Jacob Reed author page
3 puzzles by Jacob Reed
with Constructor comments
See the 16 answer words debuted by Jacob Reed.
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I'm a writer, director, and visual artist based in Los Angeles. As a former graphic designer, my love of wordplay extends to the typographical ways letters and words can be presented. Alex Eaton-Salners' ASL puzzle last year felt simple and brilliant at the same time, and it inspired me to start thinking about unexpected ways of playing with type in my puzzles. I love learning about different things words can do: palindromes, anagrams, ambigrams, I'm trying to crack a gramogram theme, and I'd love to make a puzzle where the cluing is entirely emojis or memes. One of my earliest memories of messing around with letters like this was goofing around in math class.
First, I made a list of letters you can make with an upside-down calculator: 7 is L, 8 is B, etc. I had originally thought about using a multiplication sign for X or a plus sign for T to have more flexibility (arguably, you could also use a 9 to be a lowercase A), but was concerned it wasn't as clear of a read for the solver. Also, making symbols like that letters removed their ability to be word breaks, which felt more important. This was my first experience using a limited alphabet for cluing, and I owe a huge shout-out to Adam Aaronson's Wordlisted site. Some constructors know how to do all kinds of coding to help find theme entries — I'm more right-brained (see earlier math class goofing). Adam's site lets you search your own wordlists based on a variety of queries, including a limited alphabet. The day this theme got accepted, I went and clicked the 'buy me a coffee' donation button on his site.
- [GHIBLI BOSS / 5508.178145] for HIYAO MIYAZAKI
- [GEISEL GOO / 006 735136] for OOBLECK
- [OH HELLO HOST / +504.07734 40] for NICK KROLL or JOHN MULANEY
- [OH HO HO / .040440] for THE TABLES HAVE TURNED (possibly as a revealer)
- [SHELL SHILLS / 577145+77345] for OIL EXECUTIVES
- [BILLIE EILISH BOOGIE / 316008.451713 x 317718] for BIRDS OF A FEATHER
- [HILO HELLO / .07734-.0714] for ALOHA along with [HILLEL HELLO / .07734 + 737714] for SHALOM
- [GLOBE LIE BOOB / 8008.317 - 38076] for FLAT EARTHER
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Boaz : Thrilled to be back with a second Friday! Jacob's a wonderful constructor, and it was great cluing my grid with him. We're currently working on a book of classic movie & TV themed crosswords to be published on Amazon this summer.
Our puzzle was submitted intending to run as a Saturday, and so had a lot of tricky clues that were changed to retool it into a Friday. Here are some of my favourites that we cooked up:
- [Sow with salt?] for CURED HAM
- [It's much more than a nose] for BIG LEAD
- [Stage a strike, say?] for REENACT
- [Area called by code 51?] for PERU
Hope to be back with another themeless soon! I currently also have a themed puzzle in the queue that I'm excited to see the reaction to. Soli Deo Gloria.
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Aidan Deshong: It's nice to be back on XWord Info, especially when it's Jacob's debut!
We were hunting down theme entries from April to September. Here are my favorites among the others we found that didn't make the cut:
- SPRINGFIELD [Motown?]
- BIRMINGHAM [Allocation?]
- BEAVER [Orbiter?]
- PEACHES [Galoot?]
- HARRY TRUMAN [Modem?]
- JARED POLIS [Cogent?]
…and, as Evan Birnholz pointed out, HEAD OF STATE would make a great revealer. FIRST PLACE would also be good.
Back soon…
Jacob Reed: I'm so excited to be making my NYT debut today, especially with a puzzle that was extremely fun to make with Aidan. I love puzzles, and first got excited about constructing when Caleb Madison started a crossword program at BuzzFeed. I hit him up (perhaps too aggressively?) on the company Slack, and he gave me some pointers and referred me to Patrick Berry's Crossword Constructor handbook. I read it cover to cover and then... did nothing for nine years. Well, that's not entirely true. I did put "submit a crossword puzzle to NYT" on my list of goals each year. Finally, in December 2023, while trying to cross one more thing off my resolution list, I found an online crossword community and, in two weeks, made about twenty not-ready-for-prime-time puzzles. This was actually my third acceptance by the NYT crossword wizards, but Thursdays are often my favorite puzzles to solve, so it's fitting that this'll be the first one to run.
I come from an improv background. In improv, you know a game (or the gimmick of a scene) is clear and fun when everyone on stage jumps in and wants to contribute. That's how Aidan's idea for this theme felt to me. It's a novel device that he should get full credit for. Once I saw [Hiking?] for KAMEHAMEHA, all I wanted to do was pitch alts. I'm thrilled he let me jump in the mix with him on this. Thanks also to John, Boaz, Spencer, Quiara, Kelsey, Evan, and many others who were helpful and supportive during my first few months on the crossword construction chat.
Here are a few... stretchier... themers that didn't make their way in:
- MICKEY EARS [Flat tire?]
- ZATARAINS [Lazing?]
- LOGAN CIRCLE [Paring?]