Aries Puzzles

ROWS GARDEN 81 — HARDER

ROWS GARDEN 81 — EASIER

Rows Garden 81 Harder — Solution

Rows Garden 81 Easier — Solution

I’ve been suffering from a little writer’s block lately; though I’ve been pleased with the Rows Gardens here, it’s more the themed crosswords that have been a little slower to come by lately. I’m working on my fifth crossword book, tentatively titled Crosswords for the Birds. Not surprisingly, all the puzzles have bird-related themes, and the first twenty grids came out great, really better than I expected considering my limited ornithological knowledge. For the last few weeks the theme ideas have been a little tough to come by. Luckily, I have enough on my hands that I can focus on other puzzles — cluing some of the bird puzzles, gridding others (including my “Twenty Under Thirty” submission) — that the time was filled in one way or another. And this weekend, I came up with a few new bird theme ideas, and the pattern continued today. So it appears the writer’s block has passed — whew!

Enjoy this puzzle; by next week, we’ll be half-way through 2012.

ROWS GARDEN 80 — HARDER

ROWS GARDEN 80 — EASIER

Rows Garden 80 Harder — Solution

Rows Garden 80 Easier — Solution

I did promise a short write-up regarding last week’s puzzle, so if you still haven’t solved #79 yet, a) SOLVE IT RIGHT NOW AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT, and b) skip the spoiler ahead. I repeat: there are major spoilers in the next paragraph.

MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT PUZZLE #79 BELOW!

SPOILER SPACE

SPOILER SPACE

Obviously the seed for #79 was ILL HAVE ANOTHER. I fancy myself a fan of horse racing and was especially excited for last Saturday’s Belmont, mostly to watch the climax of I’ll Have Another’s run at the Triple Crown. I was even considering putting a bet on the horse, but his odds were so short that it was hardly worth it (I believe he was 6-5 at one point). Considering both his Derby and Preakness wins were late comebacks, it seemed like the longer track at Belmont would perfectly suit the horse, as it’s designed to reward stamina and late speed. So I was confident in the horse’s ability, and felt good that the 34-year Triple Crown drought would end.

I usually start writing the grid on Tuesday or Wednesday of the week preceding, and I knew ILL HAVE ANOTHER was my seed. Surprisingly, it was not an easy entry to work around; those look like friendly letters from afar, but it was a struggle. I especially liked that the equally-equine DRESSAGE was under at C1, and HORSE TRADERS came later on. As of Friday morning, when I’m usually ready to clue the grid, I was all set.

And then the news came that ILL HAVE ANOTHER was scratched. I was disappointed first as a horse racing fan, because nothing but a Triple Crown chase could spark interest in a sport struggling to stay relevant. Then I realized my puzzle could be in jeopardy; I had figured that even if the horse lost, I could clue it as “Nth horse to lose the Belmont after winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown,” as there have been plenty of close calls since Affirmed won the Crown in 1978. But somehow I thought the scratch sort of negated the buzz leading up to the Belmont; ILL HAVE ANOTHER would seem belated in its “crossworthiness” and maybe not all that worthy of a puzzle inclusion to begin with.

Begrudgingly, I set out to edit the puzzle. Again, not an easy edit, even with only two rows being changed. OBAMACARE came out at Row A; ANGELS AND DEMONS was there in Row B, and there were a few more so-so entries. I didn’t love OBAMACARE due to its overtly political connotation (and negative connotation, to some), and then it was debuted by David Quarfoot in Saturday’s NYT themeless, which again was disappointing. And both the book and the film use an ampersand instead of “AND” in ANGELS AND DEMONS — a slight inelegance, but an inelegance nonetheless.

Thanks to test-solver Jon Delfin, I was convinced to go with my original draft. As it turned out, ILL HAVE ANOTHER’s scratch was newsworthy in a unique sense; the minor controversy became water-cooler talk (of course, the horse’s trainer was no doubt making the call for financial reasons, as the horse would have been worthless if it had suffered a fatal injury during the race). So, in the end, ILL HAVE ANOTHER avoided a scratch at AP.com, and I hope you enjoyed the puzzle. Feel free to voice your opinions of his “crossworthiness” in the comments.

ROWS GARDEN 79 — HARDER

ROWS GARDEN 79 — EASIER

Rows Garden 79 Harder — Solution

Rows Garden 79 Easier — Solution

Very fun, interesting weekend for me. I hosted a film festival on Thursday, which was a part of a weekend-long Sinclair Lewis celebration here in St. Cloud. The Nobel Prize-winning author was born and raised in Sauk Centre, about 45 minutes northwest of here, and with the University right here in town, it’s sort of the center of the Lewis world, academically-speaking. Every so often there are Lewis-related events happening, and I got a chance to showcase a rare intersection of interests I have: Sinclair Lewis and classic films. I read a good chunk of Lewis’ works during my college days and fancied myself an amateur Lewis scholar back then, and it finally paid off! Fun time, and it was held in the classic Paramount Theater in downtown St. Cloud, an old movie palace from the ’20s since restored to sublime beauty. Add the fact that I got to meet some interesting folks and the Twins won two out of three — can’t get much better than that!

Enjoy this week’s puzzle, and stop back next week for some more puzzling fun. There will be a short write-up of this puzzle, too — there was an interesting story of construction here, but I won’t divulge details lest I spoil the fun.