![]() Sheldon didn't go down to 72 words like Byron and Chris earlier this week, but he did use some tough vocab that you might expect to see in a low-word-counter, ANTRUM in particular. The huge winner for this sci-fi dork: aliens shouting there's NO TIME TO SPORE! Worth the price of admission all by itself. And then I sat back to admire the neat transformation involving a big spelling change. Even after solving MUSICAL CHORES, it took me a hot minute to figure out the CHORES from "chairs" change. Not so! That "air" to "or" sound change wasn't as simple as I thought. FOUR from "fair" felt easy enough, too, so I worried that this would be yet another Thursday that disappointed. It didn't take long to uncover RENAISSANCE FOUR, given how familiar my son has forced me to become with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Two that I was sorry to see go were "Source of income for early Amazon entrepeneurs" (RUBBERTREE) and "People who don't do things by the book?" (NONREADERS). I didn't come up with anything, but the pun "musical chores" stuck in my head, which ultimately led to the rest of the theme.Īs expected, lots of my original clue hints were edited. The inspiration for this puzzle came when I was trying to build a puzzle with a "musical chairs" theme. Many thanks to Will Shortz and the editorial team for giving this one a second look, and especially to Joel Fagliano for his support and suggestions.Īnd, of course, thank you to my wonderful wife who put up with all those hours of me sitting on the couch solving and building crosswords with a glazed look on my face, occasionally looking up and grunting when I discovered she had been talking to me for ten minutes. Coincidentally, I also had my first puzzle published in the Wall Street Journal a week ago Saturday. Luckily, with some patience, perseverance, and practice, I got this one to clear the bar after a resubmission and some tweaks. It was a humbling experience, and gave me a new-found respect for the folks who do this on a consistent basis. When I found out they took open submissions, I thought, "I'm a smart guy, I can do that, how hard can it be?" After more rejections than I'd care to relate (including this puzzle initially) I discovered the answer was, "pretty darn hard". I've been a crossword puzzle lover as long as I can remember, but mostly solved cryptics and only discovered the joy of standard crosswords a year and a half ago when I started religiously doing the New York Times puzzles. I'm into movies, painting, origami, literature, and theatre, as well as science and medicine, so I hope I bring an eclectic vibe to my puzzles. Hi everyone! I'm a pediatrician in Cincinnati by day.
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