Joe Donnelly author page
1 puzzle by Joe Donnelly
with Constructor comments
See the 2 answer words debuted by Joe Donnelly.
| D | I | A | L | O | G | W | I | S | E | A | S | S | ||
| I | M | P | A | L | A | B | A | N | K | S | H | O | T | |
| L | A | P | S | A | T | O | R | N | A | T | E | L | Y | |
| A | L | L | E | Y | O | O | P | S | T | E | A | |||
| T | O | E | D | P | S | A | S | D | M | Z | ||||
| E | N | T | G | M | C | W | E | L | C | O | M | E | ||
| S | E | V | A | R | E | I | D | L | E | A | F | E | D | |
| F | A | S | T | B | R | E | A | K | ||||||
| A | T | H | E | N | S | L | I | N | S | E | E | D | S | |
| C | R | O | W | D | E | D | F | A | T | M | E | H | ||
| T | I | O | S | E | A | L | W | I | N | O | ||||
| K | G | B | F | R | E | E | T | H | R | O | W | |||
| A | S | S | U | A | G | E | S | C | R | E | A | T | E | |
| F | O | U | L | L | I | N | E | H | I | T | T | E | R | |
| T | O | P | P | L | E | D | O | B | S | E | S | S |
MICKEY: I am delighted when my puzzle appears in the New York Times so I always try to maintain three puzzles in the queue to feed that addiction.
Puns and quips are my favorite crossword puzzle themes. We should all know by now that it is difficult to shoot a quip puzzle idea past Will Shortz. I keep trying. Many of my recent puzzles including this collaboration with Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly are themed puns. Some of these puns made me laugh out loud. See 18 across.
It was a pleasure to work with Senator Joe Donnelly. I am not making a political statement here, but I was not surprised to learn that Senator Donnelly was recognized as the 2nd most bipartisan Senator since 1993 by the Lugar Center, McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. He is easy to work with. I had originally intended to hide his name in the puzzle (don, nelly) but those letters didn't mesh well with the theme clues.
We chose a basketball theme for Indiana, a basketball crazy state that produced Oscar Robinson, Larry Bird and George McGinnis. McGinnis was recently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2017). You do not need a deep understanding of the game of basketball to enjoy this puzzle. I hope you like our effort.