Reflections

Being my first foray into crossword construction, this puzzle is a little on the rough side. (I’m writing this in retrospect a month later) The theme is quite simple (and not done too well) and the cluing isn’t particularly creative. But I’m still really proud of it for being my first puzzle! Despite barely pulling myself out of some tight corners with obscure fill, I’d still say it’s somewhat manageable? Definitely not publishable, but regardless.

I’ve always been thinking about ways to incorporate STEM themes into my puzzles. (which has been hard!! But one spectacular example is NYT Sunday, Jan 25th) Using primes was one layman-friendly way (although not new) and it wasn’t hard to find themers of appropriate lengths. It would’ve been nice to include TWO in there for some variety, but I ended up with THREEAMIGOS, FIVESTARS, and SEVENSINS… which also happen to just be a series of odd numbers (3, 5, 7) which is also not ideal. I chose the revealer as INDIVISIBLE, which is also not great, being a word that doesn’t really have a direct association with primes. But I made it work with the cluing!

Filling was quite rough with my Frankenstein-ed wordlists (I just downloaded every single wordlist I found on the web) but achievable, and cluing turned out to be so much fun compared to the other parts. (which are honestly just glorified trial-and-error…) So here are some of my favorites:

Favorite Clues

Like knives that are safest to use, counterintuitively - SHARP: I’m honestly still not sure if this is the correct tense (safe? safest? safer?) but I thought this was a pretty nice clue.

2025 Bad Bunny hit, for short - DTMF: Just because I love this song :)

Images with extra fingers, often - AIART: More modern words! Yay!

Sin complementer? - COS: This was my first shot at wordplay and honestly I can’t say if it even works. But yeah, these trig functions (COS/SIN/TAN) really get great treatment in the crossword world, and I’m here for it!

Programmer’s version control system - GIT: Much better than “get out,” in my humble opinion

Fit to fly, in “Catch-22” - SANE: I’m honestly also not too sure how valid this is because I’m pretty sure it’s unfit to fly = insane…

“The Shawshank Redemption” narrator, familiarly - RED: Also just because I love this movie