Parker Higgins author page
2 puzzles by Parker Higgins
with Constructor comments
See the 10 answer words debuted by Parker Higgins.
| S | K | I | S | O | R | B | S | A | O | C | ||||
| I | O | N | I | A | N | S | E | A | S | P | A | M | ||
| M | A | K | E | S | E | V | E | N | T | E | N | O | R | |
| S | T | O | P | D | I | O | R | A | M | A | ||||
| C | R | E | T | I | N | U | R | N | A | R | M | Y | ||
| C | U | B | A | N | A | N | A | C | O | N | D | A | S | |
| S | E | R | O | A | R | E | I | D | ||||||
| D | O | E | S | T | H | E | S | P | L | I | T | S | ||
| D | I | S | S | A | T | R | I | B | ||||||
| A | S | P | I | R | E | S | T | O | C | K | O | N | E | |
| H | O | O | F | G | U | S | P | A | I | N | E | D | ||
| A | U | D | I | T | O | R | H | U | R | L | ||||
| S | L | I | C | K | E | T | Y | M | O | L | O | G | Y | |
| S | U | E | T | L | O | M | A | L | I | N | D | A | ||
| M | S | S | Y | E | N | S | T | O | P | S |
I'm so excited to have the Wednesday puzzle this week — my first solo showing in the New York Times! This one represents a pretty early effort for me, and I'm happy to report that I remain very pleased with how it turned out. I'm also very grateful to the top-notch editing crew at the Times, who helped me take this puzzle through a couple of revisions and made sure it hit all the marks.
One constraint I imposed on this grid is that the "split" pairs of answers spanned the whole width of the line they're on. That, plus the 13-letter revealer, meant I did not have a lot of wiggle room for arranging the blocks. But what is crossword construction, if not painstakingly weaving the most fun possible path through self-imposed obstacles?
An opinion I hold on themes like this that might be controversial: I love when one of the necessary letter combinations only appear in weird circumstances. Finding CKONE as an entry that begins with CK- was a major shot in the arm for this puzzle, at least for me. (Especially when paired, as in my original draft, with the very fun ANTIPASTO. Alas!) That tightened up the grid requirements even more, and I think you can spot the gluey bits that resulted. But all in all, can't be too mad with this one!
| S | U | C | K | S | A | M | P | A | B | E | T | S | ||
| O | R | N | O | T | P | A | R | I | L | L | B | E | ||
| N | N | N | N | I | C | S | C | I | E | N | T | I | S | T |
| A | L | L | E | Y | C | A | T | S | ||||||
| W | I | T | T | O | S | S | E | R | S | A | B | S | ||
| A | T | O | A | S | T | P | O | P | D | U | O | |||
| I | A | M | B | H | I | C | K | S | A | D | D | S | ||
| F | L | O | U | R | C | U | E | K | I | D | D | O | ||
| I | O | T | A | A | T | E | I | N | D | Y | ||||
| M | A | O | J | U | N | I | P | E | R | D | M | S | ||
| A | N | O | S | T | E | W | S | D | O | O | ||||
| R | I | O | I | C | E | P | A | C | K | D | V | R | ||
| I | C | O | N | S | V | A | T | E | Y | D | I | E | ||
| S | E | O | U | L | E | T | C | Y | O | D | E | L | ||
| A | S | O | N | E | N | T | H | S | U | D | S | Y |
PARKER: It's always fun to breathe some life into a joke that is literally centuries old. This puzzle got started when I told my friend and frequent collaborator Ross about the eighteenth century racehorse Potoooooooo (pronounced: "potatoes") whose biography goes viral on social media from time to time. It's an old joke, but it works!
As is our custom, I sat down to write software to try to find examples that met the pattern, while Ross just thought about it really hard and came up with the same stuff. We tried versions with a revealer, we tried standard rotational symmetry, but working with the editing team at the Times we arrived at this version which really shines.
I'm tickled to have such a bold 1A answer (and clue!) in my debut. My only regret is we couldn't find a way to squeeze CHICKENDDDDDDDDDD into the grid.
Ross and I published a print zine of 12 crossword puzzles with a Spelling Bee twist earlier this year, and we stream solving and constructing crosswords on a Twitch channel called Cursewords Live. If you're reading this before 8pm Eastern on Thursday, come join us then for some cruciverbal fun!
ROSS: If you're interested in learning how to make crossword puzzles, feel free to reach out to me via Twitter or via my personal puzzle site, Rossword Puzzles.