Kevan Choset author page

Who knew Prince CHARLES had so many titles? The PRINCE OF WALES, yes, but how cool to be the DUKE OF CORNWALL. And the EARL OF … CHESTER? The BARON OF … RENFREW? Huh. You'd think that being a prince and all would allow you to make up your own titles. LORD HIGH MAGE OF THE HOLY BRIGADE ... I call that one!

Pretty cool that all the letters in CHARLES's name can be found — in order — in these four titles, and that the titles just happen to exhibit crossword symmetry It's almost like the British had planned all this out several centuries ago, waiting for just this moment. Ba-bam! *mic drop* (Or, scepter drop. Whatever it is that the British royalty does.)

Note how little flexibility Kevan had in placing his themers. EARL OF CHESTER and PRINCE OF WALES are 13 letters apiece, what constructors call an "unfortunate length." That's because they can't be placed in rows 3/13 like usual — those black squares at the end create problems — so they must be squished into rows 4/12, taking away flexibility by reducing spacing.

Note then how tricky it is to fill between/around EARL OF CHESTER and BARON OF RENFREW, given how close together they are. Same goes for DUKE OF CORNWALL and PRINCE OF WALES. Not a surprise that the northwest and south regions — both need a lot of entries crossing two closely-packed themers — are the roughest. To kick off the puzzle with ENGR and ECOL in one section wasn't great, but sometimes these things happen, and both are relatively minor.

It was all reasonably smooth, though, until I hit KNIFERS. Oof, one of those -ER-added, tinny-sounding entries. And then to get APERS crossing it felt even more inelegant. (RAVER ... I think that is a thing.)

There were a few tough entries like ALECTO, one of the Fates, and TABOR, the type of drum, but I like seeing some new words and vocabulary on a Thursday. (Just as long as they are crossworthy, which I feel strongly that these are.)

Three of the titles were mystifying for me, but it was a nice CH A R L E S find.

People with no vowels but Es in their full name, tied together by LIVES OF EASE. I've seen PEE WEE REESE in a similar concept before (as well as ED MEESE), but it's neat that RENEE ZELLWEGER and ELLEN DEGENERES both fit that pattern as well. Neat that such long names can be formed without A I O U or even Y — how kind of these folks to have so many crossword-friendly Es!

Really strong gridwork. Although Kevan has to integrate fairly long themers, he manages to work in the usual long downs — DEVILED EGG and LITTERBUGS are beautiful — and also JEWELER, the modern RETWEET, a beautiful word in REGALIA, and the full name SWEE PEA. That last one felt a little odd in that it *almost* fits the only-E pattern, but not quite. I know it's just a piece of fill, but it felt slightly out of place.

Also nice to get a bit of Kevan's lawyerly background in REMANDED. I'm used to seeing a bit of REWET, RELET, etc. in many puzzles, so it's nice to get a RE- word where the RE- start is perfectly natural. You can't really have "manded" something.

RIOJA is a fun word as well. Not being able to even tell the difference between some red and white wines, RIOJA was unfamiliar to me, but I was glad to learn it from the fair crossings.

All that, with just a TELE and a ONE L as crossword glue = darn impressive. I even give the latter a pass since it's right in Kevan's wheelhouse.

I hitched a little on LIVES OF EASE, since it felt weird to describe people as "lives." If only PEOPLE OF EASE were a real phrase. Still, some nice finds, and excellent grid execution.

ADDED NOTE: Out of curiosity, I wrote some quick code to answer Kevan's question. The ones I turned up: BENNETT CERF, DEREK JETER, DETLEF SCHREMPF, DREW BREES, ED HELMS, ETHEL/FRED MERTZ, FRED MERKLE, GLENN BECK, HELEN KELLER, JEFF BECK, JESSE HELMS, PETER SELLERS, WERNER KLEMPERER (and as Kevan pointed out ... JEFFREY CHEN!). For a Monday puzzle, I like Kevan's selection. As much as I love my ex-Sonics, DETLEF SCHREMPF is pretty esoteric!

As an unabashed dorknerd, I couldn't help but smile when I came across MIDDLE EARTH as today's revealer (fair warning: I would love to see HELMS DEEP or BAG END or ELVISH METAL in a puzzle, but I realize I'm in a Hobbitish minority). Each of the four theme phrases contains EARTH spread across two words, and each of them is a snappy answer in itself. People may not know I HEART HUCKABEES but I really enjoyed that quirky movie.

Interesting point today for me was how knowing something about the constructor helped enhance my solve. Kevan is in entertainment law and often posts awesome pictures of him hanging out with big-time celebs on his Facebook feed. So I can imagine how I HEART HUCKABEES, LICENSEES and IN REM gave him no pause. I learned IN REM through crosswords, but I have to think it's part of Kevan's everyday lingo.

With this type of puzzle, there's a certain elegance to splitting the word EARTH either always the same way or always a different way. Today Kevan splits his entries EAR/TH twice, EART/H once, and E/ARTH once. During my solve, I had a sensation in the back of my head that something was a little odd, and I think this inconsistency was the reason. But overall, the theme phrases are strong enough, LINEAR THINKING being my favorite, that I didn't mind too much. Having such theme density often makes fill very difficult, but except for the IS OK / TWO A / SO TO region (which spans three theme entries), it holds together pretty well. Good work given the tough constraints.

Generally I'm in favor of adding long fill, as it spices up the puzzle. Kevan utilizes what is typically a very difficult arrangement, two pairs of nine-letter words (DOOHICKEY/LICENSEES and THRACIANS/PEANUT OIL) crossing not just one but two themers, and the SE corner shines as a result. THRACIANS will be tough for some, but I think it's a great answer steeped in ancient history and all the crosses are fair (thanks, terrible new Star Wars movies for making me cringe every time I hear ANI). Incorporating these two nine-letter answers without compromising the surrounding fill results in Elvish beauty.

Hey, I warned you.

The NE corner... I do appreciate ID TAG in there, but the triplet of DLI/OID/OCT felt inelegant, especially since the plural ISAACS resides in that region as well. As always, constructors are faced with difficult trade-offs.

Any puzzle with MIDDLE EARTH sitting on top of SHE-RA is going to get my nerd on. Entertaining solve.