Kate Hawkins opens our solving weekend.
Jump to: Tricky Clues
FRIDAY PUZZLE — This is purely anecdotal, but Kate Hawkins has managed to do something that I imagine few constructors can pull off. Once constructors are published, they sometimes create subsequent crosswords that stick to a certain part of the week: Some tend to be Monday constructors, while others love to make themeless puzzles that run toward the end of the week.
This is Ms. Hawkins’s 14th published puzzle in The New York Times, and she has come very close to hitting for the full-week cycle. She needs only a Tuesday and a Sunday puzzle to have published one on every day of the week.
Contributing 14 crosswords to a single outlet is an accomplishment in itself, but constructors who hit for the cycle must also become adept at making a variety of puzzles that follow different rules.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday puzzle formats are similar, but the difficulty level of the clues must increase as the week goes on, either by virtue of the clue trickiness and wordplay or because of a visual element in the grid.
Friday and Saturday puzzles are themeless and more open, which means the constructor must collect longer entries that pique the solvers’ interests, as well as come up with clues that are both entertaining and designed to fool even the veterans among us. And making Sunday puzzles? That’s simply an exercise in stamina and perseverance.
Being able to design good puzzles for every day of the week requires skill, dedication and practice. I believe that Ms. Hawkins has developed all of these, and I enjoy her puzzles very much.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
