Eric Rollfing author page
2 puzzles by Eric Rollfing
with Constructor comments
| D | U | S | T | S | L | A | M | A | M | I | D | |||
| O | N | T | O | A | L | O | H | A | L | O | D | E | ||
| G | R | A | P | E | F | R | U | I | T | S | P | O | O | N |
| M | O | P | L | A | S | T | O | O | N | |||||
| A | L | L | F | O | R | W | R | E | N | R | P | M | ||
| L | E | A | P | D | I | E | T | O | R | O | ||||
| J | E | S | U | I | T | S | C | H | O | O | L | |||
| A | D | M | I | R | E | R | O | K | E | E | F | F | E | |
| Q | U | I | T | S | T | A | L | L | I | N | G | |||
| U | L | N | A | N | O | D | S | A | S | S | ||||
| A | L | T | A | U | T | O | P | U | P | P | E | T | ||
| L | A | M | P | P | A | R | I | C | E | |||||
| K | E | E | P | I | T | B | E | T | W | E | E | N | U | S |
| A | L | A | S | O | R | G | A | N | P | A | R | T | ||
| L | I | F | E | N | A | G | S | A | L | E | S |
It probably goes against Construction 101 to place the middle themers so close to each other. I had several working versions of the puzzle with those themers one row higher and one row lower, which seems to be the safer position, but the middle was getting muddled with fun words like ATONAL and UNIVAC.
My original revealer clue was a bit vague, but I put bubbles around IT and US as a trade-off to make the theme more apparent. The Editing Team found a nice solution to clue the revealer more straightforwardly and avoid the bubbles, which you rarely see on Mondays.
Hope it was a fun solve for you!
| C | N | B | C | R | A | S | P | E | D | G | A | R | ||
| U | B | E | R | E | I | R | E | N | U | R | S | E | ||
| D | A | T | A | F | R | O | O | T | L | O | O | P | S | |
| R | I | A | L | R | O | I | W | I | I | |||||
| S | P | A | G | H | E | T | T | I | O | S | U | R | N | |
| H | A | Y | S | C | H | W | A | T | A | P | E | |||
| O | L | A | F | T | R | I | H | E | N | |||||
| W | E | L | L | R | O | U | N | D | E | D | D | I | E | T |
| E | A | R | K | I | A | I | N | R | E | |||||
| S | C | A | N | S | I | E | V | E | D | I | A | |||
| C | A | R | C | H | E | E | S | E | W | H | E | E | L | |
| I | V | Y | H | O | E | N | E | O | N | |||||
| D | I | P | P | I | N | D | O | T | S | W | I | S | H | |
| E | L | T | O | N | E | D | E | N | L | A | K | E | ||
| R | E | O | R | G | D | E | M | O | S | L | I | M |
I can't recall the exact moment that sparked this puzzle, but I do remember being excited when I couldn't find any hits for WELLROUNDEDDIET in the crossword databases I checked. Most of the time you will find a potential revealer has already been taken years ago.
So if you are reading this from the future thinking you might have the perfect idea for a WELL-ROUNDED DIET puzzle, sorry for the disappointing news.
I've kept a version history of the puzzles I've submitted to The Times on the off-chance that I'd ever have to write about one, and the themers that made it to the final puzzle were already in place (albeit in a different order) in the first working version. I tried another possibility with the revealer in Row 13 and SWEDISHMEATBALL in Row 3, and also tinkered with ONIONRINGS, CHEESEBALLS, and LIMEWHEELS as themers.
You might notice this puzzle has a pretty high theme-density, so there are actually 5 words that cross three themers. This puts some strain on the grid, but the letters in the themers were luckily flexible enough to allow for some serviceable long bonuses.
A big thanks to my friend Travis for his help with test solving, and to the puzzle editing team for their valuable feedback.