Seth Geltman author page
2 puzzles by Seth Geltman
with Constructor comments
See the 10 answer words debuted by Seth Geltman.
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SETH: Jeff and I have collaborated since 2014, and it's great fun. For this one, we wrote around 150 emails, some of which read like an absurdist script...
Seth: PITINO and RAISA seem fair, but the AKIMBO, SENECA, GRIT, and MATING goodness of Version C gets my vote.... Maybe, for a themer... BEST DAY EVER?
Jeff: Hmm, maybe a reach. I'm not a SpongeBob watcher though.
Our original plan was to make the units of time narrow down to an AHA MOMENT. Couldn't quite make that work.
Hope your solving time isn't a dog's age on this … and thanks, Will and Joel!
JEFF: Ah, Seth, that sneaky devil. He keeps changing the order of our names just before submitting the puzzle to Will! He deserves first authorship on this one.
Seth is a brainstorming monster. I love getting his emails, usually loaded with 10+ ideas to consider. They don't always contain a usable seed idea, but more often than not, something sparks another thought, and it morphs into something fun.
For this one, it took us a while to zero in on the idea of PRIME TIME being "synonym for good" + "time duration," but I thought it would be great … if we could 1.) get all strong phrases, 2.) have crossword symmetry, and 3.) present them in a logical sequence.
Some constructors would still do the puzzle without the third constraint, but I felt like it'd be too inelegant for my taste without that. It meant we had to do a ton of research. Luckily, another of Seth's strengths is his tenacity in research. Soon, he had a gigantic list of possibilities for us to sift through.
RED LETTER DAY made the construction challenging though — not only did it require a 16-wide grid, but it sort of cut the puzzle in half. Took a lot of trial and error, testing and ditching layout after layout. Finally, I felt like the skeleton you see was promising — enough room for some long bonuses, while not looking problematic in any one area — and Seth took over from there.
We always have a lot of fun going back and forth, comparing possibilities for various regions (although I can't remember how SpongeBob was related now). In the SE for example, I badly wanted to work in DOUBLE O (as in double-O 7), but DOODLES made that area much smoother. Ah well, the solver comes first.
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| S | Y | S | O | P | Z | I | G | W | E | E | D |
SETH: Hi there. Hope you enjoyed the solve.
My father introduced me to crosswords. Through puzzles, we found a unique connection — and we both admired Jeff's work. It was great, talking with my dad about gems like Cut Above the Rest from 2013.
When he died in 2014, I wrote Will a thank-you note. I told him that, for my dad and I, "exchanges about puzzles became our own secret language. Even non-puzzle conversations sometimes took on the best qualities of the solving experience — oblique, compelling, full of understated humor and unexpected harmonies."
I was a new reader of XWord Info, and asked Jeff if he'd consider passing the note on to Will. He did — and, with an incredible generosity of spirit, suggested that we collaborate on a puzzle in my father's honor.
Brad Wilber published that one in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Since then, Jeff and I have made about a dozen more. One more's on tap for the Times, two ran in the Wall Street Journal, several in the Orange County Register, one in the American Values Club... and a couple misfires currently kick around the crossword dead-letter office.
Working with Jeff is such a delight. In the Pro-Am circuit of puzzles, he's definitely the Pro, and I'm the Am.
I work as a Computer Teacher for grades 2 - 8. This lets me pass puzzling on to the next generation. For class warmups, kids solve puzzles I make from their vocabulary lists.
Many, many thanks to Will and Joel.