Sam Buttrey author page
1 puzzle by Sam Buttrey
with Constructor comments
| B | I | L | L | S | H | I | A | H | A | R | D | Y | ||
| A | C | A | I | P | E | N | N | A | F | O | R | E | ||
| T | O | M | S | R | I | F | T | T | R | A | Y | S | ||
| O | N | I | T | E | G | O | M | E | A | D | ||||
| N | I | N | E | V | E | H | D | E | S | I | R | E | D | |
| S | C | A | R | E | T | O | E | D | D | A | L | E | ||
| I | N | S | R | E | D | G | I | G | ||||||
| T | R | A | D | I | N | G | P | L | A | C | E | S | ||
| S | E | E | M | O | A | E | L | L | ||||||
| I | S | N | T | I | N | N | S | T | I | L | E | S | ||
| S | T | E | E | P | L | E | P | R | O | P | A | N | E | |
| G | L | E | E | W | O | O | P | U | T | T | ||||
| T | R | A | L | A | C | H | I | P | I | R | I | S | ||
| E | I | D | E | R | P | O | L | E | N | E | R | O | ||
| D | O | E | R | S | U | S | S | R | G | L | E | N |
My wife and I have always enjoyed the goofy 1983 movie "Trading Places," and the idea of answers trading places in the grid seemed as if it might be fun. Originally I thought of characters from the movie — Louis and Billy Ray — doing the trading, but they're obscure, and when I thought of Laurel and Hardy and realized that their names are both regular words I figured I might be on to something. Of course, in a puzzle like this the theme entries don't have to be placed symmetrically, so this gave me a lot of latitude in the choice of grid and where, exactly, to put the themers.
I have now recently crossed (ha!) two items off my bucket list: in addition to getting this puzzle published, I was able to appear on the "Jeopardy!" TV show, first in the inaugural Professors Tournament, and then in the Tournament of Champions, where I finished as "second runner-up," which feels better than "third."