#crossword constructors

[todays-xkcd]

Also, we would really appreciate it if you could prominently refer to it as an 'eHit'.

Crossword Constructors [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Cueball is sitting at a table and typing on his laptop. White Hat and Hairbun are standing behind him and looking. The following is written above the characters:] Dear Ms. Swift, Mr. Sheeran, Ms. Minaj, Ms. Grande, and Mr. Weeknd, We are a group of crossword puzzle constructors, and we would like to suggest some titles for your future albums:

Aete

Eni

Oreta

Aroe

Oine

Aen

Enta

Aerae

[coquelicoq]

fuck even numbers. rotational symmetry kicking my ass

[pneumaticpresence]

"[C]rossword puzzle constructor," I found, was a compatible identity container with "anorexic." She has a discipline, I imagined people thinking, so she must be disciplined. […] I was using these highly impersonal labels to develop a personality. I was misrecognizing myself in their image.

The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan describes such scenes of misrecognition—scenes in which we feel the gap between who we are and who we want to be—as foundational to the development of the ego.

But his English translators always retain the French spelling of misrecognition (méconaissance) in his writings, because Lacan was playing with French to unmask this psychic truth. He understood "self-knowledge" (or, a pun on the French reflexive pronoun me and the French word for knowledge, conaissance) as the flip side of "misrecognition."

Méconaissance (misrecognition) = me-conaissance (self-knowledge). By this logic, there is no way to know the self outside of a tragicomic interplay between who we are and who we aren't, who we could be and how we feel. The anorexic, then, is just another person trying to be a better version of herself. That she risks death in so trying is the most disastrous paradox of the disease.

[…]

After spending the better half of a year in [recovery], I returned home to New York City, my recovery precarious but hard-won. I was learning to trust my body's hunger cues and to reimagine my days in terms of opportunities and responsibilities—relations with a syntax—not willfully overdetermined by food rules and restrictions. Nothing about life in recovery felt natural to me. My older sister and I even went to couples therapy to rediscover the cadences of our connection, which, like so much else, had been disarticulated by my eating disorder. I had to figure out who I was without anorexia—how I related to myself as a woman, as a student, as a body in space, to other women and to men, and even to crossword puzzles. I had to figure out that these relationships couldn't be "solved" but only developed and hewn through perpetual, ever-humbling misrecognitions.

—Anna Shechtman, The Riddles of the Sphinx: The Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle (2024)

[evannakita]

I made a crossword puzzle!

It's June 24, 2024, and I'm the constructor of today's daily crossword on Puzzmo! It's my first-ever published crossword, and I'm extremely excited for the public to check it out!

Below the cut, I've written out some fun tidbits about the puzzle and the process of making it. That being said, SPOILERS follow—only read further if you've already completed the puzzle!

Hi again, I hope you had a fun time solving the puzzle! I certainly had a fun time constructing it. I’m incredibly grateful to Brooke for organizing Puzzmo's Open Submission Week, for giving me a second chance to submit after the theme of my first submission wasn’t a good fit for Puzzmo, and for helping me throughout the process of theming, filling, cluing, and hinting.

This puzzle began with the idea of using a diagonal to spell out something that actually is diagonal. As a public transit enthusiast, I’d initially thought of [FUNICULAR]. But the idea quickly expanded with the decision to also include horizontal and vertical answers corresponding to horizontal and vertical things. And since [ELEVATOR] was by far my favorite possible vertical answer, that left [ESCALATOR] as the obvious choice for the diagonal. Initially, I’d planned [CONVEYOR] for the horizontal answer, but Brooke pointed out that conveyors typically aren’t used to carry people the way escalators and elevators do. The next option I proposed was [TRAVELATOR], but I ended up liking [CORRIDOR] more, because I wanted the puzzle to have diagonal symmetry if possible.

Already, I had a ton of constraints for filling the grid—each letter of [ESCALATOR] had to intersect not one but two other answers, which would have been tricky even before adding in two other theme answers and diagonal symmetry. So I ended up spending countless hours testing out possible grid layouts in order to try to get a good fill. At first my idea was for all three theme answers to intersect at the bottom right, but I chose the current layout to represent how escalators and elevators don’t actually go between the same two points, meaning that when a train station is designed around escalators; [ELEVATOR] users are forced to also use a [CORRIDOR] to cover the horizontal distance. (Here in NYC, that makes for inconvenient wheelchair access to the fancy new platforms at Grand Central Madison, and it also means the planned accessibility upgrades at the Broadway Junction subway transfer will be a massive undertaking.) I personally find designing efficient train station layouts to be a lot of fun, and so I greatly enjoy the game STATIONflow, and I thought it’d be appropriate to shout it out in this puzzle’s title!

I did end up eventually managing to get a fillable grid (thanks to Ingrid and Spread The Wordlist—oh hey, yet another thing Brooke deserves major kudos for!), but due to all my self-imposed restrictions I had very little flexibility in what the non-theme answers would be, meaning I was stuck with some tricky ones like [SIDE A] and [ALDIS]. But honestly, I think the limited flexibility made cluing more fun than it otherwise would have been, since I now had the challenge of finding fun clues for answers I didn’t pick. I got to revisit some happy memories in 4-Across and 18-Across, I got to shamelessly plug my DeviantArt in 11-Down, I got to shout out an incredible activist in 19-Across, and I got to be unreasonably proud of myself for coming up with 10-Across. Some of my original clues were too long and confusing for Puzzmo (I was slightly sad to shorten my original description of a [T BAR] as a “low-budget chairlift alternative that’s basically an anchor that hooks around your butt and pulls you up a hill”), but Brooke was a tremendous help with capturing the spirit of my clues in fewer letters. And a couple clues were straight-up Brooke’s ideas, including 1-Across, 5-Down, and notably 17-Down—I hadn’t heard of Ayra [STARR] before but her music is excellent and I am very glad to have learned about her through this.

Brooke was surprised I wanted to hint my own puzzle, and I get why—hints aren’t meant to be entertaining, and coming up with good ones can be quite challenging. (Shoutout to Matthew for being an absolute hinting MVP!) I actually quite enjoyed all the lexical games, though—the “mancala” anagram for [ALMANAC] was a very satisfying find, and I was quite proud of how my hint for the crossword staple at 27-Down was able to match the Minecraft theme of the clue. (Of course, the flipside was that some hints, like the one for [KORRA], had to jump through a lot of hoops to get to something coherent.)

I realize this is probably way longer than it needs to be, but making this puzzle was just such an experience. I’m absolutely going to keep making puzzles, and that’s all thanks to Brooke and Puzzmo.

[haymarketvtubestuff]

New year, hopefully the ability to afford a new me. I'm raising funds to further my medical transition (and reduce the risk of a family history of cancer, it turns out). The goal is steep but only because Texas hates trans folks. Thanks for reading.

[oneefin]

crosswords | prev | next

12 tone serial concerto

a cross-staff-word by onefin (me). this one is a bit spicy 🌶️ be warned

crosshare link: https://crosshare.org/crosswords/NYQo7TQnXbtb6ZIRUyl6/12-tone-serial-concerto

solution and constructor's notes below the break (spoilers!)

SOLUTION

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i made this crossword because one of my friends suggested that i write a 12-tone serial concerto, as a joke

i thought about it for a bit, and then wondered how possible it would be to make a convincing crossword fill that contains every solfege note exactly once.

i think other crossworders aren't as familiar with this because crosswords typically disallow two-letter words, but i have the names of all 12 solfege notes, including the pairs of names for enharmonic equivalents of accidentals, committed to memory:

the fill i came up with (the solution to the puzzle) was a 10x4 that looks like:

it definitely has problem points (looking at you, OLID), but i think it's shockingly functional given the restriction.

putting this together was an entirely manual process, but i did write a quick script to spit out all of the candidate 8-letter words that i could use. LITERATI is the one i went with, but as a bonus here's crossword clues for the others that i could reasonably have chosen (remember, the solfege notes have to all be different):

like a long, boring drive (in more than one sense?)

not quite fully uncommon

it's around 3 minutes and 45 seconds for the record holder (2 words)

get up after sleeping in too much (2 words)

hope you enjoyed it, despite the inelegancies!

[transmutationisms]

hey! i saw all the crossword stuff and wanted to ask if there are any other crosswords you like besides nyt/new yorker. thanks!

hi! so, the closest you'll get to nyt is the washington post and wall street journal puzzles; these are generally drawing from roughly the same knowledge base, though i find their clueing tends to be a bit straighter and less creative (new yorker's knowledge base skews a little more toward arts and academic theory, though this depends heavily on who the constructor is on any given day). the usatoday puzzle tends easy (meaning lots of straight clues; usually about the difficulty of an nyt monday) but it's also become much more interesting since erik agard took over as their puzzle editor: he's really pushed to move beyond the usual stodgy newspaper knowledge base, so although that puzzle doesn't scratch the same itch as, like, an nyt saturday, i do still really like it. i also love the black crossword, which is a free daily mini that places emphasis on terms and clues from across the black diaspora, and there are some free online puzzles that are pretty good: brendan emmett quigley posts a themeless one on mondays and a themed one on thursdays, and there's merl reagle's archive, which posts a sunday puzzle once a week.

but! puzzle preferences are highly individual so it's always worth poking around to see what you like. this is a good list of puzzles you can try out; you might also find that you really like certain constructors, and just follow their work (i love erik agard and anna shechtman, eg).

[foegs]

crossword constructor carl larson I am your biggest fan

[pumpkinland]

Robin Stears is like my favorite crossword constructor no one understands me

[acommonrose]

Not to be a crossword shill blog, but there's a cool thing I'm a part of, so:

Puzzmo is basically trying to be a digital version of a newspaper's puzzle page. It has a bunch of little games, but the thing I've been involved with is a daily midi-sized crossword. I'm on the crossword constructing/editing/test solving team, and we're trying really hard to make really fun puzzles that highlight individual constructors' voices and interests. (They also have added hints if you want to make them a little easier.)

They're still in the soft launch period right now, so they're releasing a few hundred keys everyday. (You have to solve a puzzle to get in.) If you can get in soon, I do have a puzzle running there in a little over a week, and hopefully I'll have more running after they fully open the site in a month or two.

[coquelicoq]

guess whose former coworker emailed today asking if she could have a crossword for free for an upcoming conference in the coworker's new field? and guess who is considering it? no one tell my stepdad.

told my stepdad that i had been commissioned to write a crossword for the wedding of someone i don't know and he got SO excited about it. this could be huge! you should make crosswords for corporate retreats!! says he, attempting to suck all the fun and fulfillment out of my main creative hobby.

[luulapants]

My guess for what Misha Collins didn't want to be at'ed about while on vacay is today's (wed 6.14.23) horny nyt crossword puzzle that I would bet money was constructed by an SPN fan.

(cross word spoilers below)

If it were just that he's the answer to 25 down that would be one thing ("Supernatural" actor Collins / Misha), but the S of Misha goes on to make smut across. The leftmost down answers (1, 25) read "lick Misha", which could be coincidence, but is also hilarious. 32 down (Possessive type? / Demon) is very SPN. There's a clue about lurkers. There are some more general clues that normally wouldn't read "I would bet money the constructor has read fic", but given the above I'm getting some more subtle / general fandom pings on a couple of the other clues.

Anyway just going to laugh forever about the Misha/smut cross

I've been deleting asks about the Misha drama but honestly I want this one set on a pepe silva meme, printed, and framed on my wall

[hawkeyebj]

don’t think anyone loves alan alda as much as crossword constructors do

[haymarketvtubestuff]

Fuck it, we're kickstarting this.

[oneefin]

crosswords | prev | next

catch 22

a standard crossword by me

spacious grid today! it contains some niche video game trivia, fair warning. constructor's notes (spoilers) below the break.

try this on crosshare: https://crosshare.org/crosswords/F2XBAtXRvtUyD6X8RToR/catch-22

SPOILERS

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i trust that you did it because as usual i will not be posting the solution here! yay!

i feel like there must be so many ways to make a compelling crossword about the number 2. this is my entry to the vast ocean of possibilities. this grid spawned from noticing the similarity between the terms 2B2T and R2D2, then the grid shape solidified when i crossed them with TWICE TWICE. the mario maker troll level scene is awesome and it's like two layers deep of hyper niche

easter eggs! there's so many. these were all accidental but i liked them:

the pair of long answers on the left side THALAMI and AILERONS both come in twos. thematic!

the word TO appears exactly in the bottom right corner of the grid, which is a fun callback

also, so many answers about WATER! LTRS and DEW, which are laterally aligned in the middle, both have to do with water - the clue for ITSY is about water (which i called attention to in the clue) - and in a way WAVERED is about water if you read it hyper-literally (waves, as in the ocean?)

finally i'll note that in research, the term LTRS as an abbreviation of "liters" or "litres" doesn't actually HOLD WATER. although it's commonly used, the correct abbreviation has always been L and that's what you should be using. quite ironic for an answer about how much space water takes up

[pneumaticpresence]

[T]he history of the American crossword is white all the way down. Will Shortz believes that the first Black man to publish a crossword in the Times was Wesley Johnson in 1996. The first Black woman to publish a Times crossword was Soleil Saint-Cyr in 2021. […] Crosswords have always been understood, however subliminally, as a product of "white culture" in the US—a product of white culture that nonetheless passes itself off as the guardian of common knowledge and a test of racially unmarked intelligence.

[…] One cartoon from a 1924 issue of Judge magazine brings to the surface an otherwise latent symptom: the puzzle's function as a way of testing and restricting knowledge along racial lines. The cartoon features two minstrel figures, a man and woman in blackface. She says to him: "Man, you don't mean nothin' to me, youse just de black parts of a crossword puzzle, you is!" The cartoon plots the coordinates of racial difference along the crossword's black-and-white design: white squares are filled with all that is “meaningful" or worth knowing; black squares mean nothing. It's a rather neat metaphor for white supremacy. The white squares are where cultural relevance lies, but there could be no white squares (or shape to that relevance) if not for the buttressing black squares. That the cartoon is written in Black dialect—with words that, at the time, would never have been deemed "puzzle-worthy"—only emphasizes, again by way of metaphor, the crossword's historical project of legislating language's proper use by coding "good words" as "white" ones. Or more precisely, "good words" as "not Black" ones.

Words, per se, don't have identity politics. But when launched into circulation—By whom? In what context? With what intent?—they become load-bearing devices. They carry political implications, erecting borders that are inevitably fraught with the psychic and material baggage of identity. Some words carry this baggage in almost every context. […] [W]ords, and the images they conjure, fuel our attachments and aversions—our many misrecognitions. […]

There is…a startling similarity between the language used about crosswords in the earliest days of the "craze" and the way I now understand their relationship to my eating disorder. Judge magazine's racist crossword cartoon, for example, is surrounded by images and articles that present the 1920s fad for puzzles as a "vice." The crossword was a distraction from the home and from more serious forms of knowledge production and consumption. Americans—white Americans—were becoming crossword "addicts," unable to go about their day without dipping into the puzzle or rummaging through reference books. They could go without food but not without the crossword. This puzzle "dependency"—as it was hysterically construed—wasn't a simple proxy for alcoholism in the days of Temperance. There's an air of self congratulation circulating in these images: We’re addicted to knowledge. We can't help but test our intelligence every hour of the day. Put otherwise, the crossword was an ironic vice—both a vice and a sign of white virtue. Both a guilty pleasure and a symbol of supremacy.

A vice that is also a sign of white virtue: this is how anorexia circulates in the popular imagination, even though eating disorders affect men and women from all races and ethnicities at a similar rate. When, at fourteen, I misrecognized myself in the image of "the anorexic" and that of "the crossword constructor," I wasn't thinking about whiteness. I was trying to imagine a virtuous version of myself, and perhaps unsurprisingly, I internalized an ugly logic buried deep within both "vices": to be virtuous is to be self-controlled; to be self-controlled is to be white.

In her 2019 book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, Sabrina Strings describes the origins of this logic in the rise of the transatlantic slave trade and the spread of Protestantism. By the nineteenth century, she writes, these twinned phenomena produced a "coherent ideology" in the United States—a “synchronized repression of 'savage' blackness and the generation of disciplined whiteness." However noxious this ideology—and however much it informed my attraction to both anorexia and the crossword puzzle—neither the body nor language can ever truly be disciplined. Lacking nutrients, the anorexic brain suffers cognitive distortions, wresting from the anorexic the control she so desperately sought. The crossword puzzle unleashes the chaos of language, maximizing its polymorphic perversity through wordplay, just as it promises to rein language in— to make it neat, orderly, and gridded.

—Anna Shechtman, The Riddles of the Sphinx: The Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle (2024)