Leaping desert rodent

As usual, Karen M. Tracey constructed a puzzle that was utterly impossible for me to solve without consulting that interweb thingie (answers). I got off to a good start. I recently saw Pagliacci so I knew TONIO and the Thermians were memorable enough for me to recall GALAXY QUEST.

Like many Saturday puzzles, words were used in unusual ways. How does DUE mean "exactly"? The Space Needle is DUE west of here. Staunch wasn't meant to be read like a staunch supporter but like staunch the blood flow or STEM the tide. I thought that was "stanch" but what do I know? Monopoly subj. referred to the discipline, not the game; ECON. SHIATSU has been clued in the past as an acupuncture technique but this time it's an acupuncture alternative. It's a kind of massage that includes getting poked.

Then there's the usual Saturday assortment of things I didn't know or couldn't remember. That's a SABER SAW at the top and to the left is a JERBOA about to leap. KUDZU is an invasive Japanese flowering plant, a native of the pea family apparently.

Here are some clues I particularly liked: "Puffy hat wearer" is a wonderfully visual clue for BAKER. "Dawdling" is DILATORY — a great word. "Honors for top scorers" is OSCARS. I might quibble a little that the composer gets the Oscar and he or she is not always the one who then scores it for orchestra, but it's close enough and it's great to see the non-actors get their DUE for the collaborative effort that is filmmaking. "Possible result of a gunshot" didn't turn out to be gory at all. It's START.

Why is a "much-repeated part of the binary code" ZERO? Beats me, but there are only two parts and the other part doesn't have enough letters. There's no reason to believe either part is more repeated than the other. I have no idea what SROS has to do with shared-bath accommodations but I hope someone will enlighten me. Note, this puzzle uses each letter at least once — it's a pangram.

Did you finally finish last weekend's diagramless? I asked the constructor Mike Nothnagel if he'd talk about how he approached this odd puzzle form. Here's his reply:

This puzzle was always going to be a diagramless. Once I had come up with the theme idea, I started brainstorming theme entry ideas. The list grew fairly quickly, and I realized that I could probably fit a few more in a 17x than in a 15x.

I went through a number of possible sets of entries using the "silent partner" words (MAJORITY, MOVIE, etc.). After pairing MAJORITY LEADER with SILENT PARTNERS (MAJORITY, as the longest "partner", seemed the logical choice to use in a 14-letter theme entry), I tried to get the rest of the theme entries somewhere in the 8-to-11-letter range, to make it as feasible as possible to get about 7 theme entries in total.

The 14-letter theme entries pretty much dictated that I use regular crossword symmetry, but I probably would have done it anyway.

(So far, this isn't much different than what I'd do for a regular themed crossword, for what it's worth.)

Knowing that half of the fun of a diagramless is the weird grid shape, I tried to place the theme entries so that the grid would take a lot of twists and turns. The two 14-letter theme entries created the large black areas in the NW and SE automatically, so I started working along that diagonal, from the center outward. You have much more flexibility along the edges of a diagramless, so the center was the place to get a good start.

At the same time, I try to create a diagramless grid so it doesn't take a solver (who isn't using the starting hint) forever to feel confident about the placement of the entries in the grid. (With this grid, Row 5 is the first row that spans the entire width, which I think is reasonable.) I've done other diagramlesses where you rough out almost the entire top half of the puzzle before you can "officially" start filling in the grid -- those are a lot of fun to do, but I think it takes a more deft touch to help the solver get that far without giving up.

After filling in the center of the grid, I tried a few possibilities for the rest of the black squares, until I had something that was (a) fillable and (b) an interesting shape. Little sections that jut out towards the edge seemed to work well in this case, so I put one or two theme entries into each little clump and did the usual trial-and-error filling.

Here is where the not-so-exciting part of finishing the fill comes in, complete with all the usual stuff that goes along with trying to get a nice grid. Although, it was definitely a help to be able to stick in another black square when it was necessary and not really be too worried about it.

Cluing was pretty standard stuff. It seems that diagramlesses are aimed at about a Tuesday-Wednesday level (Will, correct me if I'm wrong!), so that's what I try to go for.  I am definitely conscious of making the first half-dozen or so clues in each direction a bit on the easy side, if possible. I think you want to give the solver enough of a toehold so they can get to that "aha" moment where they can connect all the little pieces they've been sketching out. Then, you can get a bit trickier for the rest of the grid.

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate the insight.

Comments

[Orange]

Jim, SROS are single-room occupancy hotels, also known as transient hotels. Bathroom's down the hall to your right.

Mike, thanks for the "Anatomy of a Diagramless" writeup. It doesn't feel to me like most diagramless constructors aim to make it easy to identify the beginning layout within the first five rows. Your puzzle was a treat in that regard.

[Jag]

Re: Diagramless, my biggest problem is always about how many black squares to enter after 1 Across. So you check the downs and figure it out.

But in this puzzle, the Hoyt (from Axton?) killed me. Had to google that to keep moving and then the rest fell smoothly.

Bad, bad Nothnagel!

:-)

[CrossEyedBear]

I'm always happy when I find out I'm smarter than JimH. It took a while but I finished it without Googling. I wasn't 100% sure of my answers but my grid matches yours so I hope that means we're both right.

This is my kind of puzzle, one that starts slow but finally yields. Thank you Karen Tracey.

[Wendy Laubach]

Exactly: it fights back but finally yields: very, very nice. I had to kind of close my eyes and hope for the best with "JERBOA," which I got strictly through crosses. Ditto "TONIO," which I certainly didn't know, but it seemed to fit. Actually, ditto at least ten other answers. I had "MARS ATTACKS" in place of "GALAXY QUEST" for the longest time, but man, it just didn't fit ANYTHING on the crosses. Except "AIDA," in place of which, if you can believe it, I tried "ABBA" first. Wasn't there an Abba musical, or something? The crossing "B" led me on a desperate memory search for popes who might have been named ABRAM XI, or something, despite deep misgivings. All in all, I probably tried 2 or 3 things for every answer before I finally beat this thing. Just a terrific puzzle.

[joon]

there was an abba musical. it was called "mamma mia." i don't know if it won any tonys, but i strongly suspect it didn't win any emmys. (what was up with that, anyway?)

this puzzle roughed me up pretty thoroughly. normally i'm much more on karen's wavelength. not today--way too much stuff i just had no idea about.

[henry]

hi! if i might suggest, ZERO is an oft-repeated part of binary code simply because it and ONE are the only repeated numbers. the clue doesn't imply ZERO is more repeated than ONE (though I think it is), but it IS oft-repeated.

[drew]

not a common usage of the word but due is a synonym for exactly in the context of an expression like "due north"

[drew]

ignore that - as i reread i see you had laready figured out the usage