Jeff McDermott author page
1 puzzle by Jeff McDermott
with Jeff Chen comments
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ICE ICE BABY brings back memories. Cringeworthy ones, yes, but the kid don't play.
I didn't realize that a JULEP was a thing by itself — I've only heard it as a MINT JULEP. Wikipedia's "julep" entry points to "mint julep," so this does seem suspect, but Webster's seems to think it's fine. I can buy that.I enjoy cocktails — definitely not the frou-frou kind with teeny tiny childish colorful delightful squee-worthy umbrellas, mind you — so it was fun to see the recipe for a JULEP develop. The game was up quickly, though, as BOURBON after ICE melted any sense of mystery.
As much as I enjoy a refreshing mint julep, a gin-based cocktail might have produced a bigger a-ha moment — something like COTTON GIN could conceal the ingredient much better.
There's some debate about theme revealers placed in the middle vs. at the bottom. A revealer in the omega (final Across) spot is ideal, since it allows the a-ha moment to build up, hopefully packing a giant punch when a solver does encounter it. A middle revealer can be fine, but only if it doesn't make the rest of the puzzle feel superfluous. Since JULEP is such a short word, I'd have much preferred it tucked away somewhere near the bottom.
Not having to deal with the J in the middle of the puzzle could have helped smooth things out, too, since Js aren't flexible letters. Having to deploy so many black squares around the middle meant that Jeff couldn't use as many up top, thus gluey bits like ADANO and SST.
A fun debut for cocktail drinkers, if a bit too overt.