New York Times, Wednesday, December 18, 2019

My first thought of making crossword puzzles started after I learned Will Shortz's story while looking through an alumni magazine in 2005, how he got his law degree then went on to become the editor of crosswords at the Times. Years later, there was a piece about Sam Ezersky, who graduated as an engineer then went to work with Will. It was this second nudge about another fellow alum that finally pushed me to add constructing crossword puzzles to my list of activities to pursue through old-age, along with photography and duplicate bridge. Playing the piano would also have made the list if I had had any hope of mastering it.

My first thought was to make the themeless puzzles I got so good at solving while commuting to the city in the early '90s. It was a pleasant surprise to realize that what elevates many of today's crossword puzzles is computing power combined with an author's creativity.

It's taken two years of fine-tuning, and still, every time an idea for a theme strikes, the hours pass like minutes while I am working on a new grid.

Thanks to the UVA Alumni Magazine for providing the inspiration to begin. Concerning A Reduced Sentence's theme, from the writing of Thomas Jefferson, "the most valuable of all talents, that of never using two words where one will do."

Debut! This is one of those times when I'm so grateful to get an insight into the puzzle's background. Quote puzzles are hard for me to connect with, but reading Margaret's "reduced sentence" one-liner made me smile.

My blogorrheic rantings may be that of a madman, but at least they're edited rants. Jim Horne is a skilled wordsmith, so thankfully, he reads through my comments before they're published, correcting grammatical errors and suggesting ways of tightening. I have so many tics that he's written code to flag specific words and phrases I should delete. Some of the top ones:

• Very
• In order to
• Bad
• Amazing crossword and analyst the likes of who has never been or will ever be seen again

(Jim: that should be "whom")

(Me: I knew that. I was just testing you.)

I enjoyed the idea of playing on a quip about editing that needed to be edited. It's a puzzle right up Will Shortz's alley since he spends a ton of his time cutting down constructors' submitted clues.

Quote puzzles face an uphill battle. Since so much of the punch depends on the humor or thought-provoking nature of the quote, it has to be an A+ snippet if it's going to win solvers over. This one fell flat for me, but it piqued Jim's interest. It's one of those puzzles that certain demographics will love, while others will despise. Perhaps that's a good thing. Art is all about eliciting reactions.

I appreciated the debut gridwork, not trying to do too much while keeping the crossword glue to an acceptable level. Since there were only three themers, I could have done with more pizzazz like WATERSKI and RUNNER-UP and ANAGRAM, but I certainly wouldn't have wanted any more of the MISE RINKY ODDMAN oddmanity either.

This one didn't hit well for me — it's such a shame that "reduced sentence" wasn't incorporated into the puzzle itself. That clever repurposing might have even uplifted it into POW! territory.