Joanne Sullivan author page
2 puzzles by Joanne Sullivan
with Jeff Chen comments
| N | O | S | Y | D | U | M | B | C | L | A | M | P | ||
| I | R | K | S | A | B | E | L | R | A | R | E | R | ||
| C | O | A | L | F | E | E | T | E | M | I | L | Y | ||
| E | M | T | S | O | R | T | M | A | P | S | ||||
| T | E | E | T | H | E | J | A | C | K | T | O | P | ||
| Y | O | S | H | I | O | R | C | V | I | V | A | |||
| E | R | E | E | A | R | E | D | E | N | |||||
| P | A | I | N | T | I | T | M | A | I | L | E | R | S | |
| A | I | D | E | F | O | P | E | N | V | |||||
| C | R | E | W | F | R | A | T | E | S | T | S | |||
| E | Y | E | B | E | A | N | O | H | T | H | A | T | ||
| F | A | L | L | T | Y | P | E | E | R | A | ||||
| A | K | I | R | A | S | H | O | E | L | I | S | T | ||
| T | E | X | T | S | K | E | R | R | B | L | U | E | ||
| E | G | E | S | T | A | R | E | A | S | A | S | S |
Black squares get a literal interpretation today, five of them used as the word BLACK (see illustration below). I had some great a-ha moments, struggling with how FEET could possibly be [Montana Indians]. Very cool click to realize it was (BLACK)FEET. Same with [Driveway covering], which had to be TAR … except it was the much more interesting (BLACK)TOP.
Neat to have so many theme answers squeezed in. We "fix up" answers so they match the given clues, so there was quite a bit of work today — 18 answers to correct for our word list / database! That's a ton of theme material to squeeze in. Granted, much of it is just three or four letters long, but when you intersect so many of them, a grid quickly becomes inflexible. We highlighted all the theme material to demonstrate how many crossings Joanne had to work with.
Pretty nice job, filling around so many constraints. There were very few entries that made me hitch — I even liked YOSHI, as back in the day, I played many a Nintendo game all the way through. Even scanning through a second time, I couldn't pick out much that disturbed me.
I did notice that there were a ton of short answers; very few long themers / pieces of fill. I like a few long entries here and there, which helps a grid to breathe; to not feel constricted. A main reason for the slightly choked feel of the grid is that Joanne went up to 82 words, four past the normal 78 limit. Understandable given all the constraints she put on herself, but there is a good reason that most 15x15 crosswords rigidly adhere to the 78-word limit.
(I read Joanne's commentary with great interest. Such a different original intent; not sure which I like better.)
I would have liked some way of making the five special black squares stand out more, as there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why those five squares acted as BLACK and the others didn't. Using logic like "black squares that don't touch any others are the special ones," or better yet, a visual within those special squares? But overall, uncovering all those theme answers in unexpected places entertained me.
| A | P | E | R | T | U | R | E | S | S | A | B | O | T | |
| V | A | L | E | N | T | I | N | E | C | L | I | M | E | |
| I | L | L | A | T | E | A | S | E | A | L | F | I | E | |
| S | P | A | M | U | P | D | R | A | F | T | S | |||
| V | A | S | E | Y | I | N | ||||||||
| E | T | A | L | I | A | E | E | E | N | M | A | T | ||
| M | E | S | S | C | A | L | L | S | G | L | A | C | E | |
| M | P | A | A | S | E | A | T | S | E | R | I | N | ||
| Y | E | N | T | A | C | H | A | P | L | A | I | N | S | |
| S | E | A | N | O | T | T | E | E | N | A | G | E | ||
| G | N | U | C | E | D | E | ||||||||
| A | L | O | U | E | T | T | E | M | U | I | R | |||
| L | E | O | I | X | A | L | L | U | D | E | S | T | O | |
| A | M | P | L | E | L | I | O | N | E | S | S | E | S | |
| S | A | S | E | S | L | A | N | D | F | O | R | M | S |