Michelle Kenney author page
1 puzzle by Michelle Kenney
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 8 answer words debuted by Michelle Kenney.
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I enjoy working with new constructors, and I really enjoy it when they're like Michelle. Open to feedback, never quitting, willing to work as hard as it takes to create a product that solvers will hopefully enjoy conquering. It was a pleasure to go back and forth with her.
She had pinged me with a very different idea, and it was neat to see her take my feedback about brainstorming … and actually do some brainstorming! A few ideas later, she hit on something that seemed interesting — hidden plays / musicals, i.e. HAIR in BRITISH AIRWAYS, with INTERMISSION as a revealer. It didn't seem quite right to me, but switching it so the play had an "intermission" in the middle felt like it could have legs.
Michelle started a list of possibilities, and we tried to find as many long musicals that could be broken up by short intermissions, like a real musical. HAWAIIAN AIR has a looooong intermission, while the GREEK VASE much more reflects the actual relative durations of a musical's first half, intermission, and second half.
We debated WISECRACKED vs. WINGBACKED — the latter felt very close to a real thing, but WINGBACK seemed much more in the language. I suggested WII WHACKED, i.e. what happens to a TV screen when a kid wildly flings a Wiimote at it. Michelle politely said that might be a little … ahem … esoteric. Good call, looking back on it!
It is incredible that anyone ever listens to me.
I laid out a grid skeleton for Michelle, testing to make sure it wouldn't cause problems, and Michelle took off from there. I coached her a little on what solvers might hate and love, and she did a fantastic job of iterating over 20 different versions to come up with what you see.