| C | I | R | C | U | S | E | M | U | L | A | T | E | S | |
| H | O | T | H | E | A | D | R | O | B | E | R | T | ||
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| L | A | T | E | S | H | I | F | T | ||||||
| G | O | L | T | H | E | M | C | S | I | |||||
| S | T | A | L | L | S | D | A | B | B | L | E | D | ||
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| Y | U | P | S | A | R | I | A | L | M | A | ||||
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| H | E | L | E | N | E | A | S | E | S | T | O | Y | ||
| E | D | S | E | L | D | O | N | E | O | R | E |
★ There are so many "entries that need some chunk removed to make sense of their clues" themes these days. To attract any attention, you have to do something different. Claire and Rachel did just that, neatly pairing up themers within rows and using LATE SHIFT. Row 3 has such a strong example: LATERALLY and TEMPS have to be interpreted as LATERALLY and TEMP(LATE)S. See how the LATE shifted from left to right?
There are many possibilities for this theme — you can use our Replacement Finder to see others — but Claire and Rachel picked great examples:
CIRCU(LATE)S <- EMULATES
COLLATED -> CLEAN S(LATE)
TRANS(LATE) <- VENTILATE
It was difficult to see some of these shifts, since LATE moved from any part of the first word to any part within the second. As much as I love trickiness on Thursdays, having some like this would be ideal:
TRANS(LATE) <- LATERALLY
Note how much easier it is to see that LATE shift, when it's simply jumping over one block, and not a random number of letters.
Gridding around five full rows is much harder than gridding around five long themers. That may be counterintuitive, but being forced into a couple of black square placements right off the bat takes away so much flexibility. Great use of diagonal slashes in the middle of the grid to separate the themers as much as possible. A bit of GOL is inevitable, but having the World Cup so recently behind us helps save that entry.
Ticky-tacky complaints aside, I loved this solving experience. I felt so smug thinking that I had it figured out at LATERALLY to RALLY, only to be slapped upside the head by TEMPS not making sense. Such a wonderful way to interpret LATE SHIFT for Thursday trickery.
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| C | A | R | T | R | O | U | B | L | E | H | A | U | T | |
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| S | I | N | S | A | T | O | P | A | V | A | ||||
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| Y | O | N | K | E | R | I | G | E | M | S | ||||
| S | N | A | K | E | D | A | N | D | Y | |||||
| T | I | M | E | A | C | T | I | A | M | M | A | N | ||
| R | E | I | D | W | H | E | N | I | N | R | O | M | E | |
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| P | E | E | P | S | P | R | A | Y | T | A | N | S |
| A | V | O | N | D | I | S | A | P | P | E | A | R | ||
| M | A | N | O | B | E | S | T | C | H | A | N | C | E | |
| B | L | T | S | O | N | E | A | T | A | T | I | M | E | |
| E | V | I | L | U | S | E | R | S | I | D | E | D | ||
| R | E | P | O | S | T | T | H | E | O | |||||
| P | U | T | I | C | E | E | S | W | A | G | ||||
| J | O | Y | C | E | C | A | R | R | Y | A | G | O | ||
| O | N | T | H | E | B | A | C | K | B | U | R | N | E | R |
| S | L | O | L | A | N | A | I | C | A | N | D | Y | ||
| E | Y | E | S | T | R | O | T | K | I | A | ||||
| H | O | S | E | S | Y | S | T | E | M | |||||
| A | T | R | I | A | L | I | P | A | E | R | G | O | ||
| P | O | I | N | T | T | A | K | E | N | S | A | G | A | |
| P | R | O | T | E | S | T | E | R | S | U | D | O | N | |
| S | O | T | O | S | P | E | A | K | P | E | N | S |
Impressive set of marquee entries. I love how so many delightful long entries weave through each other, from north to south, from West Coast to East: ON TIPPY TOE through ON THE BACKBURNER through I CAN RELATE, STARTER KIT, and WANNA TRADE. Everywhere I looked, there was fantastic material.
Editors tend to favor multi-word entries for their colorful potential, so DISAPPEAR usually wouldn't get a plus. However, mixing DISAPPEAR / BEST CHANCE / ONE AT A TIME has a fun carnival magic ACT feel to it. I sure will step right up!
I enjoyed much of the cluing. As the nefarious one between me and my identical twin brother, I approve of the EVIL clue. CROSS PRODUCTS also gave me a big smile, since I'm in the middle of teaching my kids about statistics and probabilities. We definitely do not use PENS — lots of erasing required!
And the gold medal-winner: [Garden variety?] What sly usage of a garden-variety phrase to point at an HERB. Now that's tasty!
I could have used more clues that gave me Friday-level joy, though. In some cases, I figured out what the answer must be, but the clue took a long while to click:
- [Clear indication?] as I SEE … ironically, I didn't see. It is clever in hindsight, but the grammar is too warped for my taste.
- I appreciated the wile in [Exchange words] misdirecting to "have an argument." That is wickedly devious. For Friday fun, though, a telltale question mark would have amped up the a-ha moment.
An enjoyable Friday solve overall. NO SLOUCH, indeed.
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| L | E | T | A | F | R | O | L | O | O | T | S | |||
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| I | O | U | O | M | G | |||||||||
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| I | T | S | W | R | E | N | S | T | A | R | E | S | ||
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Such an elegant theme: four sporting venues that can all be used both as nouns and verbs. Not only that, but each of the verbs can start a legitimate phrase? That certainly would RING my constructor ALARM BELLS — if I were clever enough to think of it.
As if that wasn't enough, Claire wove so much fun into the clues. Those Europeans, eating their "Cool American" DORITOS. I bet they don't even have pumpkin-spiced everything yet in AUTUMN.
And I shall thusly explain the MEN clue to you …
Or maybe not.
Not a jump-out-of-your-seat sort of theme discovery, but one to sit back and admire. Beautiful early-week concept.
| B | O | T | H | O | S | I | R | I | S | H | B | O | ||
| R | H | E | A | U | P | T | O | N | O | G | O | O | D | |
| A | I | M | S | S | E | C | O | N | D | W | I | N | D | |
| T | O | P | N | O | T | C | H | D | E | S | K | S | ||
| T | O | N | E | S | G | L | I | N | T | S | ||||
| I | F | F | I | E | R | L | O | A | N | |||||
| R | E | A | D | S | B | A | B | Y | G | A | T | E | S | |
| K | A | T | E | T | A | P | A | S | S | U | R | E | ||
| S | T | E | A | D | Y | G | I | G | D | I | X | I | E | |
| E | K | E | S | D | E | F | E | N | D | |||||
| R | A | F | A | E | L | V | A | L | I | D | ||||
| W | O | R | L | D | G | A | Y | I | C | O | N | S | ||
| A | D | I | O | S | A | M | I | G | O | A | C | A | I | |
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| M | O | E | T | E | A | S | E | D | E | T | R | E |
TOP NOTCH is right, an excellent 72-word grid. Claire filled nearly all of her long slots with colorful, multi-word entries, and what IFFIER short glue could you point to? MTA will be tough for some non-New Yorkers, but it's otherwise squeaky clean.
If you're going to make a 72-word themeless (the max allowable), this is the level you must achieve. Great gridwork.
The icing on the cake was the multitude of clever clues for shorter entries. [Giant in chip manufacturing] wasn't Intel or Acer, but the potato chip company, LAY'S. I might seek forgiveness for … uh oh, Claire knows what I did last summer!
Oh. Loan forgiveness? That's what I was talking about, too.
Best of all was the innocent [Challenge while sitting]. This clearly is about my kids and their inability to sit still while I attempt to engage in teachable moments. (Thankfully, our kids behave better with our babysitter than they do with us.)
I wonder if Claire and the NYT team shot themselves in the foot with the deluge of cleverness, though — specifically, the type of cleverness. I struggled mightily to finish this puzzle because of the sheer quantity of innocent-yet-wickedly-near-impossible clues. Taking twice as long as usual for a Friday made me feel ... well, slow. The level of cluing brillince is exemplary, but it'd have been great for the sound engineers to amplify the Friday frolic while diminishing the Saturday struggle.
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| A | N | G | R | Y | E | L | I | O | N | |||||
| C | E | L | I | E | B | U | L | B | P | G | A | |||
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| F | D | A | W | A | D | S | C | I | D | E | R | |||
| P | O | L | Y | H | E | N | T | O | S | |||||
| A | L | E | R | T | R | E | D | G | I | A | N | T | ||
| A | M | E | N | T | O | T | H | A | T | T | R | O | U | |
| D | I | N | A | H | S | H | O | R | E | L | I | M | B | |
| O | D | D | L | Y | U | S | D | A | L | A | Y | S |
So much to enjoy in this themeless! I dropped in HIS AND … HER? — sure, that sounded right … ish — and was delightfully surprised that I was wrong. Mostly, I enjoyed having my assumption checked, but I can use a dose of grammatical slap in the forehead every once in a while.
CRINGEWORTHY is anything but; such a great word. It's not an NYT debut, but it's still sparkly.
ELASTIGIRL! She's not my favorite of the Incredibles—how can you resist Jack-Jack? — but she is indeed incredible, attempting to keep the family together through Mr. Incredible's misguided attempts to regain his glory days.
MICROBLADING … ? I'm sure this will elate some solvers, as it appears to be a popular aesthetic technique. For us monobrow-and-proud-of-it types, at least MICROBLADING is two lexical chunks that are identifiable.
Much clever cluing, although some of it went over my head:
- [Groin pulls?] = LUSTS, this eluded me until Jim Horne explained the brilliance here, in his polite Canadian manner. Think "The Call of the Wild." Still don't get it? The groin region … a yen for said nether parts? I've said too much.
- STUBS are trashed by movie reviewers? Ticket stubs are thrown away by almost all movie goers, not just reviewers, yes? I get the intent, but it didn't quite work.
- Similarly, HALF is [Like 50 U.S. senators]? Accurate, although it's such a tortured way to express HALF.
- [In one ear?] is HEARD … because EAR is inside the word HEARD? Or because the first HALF of "in one ear and out the other" would mean that someone retained the thought?
All in all, a satisfying solve, albeit one that made me feel like the kid in the back of the room, wondering what language the teacher is speaking. (There's a reason why I got kicked out of Chinese school as a youth.) If more clues had been spot-on sizzlers like [Meteor showers?] — that's show-er, as in one who shows — for PLANETARIA, it could have gotten the POW!.