Dan Bischof author page
1 puzzle by Dan Bischof
with Constructor comments
See the 2 answer words debuted by Dan Bischof.
| A | R | F | S | A | R | E | A | S | O | A | M | I | ||
| F | U | L | L | M | E | A | N | U | N | L | I | T | ||
| A | S | E | A | M | A | S | T | N | E | O | N | S | ||
| R | H | A | P | S | O | D | Y | I | N | B | L | U | E | |
| C | S | U | M | O | A | B | ||||||||
| T | M | I | V | I | B | R | A | N | T | U | M | P | ||
| E | A | R | L | L | O | O | T | H | O | N | E | S | ||
| S | O | C | I | A | L | B | U | T | T | E | R | F | L | Y |
| T | R | U | E | R | S | T | E | W | B | O | B | O | ||
| S | I | S | M | O | L | E | R | A | T | R | A | P | ||
| A | C | R | E | H | O | G | ||||||||
| U | P | W | A | R | D | L | Y | M | O | B | I | L | E | |
| A | L | I | G | N | D | I | E | U | A | V | O | N | ||
| P | A | C | E | D | E | E | L | S | M | E | R | V | ||
| O | N | K | E | Y | R | U | L | E | A | N | D | Y |
DAN: I am thrilled to be debuting in The New York Times today, and I am grateful to Joel and Will who encouraged me, and to Jeff, who helped take the original concept to a higher level.
I always liked words that contained each vowel once (including Y), and I thought it would be fun to use such a list in a theme — words like PRECARIOUSLY and COEQUALITY. After a bit of research, I found such words range from the technical and thus unusable (ACTINOMYCETOUS) to the more common but not especially exciting (TENACIOUSLY). And there are quite a few adverbs (FACETIOUSLY — all six … in alphabetical order!).
As a new constructor, I tried not to overextend myself, and I chose three 15s that fit the theme and were not obviously connected: COUNTERCYCLICAL, UNCOPYRIGHTABLE, and (in various versions) INSTANTANEOUSLY (hey, that uses the A twice!), VOYEURISTICALLY (ditto the I), and finally, GRANDILOQUENTLY.
The fill, however, was weak, and the circled theme letters were scattered haphazardly around the grid (like the results of five fowl competing in chicken poop bingo). Will/Joel were interested, but after I made several attempts, they suggested I should work with a more experienced constructor. Enter Jeff.
Jeff said he liked the concept but proposed that we "think bigger," and suggested we use — instead of the "trivial" all-vowel-inclusive words I had proposed — more colorful phrases that followed the theme rule but punched up the puzzle. He also arranged the circled theme letters in a way that showed some uniformity and intent.