Parker Higgins author page
2 puzzles by Parker Higgins
with Jeff Chen 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 |
The "words that can precede X" genre is on its last legs, so you have to do something special to get one accepted. Today is a perfect example of exactly that, Parker employing not one but two additional levels to make his puzzle stand out.
The first, obvious one is that ___ SPLIT phrases are represented literally: SEVEN / TEN split, BAN / ANA split, STO / CK split, and LICK / ETY split. (Non-investors might not be familiar with stock splits, but they're ultra-common in finance.) Neat find in ETYMOLOGY to make that pesky ETY beginning work.
I would have guessed that there were a few dozen phrases following the form of ___ SPLIT — I was amazed that you can count them on one hand. Besides the quartet Parker used, what else is there? You could go deep into finance with a REVERSE split or into bowling with a BABY split or DODO split, but those are much weaker options. Such top-notch tightness — not being able to find a single other possible themer — lends so much elegance to the theme.
Puzzles featuring splits often come with filling difficulties, especially when so many of the themer ends/starts are constrained. Since you want to obfuscate SEVEN, only a few entries like MAKES EVEN or BREAKS EVEN work. ??BAN could only be CUBAN or URBAN, so all the inflexibility makes it unsurprising to get some EBRO crossing SER in that region. Incorporating the IONIAN SEA does help make up for it, though.
There have been a lot of splits puzzles and a whole lot of "words that can precede X" ones. Combining the two resulted in a solid effort today.
| 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 |
★ Plenty of hacks have tried their hand at playing with repeated letters, but Parker and Ross made theirs shine. Quite the pair of CUTIE PATOOTIES!
The other themers, in case you didn't CCCCCCD (six-C D = succeed; I know, not only does this joke not fit the pluralization pattern, but it's terrible) in catching them:
4Ns IC SCIENTIST = FORENSIC SCIENTIST
TOM 8Os = TOMATOES
A 10Ds = ATTENDEES
The last one hit me the weakest since the lone A so badly wanted to be a long A, not a short A as in ATTENDEES. It was close enough that I could look the other way, though.
I wonder how many solvers will think that CUTIE PATT is a Gen alpha-speak term they're too out of touch to understand. Thankfully, the italicization of the clue forces you to notice that something odd is going on, but the others have so many repeated letters that they don't need such flagging. I grew to like how CUTIE PA(TOOTIES) forced me to think; to not grow complacent.
Such a great take-off on repeated letters. Integrating the partial syllables into words made them delightfully unpredictable.