Hannah Slovut author page
1 puzzle by Hannah Slovut
with Jeff Chen comments
| J | E | A | N | P | A | L | M | H | A | S | N | T | ||
| O | R | B | S | I | P | S | O | O | C | H | O | A | ||
| B | A | B | Y | A | L | B | U | M | T | R | A | M | S | |
| S | T | A | N | C | E | A | F | I | R | S | T | |||
| C | H | I | L | D | P | R | O | D | I | G | Y | |||
| E | B | B | T | O | R | I | N | O | ||||||
| T | E | E | N | V | O | G | U | E | T | O | A | S | T | |
| C | A | R | E | E | N | S | I | M | I | L | E | |||
| H | U | M | O | R | A | D | U | L | T | S | W | I | M | |
| M | O | D | U | L | E | A | P | P | ||||||
| S | E | N | I | O | R | M | O | M | E | N | T | |||
| A | C | O | R | N | S | P | E | E | W | E | E | |||
| G | O | T | A | T | G | H | O | S | T | T | O | W | N | |
| E | L | A | T | E | T | E | R | I | R | O | O | D | ||
| S | I | X | E | R | O | X | E | N | A | S | K | S |
Progression, from BABY to CHILD to TEEN to ADULT to SENIOR to … GHOST? What an unexpected and funny conclusion to the series! I've seen this theme done before, but not with that ending. Gave me a big smile — I like being pleasantly surprised.
So tough to fill a six-themer grid, especially when the puzzle has to run on a Monday (because the theme is so straightforward). Hannah did wel
l to spread out her themers, going every other row, staggering them left/right.
I like her audacity, working in the juicy HOTFOOT IT and VERMONTER, along with PILE IT ON and SLEEPS IN. Great bonuses!
The grid had too much crossword glue in it for a Monday puzzle, though. Not one I'd give to a newer solver, as the collection of ARN, BERM, ROOD, ULM, ADM might turn them away from crosswords. Some of that is unavoidable — what else can the U?M pattern be, once the themers are fixed into place? But I think some of it could have been massaged out — ROOD, for example (in a region only lightly constrained).
It's so important for Monday to feel accessible to a wide audience. I thought the theme did a great job of that, but not the fill.
Still, a nice progression, with a fantastic punchline. I'm hoping some clever constructor will riff on this for Hindus, where the last themer might somehow tie back to the first one. Reincarnation!