Joel Abrams

@Jack McCullough Or a PEON singing an ARIA while eating OLEO on NAAN? But at least we had a NENE sighting.

@Bill in Yokohama I enjoyed the constraints. In many ways, good crossword construction is already about working with a huge set of constraints — the grid, the theme, the difficulty of the clueing and the limits of vocabulary. So when a constructor takes on additional constraints, it’s a bravura performance, watching them do it with their eyes closed or one-handed.

@Andrei I feel like RHEA used to be much more common, but has recently been an endangered species.

I had KIDNEY for a while before realizing that that organ is shaped like a kidney beam, not a coffee bean.

@Edwin I have been struggling with related questions at work, and I wonder why it matters to us if AI is used? What made this puzzle fun for me was the inventiveness of the 10-4 concept, the cleverness of the clues and creativity of the fill. If AI had been able to do that, and it is a far way away from the first two, would I have enjoyed it less? On the other hand, crosssword constructors these days are using a wide variety of helping tools unavailable to constructors a generation ago: grid software, word lists, clue banks, databases of past puzzles, and online forums where they can consult other constructors. Do I enjoy the puzzles any less for these uses of software? I think part of the answer lies in the hype which makes us forget that LLMs are just software and not intelligence.

COFFEEMAKER stymied me for a good long time

@Ιασων I enjoyed this and was challenged but had a better time than my average. And I think that is fairly typical — each puzzle’s solve time is a combination of knowledge, skill, cleverness, experience, and caffeine level.

@Jeff B MD I’m surprised that wasn’t a debut. It was my favorite word in the puzzle

In 19th-century America, pudding also had a much broader meaning, until it got the disapproval of food reformers <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-backlash-against-mixed-foods-led-to-the-demise-of-a-classic-american-dish-86293" target="_blank">https://theconversation.com/a-backlash-against-mixed-foods-led-to-the-demise-of-a-classic-american-dish-86293</a>

@Jack McCullough That one got me too!

@Xword Junkie Yes, got a new PR bz a mile.

@Esmerelda and a three letter baseball player OTT to be easy to guess, too