Adrienne Atkins author page
1 puzzle by Adrienne Atkins
with Jeff Chen comments
| T | I | T | L | E | M | E | O | W | I | S | L | A | ||
| I | S | A | A | C | G | A | M | E | P | E | A | S | ||
| M | O | U | T | H | O | R | G | A | N | A | R | T | S | |
| C | O | N | S | E | N | T | V | I | E | |||||
| G | U | S | H | E | S | R | I | B | J | O | I | N | T | |
| A | N | T | S | P | F | Y | U | C | C | A | S | |||
| S | O | A | K | E | A | S | T | D | E | E | S | |||
| K | N | U | C | K | L | E | H | E | A | D | ||||
| P | E | A | T | E | Y | R | E | N | O | S | H | |||
| P | L | A | C | I | D | M | L | B | G | N | U | |||
| B | A | C | K | L | A | S | H | P | E | R | S | O | N | |
| A | T | L | B | L | A | M | E | M | E | |||||
| N | E | A | T | B | O | D | Y | D | O | U | B | L | E | |
| D | A | I | S | E | M | I | T | A | S | T | E | R | ||
| J | U | M | P | D | O | T | H | N | E | W | E | R |
★ You know a puzzle is a success when you walk around mumbling to yourself, trying to figure out other possible theme answers. Knee toes … tooth knuckles … wrist nostrils …
Tess: Mom, dad's finally lost it!
Mom: Best to ignore him. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Jeff: Hand butts ...
I've solved dozens of body-part crosswords, even made a few, but I'd never considered this BODY DOUBLE approach — phrases comprised of two body parts. What great finds in RIB JOINT and BACKLASH! If I had put together a lengthy list of body parts for brainstorming, I'm not sure I would have thought to add these. I'm impressed by the level of detail and completeness.
Excellent gridwork, too. Notice I didn't give the qualifier "for a debut," either! Two vivid long downs in SERVICE DOGS and STAKE A CLAIM, as well as mid-length bonuses worked in all over. CONSENT, YUCCAS, PLACID, BLAME ME, PLATEAU, PB AND J, LATINAS — so much to enjoy, and all so accessible to even newer solvers.
It is unusual to have so much mid-length fill in the Across direction, which did cause some difficulties with short fill. For example, CONSENT reduces flexibility when sandwiched between MOUTH ORGAN and RIB JOINT. MGRS isn't terrible, but along with ISO SNO UTIL, it's a TSP too much. Still, there's a case to be made that so much mid-length bonus material is worth those prices to pay.
It's hard to debut memorably, and even more so on a Monday, where my expectations for smoothness and accessibility are sky-high. I can't wait to see what Adrienne brings us next.