Like I said, it's a good puzzle. The designer Joel Fagliano for some reason feels the need to publicly angst over one of the (non-theme) clues having "Ann Coulter" as the answer.
Now while I'm not a dedicated reader of Coulter she's an interesting figure. Like a number of prominent conservatives she's been critical of Donald Trump, but unlike, say, William Kristol, she hasn't bent over backwards to exalt the Democrats either.
More to the point, crosswords are about testing your general knowledge, often with a healthy dose of lateral thinking. Whether you, I, or the designer disapprove of a person or thing mentioned in it is immaterial. I don't need to like avocados to recognize them as an appropriate subject for a clue.
2 comments:
You're right the allusions to puns for grammatical terms were shrewdly done. Looking at the clues and answers I figured I might (might) get about half of them. Solving word puzzles is a skill requiring both an excellent vocabulary as well as a broad knowledge of current affairs. Intelligence, wit, and intuition are also useful.
I didn't see the point of having him confess his stress about mentioning Ann Coulter either. One might not like her or feel like supporting the causes she advocates but she is a well known figure in America (and the answer to that clue was an easy one).
You know, maybe I should take up solving crossword puzzles myself - it has been a while. Unpacking the overall plan, watching the answers piece together via cross-hatching with words from other solved clues, and seeing quadrants of the puzzle fill in with letters feel like collaboration: 'Oh, I see what you did there. Good one!'
I find that if I start with an answer I know that helps me along with ones I'm unsure about. Of course I've been getting crossword books lately so if I have serious doubts about something I'm filling in I can look at the back. Theoretically, that is. But in general it's just something you get more comfortable with over time.
Yeah, I don't think you should feel obliged to apologize for reminding your readers that something or someone they don't care for exists. And you're right that it wouldn't have been particularly hard, especially since when it was first printed the election and the book were much more recent than they are now.
Yeah, there's definitely an art to creating them, and I've developed an appreciation for it. It's a benign use of the magic of language.
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