Brianne McManis author page
1 puzzle by Brianne McManis
with Jeff Chen comments
| C | L | E | F | T | S | O | D | S | T | I | R | S | ||
| P | A | L | E | O | E | V | E | T | O | N | I | C | ||
| L | A | S | T | N | A | M | E | S | E | R | I | C | H | |
| I | N | D | I | R | A | G | A | N | D | H | I | |||
| H | O | L | D | E | M | C | U | L | L | E | S | |||
| E | S | O | A | A | H | A | T | R | E | S | T | |||
| I | S | A | M | U | N | O | G | U | C | H | I | |||
| R | O | M | A | P | A | D | T | A | S | K | ||||
| I | C | H | I | R | O | S | U | Z | U | K | I | |||
| S | C | A | L | I | A | N | I | P | D | O | T | |||
| K | A | T | N | R | A | T | S | H | I | R | T | |||
| I | S | A | A | C | M | I | Z | R | A | H | I | |||
| B | I | R | C | H | M | A | U | R | I | T | I | U | S | |
| U | N | I | T | E | E | N | D | F | T | L | E | E | ||
| M | O | S | E | S | E | Y | E | T | O | E | Y | E |
Impressive to dig up four people whose full names all begin and end with I. No doubt that I saw I to I with today's puzzle!
Even though I'm not into baseball, ICHIRO SUZUKI made this Seattleite smile. Absolute stud of a leadoff hitter, and it was so awesome to see an Asian dude making local headline news for more than a decade. He even played a part in Acucela Inc. raising our first round of financing since he gave our Japanese investors an extra reason to visit.
I wasn't as familiar with ISAMU NOGUCHI, but the Red Cube is so memorable. I even recognize one of his famous table designs, as an industrial designer friend of mine used to own one of these.
INDIRA GANDHI and ISAAC MIZRAHI, great people to fill out a name-based theme. I'm far from a fashionista, but I (shamefacedly admit that I) watched a lot of "Sex and the City," for which he did a cameo.
I wondered, why feature four people with an I to I theme? There are sizzling phrases like ILLUMINATI and IRON-CLAD ALIBI that would work. It'd be next-level if there were some clever way to link SEE EYE TO EYE to people, but at least the grouping of four celebs made the theme more interesting. I couldn't find any others that fit the pattern, so that tightness elevated my experience.
Speaking of linking, SEE + EYE + TO EYE wasn't ideal. I was about to suggest a middle-row revealer to Jim Horne when he said, "At least SEEING EYE TO EYE wasn't in the middle." I don't mind middle revealers, but Jim and others don't like having the game given away so quickly.
Couple of trouble spots, tricky TONNEAU forced by the added bonus of LAST NAMES. Upper right corner, I often type in SCHIST during construction when I mean the more top-of-head SCHISM. Big corners like this are no joke.
I struggle with name-heavy crosswords, and this one was no different — having to piece in every single letter of NOGUCHI's name wasn't easy. However, there was something satisfying about all four themers being people, and all ones I should have known, at that. Fun debut, albeit with a few shaky bits in grid execution.