Ailee Yoshida author page
1 puzzle by Ailee Yoshida
with Jeff Chen comments
| L | I | A | R | C | L | A | D | P | A | S | T | E | ||
| O | R | S | O | L | U | C | A | A | S | P | E | N | ||
| G | O | O | D | F | A | I | T | H | C | H | A | R | D | |
| I | N | F | E | A | R | L | E | E | M | R | I | |||
| C | O | Y | R | O | C | K | I | N | R | O | B | I | N | |
| A | R | E | A | H | E | A | T | K | O | N | G | |||
| L | E | T | S | P | L | A | Y | A | B | A | T | E | S | |
| S | T | A | R | L | I | L | Y | |||||||
| G | A | T | E | A | U | F | I | L | T | E | R | I | N | |
| A | D | I | N | R | O | O | M | D | I | N | O | |||
| P | R | E | T | T | Y | P | E | N | N | Y | P | H | O | |
| K | E | G | E | N | T | Y | E | E | T | E | D | |||
| I | N | A | N | E | S | U | P | E | R | G | I | R | L | |
| D | A | M | O | N | I | S | I | T | O | D | I | E | ||
| S | L | E | D | S | N | A | G | S | S | E | T | S |
★ Although I was impressed by the top-notch color and cleanliness of the northwest corner — difficult to achieve when a central themer splits your grid in half — I thought I'd nailed "Name That Theme" way too quickly. GOOD, ROCKIN', STAR, PRETTY? The revealer is so obvious! No doubt that it was OFF TO A GREAT START.
Ok, maybe some doubt.
There's no doubt: Ailee is off to a great start in her constructing career. "Phrases that start with synonyms of a word" are commonplace, so you need something extra to elevate. SUPERGIRL did exactly that, perfectly explaining how every phrase is composed of (synonym of great) + (girl's name). Mind blown that this was possible!
Further enhancing the a-ha moment, all of the names were disguised. The meanings of FAITH (belief), ROBIN (the song refers to a bird), LILY (flower), and PENNY (coin) all obfuscated the concept so well.
Such a smart layout, with STAR / LILY separated in the middle. This central entry splits the grid in half (top / bottom) like a 9 would, but note how it allows for a diagonal slash of three black squares. That slash helps create separation, enhancing one's ability to fill the four biggish corners independently of each other.
Ailee did such an amazing job of spicing things up. LOGICAL / IRON ORE / AS OF YET / LETS PLAY — and that was only the opening corner? Let's play, indeed!
I did wonder what YEETED could be. I've heard the term from younger constructors, and it is in their language. I sure was relieved that all the crosses were fair — can you imagine if crossed with LIMN? That'd be a serious yeet!
(Ok, Boomer, I'll stop.)
Ailee is part of the inaugural class of the Diverse Crossword Constructor Fellowship, and she does the program proud with her excellent (and graceful) debut.