Sarah Sinclair author page
5 puzzles by Sarah Sinclair
with Jeff Chen comments
| Total | Debut | Latest | Collabs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10/3/2022 | 10/31/2024 | 4 |
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Rebus | Scrab | Debut | Fresh |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1.55 | 23 | 71% |
Sarah Sinclair is a Product Manager at Microsoft living in Seattle, WA. She loves puzzles and crafts of all kinds and has published a variety of NYT-themed knitting patterns on Ravelry!
| S | L | E | D | F | O | M | E | N | T | B | I | T | ||
| H | A | L | E | O | L | I | V | E | R | A | C | E | ||
| O | B | V | S | G | E | N | E | V | A | B | A | A | ||
| P | R | I | D | T | H | C | R | E | S | C | E | N | T | |
| P | A | R | A | D | O | X | E | S | H | O | R | S | E | |
| E | T | A | B | R | A | H | U | E | Y | |||||
| M | A | N | C | H | A | C | O | T | E | |||||
| M | O | N | S | T | E | R | M | A | S | H | ||||
| R | I | N | K | O | R | D | O | N | T | |||||
| C | E | C | E | E | N | D | D | I | P | |||||
| A | O | R | T | A | M | A | N | G | O | N | A | D | E | |
| P | R | O | S | S | B | A | R | P | R | O | P | E | R | |
| O | D | E | K | E | N | O | B | I | W | H | A | M | ||
| T | E | N | T | R | E | M | O | R | A | N | T | I | ||
| E | R | S | O | N | T | A | P | E | Y | E | E | T |
| M | P | G | C | A | T | S | P | A | T | H | E | |||
| A | R | E | S | F | L | A | W | E | D | O | O | P | ||
| T | O | N | Y | S | O | P | R | A | N | O | E | T | A | |
| T | B | O | N | E | H | T | T | P | P | H | D | |||
| H | O | V | A | D | A | A | B | R | O | A | D | |||
| E | N | I | G | M | A | P | A | L | O | A | L | T | O | |
| W | O | A | H | M | A | I | L | H | I | D | E | S | ||
| E | V | E | N | T | E | N | O | R | ||||||
| A | T | A | R | I | T | A | C | O | I | O | T | A | ||
| R | O | C | K | B | A | S | S | P | R | E | F | E | R | |
| T | O | R | I | E | S | S | E | A | F | A | M | |||
| C | O | N | T | H | A | N | N | O | R | M | S | |||
| S | U | B | C | H | O | R | A | L | G | R | O | U | P | |
| P | T | A | U | M | P | I | R | E | C | A | S | A | ||
| Y | E | T | B | A | S | A | L | T | D | A | N |
| C | S | I | L | A | P | C | |||||||||
| C | R | E | L | L | L | I | L | A | |||||||
| S | R | V | E | I | L | A | D | I | E | U | |||||
| F | A | T | E | R | N | I | T | Y | C | R | U | S | |||
| W | I | R | S | I | P | O | G | O | B | R | O | K | |||
| O | Z | E | O | R | S | O | P | R | E | ||||||
| P | Z | Z | A | T | O | P | P | I | N | G | E | T | T | ||
| P | E | D | I | I | G | O | T | D | I | B | |||||
| M | D | S | T | A | I | N | F | L | E | A | |||||
| R | R | E | S | T | U | F | F | E | D | C | R | U | S | ||
| L | R | A | T | A | R | O | E | R | I | ||||||
| S | U | C | C | O | S | D | A | S | L | E | A | K | |||
| T | R | O | B | R | U | M | O | R | M | I | L | L | |||
| A | U | E | L | A | C | R | E | A | K | E | |||||
| C | R | I | S | O | K | A | Y | E | |||||||
| O | E | P | R | I | D | E |
Sarah Sinclair, a fellow Seattleite! We've never met in person, since we first communicated during covid, but one of these days, we'll make it happen. (Hopefully my covid-induced hermitage ends at some point in the near future.) I was fascinated by her knitting habit, and she was kind enough to make my wife (a NYT games fanatic) a Wordle beanie! It's hard to find presents for Jill, so it was neat to see her face light up that Christmas morning. Thanks again, Sarah!
And Paolo! Not only is he the newly-crowned 2024 ACPT champion, but he's the editor of LinkedIn's new games offerings. I'm a big fan of Pinpoint. All his hard work has led to so many well-deserved achievements.
I love staring at constructions that I can't immediately figure out. My scalp sure got a head-scratching workout today, wondering how the heck Paolo and Sarah made this happen. Some of it is straightforward — the horizontal and vertical double-rebuses can easily be simulated in crossword software. But those diagonals ... I couldn't see a way to emulate what was going on, at least without writing custom filling script. Well beyond my pay grade.
Some solvers hate rebuses, and I'm sure they'll be flaming today. I enjoy a rebus every once in a while, especially when it does something different.
I would have loved if the "crusts" were synonyms of "crust," or maybe double-letter rebuses like PPAANNKKO and TTHHIICCKK and UUPPEEEERR. Some sort of crusty bite for this crusty guy would have given the solve extra chew. Still, the evocative grid art and the wildly creative thinking makes this memorable.
P.S. Try out Squeezy, the new word game Jim and I designed! We announced a partnership with Hey Good Game just yesterday.
| R | C | A | H | E | R | O | N | I | T | S | I | N | ||
| P | U | S | H | O | V | E | R | S | N | O | O | N | E | |
| G | R | E | A | T | I | D | E | A | D | E | F | E | R | |
| S | T | A | R | W | A | R | S | P | E | L | T | E | D | |
| L | I | N | E | B | E | B | O | L | D | |||||
| T | U | B | E | R | W | E | R | E | T | O | A | S | T | |
| E | N | A | M | E | L | N | A | V | P | U | P | A | ||
| A | S | L | S | E | T | T | E | E | S | N | A | G | ||
| S | U | L | A | D | R | E | S | T | U | C | C | O | ||
| E | N | E | M | Y | T | U | R | F | A | S | H | E | N | |
| G | R | I | E | V | E | R | A | R | E | |||||
| C | H | I | L | L | S | D | I | R | T | R | O | A | D | |
| R | E | N | A | L | N | O | T | G | U | I | L | T | Y | |
| O | R | A | T | E | G | R | O | U | P | D | A | T | E | |
| P | O | S | E | D | O | A | S | E | S | F | A | D |
| B | E | L | B | E | R | G | S | A | C | U | T | E | ||
| E | M | U | I | D | A | H | O | M | A | T | E | Y | ||
| H | I | N | G | E | U | P | O | N | P | R | O | N | E | |
| E | G | G | O | N | S | I | P | G | P | A | ||||
| A | R | E | A | M | A | T | C | H | P | O | I | N | T | |
| D | E | A | D | M | A | N | D | E | B | A | T | E | ||
| S | E | T | A | I | O | L | I | D | A | N | S | E | ||
| T | I | N | D | E | R | D | R | Y | ||||||
| U | P | D | O | S | E | I | E | I | O | P | C | S | ||
| S | L | A | Y | E | R | N | O | S | W | E | A | T | ||
| B | U | M | B | L | E | B | E | E | S | I | N | T | O | |
| G | M | O | F | I | X | A | N | D | S | O | ||||
| A | S | I | A | N | D | A | T | I | N | G | A | P | P | |
| M | I | N | T | Y | E | L | E | C | T | N | A | T | ||
| A | N | G | S | T | S | T | A | K | E | T | W | O |
Things have changed since I was single. I thought being on half a dozen dating sites was extensive, but that would only cover a fraction of what's available today. I was on MATCH, and I get why TINDER is an appropriate name.
HINGE is … for swingers?
BUMBLE ... for those who don't know their way around the bedroom?
I'd be such a disaster as a single person today.
Even with the explosion of DATING APPs, it's amazing that there's a set of four that can be disguised at the start of phrases. I wouldn't have guessed this, what with so many titles like Plenty of Fish and Coffee Meets Bagel, along with intentional misspellings — what happened to the Es of Grindr and Happn?
Not only that but what others would work? I didn't dive in extensively for fear of what the Goog would serve me up, but only Clover would have worked, and that's not nearly as popular as the other four. A beautifully tight theme quartet.
MATCH POINT and BUMBLEBEES are great entries. TINDER DRY wasn't as fun as TINDER BOX, especially given today's accelerating wildfire issues. Although, there might have been a crossworld furor about the latter in a dating theme ... don't look it up on Urban Dictionary. Ahem.
I'm digging the recent trend of spicier Monday clues. EIEIO missing from TH_ L_TTL_ K_DS' S_NG! GHOST used in a modern sense — and relevant to the dating world. A great piece of trivia in scallops having up to 200 EYEs. This is not a puzzle from way back in my days of being single.
Such a solid debut puzzle. It's hard to dream up a fresh-feeling theme, and it's well-executed, especially considering the gridding difficulties imposed by the central nine-letter entry.