Nijah Morris author page
2 puzzles by Nijah Morris
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 11 answer words debuted by Nijah Morris.
| G | O | S | L | O | W | A | B | C | S | A | S | H | ||
| A | R | E | O | L | A | S | E | A | U | P | T | O | ||
| P | E | L | L | E | T | D | I | S | P | E | N | S | E | R |
| S | O | L | A | N | T | I | T | E | M | S | ||||
| B | A | B | Y | C | A | G | E | |||||||
| G | H | O | S | T | O | F | A | C | H | A | N | C | E | |
| R | O | A | S | T | S | L | S | A | T | I | L | L | ||
| I | N | N | E | R | S | I | E | B | E | T | A | S | ||
| F | E | Y | O | M | A | R | C | A | R | R | I | E | ||
| F | R | U | I | T | O | F | T | H | E | L | O | O | M | |
| C | U | B | E | A | L | L | S | |||||||
| S | N | E | E | R | W | I | N | M | Y | B | ||||
| W | A | K | A | F | L | O | C | K | A | F | L | A | M | E |
| A | P | E | X | A | R | E | M | A | L | I | C | E | ||
| B | A | S | E | O | D | E | P | A | C | M | A | N |
Wait, that's something else. For this child of the 1980s, though, Fozzie Bear and PACMAN are equally pleasing.
Some might wonder, why now for this puzzle? PACMAN was from so many decades ago. Aha! Ready Player One features an "extra life" token that the protagonist wins by playing a perfect game of PACMAN. (I'm curious if Billy Mitchell's parents are proud or if they're sobbing.)
What, the book was from over a decade ago? Aha, what about the recent movie? Yes … the one that both sucked and cut out the perfect PACMAN game that was integral to Wade's journey. Never mind.
I failed so badly at "Name That Theme," even after feeling sure that PELLET, GHOST, FRUIT must be related, since I couldn't figure out how WAKA FLOCKA FLAME might fit in. I bow my head to Kavin and Nijah for obfuscating things so well.
Such elegant gridwork, nearly as perfect as Wade's perfect PACMAN game. Usually, you'd think about putting a long Down where LOL and BOSE are. Running long Downs through three themers instead makes your life so much harder — especially tough when one of them has to end in an F! ASTROTURF is an evocative entry, and EIGHTBALL is even better.
Although there's a fair bit of ACA ASIN FAA HORS, it's all well worth the BEST CASE SAFE WORDs.
Thank goodness Tina FEY is uber-famous, as her crossing HANYU would have left me a GONER otherwise. Impressive to read about Yuzuru HANYU's crossworthy achievements.
This puzzle isn't going to do anything for people who have never played PACMAN or aren't familiar with the game, but it hit all my sweet spots, bringing this kid-at-heart right back my idyllic days of hanging out in arcades.
| F | O | Y | E | R | C | L | I | C | K | |||||
| C | E | R | A | M | I | C | H | A | D | O | N | |||
| W | O | R | D | S | A | L | A | D | E | X | I | L | E | |
| I | N | R | E | G | E | N | E | R | A | T | O | E | ||
| F | A | I | R | S | D | A | T | A | P | L | A | N | ||
| I | N | S | U | L | T | R | E | S | T | A | R | E | A | |
| P | A | R | T | Y | S | C | H | O | O | L | S | |||
| O | C | T | M | A | E | T | A | R | D | S | L | |||
| F | R | E | U | D | I | A | N | S | L | I | P | |||
| F | A | R | F | A | L | L | E | S | L | I | E | S | T | |
| P | I | O | N | E | E | R | S | L | E | V | E | R | ||
| I | L | Y | C | R | A | V | E | S | R | O | P | E | ||
| S | O | A | V | E | F | E | E | L | S | O | K | A | Y | |
| L | A | K | E | R | S | P | I | E | G | E | L | |||
| E | D | I | T | S | S | T | A | I | D |
What a story the four longest answers tell: PARTY SCHOOLS SLAM DANCERS CHEAP THRILL FREUDIAN SLIP. I would read that WORD SALAD any day; such an evocative set of marquee answers. It feels way better than just FEELS OKAY! What a CRAPLOAD of great material.
Jim Horne and I wrote a piece about 2022 NYT crossword debut entries, and stuff like CRAPLOAD continues to surprise me — in a good way. While some older solvers yell IS NOTHING SACRED?, this parent who's seen a crapload of literal craploads laughs.
If you can't laugh, you cry.
66-word themelesses often make experienced constructors cry. 72 words is a cakewalk. 70 isn't hard. 68 is a huge jump that not many can successfully navigate. And 66 is CRAPLOAD territory, grids often filled with subpar long fill and/or at lot of crappy shorties.
Smart move to add a bunch of black cheater squares in pyramid shapes — these make life easier by a factor of maybe five. Some editors are picky about ones in the corners, like the sets in the NW and SE, but Will usually lets them slide, saying that it's only when they get aesthetically unpleasant does he put his foot down.
I rarely enjoy short debut entries, since so many of them are desperation Hail Marys to make a corner work. ILY risks falling into Will's dislike of initialisms since if you don't know them, it's random letter guessing. However, ILY = I love you is easy to figure out, and it makes so much sense when connected to ASL. I usually don't like cross-referencing in puzzles, but I give the ILY sign to ILY.
Hard to complete a 66-worder without a bit of DSL EMAG OCT, but YAS queen, such an entertaining debut.