Jennifer Nebergall author page
1 puzzle by Jennifer Nebergall
with Jeff Chen comments
| D | I | S | C | S | C | A | T | S | A | S | K | S | V | A | M | P | S | |||
| I | C | A | R | E | A | C | H | Y | U | N | I | T | I | N | O | I | L | |||
| M | E | R | Y | L | I | R | A | N | T | I | M | E | G | A | T | O | R | |||
| D | I | F | F | E | R | E | N | C | E | O | F | O | P | I | N | I | O | N | S | |
| O | S | L | O | H | A | L | F | N | O | T | E | S | ||||||||
| C | L | A | R | O | S | O | W | E | T | O | O | U | S | T | I | M | P | |||
| H | I | G | H | W | A | Y | M | E | D | I | A | N | T | A | T | T | L | E | R | |
| A | L | I | E | N | O | A | T | T | N | U | T | E | V | I | T | E | ||||
| T | A | L | L | C | U | R | I | O | B | O | O | T | M | A | R | S | ||||
| S | C | E | P | T | E | R | N | E | R | D | A | V | O | C | A | D | O | S | ||
| S | T | O | C | K | D | I | V | I | D | E | N | D | ||||||||
| H | O | T | S | A | U | C | E | S | O | D | A | R | A | T | T | R | A | P | ||
| O | P | A | L | S | K | O | R | S | M | E | L | L | R | E | L | O | ||||
| O | R | N | O | T | S | N | O | W | S | E | A | H | A | D | I | T | ||||
| D | A | G | W | O | O | D | A | N | I | M | A | L | P | R | O | D | U | C | T | |
| S | H | O | A | L | I | A | E | N | E | M | Y | A | M | E | X | E | S | |||
| S | P | A | R | E | R | O | O | M | A | F | E | W | ||||||||
| M | O | D | E | O | F | T | R | A | N | S | P | O | R | T | A | T | I | O | N | |
| A | T | A | R | I | I | A | G | O | H | A | I | L | E | N | D | O | W | |||
| G | O | T | I | N | E | T | O | N | I | K | E | A | A | D | E | L | E | |||
| S | H | A | F | T | R | E | N | E | S | S | N | S | M | S | D | O | S |
Given that Will Shortz gets about 200 submissions per week these days — for only 7 slots! — prospective constructors have to be resilient. Persistent. Open to the reality that sometimes a fine puzzle gets rejected, because what else can Will do with a 4% acceptance rate?
That's all a long-winded way to make the joke that today, crosswords are a numbers game.
CRY FOR HELP is right.
As a math dork, I loved the MODE OF TRANSPORTATION visual. Fun to imagine a mathematician staring out into a traffic jam, thinking "I see a plane, car, train, horse, another car, another car, another train … the mode is CAR." Ha ha ha!
It's funnier if you remember what MODE means, mathematically — the most common answer in a set.
Maybe you had to be there.
I also enjoyed the mathiness of HIGHWAY MEDIAN. Again, it's probably roughly 100% less interesting if you don't remember that the MEDIAN of a set is the element such that there are an equal number of elements above and below it. In this case, Routes 10 and 25 are below Route 70, with Routes 95 and 101 above it, making Route 70 the median of the set.
Maybe if I explain it more, it'll become funnier?
I always get the division terms mixed up — who can keep straight divisor, dividend, and quotient? — but luckily, that didn't stop me from successfully filling in STOCK DIVIDEND. Ooh, you know what would be fun (more appropriately, mean): a crossword testing math esoterica. Clue: [What is the dividend in the formula DOG / HOG?], with an ambiguous crossing entry for the first letter. That'd leave people in a fog.
Lots of fun bonuses in the fill. Nothing spicy except HOT SAUCE, but VIGNETTE is a great way to utilize a precious long slot. A bit of RAT TRAP / YOU ROCK helped keep up my interest, too.
And such a nice job with the cluing. About a half-dozen amusing bits of wordplay, my favorite elevating the usually-dull short entry, CATS. Such creativity in coining the term "Les Meowserables." Mrrrow, indeed!
Not all the themers tickled me as much as MODE OF TRANSPORTATION, especially since DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS didn't meaningfully change the definition of "difference," but this numbers guy though it was above the Sunday median. Er ... I mean, mean.