Jazzy

The “aha” moment upon discovering that the openings of the wormholes (STAR, COMET, and NOVA) were not only complete words in their own right, but also all clever nods to the outer space theme of this puzzle…. that sent me to the moon! Congratulations, Kareem!

I woke up today to solve Scott & Katie’s pun-tastic puzzle, which totally made my morning. Then, I read the constructor notes, which totally made my YEAR! Thank you, Scott, for the shout-out. It was such an honor to meet you and so many other brilliant constructors at the ACPT this year. I was even inspired to start constructing puzzles myself! If I’m ever lucky enough to publish one here, you will be the first to receive a shout-out. See you all next April!

As a current ELI, I had never heard of bladderball. Filled it in with crosses, then had a huge DUH, AHA MOMENT! Read a fascinating wikipedia article on the subject (including failed attempts to resurrect the tradition): <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladderball" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladderball</a> LOOKIE HERE, I'm graduating this May and even after 6 years at Yale, I'm still learning new things about its history. Pretty cool! Thanks Jacob for an excellent Friday. It was KINDASORTA brilliant!

Great first puzzle, Caroline! It was a pleasure meeting you at ACPT this weekend. Big congratulations on your debut!