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Dominick Talvacchio author page

1 puzzle by Dominick Talvacchio
with Jeff Chen comments

TotalDebut
15/31/2018
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
0000100
ScrabDebutFresh
1.72436%
Dominick Talvacchio
Thu 5/31/2018
TAPMATEYGHANA
ALAAMUSEAARON
BETAPIETALINEN
APTSESCAROLE
CHIPSIZETAXI
SECYBYENOW
LAMLANDSSOHO
ITSALLGREEKTOME
NORMASIDENYS
EZPASSKARO
THETAOMICRON
FIREEXITTAZO
ONCUELAMBDATAU
ECARDTREADOWN
SASSYSINGSNAS

I love it when I see a theme I can't even imagine dreaming up. Take Greek letters, stick a bunch together, then parse them in odd ways to come up with creatively kooky answers? Fantastic! I had the hardest time figuring out LAMBDA TAU = LAMB DATA U, but what a hilarious image. Made me think of "Hamburger U," McDonald's training grounds.

And CHI PSI ZETA XI = CHIP SIZE TAXI? That's an incredibly cool find. A funny one, too!

THETA OMICRON = THE TAU MICRON sounds like a Stephen Hawking book.

I wasn't as hot on BETA PI ETA = BET A PIETA, as the spacing changes weren't as unpredictable. Still, the concept of betting a pieta (depiction of Mary and Jesus) is evocative.

The theme was so interesting that I wanted so badly to give it the POW! The fill didn't quite match in excellence, though. TABAC at 1-Down = sigh. ALEPH at 2-Down confuses the theme a bit. I'd much rather keep all other letters out of the fill for this theme, no matter what language.

ICAL crossing SECY — neither is a puzzle-killer, but they sure ain't good. Crossing them draws extra attention to these dabs of crossword glue.

OZAWA / TAZO is worse to me. I don't think educated solvers should be expected to know OZAWA off the top — I played in orchestras for 20 years, and I learned him only from crosswords — and while TAZO was once owned by Starbucks, I wonder if it's a big enough brand to demand solvers' attention. Crossing them doesn't feel fair.

Toss in some ARNO, OCTA, TUE, and I just couldn't do it. So close to a POW! on your debut, Dominick! I think if you'd left out ITS ALL GREEK TO ME, I still would have understood the theme, and you could have smoothed and snazzified your grid. Not a whole lot of room for bonuses, as it is — HAIRIEST and AMATEURS are fine, but not outstanding.

I've seen plenty of crosswords around ITS ALL GREEK TO ME, but this one was different. I like different.

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