Sam Buttrey author page
1 puzzle by Sam Buttrey
with Jeff Chen 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 |
With such juggernauts as Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Mattea Roach looming large in Jeopardy! ToC, seeing the unheralded Sam Buttrey upset the heavily-favored Amodio was awesome. Almost as fun as watching Sam floss!
Great idea to play on disguisable pairs: BILL and TED, LAUREL and HARDY, PENN and TELLER, CHIP and DALE. At first glance, TED might seem like a cheat, but the TED in TED Talks is not named after a guy named Ted, but based on the "convergence of the fields of technology, education, and design."
There aren't many other uber-famous duos that could work this way. Good luck disguising BERT and ERNIE or BONNIE and CLYDE!
We were going to highlight the entries to make them easier to pick out, but that looked a right mess. My anality typically demands some semblance of themer symmetry, but there's something to be said for being a RENEGADE.
It would also have been odd to mix the pairs for the sake of symmetry. LAUREL and TELLER would be one awkward comedy duo.
Throwing symmetry to the wind allowed for freedom in filling, too. Fun to get the symmetrically placed ROAD RAGE and RENEGADE. Sam's a wild man!
I would comment on NINEVEH, but this entry coming from a master of trivia seems just about right.
I'm eager to see what a person of Sam's talents has on his bucket list. Perhaps he'll be up for a [Salad including apples and celery]-type crossword review collaboration …