Saturday, December 24, 2022
Happy Holidays!
Another quickie I just whipped up today. There's something so approachable about mini crosswords; they are surprisingly smooth to construct and quick to solve, although calling them simple would be blasphemous. A clever mini is incredibly tough to construct, putting an intelligent theme in the constraints of the 5x5 grid even tougher. Yet, the small size makes them seem so much meeker and tamer to people new to the crossword when compared to the standard grid. Solvers sometimes need to be reminded that the smooth fill in an "easy" crossword comes at great effort from the constructor. Constructing a crossword of mid-week difficulty is far easier for me to construct than a Monday puzzle: apparently, it goes same ways for quite a few constructors.
Anyway, moving on to some menacing entries (I was feeling particularly naughty while writing the clues, hehe).
Tricky Clues
4A: I tried my hand at misdirection with this one, it's a fairly common one though. An anaconda has a mouth and tail at either ends, and the word "anaconda" has two A's. But phonetically speaking, it ends with a SCHWA sound.
4D: Among the many things I love about Reddit are Polandball comics! The hilarious mild to heavily offensive stereotypical broken English speaking mouse-drawn caricatures are a fun way to cool down. I think that is where one is most likely to see the ancient Roman flag, that featured the letters SPQR.
1A: Greenpeace hate the use of ACS - air conditioners - for the ozone depleting chemicals they emit. Not to be that guy, but ACS do have a large carbon footprint. I am now second guessing whether it was a good idea to open on a serious note.
5A: Yoda might be the master but Darth Vader has something he will never have: two ARS in their spellings. I do like entries that spell out the letter phonetically and crossword enthusiasts routinely do see lots of esses and cees and els and ens in puzzles.
2D: This might be the easiest entry of the set but who doesn't love CHRIS Evans, CHRIS Hemsworth, CHRIS Rock or CHRIS Pratt. TBH, CHRIS Evans was the sole reason I sat through the first Captain America movie - I had to see it once I saw the face under that hideous mask. Okay I should stop simping.
Once again, Happy Holidays!
--Priya