Priyanka Sethy author page
1 puzzle by Priyanka Sethy
with Jeff Chen comments
See the 14 answer words debuted by Priyanka Sethy.
| T | A | C | K | S | E | A | S | T | C | A | P | S | D | I | T | |||||
| S | W | E | A | R | I | N | G | I | N | S | A | L | A | T | T | O | N | E | ||
| A | R | C | T | A | N | G | E | N | T | A | M | I | G | A | H | I | T | S | ||
| R | Y | E | S | T | A | S | K | E | L | I | T | E | S | T | A | T | U | S | ||
| U | S | E | R | S | P | A | T | A | H | I | T | U | N | A | ||||||
| H | A | S | U | R | D | U | O | R | I | G | I | N | M | O | P | E | ||||
| I | N | T | E | R | N | E | T | C | O | N | N | E | C | T | I | O | N | |||
| P | I | L | A | F | E | R | R | E | L | I | T | R | E | A | D | S | ||||
| G | A | B | R | U | D | E | S | N | O | W | H | I | C | |||||||
| D | U | A | L | C | I | T | I | Z | E | N | S | G | P | A | J | E | E | R | ||
| E | S | T | E | E | M | S | A | D | O | A | S | S | U | A | G | E | ||||
| S | T | E | T | O | A | T | R | A | C | H | E | L | M | A | D | D | O | W | ||
| K | O | I | D | I | R | E | T | A | I | L | E | M | O | |||||||
| S | O | N | O | F | A | I | R | A | L | Y | E | O | G | R | E | S | ||||
| P | O | L | I | T | I | C | A | L | A | C | T | I | V | I | S | T | S | |||
| S | V | E | N | M | E | E | T | M | E | T | I | N | A | T | A | N | ||||
| S | T | A | N | D | U | P | N | A | D | A | B | O | R | N | ||||||
| C | A | N | N | A | B | I | S | O | I | L | L | I | E | N | O | M | E | N | ||
| U | R | I | E | O | N | E | B | C | L | A | S | T | I | N | L | I | N | E | ||
| B | E | S | T | A | G | A | V | E | G | R | E | A | T | B | A | S | I | N | ||
| A | S | H | T | E | R | I | A | M | E | N | A | N | O | D | E |
★ I love so many things about this puzzle. Such bang-up theme phrases, lending a feeling of recency and freshness. CANNABIS OIL is a big business in Seattle these days. POLITICAL ACTIVISTS is such a sparkly phrase. RACHEL MADDOW's celebrity crossword was the most viewed puzzle in XWord Info's history. DUAL CITIZENS is another standout. Huge props for such fantastic selections.
Even more so, given the theme constraint! ART and LIT are easy to work with, but CHEM, CALC, LATIN, not nearly as much. I appreciated that Priyanka and Matthew broke the shaded letters across words of a phrase for almost all themers. ELITE STAT(U)S was the lone outlier, but it's a saucy phrase, which helps make up for not being like the others.
The meta layer was too obvious — within a few letters, I could tell the circled letters were going to spell CUT CLASS — but it's an apt extra layer to elevate the puzzle. Perfectly describes what's happened to all the classes hidden in the theme phrases.
I also appreciate that Priyanka and Matthew didn't try to do to much with their eight-themer grid, sticking at 140 words. Yet they still managed to squeeze out a lot of juice, taking full advantage of their many mid-length slots. AHI TUNA, EN GARDE, IT WAS ME!, SON OF A …, SAMOVAR, STAND UP comedy, the TIBETAN Dalai Lama — it added so much spice to my solve.
JUDO GI is something that some editors have frowned upon (same with KARATE GI), but I'm a big fan of this entry. Maybe you don't know what it is by name, but you've definitely seen many of them. And TSAI Ing-wen as the first female President of Taiwan is definitely crossworthy. I'm hopefuly that Taiwan's emerging democracy continues to work past its rocky start.
"Hidden words" themes are falling out of favor in crosswords, but as with any tried-and-true genres, an extra layer can make a puzzle sing. This concept, similar to one by Paolo Pasco that also delighted me, is something I'd be happy to see more of in Sunday puzzles. Encore!