Madeline Kaplan author page
1 puzzle by Madeline Kaplan
with Jeff Chen comments
| O | K | O | K | T | I | L | D | A | Z | E | S | T | ||
| P | E | P | E | A | D | O | R | N | I | N | T | O | ||
| S | E | E | R | R | O | B | O | T | P | S | A | T | ||
| P | R | O | F | I | L | E | P | I | C | T | U | R | E | |
| A | S | I | F | Q | U | I | E | T | S | |||||
| W | A | T | E | R | F | E | A | T | U | R | E | |||
| O | L | I | N | E | B | L | E | E | D | C | A | P | ||
| O | B | O | E | C | O | I | N | S | M | O | N | O | ||
| F | A | N | B | O | O | B | S | B | I | R | D | S | ||
| W | A | L | K | I | E | T | A | L | K | I | E | |||
| O | F | F | E | N | D | A | L | E | S | |||||
| F | L | I | C | K | O | F | A | S | W | I | T | C | H | |
| F | A | V | A | P | I | N | E | D | I | R | O | N | ||
| A | M | E | N | E | N | T | E | R | M | E | M | O | ||
| L | E | S | T | N | E | E | D | Y | E | W | E | S |
I've seen this theme type many times before, but FLICK OF A SWITCH is genius. It so perfectly describes "Freaky Friday" and "The Parent Trap." Surprising that there are enough movies in this genre for IMDb to dedicate an entire page to it.
PROFILE PICTURE and WATER FEATURE work. They're not as amazing as FLICK OF A SWITCH, since there are hundreds of movies that could fit into their clues instead of "Malcolm X" or "Jaws," but that's only something that anal analysts care about.
Shame to lose CLING FILM — this climber loved the punny connection to "Free Solo"!
TALKIE is digging deep. Maybe it would work if you're referring to a movie the debuted in the wane of the silent era. I wonder what Cormac McCarthy would say if you described one of his movies as a "talkie." Probably more "Blood Meridian" language than "Child of God."
A set of themers with lengths of 14/12/12/14 is no joke for a debut. This forces you to put your first themer in row four instead of three, compressing everything toward the middle. I admire that Madeline shot for the stars, with an audacious 72-word grid. Adding a black square at the A of OPERATION or Q of ANTIQUES would have made her life a ton easier.
Solid results, too. KEROSENE isn't anything to write home about, and I wondered if MILE TIME was enough of "a thing" to be crossworthy. It definitely is! Love the pairing of OPERATION and CORKSCREW though. I do not have a steady hand, so my childhood OPERATION set got CORKSCREWed across the room.
It's nearly impossible to do something completely new in the crossworld, but FLICK OF A SWITCH for "Freaky Friday" was a breath of fresh air.