Alan DeLoriea author page
2 puzzles by Alan DeLoriea
with Constructor comments
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| M | A | R | K | E | A | R | T | H | S | A | N | K | ||
| U | N | D | E | A | D | N | O | I | D | D | I | M | ||
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| P | O | I | N | T | O | F | N | O | R | E | T | U | R | N |
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| N | S | Y | N | C | D | Y | E | P | A | C | T |
When I first caught myself idly musing about theme and good fill ideas, I realized I had taken the step from crossword enthusiast to wannabe crossword constructor. Sometime later I determined that the next step was to actually write down some of these ideas.
Among those things I wrote down were both BERMUDA TRIANGLE (because who doesn't love geometry?) and POINT OF NO RETURN, which can pair nicely, and are both 15s, and hey, there exist other types of POINTs that could be mined for more material!
The two remaining themers were not too stubborn in coming, and these are the same as those in my original submission, but the original grid was returned to me for a bit of a polish. So if anyone was hoping to see a spiffy clue for DOSSIER or TEENIER, today is not your lucky day after all. Blame Will for that.
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| D | O | T | T | E | D | L | I | N | E | S | P | O | T | |
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| G | O | O | D | E | X | A | M | P | L | E | ||||
| S | A | G | A | S | N | E | T | T | A | B | ||||
| T | W | O | S | F | E | B | N | I | C | O | L | E | ||
| Y | E | L | L | O | W | B | R | I | C | K | R | O | A | D |
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| T | W | I | T | T | E | R | F | E | E | D | ||||
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This is my first NYT crossword, and I must say I feel honored to officially join the constructors' fraternity. It was a revelation to me that constructors were real people several years ago when I saw a familiar name in the byline, a competitor of mine at the San Francisco Scrabble club (I live in Portland now). She was kind enough to humor me and critique a puzzle I attempted at the time, one that was not of a standard for public consumption.
More recently, with additional solving and blog-reading years under my belt, I got the itch to try constructing again. The idea for this puzzle emerged from a different idea. I was brainstorming fun entries with colors in them and thought of the grid-spanning YELLOW BRICK ROAD. Shortly after that, of course, the song got stuck in my head ("Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the YELLOW BRICK ROAD"). This made me think of Twitter, and TWITTER FEED, at which point I realized that I had stumbled on a more promising course for my puzzle to...follow. So I eased on down that road, and I like where it took me. I hope you like it too.