Peter Koetters author page

Literalisms today, using phrases following the X BETWEEN THE YS pattern. I enjoyed that Pete made his Y words singular: CRACKFALLSCRACK is a fun way to turn FALLS BETWEEN THE CRACKS into a wacky wordy.

Crosswords have played upon literalisms for decades, so it's important to introduce at least a little something fresh. For instance, a quick search for NEEDLE phrases turned up one puzzle from long ago — and then another one using the same interpretation. Nice that Pete's execution felt a touch different.

I also enjoyed the variety in word lengths. I was lulled into a pattern with FALLS between the CRACKs and SLIPS between the SHEETs, but then got hit right between the eyes with EYE HITS RIGHT EYE.

Tuesdays are easier to construct than Mondays since solvers who venture out of the Monday wading pool at least know how to deal with a little water splashed in their face. Haven't heard of ELAL? Maybe you can figure it out from the "Sabbath" reference in the clue. If not, the crosses are mostly straightforward (is there anything more likely than L for OLAV?).

Even with four grid spanners, some long Down bonuses are almost always possible. SCHEMERS and PERISHED aren't wow-worthy, but GO KARTS, AIR HORN, and OH MY GOD, sure inject pizzazz. Excellent use of those mid-length slots.

It isn't easy to dip into the deep well of literalisms, so I appreciated that Pete's interpretation offered a bit of freshness. If nothing else, at least it won't cause a STATEWARSTATE.

The MONTHs of the year laid out in such orderly fashion — four rows of three months, approximately spring, summer, fall, and winter. Almost perfectly seasoned!

Hey, stop peppering me with hate mail! Why so salty?

Most crosswords playing on the calendar have oriented the trigrams horizontally, and in a mish-mashy way — it's tough to jam twelve of anything into a 15x15 space. Kudos to Peter for doing it so tidily.

It'd be great if the second and third rows weren't overlapping — JUN connected to SEP is a bit odd — but that's a minor detail, especially considering all the factors contributing to the layout difficulty.

Take the bottom row, for instance. It would have been great to push OCT NOV DEC down a row or two for better spacing, but there's not much that ends in OCT besides CONCOCT. Maybe Peter USTINOV is upset not to make a cameo, but since nothing solid ends in DEC, it is what it is.

I'm glad Will Shortz allowed Peter to go to 82 words. I felt like my solve was somewhat start-and-stop, with so many short entries, but a smooth solving experience is the bigger priority. Although there was a lot of EFT ENS EXO etc., it would have been much worse in a 78-word layout.

Calendar puzzles with shading are too easy to fill right immediately — get JAN and FEB and you can mindlessly fill in the rest of the puzzle — so I'm glad Peter managed to work in a couple of solid bonuses like SAILFISH, MEAN JOE Greene, and STOOLIE to keep up my interest.

During my MBA, we finance types constantly made fun of the marketing wannabes. Those who can't do math make up ridiculous slogans! These days, I appreciate marketing much more, so the idea of state capitals coming up with punny ad slogans made me laugh. I loved Michigan trying to attract writers by offering FREE LANSING (freelancing) opportunities.

Not as sure about blowing into Maine on AUGUSTA WIND (a gust of wind). Is Maine windy? Seemed odd.

And the come-on to Alaska, that it's MORE THAN JUNEAU (more than you know). Wouldn't a more effective slogan involve bears? Glaciers?

This is probably why I didn't (couldn't) go into marketing.

Finally, CONCORD MY FEARS took me forever to figure out. CONCORD = conquered? Really?

This is probably why I've had so few pun themes accepted.

The allure of a low-word-count grid beckons to many constructors; a siren song. It usually shouldn't be heeded, because it almost always requires trade-offs that make the solving experience less pleasurable. This is especially important in an early-week puzzle, aimed at less experienced solvers.

It is kind of cool to have SNO CONE and TUTORED next to each other, both fine mid-length entries. But the cost of NEGRI ("you have to know these kinds of esoteric things to do crosswords?" — and crossing a tough European capital)? Granted, I think all world capitals are fair game for educated solvers. RIGA isn't OSLO or LONDON, though.

Check out MALAYSIA, too. Love it as fill usually, but it sure makes that NE region big and tough to fill. ELYSE is another esoteric name (see: ELAM), and ENTO ain't great. Unfortunately, there's no quick fix, so the grid would have had to be redone with a completely different block pattern (aiming at 76 or 78 words). That's probably what should have happened.

I like the notion of a bunch of slick marketers brainstorming ad campaigns. I had some problems with the overall execution, though.