My favorite puzzles to solve are those with punny themes like those by Merl Reagle. The phrase FEET OF KLEE came to me, and though it didn't make the grid, it started the wheels turning. First I identified reasonably familiar names of artists that would lend themselves to punning. Eventually I pared the list down to only painters. The phrases played on had to be solidly in the language, especially as I'd be offering puns that were not quite sound-alikes (groaners). For a while I wanted only musical phrases, but there weren't enough for a Sunday grid.
The original cluing scheme featured a reference to the artist's period or style while giving a nod to the original sense of the underlying phrase. These clues weren't consistently clever — some were good, some were strained — and they weren't unified as a set. Will reworked the clues, making them more coherent stylistically and more accessible to solvers unfamiliar with the periods/styles of the artists.
My mentor, Vic Fleming, found a discouraging number of weak entries in the first fill I came up with; I reconfigured the entries and moved blocks until I got better fill. Will tweaked the opening NW corner, which happily provided the letters needed for a pangram. This was my debut puzzle for the Times. I studied every editorial change like it was a koan. I aim to make increasingly refined puzzles that are reliably well-conceived and well-clued. Still learning.
1 J | 2 I | 3 N | 4 X | 5 P | 6 A | 7 R | 8 C | 9 A | 10 G | 11 H | 12 A | 13 S | 14 T | 15 H | 16 E | 17 N | 18 S |
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19 A | M | O | K | 20 A | M | O | R | 21 M | E | A | G | E | R | 22 E | V | I | L |
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23 W | A | D | E | 24 I | N | T | H | E | 25 W | A | T | T | E | A | U | 26 R | I | T | E |
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27 A | X | E | 28 R | I | O | 29 D | E | J | A | 30 O | M | E | 31 L | E | T | T | E |
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32 P | 33 E | R | C | O | 34 C | E | T | 35 T | 36 E | L | S | 37 A | W | A | I | T |
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38 U | 39 N | O | S | 40 O | N | B | 41 O | A | R | D | 42 V | I | E | |||||||
43 T | I | S | T | 44 H | 45 E | 46 C | E | Z | A | N | N | E | 47 P | E | N | G | 48 U | 49 I | 50 N |
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51 A | N | I | 52 O | N | A | D | A | R | E | 53 D | E | T | 54 A | N | N | E |
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55 H | O | T | 56 S | P | O | T | S | 57 T | 58 E | 59 E | U | P | 60 L | U | G | A | R |
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61 M | A | S | C | 62 B | 63 O | O | D | L | E | S | 64 A | G | E | N | T |
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65 A | 66 S | 67 S | O | C | 68 H | 69 E | L | L | O | D | A | L | I | 70 C | U | R | E | S |
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71 S | H | A | K | A | 72 A | Q | U | A | M | A | N | 73 C | 74 I | T | I | |||||
75 C | A | L | E | B | 76 B | U | E | N | A | 77 P | O | L | A | N | 78 S | 79 K | 80 I |
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81 A | L | M | A | 82 S | U | I | 83 N | 84 O | 85 B | A | L | L | S | 86 P | E | N |
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87 P | L | A | N | 88 E | T | S | 89 Q | 90 U | E | S | E | R | A | S | E | 91 U | R | A | T |
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92 D | Y | E | 93 M | U | S | T | S | E | E | 94 F | I | N | S |
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95 S | 96 H | 97 A | M | E | 98 N | A | M | E | 99 I | S | E | 100 A | 101 S | 102 Y | O | N | ||||
103 P | A | K | I | S | 104 T | A | N | 105 R | 106 A | F | T | 107 L | I | E | 108 K | 109 I | 110 A |
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111 I | T | E | R | 112 W | I | T | 113 H | F | L | Y | I | 114 N | G | K | A | 115 H | L | O | S |
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116 T | H | E | O | 117 I | S | R | A | E | L | 118 N | O | A | H | 119 B | E | N | T |
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120 S | A | M | S | 121 T | H | A | M | E | S | 122 G | R | E | S | 123 O | R | S | O |
Answer summary:
11 unique to this puzzle, 2 debuted here and reused later, 3 unique to Modern Era but used previously.
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