New York Times, Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Andrea:

Post-ACPT 2010, Patrick suggested M*C idea, knowing i like to do this kind of AEIOU puzzle. I came up with preliminary entries, most held to the end, though the MIC was MICROPHONESTAND. Really love MICKEYMOUSECLUB so much more, esp with EEK under MOUSE! (and I snuck in my Siamese cat KOKO)

We talked about adding MCC (MCCOURT) and /or MRC Mr Clean. Maybe MYC MYCENAE...maybe even a MDC snuck in there. PB did a version with SEVEN of them, but the MUC (MUCHADO) lacked the MAC, MEC, MIC, MOC sound. So we decided to scale back and just do a clear, solid, fun alphabet run. I made a new grid having just learned how to use Crossfire, that my other frequent collaborator Michael Blake insisted I learn. The peppy original cluing is all Patrick. Though not a pangram, two Xs and seven Ks (!) make up for no QZ.

Many of my puzzle partners are new folks I've mentored, but Patrick's role with me is that he always takes my ideas and bumps them up many notches. Always. :)

Patrick:

Flattery will get you everywhere. ;)

Working with Andrea is a lot of fun; her vivacious energy is quite infectious. Glad we scaled back our original theme ambitions on this one, though I do like the idea of adding some consonants to the usual "vowel run" theme. Maybe next time!

Some time ago one of the crossword bloggers (I won't say which one, but her initials are D.A.) declared that if she ever saw another vowel-progression theme again, she'd poke her eyes out. (Sorry, D.A.!) As these themes go, I think this one's pretty nice. And have heart: I try not to run this sort of thing too often.

I've already gushed about the brilliance of PB, so allow me to tell a story about the awesome and funny ACM. Two years ago I finally worked up the courage to go to the ACPT, overcoming my nerves about going to a place where I hardly knew anyone. I got to the hotel and went down to the lobby, expecting to have to use my old trick of pretending I had important texts on my cell phone so I didn't look like that guy who can't even get the dog to play with him. But within minutes, ACM introduced herself and instantly, I had a friend to hang out with. I have so much fondness for the way she noticed the awkward guy in the corner and took steps to make him feel welcome. A lot of warmth in my heart for ACM.

Back to the puzzle, a fun Tuesday offering. I appreciate the fact that the theme is so consistent, a vowel progression of M?C, all with the same hard K sound. Consistency brings elegance, and I wouldn't expect anything less from these two professionals. I'm glad they decided to strip down their more dense version — constructors, take note of how thoughtfully they made their decision, trying out the more dense version but ultimately following the "less is more" philosophy (although five theme answers is still a lot!). Plus, doing so allowed them to incorporate some really nice fill including BASILISK, CAR SALES, JOSHUA, and a nice little CURTSY. More importantly, look how clean the fill is. When your worst piece of fill is IF AT, that's a clear win.

As Will mentioned, a lot of vowel progressions have been done before, so it's difficult to get acceptances unless there's some new twist included. I like the brainstorming that PB and ACM did, and although it didn't result in anything groundbreaking, maybe it will inspire someone else to do something completely new with a vowel progression.

Finally, I really appreciate ACM's comments about Scrabbly letters. Too often constructors get sucked in by the siren song of the pangram (including me, sad to say). Yes, it's kind of a cool feat because it's difficult to do cleanly, but it's mostly cool from the constructor's standpoint and not the solver's. Incorporating J,Q,X,Z's does spice up the puzzle (K's and V's to a lesser extent, IMO), but only if by doing so the puzzle fill doesn't suffer overall. Nice job of that today.