Lindsey Hobbs author page
4 puzzles by Lindsey Hobbs
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 18 answer words debuted by Lindsey Hobbs.
| H | A | M | I | T | U | P | H | A | J | |||||
| D | E | L | I | G | H | T | S | M | A | S | A | |||
| T | O | P | B | A | N | A | N | A | O | V | A | L | ||
| I | O | N | S | M | I | T | E | P | L | A | N | O | ||
| P | R | O | M | I | T | S | C | A | T | N | A | P | ||
| O | P | T | I | N | E | A | S | Y | P | E | A | S | Y | |
| S | I | G | N | E | D | T | U | R | I | N | ||||
| D | O | D | G | E | D | A | B | U | L | L | E | T | ||
| B | A | B | E | L | S | L | A | M | O | N | ||||
| S | W | E | E | T | T | A | L | K | A | V | E | R | Y | |
| T | O | N | N | E | S | O | R | B | A | R | T | S | ||
| R | O | A | D | S | G | R | O | I | N | G | E | E | ||
| A | H | M | E | K | I | D | G | L | O | V | E | S | ||
| D | O | E | R | F | R | E | E | B | I | E | S | |||
| A | O | L | C | O | R | R | O | D | E |
A tale of two puzzles today, for every KID GLOVES we get MOLTEN LAVA. SWEET TALK crossing a MIND BENDER. Was it EASY PEASY, or was THAT'S A TALL ORDER more appropriate? It reminded me why I love Brad Pitt at his best, seamlessly mixing humor and crazy action. DODGED A BULLET is perfect.
Interesting grid pattern, almost hinting at a scope sight, so appropriate to the central DODGED A BULLET. The chunks of black squares in the upper left and lower right even round off the edges, making the puzzle circular(ish). They also help immensely in filling those huge regions — intersecting two stacks of longish answers is so difficult without some cheater squares.
Solid results, too. HAM IT UP / TOP BANANA are indeed DELIGHTS, and while IPOS could have been a valuable 7-letter slot without all those cheater squares, it's hardly a TORPID result.
I fell into the [Dough in Mexico] = PESO trap. Sometimes traps feel like a constructor thumbing their nose at you, but given that PESO and MASA only share one letter, it was easy enough to correct my mistaken assumption with a smile.
I pondered over the OVAL clue. [Cameo appearance?] indicates wordplay mischief. It must mean a cameo ring … are all cameo rings OVAL? Many are, but ...
Haters of "The Simpsons" won't be happy to see both WOO-HOO and GROIN clued referencing the show, but my juvenile sense of humor made me laugh right along with Homer Simpson and Lindsey.
| S | C | A | M | S | E | V | E | R | G | T | R | E | E | A | K | I | T | A | ||
| H | A | N | O | I | P | A | P | E | R | H | A | T | S | W | A | G | E | D | ||
| A | N | N | U | L | E | S | O | T | E | R | I | C | A | A | Z | U | R | E | ||
| S | T | A | N | L | E | E | C | R | E | E | D | U | P | R | O | A | R | S | ||
| T | O | L | D | Y | A | H | O | N | E | S | I | D | O | N | O | T | ||||
| A | S | S | M | R | T | R | T | E | A | R | E | |||||||||
| M | E | L | L | O | W | Y | O | L | B | E | Y | E | S | |||||||
| A | B | B | A | C | R | I | E | D | W | O | L | F | R | A | F | A | ||||
| B | L | O | O | D | O | S | I | L | E | N | T | U | I | G | I | R | L | S | ||
| E | A | R | A | R | L | O | L | A | A | E | R | N | O | C | U | P | ||||
| T | H | E | P | L | A | Y | C | O | N | G | O | O | D | D | J | O | B | S | ||
| H | A | N | D | S | A | W | E | N | Q | U | I | R | E | |||||||
| P | R | O | D | I | G | I | E | S | B | U | G | G | Y | W | H | I | P | |||
| F | I | N | S | E | A | R | T | H | J | A | I | H | O | S | A | M | E | |||
| F | C | C | E | L | O | O | I | L | S | A | T | |||||||||
| T | H | E | R | P | L | A | N | E | T | U | L | T | R | A | V | R | A | Y | S | |
| D | E | L | I | M | E | S | L | R | E | E | L | I | E | R | ||||||
| G | R | A | D | A | T | E | S | T | O | N | R | A | W | O | N | I | O | N | ||
| O | U | I | C | O | N | T | R | O | V | E | R | S | I | A | L | G | P | A | ||
| A | T | L | I | U | D | A | N | E | Y | E | R | Y | E | H | E | S | ||||
| T | H | Y | D | T | S | M | E | S | S | Y | S | S | T | T | N | T |
★ At first, both Jim Horne and I were underwhelmed at first by this concept. Colors of the rainbow have been played upon so many times over the years, including the first puzzle of the Will Shortz era,. The title seemed to give away the game, and quickly uncovering EVER(GREEN) TREE didn't help.
Plus, EVER(GREEN) TREE made this yet another addition to the "turning themers" trope that Will has largely stopped taking. I did appreciate that GRAVITY'S RAINBOW made for a strong rationale for pulling the colors down, but it wasn't enough to overcome my "meh" moment.
And Ross / Lindsey didn't even bother to put the colors in ROY G BIV rainbow order! Starting from GREEN, trickling down to YELLOW and BLUE … what is this, a Dali painting? I mean, how hard would it be to start with RED …
Oh, wait. It does start with RED when you think about left to right order. Look, there's ORANGE next, YELLOW—
Wait. Are the ordered colors …
... in the shape OF A RAINBOW?
I hope paper solvers don't miss this extra layer, because it elevates this puzzle to a sky-high level. The shape isn't perfect (see the grid below), but it's close enough to still be jaw-dropping. Amazing visual for the solver in me, and this technician wouldn't have though it could be possible to lay things out so masterfully. It's rare for a puzzle to appeal to both parts of my personality so strongly.
I fear that there will be many who don't notice. It would have been great to include a revealer at the bottom, something like ARC that could explicitly point to what's going on.
Exceptional puzzle. This is exactly the kind of shot in the arm that the NYT Sunday crossword has been needing. Big idea, amazing execution, interesting grid entries and clues = a huge win.
| G | R | E | B | E | S | C | O | S | T | B | A | D | ||
| N | O | V | O | T | E | O | R | E | O | R | B | I | ||
| A | P | E | R | E | C | O | R | D | E | R | I | A | N | |
| W | E | R | E | T | R | E | E | T | A | S | T | E | ||
| A | D | A | E | A | R | J | E | R | K | E | R | |||
| I | N | F | O | C | U | S | O | U | S | T | ||||
| B | A | T | M | A | N | F | U | N | S | P | A | R | ||
| E | V | E | I | C | E | D | T | E | A | R | I | O | ||
| T | E | R | I | L | T | R | A | N | G | O | R | A | ||
| P | O | O | H | A | U | T | O | N | Y | M | ||||
| A | X | D | O | D | G | E | R | S | I | D | O | |||
| S | A | U | D | I | R | O | I | L | S | U | S | S | ||
| I | C | K | U | R | N | O | F | E | V | E | N | T | S | |
| A | T | E | M | E | E | T | T | I | N | C | A | N | ||
| N | O | S | S | O | T | S | S | E | D | E | R | S |
ICED TEA: "iced" is slang for getting offed. Dang, that's cold!
I'll show myself the door.
I laughed at several themers. AX DODGERS, now that's a reason for hazard pay. And I've seen so many superhero movies during quarantine that center around some important object (think: the Infinity Stones). Why not an URN OF EVENTS as part of Java Man's origin story?
Seriously, I'm leaving now.
I have a tough time keeping the -nym terms straight, ENDONYM, ANONYM, EPONYM, TAUTONYM, etc. AUTONYM is on the easier side if you remember that AUTO- is the prefix meaning "self." Etymology, what a GODSEND!
I didn't understand the clue for REO, so I looked up the pronunciation. Apparently, REO Speedwagon took its name from the REO auto but took the incorrect pronunciation R-E-O. I wondered for way, way too long if the clue was getting at REO's similarity to OREO, but it's referring to RIO. My apologies to Ransom Olds.
ODIUMS is a type of entry that Will Shortz tends to ding for being an odd plural. I've had several grids (rightfully) kicked back for things like ANGSTS; words might be technically correct but sound strange in the plural.
It's tough to impress these days with themes involving removing a common letter, especially when there are so many possibilities, making it seem like any word could work. TASK, THEN, TOUR, TRAP, TWIN, etc. However, I appreciate that the colorful revealer is a perfect reason for chopping off those Ts, and that Lindsey picked a few themers that made me smile.
| E | F | L | A | T | S | P | E | C | B | O | A | S | ||
| P | L | A | T | Y | N | A | D | A | L | I | M | E | ||
| S | E | S | U | P | A | U | S | T | R | A | L | I | A | |
| O | U | T | L | I | E | R | S | T | U | B | ||||
| M | R | S | F | R | E | E | D | O | M | M | E | A | ||
| E | I | S | F | A | Y | K | A | N | G | |||||
| C | O | F | F | E | E | P | O | T | S | O | O | R | A | |
| A | W | O | R | D | T | R | U | T | A | R | O | T | ||
| V | E | G | E | T | R | A | M | P | O | L | I | N | E | |
| E | T | I | M | H | A | M | S | R | A | |||||
| S | O | N | R | E | P | O | M | E | N | T | A | P | ||
| O | A | K | M | A | C | A | R | O | N | I | ||||
| D | O | W | N | U | N | D | E | R | D | I | D | G | E | |
| O | P | R | Y | O | I | N | K | O | O | D | I | R | ||
| S | T | Y | X | T | O | T | S | S | T | Y | E | S |
I have the pleasure of chatting with Jim Horne once a week, dissecting a week's worth of upcoming puzzles at a time. One of the best things about it: although we're from similar educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, we often have drastically different takes on any particular theme or entry.
Sometimes I worry, though, that our weekly quarantine chats teach him a bit too much about my idiosyncrasies. The conversation around today's puzzle went something like this:
Jim: I enjoyed this one.
Jeff: Same here, although ...
Jim: Let me guess. You felt like there wasn't enough rationale to have half the theme answers "bend backward" underneath.
Jeff: (pause) No.
Jim: Hmm. I bet your mind went to LAND DOWN UNDER and then started to brainstorm how various countries could be hidden underneath somehow.
Jeff: (extra-long pause) Noooooo.
Jim: Ah. Then it must be that you objected to KOALA in the grid, but not folded over at its centre like the rest. Maori, too. Although, that's more New Zealand than Australia, isn't it?
Jeff: Shows what you know! You didn't get that 100% correct!
Jim: ?
Jeff: You spelled "centre" wrong!"
Jim: You do realize you're the one doing the typing, not me.
Jeff: (desperately smashing ctrl-alt-del)
I enjoyed the Aussie flavors and feel of this one. While the DOWN UNDER revealer didn't explain enough why bottom halves were entered backward, mate, Lindsey took good advantage of the long slots, incorporating beautiful bonuses in COFFEE POTS, TRAMPOLINE, TORNADOS, making me PAUSE FOR A MOMENT at their devilishly clever clues. I had ___LINE for [Bouncer's equipment] and was baffled; what a delightful misdirect toward a bouncer at a bar.
There was a bit too much EDS EIS (!) MEA PSEC SRA, but overall, I appreciate when a puzzle transports me away. I enjoyed the reminders of my fantastic trip to DOWN UNDER, almost 20 years ago now.