At the Crossword Tournament in Brooklyn last winter I met Merl Reagle and bought his Sunday Crosswords Volume 14. His foreword (or rather 4-Wd.) concludes with the motto "My Guarantee—Twisted but Fair." Mr. Reagle lives up to that motto too. His creations are always fun.
But it's not just about fun. Fairness is critical in crosswords. It might seem overly picky but if I as a solver am going to invest a chunk of time, and for a Saturday puzzle it might take me a few chunks, then at least I want it to be fair.
The Saturday, May 10 puzzle by Karen M. Tracey (answers) reminded me of Mr. Reagle's slogan because it just manages to be fair for me. In fact, it nearly fit my personal definition of the perfect puzzle; one that on first glance seems completely impossible but gradually yields its secrets without having to resort to outside help. A secondary definition would be one that defeats me, but when I investigate the missing answers I realize I could have figured them out if I had thought a little harder. That's what happened today.
Ms. Tracey's puzzle was eminently doable, except for the bottom-left corner which tied me up in knots. "Work on it began in Rome in 1817." What an interesting clue! Most Roman multi-year accomplishments that come to mind began well before the 19th Century. What could it be? An opera maybe? Some famous painting? Nothing architectural, right? In fact it is architectural, just not Roman. Work on the ERIE CANAL began on July 4, 1817 at Rome, New York. The same clue without "in Rome" would have been much simpler. Dastardly.
That busy ditch combined with not knowing that "Hebrew or Phoenician" was CANAANITE doomed me.
Some favorite clues: "Make an impressive delivery" is ORATE. "Meat grinder" is MOLAR. "Top suit" is CEO. And for nostalgic reasons, I liked "Commodore competitor" as well. One of the very earliest personal computers was the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). It came out in 1977, well before the IBM PC that changed the world in 1981. My first computer was its biggest competitor, the TRS-80, made by Radio Shack, aka TANDY Corp.
