David W. Tuffs author page
6 puzzles by David W. Tuffs
with Constructor comments
See the 25 answer words debuted by David W. Tuffs.
| R | E | P | E | L | S | W | A | P | B | O | P | J | A | B | A | T | ||||
| I | R | U | L | E | P | O | C | O | C | U | B | A | O | L | L | I | E | |||
| G | I | R | L | S | C | O | U | T | L | E | A | D | E | R | S | T | O | R | E | |
| I | C | E | E | M | I | N | I | A | N | D | S | O | H | O | O | F | ||||
| D | A | B | F | O | L | D | I | N | G | T | H | E | L | A | U | N | D | R | Y | |
| R | A | I | N | S | A | L | I | A | E | R | A | B | A | O | ||||||
| L | E | I | F | F | I | N | E | B | E | E | B | A | N | D | ||||||
| W | E | D | D | I | N | G | C | R | A | S | H | E | R | A | T | O | N | C | E | |
| R | O | D | E | O | R | C | A | S | O | P | A | H | U | R | K | E | L | |||
| A | N | O | D | Y | N | E | C | R | E | V | A | S | S | E | ||||||
| P | E | G | H | E | A | V | E | N | O | N | E | A | R | T | H | H | O | T | ||
| G | E | T | S | E | V | E | N | P | A | Y | H | I | K | E | ||||||
| C | O | C | O | A | E | R | I | N | A | S | S | E | T | A | G | R | A | |||
| A | B | H | O | R | S | B | L | A | C | K | F | O | R | E | S | T | H | A | M | |
| B | A | R | N | A | B | S | A | R | O | D | P | E | A | S | ||||||
| A | M | Y | O | I | L | P | E | S | O | I | B | A | R | S | ||||||
| L | A | S | T | P | L | A | C | E | F | I | N | I | S | H | E | S | A | L | I | |
| C | L | O | T | S | E | T | I | N | N | E | E | R | A | K | O | N | ||||
| T | R | E | K | S | T | A | B | L | O | I | D | M | A | G | A | Z | I | N | E | |
| M | A | R | Y | I | I | S | E | E | M | U | I | R | C | U | T | E | R | |||
| I | T | S | O | N | T | E | D | P | S | S | T | A | L | E | R | T |
Excited to have another Sunday crossword in the New York Times! Hopefully having circled words AND shaded words in the theme entries was a nice Sunday bonus and avoided turning into too much of a mosaic. While none of the eventual theme entries had either word in one piece, my favorite entry that didn't make it in did: PRIM and PROPER in (PRIM)E (PROPER)TY, which had to be cut because ‘proper' and ‘property' rather expectedly share an etymology.
The final draft of the puzzle was partly assembled in Google Slides, which for me is a return to my roots, as Slides is where I first started making puzzles. However this time I only used it to get the circles and shading right, and not to try and fit the year BC IIII into a 78-word themeless.
| G | R | A | N | S | K | I | M | S | J | E | S | T | ||
| O | O | P | S | T | I | T | A | N | E | X | P | O | ||
| F | A | T | A | L | A | T | T | R | A | C | T | I | O | N |
| A | D | E | I | R | K | G | O | T | T | I | ||||
| S | I | S | T | E | R | A | C | T | M | A | P | L | E | |
| T | E | T | E | T | A | R | T | O | E | R | ||||
| T | A | B | R | E | Y | N | O | L | D | S | ||||
| T | O | T | A | L | R | E | C | A | L | L | ||||
| I | C | A | N | T | S | E | E | O | B | I | ||||
| A | L | P | S | A | R | A | V | A | M | P | ||||
| N | A | D | A | L | D | A | R | E | D | E | V | I | L | |
| V | A | N | E | S | E | T | E | I | R | E | ||||
| S | I | N | G | I | N | I | N | T | H | E | R | A | I | N |
| P | E | C | S | I | D | A | H | O | P | R | A | T | ||
| F | R | E | T | P | A | P | A | S | M | Y | M | Y |
I'm a huge fan of letter bank wordplay (where two phrases aren't anagrams, but they do have all the same letters), and I'd been looking for a way to make a puzzle out of them for a while. I knew I wanted to refer in some way to letters as "characters," since that was the synonym that seemed most ripe for puns, but it took a while to get to the current iteration.
I spent a while with just one entry which went along the lines of LOWERCASE I = "Lewis Carroll 'character' made out of 'Lewis Carroll' characters," but that just feels impossible for solvers and I'm glad I moved away from it.
Some pairs that unfortunately didn't make it in include TRANSFORMERS and MASTER OF NONE, SUPERNATURAL and TREASURE PLANET, and MEMENTO and TEEN MOM (this last pair are actually anagrams!).
| B | L | O | C | A | S | A | P | A | T | A | R | I | |||
| M | A | T | T | B | R | I | D | E | M | E | L | O | N | ||
| W | I | T | H | O | U | T | S | I | N | B | A | I | L | S | |
| S | C | O | U | R | G | E | E | N | L | I | S | T | E | E | |
| L | A | B | G | U | E | S | T | H | O | S | T | ||||
| M | A | T | H | L | E | T | E | D | I | O | |||||
| O | A | H | U | A | R | T | O | O | O | P | A | L | |||
| T | H | E | B | R | E | A | D | P | A | N | D | I | E | ||
| S | O | L | I | S | T | O | I | C | B | E | R | T | |||
| E | G | O | W | E | T | N | O | S | E | S | |||||
| F | I | R | E | B | R | A | N | D | F | A | X | ||||
| A | D | O | R | A | B | L | E | O | A | T | C | A | K | E | |
| C | A | B | I | N | T | R | A | N | S | L | A | T | E | D | |
| T | H | I | N | K | E | V | I | C | T | R | O | T | I | ||
| S | O | N | G | S | R | E | D | D | S | P | O | T |
False friends are the reason this puzzle exists. They're pairs of words in different languages that seem related to one another but whose meanings are completely different. So, 'pan' in Spanish isn't related to 'pan' in English, and it doesn't have anything to do with cooking vessels. False friends, in short, looked like one English word but meant another.
In finding theme material for this puzzle, I went through lists of these words, which had been compiled as a caution for language learners, and whenever a false friend and its English meaning formed a valid phrase, I added it. False friends were also invaluable in avoiding the trap of 'redundant' translations, like 'chai tea' (since chai already means 'tea') and the dozens of place names meaning 'river river' or 'hill hill' (look up tautological place names for a very confusing read), plus false cognates, in which two words do have the same meaning, but through pure coincidence rather than sharing a common ancestor.
In all, I'm surprised that this extremely rigid theme had as many valid entries as it did, and especially that almost all had the English and non-English word occur in the same order.
| H | O | T | T | A | M | A | L | E | T | A | F | F | Y | C | S | P | A | N | ||
| A | S | I | A | M | I | N | O | R | E | M | I | L | E | O | P | E | R | A | ||
| R | O | C | K | I | D | O | L | S | M | O | V | I | E | T | R | O | P | E | S | |
| E | S | S | E | W | I | S | E | P | R | E | P | O | G | R | E | S | ||||
| M | I | E | N | S | T | E | P | S | O | N | I | T | ||||||||
| P | O | W | E | R | S | T | R | I | P | M | I | R | Y | S | A | L | ||||
| I | S | H | I | T | S | A | M | E | S | S | D | E | A | D | S | P | O | T | ||
| V | S | I | G | N | E | S | C | A | P | E | E | S | I | H | E | A | R | |||
| O | I | L | P | A | L | M | K | N | E | X | S | T | O | R | M | Y | ||||
| T | E | E | S | I | M | D | B | K | L | U | M | E | S | P | Y | S | ||||
| P | E | A | N | U | T | A | L | L | E | R | G | Y | ||||||||
| J | A | D | E | N | C | L | A | P | T | H | O | U | B | A | M | A | ||||
| S | A | V | O | R | S | G | R | U | B | W | E | T | O | N | E | S | ||||
| I | N | L | E | T | E | G | Y | P | T | I | A | N | W | O | O | D | Y | |||
| S | E | A | S | H | O | R | E | S | T | O | N | E | A | G | E | D | I | E | ||
| T | B | T | D | I | M | E | M | I | D | D | L | E | S | E | A | T | ||||
| O | P | E | N | S | P | A | C | E | R | I | D | E | ||||||||
| H | I | A | L | L | T | I | E | R | I | S | I | T | T | O | M | E | ||||
| M | E | N | T | A | L | L | A | P | S | E | B | L | A | C | K | S | T | A | R | |
| P | R | E | E | N | A | T | E | I | T | M | A | N | H | A | T | T | A | N | ||
| G | A | Z | E | S | G | E | N | R | E | S | T | A | Y | L | O | O | S | E |
I'm excited to be back in the Times and doubly excited to have my first Sunday puzzle published.
This puzzle started with a pair of entries that didn't make it into the final version: SOLAR PANEL/PLANE, which cropped up while I was looking for entries for another theme now lost to time. Once I had that entry and the aha moment that "this could be a puzzle," I went to the largest online list of anagrams I could find and spent the next week or so sifting through it to see what was out there. Some entries that were interesting, but not the best for crosswords or had the anagram in the wrong place, were PARENTAL/PATERNAL LEAVE, ONE MORE NIGHT/THING, and NEVER/NERVE ENDING.
Filling in a 21x21 grid always takes a lot of time, so I spent a while either putting it off or trying to make my favorite entries fit into a 15x15 grid, but over the fall, I got caught up in the Delta wave of coronavirus, leaving me stuck at home for a week, and finally giving me the motivation to finish it. As a final note in the puzzle, the solution to 117-Across has a third possible anagram that can form a real phrase. Can you figure it out?
[Solution: BLACK RATS]
| E | M | S | G | A | L | C | H | I | A | P | E | T | ||
| S | A | I | D | I | D | O | H | E | N | D | R | I | X | |
| O | R | L | A | N | D | O | O | R | A | L | I | S | T | |
| B | R | E | D | I | S | P | O | W | E | N | ||||
| E | I | N | S | S | E | A | M | A | R | G | U | E | ||
| S | E | T | F | A | N | T | A | S | Y | L | A | X | ||
| O | D | D | J | O | B | A | C | T | M | E | E | T | ||
| O | R | A | N | G | E | R | E | D | ||||||
| S | H | O | T | B | A | O | E | A | S | T | L | A | ||
| T | O | V | V | A | I | N | E | S | T | R | A | W | ||
| P | I | E | C | E | F | I | N | S | K | A | V | A | ||
| R | I | G | A | A | R | F | A | V | E | R | ||||
| O | R | D | E | A | L | S | O | R | C | H | A | R | D | |
| D | I | U | R | N | A | L | L | E | O | N | I | N | E | |
| E | M | B | A | S | S | Y | L | E | X | L | E | E |
This is my second puzzle in the New York Times, but it was the first one accepted. I sent it in while I was still filling my grids manually using an online crossword maker and submitting them in an envelope. So, this being a puzzle by a novice constructor, there are high points and low points. MARRIED and SAID I DO crossing is great, as are LAVERNE / COX, CHIA PET, and HENDRIX, but I don't think solvers need the nearly identical German words for 'one' and 'ice'. And while SILENT D (I think) was saved by the cluing, it's pretty arbitrary.
I do think the theme holds up better than the fill. ORANGE-RED was fun to discover. I couldn't include ORBITING in the grid, but it was equally fun to think of potential clues for that too. The theme's one downside is, since it involves wordplay over the entirety of each theme answer, those answers will tend to be short. I considered adding even shorter answers, such as "Who's your favorite ghostbuster? Winston ..." and "Who's your favorite composer? Liszt ..." (can you figure out what the latter options are?), but I was still in my phase where theme answers needed to be the longest across answers, and I can't imagine the effect on the fill if I had gone down that path.
In sum, I'm happy this puzzle got accepted because I was proud of its unique approach to a fairly simple theme, but I could have gone further with it.
(Answer: Winston OREGON; Liszt ORBACH)
| A | D | D | E | D | O | D | D | S | A | M | P | L | E | ||
| D | R | O | N | E | L | I | E | O | B | E | R | O | N | ||
| Z | E | N | G | A | R | D | E | N | W | I | D | E | S | T | |
| A | K | A | A | S | T | I | N | D | I | N | E | R | |||
| I | M | I | G | H | T | P | R | O | S | E | C | U | T | E | |
| C | O | N | E | Y | F | I | O | N | A | I | P | O | |||
| E | N | G | A | W | O | L | G | I | N | S | |||||
| S | T | A | B | L | E | M | A | T | E | ||||||
| J | O | T | S | V | I | N | G | S | R | O | |||||
| Y | E | R | T | P | A | I | N | U | P | T | O | N | |||
| W | E | A | T | H | E | R | E | D | A | Y | E | A | Y | E | |
| H | O | N | D | A | O | N | E | A | L | T | S | A | |||
| I | M | L | A | T | E | E | N | D | L | E | S | S | L | Y | |
| N | E | U | T | E | R | A | C | E | S | P | E | W | S | ||
| E | N | C | A | S | E | S | E | N | P | A | N | E | L |
Hi all! I'm a fourth-year linguistics major at UC Santa Cruz, my hobbies are photography, Garageband, and trying my best at piano, and I've been making crosswords for about a year and a half now.
This puzzle is my Times debut, and I'm really excited to contribute to this community. I made this puzzle last August, around the time I decided to use wordplay as a motive for learning to code again. I still can't make a website or a video game, but I can find all the words in a list that don't have the letter E in them in under a minute, so I would say I achieved my goal there.
I really enjoy constructing themes like this one because it's a really good excuse to spend a few hours at a time looking through lists of words with special properties. And while few of them translate into anything worthy of a theme, sometimes things work out.
While the concept of removing letters can be a bit basic for a Thursday, I hope that the vivid fill and the fact that solvers have to figure out the end letters from the crossings should make up for it. I'll also be interested to see how well solvers know TABLE MAT, which my British-born parents knew well, but which the dictionaries felt a bit more skittish about.