Not That Kind of Ent!
This puzzle is the result of asking Twitter to pitch me a theme prompt. Shout out to Elise Corbin for taking the bait and requiring me to stretch my brain a little bit, and also for giving this a test run! I was skeptical at first, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. Rest assured that if I wasn't able to make this work I would not have published the puzzle! Enjoy the solve!
puz | PDF | solution
Matt's Musings
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This was not a case of my theme well running dry. I still have plenty of half-formed ideas floating around! While in the midst of some other crossword projects and trying to push more mainstream puzzles (including some super fun collabs - keep an eye out!), I decided to engage the community to see if I could build a puzzle around a spontaneous prompt, and Elise threw me a juicy curveball.
Otorhinolaryngology https://t.co/QOeCcTL89j
— Elise Corbin (@cruciverbology) February 23, 2023
First thought: "This is a joke, right? No way I could build a puzzle around this! But let's try anyway." So I took Elise's idea and sat with it for a minute. I didn't particularly want to use a 19-letter reveal and have theme answers related to ear, nose, and throat diseases. Instead I decided to find one interesting condition in this field of study to use as a quasi-revealer, and scatter OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY throughout the theme answers. When I found EPISTOLARY NOVEL I knew I was on to something, and I was happy to find a symmetrical set around it. I added two rows to let the fill breathe and I think it paid off. Very interested to hear your thoughts on this one!
Click to Show/Hide
This was not a case of my theme well running dry. I still have plenty of half-formed ideas floating around! While in the midst of some other crossword projects and trying to push more mainstream puzzles (including some super fun collabs - keep an eye out!), I decided to engage the community to see if I could build a puzzle around a spontaneous prompt, and Elise threw me a juicy curveball.
Otorhinolaryngology https://t.co/QOeCcTL89j
— Elise Corbin (@cruciverbology) February 23, 2023
First thought: "This is a joke, right? No way I could build a puzzle around this! But let's try anyway." So I took Elise's idea and sat with it for a minute. I didn't particularly want to use a 19-letter reveal and have theme answers related to ear, nose, and throat diseases. Instead I decided to find one interesting condition in this field of study to use as a quasi-revealer, and scatter OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY throughout the theme answers. When I found EPISTOLARY NOVEL I knew I was on to something, and I was happy to find a symmetrical set around it. I added two rows to let the fill breathe and I think it paid off. Very interested to hear your thoughts on this one!
Nicely executed theme! I loved the clue on 24 Across, and I found the juxtaposition of 14 and 17 Across pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your puzzles, but I'm puzzled by 11D. Aren't there five oceans on our planet?
ReplyDeleteI was torn on that clue b/c I found that the Southern Ocean was not recognized globally.
DeleteSource: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/howmanyoceans.html