Roy Leban author page
13 puzzles by Roy Leban
with Constructor comments
See the 69 answer words debuted by Roy Leban.
| W | O | M | B | A | T | M | M | E | C | O | S | T | ||
| A | P | O | L | L | O | A | A | S | I | N | C | A | ||
| R | E | D | E | E | M | C | I | T | A | T | I | O | N | |
| A | R | C | H | N | E | W | Y | O | R | K | ||||
| S | E | A | T | T | L | E | S | L | E | W | N | E | E | |
| A | X | I | S | A | L | L | Y | U | S | S | R | |||
| G | A | D | I | N | G | E | S | P | A | |||||
| A | M | E | R | I | C | A | N | P | H | A | R | O | A | H |
| D | I | Y | D | O | O | M | M | R | I | |||||
| M | U | S | S | A | E | R | O | O | N | E | S | |||
| I | S | U | S | E | C | R | E | T | A | R | I | A | T | |
| K | E | R | O | U | A | C | D | I | R | E | ||||
| A | F | F | I | R | M | E | D | N | E | G | A | T | E | |
| D | U | E | L | E | D | U | G | N | O | M | E | S | ||
| O | L | D | S | S | E | E | S | A | N | T | A | S |
Many people in the puzzle world know me as the founder of puzzle technology company Puzzazz. Of course, I solve the NYT crossword every day in Puzzazz (I used to solve in pen). What some of you may not know is that I've been a puzzle creator as long as I've been a software developer, and this is my 13th New York Times crossword. I'm also the author of four books of Logic Crosswords, a contributor to Cryptic All-Stars, and editor of Mike Selinker's Killer Cryptics, David Steinberg's colorful Chromatics Crosswords, and The Year of Puzzles, all available in Puzzazz. I also recently came out with The Librarian's Almanaq, a paper puzzle book, which is, ironically, one of the very few puzzle books that can't be in Puzzazz — you have to tear the book apart to solve it.
I got the idea for this puzzle right after the Kentucky Derby. AMERICAN PHAROAH is a great name with an unusual spelling, and it's 15 letters long, something cruciverbalists notice. We count letters in everything! I thought of the idea of a Triple Crown puzzle, with three 15-letter winners. I had no idea how few winners there had been over the years, and it turns out that there are no others with 15-letter names. But then I noticed that the names of the previous 4 winners had nice symmetry — two 11's and two 8's, and American Pharoah could go in the middle. A puzzle with the last five winners felt very elegant. I checked if I could get a nice fill, and I could. Now American Pharoah just had to win two more times. After the Preakness, I contacted Will and pitched it to run right after the Belmont Stakes, if (and only if) American Pharoah won. He liked the idea but wanted a better fill. I ended up reworking the grid from scratch, and clued it for Tuesday difficulty.
Fingers crossed, I sent in the final grid and clues almost a week before the race. If American Pharoah didn't win, it would all be wasted. Since you're reading this, you know the gamble was worth it. Thanks, Will, for taking the gamble with me.
When I comment on others' puzzles on Wordplay, I list my favorite entries and clues. So here goes the same for my own puzzle, and I'll provide a little extra background.
My favorite non-theme entries are WOMBAT, KEROUAC, NEW YORK, GNOMES, TOM CLANCY, MIKADO, and EAMES. You'll notice these are mostly long. In filling the grid, I focused on two things — interesting long entries and a really nice upper left corner, to get solvers off on a good footing — this was extra important because none of the theme entries intersects that top left section. I also dislike partials, so spent extra time avoiding them.
Some clue notes:
- [Marsupial that looks like a small bear] for WOMBAT — I like the extra information that makes the clue seem a bit harder than it is, and a snappy clue for 1A is always important
- [Mrs. en français] for MME — I like the fact that the clue is in French yet perfectly clear. I also learned that the language français is not capitalized.
- [W.W. II foe] and cross-references for AXIS, ALLY, and USSR. I put AXIS and ALLY adjacent for the cluing opportunity; USSR was just a nice coincidence that I didn't have connected in the clues I submitted
- For WAR, I also considered a clue based on War Admiral, but I felt it detracted from the puzzle; I like Will's sly reference to Man o' War
- [1 1 1] for ONES — boy is it hard to come up with a fresh clue for an entry that the NYT has allowed 684 times before
- [Sch. in Terre Haute, Ames or Pocatello] — This was inspired by the dispute over who owns the rights to the initials USC (Southern Cal or South Carolina); for the record, there's also a school in Normal, Illinois
- [88 or 98 of autodom] — Will's clue, nice
- [Eponymous chair designer] — I've always loved the groundbreaking work of Charles and Ray Eames. We have one of their chairs, a 40-year-old "Aluminum Group" one, not the eponymous lounge chair that most people know.
| S | M | O | G | S | T | A | G | E | M | E | S | A | ||
| L | A | V | A | H | O | V | E | R | U | S | P | S | ||
| A | X | E | R | O | R | I | O | N | E | S | A | U | ||
| G | I | N | G | E | R | R | O | G | E | R | S | |||
| O | F | T | E | N | A | L | P | E | N | |||||
| P | A | P | Y | R | U | S | G | A | L | I | L | E | O | |
| A | M | I | L | E | O | M | S | A | L | T | ||||
| R | O | S | E | M | A | R | Y | C | L | O | O | N | E | Y |
| R | E | C | N | F | L | S | P | A | R | E | ||||
| O | B | E | L | I | S | K | A | M | H | E | R | S | T | |
| T | A | S | E | R | G | O | R | E | N | |||||
| P | E | P | P | E | R | M | A | R | T | I | N | |||
| B | O | D | E | A | I | R | T | O | O | U | Z | O | ||
| M | U | I | R | S | T | R | A | T | A | T | O | P | ||
| W | I | N | S | S | A | Y | S | O | D | U | D | E |
I wasn't sure that Pepper Martin (baseball player) was up there with Ginger Rogers (dancer) and Rosemary Clooney (singer) but it was important to me that the three people had different professions. While he's not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was still pretty well known. Playing his entire MLB career for the Cardinals, he was an All-Star four times and a World Series Champion twice.
Turned out Will had a different concern, specifically, were ginger and pepper spices while rosemary was an herb? And that raised the question of whether PEPPER was the one that stands out? What about the fact that ginger is a root, pepper is a seed, and rosemary is a leaf? In the end, we decided that calling all three seasonings was fine and the clues of "Seasoned ..." were nice.
| A | C | M | E | A | E | R | T | S | E | T | S | E | ||
| N | O | I | R | J | L | O | O | P | E | R | A | S | ||
| D | O | N | A | D | A | M | S | R | O | G | E | R | S | |
| R | E | D | S | O | X | S | P | A | R | A | D | E | ||
| E | D | S | E | L | E | I | G | H | T | Y | S | I | X | |
| S | L | U | R | A | S | Y | O | U | ||||||
| T | N | T | E | E | N | Y | G | R | I | T | ||||
| W | O | U | L | D | Y | O | U | B | E | L | I | E | V | E |
| A | W | R | Y | M | O | N | A | R | Y | E | ||||
| B | R | U | S | H | R | O | S | A | ||||||
| S | H | O | E | P | H | O | N | E | S | N | I | F | F | |
| T | A | J | L | A | N | E | S | O | I | R | E | E | ||
| O | N | E | C | A | R | G | E | T | S | M | A | R | T | |
| R | O | T | A | T | E | E | L | O | A | T | M | E | ||
| M | I | S | T | E | R | V | F | W | L | E | I | S |
Don Adams died late on 9/25/2005, a Sunday. I read about it early Monday morning, realized DON ADAMS and GET SMART were the same length, and came up with SHOE PHONE to match the obvious EIGHTY SIX, plus the 15 WOULD YOU BELIEVE to round it out.
Since it's hard to predict if Will's going to like a tribute puzzle, I contacted him before I constructed the puzzle. He liked the puzzle, so I finished it and sent it to him shortly after midnight that night. Will edited it immediately and it was fun exchanging back-and-forth emails as he did so. I'm sure that doesn't happen often! He caught that I had used OPRY in addition to OPERAS, so OPRY became AWRY. It ran the following Monday 10/3/2005.
| M | I | N | T | S | F | I | C | A | K | I | L | N | ||
| A | S | E | A | T | A | D | A | M | W | E | A | R | ||
| I | M | H | I | P | R | O | S | A | A | I | W | A | ||
| N | E | I | L | A | R | M | S | T | R | O | N | G | ||
| B | U | Y | S | A | A | R | H | S | T | |||||
| R | E | S | A | L | E | A | N | N | A | T | H | E | ||
| E | R | I | C | B | R | E | T | T | Y | O | N | |||
| W | A | L | K | E | D | O | N | T | H | E | M | O | O | N |
| A | S | H | L | I | S | A | S | A | N | T | I | |||
| R | E | O | B | E | T | Z | C | A | R | E | S | S | ||
| D | R | U | O | S | O | B | A | E | Z | |||||
| E | D | W | I | N | A | L | D | R | I | N | J | R | ||
| S | A | T | O | R | I | L | E | A | P | I | A | N | ||
| O | C | T | O | A | V | O | N | T | A | N | I | A | ||
| B | E | E | R | E | Y | E | D | E | N | O | L | S |
I was working on a different puzzle when I happened to notice that EDWIN ALDRIN JR was the same length as NEIL ARMSTRONG. Of course, that meant I had a nice theme. I toyed with a bunch of connectors but WALKED ON THE MOON was the most natural phrase that was good for cluing, and it was a 15 to boot. I tried hard to get MICHAEL and COLLINS in there as well (both 7's) but I just couldn't without screwing up the grid.
One of the down entries was I-EIGHTY ONE. I had other choices, but I liked it because of the improbable beginning of IEIG. Will agreed, writing "the entry I EIGHTY-ONE is really 'out there,' since the highway name would never be spelled out this way. But it's amusing and sort of fun as a novelty." Fortunately, it didn't start a trend of long spelled-out highway numbers.
Will accepted this puzzle about nine months before it ran and we discussed a specific date for it to run, the following July 20th. About three weeks before it ran, I dropped Will an email about it. Good thing as he had inadvertently filed it with the regular puzzles. Had it been missed, I would have had to wait another year.
| C | H | I | C | P | A | V | E | R | P | A | A | R | ||
| O | A | T | H | A | L | I | V | E | I | D | L | E | ||
| R | I | T | A | G | O | D | E | L | V | O | I | D | ||
| K | R | Y | P | T | O | N | I | S | O | T | O | P | E | |
| L | O | D | E | A | T | T | N | |||||||
| F | A | R | I | N | A | M | A | R | L | A | ||||
| A | L | E | N | E | D | I | C | K | C | L | A | R | K | |
| L | E | I | M | U | N | R | O | R | A | E | ||||
| K | E | N | T | S | T | A | T | E | J | E | R | R | Y | |
| R | O | A | D | S | R | I | N | S | E | S | ||||
| S | P | E | D | D | E | B | T | |||||||
| M | A | N | A | N | D | S | U | P | E | R | M | A | N | |
| J | O | L | T | E | X | C | E | L | E | L | L | A | ||
| O | L | E | O | R | I | A | T | A | E | L | I | S | ||
| E | T | O | N | D | I | T | S | Y | S | E | T | H |
This inspiration for this puzzle was noticing that KRYPTON ISOTOPE and MAN AND SUPERMAN were the same length. I know, I know. How does one happen to notice such things? Honestly, I have no idea, but I'd seen MAN AND SUPERMAN on Broadway (amazing play, but rather long) and had been on my theme inspiration list — I thought it would be fun to put it in a puzzle related to Superman. Once I had those two entries, it wasn't hard to find the other two. There's no revealing comment on the clue for MAN AND SUPERMAN because I wanted people to find CLARK KENT hiding in plain sight.
Notice the theme word alternates between the beginning and ends of the theme entries. None of the theme words are used with their "proper" meanings in the theme entries — e.g., CLARK is used as a last name, not a first name. Also, it was important for me to not use a person's name for the KENT entry since I was using one for the CLARK entry and didn't want two of the four theme entries to be similar in a second way. If that was the case, somebody who got those two theme entries first might be mislead to think that all four theme entries were going to be people's names.
| S | A | H | I | B | O | P | E | R | A | B | A | R | ||
| A | M | I | N | O | W | A | L | T | S | O | N | O | ||
| P | I | C | K | Y | P | I | C | K | E | T | N | I | B | |
| C | E | N | T | S | A | U | N | T | Y | |||||
| R | A | P | S | O | N | G | S | L | I | B | Y | A | N | |
| E | R | U | P | T | S | C | A | R | I | B | ||||
| S | T | P | A | T | B | O | O | Z | E | O | O | F | ||
| T | O | P | S | S | A | R | G | E | E | N | T | R | ||
| S | O | Y | B | A | R | B | S | P | E | N | T | A | ||
| P | U | L | S | E | H | I | R | E | O | N | ||||
| T | A | U | R | U | S | A | N | A | L | Y | T | I | C | |
| A | P | P | L | E | E | R | O | D | E | |||||
| L | A | P | J | U | N | K | Y | J | U | N | K | E | T | |
| I | R | E | A | N | G | I | E | P | I | A | N | O | ||
| A | T | T | Y | A | R | N | S | S | A | N | D | Y |
| R | O | B | T | P | A | L | E | U | P | F | O | R | ||
| U | T | A | H | E | N | I | D | H | U | R | O | N | ||
| T | O | T | E | T | U | T | U | A | L | O | H | A | ||
| H | O | T | D | W | I | T | H | C | S | U | P | |||
| A | L | L | S | E | T | O | I | L | M | I | A | |||
| N | E | E | E | I | D | E | R | S | T | E | R | R | ||
| N | S | C | N | O | U | N | A | V | A | S | T | |||
| R | A | I | N | C | S | A | N | D | D | S | ||||
| G | E | E | S | E | O | L | A | V | U | S | D | |||
| T | R | E | K | D | E | R | I | V | E | R | O | O | ||
| O | A | K | S | O | X | I | N | T | E | R | N | |||
| D | C | C | H | E | R | S | T | R | U | C | K | |||
| T | W | E | E | T | A | L | I | T | E | P | E | E | ||
| N | O | V | A | E | L | A | N | A | A | T | R | Y | ||
| T | O | E | R | R | E | N | G | R | T | O | Y | S |
This puzzle is probably my favorite NYT crossword, with the double rebus. The puzzle came out during the annual convention of the National Puzzlers' League, in Boston that year.
On Wednesday, some krewe members happened to have a discussion about rebus puzzles during a long T ride, and one guy was very adamant that rebus cells should be symmetrically placed, that not doing made for a flawed puzzle. It so happened that I knew this puzzle was running the next day. Back then, constructors rarely knew when their puzzles were going to run in advance, but Will had mentioned it to me for some reason. But I kept my mouth shut anyway and just commented that there are good reasons sometimes.
Thursday afternoon, the adamant guy came up to me and told me I was right and that he had really enjoyed the puzzle. Great feeling.
| T | V | A | F | R | I | A | R | S | S | P | C | A | F | A | B | L | E | |||
| V | I | C | L | A | N | D | H | O | M | O | O | N | A | F | T | E | R | |||
| S | S | T | I | N | L | I | E | U | A | L | M | S | D | E | W | A | R | |||
| T | H | I | R | T | E | E | N | A | N | G | R | Y | M | E | N | W | E | G | O | |
| A | N | N | O | E | T | S | D | A | T | O | L | E | B | L | U | R | ||||
| R | U | G | B | Y | C | L | U | E | I | N | P | E | E | V | E | S | ||||
| B | A | N | G | T | H | E | D | R | U | M | F | A | S | T | E | R | ||||
| S | M | U | Y | A | H | O | O | S | M | A | L | L | E | T | ||||||
| H | I | N | D | C | A | L | S | E | P | N | O | I | E | M | S | |||||
| O | S | B | O | U | R | N | E | S | X | J | S | E | R | A | T | O | ||||
| T | H | E | G | R | E | A | T | E | S | T | S | H | O | W | O | N | M | A | R | S |
| S | A | N | D | L | T | O | R | U | N | A | N | G | E | L | I | C | ||||
| P | T | A | I | D | A | S | A | D | E | S | S | N | O | V | A | |||||
| Y | E | M | E | N | I | I | T | R | I | E | D | X | E | R | ||||||
| S | L | E | E | P | I | N | G | I | N | S | E | A | T | T | L | E | ||||
| C | H | E | V | R | E | U | N | T | O | L | D | I | M | A | C | S | ||||
| R | A | B | E | L | I | L | A | R | I | M | O | S | I | S | L | E | ||||
| U | L | A | N | S | O | M | E | L | I | K | E | I | T | H | O | T | T | E | R | |
| T | A | N | I | A | T | E | R | I | I | N | A | T | U | B | H | A | I | |||
| C | L | O | N | E | A | N | N | A | N | O | T | O | N | E | M | T | A | |||
| H | A | N | G | S | S | T | E | N | G | L | A | S | S | Y | A | S | L |
| R | E | B | A | A | D | M | A | N | M | O | L | S | ||
| I | C | O | N | D | O | O | Z | Y | A | R | A | T | ||
| B | O | B | K | E | E | S | H | A | N | R | A | R | E | |
| B | L | T | S | A | L | Y | S | T | E | R | ||||
| A | S | Y | E | T | O | W | E | A | B | O | D | E | ||
| C | A | P | T | A | I | N | K | A | N | G | A | R | O | O |
| L | U | I | S | R | E | S | A | R | R | |||||
| U | R | N | F | I | G | M | C | A | F | O | P | |||
| T | I | S | A | A | H | O | E | N | O | |||||
| C | L | O | W | N | H | A | L | L | O | F | F | A | M | E |
| Z | A | X | I | S | U | L | T | E | F | R | E | M | ||
| E | B | B | S | C | R | O | O | U | R | S | ||||
| C | R | I | T | H | O | W | D | Y | D | O | O | D | Y | |
| H | E | R | E | A | R | I | S | E | A | M | O | S | ||
| S | A | D | R | N | A | N | T | Z | D | E | A | L |
| A | S | P | I | C | D | R | O | S | S | S | C | H | W | A | S | C | A | R | ||||
| S | C | U | B | A | E | E | R | I | E | E | I | D | E | R | S | W | A | N | E | |||
| H | A | L | E | S | A | M | I | G | A | P | A | T | R | O | N | H | T | T | P | |||
| A | L | L | T | H | E | R | I | G | H | T | M | O | O | V | E | S | D | A | N | I | O | |
| R | I | O | T | H | X | E | B | A | Y | E | X | O | T | I | C | S | ||||||
| P | A | N | A | C | H | E | D | E | O | S | H | A | E | L | A | P | S | E | ||||
| D | R | E | A | M | T | L | I | S | T | E | D | N | I | B | ||||||||
| T | H | E | P | U | R | R | F | E | C | T | S | T | O | R | M | A | N | O | D | A | L | |
| A | I | D | T | A | C | H | M | E | L | V | I | N | G | U | I | D | E | |||||
| G | E | O | R | G | E | S | H | I | M | T | I | E | R | E | D | T | R | I | O | |||
| I | S | N | T | N | E | R | F | E | A | U | B | E | E | N | ||||||||
| H | I | S | S | T | O | R | Y | O | F | T | H | E | W | O | R | L | D | P | A | R | T | I |
| A | M | O | K | R | E | E | A | X | O | N | S | E | G | A | ||||||||
| L | A | D | Y | M | A | S | C | O | T | P | O | E | T | S | A | B | I | N | E | |||
| A | R | A | B | S | T | O | R | A | H | S | S | T | E | P | R | E | A | |||||
| L | I | S | Z | T | S | R | O | S | I | E | T | H | E | R | I | B | B | I | T | E | R | |
| Z | A | P | N | O | I | S | E | S | N | A | P | L | E | S | ||||||||
| Z | S | A | Z | S | A | O | K | S | S | A | P | S | E | V | E | R | E | R | ||||
| Y | E | N | N | I | N | G | L | A | R | A | J | Q | A | E | X | E | ||||||
| D | A | N | E | S | R | E | B | E | L | W | I | T | H | O | U | T | A | C | A | W | S | |
| E | M | U | S | V | E | R | O | N | A | S | T | A | K | E | N | O | L | I | E | |||
| C | E | L | S | S | E | L | D | O | M | T | O | S | E | A | T | H | E | F | T | |||
| O | R | S | O | D | E | S | S | A | S | N | A | R | K | S | O | R | E | S |
| R | A | P | S | L | A | Y | S | S | T | E | I | N | ||
| A | C | E | T | O | S | E | A | I | G | L | O | O | ||
| L | T | R | A | C | T | A | S | L | I | K | U | D | ||
| S | U | I | T | Y | O | U | R | S | E | L | F | |||
| T | A | S | K | S | D | O | E | R | S | C | N | N | ||
| O | T | H | O | R | E | F | R | Y | Z | H | O | U | ||
| N | E | A | B | E | N | T | B | O | A | S | T | |||
| B | A | R | S | T | H | E | D | O | O | R | ||||
| A | A | L | T | O | E | R | I | N | L | A | W | |||
| K | I | E | V | S | O | M | N | I | P | E | L | E | ||
| A | R | S | S | O | D | O | I | A | I | M | E | E | ||
| B | U | S | I | N | E | S | S | C | A | R | D | |||
| A | T | A | R | I | S | K | E | I | N | G | T | O | ||
| D | I | G | I | N | T | E | L | L | A | N | E | U | ||
| Z | E | R | O | G | S | Y | S | O | P | E | D | T |
| N | A | A | C | P | E | M | M | A | D | O | O | R | ||
| O | C | C | U | R | M | O | A | T | A | N | N | E | ||
| T | H | R | E | E | R | I | N | G | C | I | R | C | U | S |
| E | Y | E | P | O | G | O | H | O | N | E | S | T | ||
| F | A | I | R | F | I | N | ||||||||
| J | E | R | R | Y | L | E | W | I | S | L | A | M | A | |
| A | L | I | A | S | I | D | O | A | V | I | D | |||
| N | O | D | S | F | E | L | O | N | B | E | A | M | ||
| E | P | E | E | A | D | M | N | O | R | M | A | |||
| T | E | R | R | D | E | A | N | M | A | R | T | I | N | |
| P | E | N | E | A | T | S | ||||||||
| A | N | G | O | R | A | M | E | N | U | J | A | I | ||
| H | O | L | L | Y | W | O | O | D | O | R | B | U | S | T |
| O | P | E | D | A | L | O | E | A | O | R | T | A | ||
| Y | E | N | S | Y | A | R | D | L | O | Y | A | L |
| S | A | L | S | A | I | R | I | S | S | W | A | P | ||
| A | V | A | I | L | S | I | L | K | L | A | C | E | ||
| D | O | U | B | L | E | S | O | L | I | T | A | I | R | E |
| E | N | D | T | A | U | T | P | U | T | T | E | R | ||
| L | O | S | E | F | O | R | E | |||||||
| S | M | A | L | L | E | R | H | A | L | F | P | T | A | |
| N | O | M | A | D | O | D | E | W | O | E | S | |||
| A | T | O | M | G | A | P | E | S | H | U | R | T | ||
| K | O | N | A | R | O | E | R | I | N | S | E | |||
| E | R | G | R | A | N | D | O | M | O | R | D | E | R | |
| B | O | N | E | T | S | A | R | |||||||
| R | O | T | U | N | D | N | O | R | M | R | C | A | ||
| U | N | B | I | A | S | E | D | O | P | I | N | I | O | N |
| I | C | A | L | O | P | A | L | N | I | T | R | O | ||
| N | E | R | D | N | I | K | E | G | L | E | N | N |
Although this wasn't my first published, puzzle, it was my first NYT crossword. It was also the my first submission to the Times, so it was pretty nice to get an email from Will saying he liked it but wanted a change. Would I do that? Of course I would!
In the process, Will asked for Monday cluing, so I kept the clues pretty easy. Still, Will changed almost half the clues. I later learned that wasn't bad for a debut puzzle and I got much better at both the NYT style and difficulty.
My favorite entry: MSRP, which had not appeared before, and has since appeared 16 times. MSRP wasn't in any of my databases and the only M??P words were the weak MNOP and the awful MUMP. (Later, I learned Merl Reagle had used MSRP earlier, and ME UP, as in ["Beam __, Scottie!"] is another option.)