Francis Gurtowski — Anatomy of an Extreme Crossword

Anatomy of a Classic Crossword Puzzle

A classic specimen has two eye-catching grids of smaller squares which are (a) entirely black, (b) essentially blank, or (c) already filled in with individual letters.

One in six squares are blackened in a symmetrical pattern, while left-to-right or above-to-below runs of the remaining squares harbor variously-sized niches for words across or down.

All of the words are mutually contingent, since those niches that do not actually intersect are still connected by one or more degrees of separation.

Puzzle Grid

The smaller squares of the puzzle grid are either black or else they are initially blank except for tiny numeric handles tucked away in a corner of the first square of every niche.

The niches of the puzzle grid are identified by these adopted handles, which are read as one across or one down, for example, and which serve as puzzle addresses.

Solution Grid

The smaller squares of the solution grid are either black or else they are already filled in with individual letters spelling out the crossed words conjured up by the puzzle constructor.

Publishing Conventions

The sibling grids are published separately - the solution grid of one crossword puzzle is typically published along with the puzzle grid of the next crossword puzzle, and so on - in order to discourage furtive glances at the solution.

Clues

A crossword puzzle also has two tables of binary clues. The pairs of niche handles and word definitions in the table labeled Across both situate and define the words intended for the niches laid out left-to-right in the puzzle grid. Those in the table labeled Down do likewise for the words belonging in the orthogonal niches oriented above-to-below there.

.	.	A c r o s s	.	.	D o w n
1	.	Loose sleeveless outer garments	1	.	Sound
5	.	Gone	2	.	Plug
9	.	Glass envelopes	3	.	Flowering
10	.	Amphibian	4	.	Concorde
12	.	Grown-up	5	.	Codicils
13	.	Deoxyribonulclease	6	.	Entangle
14	.	Novice	7	.	Stop
15	.	Historic body of water	8	.	Encouragement
16	.	Frank Sinatra's hometown	9	.	Loss
18	.	Culinary amount	11	.	Harvest
19	.	Gettysburg combatant	15	.	Prepared
21	.	Swipe	17	.	NJT Exit 15W
24	.	Gateway	20	.	Periods
28	.	Benign confinement	21	.	City on Causa
30	.	Seep	22	.	Restaurant equipment
31	.	Bolshevik	23	.	Post-it
32	.	Young fish	25	.	Five Books of Moses
33	.	Accustom	26	.	Pure and refreshing air
34	.	Men of rank	27	.	Wines
35	.	River flowing into Moray Firth	29	.	River flowing into Ouse
36	.	Tennis playing West Point officer	32	.	Jamacian music

A good clue is either obscure or ambiguous. One has to mentally stretch to think of even a single word that fits an obscure definition. Unless you grew up in North Jersey — or have memorized the locations where The Sopranos was filmed — 17 down is an example of an obscure definition of a word. On the other hand, an ambiguous definition brings many words to mind. Unless you are a teetotaler, 27 down is an example of an ambiguous definition of a word.

Methodology

Fill out the puzzle grid. Solve the crossword puzzle niche by niche. Think of words that simultaneously satisfy (a) the pattern of black and white squares, (b) both tables of binary clues, and (c) the orthogonal word templates formed by the words that you have already lodged in the puzzle grid.

Set your words directly into the puzzle grid.

Word Templates

In the process of filling out the puzzle grid, the array of orthogonal word templates developing there may either seem promising and help complete the remaining niches, or else seem hopeless and signal you to backtrack and try again.

If Only Life Was Always So Easy

Here is a fortuitous example of a series of more restrictive templates in a four-letter niche intended for a word defined as Romp:

All four-letter words

All four-letter words starting with P

All four-letter words starting with PL

All four-letter words starting with PLA

The word PLAY