High theme density [0:19/3:23] || Mon 4/5/21 New York Times Crossword
0:00 - Intro 1:46 - Mini puzzle 3:02 - Daily puzzle (by Zhouqin Burnikel) 6:25 - Commentary New York Times Crossword, Monday 4/5/21: As I've been working on crossword construction, I've begun to appreciate different things about the puzzle. Having six themers with two pairs of them crossing is not an easy feat in a 15x15 grid. On the other hand, there are lots of ways to finish "Take a ____", so the constructor had a lot of flexibility there. I thought POODLECUT and LOCALDIVE were nice colorful themers. Overall very solid theme work. The high theme density did lead to some CGI/LCD/SST/ADUE/AHAT/ZER/ULTA/SMU stuff. None of these are that obscure (the worst might be SMU, but the crosses are okay). I did like MALARKEY and SLEAZE. Also WIIFIT which I thought of as pretty modern until I realized that it's been like 15 years since the Wii came out. I guess that is modern compared to a lot of the other stuff that appears on crosswords. 19s on the Mini and 3m23s on the daily puzzle. Like the video, comment your thoughts on these puzzles, and subscribe to my channel to follow along with more crossword solves. Also please share with anyone who might be interested! ▶ Daily puzzle (subscription required): https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2021/4/5 ▶ Mini puzzle: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini/2021/4/5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All music composed by my friend: composer, pianist, and all-around awesome guy Christopher Chan - https://christopherkchan.me/ Intro animation by Tiffany Peng, another incredibly talented friend. [I can highly recommend Chris and Tiff if you need any music composed for you!] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0:00 - Intro 1:46 - Mini puzzle 3:02 - Daily puzzle (by Zhouqin Burnikel) 6:25 - Commentary New York Times Crossword, Monday 4/5/21: As I've been working on crossword construction, I've begun to appreciate different things about the puzzle. Having six themers with two pairs of them crossing is not an easy feat in a 15x15 grid. On the other hand, there are lots of ways to finish "Take a ____", so the constructor had a lot of flexibility there. I thought POODLECUT and LOCALDIVE were nice colorful themers. Overall very solid theme work. The high theme density did lead to some CGI/LCD/SST/ADUE/AHAT/ZER/ULTA/SMU stuff. None of these are that obscure (the worst might be SMU, but the crosses are okay). I did like MALARKEY and SLEAZE. Also WIIFIT which I thought of as pretty modern until I realized that it's been like 15 years since the Wii came out. I guess that is modern compared to a lot of the other stuff that appears on crosswords. 19s on the Mini and 3m23s on the daily puzzle. Like the video, comment your thoughts on these puzzles, and subscribe to my channel to follow along with more crossword solves. Also please share with anyone who might be interested! ▶ Daily puzzle (subscription required): https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2021/4/5 ▶ Mini puzzle: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini/2021/4/5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All music composed by my friend: composer, pianist, and all-around awesome guy Christopher Chan - https://christopherkchan.me/ Intro animation by Tiffany Peng, another incredibly talented friend. [I can highly recommend Chris and Tiff if you need any music composed for you!] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------