Meredith Colton Hazy author page
1 puzzle by Meredith Colton Hazy
with Constructor comments
| F | A | C | T | C | U | L | L | S | T | A | L | C | ||
| L | U | A | U | U | B | O | A | T | A | D | O | S | ||
| U | R | L | S | B | E | N | D | S | H | O | S | T | ||
| B | A | C | K | W | A | R | D | S | B | O | L | T | ||
| S | A | N | E | R | B | R | E | E | C | H | ||||
| G | I | T | Y | O | D | E | L | E | R | S | A | O | ||
| O | N | E | O | N | S | E | T | A | C | U | T | |||
| T | H | E | B | E | L | T | T | H | E | R | E | S | T | |
| H | I | T | S | O | O | H | R | E | N | E | E | |||
| O | B | O | M | I | N | I | B | A | R | T | S | A | ||
| T | I | T | I | A | N | G | L | U | O | N | ||||
| T | A | L | L | T | H | E | B | R | I | D | G | E | ||
| S | I | L | O | W | A | T | E | R | F | I | N | D | ||
| E | V | E | S | E | R | O | D | E | T | R | A | Y | ||
| W | E | R | E | T | O | P | S | Y | Y | E | W | S |
When I was making this puzzle, I thought back to elementary school and remembered a worksheet I had done in my third-grade class (hi Ms. Daniels!) where the design of the words was a hint to a longer phrase (e.g., "bang theory" in large font = Big Bang Theory). I had loved the assignment — the fact that I can still remember it all these years later is proof! I'd seen variations of this type of theme in other crosswords but wanted to try my hand at a fresh, fun version.
This is my first puzzle with the New York Times. During the early months of the COVID pandemic, I was home more than ever and did a lot more crosswords. I wanted to be more creative and decided to try constructing. My first attempt was an ancient Egypt themed puzzle where the black squares made pyramid shapes. Looking back, it had way too many black squares, but I loved the process of constructing, so decided to keep going.
I live in Seattle, WA, with my husband and two boys. I spend my days working on the business side of software, exploring local hikes with my family, and deciding what book to read next.
Shoutout to my brothers and Stanford freshman dormmates for sharing my love of crosswords over the years.