Erin Rhode author page
2 puzzles by Erin Rhode
with Jeff Chen comments
| F | O | O | D | C | O | M | A | F | A | T | L | I | P | |
| A | N | D | I | M | O | U | T | E | R | O | I | C | A | |
| R | E | D | V | I | N | E | S | D | I | A | N | A | S | |
| C | A | L | E | A | L | T | E | E | D | E | N | S | ||
| E | L | Y | S | E | L | U | G | S | S | R | T | A | ||
| D | R | E | D | G | E | D | N | E | T | |||||
| W | A | R | R | I | O | R | O | N | E | L | O | V | E | |
| A | L | E | A | S | T | S | A | U | T | E | S | |||
| T | O | P | D | O | G | S | P | E | R | C | E | N | T | |
| E | N | A | N | U | M | B | E | S | T | |||||
| R | E | Y | S | T | U | R | N | O | T | T | E | R | ||
| S | T | A | L | E | T | I | N | O | A | R | L | O | ||
| K | I | B | O | S | H | B | A | B | Y | M | A | M | A | |
| I | M | L | A | T | E | E | M | O | T | I | C | O | N | |
| S | E | E | N | A | S | S | E | E | D | L | E | S | S |
Such a great triple to kick off the puzzle: FOOD COMA / … AND IM OUT! / RED VINES. Totally worth the price of a RRN (random Roman numeral) in CMI and an OONA. (If only OONA Chaplin had landed a big role in "Game of Thrones," crossword constructors everywhere would have rejoiced.)
Also really dug the colloquial I CANT EVEN … Its clue, ["This is too much"], felt a bit stilted, but still, the phrase itself evokes such a vivid picture of someone shaking their head, not even sure where to start.
BABY MAMA also is a fun phrase. It'd have been great to give it a clever clue though, rather than referencing the so-so 2008 movie, since it's a commonly used. Agreed with Erin — what a disappointment that movie was, not living up to the sky-high expectations of a star vehicle featuring the great Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
A few of the long entries didn't sing as well to me, like SEEDLESS and REPAYABLE and PASS A TEST, which all felt more neutral than assets. But Erin did do a nice job of making her mid-length material work for her, ONE LOVE, ROTGUT, TOP DOGS, and PEN NAME in particular.
Crossword glue … I would give REYS a pass, as it gets a fresh clue referencing the latest "Star Wars" movie, but the presence of other name plurals — ELMOS and DIANAS — created a disturbance in the Force for me. Along with some of the usual suspects like ENA ESTA SRTA ALTE, etc. it felt like too much in one puzzle for my taste.
I appreciated though, that there wasn't any one area which screamed out "I'm filled with crossword glue!", most of it spread out so it wasn't quite as noticeable.
| M | A | N | S | P | L | A | I | N | P | O | S | T | S | |
| I | M | A | T | A | L | O | S | S | U | B | O | A | T | |
| L | U | S | I | T | A | N | I | A | P | O | R | K | Y | |
| A | S | A | P | M | E | T | S | T | E | R | E | |||
| E | L | E | N | A | G | A | L | E | Y | A | P | |||
| C | N | N | B | O | R | O | N | I | L | L | ||||
| R | H | O | D | E | B | I | N | E | T | M | O | O | ||
| H | A | N | S | A | G | N | E | S | S | N | O | W | ||
| I | V | S | P | L | U | G | S | E | W | O | K | S | ||
| N | E | O | R | E | N | T | S | N | E | T | ||||
| E | I | N | O | R | S | O | O | D | E | S | A | |||
| T | A | R | T | S | R | A | N | T | O | G | O | |||
| D | A | N | A | E | S | A | L | T | S | P | R | A | Y | |
| U | L | T | R | A | H | I | T | A | N | E | R | V | E | |
| O | L | S | E | N | O | N | E | P | L | A | Y | E | R |
Debut! Enjoyable puzzle featuring three strong grid-spanners. I've never used SORRY IM NOT SORRY — or actually heard it used — but that means little, as I'm comically unhip. It Bings well, anyway. (Wait — Bing isn't what the cool kids use these days? But they pay you to use the service ...)
Puzzles featuring three or more grid-spanners usually don't contain many other long answers, so I appreciated seeing a whole bunch more; ten more answers of 8+ letters. Thirteen total long slots is a good starting point, and you'd hope to convert at least ten of them into colorful answers.
So how does Erin do? HAVE IT ALL is simple yet zippy, same with IM AT A LOSS and SALT SPRAY. LUSITANIA and STIPENDS don't do much for me, but I'm sure there will be WWI historians who disagree. Erin adds in a few mid-length goodies in PUP TENT and BB GUNS … and the awesome PROTEAN, a word I'm hoping to use more often. What a struggle to suss it out, and what a neat a-ha moment when I realized the word referred to Proteus, the shape-shifter of Greek myth.
Overall, I'd say the puzzle has about 12 assets. Pretty good. And just a few liabilities, the short kind of NNE, EIN, ALERS stuff; pretty overlookable, and an impressive performance from a debut constructor.
I would have liked a little more puzzle flow, as my solve chunked down into three separate sections: the left, the middle, and the right. Makes it easier to construct, but proteanizing a few black squares would have helped make the puzzle feel more cohesive.
(Proteus is turning over in his grave.)
These days, the competition for themeless slots is incredibly high — much higher than for any other type of puzzle — so it's all that more impressive that Erin broke in the hard way. Looking forward to more from her.