Joe Hansen author page
2 puzzles by Joe Hansen
with Constructor comments
See the 4 answer words debuted by Joe Hansen.
| B | E | S | T | F | R | A | N | B | A | N | A | L | ||
| A | V | E | R | L | E | G | O | A | L | I | B | I | ||
| B | A | R | I | T | O | N | E | S | N | A | C | H | O | |
| E | N | V | O | W | E | E | T | D | H | O | N | |||
| E | L | L | E | B | R | O | I | L | E | R | S | |||
| R | A | T | E | D | R | A | I | N | T | I | ||||
| A | M | I | T | Y | B | I | N | G | A | C | D | C | ||
| M | M | M | A | M | A | L | G | A | M | R | U | E | ||
| P | O | E | T | A | L | E | S | A | M | I | N | O | ||
| A | C | I | D | Y | G | R | A | T | E | S | ||||
| E | N | D | Z | O | N | E | S | A | G | R | I | |||
| K | I | A | A | S | A | B | R | O | C | O | E | |||
| E | V | I | L | S | G | O | O | D | T | H | I | N | G | |
| B | E | R | E | T | L | A | N | E | I | S | T | O | ||
| Y | A | Y | A | S | E | T | O | N | D | M | V | S |
I hope the gardeners out there appreciate this puzzle. I have a black thumb myself.
While constructing a different puzzle, I noticed that four circles surrounding a block, look like one of those hippy daisy stickers. Originally, I tried to make a puzzle using four-letter, flower names. However, there are not many options: IRIS, ROSE, LILY, and ... MUMS? When I added the stem, this allowed two more letters. I am pretty sure I exhausted all the six-letter options. Enjoy!
| C | A | S | A | A | R | M | A | N | I | A | S | S | ||
| O | M | E | N | B | E | I | R | U | T | W | H | O | ||
| M | I | N | D | B | E | N | D | I | N | G | M | I | A | |
| I | N | T | R | O | O | D | E | O | Z | A | R | K | ||
| C | U | R | E | D | I | L | L | S | A | N | T | S | ||
| S | S | A | Y | O | R | E | A | B | C | |||||
| U | M | P | O | S | L | O | L | I | N | |||||
| G | E | T | S | A | T | F | L | E | X | I | P | O | ||
| A | C | H | E | S | A | T | A | I | D | T | A | G | ||
| I | C | U | S | I | G | H | T | N | O | T | S | O | ||
| T | O | M | I | C | E | E | E | G | A | L | ||||
| B | A | N | K | R | O | A | R | E | P | A | ||||
| W | O | W | E | D | L | O | W | R | I | D | E | R | S | |
| A | W | A | R | E | I | A | N | N | O | V | A | K | ||
| X | E | R | O | X | T | D | S | G | N | A | T | S |
It is an honor to have my Times' debut!
Looking at this puzzle a year later (it was accepted in January of 2019), I want to dig in and re-edit it! But then I remember what a pain it was getting the concept to "work," especially for a novice constructor.
There are several "finger" and "hand" themed crosswords published. Most recently, Evan Mahnken's 7-3-19 NYT puzzle, which is way more clever than this one. In my puzzle, each "finger" phrase is vertical and proportional in length for a human hand. This required making the grid asymmetrical, and having all the entries flush at the bottom.
I submitted several versions of the puzzle. I did not think Will would accept this version, with the unfortunate "EGAL," and the 28 three-letter-words in it! (I am very sorry about EGAL, btw). However, I was hoping, given the difficulty (for constructor) of having five theme entries all flush to the bottom, and the novelty of having an asymmetrical grid, he might overlook these shortcomings. Luckily (for me), he did!
I hope that the difficulty in construction translates to some enjoyment for the solver, since I know this is not always the case, haha.
One last note: the hand dimensions in the puzzle present the index finger as longer than the ring finger. This is the case with many individuals, although, for many other individuals, the ring finger is longer than the index finger.