Joseph Gangi author page
3 puzzles by Joseph Gangi
with Jeff Chen comments
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| D | O | D | G | E | S | T | Y | G | O | O | S | E |
DUCK! No, not TAKE COVER. In the center of the grid. Neat grid art, unquestionably a rubber duckie. It's tough to create apt images when working with huge pixels AND conform to crossword rules, but this one is spot-on.
I also appreciated that Joseph kept grid symmetry around the perimeter. Grid asymmetry usually jars me, so retaining some semblance of elegance helped keep my head on straight.
It wasn't as much fun to solve as to aesthetically appreciate, though, since the "what other DUCK definitions could there be" game got to be a slog. I liked the occasional [___ DUCK] or [Something a duck lays] to help break up the monotony of simply [Duck].
I did love the GOOSE at the end of the puzzle. Hopefully, solvers catch that nod to the childhood game.
Memorable debut, with solid efforts to build a grid around a severely constraining central image.