Dan Caprera author page
5 puzzles by Dan Caprera
with Constructor comments
| F | O | O | D | R | E | P | R | A | T | I | O | N | ||
| A | N | N | O | I | N | A | U | N | A | B | L | E | ||
| L | I | C | E | O | L | I | V | E | T | R | E | E | S | |
| C | O | U | R | T | I | D | E | E | A | T | S | |||
| O | N | E | S | I | E | S | I | D | S | |||||
| R | E | T | I | N | A | S | T | A | B | |||||
| F | O | R | S | A | K | E | N | S | C | A | R | C | E | |
| A | L | O | U | D | D | A | P | A | G | I | N | G | ||
| S | E | C | R | E | T | P | A | S | S | A | G | E | S | |
| T | O | K | E | I | N | T | R | O | S | |||||
| J | L | O | E | N | I | G | M | A | S | |||||
| M | A | N | E | T | I | N | S | H | A | R | K | |||
| P | O | L | O | S | H | I | R | T | S | O | R | G | Y | |
| C | O | A | R | S | E | M | A | E | S | L | O | P | ||
| P | R | I | M | E | R | A | L | E | T | A | T | E |
| W | E | S | C | R | M | O | H | H | A | L | F | |||
| O | P | E | R | A | A | L | A | I | A | M | O | I | ||
| N | E | G | E | V | L | E | W | D | S | I | G | N | ||
| G | E | O | D | E | S | K | I | M | N | E | C | |||
| O | N | E | S | G | A | L | O | S | H | |||||
| H | E | M | S | M | E | S | A | N | S | A | ||||
| A | R | I | I | A | M | N | O | T | A | C | R | |||
| W | I | N | T | E | R | M | I | G | R | A | T | I | O | N |
| C | O | U | N | S | E | L | E | D | D | O | E | |||
| R | C | A | N | E | R | O | A | S | K | S | ||||
| D | I | C | K | C | L | S | C | O | T | |||||
| U | G | H | T | A | Z | O | I | N | E | S | C | |||
| C | L | O | Y | R | O | X | Y | L | I | V | E | R | ||
| T | O | R | E | K | N | E | E | E | N | E | R | O | ||
| S | O | D | A | E | N | T | R | E | N | E | W |
| J | E | L | L | O | A | S | A | N | A | C | G | I | |||
| F | L | Y | I | N | G | S | A | U | C | E | R | H | E | R | |
| K | L | E | P | T | O | C | R | A | T | I | C | E | E | K | |
| O | T | O | V | I | N | C | A | S | E | ||||||
| R | U | M | T | W | E | E | B | A | T | E | D | ||||
| D | E | N | A | L | I | T | S | T | R | A | P | S | |||
| I | M | A | G | O | M | O | T | H | E | R | S | H | I | P | |
| N | A | B | I | S | C | O | A | N | C | I | E | N | T | ||
| S | P | A | C | E | C | R | A | F | T | A | C | E | L | A | |
| S | M | I | L | E | R | S | B | R | U | T | E | S | |||
| H | I | H | A | T | T | U | B | E | M | S | T | ||||
| E | D | E | N | F | B | I | L | A | M | ||||||
| L | E | D | T | R | A | C | T | O | R | B | E | A | M | S | |
| P | A | L | B | A | L | L | E | T | D | A | N | C | E | R | |
| S | L | Y | S | T | E | E | D | S | T | E | W | S |
Man, oh man. What a cool-but-flawed puzzle this one was. For a long time, I've been trying to find a way to use both gray squares and circles in the same grid. And I think this puzzle accomplishes that in a unique and compelling way. It's just a lot of fun to visually see the alien abductions take place on the page. And I'm such a sucker for puzzles that look fresh and exciting (check out my puzzles in Crucinova for some extreme examples of this!)
But oof. There were lots of constraints for this one. There just aren't a ton of vehicles that can use tractor beams. And most of them aren't symmetrical in length. And then, in order to have vertical intersections in the center of the word (because you can't have a tractor beam coming out of the side of a ship), it led to a very constrained grid. And, with such a rigid theme-set and grid, after about 30 hours of filling, I still ended up using far more ETOs and AARs than I personally would have loved.
But it's a poor builder who blames his tools. I stand by this puzzle, and I'm very proud to see it run. And I hope you enjoyed it too! Thanks for solving, and for reading this column.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | |
| 1 | L | O | C | O | A | R | D | O | R | M | A | O | ||
| 2 | A | T | O | M | W | H | E | R | E | A | L | P | ||
| 3 | S | T | U | N | T | W | O | M | A | N | D | O | E | |
| 4 | S | E | P | I | A | M | E | L | T | E | E | N | ||
| 5 | O | R | E | T | U | B | A | A | O | L | ||||
| 6 | C | A | N | I | N | E | T | E | E | T | H | |||
| 7 | M | I | M | O | S | A | O | N | E | T | I | M | E | |
| 8 | A | M | E | N | B | U | R | T | A | N | E | W | ||
| 9 | L | I | N | C | O | L | N | R | I | P | E | N | S | |
| 10 | I | N | D | O | N | E | S | I | A | N | S | |||
| 11 | E | C | O | U | N | P | C | A | C | T | ||||
| 12 | P | E | L | T | O | R | C | A | N | D | R | E | ||
| 13 | A | X | E | B | R | E | A | K | S | E | V | E | N | |
| 14 | P | I | E | O | Z | O | N | E | A | I | D | E | ||
| 15 | A | T | V | S | O | F | T | Y | P | L | O | T |
| T | B | S | P | B | I | B | M | O | T | O | ||||
| E | E | R | I | E | E | N | E | C | A | R | L | A | ||
| S | T | A | R | T | A | T | T | H | E | S | K | U | L | L |
| M | R | T | S | H | E | A | R | N | I | P | ||||
| E | A | S | T | T | W | E | L | V | E | P | A | C | E | S |
| I | R | A | S | E | C | A | S | H | ||||||
| C | O | M | M | A | N | D | O | T | Y | P | E | A | B | |
| I | R | A | E | A | X | E | H | O | B | O | ||||
| A | B | R | O | A | D | I | N | T | R | A | N | E | T | |
| Q | U | A | I | D | T | E | A | L | ||||||
| S | O | U | T | H | S | E | V | E | N | S | T | E | P | S |
| A | N | I | C | L | I | N | T | N | R | A | ||||
| W | E | S | T | F | I | V | E | T | H | E | N | D | I | G |
| N | U | E | V | A | E | W | E | S | E | I | Z | E | ||
| P | S | A | T | S | S | S | T | O | T | E |
This was only the third crossword puzzle I'd ever made, so the original draft of this puzzle was, you know, pretty rough. Instead of four rhyming-couplet clues, the original draft had six treasure hunt clues that spanned across the board diagonally and in all four compass directions. Simply put, it was way too complicated. So I'm glad (and extremely lucky) that Joel and Will took a chance and allowed me to salvage this puzzle!
Fun fact: when I originally sent off this puzzle to the New York Times, I printed it on old-timey parchment paper and included a handful of plastic pirate doubloons in the submission envelope. I'm not entirely sure if that ended up helping or hurting me. But, if there are any aspiring cruciverbalists out there looking for a quick way to get published, remember: sometimes bribery works!