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wordplay, the crossword column
Wind your way through Adam Wagner’s puzzle.
Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues
THURSDAY PUZZLE — When does a crossword puzzle need a visual hint at the theme? We’ve seen circled squares, shaded squares, bolded lines and even black squares used as aids to help solvers organize their thoughts. These elements are usually added to the grids during the editing process.
This devilishly clever puzzle from Adam Wagner includes shaded squares, and thank goodness they’re there. Not having some sort of visual element might have led to cross words (sorry).
Adding a visual element is only one of many jobs of the puzzle editors.
“We usually talk about visual elements like this during the meetings when we’re accepting the puzzle,” Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor, said. “In this case, we just thought the visual would be too hard to see without any shading, and if testers find something confusing, we’ll change the presentation,” she added.
Joel fa*gliano, the digital puzzle editor, agreed with Ms. Iverson and said that other ideas for clarifying the theme were discussed. But, he added: “Ultimately, we settled on what you see now. Even if it makes the puzzle a little easier for a Thursday, it seems worth it to make the theme clear to all solvers.”
Today’s Theme
First, allow me to give kudos to Mr. Wagner for filling this grid. Making a puzzle where the true answers are basically hidden but what we write in the squares are unrelated words or phrases is next-level constructing as far as I’m concerned. You’ll see what I mean.
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