Friday, 3/20/09

NYT 2:55 ... LAT 2:44 ... CS 1:49 ... CHE 2:48 ... WSJ 6:34 ... BEQ 3:41 ... MGWC

Incredibly cool grid by David Levinson Wilk in the NYT. I believe he ties the record for most 15-letter answers in a 15x15 crossword (that would be 10). Joon Pahk's CHE is much more wide-open, and somewhat more difficult, than usual.

3 comments:

Joon said...

it's more wide-open because we could only come up with three theme answers (that patrick liked). he was going to give up on the idea but i suggested that we could try a themeless-style grid because the theme was relatively unconstraining, and he agreed. it took a few passes to get a suitable grid (my first attempt was actually a 66-worder, but with several undesirable entries), but i'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

honestly, almost everything good about this puzzle is attributable to patrick, from the two best theme entries to the best fill word (MEH) to the best clue (proceed on foot?). i'm delighted to be able to ride his coattails to publication. it's kind of like doing a puzzle with peter gordon, except that the process takes weeks instead of days.

Dan said...

Thanks for the insight! I would think PB is the Vegas favorite to succeed Shortz some day...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the insight! I would think PB is the Vegas favorite to succeed Shortz some day...

Really? Can we place bets? Because I would go with BEQ.