Rows Garden 86 Harder — Solution
Rows Garden 86 Easier — Solution
Thanks for all the comments on last week’s puzzle. I did promise a short write-up regarding it, so here goes, after the obligatory spoiler-space.
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I’ve had the idea of doing numbers in a grid for a while now. I quickly found it’s much more daunting of a task than in a standard crossword. There, each numeral can be crossed individually; in a Rows Garden, however, those numerals need to be crossed in tandem that makes a six-character word, and ideally that number should not be the same as the number in the Row entry. Originally I thought that having one set of numbers would be cool (something like 21 JUMP STREET), but the more I thought about it the more I was sure that a) I wanted the numbers to be in the top Row and b) if possible, I wanted two sets of numbers in the entry. The reasoning there is that for the solver, I wanted some sort of confirmation that the idea of numbers was correct. Only one digit in the grid may seem like an outlier; this way it elevates the concept into a quasi-theme.
This turned out to be a tough task indeed. So tough that I nearly abandoned it, because I was having enough trouble coming up with 2-numeral/4-letter blooms that would be feasible options. Then my brain stumbled across ADAM-12, and then 21 M —, and from there I was grateful to find that 21 MEANS 21 was utterly perfect. I like the phrase itself and it’s certainly familiar to me, though I feared it may be an unknown for some solvers. But what was great was that both sets of numbered blooms offered feasible crossings — as ADAM-12 and 12-STEP evinced — and I was off. And I wanted that ADAM-12 clue to be extremely precise (which explains the addition of Martin Milner in the clue) to add another level of confirmation for the solver that numbers were a reality. Of course, if you’re like me and were born after the series run of ADAM-12 had long ended, no amount of clue would have helped there! But I think it’s at least familiar enough to be inferred, and it sounds like most solvers found the clue accommodating.
As an additional side note, this would have run a week earlier, when I had SENATE PAGE in there originally at B2, but I had stupidly made an error in writing out the entry, and had it as SENATTE PAGE, and it was unfixable. So I put the plan on ice for a week, found GOLDEN GATE PARK, and was off to the races. From there on out it was business as usual, but overall I was very happy with the puzzle. Thanks to those who offered their comments, and expect more genre-bending puzzles in the future.
For this week, however, it’s a quaint old-fashioned Rows Garden. No tricks up my sleeve this week, though there may be some misdirection in the clues — you’ve been warned!
