Although this wasn't my first published, puzzle, it was my first NYT crossword. It was also the my first submission to the Times, so it was pretty nice to get an email from Will saying he liked it but wanted a change. Would I do that? Of course I would!
In the process, Will asked for Monday cluing, so I kept the clues pretty easy. Still, Will changed almost half the clues. I later learned that wasn't bad for a debut puzzle and I got much better at both the NYT style and difficulty.
My favorite entry: MSRP, which had not appeared before, and has since appeared 16 times. MSRP wasn't in any of my databases and the only M??P words were the weak MNOP and the awful MUMP. (Later, I learned Merl Reagle had used MSRP earlier, and ME UP, as in ["Beam __, Scottie!"] is another option.)
1 S | 2 A | 3 L | 4 S | 5 A | 6 I | 7 R | 8 I | 9 S | 10 S | 11 W | 12 A | 13 P |
||
14 A | V | A | I | L | 15 S | I | L | K | 16 L | A | C | E |
||
17 D | O | U | B | L | 18 E | S | O | L | I | 19 T | A | I | R | E |
20 E | N | D | 21 T | A | U | T | 22 P | U | T | T | E | R |
||
23 L | O | S | E | 24 F | O | R | E | |||||||
25 S | 26 M | 27 A | L | L | E | R | 28 H | A | L | F | 29 P | 30 T | 31 A |
|
32 N | O | M | A | D | 33 O | D | E | 34 W | O | E | S |
|||
35 A | T | O | M | 36 G | 37 A | P | E | S | 38 H | U | R | T |
||
39 K | O | N | A | 40 R | O | E | 41 R | I | N | S | E |
|||
42 E | R | G | 43 R | A | N | D | 44 O | 45 M | O | R | D | E | R |
|
46 B | O | N | E | 47 T | S | A | R | |||||||
48 R | 49 O | 50 T | U | N | D | 51 N | O | R | M | 52 R | 53 C | 54 A |
||
55 U | N | B | I | A | S | 56 E | D | O | P | I | 57 N | I | O | N |
58 I | C | A | L | 59 O | P | A | L | 60 N | I | T | R | O |
||
61 N | E | R | D | 62 N | I | K | E | 63 G | L | E | N | N |
Answer summary:
2 unique to this puzzle, 2 debuted here and reused later.
Found bugs or have suggestions? Please let us know.
Like this puzzle? Please share this page on social media to help spread the word about XWord Info. Thanks!