LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “Color Matching”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is an apt two-word, twelve-letter alternate title for this puzzle.
Answer: TINGED FRINGE, found by 223 solvers; also accepted TINTED FRINGE, found by 22 solvers
First thing to notice on last week’s puzzle, with a nudge from the title: sure are a lot of colorful things around the edges of this grid! PEPPA Pig at 1-A is pink, and then YOLK at 5-A is yellow, and ROSES at 10-A are red, and…hey, wait a minute! Those are all alliterative: PEPPA — pink, YOLK — yellow, ROSES — red.
Does the pattern continue? Yes, all around the edge of the grid! Like so:
a SWORD is Silver
A BISON is Brown
WOOL is White
GRAVEL is Gray
a BAT is Black
GRASS is Green
an ORANG is Orange, though “orang” and “orange” are not etymologically related
BRAINY Smurf is Blue
and a PLUM is Purple
12/12 alliterations, so that can’t be a coincidence. But what is the next step?
Answer: Find another thing in the grid that’s each of these twelve colors. Like so, in this lovely graphic from Gridmaster T:
22 solvers submitted TINTED FRINGE, which makes so much sense that I accepted them as correct. There was a little inelegance there since to get the second T in tinted you had to use TONGUE for both pink (literal) and silver (figurative), but TINTED FRINGE made so much sense that I felt I had to accept it.
BOB KLAHN, R.I.P.:
Sad news: the great Bob Klahn passed away on September 27th in Wilmington, Delaware, where he lived, at the age of 79. I’d meant to write about this sooner but have been waiting for an official obituary, though I’ve been unable to find one.
Bob and I worked together on many projects over the years, from CrosSynergy back in the 1990s right up until his passing. Bob had been test-solving my Daily Beast crosswords over the past year or so, and we debated his proposed editorial changes on an almost daily basis. He was an especially tenacious editor and test-solver who loved crosswords and wanted every single one he looked at to be flawless. I’m not sure they make them like Bob anymore, with that level of tenacity, and the crossword world is lessened by his passing.
He was also a magnificent constructor, especially proud of this puzzle, which he coauthored with his beloved wife, Sharon, who predeced him in death in 2015. He mentioned this puzzle on a number of occasions to me, delighting in the P in PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL popping his head out of the grid to check for his shadow. I believe it was Bob’s personal favorite.
Bob was also a highly-skilled practitioner of themeless crosswords, producing eye-popping grids like this one back when computer-assisted fills were still in their infancy. Here is another nice photo of Bob, posing with Will Shortz and Tyler Hinman in front of the final-round puzzle he wrote for the ACPT in 2008.
Farewell, Bob, you old stickler. I enjoyed our time together.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
No instructions given here since there are no-instructions solving options this week.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.