Stacey Yaruss McCullough author page
1 puzzle by Stacey Yaruss McCullough
with Constructor comments
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In my Constructor Notes over at the NYTimes today, I talked a bit about me and my constructing story. Here, I'm glad to have the room to add a little more.
Back in college, there was an annual, massive, 24-hour scavenger hunt. It was my junior year when I first joined in, and one of the items was that day's NYTimes crossword, completed correctly. None of us were crossword mavens (yet!), it was a Sunday in the waning years of the Maleska era, and looking up answers online wasn't a thing. After my team filled in what we could, we were still staring down a half-empty puzzle. As we considered what to do, we kept looking for other items from the list, one of which was an empty six-gallon bottle. A teammate had one, but full of cheap wine. So, we did the only logical thing. We set up on the steps of the campus's main green with the Sunday magazine, cracked open the bottle, and offered passers-by a Dixie cup of wine for each answer. Soon, the bottle was empty and the puzzle was full.
Like that scavenger hunt, creating this puzzle was a team effort for sure. Many of you reading have written these, so you know it's not supposed to be just a list of thanks. But I'm really struck by the generosity of the construction community, so I can't help myself. I started out on Eric Agard's Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory on Facebook. There, I found lots of great advice from helpful people, free Zoom intro sessions, and ultimately, my amazing mentor — the incomparable Matthew Stock.
I couldn't have made this puzzle without Jesse Goldberg's wonderful, free Crosserville, and Jesse is incredibly responsive and thoughtful about its development. Likewise, I use and and hugely appreciate Brooke Husic's and Enrique Henestroza Anguiano's free spread the word(list). Since joining the Crosscord Discord, I've gotten lots of smart input from folks there, too. The NYTimes team via Christina Iverson were great to work with, and helped shape the puzzle in multiple ways.
There's a theme here, and it's that the crossword construction community is remarkably supportive of new constructors, and I'm so appreciative.
(And yes, our team did win the scavenger hunt that year. And the next year, too.)