Alan Massengill author page
4 puzzles by Alan Massengill
with Jeff Chen comments
| Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 8/17/2020 | 10/28/2021 | 3 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Scrab | Debut | Fresh |
|---|---|---|
| 1.63 | 17 | 18% |
See the 17 answer words debuted by Alan Massengill.
| B | A | D | P | R | A | B | A | F | T | T | B | S | ||
| A | M | O | R | E | N | O | M | A | S | H | O | W | ||
| B | E | R | I | G | H | T | B | A | C | K | A | C | E | |
| E | X | A | M | A | I | O | L | I | I | N | C | A | ||
| A | B | S | F | L | I | C | K | E | R | |||||
| I | F | A | L | L | T | O | P | I | E | C | E | S | ||
| M | I | L | T | E | L | L | K | E | A | T | S | |||
| U | R | L | S | N | E | A | R | S | S | T | A | T | ||
| P | E | N | A | L | T | I | P | S | O | P | I | |||
| I | T | S | A | N | O | B | R | A | I | N | E | R | ||
| O | H | G | O | D | N | O | E | N | D | |||||
| Z | A | H | N | G | R | A | P | E | I | D | L | E | ||
| A | N | T | W | E | A | R | E | S | O | D | E | A | D | |
| R | O | E | A | L | I | G | N | P | I | N | K | Y | ||
| K | I | R | N | A | N | O | S | S | T | Y | E | S |
A second Halloween joke puzzle in one week? What is this, Groundhog Day of the Living Dead?
Zombies saying I FALL TO PIECES, IT'S A NO BRAINER, WE ARE SO DEAD — hilarious!
I'm no zombi-ficianado, but I paused at the start, with BE RIGHT BACK. These days, so many zombies are of the horrifying fast-zombie type. Someone gets bitten/infected, then they turn into the undead version of Usain Bolt. Some research shows that plenty of zombies rise from the grave, so those do fit the BE RIGHT BACK mold better.
And the clue for IT'S A NO BRAINER … I thought that would describe the zombie, who has no brains. Wait. Do zombies have brains, but simply act as if they don't? Why are they at an empty house, anyway? Is this some sort of empty nest-themed zomcom?
Either this clue wasn't a NO BRAINER, or I'm the no-brainer. (It's clear which.)
Fun to get PRIMAL, ALL NIGHTER, and OH GOD NO in the grid, all adding to the monster movie ambiance. The grid was also mostly clean (ABAFT and partialish NO RAIN, I see you), although it felt like a no-no-no to have NO BRAINER, NO RAIN and OH GOD NO.
Even though I'd heard some of the zombie jokes before, notably various riffs on NO-BRAINER, I still got some laughs. I wasn't sure I'd like so much Halloween humor in one week, but I'm not (warning: horrible pun alert!) beMOANing it.
| S | P | A | S | P | E | A | C | H | S | T | U | D | ||
| E | A | C | H | E | M | C | E | E | A | O | N | E | ||
| N | A | M | E | A | T | A | R | I | S | P | I | N | ||
| T | R | E | B | E | K | B | I | G | S | H | O | T | S | |
| C | A | R | P | S | S | H | E | A | F | |||||
| C | H | O | G | E | E | E | T | A | T | B | A | |||
| H | E | R | R | R | A | D | O | R | W | H | A | T | ||
| R | I | P | E | F | L | U | F | F | A | E | R | O | ||
| I | D | O | I | D | O | G | I | F | X | M | E | N | ||
| S | I | R | O | R | C | D | A | N | O | D | E | |||
| A | R | O | M | A | O | S | C | A | R | |||||
| I | N | T | E | R | A | C | T | H | O | R | N | E | D | |
| R | A | I | N | N | A | O | M | I | T | I | V | O | ||
| K | N | O | T | C | O | M | B | O | O | N | E | G | ||
| S | O | N | S | E | S | S | E | N | O | G | R | E |
Constructors are sneaky. Ever wonder why the word SMILE has appeared in about 150 Shortz-era crosswords, while FROWN is stuck at 14? Subtle influencing through theme choices and grid fill nudges solvers' moods without them even knowing. The fools!
Huh? It's because SMILE is packed with common letters, while FROWN contains harder-to-work-with F and W?
:-(
Uplifting, a puzzle all about TOPs and PEAKs (although, HEIGHT doesn't fit as well). Apt theme for Andrea Carla Michaels (née Eisenberg), who goes by the moniker Acme!
Who doesn't love the ACME CORPORATION, too, what with its Iron Carrots and Earthquake Pills. Well, there's Wile E. Coyote ... who has wily worked WILE 71 times into the NYT crossword!
I'm curious what percentage of solvers will notice the theme today. Some don't even know that there are themes, period, and if there's no revealer to point to what's going on … will some think that this is an Alex TREBEK tribute puzzle, one of the BIG SHOTS in the game show world, eliciting PEAK PERFORMANCES from mere mortals, riding his jet-propelled unicycle on stage.
Maybe COVID isolation is getting to me.
A puzzle with four grid-spanners can be hairy, especially at the ends of the two middle themers. Exhibit A: the south region, with ESSEN / MBE. N???I is a rough pattern, with few valid options, so that restricts flexibility. Perhaps switching HEIGHT OF FASHION and TOP OF THE MORNING would have helped since ING is a friendlier ending to work with than ION (five-letter words ending with O aren't as common as those ending with N).
Alan and Acme could have made their lives easier by picking shorter themers, like PEAK CONDITION, TOP OF THE LINE, etc., but I appreciated that they went full 15 since that puts all ACME synonyms at the top of the puzzle. (Mirror symmetry would have allowed them to use APEX PREDATOR at the top, though.)
A couple of trade-offs, some smoothing they could have done (AERO, ACAB, ERG, etc.) but overall, a reasonable Monday offering, if not top of the line.
| H | I | S | S | P | A | T | Y | A | D | D | A | |||
| A | C | T | I | A | R | C | H | E | L | I | O | T | ||
| L | E | O | N | S | O | L | E | S | A | M | O | A | ||
| F | R | I | G | H | T | F | U | L | O | W | N | E | R | |
| S | C | O | U | R | M | M | E | |||||||
| F | R | A | C | K | A | N | D | R | U | I | N | |||
| C | O | D | T | Y | P | E | I | O | D | I | N | E | ||
| A | V | I | D | U | S | C | S | E | X | T | ||||
| L | E | V | I | E | D | H | A | H | A | S | S | S | ||
| F | R | A | N | K | A | M | A | T | E | U | R | |||
| E | R | A | I | D | E | A | S | |||||||
| F | R | I | S | K | Y | B | U | S | I | N | E | S | S | |
| P | I | A | N | O | T | A | F | T | A | R | G | O | ||
| A | N | J | O | U | A | M | O | S | M | O | T | H | ||
| M | E | A | N | T | G | A | S | E | S | S | O |
Not all "add-a-letter" puzzles need a revealer — something to explain why the letter is being added — but they often help elevate a concept. Jim Horne and I were chatting in our weekly discussion of the puzzles, brainstorming what could be fun for today's. After many failed ideas, we decided it was a waste of time. F that, man!
Hey … F THAT, indeed!
Amusing results for half the themers, FRISKY BUSINESS the big winner. The image of kitties sitting around in business suits is priceless. FRANK AMATEUR is entertaining, and it's even better in the context of FRANK Costanza and Festivus.
FRACK AND RUIN … too close to reality, considering the environmental / economic debate around fracking. Will Shortz tries to stay away from politics, so I'm surprised to see this one pass muster.
FRIGHTFUL OWNER is another big yikes. Maybe it's not a problem if you've never had a scary landlord, but that power imbalance is no laughing matter.
I did appreciate the consistency of 1.) always adding an F to an R word, and 2.) always doing it at the beginning of a phrase. Perhaps alternates like (generating computer code to discover other possibilities … stand by …) FROCKED THE BOAT? FRIDGE LINE? FRAIL SPLITTER?
Today's themers are harder to work with than yesterday's because the longer lengths make for gridding awkwardness, but any time you have just four themers, there's no reason that there should be so much AEROS ICERS SSGTS ATA MME RDS SSS. More black squares separating themers 1 / 2 and 3 / 4 would have helped — there are too many separating themers 2 / 3, so they could have been redeployed.
Overall though, any humor is so valuable these days, so FRISKY BUSINESS made up for a lot.
| W | O | O | S | P | A | L | S | A | D | L | I | B | ||
| A | U | N | T | A | V | O | W | A | I | O | L | I | ||
| L | I | E | U | W | A | V | E | S | H | E | L | L | O | |
| L | O | A | F | S | I | D | E | S | T | |||||
| S | U | R | F | T | H | E | N | E | T | S | E | L | F | |
| T | I | M | R | A | Y | T | O | N | E | R | ||||
| P | O | L | E | S | S | A | D | D | A | Y | ||||
| S | H | E | L | L | S | O | U | T | C | A | S | H | ||
| B | E | E | T | L | E | S | N | I | T | S | ||||
| T | A | R | T | S | U | R | I | B | A | E | ||||
| U | S | E | R | P | A | L | M | S | C | A | R | D | S | |
| I | S | D | U | E | S | C | O | O | P | |||||
| B | E | A | C | H | F | R | O | N | T | H | O | R | A | |
| L | A | T | K | E | A | N | E | W | O | M | E | N | ||
| T | R | E | S | S | S | E | G | O | O | S | S | A |
MC: It's time to play … Name That Theme!
MC: WAVES HELLO …
MC: SURF THE NET …
Ooh, ooh! Surfing terms!
MC: Seriously? You think "surfing terms" would include the word SURF? SHELLS OUT CASH …
A SHELL is a type of rowing boat! Things that you see on the water!
MC: Terrible guess. PALMS CARDS …
(crickets)
things that Gilligan used in inept attempts to get off the Island?
MC: Talk about inept. How are you so atrocious at this game? No! The answer is BEACHFRONT.
(crickets)
Wha … ? Each word can be preceded by BEACH? Ah! Like BEACH WAVES. That's a thing. Isn't it?
MC: No.
Then how does it work?
(crickets)
MC: Let's go to commercial break.
The theme is "things seen at a beach," but the revealer didn't work well for me. I'd have preferred simply BEACH. Maybe GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. What can I say, I'm a sucker for SHELL-based technology.
I did appreciate the imagery Alan and Acme spurred into my head. In a time where the closest I can get to PALMS is people's Hawaiian Zoom backgrounds, I loved being transported to a tropical Eden. Helped make up for the revealer being flat, and the partialish feel of several grid entries, like IS DUE, ONE ARM, and PET TRICKS.