Hugs and Kisses

Comments

• Alex Brannam constructor · 2024-04-25T18:26:36.650Z

  I did miss a circle. My bad.

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• A738840496 10:54 · 2024-04-25T18:16:45.717Z

  Things I can’t spell crossed with French, oof

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• Sendhil Revuluri 8:22 · 2024-04-25T19:22:00.126Z

  Thanks! Some very devious clues! I liked 31D a lot. I felt 42A fell a bit flat.

  Very interesting cluing angle for 19A — which reminded me that not only is Cleopatra more recent than the Pyramids, my understanding is that she lived closer to today than she did to the Pyramids!

  A few notes:

  • Some of the fill was problematic. 58A, 52D (in my experience, this is a very obscure name compared to PUYI), and the crossing of 2D with 14A stood out to me.
  • I still don’t understand how “Moles” clues NEVI in 18A.
  • 42D I think it’s Tweedledum (not Tweedledumb).

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  • Alex Brannam constructor · 2024-04-26T02:29:59.777Z

    A nevus is a mole on the skin, plurally they're nevi. I'll admit 58A is very obscure - and I should've realized it sooner. I do work in import/export and I see MDEL sometimes, so it just clicked for me. 52D can be changed, as with 42D - so I can edit that.

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• An Ephemeral Collation 9:45 · 2024-04-29T03:00:34.038Z

  Hi, Alex! I've solved a couple of your grids now and I must say, your puzzles tend towards the obscure, which is very tempting to do sometimes, especially when presented with a very convenient tool like the Crosshare constructor and its AI functions. My advice if you want to be published in the New York Times is to try and limit yourself to using fill that you're familiar with from your everyday life as the point of a good puzzle is to provide a fun challenge, not to stump people for the sake of difficulty as the real challenge of a crossword is creating an experience that's both intuitive and contemplative. Here's an exercise you can do now - open any of your puzzles and choose a crossing at random. Next, ask yourself 'do the concepts presented by the intersecting fill draw upon things that I personally know?'. If the answer to both of the entries is 'yes', you're golden! If the answer to one of the entries is 'no' and the other entry that you do know isn't readily inferable, consider different cluing. If the answer to both of the entries is 'no' or no cluing suffices to make solving the crossing more accessible, you need to use different fill. Looking forward to solving your future work and tracking your growth - I believe in you!

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