Nate Cardin author page

I have frequent internal debates when it comes to scoring words for our XWI Word List. I usually give an entry the benefit of the doubt, leaving the constructor to make his/her own judgment, but when I ran across OCTOTHORPE a few years ago, I waffled like a politician wearing flip-flops. Downgrade? Or keep it at the "pretty much fine" level?

Ultimately, I left it at the "pretty much fine" score, because if you don't know it, it's an interesting thing to learn. I don't know that I'd go around dropping the word into everyday conversation, but I'm glad to know this curious oddity.

I enjoyed Nate's usage of the pound sign's various alter egos — NUMBER, POUND, SHARP. Spot on! Fantastic themer choices like NUMBER CRUNCHER and RAZOR SHARP, too.

The OCTOTHORPE is also used to note a SPACE in editing? To me, this is much less interesting, at the level of seeing STET or DELE in crosswords. I understand why Nate chose to include it for completion's sake, but to me, it detracts from the overall impact of the puzzle.

Sometimes less is more. There's too much packed into the grid, what with HASH / TAG plus four sets of themers plus OCTO / THORPE. I love the audacity, but I don't love the grid result. I stopped counting dabs of crossword glue at five, but it still kept coming (the NW corner alone with EDUC AMTS SMEE, yikes!).

Not a great trade-off. I think the puzzle would have had stronger impact without the SPACE themers and/or the OCTO / THORPE revealer — especially since the latter had to be broken into two parts.

I love Nate's efforts to push for more diversity and inclusion within crosswords. Thus, it was a little odd to see him use the gendered HANDYMAN, no matter how it was clued. But then again, sometimes a certain piece of fill generates the best result in a crossword, and you have to go with it.

But overall, some fun plays on the different usages of the OCTO / THORPE, and some great themers.