CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE:
[ THEMELESS FRIDAY]
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THEMELESS FRIDAY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
When he isn't dressing up like a trappist monk, Tim's an engineer, a closet hair metal fanatic, and certifiable ass-kicker in Words With Friends. I should know, he usually whoops my ass by 100+ points. Thanks, Tim, let's do this.
BEQ: How'd you get into making puzzles?
Tim: I've been doing puzzles for a very large part of my life. But making them hadn't ever entered my mind until sophomore year in high school, when my English teacher xeroxed the NY Times crossword and handed it out to the class due the next day as graded work. I noticed for the first time that there was a name on the puzzle. These things weren't churned out en masse by a publishing firm. Anyone could make them. So I found some crossword constructing software and off I went. The days I will always remember are when I graduated, when I got married, when our first child is born (still yet to come) and when I got my first crossword acceptance message. So far I've only sold to the NY Times.
BEQ: I think of you as mostly a themeless person, how do you go about making them?
Tim: Yes, I'm a themeless guy at heart, tho I appreciate a good theme and aim to hit for the cycle as a constructor. I've gone about it several different ways. First and foremost, I love unusual letter combinations. One of my puzzles in the queue to be published in the NYT will make this plainly obvious. You'll know it when you see it. It may even cause a hue and cry among the cruciverberie. I cannot wait.
After that it really depends on my mood. Sometimes I kick it old-school: I take a seed answer at 1a, break out the graph paper, and see where it goes from there by hand. Onelook.com is a favorite site if I'm stuck on a letter pattern.
Another is to create a visually striking block pattern, then plug in as many original phrases I can and see where Crossword Compiler and my word database takes me. I'm at the gym on the elliptical or the bike with a pen and Post-it pad jotting down every crossword-worthy phrase that comes to mind.
I'm getting less and less amenable to partials in my puzzles, so I'm in the process of removing all but the most innocuous partials from my list. I wince when I see them solving, so I'm getting less and less patient with seeing them in the grids I'm constructing. When I'm in beast mode, I don't want to see any at all.
But quad stacks? That's where I draw the line. Soon as I saw the partial "O' TEA" in a quad stack I solved, that was it for me. Don't wanna even try anymore.
BEQ: Who would you say are some of your influences?
Tim: I'll answer that question both cruciverbally and in general. Cruciverbally, I started out crossword construction on an island, as I was saying. I was relatively young when I started, not aware of any particular style, not even aware that there were such things as styles in crossword puzzles. So I guess I went the reverse route -- started doing entirely my own thing and gathered some influences as I got more familiar with the crossword biz. Right now I've started to gravitate toward some of the younger constructors, you included, for stylistic influence. Unusual letter combinations, more modern references. For general inspiration, I'm always looking at some of the most prolific crossword constructors (you, Manny Nosowsky, Patrick Berry, Barry Silk, Trip Payne are the first names that come to mind) to see what makes you/them successful.
As general influences, I know it sounds cliched, but it's true -- my parents are the smartest and most creative people I know. My mother, the artist, and my father, the pharmacist. I'd like to think that I got some of those genes. My mother's parents had eleven children, and my father's parents had six children. So I admire my grandparents for raising amazing families -- not to mention three of them were avid crossword solvers! (I think puzzling is in my blood.) I gave the very first crossword I sent in to my grandfather to solve before I submitted it. My wife, she puts up with all this crossword stuff -- and all my other tics and obsessions. In crosswords and life, she keeps me in line. My friends from school, I draw from my experiences with them all the time. They keep me insane -- yes, insane. They taught me that sanity is an underrated state of mind and is best experienced only in doses. I'd also like to thank caffeine. I no longer use it, but it had quite an influence on my thought process through many a late night. Thanks to caffeine, I have woken up in the middle of the night and was forced to write down ideas, for crosswords and otherwise, before it let me go back to bed.
BEQ: Why do you consistently kick my ass in Words With Friends?
Tim: Ask anyone I know and they'll tell you that I do not like to lose. At anything. Plus I own a pretty nice Scrabble board and I don't want to let it go to waste.
Brendan Emmett Quigley creates custom-made puzzles for all occasions: birthdays and bar mitzvahs, anniversaries and retirements. You name it. Need a puzzle for your website or your publication? He can do that, too.
Brendan's custom work clients have included The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, BeerAdvocate, Boston Magazine, De Beers, The Decemberists, ESPN, The Improper Bostonian, Lollapuzzoola, McSweeney's, Phish, Reflexive, The Smithsonian Magazine, St. Martin's Press, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, and Andrew Weil.
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