Paul Steinberg author page
3 puzzles by Paul Steinberg
with Constructor comments
See the 18 answer words debuted by Paul Steinberg.
| N | S | A | C | H | U | M | D | L | I | S | T | E | R | ||
| E | N | S | H | R | I | N | E | I | A | S | S | U | M | E | |
| P | O | S | E | I | D | O | N | A | R | T | E | M | I | S | |
| T | W | I | N | E | D | U | N | D | O | M | N | O | |||
| U | P | S | R | E | G | I | N | A | P | I | E | R | |||
| N | E | T | N | U | M | B | R | E | L | E | N | T | |||
| E | A | S | E | A | S | U | A | V | A | S | T | ||||
| G | R | E | C | O | R | O | M | A | N | ||||||
| S | C | R | A | M | D | D | S | B | I | B | I | ||||
| S | P | E | E | D | O | E | E | L | S | M | A | D | |||
| P | A | R | T | C | A | N | O | E | S | P | C | S | |||
| I | R | A | A | P | E | D | A | L | P | A | C | A | |||
| D | E | M | E | T | E | R | M | E | D | I | A | S | H | Y | |
| E | M | I | R | A | T | E | D | I | O | N | Y | S | U | S | |
| R | E | C | E | D | E | S | S | N | O | G | E | S | O |
The original Greco-Roman wrestling idea for this puzzle was Paul's, and as we were going through various iterations of the grid, he came up with an additional feature: having PIN (a wrestling term) appear in circled letters with the P at the intersection of the first Greek and Roman "wrestling" pair, the I at the second, and the N at the third. We first submitted the puzzle in January of 2022; it was initially rejected, but the editors were intrigued by the idea and open to workshopping it further (though without the PIN circled letters).
After several more revisions, including the final one in which David (our brilliant, overly modest crossword editor son) jumped in and redesigned the grid to make it more open, the puzzle was finally accepted in early June of 2022. We're excited to see this one published — many thanks again to the editorial team and David!
| R | E | A | P | G | R | A | D | B | R | A | S | |||
| H | A | L | O | S | H | A | D | E | L | E | G | O | ||
| O | U | T | O | 4 | H | A | N | D | S | U | T | E | S | |
| H | 8 | E | N | S | E | R | R | A | N | O | ||||
| I | P | A | C | L | A | N | L | I | B | I | D | O | ||
| F | O | R | M | A | L | O | P | E | C | N | A | N | ||
| S | P | O | O | F | S | T | A | C | O | S | ||||
| O | U | S | T | I | 2 | N | T | H | U | R | T | |||
| P | E | T | I | T | S | 4 | S | S | E | A | S | |||
| O | R | A | L | B | A | T | H | O | M | E | ||||
| A | V | A | I | K | E | A | S | O | I | R | E | E | ||
| N | O | L | O | S | E | D | R | I | P | G | R | R | ||
| G | O | T | T | H | A | T | A | T | 1 | D | ||||
| E | D | I | T | C | R | E | D | I | 2 | R | T | H | Y | |
| R | O | M | E | A | U | R | A | S | O | B | O | E | ||
| S | O | A | R | B | E | A | R | P | A | W | S |
DAVID: My dad, Paul, thought of this Reducing Fractions crossword idea years ago. In Dad's proposed implementation, the theme answers were three-square rebus arrangements such as FOUR LINE EIGHT. Dad wasn't a constructor yet, but he loved the twistiness of this idea, so he urged me to use it. I quickly realized that the three-square rebuses were impossible to construct around, so I moved on.
This idea stuck in Dad's head, though: Every so often, he'd ask, "When are you constructing the Reducing Fractions puzzle?" and I'd reply, "I told you: It's impossible!" Enter my mom, Karen. In 2021, she started constructing regularly, and Dad jumped at the opportunity to revive this idea. Mom tried hard but hit the same roadblocks. One day, I realized we could do a bidirectional, two-square rebus, but because the fractions had to be in order, the number of theme sets would be very limited.
Last year, Dad was diagnosed with atypical Parkinson's, and he's now in hospice. Crosswords are no longer in his life in the same way they once were, but when Mom and I told him Reducing Fractions was running in The Times, he was very happy. This one's for you, Dad!
| M | D | P | H | D | B | R | O | P | O | L | W | H | I | M | ||||
| A | E | R | I | E | I | A | N | E | R | A | T | H | I | N | E | |||
| S | T | O | P | S | I | G | N | S | R | E | V | E | R | E | N | C | E | |
| C | O | G | S | I | N | C | H | S | O | A | M | I | G | U | T | |||
| A | X | E | P | I | E | H | O | L | E | C | O | P | I | E | R | S | ||
| R | E | N | A | L | W | O | R | E | A | T | O | P | ||||||
| A | S | Y | L | U | M | S | E | T | C | K | E | N | O | S | H | A | ||
| T | M | I | S | H | O | E | S | P | A | S | ||||||||
| D | E | P | O | S | I | T | I | O | N | T | O | R | N | |||||
| A | M | O | R | C | O | R | N | I | C | E | E | R | O | D | E | |||
| R | A | G | E | B | O | N | Y | R | E | L | E | V | A | N | C | E | ||
| A | N | T | G | E | R | L | T | E | F | A | D | |||||||
| N | O | R | E | G | R | E | T | S | A | S | I | A | N | U | S | E | ||
| C | H | E | S | S | R | E | A | C | T | T | O | S | L | E | D | |||
| I | M | A | C | A | N | I | M | A | T | I | O | N | S | |||||
| N | A | T | S | P | L | A | T | S | R | I | ||||||||
| I | N | S | I | D | E | R | A | R | K | C | H | A | P | T | E | R | ||
| C | E | C | E | O | A | T | H | T | E | R | R | A | ||||||
| B | O | D | Y | A | R | T | I | N | S | H | A | P | E | I | M | P | ||
| A | P | E | R | E | R | U | N | H | E | R | R | S | L | I | P | |||
| R | E | V | O | L | T | I | N | G | M | I | L | E | S | T | O | N | E | |
| B | R | I | N | Y | A | D | O | I | R | E | P | A | G | E | R | |||
| S | A | L | E | L | O | T | R | S | S | A | B | Y | S | S |
Paul's original proposed title for this puzzle was "One Way or Another" (like the Blondie song). His first thought was that the theme entries would have to be on diagonals (with circled squares) because he didn't think it would be possible to have them read both forward and backward. But David thought it might be by using a program.
Karen sifted through many, many single-spaced pages of candidates and, after removing the junk, whittled them down to 10 pages; everyone then discussed the best candidates to arrive at the final theme set.
Having flexibility in the grid size, because The Times occasionally publishes nonstandard sizes, was key to making this puzzle work. The taller and narrower 19x23 size David chose worked well, and he thought it might fly because it "played" like a 21x21 and even had 140 words.
Karen filled the grid, David made some changes, and because they didn't agree on one section (which neither of them liked), they decided they would separately fill it and then reconvene. They ultimately ended up using some parts of each person's fill. The 1-Across entry, MD-PHD, was the most controversial—no one was thrilled with it, especially in that position, but it allowed for the best fill in the upper left. After Paul did a draft of the clues, everyone helped finalize them.
Constructing newcomers Karen and Paul realize they're fortunate to have a crossword editor as a son!